In Marvel Comics' "Journey Into Mystery" Issue 83, written by Stan Lee and published in August 1962, Don Blake picks up a gnarled wooden walking stick. The stick transforms into a hammer, and he transforms into the Norse god Thor. While thrilled to have overcome his handicapped status, and wield this new power, he ponders how his life will change.
He sits down on the grass, sets down the hammer, and recalls what he knows of the apparently-not-so-mythological god.
Moments later, he discovers he has returned to his normal frail self. The hammer Mjolnir has likewise changed back into a walking stick. He wonders what caused him to revert to a powerless handicapped man. Then he thinks back to the inscription on the head of the hammer.
When he touches the stick, he and the stick once more transform into Thor and Mjolnir. Obviously, he has a lot to learn, if he wishes to control and maintain his new persona. He practices using the hammer, and discovers powers most mortals could only dream of wielding. He also discovers a way to control his transformations.
Practice makes perfect, and soon Don Blake will be able to hold and use the walking stick without instantly transforming into Thor. A single tap on the ground is all that is needed to transform. However, in order to retain his appearance as Thor, he must not release Mjolnir, or sixty seconds later he will return to ordinary Donald Blake. Obviously, this wouldn't be a good thing to happen during battle.
In THOR issue 6, written by Jason Aaron and published last month, Odinson seeks out Jane Foster to see if Mjolnir could have transformed her into Lady Thor. When he finds her in a hospital bed on Asgard, suffering from breast cancer and attended by healers, he decides it cannot be her, and marks her off his list of the women who might possibly have learned to wield Mjolnir.
What do you think of Odinson's decision? Is the candidacy of Jane Foster as impossible as he believes? For if Donald Blake can be transformed from Thor into a cripple, couldn't Jane Foster, suffering from cancer, could temporarily take up Mjolnir with a consequent change in appearance, then revert to her former sickly status?
Dragon Dave
P.S. To read more of Thor's early adventures, and written by Stan Lee (He's sublime!), pick up The Mighty THOR: The God of Thunder, Volume 1 in Marvel's new Epic Collection series of books on this hero. (He's divine! Or, at least semi-divine!)
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