Featuring: Tales of Asgard Release: December 2, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: G. Bell Lettered by: Art Simek 5 pages
Forces of Evil are set to attack Asgard, but Heimdall stands vigilant. However, Loki has created a hole in Asgard’s defenses and somehow kept it secret from even Heimdall. He tricks Thor into thinking he discovered this gap, and suggests that Thor guard it. This leads to the young Thor having to battle the Forces of Evil alone.
Featuring: Thor Release: December 2, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: G. Bell Lettered by: S. Rosen 13 pages
We are one week late reading this comic because it begins a two-part battle against Tomorrow Man. How this comic fits in with Thor’s appearances in Avengers is pretty complicated, and we’ll be addressing that in a later post.
I’ll remind readers that the Avengers really do have some urgent business to get back to. Both Hulk and Namor remain at large. It should also be noted that Giant-Man recently fractured his ankle, but seems better now.
Jack Kirby is back and here to stay. Perhaps he’ll be able to turn around what up to this point has been one of the worst comics. Perhaps not, as he was there for the earliest issues of Thor and they were still of low quality. But Stan Lee was also farming out the writing to a variety of people. Now, for the first time, Stan and Jack will be the team on this book, just like on Fantastic Four and Sgt. Fury. They’ve also reached the point in their working relationship where their “coplotting” of the stories likely involves Stan less and less. Kirby will be taking greater control of the storytelling going forward. We’ll see how it goes.
Now that Lee is scripting, there is a detectable difference in Thor’s speech patterns. Under other writers, he had slowly evolved from talking like he was Don to talking like he was Thor. Now, there’s a certain haughty regality to the language. Words like “naught”.
Featuring: Thor Release: June 4, 1963 Cover: August 1963 12 cents Story plot: Stan Lee Script: R. Berns Art: Joe Sinnott 13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 1.
In going through the results of a recent poll on favorite Marvel/DC characters, my friend Brian Cronin talked about the idea of a “MARVEL science” degrees for his entry on Beast. He notes that Beast is a MARVEL scientist, and
Marvel Universe science is a lot more diverse than regular science. You see, Hank eventually gained a PhD (done while the rest of the X-Men were vainly trying to complete their GEDs) in biophysics and genetics. However, he achieved these PhDs in MARVEL science, so this made him an expert in engineering, medicine, time travel (yes, time travel), etc. It is like how one of the most highly-developed robots of all time, Ultron, was built by Hank Pym, a biologist. It is because Hank is a MARVEL biologist. Very different than normal biology. It’s like “How would you best describe a cell membrane? Also, how would you build a device that could negate Magneto’s powers?” All in the same class!!!! And MARVEL scientists always have multiple doctorates by the time they’re 22. It’s a rule.
Now, we’ve seen a pretty clear counterexample to that. Dr. Pym turned down a request for help from Wasp’s father because it was outside his area of specialty. He claimed he was only an expert in “molecular cell transition” (i.e. making people shrink) and “cell specialization” (i.e. making people grow wings). As of where we are in our reading, he has not yet built any robots.
Dr. Don Blake is a surgeon and a very good one. Surgery is a hard thing to master. It takes a lot of time to study. It’s a demanding job, always being on call. He’s also always on call as a superhero.
Yet somehow he built an android in his spare time.
Featuring: Thor Release: May 2, 1963 Cover: July 1963 12 cents Plot: Stan Lee Script: R. Berns Art: J. Sinnott 13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Thor vol. 1.
Robert Bernstein has become a more frequent scripter of late. And Joe Sinnott has basically become the regular Thor penciller over Kirby, who only returns to the title intermittently. In general, Sinnott will not do a lot of full art for Marvel. But he spends decades as one of their most reliable finishers.
I think the above cover reference is the first time I’ve seen them use the phrase “Marvel Age of Comics”. But as I’m often reading reprints, I may be missing some internal notes. Anyways, that’s what I’ve been calling these tales, differentiating them from the comics the company published in decades prior, the “Marvel Age”. Now, the cover suggests they are just ushering it in. I’ve been describing comics thusly going back to Fantastic Four #1 two years earlier. Before the word “Marvel” was really anywhere to be seen. When there was just a discreet “MC” on the covers. This is part of a new marketing push. A similar phrase will show up on other covers and in house ads over the next month or so.
Still no particular evidence Thor ties in with any of these other stories. Not until the Avengers form. And again, we see everybody acting like Thor is the only superhero out there. When a missile loses control, everyone on earth seems to agree Thor must be tracked down. Nobody seems to consider contacting Iron Man or the Fantastic Four.
Maybe people are also trying to reach Iron Man, and we just don’t see it.
In their first encounter, Loki hypnotized Thor pretty easily. This time he has a much more convoluted plot. He manipulates a complicated series of events to ultimately get Thor to turn his head so his hammer hits him in the chromosomatic gland. And getting hit in that particular gland hard enough changes one from good to evil. Of course, Odin resolves the situation by hitting him again in the same spot.
The Vengeance of Loki!
Featuring: Thor
Release: November 1, 1962
Cover: January 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: L.D. Lieber
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
13 pages
Loki is Thor’s first repeat villain. Coming up with new villains every month is exhausting, so it’s worth repeating the best ones. Loki was the best one. (His competition is: the Stone Men from Saturn, the Executioner, Zarrko, and some Soviet soldiers.) The Fantastic Four have now fought Doom and Sub-Mariner three times each. Human Torch has faced off twice against the Wizard. Ant-Man hasn’t had a repeat villain yet, but I suspect we’ll see the return of Egghead soon enough. Hulk has a persistent nemesis in Thunderbolt Ross, but otherwise hasn’t encountered any actual villains twice. I think repeating villains is good, unless it’s overdone. It is how you develop good rivalries and get an arch-nemesis. But once Joker appeared in the old Batman comics, he started showing up in every single issue of Batman. It’s a balance of having some variety in the foes while giving a chance for a proper rivalry to develop. So far, these comics are doing well enough on the variety side.
We see Heimdall at his post for the first time, guarding the Bifrost. Loki is forbidden to leave Asgard, so he must somehow sneak past Heimdall. He does so by disguising himself as a snake. I really thought of Heimdall as being better than that.
Trapped by Loki, the God of Mischief!/The Vengeance of Loki!/ Release: August 2, 1962 Cover: October 1962 12 cents Writers: Stan Lee and Larry Lieber Penciler: Jack Kirby Inker: Dick Ayers 13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 1. The credits above come from the collection. I see no credits within the comic itself.
This is a pretty exciting story for me. I like the character of Thor, but what excites me most is the mythological world surrounding him. The first 2 issues told of a man in Thor’s body battling aliens and Commies. Now we finally get to Asgard.
“Beyond our segment of time and space, there exists Asgard, the citadel of the Norse gods, which is connected to earth by a rainbow bridge called the Bifrost!”
