Journey Into Mystery #83

The Stone Men from Saturn!

The Stone Men from Saturn!/The Power of Thor!/Thor the Mighty Strikes Back!
Release: June 5, 1962
Cover: August 1962
12 cents
Writing: Stan Lee, Larry Lieber
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnot
13 pages

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Journey Into MysteryJourney Into Mystery #84

Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor!

The credits are taken from the table of contents for Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 1. I don’t see any credits in the story itself.

How wild is it that Thor and Spider-Man were introduced on the exact same day? There are a lot of days in the last 80 years, and only so many super heroes as iconic as those two. In the last year, we’ve met the Fantastic Four and the Hulk. The pace is picking up. Within a year, we’ll meet many of our favorite heroes.

The opening splash page depicts Thor, with a distinctive “T” on his elaborate belt. Except for simplifying the belt, Kirby’s rendition of Thor will last for decades with only minor variations. Notice the smile on Thor’s face; we see that later in the issue as well. Kirby depicts Thor as full of mirth. There is generally a dynamic and playful quality to the art.

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Fantastic Four #5

Prisoners of Doctor Doom!/Back to the Past!/On the Trail of Blackbeard/Battle!/The Vengeance of Doctor Doom!
Release: April 10, 1962
Cover: July 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inker: Joe Sinnot (uncredited)
23 pages

I read this comic in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby signed the issue. The omnibus credits Joe Sinnot as the inker in the table of contents.

I am of two minds about this comic. Let me tell you of both of them.

One the one hand, the premise of the series is that this team gets into fantastic adventures. Travelling back in time to battle pirates qualifies as such an adventure. And as stories about the FF travelling back in time to battle pirates go, this one is pretty solid.

On the other hand, this issue introduces Dr. Doom. Dr. Doom is perhaps my favorite super-villain ever, and this issue just doesn’t quite capture the Dr. Doom that I first met. Whatever I envisioned about the first encounter between our heroes and their arch-nemesis, it wasn’t this.

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