Issue(s): Journey Into Mystery #83
Published Date: Aug 62
Title: "The Stone Men From Saturn!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Plot
Larry Lieber - Script
Jack Kirby - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker

Review/plot: Frail Dr. Don Blake is vacationing in Norway (perhaps to see the majestic moose) when he stumbles upon... really awesome looking aliens! They look sort of like the Easter Island statues and they are orange and made of stone. They're really, really cool looking.

    

Blake runs from the aliens and hides in a cave where he finds a secret passage that leads to an old cane. When he bangs the cane on a stone, he turns into Thor.

There is a terrible pannel where Thor picks up a huge boulder in the cave. The picture is so bad. Thor looks like a baby leprechan and the whole panel is just bad.

Anyway, Blake learns if he drops the hammer for 60 seconds he turns back into his frail normal self. And the hammer always returns to him, and by stamping the handle twice, he can create rain or snow, and tornadoes, and stamping it three times stops the storm.

While Thor is figuring out his powers, the Stone Men are terrifying NATO by turning their spaceship into an illusionary dragon. Then Thor shows up and as tough as these guys are he beats them, and their giant mechano-monster. Then they run away.

The last panel promises that "Thorr" will be appearing regularly in Journey Into Mystery.

Other than the Stone Men From Saturn, this is a pretty crappy comic book. I like Thor but i don't like the whole Don Blake alter-ego thing. And whereas the FF and the Hulk and Spider-Man made some attempts at messing with the super-hero genre, this is a straight-ahead power fantasy - wimpy guy gets to turn into an awesome He-Man and kick ass. Still, it's the first apperance of Thor in the Silver Age.

Quality Rating: C+ - higher than it deserves because of the awesomeness of the Stone Men.

Historical Significance Rating: 10 - First Thor

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: Marvel Tales annual #1

he doesn't "learn" how to use the hammer. he remembers exactly how to use the hammer from what he read about norse mythology in school. i must have missed the part of the mythology with the user's manual for thor's hammer.

i hate that thor talks like blake instead of thor. wimpy guy in he-man's body with wimpy guy's voice. ugh.

There were similar Stone Men in previous pre-hero Marvel stories, but they apparently weren't from the same group as these.

For what it's worth, one of these original stone men appears as the Hulk's ally in the Planet Hulk story arc from a few years ago.

He talks about meeting and being terrified of Thor.

Thanks Ice. I've added Korg as a character appearing here. I wonder if he should also be listed for Thor #255, which shows the same group of Stone Men stranded on an asteroid on their way home from Earth.