Journey into Mystery #99
The Mysterious Mister Hyde!
Now
A crowd of people watches in awe as Thor flies out of the city. In among the crowd is the mysterious Mister Hyde. He is pleased to see Thor leaving town because it assures nobody will interrupt the plans he has for Doctor Donald Blake.
Meanwhile, Thor arrives in Asgard to once again plead his case for marrying Jane Foster.[1] Odin, however, has not changed his mind and tells his son that he is not to marry a mortal.
Back on Earth, Mister Hyde makes his way to Don Blake’s office. Inside, Jane Foster works on filing. However, her mind is focused on her feelings for her employer. She wishes she could stop loving Don because something is keeping him from telling her how he really feels. As Mister Hyde stands outside the building he thinks about how he has gotten to this point.
Then
A few weeks earlier, Mister Hyde was a normal man named Calvin Zabo. He sought to get a job working for Don Blake in order to rob the disabled physician. Unfortunately, Blake knew all about Zabo’s bad reputation and refused to hire him. Furious over this flat rejection, Zabo vowed to get revenge. Fascinated by the book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So much so that Calvin has come to believe that it was possible to create a formula that could bring out the inner beast and transform a person into a being operating on humanity’s baser instincts. Zabo then perfected a formula that, one drank, caused a startling transformation. Calvin Zabo transformed into a large hideous man that looked nothing like his former self. Not only this, it granted Zabo super-human strength and altered even his fingerprints so he could not be tied to his crimes. With this newfound power, Calvin Zabo began calling himself Mister Hyde after his favorite Robert Louis Stevenson novel. Once he has completed a crime, Calvin would take an antidote to turn him back to his original form.
Now
With his recollection of the past over, Mister Hide goes crashing through the front door to Don Blake’s office.
Back in Asgard, Thor continues to try and convince Odin to change his mind, telling his father how deeply he loves Jane Foster. When Thor suggests that Odin use his power to make Jane an immortal like them, the All-Father refuses. He explains to his son that immortality must be earned through having virtues far beyond those of a mere mortal. This refusal angers Thor enough to raise his hammer but Odin staggers his son with a blast of energy from his fingers. Thor and Odin both regret what just happened to prompt the All-Father to offer his son a glimmer of hope. Odin tells Thor that if Jane can prove that she is worthy of immortality then he will allow them to get married.
Happy to hear this, Thor returns to Earth right away to tell Jane everything. Once in his office, Thor changes back into Don Blake just as Mister Hyde forces himself inside. Caught off guard by this massive intruder, Don is unprepared when Hyde shoves him out of the window. Seeing this, Jane fears that Don is as good as dead and faints. Hyde then starts breaking into Don’s wall safe in order to steal his secrets. While outside, Don Blake continues to fall to the ground below. He quickly guides his fall so he can strike his walking stick against the side of the building so he can change back into Thor.
When Thor returns to Blake’s office Mister Hyde is long gone. He wakes up Jane and assures her that he saved Don Blake’s life. When Jane hugs her, Thor decides that he will reveal his secret to her after he has dealt with Mister Hyde. Leaving the office again, Thor briefly changes back to Don Blake in order to call Jane from a phone booth and confirm what Thor told her and make an excuse for not coming back to the office until after he’s defeated his new foe.
Meanwhile, Mister Hyde has returned to his hideout where he begins plotting his next crime. That’s when he hears a radio report about how Don Blake survived thanks to Thor. Hyde is furious that Thor has interfered with his plans and vows to defeat the thunder god. The following day, Mister Hyde disguises himself as Thor and commits a daring daytime robbery. The ploy works and soon the authorities put out a warrant for Thor’s arrest and public opinion of the thunder god quickly turns.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Mister Hyde, Jane, Odin
Continuity Notes
Odin has forbidden Thor from marrying Jane Foster since Journey into Mystery #97.
Surtur the Fire Demon
During the time of the gods, there were no secrets that could be kept from Odin, the All-Father of Asgard. Learning that the Rock Trolls had allied themselves with Surtur, the fire demon, he went into their forbidden land to punish them.
In the domain of the trolls, Odin is ambushed by a horde of trolls. He manages to fight them off by stabbing his sword into the ground causing a powerful blast of energy that knocks out all the Rock Trolls. Forging ahead, Odin soon finds himself at the fiery lakes of Surtur’s domain. When the fire demon emerges from the raging inferno he transforms into a three-headed serpent and attacks the All-Father. Raising his sword into the sky, Odin is able to pull down meteors from space and send them crashing down on his foe. The icy space rocks burn Surtur on contact forcing him to resume his humanoid form and recoil in agony.
Since he is no match for Odin, Surtur instead decides to attack the Earth, the planet that is protected by the All-Father. Burrowing deep into the planet’s core, Surtur causes the creation of Earth’s moon when a chunk of the molten planet is sent out into space. However, Odin had just arrived on the Bifrost Bridge and projects magnetic force from his sword that causes the planet to begin its rotation, trapping Surtur in the center of the Earth. Immediately sorry for what he had done, Surtur attempted to appease Odin by gifting him with a winged horse, but Odin would not budge and Surtur would remain trapped for all eternity.
Recurring Characters
Odin, Surtur
A Note About Asgardian Mythology
The above Tales of Asgard as you can see from the continuity notes often clashes with other stories that tell different accounts, some that contradict the story summaries above. To explain away these inconsistencies it was revealed in Thor #294 that Asgard undergoes a cycle of death and rebirth about every 2160 years. As a result, the Asgardians relive events over and over, each time being slightly different with each new iteration. Marvel Legacy #1 states that the Asgardians existed as far back as 1000000 BC. That said, the origins of the Asgardians are murky at best and there is no way of knowing what iteration is being detailed above.
That said, in Thor #294 the disembodied eye of Odin told Thor that the above story was a myth crafted by Odin to give his people a creation story following their most recent rebirth cycle. The credibility of the eye’s story was later called into question by Buri himself years later after he took on the name Tiwaz in Thor #355. However, credibility for the death/rebirth cycle of Asgard was later reinforced in Thor: Ages of Thunder #1, Thor: Trial of Thor #1, Thor: Rage of Thor #1, Thor: Reign of Blood #1, and lastly Thor: Man of War #1. One could presume that a version of this myth is true somewhere down the line.
This story is also refuted with the basic scientific understanding of Earth and the Moon. It is also at odds with other pantheons who claim to have created the Earth and, more importantly, the Big Bang that created the Marvel Universe (See Thor #169) More importantly, Surtur did not get trapped in the center of the Earth. The Earth’s creation was detailed in Silver Surfer Annual #2, Thor Annual #10, and History of the Marvel Universe #1.
The above story is also contradicted in Thor #349, which depicts a much younger Odin and his brother’s Ve and Vili stealing the Eternal Flame from Surtur and using their combined power to seal Muspelheim. This story has much more credibility since in every other story this Muspelheim is where Surtur is trapped.
