Tag: kim

Journey Into Mystery #118

To Kill a Thunder God!

Featuring: Thor
Release: May 4, 1965
Cover: July 1965
12 cents
A story steeped in splendor by: Stan Lee
Artwork bathed in beauty by: Jack Kirby
Inking dipped in drama by: Vince Colletta
Lettering couched in clichés by: Artie Simek
16 pages

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We are now 2 months ahead of everything else in our Thor reading because it’s all just flowing together. Thor still hasn’t returned to Asgard with the Norn Stones that will prove Loki cheated in the Trial of the Gods.

He is still flying with Kim, whose entire family was recently killed by her Communist brother.

In the early (generally awful) Thor stories (#83-100), the villains were pretty lame. Loki was the only real stand-out. A couple others, like Radioactive Man, had potential. When Kirby became the primary artist and the stories started to improve, we got some better villains: Executioner, Enchantress, and Grey Gargoyle.

Now that the series is kicking into high gear, we are getting great villains. We recently met Absorbing Man and now get introduced to the Destroyer.

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Journey Into Mystery #117

Into the Blaze of Battle!

Featuring: Thor
Release: April Fools Day, 1965
Cover: June 1965
12 cents
Regally written by: Stan Lee
Dazzlingly drawn by: Jack Kirby
Invincibly inked by: Vince Colletta
Lonesomely lettered by: Artie Simek
16 pages

Previous#342Next
Journey Into Mystery #116, Story BReading orderJourney Into Mystery #117, Story B
Journey Into Mystery #116, Story BJourney Into MysteryJourney Into Mystery #117, Story B

We’re still spinning out of the events of issue 114, when Loki kidnapped Jane. This led directly to last issue’s Trial of the Gods, a challenge which Loki won by cheating, right as last issue closed.

We pick up precisely where we left off. For continuity’s sake, Thor is still without his cape. He’ll get another one when they get home.

This issue, Thor finds himself entangled in the Vietnam war. Marvel heroes have been fighting Communists for as long as we’ve been reading, often in Vietnam. The nature of US involvement in Vietnam was changing drastically, as this comic was published just 7 months after the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Here, we see the civil war that ravages South Vietnam, as South Vietnamese farmers face the terror of the Viet Cong, guerilla forces supported by the North Vietnamese.

Before we get to Viet Nam, we have unresolved plot points from last issue. Who won the Trial of the Gods? Will Jane be rescued from Enchantress and Executioner?

Continue reading “Journey Into Mystery #117”