Outsized and colorful, myth has always provided fertile storytelling material for comic-book superhero adventures.
In The Hammer of Thor (Batman 127, Oct. 1959), the Dynamic Duo battles a super-powered criminal thunder god who turns out to be museum curator Henry Meek. Meek transforms into Thor when he touches the hammer, just as meek Dr. Don Blake would three years later.
In this story written by Bill Finger and drawn by Sheldon Moldoff, the hammer is a replica empowered by a mysterious meteor. Meek’s obsession with mythology does the rest, triggering a hypnotic state in which Meek confuses the sound of thunder with the voice of Odin.
This is one of the rare Batman adventures that ends happily for the criminal. Unaware of his transformations, Meek is blameless, and the resulting publicity makes a success of his faltering museum.
DC heroes ran into a number of faux Thors over the years.
In May 1948, Superman thwarted one of them, shrugging off lightning blasts by remarking nonchalantly that they only felt like electric sparks (Superman in Valhalla, Superman 52).
Then in October 1956, under the influence of a gamma-ray-powered “reincarnation helmet,” a ginger-haired cub reporter recalls past lives as the pal of Samson, Hercules and Thor (Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen 16). But it turns out to be a hypnotic swindle to steal radium. Clark Kent figures it all out when the same machine causes him to dream about a past life on Earth — something that, being from Krypton, he knows to be impossible.
In The Magic Hammer (Tales of the Unexpected 16, August 1957), artist Jack Kirby gave us another Thor, one in pursuit of his hammer Mjolnir which had been stolen by Loki. Kirby and writer Stan Lee would revisit the theme in Journey Into Mystery 83 (Aug. 1962), creating the longest-running and most famous version of the thunder god.
So Batman met Thor, and then Robin met Ant-Man. But that, as they say, is another story…
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