odinsword – Coke & Comics

Thor #127

The Hammer and the Holocaust!

Featuring: Thor
Release: February 3, 1966
Cover: April 1966
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Delineator: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Sam Rosen
16 pages

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Avengers #29	Reading order	Thor #127, Story B
Thor #126, Story B	Thor	Thor #127, Story B

For one brief, fleeting instant of eternity, a god hath dared to love a mortal! Till the universe crumbles, my heart is ever thine! Let that be our epitaph… and our glory!

Now that’s a cover.

We discussed Pieta-inspired covers with Journey Into Mystery #110. This is a much better example of such a cover. I would call this awesome.

As with Avengers, I want to note where Thor is during an upcoming Fantastic Four story, published concurrently with the last few issues. What keeps him away from helping the FF? I don’t believe his short fight with the Demon nor his tiff with Hercules would do it.

Also, the last year of Thor stories still must have taken very little time, as there has been little room for pausing. So it’s likely these Thor stories take place before a lot of the other stories we’ve been reading, and the adventure that seemed more important than helping the FF is still ahead. We’ll be on the lookout for it!

In that sense of there being not a lot of time passing, this picks up precisely where last issue left off, with Jane trying to comfort a moping Thor, who has just lost his first fight, because his daddy halved his powers. Notably, Odin finally seems to support the relationship.

Of course, now there’s a new reason Thor and Jane can’t be together. It’s not about his bum leg or his daddy issues. How could she love a man who can’t even beat Hercules in a fight?

Journey Into Mystery #121, Story B

Maelstrom!

Featuring: Tales of Asgard
Release: August 3, 1965
Cover: October 1965
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Illustrator: Jack Kirby
Delineated by: Vince Colletta
Lettered by: Artie Simek
5 pages

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Journey Into Mystery #121	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery #122
Journey Into Mystery #121	Journey Into Mystery	Journey Into Mystery #122

According to the legends, the Pillars are merely the feet of the Utgard Dragon! Beneath the waves his jaws lie open, waiting for every ship that passes!

It’s not obvious to me how this ship knows where it’s going. All we’ve been told is they are searching for some hidden evil. Not much of a clue. Undeterred by his own ignorance, Thor decides the “Sea of Fear” is as good a place to start as any.

I expect better of the Asgardians, but maybe the Sea of Fear has some effect on people.

After 5 issues of waiting for the ship to set sail, now it has. The issue opens with the ship caught in a storm headed toward these deadly Pillars, and ends… with the ship caught in a storm headed toward these deadly Pillars.

Journey Into Mystery #120, Story B

Set Sail!

Featuring: Tales of Asgard
Release: July 1, 1965
Cover: September 1965
12 cents
Told by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Vince Colletta
Lettered by: Artie Simek
5 pages

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Journey Into Mystery #120	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery #121
Journey Into Mystery #120	Journey Into Mystery	Journey Into Mystery #121

“What madness is this, Volstagg!!? I thought thou feared neither man nor beast!!”
“In truth, I do not–!! But that is neither man nor beast– It is– my wife!!”

This is the fourth chapter of the Odinsword Saga. Let’s recap. The Odinsword was cracked by a mysterious enemy, so Thor is embarking on a quest to discover who is responsible. They are almost ready to leave.

Journey Into Mystery #119, Story B

Gather, Warriors!

Featuring: Tales of Asgard
Release: June 1, 1965
Cover: August 1965
12 cents
Written with gallantry by: Stan Lee
Drawn with greatness by: Jack Kirby
Inked with grandeur by: Vince Colletta
Lettered with a straight face by: Artie Simek
5 pages

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Journey Into Mystery #119	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #63, Story B
Journey Into Mystery #119	Journey Into Mystery	Journey Into Mystery #120

Third chapter of the Odinsword Saga. Loki and Thor are almost ready to begin their quest to discover who has broken the Oversword of Asgard.

Loki has more new recruits. His last recruit tried to assassinate Thor.

Journey Into Mystery #117, Story B

The Sword in the Scabbard!

Featuring: Tales of Asgard
Release: April 1, 1965
Cover: June 1965
12 cents
By: Stan Lee + Jack Kirby
Inking: Vince Colletta
Lettering: Artie Simek
5 pages

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Journey Into Mystery #117	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery #118
Journey Into Mystery #117	Journey Into Mystery	Journey Into Mystery #118

For 20 issues, these Tales of Asgard stories have been short stories that resolved in 5 pages. Now, a large saga begins. At least 11 parts, and even then it just rolls into the next saga.

For reading order, I like to keep story-arcs together. Based on that, I could read all 11 parts at once. This is what the CMRO recommends. It actually recommends reading the next 17 back up stories together.

But I also like to keep issues together. It seems weird to get out a comic, read half of it, put it away, then get it out again later to read the other half. Though we have done that sometimes in the name of keeping arcs together. For example, we read the last 5 Human Torch stories from Strange Tales without reading the corresponding Dr. Strange stories. We’ll have to get the comics back out of the box.

How to balance these two goals (keep a story together vice keep a physical comic together) is subjective, and I’m making a subjective call here: reading these Tales of Asgard stories together doesn’t improve the story in any way. I think they read best as they were published, as episodes in the back of the main Thor comic, to be read after that month’s Thor story. And that’s how we’ll read them. We’ll keep Thor story arcs together as best we can and let the main stories set the reading rhythm. That means it may take us a while to finish the Odinsword Saga. I think that will be okay.