Every Sunday morning we showcase a classic comic cover, complete with compelling commentary, for your cordial contemplation. It’s the Classic Comic Cover Corner!
Journey into Mystery #93 – June, 1963
Cover art by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers
Did you know that high doses of radiation can give you the power to hypnotize people? It’s true! At least it is according to this week’s classic comic cover from the Cold War era, Journey into Mystery #93, featuring the Asgardian with the golden locks, the mighty Thor.
In the Stan Lee and Robert Bernstein story, “The Mysterious Radio-active Man,” the Thunder God has a run-in with Chairman Mao’s Chinese communist troops, who try to invade India while Thor’s alter-ego, Dr. Donald Blake, is on a humanitarian mission to that country.
After Thor sends the Red Army high-tailing it back to China, a commie nuclear scientist, Chen Lu, decides to expose himself to radiation in an effort to gain the powers necessary to go up against the Odinson and America. He’s then launched by missile into New York City where he uses his new abilities to hypnotize Thor and persuade him to throw away his mighty mallet, Mjolnir.
The old Journey into Mystery/Thor covers and comics are a lot of fun, and even though I doubt the “Radio-active Man” (which has to be one of the most uninspired super-villain names ever) will be seen in the upcoming Marvel movie, “Thor: The Dark World,” you have to admit that the appearance of a glowing green bad-guy wearing a Sumo wrestler inspired costume would be awesome. Well.maybe not so much.
The “Radio-active Man” would go on to eventually lose the “dash” and have a long, sinister and sordid career in the Marvel universe as the “Radioactive Man.” You gotta long for those innocent days when radioactivity could either kill you or just turn you a super-being of some type.
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