Batman Meets Thor, October 1959

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Well, that's a different take. There were a dozen Thor appearances in comics before the Marvel hero. Jack Kirby did a crook posing as Thor in a Sandman story and then the "real" Thor in a DC mystery short. Steve Ditko did an interesting version of Thor for Charlton. There's this one, Captain Marvel faced Thor at least twice in the 1940s and there were a few more I can't think of right now.

Well, kind of real as you see at the end. In the 1950s, Jack Kirby drew a short for DC in which the genuine mythological showed up to retrieve his hammer which a mortal had found.

bizarre, thanks for making me aware of this

One of the worst eras of Batman desu.

It's pretty fascinating though in how it posits the idea of the Hammer turning a weak little man into Thor, though of course the circumstances and portrayal are much different from Don Blake.

I know Odin made a few appearances in Marvel's pre-hero fantasy stories, and Loki was a recurring villain for Venus.

Sadly I agree. The 40s and 60s were excellent but the 50s were a slump in quality.

This era was the kinoest

how is this science?

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Aaaah, so it was just a meteorite that gained the power to transform the people touching it into big muscular bearded dudes during thunderstorms. We should've known, that happens all the time.

I guess things like this and Hercules popping up in Superman multiple times in the '50s were an attempt to cash in on the popularity of sword-and-sandal films.

>Rat man

Thor is totally real in DC, he was in Sandman

Thor was even defeated by Shazam Who Laughs

this is almost as bad as most anime plots

Pretty cool Batman characterization.

That's a good point. Marvel's Hercules in 1965 or so was based very closely on Steve Reeves.A few years earlier, DC's Hercules was clean-shaven and had red hair, which I guess was meant to keep him looking different from Superman, DC also teamed up their Hercules with Samson through the usual time travel shenanigans. Of course, Samson had been featured in that big Hollywood epic with Victor Mature, So this stuff was floating around in popular culture.

This version of Batman was around for many years. He was much more a logical, clear-headed detective who threw a few punches each story to arrest the crooks. By the late 1950s, DC had him fighting bizarre aliens or being turned into a monster himself in most stories. Not much like today's humorless semi-psycho.

You never know. Trends come and go. In a few years, we might see this version make a comeback big time.

Yeah, that should have been Batman's first guess right away.

I suppose if the meek little man transformed on a bright sunny day, he would have turned into Apollo.

So many forgotten little gems in the history of comics.

Oh, tonight I'm going to post the story Steve Ditko drew for Charlton in 1959. A frail blond Viking boy goes into a cave and comes out big and muscular, swinging a stone hammer,

This was three years before Marvel's Thor. You have to wonder if Stan Lee was pacing back and forth, "We need another costumed hero or two. Maybe a modern version of Robin Hood? Or bring back Captain America?:"

Sitting in the office, Ditko says, "You know, a few years ago, I did a story about Thor. From Norse mythology. You ever see it, it was in a Charlton book."

And Stan snaps his fingers. "Thor. Sure. That would work as a super-hero." Then he calls Jack Kirby at home...

Just conjecture.

Ah, it's Mad Science as practiced by Mad Scientists. You need a specialized degree from MIskatonic University.