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Journey Into Mystery #103, Story C

Thor’s Mission to Mirmir!

Featuring: Tales of Asgard
Release: February 4, 1964
Cover: April 1964
12 cents
Masterfully written by: Stan Lee
Magnificently illustrated by: Jack Kirby
Majestically inked by: Chic Stone
Meritoriously lettered by: Art Simek
5 pages

This is how it all begins. Quite literally.

The story of Thor’s early days continues. He is now an adult and wields the magic hammer. We see now the story of the dawn of humanity on Earth, and Thor’s role in the tale.

The tale begins in the mountains of Asgard, where the dwarfs dwell. We are told the dwarfs forge all the weapons of Asgard. However, not quite all. We learned in the main story of this issue that Odin himself forged Thor’s hammer. That fact is affirmed in this very story.

Sindri is the king of dwarfs and has built the magical ship, Skipbladnir. It’s a tiny ship that magically grows to full-size when needed. Skipbladnir will transport Thor to Mirmir.

Journey Into Mystery #103

The Enchantress and the Executioner!

Featuring: Thor
Release: February 4, 1964
Cover: April 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee, master of fantasy
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby, master of picto-drama
Inked by: Chic Stone
Lettered by: S. Rosen
13 pages

The phrase “feature-length” clearly means nothing to Stan. 13 pages is the same length the Thor stories have always been. It’s only half a comic.

I had some trouble deciding where it was best to read this story. I had originally posted it a little early, I decided, and moved it to where it fits in terms of publication dates, after the introduction of Black Widow. I’m not sure when it best takes place chronologically.

We start with Thor returning to the 20th century from the future, so there’s no time gap between the beginning of this story and Journey Into Mystery #102. Dr. Blake needs a nap, and we do have a short time gap before the main action of the story begins.

Journey Into Mystery #102, Story C

“Death” Comes to Thor!

Featuring: Tales of Asgard
Release: January 3, 1964
Cover: March 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Paul Reinman
Lettered by: Art Simek
5 pages

Anybody else feel like this title would be more dramatic without the quotation marks, which seem to imply that death is not actually coming for Thor.

This completes a trilogy of stories of the Boyhood of Thor. The focus has been on his attempts to earn the right to wield Odin’s magic hammer. We learn from the title that Thor is now 18, a little older than in the last adventures. This is the tale of how Thor finally lifts his magic uru hammer.

Journey Into Mystery #102

Slave of Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man!

Featuring: Thor
Release: January 3, 1964
Cover: March 1964
12 cents
Cunningly conceived by: Stan Lee
Daringly drawn by: Jack Kirby
Ingeniously inked by: Chic Stone
Lovingly lettered by: Art Simek
13 pages

Well. It’s 1964. Welcome.

But not for Thor. He’s trapped in the 23rd century.

This is our first exposure to Chic Stone. He’s been working in comics since the 1930s, including on Marvel’s own Blonde Phantom, but has spent the last several years doing art direction for assorted magazines. He recently returned to doing occasional jobs in comics, and now has found his way to back Marvel. I think he and Kirby make a good team.

Journey Into Mystery #101

The Return of Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man!

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”.

The Avengers #3

Sub-Mariner!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: November 5, 1963
Cover: February 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: P. Reinman
25 pages

We see a new cover box. Acknowledges that Hank is now Giant-Man and that Wasp exists.

Welcome to a special Mothers Day post. What makes this a Mothers Day post? Well, today is Mothers Day. Also, my mother likes the Sub-Mariner, and this is the issue where the Avengers meet Sub-Mariner.

Sub-Mariner doesn’t show up until page 15, but still gets the issue titled after him. Good for him.

In the first issue, Loki tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.

In the second issue, Space Phantom tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.

This issue, the Avengers just decide to attack the Hulk.

Journey Into Mystery #100, Story C

The Storm Giants!

Featuring: Tales of Asgard
Release: November 5, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: P. Reinman
5 pages

We continue with the anniversary issue of Journey Into Mystery. There is the main Thor tale, then a prose story, a sci/fi tale, and this, a story from Thor’s childhood. We get an extra subtitle for the feature: “Tales of Asgard, Home of the Mighty Norse Gods!: The Boyhood of Thor”.

Up until this point, the series had focused on the earliest days of creation, with Odin as the main star, prior to the birth of Thor. We jump forward in time now to Thor’s childhood.

Journey Into Mystery #100

The Master Plan of Mr. Hyde!

Featuring: Thor
Release: November 5, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Don Heck
13 pages

Congratulations to Journey Into Mystery on reaching 100 issues. The cover doesn’t see this milestone as something worth making a big deal out of. Nor does the story. This is just another Thor story, as far as I can tell.

For contrast, check out Superman #100 from almost a decade earlier. They seemed proud to reach 100.

Let’s celebrate the milestone by briefly reviewing the history of the title and peeking into its future.

Journey Into Mystery #99

The Mysterious Mr. Hyde!

Featuring: Thor
Release: October 1, 1963
Cover: December 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Don Heck
13 pages

Yes, we are jumping back in time a week. This begins a two-part story, so I wanted to get #99-100 together. The CMRO actually puts the Thor stories from each issue together, and then goes back to the “Tales of Asgard” stories from 99-100. I think I’m going to treat reading a whole issue at once as the more important consideration. Of course, I will eventually break that rule. So the plan is to read the whole of Journey Into Mystery #99 followed by the whole of #100, even though that inserts a Tales of Asgard story in the middle of Thor’s battle with Mr. Hyde.

Marvel’s already had a few characters inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s story, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Hulk is the most famous one, but his character arc has so far been a rambling mess. Lizard did it well, though it made the character of Curt Connors far more sympathetic than Stevenson made Dr. Jekyll.

Now, we get an explicit reference with a villain named Mr. Hyde. Calvin Zabo is written as even less sympathetic than Dr. Jekyll. He is a straightforward super-villain who transforms himself into Mr. Hyde to commit crimes.

Tales of Suspense #49

The New Iron Man Meets The Angel!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: October 8, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Steve Ditko
Inked by: P. Reinman
18 pages

Paul Reinman on inks. It’s not often Ditko gets an inker. He usually does his own finishes. His first Iron Man story had Don Heck doing “refinement”. I think that’s the only other time we’ve seen anybody else finishing Ditko. Paul Reinman has been inking the X-Men comics, so he may be here to help keep their faces on-model.

Once again, that weird note at the beginning; we’ve seen something similar in every crossover. Stan thanks the editors of X-Men for letting the characters appear. You are the editor, Stan. But there may be legal reasons for this. Martin Goodman played all types of crazy games with shell companies and such to save a buck here and there.

The idea is it’s all one continuity, one universe. That’s why we read these comics together. But we don’t know that any character is part of that continuity until they cross over. At first, crossovers were sparse. It was a while before there was any hint Iron Man and Thor might be in this world. Crossovers have become increasingly common. After only two issues of X-Men, we learn they are a part of this world. The main story is a battle between Iron Man and Angel, but all the X-Men and Avengers will also show up.