From the Mouths of the Marvels:

"Evil demons hear my call! Cause that sign to quickly fall!"

- - The ever perfidious Enchantress, whilst causing deadly mischief, page 4

Thor vs. the Viet Cong!

Thor and Tales of Asgard
from Journey Into Mystery #117
June 1965 • 21 pages

Publication Date: April 1, 1965

Letters Page: No letters page was published in this issue

I: Feature Story: "Into the Blaze of Battle!"

Pages: 16

Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Vince Colletta
Letters: Artie Simek

First Appearance: Cho, Kim, Minh Chu, Hu Sak

Villain: Loki, Executioner, Enchantress, Viet Cong, Minh Chu, Hu Sak

Guest Appearance: Odin, Balder, Jane Foster, Cho, Kim, Karnilla

Settings: Vietnam, Valhalla

Marvel Milestones: First appearance of Valhalla

Synopsis: Thor confronts Loki after both appear on the other side of Skornheim's dimensional barrier. He challenges Loki for his use of the Norn Stones, which Loki tosses away onto Earth so the evidence disappears. Loki and Thor are taken to meet with Odin, where Thor tells his father of Loki's treachery. He says he can go get the stones from Earth to prove it. Odin sends his son down to Earth, giving him 24 hours to find them.

Meanwhile, Balder is confronting the Executioner and the Enchantress, who have kidnaped Jane Foster at the behest of Loki. Thor joins his friend and together they scare away the two evildoers. Thor's thanks to Balder is overflowing, and leaves Jane with him while he works on finding the Norn Stones.

Thor flies across the skies of Earth, looking for the stones. He is drawn by his enchanted hammer to Vietnam, where the stones must be located. He is spotted by Viet Cong communist soldiers, who shoot at him with anti-aircraft shells. The concussive blasts knock him out and he falls to the ground. Later, Thor wakes up from unconsciousness in the earthen floor of a hut. He is greeted by Cho, Kim and their mother, Vietnamese who think he is the coming of Buddha. They warn Thor of the evil Commie guerillas who lurk in the jungles. But Thor cannot stop to help them, he must find the Norn Stones, and his hammer guides him unerringly towards them.

But the brush he encounters is too thick for his massive frame and flowing cloak, so he turns into Dr. Don Blake to more easily wend his way through the thicket. Meanwhile, Loki watches with Karnilla, the Norn Queen, beside him. But even Karnilla, who is no friend of Odin, cannot put up with the evil in Loki's heart. She breaks away from Loki, who goes into an obsessive soliloquy about the hate he has in his heart for his half-brother, Thor. His next step is to aid the communist Viet Cong to destroy Thor.

Suddenly, VC soldiers appear from out of nowhere and apprehend Don Blake, keeping his cane out of reach. They drag him to an underground base, where he is met by an interrogator who accuses him of being a spy. While he slaps around his prisoner, the interrogator's guards bring in Cho, Kim and their mother as hostages. The interrogator demands that the guards leave them all alone, and in privacy, it is revealed that the interrogator is Hu Sak, brother to Kim and Cho. He barks at his family members that they are disgraces for not following Communist ideals like he has.

Don Blake takes advantage of the distraction and finds his cane, falling on it so it strikes the ground. He becomes Thor once again, and his hammer guides him to the Norn Stones, placed delicately atop a massive cache of artillery shells.

Meanwhile, Hu Sak flies into a rage and fires his pistol at his brother, Cho, killing him and accidentally killing his mother. Kim flees down the hallway, with Hu Sak in a daze behind her, not knowing what he has done. Thor is battling his way through VC soldiers, with the Norn Stones in his grasp. He finds Kim, who tells him of the murders of Hu Sak. Thor grabs hold of her and tells Hu Sak that he will return one day and make sure he is properly punished. Thor disappears with Kim in a whirlwind, while Hu Sak turns his gun on the cache of munitions, depressed over what atrocities he's committed in the name of Communism. He fires, sending the whole VC base into a huge explosion.

--synopsis by Gormuu

Issues Reprinted
Thor and Tales of Asgard from
Journey Into Mystery #111-120 and Annual #1

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