JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #93 (1963)
by Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein & Jack Kirby
If you’re asked to come up with a way to use radioactivity powers, hypnotism would probably come last. But not to Radioactive Man, in his first appearance!
We begin with Thor’s secret identity of Dr. Don Blake on a mission in India. Who is being attacked by communist China. I’m not 100% sure what he’s doing near the frontline.
Once he transforms into Thor, however, he has little trouble sending the invading army back to China. And quite literally too!
It’s always jarring to see the early Thor involved in anti-communist and often jingoistic stories. You’d expect to see stuff like this on Captain America or Iron Man, but nope! You basically have Thor going to war against China.
As absurd as it is to have Thor fight a regular army, it’s quite a sight to behold. Especially thanks to the way the rain is shown! Kirby is not yet at his best here, but this is great artwork.
Chinese communists are cartoonish villains in this era. Not that I’m exactly defending the real ones, but this is blatant propaganda.
Enter Chen Lu, brilliant Chinese scientist and winner of the Lex Luthor Impersonation Contest.
He’s quite something. His own private lab is a converted Buddhist temple!
(wait, is he really a communist if he has a private lab?)
One detail that will be dropped quickly is his use of robots. I think I’ve seen him use them twice after this story.
His plan is to give himself superpowers by radiation, becoming Radio-Active Man.
Radiation was of course the source of superpowers for a great deal of characters at Marvel, but Radioactive Man tries to be a little safer by “building an immunity” to radiation.
And so the Chinese shoot Radioactive Man at America inside a nuclear torpedo. (!!!!!)
I guess this is the reason why New York ends up with so many powered people… it was either that or giving everybody cancer.
And Dr. Blake is back doing surgery in America. What, did he stay in India for like a week!?
Thor ends up answering to Radioactive Man’s challenge, but throwing his hammer doesn’t work.
The fact that he’s able to repel Mjolnir will be a matter of great pride for the villain.
Seriously, he just. Won’t. Shut up. About it.
This is also a very, VERY rare case of Thor being shown to throw lightning bolts without his hammer. It makes sense for a god of thunder, but it’s still weird to see.
Not only Radioactive Man could explode into a nuclear blast if he’s hit too hard (!!!!!), but this is when we reach the cover scene by giving him hypnotic powers.
From a creative standpoint, I don’t get why he’s given this power. It seems completely random when compared to anything else he does.
Of course Thor snaps out of it once he changes back to Don Blake, and hilariously Radioactive Man falls for the oldest trick in the book.
Taken out of context it’s weird that Thor thinks China is after him… but considering he basically declared war against them in the beginning of the story, I’m not surprised.
Marvel scientists tend to be know-it-alls: if they’re an expert on one branch of science, they’re experts on all of them. Don Blake is typically the medical equivalent, being an expert on anything having something to do with medicine.
But he’s also a scientist because why not at this point.
Once he’s touched the hammer he transforms back into Thor, and he quickly gets rid of Radioactive Man by sending him back to China… literally.
And then Thor FREAKING NUKES CHINA!!!
And that’s how it ends!
As opposed to how it should have ended:
Historical significance: 4/10
While Radioactive Man is a classic Marvel villain (he’s a founding member of the Masters of Evil!), for some reason he’s never been a real A-lister.
There was some effort to give him more relevance in the 2000s by having him join the Thunderbolts… but it didn’t really catch on. Ask anyone who isn’t an avid Marvel reader about Radioactive Man and they’ll probably think of the Simpsons character.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
THOR NUKES CHINA (in the middle of the Cold War) AND NOBODY CARES!!!!!!!
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Definitely a product of its time. It’s a thoroughly entertaining rump, but you couldn’t do any of this today. Oddly enough Radioactive Man is a compelling villain only until he gets his powers (which is just a few panels), and then he’s quite generic.
How close is this to the modern character? 7/10
Up until he joined the Thunderbolts, this was pretty close. All is missing is his classic costume. I’m not a big fan of it, but it’s better than whatever he’s wearing in his first story.
He evolved into a more complex character during his Thunderbolts run, becoming something of an anti-hero of sorts. Unfortunately making him wear a containment suit, while making a ton of sense for the character, was a rather generic look for the character.
Honestly Radioactive Man has a lot of potential, considering how central radiation is to a lot of Marvel heroes. I really hope he gets his chance to shine one of these days.
