Wings in the Night!

After going on patrol through the city, Thor returns to the apartment owned by his mortal alter-ego, Doctor Donald Blake. There he gets a call from one of Donald’s colleagues, Ramon Hernandez, who has asks Blake to come in earlier than scheduled because they have run into a strange problem. As Thor heads to the West Side Clinic where Blake works he briefly spots a strange winged demon as it hides within a nearby watertower. Not getting a good look at it, the thunder god dismisses it as a trick of the eye and continues on his business.

Arriving at the clinic, Thor ducks into a nearby alley to change into Don Blake so he can report for work. There he is greeted by Ramon who takes him into a room where they are treating a number of patients that are in some kind of catatonic state. Every single one of them had suffered horrifying nightmares before entering this state but nobody has any idea how or why.

As Blake gets to work investigating this strange situation the cause — the winged demon Thor saw earlier — terrorizes people in town before descending on another sleeping victim. Like all the others before her, the woman wakes up screaming from the touch of this demon and quickly enters a catatonic state.

Back at the clinic, it’s getting into the early hours of the morning and Don cannot find anything physically wrong with their patients and decides to call it quits so he can get some rest. As he leaves the clinic, Don spots the flying demon and cannot dismiss its existence. Changing back into Thor, he attacks the creature but it displays the ability to make parts of its body intangible allowing it to hit him, but he cannot hit it back. The battle comes to an abrupt end when the morning sun begins to rise, prompting the nocturnal creature to suddenly vanish. With the battle over, Thor finally returns home for a few hours sleep.

Later that morning, Don Blake returns to the clinic where a new patient — the demon’s latest victim from the night before — is brought in. His examination is interrupted by his boss, Doctor Lionel Jeffries, who has brought in a specialist from Bellevue Hospital. This man is Milton Meilicki, a psychologist who attempts to use hypnosis to snap the patient out of her catatonic state. When this doesn’t work, Meilicki concludes that the condition is still psychological and that the common thread among all the patients are that they all suffered bad dreams before entering catatonia. He then suggests that they contact a colleague of his who is an expert on dreams.

Don Blake soon pays a visit to Eugene Belmont, the head of the Institute for Oneirological Research. Belmont shows Don his latest invention a device that monitors a patients sleep and uses biofeedback to drive out the negative feelings that torment them in their sleep. He has a group of emotionally disturbed patients that use the machine every night for treatment. When asked if his patients may be in their catatonia due to bad dreams, Belmont believes it is in the realm of possibility. Although this provides little answers to solving this problem, Blake decides to go home and get some much needed rest.

That evening, Donald Blake’s apartment is visited by the demonic creature that has been terrorizing dreamers in the neighborhood. When the creature touches Don, he suddenly has a nightmare where both Thor is being chastised by his father, terrorized by Loki, abandoned by Sif, and Don Blake’s colleagues criticizing him. Thanks to his dual nature, Thor is able to see the creature in his dreams and fight it off. This causes Don Blake to wake up when the monster briefly recoils from him. This gives Blake enough time to grab his walking stick and tap it against his bed, triggering his transformation into Thor.

As Thor battles the creature outside his apartment, it grows in size having drawn power from Don Blake’s nightmare. Realizing the creature is the cause, the thunder god deduces that its presence might have something to do with Doctor Belmont’s machine. He races to the Oneirological Institute where he orders Eugene to shut down the device. The creature soon catches up with Thor and he realizes that it is still drawing power from the sleeping patients. Tossing Mjolnir against the machines causes enough noise to wake everyone up and the monster suddenly dissipates into nothing. Realizing that his machine was inadvertedly responsible, Eugene Belmont feels horrible for what has happened. Thor tells him that it wasn’t his fault because he couldn’t have known, but suggests that perhaps people need to come to terms with their nightmares on their own.

When Don Blake returns to work the following morning, Ramon tells him all their catatonic patients woke up around the time Thor destroyed the dream demon. He is pleased to hear they are all back to normal and is amused when Ramon wonders how he’ll write this up for the Health Board.

Recurring Characters

Thor, Ramon Hernandez, Lionel Jeffries

The Chains that Bind

For his crimes against the realm, Loki has been shackled to his wife Sigyn so that a constant eye be kept on him.[1] The experience has been on of frustration as Loki cannot stand his wife as she makes everything, including having to get dressed, a labor that tries his patience. Losing his patience why trying to figure out which helmet to wear, Loki takes it out on his wife by telling her that while she was on a secret mission for Asgard, he had affairs with both Amora the Enchantress and Karnilla the Norn Queen.[2] This deeply upsets Sigyn, but she believes that her husband is only saying this to hurt her feelings. Loki has had about enough and decides it is time to petition Odin to release him from these shackles.

At that moment, in the royal palace, Odin is entertaining Aegir, the god of the seas, who has just returned from his recent voyage. When Loki and Sigyn arrive they are barred from seeing Odin by the royal guards. Not willing to give up so easily Loki convinces Odin’s wife, Frigga, to petition his step-father on his behalf. Annoyed by the interruption, Odin agrees to see Loki and hears his litany of complaints over being shackled to his wife. Odin then suggests other, more painful punishments such as tying Loki up over a roaring fire, shackling him to a meteor, submerging him in water to be eaten by marine life, or being drawn and quartered by horse.

Breaking down before his sire, Loki pleads for mercy reminding Odin that they are still family. Odin begins to feel pity and decides to grant Loki his request. However, Odin banishes his son to the farthest outpost in Asgard to spend the rest of his punishment in exile. Sigyn thanks Odin for his mercy and he admits to her that like him, she too suffers greatly due to her relationship with Loki. Odin then dismisses Sigyn as he suddenly wishes to be alone with his sorrow and regret.

Recurring Characters

Loki, Sigyn, Odin, Frigga, Aegir

Continuity Notes

1. Loki was punished for his role in almost triggering Ragnarok in Asgard. See Thor #273-278.

2. As explained in Thor #301, Sigyn and most of the women of Asgard were sent away for a time as it was their turn to watch over the Young Gods, humans transformed into gods in a bid to convince the Celestials to judge humanity favorably after seeing their potential. Gone for most of the early Modern Age, they had recently returned to Asgard in Thor #275.