ᴛᴀʟᴇṩ ᴏғ ṩɪʟᴠᴇʀ ᴀɢᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ  ᴛʀᴀᴠᴇʟ On the Trail of the Tomorrow Man!

tales of SILVER AGE TIME TRAVEL
travel back to JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #86 (NOV 1962)

I long ago lost track of the number of times I’ve read my dog-eared copy of Journey into Mystery 86, but I can tell you for a certainty the first time I encountered THOR—the MIGHTY!—and his nemesis ZARRKO, the time-traveling TOMORROW MAN. Just like my first exposure to the volatile mix of comic books and time travel (see Fantastic Four #5), Thor and the Tomorrow Man arrived in my life on a Wednesday in 1962. More precisely, it was the last Wednesday of October, and I remember standing at the dinner table in my homemade Dr. Doom costume, on the ready to fly out the door for trick-or-treating the instant my omelette was downed.

With the last bite still unchewed, I asked to be excused. “What about dessert?” asked Mom, but given the activity on the docket, she knew the answer before my fork hit the plate, and I was out the door with one paper grocery bag in my hand and another tucked into Doc Doom’s versatile waist belt. My plan was one that would make any traveling salesman proud: a route designed to fill the first bag by traversing the region north of Poppleton Avenue; then I’d drop that first bag at the house before hitting the southern region. But alas, not a single neighbor knew who I was in my green cape and hood, which according to Omaha etiquette, obliged me to repeatedly recount the story of Dr. Doom and his time machine. So by the time of my Mom-imposed deadline (i.e., before the waxing moon set), I had barely hit a tenth of the north-of-Poppleton territory. And yet, I couldn’t possibly bypass the dilapidated, old house just west of Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, now could I? That would definitely be my last stop, I tolf myself, and whoever answered the door would just have to forgo hearing the story of Doom and Blackbeard. But here’s the thing: They knew who I was!The man who answered the door, dressed in blue leotard emblazoned with the number four, screamed the moment he saw me. “It’s him! It’s him! The young master, Victor von Doom!” And he slammed the door in my face. That was a satisfying reaction, I thought, and I rang the bell again. The man opened the door, and he wrapped his long arms around me as I explained that I was just a trick-or-treater and not really a young Doom, traveling from through time to his house on All Hallows’ Eve. We laughed, and a woman materialized, also dressed in blue, and—yes, this next part really happened, just as I’m going to describe it, the strongest Halloween memory of my childhood—the woman gave me a comic book instead of candy! The couple received my undying gratitude, and I’m pretty sure they also got my one-tenth-full grocery bag of Halloween loot because by the time I got home, I had only the comic book and no candy.It was straight to bed for me (a school night, after all), but have no worries: I can tell you exactly what was in that comic book, Journey into Mystery #86, because (naturally) I had a flashlight under my bed covers.

As you may know, in 1962, first-grade kids and Norse gods alike lived daily with the possibility of thermonuclear war. But according to the comic book, future civilizations had abolished that specter (would that it were). Even in the 23^rd century, though, there still lived evil scientists such as Zarrko, who harbored a cancerous ambition:

Boy, that time-scope is a handy gadget. I must remember to buy one of those when I build my time machine. But meanwhile, back in the present, Thor is busy playing his part to keep the free world strong and secure against the forces of tyranny! It’s actually an anti-missile missile that he races against to help the military minds in a first test, but then comes the real dangerous test: standing next to a cobalt bomb as it explodes. [Editor’s note: Standing next to a cobalt bomb as it explodes may be dangerous. Thor a professional God of Thunder on a closed munitions testing range. Do not try at home. Especially if someone evil from the future is watching you with his or her time-scope.]

Also, according to Maulbow, there was a race of the future, human in appearance, with machines to sail the current of time… —James Schmitz, “The Winds of Time” (Sep 1962)

Zarrko has nabbed the C-bomb, and the general (perhaps having just read James Schmitz’s “The Winds of Time” in the latest issue of Analog) quickly realizes that Zarrko has disappeared into time. Moreover, says the general, since there was no time-travel in the past [sez who?!], the traveler must have come from the future!! What is Thor to do? Now, I woulda thought he’d build a time machine to pursue the thief, but Norse gods have other tricks up their sleeves. Instead, Thor summons a thunderstorm, which in turn summons Odin—the Mightier (and coincidentally Thor’s dad)—who instructs Thor on how to construct a homing device by tying on scrap of the thief’s time machine to his hammer. And then . . .Wow! That Odin is almost as powerful as my Dad. (And just howeth doth a god forgeteth that thy hammer haseth the power to entereth the fourth dimension—of time!? Never mind.) Thor reaches the year 2262, where he learns of Zarrko and reassures the people that all shall be well once he has wrested the bomb from the evil scientist.

I suppose it’s easy to poke fun at the comics of the day, but they did get me interested in Jack Kirby’s art and in metaphysical questions about time travel. Compared to the earlier story of Dr. Doom sending the FF back in time, I felt that Thor’s story was lacking something. The FF story had a clever time-travel twist explaining the legend of Blackbeard, which gets you thinking about whether it’s ever possible to change an event in the past. In contrast, in terms of Thor’s plot, the Tomorrow Man didn’t really need to be from tomorrow. He coulda been the Alpha Centauri Man or the Parallel Worlds Man. I did cartwheels knowing that Thor could travel through time, but time travel wasn’t a needed facet of the plot. Now, if the Thor of 2262 had failed in defeating Zarrko, perhaps because he had no knowledge of cobalt bombs, and with his last breath he called to Thor of 1962 to save the day, then that would have been a plot to get your Jack Kirby teeth into! Just where was the immortal 2262 Thor during this story anyway? Maybe next time!

Fights in the future are a lot like present day fights of 1962, except that there are delicious Jack Kirby robots to be dealt with by strength or stealth. And indeed Thor saves the future and returns the bomb to the generals of 1962. I felt some disappointment then. Wasn’t there some way that such a powerful god (and his dad) could gather up all the bombs and put them in a safe place? There was certainly more to learn of these superheroes’ powers and limitations. For example, there’s the surprise at the end of the story that explains why Thor needs no mask. In his everyday life, he is the meek Doctor Don Blake, who gets disturbed by the nerve-wracking news of the day, just like everybody else.

In reading the final panels today, in which Don Blake has a brief interaction with Jane Foster, I noticed something that didn’t register at age six, maybe because it was so pervasive in both comics and other media of the day. In the entire story, Thor has only two brief interactions with women: one with Jane at the end and one with a woman in the future. In both cases, the female characters add little to the story other than their secret romantic thoughts about Thor. Over the coming years of the Silver Age of Comics, it will be interested to track the  germane role that Stan and Jack and the rest of the Marvel bullpen play in addressing and shifting the default gender assumptions that our culture brought to stories at all levels.

But for now, just a few months into the Silver Age of Marvel Comics, we’ve got three distinct mechanisms of time travel:

So far, there’s no indication that history can be changed via time travel, but the Silver Age is still young. And at least we’re rid of Zarrko. He’ll certainly never cause any time trouble again!

I hope you’ll join me for the next journey into Silver Age time travel, right here at the Time Travel Nexus on the first Wednesday of December. Until then, true believer, Excelsior!

Coming Soon!
See IRON MAN dare to rescue CLEOPATRA in Tales of Suspense 44!
Don’t miss it on the first Wednesday of December!