Featuring: Tales of Asgard
Release: September 1, 1966
Cover: November 1966
12 cents
A Stan Lee * Jack Kirby pictorial presentation
Delineated by: Vincent Colletta
Lettered by: Artie Simek
5 pages
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In this land once lived an evil race who dared defy regal Odin himself! So monumental was Odin’s wrath, that he laid waste to the countryside, so that nothing here could live!
We get a clean beginning to a new arc. The cleanest break between stories in a while, but I’m still just reading these Tales of Asgard stories alongside the main Thor adventures without regard to their flow.
Thor and his three warrior friends ride to Nastrond. Here there once lived “an evil race” who “dared defy Odin”. So Odin laid waste the countryside so that nothing could live there. This is referred to as Odin’s kingly wrath.
Perhaps it’s worth reflecting on how righteous Odin really is here. Or how wise. Thor does not take this time to reflect. He just seems rather impressed by what to me seems like Odin’s utter madness.
Most of the warriors spend the entire issue asleep, letting this story focus on the “Voracious Volstagg”.
He also was asleep, though supposedly on watch. An old man wakes him to lead him to what seems to me an obvious trap. But then everything in these stories seems to me an obvious trap.
Sure enough, Fafnir–who had been the king of Nastrond when Odin laid the smack down– has survived and gained some powers and transformed into a dragon.
And, well, we’ll pick up there next issue.
Here’s the letters page.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 54/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
Fafnir is just on the edge of being significant enough a villain to justify 4 stars of significance, but not quite.
Characters:
- Volstagg
- Hogun, the Grim
- Fandral, the Dashing
- Thor
- Fafnir
Story notes:
- Thor and companions ride to Nastrond, a land where nothing lives at the farthest reaches of Asgard.
- Odin had turned a river into crystal and otherwise made Nastrond uninhabitable.
- Man comes upon camp and offers to lead Volstagg to the Cave of the Ancients.
- Radiant pool had changed Fafnir, the last king of Nastrond; allowed him to cast the illusion of an aged man, and turned him into a dragon.
- Fafnir seeks revenge, and hopes to trap Thor.
| Previous | #543 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Thor #134 | Reading order | Thor #135 |
| Thor #134 | Thor | Thor #135 |
