Venus #10
Venus and the Son of Satan! The Devil Strikes!
As Venus and Whitney Hammond have a romantic moment the offices of Beauty Magazine, deep in the nether realm of Hades, Satan and meets with his son. The Son of Satan demands the opportunity to go to Earth and attempt to woo Venus into loving him. Although none have previously succeeded in such an effort, Satan allows his son to the Earth and try.
The Son of Satan materializes before Whitney Hammond, Venus, and Della Mason, appearing in a puff of brimstone and disguised as a mortal male. He introduces himself as Mr. Satin and demands to meet with Venus in private. Realizing who the stranger really is, Venus convinces Whitney that she needs to conduct business with "Mr. Satin" and assures him that she will be back. But no sooner does Venus and "Satin" leave the room does Della begin trying to cast doubt on Whitney once more. On the other side of the door, Venus and Son of Satan resume their godly forms and the Son of Satan demands that they talk somewhere more befitting the gods. They travel into the sky where Son of Satan demands that Venus gives up her heart and love him. Venus refuses and ultimately, the Son of Satan attempts to force Venus to do his bidding by sending avatars of himself all over the Earth to create disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and typhoons.
While back at the offices of Beauty Magazine, Della tries to convince Hammond that Venus is up to something suspicious but Whitney fails to be convinced, telling Della that he has faith in Venus. Meanwhile, Venus has returned to Earth to find that there is a massive fire in a city. In order to try and stop it, she causes it to rain, however Son of Satan uses this to his advantage to cause a flash flood. However, Venus counters this attack as well by calling on the power of Apollo to cause the sun to appear and evaporate all the excess water.
In order to defeat Venus, the Son of Satan creates a massive hurricane in New York City and sends it on a collision course with the Beauty Magazine offices threatening to kill Whitney and Della in the process. However, Venus comes up with a plan to defeat the Son of Satan and surrenders to him, telling him that she will do what he asks. Son of Satan stops the tornado and the pair relocates to the country. There, Venus unleashes her trap by once more using the power of Apollo to trap Son of Satan in a fireball drawn from the Earth's son and send him on an endless revolution around the Earth.
Venus then returns to Beauty Magazine where she is happily reunited with Whitney, much to Della's chagrin. When Whitney sees Son of Satan's fireball passing in the night sky he mistakes it for a flying saucer. Venus then takes his mind off the strange sight with another kiss.
Recurring Characters
Venus
Whitney Hammond
Della Mason
“Satan” (aka Loki)
Son of Satan
Continuity Notes
Is this the Loki? That friends is a really complicated story here. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #6 and other earlier handbooks state that this is the first appearance of Loki in the Marvel Universe. However, Official Handbook of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Thor goes back and states that the first appearance of Loki is (as far as Marvel is concerned) is Journey into Mystery #85. This was not due to omission, I got the truth straight from someone who helped write that handbook. You can find that thread over at the Chronology Project. Why Marvel chose to double back on it? So is this Loki? Officially no. As for you reader? It’s a matter of interpretation. I mean there are enough built in ways to explain all the discrepancies between the Loki seen here and the Thor we all know and love. So you could choose to accept that this is the Loki or just some other guy using his name. That said, the “Son of Satan” is also probably not the son of the Loki.
The Plot That Failed!
Della Mason is once more plotting to try and get Venus fired from her editor's job at Beauty Magazine and trying to win over Whitney Hammond, but is stumped to try and come up with a means to do so. An idea comes to her when she walks in on Whitney Hammond as he is ranting over the competition Lovely Lady Magazine and it's owner Paul Banner, who have been undercutting Beauty Magazine by lowering their cover price. Furious and suspecting that Banner is trying to drive him out of business, Hammond storms out to talk to his lawyer to see if there is anything that can legally be done.
This inspires Della, who then comes up with a plot to try and ruin Venus. Visiting her enemy, Della tricks her into believing that Lovely Lady Magazine is planning on the secret hiring of a new editor whose beauty rivals that of Venus herself. Della tells Venus that Whitney has ordered her to go to Lovely Lady Magazine and get the scoop on the competition. Before Venus leaves, Della tells her that Paul Banner may try to deny it, but to not give up until she gets the scoop. Venus suspects that Della is up to her old tricks again, but agrees to take the assignment anyway just in case.
Arriving at the offices of Lovely Lady Magazine, Venus finds Paul Banner a disheveled mess. When she asks about the new editor, Banner informs her that he has hired nobody and resigns to have her stick around until she is satisfied that nothing is happening. Meanwhile, Whitney Hammond returns to the office even angrier than ever knowing that his lawyer can do nothing. Della informs him that Venus quit her job to go work for Lovely Lady Magazine. Whitney refuses to believe it until Della can get Venus to answer the phone over at Lovely Lady. Angrier than ever, Whitney informs his secretary that Venus is not allowed in the building then returns to his office to sulk.
Back at the competition, Venus soon learns from Paul Banner that his company is failing and he is looking to sell it before he goes bankrupt. Venus gets the idea to convince Whitney to buy out Lovely Lady Magazine and convinces Banner to go along with it. The two go to the Beauty Magazine offices where they manage to get past the secretary. Whitney is furious to see his "betrayer" there, but soon changes his mood when he realizes what Venus has done for him. Happy once more, Whitney gladly buys the rival magazine and makes up with Venus, much to Della's infuriation.
Recurring Characters
Venus
Whitney Hammond
Della Mason
Journey to the Moon!
Whitney Hammond is meeting with young scientist Randy Dover who has built a rocket he intends to use to fly to the Moon and is giving exclusive coverage to Beauty Magazine. During the course of the conversation, Randy admits that during the building of his rocket he has been ignoring his fiancée Ann Saunders to focus on his work. When Venus is called in and introduced to Randy, Randy is instantly smitten by Venus and is quick to forget about Ann. Venus is dismayed by this as she is assigned to go along with Randy aboard the rocket but vows to use her godly powers to reunite Randy and Ann. As Randy and Venus leave the office, Della spies them and once more tries to flag Whitney's faith in Venus staying true to him.
At the site of the rocket, Ann Saunders arrives to try and get Randy to appeal to her, but he brushes her off and processes that he loves only Venus. This devastates Ann who bursts into tears. Venus pulls her aside and promises Ann that by the time the rocket mission is over Randy will have no love for anyone but her. Despite her doubts, Ann trust Venus and soon both she and Randy blast off into space -- destination: The Moon. As the rocket blasts off, Venus reveals her true godly form, making Randy fall even more deeply in love with her.
When they arrive on the Moon, Randy and Venus are attacked by dragon-like creatures called Luna-Things. When Venus uses her love powers to drive all the hate from the creatures so they leave, Randy realizes that Venus is really a goddess and becomes even more fixated on her. Suddenly they are menaced by sudden volcanic eruptions that threaten to cover them in a flow of lava. Surrounded by lava, Randy vows to not leave Venus, preferring to die by her side than to save himself.
Immortal and thus immune to the lava, Venus vows to see Randy escape this death trap and calls on Jupiter for his assistance. Jupiter comes to Venus' aid and destroys the lava. However, when they get back to the ship they find that the lava destroyed one of the rockets thus trapping them on the moon. However, Venus comes up with a plan and uses her powers to knock Randy out. She gives him the hypnotic suggestion to forget everything they encountered on the moon. She then summons Mercury who then carries Randy and Venus inside the rocket back to Earth. Mercury places the rocket on the Earth to make it look like it has crashed.
When Randy revives he has no memory of what happened on the moon and is suddenly shocked how the "all too human" Venus has become incredibly vein and blows him off for failing his moon mission. This makes Randy realize how he has been treating Ann and the couple rekindles their romance. Whitney Hammond arrives on the scene as well and both he and Venus depart together.
Recurring Characters
Venus
Whitney Hammond
Della Mason
Jupiter
Mercury
Continuity Notes
It seems unlikely that the “Luna Beasts” in this story actually originated on the Moon given what we know about it now. It was not uncommon in old sci-fi stories to have aliens existing on celestial bodies in our solar system. Marvel’s general work around is that these aliens did not originate from — say — the moon, but from somewhere else and that these are merely a colony of these aliens. The best example is Journey into Mystery #82’s Stone Men from the Saturn who were later revealed to existing on another planet. However, these could be creatures that were spawned by either the Kree or the Cotati when they were experimenting on the Blue Area of the Moon centuries earlier (that was shown in a flashback in Avengers #144.)
