I generally do not post just one story from a Golden Age comic; plenty of other people do that sort of thing but I came across a story just so odd that I’ve had to break my own unwritten rule. The rest of the stories in Air Fighter Comics #5 are just…OK. Its a title from a publisher I definitely plan on dealing with in detail in the future, but this issue just isn’t the best possible representative of the series.

Iron Ace was one of the oddball fliers from Air Fighters Comics, all of whom had a gimmick of some kind to differentiate them from the regiment of two-fisted flying adventurers that congregated towards the rear of most Golden Age comics. The Iron Ice was really British pilot Captain Robert Britain who fought in an ancient suit of armor which would be gimmick enough. But he also flew a plane of his own invention that upon the push of a button could be covered in “sheaths of fabrikoid-micron iron” rendering it bulletproof as well.

Of course what makes this story so odd is it gives every indication that the Iron Ace is fighting the real mythological Thor!

Image via Wikipedia

There were touches of the fantastic in Air Fighter Comics (especially in stories featuring the title’s break out star Airboy) but they generally didn’t go this far. Usually when a Golden Age comic went down this road the supposed supernatural figure would be revealed to be a Scooby Dooesque villain, i.e. just some crook or Nazi using gimmicks. That’s what Jack Kirby and Joe Simon did when they had Sandman fight “Thor” in Adventure Comics #75′s “The Villain From Valhalla,” .

And then there’s the comics depiction of Thor; wearing what appears to be Greco-Roman armor, sporting a perpetual five o’clock shadow instead of a beard and of course it’s more than a little disturbing seeing mighty Mjölnir adorned with a swastika. It’s also a mostly informed depiction; the author knew enough about Norse mythology to give the character a belt of strength. But there’s absolutely no explanation for the freaky chicken/lizard things pulling Thor’s chariot (he refers to them as his “pets from Potsdam”; maybe that’s a WWII reference I just don’t get but I can’t see the connection between them and the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg). They sure aren’t Thor’s mighty goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr.