The DAY DON BLAKE 'DIED'...

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Some people believe that DON BLAKE died back in the mid-'80s - killed off by WALTER SIMONSON (during his now legendary run on The MIGHTY THOR's monthly mag) when he had ODIN remove the enchantment from the mystic mallet MJOLNIR which allowed his son to switch identities between Human and Asgardian. The truth, however, is something else entirely: In actuality, Don Blake died back in the '60s, when STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY decided that he was nothing more than an invention of Odin, created for no other reason than to teach the arrogant Thunder god humility by reducing him to mortal status with his memory removed of who he actually was. 

It was in the pages of The MIGHTY THOR #159 that we first learned that Don Blake was not, in fact, "a star-kissed Earthman who had accidentally stumbled upon the greatest discovery of all time", as the readers had been led to believe up to that point.  He was "merely a myth... a casual creation of all-wise Odin", and, as such, had no status as an actual human being - beyond being somewhere handy to hide when Thor required a little rest and relaxation. 

I have to confess that I was never happy with this turn of events.  Although I had read Thor #158 (which had set up the question as to who Thor/Blake 'really' was) back in the '60s, it was not until the mid-'70s that I got to read "The ANSWER At LAST!" - when Thor #159 was reprinted in two parts in the pages of the U.K. SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY.  (Sometime around the mid-'80s I managed to acquire both issues of the original American editions.)

Readers could relate to Don Blake in a way they never could to Thor himself.  You and I could both imagine that we, too, might one day be lucky enough to discover something that would bestow upon us powers beyond imagining and elevate us to god-like status.  All we needed was that single stroke of good fortune and who's to say it wasn't possible?  However, once Don Blake became a non-person, and it was revealed that finding the hammer was all part of some "pre-arranged Asgardian plan" and not a mere whim of destiny to which all of us were potential heirs - well, in some way Thor was never quite the same again.

   

So don't blame Walter Simonson for despatching Don Blake to the depths of oblivion back in the '80s - it was Lee and Kirby who sounded his death-knell a good 15 years earlier.  Not one of their better ideas I'm bound to say, and one for which there was no real need.  There is a way for Thor and Blake to exist as distinct individuals, one human, one Asgardian, with either one inhabiting whichever form suits them - I came up with a simple but effective explanation years ago.

As most readers will be aware, Doctor Don Blake was restored to modern Marvel continuity a couple or so years back.  Should the current team working on the title be reading this and need a helping hand in deciding exactly what the good doc's place is in the scheme of things, then give me a call.  Just tap your walking stick three times on the ground for a direct line.

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