As I'm not going back to re-read the earlier issues of Thor, just wanted to quickly say this is a series that started off pretty lousy, with Larry Lieber and the rotating artists - mostly Don Heck - often not having a clue what to do with the material beyond having Loki ridiculously manipulate every single villain who showed up each month. When Stan and Jack took over, it settled into a decent, if still bland, rhythm, but then I became hooked as, through 1965-1966, Jack started expanding on the mythology of the series and took us away from the Earthly boredom of Dr. Don Blake and Jane Foster to powerful hero ballads set among the massive and mysterious forces of the cosmos. Some of Jack's most awesome and powerful art of the time is in the pages of this book, even if it's often filtered through the inks of Vince Colletta.
The Mighty Thor #136 (January 1937)
"To Become An Immortal"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
Thor brings Jane Foster to Asguard, where she's cloaked in the garb and given the powers of an Immortal, only to fail a test of courage when Odin pits her against the Unknown. Jane is returned to Earth with no memory of these events, and a heartbroken Thor is sent to take down the Unknown, with the unexpected help of warrior and future love interest Sif.
An absolute treasure of a game-changer, as Jack revels in all the mindblowing wonders of Asguard he can heap upon Jane. She doesn't exactly go out on a flattering note, but hers was never a particularly compelling arc to begin with, so it's nice to see it brought to a close (for now?). The art is top-notch Jack, with even Vince bringing his A-game to the inking instead of fucking it up with his usual laziness, and the introduction to the strong warrior Sif is a triumphant defiance of the weak women Marvel has been plagued with up to this point. Mostly due to Stan's ability to write them, and his dialogue is still struggling to keep up with this shakeup of his usual status quo. Also, we're now deep into Thor "thou"ing and "enow"ing like a second-rate Shakespeare knockoff, and it's distracting from the otherwise mythic power of a fantastic issue.
Recommended
Tales of Asguard "There Shall Come a Miracle"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
Odin watches on as Thor, backed by the Warriors Three, delivers a final, crushing blow to the dragon-reborn Fafnir, then behold as rains come down on a wasteland, bringing the promise of new life.
Yet another beautiful myth given new life in comic form. Great Kirby art. Vince doing adequate inks. And Stan not snarking it up.
Recommended
The Mighty Thor #137 (February 1967)
"The Thunder God and the Troll"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
Thor and Sif battle off the troll horde, only for Thor to meet his match at the hands of Ulik, the most powerful troll of them all. Sif is captured and sent to Earth with Ulik, to hostage that world and keep Thor away as the horde moves forward with their plot to conquer Asgard.
All the Kirby magic you could ask for, with big ugly villains, cosmo-splitting heroics, dynamic action, and even a nice plot twist thrown into the mix. Not even Vince and Stan do much to muck it up. My only issue is that for Sif's big debut, they follow up showing how awesome she is by then making her the token damsel in distress. *facepalm*
Recommended
Tales of Asgard "The Tragedy of Hogun"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
As Thor and the Warriors Three return to Asgard, Hogun is shocked to see one of his countrymen near death and strung up between stakes. The man reveals he was slain by Mogul, the enslaver of Hogun's people, who appears before our heroes, under the protection of his giant Jinni, and challenges them to face him at the fabled Mystic Mountain.
A little stiff, but otherwise an exciting setup for what could be a nice multi-part story, as well as a good snippet of backstory which helps flesh out the stoic Hogun.
Recommended
The Mighty Thor #138 (March 1967)
"The Flames of Battle"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
As even Odin himself joins the Asgardians in fighting off the overwhelming horde of troll invaders, Thor walks into the trap Ulik placed for him on Earth. Thor puts up a valiant fight, but when Ulik steals his hammer and disappears into a portal, a grieving Thor is left on Earth with Sif, unavailable to help as he counts down the minute until he returns to the powerless form of Don Blake.
What seems to be a bit of an unnecessary side quest quickly justifies itself with a twist which puts tremendous stakes in the battle raging on Asgard, as well as showing Jack hasn't missed the last dregs of potential held by Don Blake. Kirby's art is superb and Stan's writing fine, but while Vince embellishes well for half the book, the other half is back to the laziness of his wobbly line work and blanked out backgrounds.
Recommended.
Tales of Asgard "The Quest for the Mystic Mountain"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
In order to find the Magic Mountain of Mogul, Thor and the Warriors Three seek the help of Wazir, the Prophet. But first they have to fight Ogur, his one-eyed brute of a guardian.
The last two pages are a bit of fun, but this is largely a generic Kirby beatdown, and ultimately an unnecessary chapter in a choppy quest arc. And Vince is still uneven in his inks, and Stan still rolling my eyes with his flowery attempts at Shakespearean.
Not Recommended
The Mighty Thor #139 (April 1967)
"To Die Like a God"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
Thor is saved from being trapped in the body of Don Blake as Sif uses her powers as a god to transport them back to Asgard, where they explore Troll tunnels and encounter the horde. Thor then regains his hammer, takes on Ulik, and meets and frees Orikal, who repays his debt to the thunder god by rendering useless all the weapons of the Troll invaders. Thus, Asgard is saved and Thor praised by Odin.
A bit wobbly of a conclusion. The big cliffhanger is rendered pretty moot as Sif follows up Thor's melodrama by making him look like an idiot. Then Thor reclaims his hammer without much effort, then Ulik's clone of said hammer drops out of the story entirely, then Ulik is suddenly jealous of Orikal for reasons straight out of left field as an excuse to drop exposition which saves the day. And it all falls victim to Stan's over-wrought "thee and thou" dialogue, which is becoming a bore.
But Jack is still bringing his A-game to the art, as he fills these pages with action, alien tech, immortal sorcery, and the pounding blows of unthinkable forces hammering at one another. Sif continues to kick ass, the Trolls prove themselves a good group of foes we'll likely see again, and Odin is the almighty he is. Even Vince doesn't screw any of this up.
Recommended
Tales of Asgard "The Secret of the Mystic Mountain"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
Our heroes finally reach the Mystic Mountain, aka Zanadu, only to now have to face Mogul's monstrous Jinni.
Dammit, Stan. You keep heaping on this style of dialogue, and all it does is make the read ponderous. It doesn't have any of your regular zing, no pop, no personality, especially when everyone is talking the same way.
The story is still good, though, leaving our heroes puzzled until they discover the Mountain, instead of rising in the plains on which they stand, is instead encased in a massive crystal stalactite in a cavern below. It's one hell of a concept and a great image, and Vince backs up Jack's pencils in that moment ably... better than he doze in some of the shaky character work.
A nice nugget of a chapter in a still unfolding tale.
Recommended
The Mighty Thor #140 (May 1967)
"The Growing Man"
By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Vince Colletta.
After Asgard celebrates, Thor returns home to Earth seeking to find closure with Jane. Elsewhere, archaeologists have dug up a doll-like figure they bring to a curator, only to discover it's increased in size. It wakes up and goes on a rampage, continuing to grow with each blow it absorbs and calling out for its master. When Thor steps in, it's revealed the creature is the creation of Kang, who didn't expect it to be uncovered until a point in the future he intended to conquer. Thor uses his hammer to send Kang, the "growing man", and the conqueror's time machine into the void between time and space.
This is a pretty nothing issue. Thor returns to Earth to face Jane, but we never see her, and he's a total ass to Sif before he goes. Kang's plot with the growing man is okay, but nothing we haven't seen before, and it's eyerolling how so many people in New York can't believe their eyes when they see a man change size despite Giant-Man/Goliath having stomped along those streets for some time now. Now that we're on Earth, Stan's dialogue has gone back to its old zing, but he's increasingly desperate to make "So be it!" a catchphrase, highlighting it as often as he did "Imperius Rex!" in the Sub-Mariner stories. Not even Jack's art does all that much to stand out from monster stories he was doing in the 50s, and Vince is back in bad form with embarrassingly bad inks, his feathered style devolving into scribbles at times.
Not Recommended
Tales of Asgard "The Battle Begins"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
Thor and the Warriors Three battle the massive Jinni, until it's defeated by the coming of evening's shadow. That last bit is a little dues ex machina-y, but is delivered in a classical myth style that largely gets away with it. Otherwise, this is 5 pages of pure fantasy action of Jack. It's great stuff, and not even Stan's stiff writing and Vince's occasional sloppiness is enough to hurt it.
Recommended
The Mighty Thor #141 (June 1967)
"The Wrath of Replicus"
By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Vince Colletta.
Mob boss Slugger Sykes thinks he's found a sure way to both wrestle control of the underground and flatten Thor, with the powerful automaton Replicus created by the scientist Chuda. It goes on a crime spree before fighting Thor to a standstill, but Sykes then discovers Chuda is an alien with aspirations of world conquest, and in a burst of patriotic duty, kills both himself and the more villainous villain, which also powers down Replicus.
You'll notice I've let Stan back into the spotlight for both this issue and the last, because these feel a lot more like Stan stories than they do Jack. The installment here is well told, with solid action from Jack, snappy dialogue from Stan, and a nice little moral bookend involving Sykes's mother, but this feels like a huge step back to the type of stories found in the early days of Thor, as opposed to the grandiose mythical fantasy epic Jack had been evolving it into. Not bad, but not exactly a return to form I was looking for. And grumble grumble fuckin' Vince Colletta.
Recommended
Tales of Asgard "Alibar and the Forty Demons"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
Instead of having the lowly thief Alibar executed, Mogul instead dons him in the garb of a proud knight and sends him to lead a squad of 40 riders against Thor and the Warriors Three.
Good Jack art, some nice individual moments set aside for each of the Warriors Three, and I like the dilemma of Alibar, who knows full well he's being sent to his death as a distraction and is trying to figure a way out of this mess, but it's just not an engaging story. This entire arc has been more miss than hit, and feels like they're just throwing a bunch of Middle Eastern legends in a pot with no real rhyme or reason. Stan's dialogue is still stiff (when not from Volstagg), and I think we've passed the point of Vince bringing his A-game to this book, as he's been pretty consistently sloppy the last few issues.
Not Recommended
The Mighty Thor #142 (July 1967)
"The Scourge of the Super Skrull"
By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Vince Colletta.
Loki uses his powers to guide the Super-Skrull into attacking Thor, they throw down, Thor kicks his ass. Again, we're right back to the types of stories this series used to tell, which is unfortunate because they were flat and predictable before Jack opened up the mythos, and this is every bit as flat and predictable. It's capably done, with all the necessary action beats, Thor blazing in anger in full Thunder God mode, and I love the little bit in the opening when a motorcyclist makes the mistake of challenging Thor to a race, but it's mostly Jack going through paces because there's not much for him to dig his skills into. There's a couple nice pages of Sif and Balder setting out on a mission, and Loki brooding in exile, but those are glimpses in a sea of mediocrity. And while Stan's writing has its usual zip, Vince's inks continue their downward spiral of laziness.
Not Recommended
Tales of Asgard "We, Who Are About to Die"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
With Thor and the Warriors Three about to encounter the demon horsemen at the edge of his castle, Mogul assaults the people of Hogun's tribe he holds captive, preparing to unleash upon them the Spotted Plague. Another scattered chapter in a serial that seems to have little clue as to how it wants to unfold. Stan's dialogue is a heavy chore, and not even Jack's dynamic art is worth looking at as it's absolutely destroyed by some of the worst Vince Colletta inking yet.
Not Recommended
The Mighty Thor #143 (August 1967)
"And Soon Shall Come: The Enchanters"
By Jack Kirby and Bill Everett... and Stan.
While Thor is on Earth entertaining youths in a soda shop, Balder and Sif journey to Ringsfjord to challenge the Enchanters Three, wearers of the Living Talismans. The two find themselves outmatched by the sorcerers, using Sif's powers to teleport to Earth and seek the aid of Thor. Two of the Enchanters are on their tail, taking form in the streets of New York as the third sets out to destroy Odin in Asgard.
Things are finally pulling out of the slump of the last few issues as we get pure mythos quest magic with Balder and Sif's journey, and the Enchanters Three are some of Jack's most striking designs yet. I love the promise of these massively powerful forces being unleashed on Earth (as opposed to Thor taking on regular terran supervillains he wildly outmatches), and Stan gets to break from his heavy-handed Shakespearean groaners (he's ditched "So be it!" and is now trying to make "Thus speaks Thor!" a catchphrase) with entertaining bits like the kids in the soda shop or the cop scratching his head as he deals with Sif and Balder. Jack's art is great, with Everett being a blessed escape from the horrors Vince Colletta's inks have become, and the story is a great fusion of the domestic daring-do this series started as (and had recently been returning to) and the grand cosmic fantasy epic of its peak, and I'm curious to see how it builds on playing those to aspects together.
Sadly, Sif falls victim to the sexism of the time, as the proud warrior is constantly cut down with needlessly feeble abilities and snide dismissals from everyone around her, and she's already starting to become a clutching love interest always fearing for her Thor.
Recommended
Tales of Asgard "To the Death"
By Jack Kirby and Bill Everett... and Stan.
While Thor, Hogun, and Fandrau face off against the wave of demon riders, Volstagg has slipped away and is wooing the sister of Mogul in the hopes of winning an audience with the evil despot. But he doesn't realize she's luring him into a trap, which he then also pulls her into, so they both run through an underground labyrinth with a giant minotaur (named Mutaurus) on their heels.
Given how crap this storyline has been, I have zero complaints about shoving it aside for a month so we can laugh at the misadventures of Volstagg, who's as delightful as ever as he uses a brave face to cover for running in fear. Jack's art, backed by Bill's strong inks, is a delight, never forgetting to show the opulence of his detailed fantasy world even as Volstagg buffoons his way through it. Even the page we get of the other three heroes batting their way through an overwhelming horde of enemies is powerful stuff. Stan's usually heavy wording in these sequences is lightened up by Volstagg's quips, though he's again trying to hammer into us the catchphrase of "Thus speaks Thor!". Lay off it, Stan. You can't force the magic.
Recommended
The Mighty Thor #144 (September 1967)
"This Battleground Earth"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
Thor takes on the two Enchanters in the sky above New York in a ferocious battle. Meanwhile, the third Enchanter, Forsung, challenges Odin to a duel for control over all Asguard. They renounce the powers of their people and zip into the cosmos, fighting only as themselves. This cause all other Asgardians and Enchanters to lose their special powers, and Thor makes quick work of the two with his fists. But now he, Sif, and Baldur are stuck on Earth, wondering the fate of Odin, their powers, and their homeland.
The things I don't like in this issue are Vince's inks, Stan's over-wrought dialogue, and Sif increasingly devolving into a meek and helpless gender stereotype, with Baldur suddenly becoming Lancelot as he develops feelings for her. All that aside, this issue is fantastic, with pounding art from Jack, a solid story where an interesting chain of cause and effect ripples on two interlinked sides of a conflict despite being separated by the cosmos, and Thor is absolute badass when he finally gets the upper hand.
Recommended
Tales of Asgard "The Beginning of the End"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
As Mogul preps to drop the Spotted Plague on Hogun's captured people, Alibar joins Thor, Hogun, and Fandral as they strain to beat back the undying horde of demon riders. Volstagg shows up with the cannon he found in the last issue, blowing the entire horde to dust.
Pure action and spectacle from one panel to the next. Even the moments between waves, where our heroes struggled to collect themselves and catch their breaths, has the coiled tension of the next wave we know will hit, and the courage of the heroes willing to meet it until the end is rousing. And then capping it with a classic Volstagg moment, genius. Stan's writing is a little lighter than usual for this setting, moving with Jack's momentum instead of slogging it. Vince's inking is still as inconsistent as ever, but Jack's art is too powerful for it to be a bother.
Recommended
The Mighty Thor #145 (October 1967)
"Abandoned On Earth"
By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Vince Colletta.
Folsung loses his duel - and his life - against Odin, and the king of the Norse gods banishes the remaining Enchanters to limbo. He summons Sif and Baldur back to Asgard, but when Thor asks to remain on Earth, Odin curses him, stripping both him and his hammer of immortal enchantments, and leaving Thor stuck on Earth with only his strength and unable to revert to the identity of Don Blake. So Thor dresses casual in a t-shirt and jeans, and looks for a job, taking up an offer to try out as a circus strongman. As luck would have it, it's the Circus of Crime, and the Ringmaster hypnotizes the thunder god into using his strength to help steal a giant golden bull.
Yes, this is technically another "Thor bums around on Earth and fights already established villains he wildly outmatches", but it's given a much-needed bout of freshness as Thor no longer has the civilian identity of Don Blake to fall back on, and has to make due among humans as he is. He dresses down because of how people react when a fully-suited Thor steps on an elevator, he tries to ease up on his thees and thous so as not to stand out. And yet he still longs to be the hero despite having his powers significantly reduced. He can't fly, he's not invulnerable, Mjolnir can no longer perform great feats or open dimensional vortexes. There's a great bit where he shows he's still a force to be reckoned with by using the hammer to fell a tree, but instead of returning to him, it just flops to the ground and sits there, and he's left standing stoically above it.
This is a really solid issue, and even the Circus of Crime is used well as they pull an unwitting Thor into their plot instead of just duke it out with him. The opening bits are great with a worn Odin winning his duel, yet driven to anger over the necessity of taking a life, which he lashes at Thor. Sif and Baldur are plucked from events a little quickly, but I'm sure they'll come into play again soon. Jack's art is great, whether it's depicting wildly fantastic scenes or quiet character moments, and aside from a few hiccups, it seems Vince is bringing his A-game again as the inks are quite nice. Even Stan rises to the sudden change of pace, taking jabs at his overwrought Asgardian speak as Thor now needs to try to blend in with contemporary human society.
Recommended
Tales of Asgard "The End"
By Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta... and Stan.
Thor, Alibar, and the Warriors Three storm Mogul's castle, only to find - thanks to a magic crystal - that he's nearing Hogun's people with the canister of Spotted Plague. Hogun mutters a spell that kills the despot with a single bolt of magic. Our heroes put Alibar on the throne, who pledges allegiance to Asgard and rides off.
Aside from a couple of nice chapters, this serialized storyline has largely been a waste of time, and such is how it ends as the huge confrontation brewing between Hogun and Mogul never actually takes place. Hell, the two don't even meet on page as Hogun pulls a spell out of his ass that literally causes Mogul to lose with a ZAP, and it's all over. And of course our heroes would be the ones who choose the person who now sits on the land's throne because heaven forbid they let the people decide.
Jack's art is nice, Vince's inks are decent, and Stan's writing is heavy but readable, yet it feels like they just ran out of any enthusiasm they had for this story and wanted to finally wrap it up as quickly as possible so they could then move on.
Not Recommended
The Mighty Thor #146 (November 1967)
"If the Thunder Be Gone"
By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Vince Colletta.
Despondent over his current fate, Thor puts on a show as the circus strongman, even as he spots Jane Foster in the audience, happy and on the arm of another man. That night, Ringmaster gives him another dose of hypnosis as he, Thor, and the Circus of Crime set out to steal the golden bull. Things go well at first, but they're overwhelmed by cops more quickly than they expected to be. The gunfire snaps Thor out of his trance, but the cops now think he's in on things, the rest of the circus has fled, Princess Python is pinned to a wall by the bull, and Sif and Baldur watch on from Asgard, forbidden to help.
It's not an essential issue, but still a solid one as the silly heist plot is anchored by Thor's grim detachment to events he's fallen into, and bits like spotting Jane or again having to pick up his now powerless hammer from the ground are great little character gutpunches. The heist plot is really nicely executed with Jack blocking out great action and Stan handling the dialogue well. It cuts out on a nice cliffhanger, and even Vince's inks aren't too shabby.
Recommended
The Inhumans "The Origin of the Incomparable Inhumans"
By Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott... and Stan.
At the dawn of homo sapiens, another advanced race already existed on Earth, but while their primitive brethren spread across the lands, they instead clustered in their island city of Attilan, dedicating their lives to experimentation and the further uncovering of knowledge. One day, the Terrogen Mist is uncovered, which could advance these people to an even more advanced state of evolution. Unwilling to use the substance without it first being tested, their leader, Randac, volunteers to test it on himself.
Interesting that Jack and Stan have decided to replace their back-up exploration of classical myths by now fully diving into ones of their own creation, but hey, I'm always down for Inhumans. There's not a whole lot here beyond a large panel montage sequence and the final section of dialogue where Randac makes his choice, but it's ably handled with Joe (thank you thank you thank you for not being Vince!) doing a clean job of rendering Jack's strong art, and Stan staying light on flourishes and letting the story of the images largely tell itself.
Recommended
The Mighty Thor #147 (December 1967)
"The Wrath of Odin"
By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Vince Colletta.
Following the whole robbery mess where the Circus of Crime runs off without him, Thor puts the golden bull back in its place in the museum and turn himself over to police custody. On Asgard, Odin decides to free Loki from exile on the warning he better stay good this time, so of course Loki sneaks down to Earth, posts Thor's bail, then begins a brutal beat down where Thor's mere strength is no match for his brother's enchanted immortal powers. Sif and Balder zip back to Earth, but Odin is furious at everyone having defied his will, so sends a bolt of energy zipping towards Earth.
That Odin would again free Loki is a bit much of a twist, making the old timer look like a dolt (though wouldn't be the first time). Otherwise, this is a blast of an issue, and when the Loki/Thor smackdown happens, I love how Loki doesn't even need to try in order to overwhelm and overpower Thor. It really shows just how powerful the gods are, and just how far Thor has fallen by having those power stripped away. Even then, Thor gets some nice judo tosses in, but I love how he's completely outmatched and is absolutely losing before his friends show up. And then they don't have a chance to do anything before Odin lashes out for the cliffhanger! Great stuff!
I also really like Princess Python vouching for Thor with the police because he saved her life, which doesn't hold much water for them as she herself quickly escapes. And Loki showing up in a human disguise Thor quickly sees through. And Thor dejectedly allowing himself to be arrested, handing over Mjolnir and being locked in a cell with a goon who does nothing but make fun of him. This is such a great fusion of Jack's art and storytelling, and Stan's writing, that I'm glad to see this year's run end on a high note, and wincing that my format for this site means I have to wait a bit before I can see how that cliffhanger resolves. Not even Vince's shambling inks rob this of its awesome.
Recommended
Origin of the Inhumans "The Reason Why"
By Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott... and Stan.
Still in the ancient past, the Kree Sentry, left on Earth to guard that race's stake in our world, comes across the island city of Attilan. The people welcome him in peacefully, and he reveals they are the result of a Kree experiment which evolved a pocket of humans to see what their race was capable of. King Randac finally emerges from the Terrigen Mist, demonstrating his new powers and vowing to enhance all others in the city. The Sentry says the Kree will be please that these now "Inhumans" are showing even more potential than anticipated, then it walks off and is never seen by those people again.
A great chapter in Jack's mythos, weaving a nice web between the strands of Inhumans and Kree, and the monolithic presence of the Sentry is very well used. For a strip almost entirely devoid of action, it's no less gripping or entertaining. Jack and Joe illustrate it beautifully, and I especially love moments like the contrast of the primitive cavemen who attack Sentry as a demon, fearing he'll kill them just because he's unusual, and the peaceful greeting of the more inquisitive Attilans. Stan's dialogue is tight and clean, never slipping into the Shakespearean speak that bogs down his visits to Asgard.
Recommended
Overall, a mixed year. There's a bit of a slump in the main book when Thor first returns to Earth, but the year started strong and ends even stronger, with a huge shift in Thor's personal journey and supporting cast. This was an unfortunate year for the Tales of Asgard back-up, as the Mogul serial was a complete mess and largely uninvolving, and it's hard to regret that strip being dropped given just how strong of a start the Origin of the Inhumans is off to.
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