Cobra & Hyde – Part 1

Let’s begin the journey of following the supervillain team-up that had basically no reason for existing but still managed to last for almost twenty years: the Cobra and Mr. Hyde.

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Journey Into Mystery #105 (1964)
by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

Perhaps the simplest explanation for their team-up is that they debuted one issue apart: the Cobra on issue 98 and Mr. Hyde in issue 99.

We begin with Thor chatting with the Avengers, which Captain America had joined a couple months earlier. It is funny to consider that today Thor is the ONLY founding member whose secret identity has not become public knowledge in-universe.

Thor immediately runs into the Cobra, who isn’t even doing anything… he’s just hanging around the top of a skyscraper I guess?

One of the Cobra’s problems as a Thor villain is that none of his gadgets should be a problem for the thunder god. Except maybe these seizure-inducing darts.

It’s definitely more realistic than Thor being bothered by the Cobra Cable™.

Fleeing the scene, the Cobra slithers into the nearest apartment which conveniently includes a science lab.

Given who this guy is, I’m not surprised he’s THIS paranoid and unstable!

As you might have guessed from his green coat, this is Mister Hyde.

The two immediately bond over their shared love for the color green and their history of fighting Thor.

Hyde, you might have faced Thor in a two-parter, but you most definitely didn’t fight HIM to a standstill. He was kicking your Hyde and just had to leave before being turned into Don Blake.

Because they were both completely ineffectual when attacking Thor alone, they vow to be completely ineffectual attacking him together.

During these reviews I will try sticking mostly to the Cobra and Hyde scenes, in order to analyze their dynamic. So I will inevitably skip a lot of scenes that don’t involve them… which is a blessing for these Thor appearances, because a lot of those are just the same exact soap opera plot repeated over and over.

What fascinates me about the Cobra and Mr. Hyde dynamic is theoretically it COULD work from several angles if you just tweaked one or two things… which they never do.
If you know nothing about them and you just look at them, you might assume Cobra is the smart one and Hyde is just a mindless brute. And that COULD work just fine!
Except Mr. Hyde is already a genius.

In fact, in this two-parter Hyde is FAR more of a supergenius than he will EVER be!!!
He’s supposed to be a genius biologist and/or chemist, but here? He builds a freaking Time Reversal Ray™.

And there lies the reason why this alliance ultimately does not work: the Cobra contributes NOTHING. He’s not smarter, he’s not stronger, he’s not more cunning… he seems to be there just to give Mr. Hyde someone to talk to!!!

Well, that’s a bit of an exxageration. Because when Hyde makes a scene to get Thor’s attention and disappears into the crowd…

…the Cobra is there to point Hyde’s invention at Thor. So you can see Cobra was absolutely instrumental in the plan.

Thanks to this, they discover that Thor has “some sort of connection” with Don Blake.

Something that Hyde should ALREADY have figured out after his first appearance. In fact, that was pretty clear on the fact that he hates Blake WAY more than he hates Thor!

The villanous duo crashes into Blake’s office looking for Thor.

I should point out that BOTH of them had ALREADY held Jane Foster hostage before, because early Thor stories were frustratingly formulaic.

The Time Reversal Ray™ couldn’t see into Thor’s past because he ceased to exist once he turned back into Don Blake (just go with it), so Don has a trick to turn back into Thor.

The following scene doesn’t work for two reasons.
The first is that Blake transforms into Thor when MR. HYDE taps the cane, not Blake himself, so by the rules established from the start of the series this SHOULD NOT WORK.
Second, and far more damning: Jane Foster is in the room!!!

And yet NONE OF THESE PEOPLE realize that Don Blake transformed into Thor while they were IN THE SAME ROOM AS HIM!!!
Not to mention that Don Blake is supposed to have run away faster than they could spot him… WITHOUT HIS CANE.

What SHOULD happen: Thor knocking them out.
What MIGHT make sense: the Cobra using the seizure-inducing darts from the beginning of THIS story to blind Thor, facilitating their escape.
What ACTUALLY happens… is just dumb.

But wait, IT GETS DUMBER. Because Mr. Hyde has a magnet that attracts Thor’s hammer!!!

This is just an excuse to have Kirby draw some machinery, isn’t it?

While Mr. Hyde keeps Thor occupied by throwing stuff at him, will the Cobra finally prove useful?

Shockingly YES, because he has figured out a loophole in the hammer’s powers: it CAN be lifted by machinery, which bypasses the “only if you’re worthy” enchantment.
I’m shocked that this loophole is not exploited more often.

And that is the cliffhanger of the first part: will Thor manage to defeat these two in less than sixty seconds?
Given their track record so far? You’ve got this, Thor.

Notice that the second part is aftertised for “Thor #106” even though the series is still officially called Journey Into Mystery.

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Journey Into Mystery #106 (1964)by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

They really thought this team-up was enough to sustain a two-parter.

I will have to check out Millie the Model, won’t I?

After using two pages (one is the teaser) to recap the previous issue, Thor easily gets away.

Thor rushes into the crowd and transforms back into Don Blake.
Not only this is a TERRIBLE strategy, given Hyde has made it no secret he’s not above killing civilians… but NOBODY notices the transformation???

And the Cobra is also there.

I just can’t over just how completely useless the Cobra is in this alliance.

Once Thor lost the hammer it transformed back into the cane, so in order to transform again he has to get it back from within the machine.
His plan is to just ask the villains to give it back.

Not only the villains didn’t realize Thor is Don Blake when he transformed WHILE IN THE SAME ROOM, they don’t find it suspicious that his cane has SOMEHOW ended up in the same machine that took Thor’s hammer???
Even if they don’t realize it’s the source of the transformation, shouldn’t they be EXTREMELY suspicious of Blake at this point???

This leads to what is by far the Cobra’s most memorable scene so far… which, granted, isn’t hard considering he hasn’t done anything.
But this is where he demonstrates his actual superpower for the first time: the ability to slither into anything.

It’s ultimately pointless, but it’s a great showcase of Kirby artwork with just a hint of body horror.
If you remember anything from these two issues, it will definitely be this sequence.

Mister Hyde is slightly more direct in his approach.

And so Don Blake transforms into Thor without anyone next to him noticing, for THE THIRD TIME IN TWO ISSUES.

I believe the only reason the Cobra has not been put in the “designated supervillain loser” category like the Shocker will eventually be, is that most writers are only familiar with the concept of him fighting Thor in his first appearances… and not just how pathetic he was.

Behold Mister Hyde’s ultimate weapon: the Giant Pink Spray Painter^{(patent rejected)}.

It’s hilarious to have both the narration and the artwork go into Thor’s classic epic mode… when he’s actually just fighting a giant spray painter.

When Thor is distracted by the police breaking into the building, he gets on the receiving end of the Transformation Blindness Disease by failing to notice Mr. Hyde transforming.

To reiterate, Thor is RIGHT THERE in front of Hyde’s civilian identity!

I was initially going to complain that Thor should know that Hyde is Calvin Zabo… but I went back to check his initial story and to Stan Lee’s credit, while Don Blake does know Zabo there is no point in that story where Thor learns that he turned into Hyde.
It’s still utterly ridiculous that Thor doesn’t notice Hyde’s transformation when he was RIGHT THERE when he did it!

Hyde could just get away once again, but he takes the opportunity to SOMEHOW attack Thor by surprise.

The last time Thor had this problem with Hyde, he ran away before turning into Don Blake.
But now he’s had enough, and decides that if he’s unable to defeat Mr. Hyde within 60 seconds without his hammer he’s not worthy of his name.
And this moment, ladies and gentlemen, is THE final nail in the coffin for any potential Hyde ever had to be considered a legitimate Thor villain.

It’s also probably the most ridiculous example of a story stretching those 60 seconds into absurdity.

I can’t post the whole sequence, but this fight takes up THREE PAGES.
Heck the above panel and these two happen within the span of FIVE SECONDS.
During which Thor has had the time to say 49 words. Yes of course I counted.

That is 588 words per minute. Which amazingly isn’t even the world record, which stands at 655 words per minute.

Never have I despised a foe as much as you! Never have I been so eager to feel my avenging fists lash out and find their mark!!! You boast of having the strength of many men!! Therefore I need not shrink from using some of my own super power!!!
THOR, in 5 seconds

By the time we hit 20 seconds, he’s said an additional 29 words and Mr. Hyde 47 words (they’re not all in the panels I’m showing).

Like I said: THREE PAGES.

Before Thor retrieves the hammer, in those SIXTY SECONDS:

• Mr. Hyde says 91 words
• A police officer says 7 words
• Thor says an unbelievable 206 words

This is excluding all thought balloons and the panel where Thor finally has the hammer back.

Don’t believe me? This is the ENTIRE Thor dialogue. Even removing all punctuation and pauses, try saying THIS in 60 seconds!!!

never have i despised a foe as much as you never have i been so eager to feel my avenging fists lash out and find their mark you boast of having the strength of many men therefore i need not shrink from using some of my own power truly your strength is a thing to marvel at but only for a human what a pity that such superb strength should be housed in so evil a body of the many foes I have battled even including the crafty Loki you are the most completely evil the most thoroughly wicked of all the most totally undeserving of mercy the mighty Thor can seizing that cement stair stanchion will do you no good Hyde you forget Hyde the thunder god is far more than human you have had your last chance Hyde your time has run out the choice is no longer yours evil one it could only have ended like this mortal and now i can sully my hands on you no longer but there are others better able to finish the job let these words remain with you always Hyde if ever you appear again to menace mankind Thor will be there too and now farewell

To be fair, a text-to-speech program can easily say all that (if you skip the pauses) in just 50 seconds, but don’t tell me that Hyde would have the time to speak AND that you’d be confortable with Thor speaking like this.

And so we end with Thor never learning the true identity of Mister Hyde…

…and completely failing at making the romantic subplot even remotely interesting.
But at least Jane has made it VERY clear that she despises Don Blake, who has shown zero interest in her, so she gets over any feelings she has for him.

Just kidding. Next issue opens with this.

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Historical significance: 4/10
It’s the beginning of the Cobra-Hyde alliance, and by all means it SHOULD have been the end of it.

Silver Age-ness: 10/10
On the DC scale it would be relatively tame, but that is some completely bonkers technology and plot at Marvel.

Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
The quality of Kirby’s artwork is very close to reaching his best period, but man is this story dumb.
Looking it through the lens of the Cobra and Mr. Hyde development, it’s a complete mess. The Cobra doesn’t contribute anything except a single scene that, while visually impressive, is totally meaningless. Mister Hyde is a huge missed opportunity: he does have SOME charisma in this, and theoretically he could have worked just fine as a Thor villain.
I mean your protagonist is a doctor who turns into a handsome mythological figure, it’s not that much of a stretch to give him as an antagonist a doctor who turns into an ugly literary character.
There is one panel that immediately kills any chance he has a Thor villain, and you know which.

Yeah, after that it’s hard to imagine how you can build up Hyde as a legitimate threat to him.
It’s not impossible: he could have developed a new serum (maybe helped by Cobra, who could finally play a role) to make himself even stronger.
And yet, inexplicably Cobra and Hyde will have a SECOND two-parter against Thor, before transitioning to other heroes!!!
Even leaving aside the villains, though… this is just a bad story filled with tons of contrivances, plus a couple of inconsistencies to how Thor’s powers (and especially his transformation) had been established to work.

As mentioned I skipped some stuff, but… it’s a lot of THIS, so I believe I’m fully justified.