JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #99 (1963)
by Stan Lee & Don Heck
cover by Jack Kirby & Don Heck
Several villains start against one hero and then move to another one; others evolve into a general threat that can be used against anyone.
Mr. Hyde is definitely in the latter category: he’s fought almost any non-mutant superhero, but for whatever reason he completely stopped going after Thor.
We begin with Thor leaving town. Which is apparently something spectacular enough to create a crowd of onlookers! They can’t be THAT impressed by the fact that he flies; even this early in the Marvel Universe he wasn’t even the only one.
The reason why Thor left is to ask his father Odin to marry Jane Foster (a recurring theme in early Thor stories). Odin objects for like the fifteenth time already, and I think this time it’s because Thor is wearing a more ridiculous helmet that HE does.
I think I sympathize with Mr. Hyde already, because these people seem incredibly judgmental!
Great job by Don Heck on this panel; the artwork in most of this is issue is… not that great… but this is very atmospheric.
Mr. Hyde is planning to go to Don Blake, because of course he is. I think the reason why he stopped being a Thor villain is pretty obvious from this early panel.
Mr. Hyde will become FAR stronger, but introducing him as having the strength of 12 men doesn’t really make him a good match for Thor. Wouldn’t that make him more on the same level of strength of Spider-Man?
Considering the subtlety of these early stories, it’s kind of surprising that Mr. Hyde’s real name is Calvin Zabo and not, I don’t know, Jack Hill or something.
Now we get to the most ridiculous part of Mr. Hyde’s origin: he’s just a fan of the literary character and wants to recreate the effects of the book’s transformation.
Marvel DID publish an adaptation of the literary Mr. Hyde, so… does this mean that in the Marvel Universe “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is both a fictional story AND a a real one?
It’s certainly possible, since it’s explicitly how Frankenstein works in the Marvel Universe.
Of course if you’ve ever read the book you’ll know the effects of the transformation have next to nothing in common with the comic book villain.
An interesting trivia is that Mr. Hyde’s fingerprints are not the same of Calvin Zabo’s. This plot point is basically forgotten once Hyde’s identity becomes known to the authorities; it’s a shame because I can see it being put to good use in a Daredevil story or something.
By the time Thor turns back into Don Blake and returns to his clinic, Mr. Hyde is already there to have his revenge… by pushing the doctor out of the window.
Jane Foster is distraught by the fact that Don Blake just died… according to the text anyway, because if we go by the artwork… well…
Same energy.
Ah, 1960s sexism, it’s been a while! I didn’t miss you.
Don Blake turns back into Thor by hitting the wall with his cane, but by the time he returns to the clinic (shouldn’t that take a few seconds?) Mr. Hyde is already gone.
Out of the many troubled love stories of early Marvel, Thor’s is the one that makes the least sense.
“If only I could tell her my secret”… yeah why don’t you tell her, Thor? I mean the only reason given is that Odin doesn’t allow him to marry her.
Not suspicious at all, Thor.
Slow news day in the early Marvel. Nowadays I doubt this would make the news!
Some of these early stories seem to treat Thor as the only superhero around. I get Mr. Hyde probably isn’t worried about the Hulk since he lives in the other side of the country, but there are other superheroes in New York! And if it’s a matter of strength, the Thing also lives there!!!
Then Mr. Hyde, who as you recall from his very first panel is supposed to be extremely hideous and is often shown to have somewhat deformed proportions… flawlessly impersonates Thor to rob a bank! Wait, WHAT!?
And so we end on a cliffhanger (the first in this series!), with Thor being wanted by the police.
Bonus: this issue includes a five-page “Tales of Asgard” feature by Jack Kirby that EXPLAINS THE ORIGIN OF THE MOON.
Sadly this is probably not canon because it also shows Surtur to be trapped in the Earth’s core, which… while ABSOLUTELY AWESOME… is not how Surtur later shows up.
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #100 (1963)
by Stan Lee & Don Heck
cover by Jack Kirby & Don Heck
Holy crap, what’s wrong with Mr. Hyde’s face!?
This guy dressed up as Thor and everyone believed he was the real deal. THIS GUY.
So, uhm, a bit of a warning. The artwork in the previous issue wasn’t all that great, but this time it gets pretty bad.
Don Blake takes Jane Foster to dinner because it’s her birthday, and I have to say I’m a bit confused by their relationship.
ARE they in a relationship or not!? Supposedly they aren’t, and nine times out of ten he doesn’t give her the time of the day, but… did 1963 doctors really take their nurses to fancy restaurants like this?
Also, as it’s typical of Don Blake, good luck figuring out if this is an actual person who just happens to transform into Thor, or if this is Thor being trapped in a human body. The series constantly flip flops between the two positions.
Mr. Hyde, who I remind you is strong enough to crash through walls, shows up to kidnap Blake and Foster… holding a gun. (????)
I understand Mr. Hyde is quite insane, but his plan MAKES NO SENSE. He wants revenge against Don Blake so the first time he pushes him off the window but the second time he ties him up next to a bomb!? And if he wants to prove he’s stronger than Thor, wouldn’t blackmailing him with the bomb defeat the whole idea!?
I’ve covered a lot of stupid plans in my reviews… A LOT… but I believe this is the first time I cover a plan where EVERY single phase has no relationship with any of the others!!!
Seriously, what’s the logic between these!?!?!
1) kidnap some guy
2) set up a bomb that will go off in 24 hours
3) steal a submarine
4) get laid
Don Blake manages to transform back into Thor, who has the strength to free himself and the power to make backgrounds disappear (he’s using that power A LOT this issue).
Despite what you might think from these two issues, Don Heck is not a bad artist. His fight scenes, though, often leave a lot to be desired.
Mr. Hyde is not having much success against Thor, but he has a secret weapon: the fact that, in these early issues, Jane Foster is dumb as a bag of hammers. Maybe that’s why he likes her.
Without the hammer Thor will transform back into Don Blake within 60 seconds, and he uses that time to CREATE A TORNADO WITH HIS CAPE.
Well I’m glad we kept that tension for exactly 1 page.
And so we end with Mr. Hyde managing to escape…
…and both Jane Foster and Thor still being idiots.
Odin can be very unreasonable in how he deals with Thor, but can you blame him if he’s against his son marrying an idiot?
Historical significance: 4/10
Mr. Hyde is a regular mainstay of Marvel villains, but he has very few fights against Thor and generally speaking these two issues are deservedly forgotten.
Silver Age-ness: 9/10
On the Marvel scale this is very nearly as Silver Age as it gets.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Ouch. This was really, really bad. It has all the problems of the early Thor… he has a bland personality, he’s WAY too powerful for his enemies, the drama is very forced, the supporting characters are either nonexistent or stupid… but it also has a villain that, quite frankly, is utterly unimpressive.
Random Thor power of the day
Normally this would be “random Mjolnir power”, but… Thor can create tornadoes WITH HIS CAPE!!!
How close is this to the modern character? 4/10
Mr. Hyde is all over the place. Few things about him are ever consistent… how strong is he? How smart is he? How evil is he? All of these fluctuate from story to story, although there IS an in-universe explanation: the serum that gives him powers is highly unstable.
As I mentioned he’s fought basically anyone who isn’t a mutant. Our of all the heroes he’s fought I think his best matches are Daredevil and Spider-Man, and to a lesser extent Captain America… he works best if he’s significantly stronger than the hero he’s facing.
He even had some character development in Thunderbolts, where he began to dress up a little more because someone had read League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
He’s back to being a full villain because, come on. It’s Mr. Hyde, his codename is LITERALLY a shorthand for “the bad one”.
You hit upon the reason why Hyde has been relegated to the ranks of B-grade villains. When introduced, he was “evil strong guy who could make a complete bodily transformation to evade capture.” Once outed as Calvin Zabo, he’s been just “evil strong guy.” His alternate ID adds nothing to the character, and his strength level isn’t high enough to bother the MU’s heavy hitters. He’s a natural addition to generic villain groups like the Masters of Evil, but that’s about the limit of his utility.
I think he missed his chance for greatness because his 60s and 70s stories were… well, not that great.
He has been used well several times since then… Peter David made him a good Hulk adversary by going into the psychological aspect, the Avengers issues and to a lesser extent his Captain America issues played up his total lack of humanity, and there’s a great Spider-Man storyline where it turns out the big bad running experiments on people is Calvin Zabo… but he’s been “generic evil strong guy” for so long that nothing seems to stick.