zeus – Coke & Comics

Thor #129

The Verdict of Zeus!

Featuring: Thor
Release: April 5, 1966
Cover: June 1966
12 cents
Stan Lee, writer
Jack Kirby, penciller
Vince Colletta, inker
Artie Simek, letterer
16 pages

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Thor #128, Story B	Reading order	Thor #129, Story B
Thor #128, Story B	Thor	Thor #129, Story B

I have received plaudits and accolades from the highest and mightiest of mortals, yet, the words you have spoken shall gladden my heart for as long as memory endures!

Thor and Hercules have beaten back Pluto in Los Angeles, but Pluto escaped, and still has Hercules’ signed contract, which will condemn Hercules to rule the Netherworld in his place. Thor has returned to New York.

People usually credit the turnaround in the Thor stories to Kirby taking more control and bringing in his interest in mythology. But Stan also pulls his weight. I actually have to make a hard choice to get a pull quote out of the issue. I found at least four good options. The first I considered was the most humorous, where Thor shouts to the New York crowd: “The endless prattle of thy voices proves wearisome to mine ears!” Stan seems to have Thor’s Shakespeare-lite dialogue down now.

This unnamed taxi driver is a favorite character of mine. Thor’s sentimental words to him are what I chose for the pull quote above. The cabbie had been a soldier, and thus Thor finds a kindred spirit. He’d fought in World War II, and been wounded in Anzio, Italy, which would have been in 1944.

Journey Into Mystery #124

The Grandeur and the Glory!

Featuring: Thor
Release: November 4, 1965
Cover: January 1966
12 cents
Story by: Stan (The Man) Lee
Pencilling by: Jack (King) Kirby
Delineation by: Vince (the Prince) Colletta
Lettering by: Artie (Sugar Lips) Simek
16 pages

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Daredevil #14	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery #124, Story B
Journey Into Mystery #123, Story B	Journey Into Mystery	Journey Into Mystery #124, Story B

“Those arms of his can crush concrete! And yet!–“
“He’s holdin’ that kid as gently as if she was made outta egg-shells.”

Stan has a different nickname for the creators every issue it seems. But this is not the first time he’s referred to himself as “The Man” and to Jack as “King”, and these nicknames are the ones that will stick with them across the decades. Despite its rhyming qualities, “Vince the Prince” will not stick. I have no comment on the prevalence of this nickname for Artie.

The newsstand is selling the latest issue of Strange Tales, emphasizing what I’ve noted before: just how great a month for comics this is, perhaps the best in Marvel’s history.

Thor is reading a newspaper which is reporting on the Demon. As we’ve noted, there are no really clear stopping points in Thor’s saga anymore. Most ongoing threads resolved last issue, except last issue also began this Demon story, which is still just getting started; Thor and the Demon will finally meet in this issue’s final panels. That story involves a Vietnamese Witch Doctor finding a Norn Stone, so ultimately still traces back to the Trial of the Gods from issue 116 and Thor’s battle with the Viet Cong in issue 117. Jane remains in the hospital from smoke inhalation after being kidnapped by Harris Hobbs, as we saw in issue 122. While the Demon saga will resolve itself next issue, this issue, as the cover notes, also introduces Hercules to the mix, and a story which will continue on. The last year of Thor tales have covered a very short span of time.

Journey Into Mystery Annual 1

When Titans Clash!

Featuring: Thor
Release: June 1, 1965
Cover: 1965
25 cents
Mighty story by: Stan Lee
Majestic art by: Jack Kirby
Masterful inking by: Vince Colletta
Mostly lettered by: Sam Rosen
15 pages

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Mystic #39, Story B	PRELUDE
Daredevil #9	Reading order	Amazing Spider-Man #28

Thus, the Thunder God falls.. for time without end.. through a vast void of heavy nothingness… of shimmering energy barriers and mystic space disrupters…

This is the first Thor Annual. Your 25 cents is mostly buying you reprint stories. But you also get a 15 page new Thor story, which is perhaps more properly a Tales of Asgard story, focused as it is on an early adventure of Thor. In those tales, Loki is always scheming to kill him, but Thor seems blissfully unaware.

We’ve reviewed some early history of Hercules and Zeus. Marvel introduced a gigantic superhero named for Hercules then weeks later introduced a comedic hero named Little Hercules. A mythologically-confused version of Hercules gave his powers to Marvel Boy in 1940 and then to another Marvel Boy in 1943. Tommy Tyme witnessed the mythological Hercules’ legendary battle against Antaeus, which bore quite the resemblance to a Thor story we read where he battled Sigurd.

Jupiter was a recurring character in Venus, and the Jupiter of Roman myth is very similar to the Zeus of Greek myth. We saw Zeus unleash a Fury in a 1955 fantasy story. We know Zeus had given Pandora her box from a 1961 Tales of Suspense story. And that Pandora’s Box was later used by the Sorcerer to menace Johnny Storm. In the early days of our reading, we read a weird tale where Zeus came to Earth to prove his power, and was offered movie deals.

But those appearances of Hercules and Zeus are not necessarily part of our canon. This issue represents the proper Marvel Universe introductions of Hercules and Zeus.

PRELUDE: Mystic #39, Story B

The Fury!

Featuring: The Fury
Release: May 26, 1955
Cover: September 1955
10 cents
5 pages

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Venus #5	PRELUDE
Daredevil #9	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery Annual 1

The GCD attributes the art to Werner Roth.

We’re reading this 1950s Marvel tale because we’re looking for the early Marvel appearances of Zeus. This is the earliest appearance I could find. We’ve seen some earlier appearances of Jupiter, who is perhaps the same person.

Zeus has a brief appearance, as the story is really about a Fury, one of the Erinyes, those powerful forces of cosmic justice.

PRELUDE: Venus #5

Her Perilous Quest!/Defeat!/The End of the Quest!

Featuring: Venus
Release: March 14, 1949
Cover: June 1949
10 cents
19 pages

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Young Allies #16, Story B	PRELUDE	Mystic #39, Story C
Daredevil #9	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery Annual 1

Nothing is as important as love.

No credits are given, save that of the editorial consultant to make sure it’s child-friendly.

We are reading this because it features Jupiter. I’m not actually interested in Jupiter. I’m interested in Zeus. Jupiter is a Roman god; Zeus a Greek god. But Roman mythology borrowed quite heavily from Greek mythology, and many of their stories are just the Greek stories with different names. The Roman Jupiter basically is Zeus with a different name.

I’m interested in the upcoming introduction of Hercules, whose father is Zeus. This is confusing, because Hercules is the name of a Roman demigod, modeled after the Greek demigod, Heracles. Heracles is the son of Zeus; Hercules the son of Jupiter.

In fact, the Hercules we met in Daring Mystery Comics #6 was the son of Jupiter.

This is confusing enough to make me think that in the Marvel Universe, Hercules and Heracles are the same person. So maybe Zeus and Jupiter are as well.

So let’s read this story about Jupiter.

Amazing Adult Fantasy #13, Story B

Great Zeus
Release: March 1, 1962
Cover: June 1962
12 cents
Story: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
5 pages

Zeus decides to head to earth to guide humans away from the path of self-destruction. At first, people think he is a crackpot. But when they see his powers, several agents want to sign him up. He is overwhelmed by the agents and retreats to Mount Olympus