trying to lift thor's hammer

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 #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 #87

Prisoner of the Reds!
Featuring: Thor
Release: October 2, 1962
Cover: December 1962
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Larry Lieber
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
10 pages

It seems overly sanctimonious to sit here almost 60 years later and dismiss comics like this as propaganda, though it’s evident that’s what it is. Thor, God of Thunder, refers to a Soviet stronghold as a “citadel of evil” and calls upon Odin to smite it. No, it’s a military facility, just like the ones the US has. And the Russian citizens depicted are sympathetic to America and its cause of freedom. That part at least allows it to rise above the propaganda comics of the ’40s, as it demonizes the enemy’s government and military, but not its people.

Why does Thor need Odin’s help to summon a storm?

But really it’s just a story of its time. Stan and Jack are looking for enemies. Twenty years earlier, during the last wave of superhero comics, the Nazis made convenient targets. In 1962, the Soviets seem a natural extension. I think it was a scary time in America, with nuclear war a barely understood but terrifyingly likely reality. Moreover, it’s October of 1962. This comic reached the shelves just 2 weeks before the Cuban Missile Crisis.