Featuring: Thor
Release: June 1, 1965
Cover: August 1965
12 cents
Who but Stan Lee could have written this tale?
Who but Jack Kirby could have drawn it?
Who but Vince Colletta could have inked it?
Who but Artie Simek could be called Artie Simek?
16 pages
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|---|---|---|
| Mystic Comics #6 | PRELUDE | |
| Journey Into Mystery #118, Story B | Reading order | Journey Into Mystery #119, Story B |
| Journey Into Mystery #118, Story B | Journey Into Mystery | Journey Into Mystery #119, Story B |
Interesting grid layout for the cover. Haven’t seen too many of those from Kirby. I’m guessing that’s because something went very wrong here. As all four cover panels are just taken from the interior art.
Either Kirby didn’t finish a cover or his cover was rejected. This looks like somebody scrambling at the last minute to get something, anything on the cover before the book got printed.
This is the June issue of Thor. We’ve read almost consecutively since January and are now 3 months ahead of the rest of our reading. We’re going to pause after this issue, despite the inconclusiveness of the ending. We need to check in on our other heroes. Because we’re mostly in March with our reading, I don’t want to worry too much about June things right now. Like, let’s not focus on the fact that “Marvel Comics Group” has apparently become “Marvel Pop Art Productions”. We’ll reflect on that when we reach June properly.
For now, a recap. Loki has helped an evil and unnamed hunter locate the Temple of Darkness, which housed the Destroyer, a mindless being imbued with the power of Odin who would one day defend Earth in its hour of need. The Destroyer took the hunter’s mind, and has awakened too early, and thinks Thor is who it’s meant to destroy.
It’s already destroyed his hammer.
But Thor really just wants to bring his bag of Norn Stones to Odin to prove Loki cheated in the Trial of the Gods. All-wise, all-seeing Odin is not aware of these Stones because he’s currently taking a nap.
Loki likes to torment Thor, but is afraid his latest scheme will result in Thor’s death. He doesn’t mind Thor being dead, but fears the punishment of Odin if he is blamed. He has thus attempted to wake Odin and save Thor, but was thrown in prison for it.
Whew. That’s where we left off.
Oh, and the Destroyer was moments away from killing Thor, and still is.
Thor’s salvation comes from Loki, who renders him unsolid with his Force of Thought.
Loki turns to the Norn Queen for aid. We’ve met her a few times now. We’ve also twice met the Norn Hag. That might be the Norn Hag in the background, but it could also be any witch. Hard to tell. I can’t find anybody claiming it is her, so we’ll assume not.
The Norn Queen is able to awaken Odin from his Odinnap.
Odin tries to help Thor but Thor does that thing where it’s a matter of honor for him. He must fight this foe by himself because that makes for the better story.
Thor finds the Destroyer’s vulnerability: his human form. It’s still the hunter’s mind, and he doesn’t wish to see his human body destroyed, so Thor has a hostage. But then, Thor is not allowed to harm humans. So it becomes a weird sort of stand-off.
Ultimately, the hunter’s mind returns to his body, leaving the Destroyer a lifeless husk that Thor collapses a temple on. It can’t awaken again until somebody gets close to it.
The Destroyer is a great villain and this was a great battle.
For his crimes, Loki is sentenced to serve Ularic, royal warlock to Odin.
We have at least two loose story threads. Thor still needs to get the Norn Stones to Asgard, but can’t without his hammer. And his hammer is broken. So he’s going to go deal with that.
For us, that’s enough Thor comics for the moment. We’ll finish up this issue with the next chapter of the Odinsword Saga. Then it will be time to catch up with the Hulk. This is the June issue of Thor, but we still haven’t read last October’s Hulk story.
July is the wedding issue of Fantastic Four. Thor will attend with his hammer in good repair.
So, now that we’ve had a few issues. What do we think of Vince Colletta on Thor? For comparison, let’s contrast these recent Colletta issues with the Chic Stone work that preceded it. In the name of science, I’ll post some pictures of Thor from each artist, but not tell you which is which. The question is, is it obvious who is who? And what do we think?
Remember, Jack Kirby drew all these pictures in pencil. The only difference is who finished them with ink. They’re all the recolored digital versions to make it fair.
I’ll leave it there for now. We have plenty of time to reflect on the Kirby/Colletta collaboration.
(Answers below)
Rating: ★★★½, 62/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 3. It is also available on Kindle.
Characters:
- Destroyer
- Thor
- Loki
- A hunter
- Norn Queen
- Ularic
Story notes
- Thor rendered unsolid before Destroyer could kill him.
- Loki still in Dungeon of No-Escape
- Loki had sent a Force of Thought to Earth, which rendered him unconscious; he saved Thor by making him unsolid.
- Destroyer returns essence to hunter; Thor collapses temple on Destroyer. He won’t awaken until another stands within arms reach of him.
- Thor can’t control flight with broken hammer.
| Previous | #346 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Mystic Comics #6 | PRELUDE | |
| Journey Into Mystery #118, Story B | Reading order | Journey Into Mystery #119, Story B |
| Journey Into Mystery #118, Story B | Journey Into Mystery | Journey Into Mystery #119, Story B |
Answer key to the grid.
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Colletta Colletta
The cover may have been a portmanteau rush-job, but it absolutely FORCED me to buy the comic. The previous month, I had determined to drop the title because it seemed this storyline would never ever ever end. And there was probably something new to take my 12 cents. But then I saw this cover and the cover copy — and I wonder if Stan actually wrote this copy? He had to approve it, and may have massaged it, but the captions attacked my greedy little senses just like the later 4th World cover copy would. This reads very much like the cover copy to Mr Miracle #1.
Simon & Kirby were rarely verbose on their covers, but their splash pages – especially introductory pages, such as found in Boy’s Ranch #1 – were too intriguing to pass by. And I was one of those kids who always flipped the first few pages of any comic on the racks.