as several other heroes came to meet the Hulk. Thor was one of the founding members of this superhuman team, and often led them into battle against Loki. Several times Loki, while not directly battling Thor, caused other threats for Thor to battle, like increasing the mental powers of a carnival fortune teller Sandu, making him powerful enough to lift buildings with his mind, and releasing a Lava Man called Molto by accident when causing a long-dead volcano to explode. When Loki convinced Odin to punish Thor, Odin took away half of Thor's power, after which Loki returned the memory of the 23rd-century villain Zarrko. Zarrko defeated Thor and took him back to help conquer his time period, although the God of Thunder was able to finally capture the villain. Loki even released Mr. Hyde and Cobra by paying their bail, then doubled their powers. Loki told them to kidnap Jane Foster, which he knew would attract Thor's attention, but Hyde and Cobra were again defeated. Loki finally went after Jane Foster himself, sending her to another dimension. However Doctor Strange was able to protect her, and Thor forced Loki to return her. Among Loki's better-known henchmen was the human criminal Carl "The Crusher" Creel, whom Loki transformed into the superhuman criminal known as the Absorbing Man. Creel would prove to be a formidable adversary to Thor and other Avengers over the years. Loki went so far as to attempt to turn Odin against Thor and to steal Thor's enchanted hammer Mjolnir in an attempt to attain freedom, but his efforts failed. Upon convincing Odin to go to Earth and leave him in charge of Asgard with part of the Odinforce, he released Skagg, the largest Storm Giant, and Surtur, the largest Fire Demon, to try to destroy Odin. However, Thor and Balder helped defeat the monsters, and Loki was sent to serve the Trolls. Loki was responsible for the Destroyer being awakened, by leading a Hunter to the Temple where the Destroyer armor resided using their mental abilities while Thor was nearby, causing the soul of the Hunter to animate the armor, but Thor forced the Hunter to return to his body, then buried the armor under thousands of tons of rock. The Absorbing Man was brought back to Earth by Loki, and battled Thor, but Loki quickly took him to Asgard when Thor was on the verge of