Thor #126

Featuring: Thor
Release: January 4, 1966
Cover: March 1966
12 cents
Stan Lee the literary lion!
Jack Kirby the pencilling pussycat!
V. Colletta the delineating dragon!
Artie Simek the lettering looks it!
16 pages

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Journey Into Mystery #125, Story B	Reading order	Thor #126, Story B
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“By the cloven hooves of Pan!! What doth it take to defeat the Son of Odin!??!” “A stronger arm! A stouter heart! A nobler soul! And none doth Hercules possess, thou blabbering, blustering, boastful buffoon!”

This is the first issue of Thor. It’s also the 126th issue of Thor.

Which is a little confusing. Last month (well, last week for us), we read Journey Into Mystery #125, which starred Thor, as it has for the last 40+ issues. Now the comic will just be called Thor.

Why not call it Thor #1?

For complicated and probably shady legal and financial reasons, they found it more sensible to keep the numbering of the old magazine.

Thor’s name has been prominent on cover going back to issue 104. But it’s no longer “Journey Into Mystery with the Mighty Thor”. It’s just: “The Mighty Thor”. The official title as seen in the indicia is simply “Thor”.

Starting a new superhero title that keeps the numbering of the horror title will become a common practice… though not soon. We’ll talk more at the end of this post about Marvel’s history of naming comics. Let’s get into the comic, starting with the title.

“Whom the god would destroy they first make mad!” A classical saying with likely origins in ancient Greece. This will not be the last Thor story to employ this quote.

I’m going to give this story 4 stars, or 72/100. We haven’t really talked about how I decide on my needlessly precise 100-point score. To me, a score of 70+ means great and memorable. It should be a quality comic, where reading it will stay with me for years to come. I tend to find these big brawls memorable.

Hulk vs. Thing, being the first big one.

These two contenders are more evenly matched. The comic even comments on that.

But Hammer beats Mace.

It’s a simple story. Almost pure fisticuffs. As the two men fight over a woman. But it’s the type of thing that Kirby is really good at drawing. And the type of thing that drives itself.

Besides the brawling, which is really Kirby’s department, Stan brings it this issue with a number of great quotes. I’d decided to include a quote from every issue at the top, and this issue gave me the most choices yet. You can see what I put up top, and we’ll note some of the contenders as we go.

Also, we’ll note Stan is really honing in on his speech patterns for Thor, with words like “doth” and “thou” peppered throughout.

“He’s got the big eye for Thor’s chick.” That’s not one of the great quotes.

“…power misused is power abused!” That’s better.

“Strength alone is a hollow virtue, Son of Zeus! Without conscience, without respect for those who may be weaker than thee– thy power rests only on pillars of sand!”

Thor is admittedly being pretty sanctimonious with all the preaching, given that he’s the one who started this fight because he was jealous Hercules grabbed a soda with his girl.

“Anger??! By the bristling beard of Odin, thou knowest not the meaning of the word! Not all the fury in the heavens– not all the savagery on Earth– can equal the senses-shattering cyclone of rage which is Thor, when seized by a pounding paroxysm of wrath!”

A “paroxysm” is “a sudden attack or outburst of a particular emotion or activity”. Even in my 40s, I’m still learning new words from comics.

“What ballads shall be sung! What legends shall be told! What memories shall this glorious moment evoke!!”

Also, the sound effects are on point. I assume we can credit Simek with their design. Krrrakk!

“By the Golden Girdle of Volstagg…” Now that’s an oath!

Now recall that Odin is still angry with Thor about Jane. He decides to halve his power mid-fight as punishment. But can’t bear to do it, so he turns his power over to Seidring, the Merciless. I’m sure that won’t end badly.

Thor recalls he’d had his power halved before. Stan doesn’t recall when. But we do! It was Journey Into Mystery #101. That was also about Jane.

With his power halved, he is easily defeated by Hercules. He’s never lost a fight before and is too ashamed to do anything, even date Jane anymore.

Odin feels bad and sends Jane to comfort him. Perhaps he finally approves of the relationship?

Why is Hercules on Earth? What’s the mission from Zeus? So far, he’s just flirted with Jane and has now gone off to make a movie.

Next issue will pick up right here, with Jane trying to comfort a sad Thor. But we’ll pause our reading and see what the rest of the Marvel Universe is up to. After the next chapter of the Odinsword Saga in this issue’s backup feature, of course.

Marvel titles in the 1960s

To appreciate the significance of the new name change, I thought it would be worth a bit of history of Marvel titles. Marvel had been publishing only western comics, girl comics, and horror comics, when it slowly introduced its horror-tinged superhero line.

I’d originally intended on a couple paragraphs of relevant synopsis, but I needed to do a bit of research first, and it seemed like there may be some general interest in just writing down everything in my notes, even as whatever connection to this issue’s name change may got lost.

Since the late 50s, Marvel has struggled with distribution and has relied on its competitor’s distribution system. This artificially limited Marvel to about 12 titles a month. So some titles needed to come out less than monthly. So it was that many new superheroes didn’t get new titles, but merely a spot in one of the horror anthologies. And as the number of superheroes swelled but the titles couldn’t keep up, they soon had to share comics, two heroes to a comic, which left no more room for the old weird tale one-off stories.

Let’s look at the Marvel line across 5 years.

1961

Marvel was publishing no superhero comics.

They had four Western titles: Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid, Kid Colt Outlaw, and the anthology Gunsmoke Western, which was headlined by Kid Colt.

Eight “girl” comics, including two romance anthologies, though My Girl Pearl was soon to be canceled.

And four “weird tale” comics: Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, and, relevantly, Journey Into Mystery. These were anthologies of weird stories, originally horror and fantasy focused, but moving toward a sci/fi focus with the 60s. Kirby specialized in tales of giant monsters in the vein of Godzilla, while Ditko specialized in weird morality tales in the vein of Twilight Zone.

They introduced three new comics that year, a girl comic: Linda Carter, Student Nurse; a weird comic: Amazing Adventures, and, later, The Fantastic Four.

The Fantastic Four were perhaps Marvel’s first superhero team in a while, though their adventures fit in with the monster stories found in the weird tales better than they did the mold of characters like Superman. They had powers but no costumes or secret identities, and they fought the type of giant monsters we’d been seeing in the horror books.

Amazing Adventures was notable for featuring a recurring character, Dr. Droom, an occult detective. By issue 7, the title was renamed Amazing Adult Fantasy, and the character of Dr. Droom was dropped. It became a showcase entirely for Ditko’s own brand of “sophisticated suspense”.

Tales to Astonish introduced what seemed like another one-off science fiction character: Dr. Henry Pym, the Man in the Ant Hill.

Thus Marvel ended the year with 19 titles, but only 12 each month.

1962

Marvel took a lot more half-steps in the direction of superheroes. They introduced the Incredible Hulk in his own series. Again, a character with more in common with the monster comics than Superman.

Henry Pym returned, now clearly as a superhero, with a costume and secret identity and fighting crime. He became Ant-Man, and a recurring feature in Tales to Astonish.

In fact, all the weird tale comics now needed to make room for a superhero-like feature. Strange Tales now included a Human Torch feature. Journey Into Mystery introduced Thor. A god, but very much in the mold of, say, Captain Marvel. Tales of Suspense introduced Iron Man– in design, more horror than hero, at first. Amazing Adult Fantasy was renamed Amazing Fantasy, introduced Spider-Man, then got canceled. But the character would return the following year with his own title, The Amazing Spider-Man.

Marvel introduced a new Two-Gun Kid, now with a mask and tragic origin, drawing heavily from their burgeoning superhero line with the style.

To make room for new titles, Marvel ended Teen-Age Romance, leaving it with only one romance anthology. Life With Millie was renamed Modeling with Millie.

1963

Hulk’s series was soon canceled. Iron Man became more colorful, to fit more into the superhero mold than the horror mold.

Love Romances was canceled, ending Marvel’s romance anthology line, leaving the romance/humor comics focused on ongoing characters like Millie and Patsy. Though Linda Carter didn’t last long, her series also getting canceled.

These cancellations make room for superhero team books, Avengers and X-Men.

Marvel reintroduced its war genre with a single title, Sgt. Fury. But even this title would soon tie into Marvel’s superhero line in multiple ways.

Strange Tales introduces the character of Dr. Strange, similar to Dr. Droom, and soon he and Human Torch share the title, eliminating space for other weird tales.

Tales to Astonish introduces Wasp as Ant-Man’s partner and soon has her narrating the weird tale shorts in the book. The Watcher does the same in Tales of Suspense.

Journey Into Mystery will now feature two Thor stories, a regular Thor story and a Tales of Asgard story set in the distant past.

Gunsmoke Western comes to an end.

1964

The solo Human Torch feature in Strange Tales becomes a duo feature, as Human Torch partners with Thing. Hulk starts sharing Tales to Astonish with Giant-Man and Wasp, leaving no room for other weird tales. Iron Man starts sharing Tales of Suspense with Captain America, leaving no room for other weird tales. Journey Into Mystery phases out the weird tales as well, now having only two Thor stories each issue. If the comic is entirely about Thor now, why not just call it…

Daredevil is introduced in a self-titled solo series. Spider-man is the only other superhero with a self-titled solo series, with the rest featuring team books or anthology books. Thor’s renamed title now makes three Marvel heroes starring in self-titled magazines. The Hulk used to have his own title.

Kathy’s series comes to an end, leaving just four girl comics.

Journey Into Mystery hasn’t changed its official name, but it’s shrunken on the cover, focusing the title on its star, The Mighty Thor.

Marvel is now at 17 titles, 3 western, 4 girl comics, 5 superhero comics, and 4 weird tales titles which now focus exclusively on superhero or superhero-like stories. One war comic also starring Nick Fury. So the number of titles has stayed constant, but superheroes are filling the line to bursting.

1965

Giant-Man and Wasp lose their spot to Sub-Mariner, who will now share Tales to Astonish with Hulk. Human Torch and Thing lose their spot to Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD, something of a superhero espionage book, sharing Strange Tales with Dr. Strange. The limit on titles is the cause of all the doubling up.

Patsy Walker’s solo title comes to a close after 20 years. Three girl comics left. Patsy continues to appear in Patsy & Hedy.

Marvel introduces reprint anthologies, two dedicated to reprinting old superhero stories, Marvel Collectors Item Classics and Marvel Tales; and Fantasy Masterpieces, an anthology dedicated to reprinting old weird tales.

Which brings us to 1966, still at 20 titles, when Journey Into Mystery officially changes its name to Thor. The other anthology titles can’t do that yet, because they are all shared by different heroes. (Would you name it after Iron Man or Captain America?) And there’s no room for more titles.

Soon enough, two more girl comics will be canceled, leaving Millie the Model as the last remaining. Marvel will get bought out, fix its distribution issues and expand its line, allowing the shared titles to expand into two comics, one of which will start anew, and one of which will keep the numbering of the weird tale anthology, just as Thor has.

So while the weird tales had long ago disappeared, their names lived on as Marvel’s superhero comics. But soon all that will remain is the numbers, as superheroes dominate more and more.

Rating: ★★★★☆, 72/100
Significance: ★★★★☆

I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 4.

This makes its way onto our Best We’ve Read, displacing the second Dr. Strange story and first appearance of Baron Mordo from Strange Tales #111. For those keeping score, this knocks Dr. Strange beneath Fantastic Four in the rankings, coming in 3rd, and puts Thor tied with X-Men in 5th place. If you combined both Thor and Tales of Asgard stories in the rankings, then Thor would be solidly in 5th ahead of X-Men. This is our first, but certainly not last, entry for 1966.

Characters:

• Thor
• Hercules
• Jane Foster
• Odin
• Balder
• Seidring, the Merciless
• Casting agent

Story notes:

• Hercules thrives on combat, like Thor in his youth.
• Seidring insists Thor must be punished; he is the highest-ranking of Odin’s council.
• Odin gives his power to Seidring to deliver judgment, to halve his power, even though he battles Hercules.
• Hercules wants to hear Thor say he surrenders.
• Hercules knocks Thor unconscious and the crowd cheers him on.
• Hercules now accepts the agent’s offer to become famous.
• Jane was only trying to make Thor jealous; it’s him she loves.
• But Thor has lost his honor after losing a fight and so can’t be with Jane.
• Odin’s voice appears in Jane’s head. He blames himself for Thor’s loss and is proud of how Thor fought on. He commands Jane to go to Thor.

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