Customer Reviews

Essential Thor Vol. 1

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These "Essential" collections are a welcome change from those fancy archival-type reprints that often contained poor reproductions and errors. These black & white paperbacks have at least as many problems, but not enough to keep them from being enjoyable light reading, which is exactly what they're supposed to be.

Take Thor. I wouldn't buy an expensive hardback collection of Early Thor stuff; the character isn't a favorite of mine, and he had a pretty weak start to boot. But for this price, why not?

And I had a lot of fun immersing myself in early/mid-'60s Marvel, one of my favorite eras. Thor's look and powers were pretty much set from the start, but the book's theme, supporting players, and villains had a way to go.

The Carbon Copy man? Communist Agents? Petty thugs? The only stellar villain who shows up in the early issues is Loki, The Norse God of mischief, and even he initially pulls silly stunts like turning all the cars in New York into candy.

But Loki was the start of the series' emphasis on Thor's Norse heritage, which would become a mix of myth and Jack Kirby's psychedelic imagination. After awhile, "Tales of Asgard" becomes the book's back-up series and Thor's strained relations with his father Odin (who resents his son's earth-bound love interest) becomes the primary emphasis of the main feature.

Even Thor's earthly villains seem to improve. Mr. Hyde and Cobra, two unremarkable villains, show up several times, but each story is noticably better than the last.

Anybody who likes the Marvel Thor or just likes old Marvels should enjoy this.

Volume 1 of "The Essential Thor" provides the stories of the Thunder God that appeared in "Journey Into Mystery" #83-112, including the five-page "Tales of Asgard" that started appearing in issue #97. In the Sixties I did not start reading Thor until the comic had taken on his name, so this was the first time I had read most of these stories, although I did pick up the "Tales of Asgard" collection that Marvel put out way back when. In retrospect it is hard to ignore that the original conception of this particular superhero was rather lame. However, once Stan Lee, Larry Leiber and Jack Kirby began to take the Norse mythology aspects of the character more seriously, the dynamic of these stories changed considerably.

The initial story is that Dr. Don Blake, an American physician vactioning in Europe, is fleeing from Stone Men from Saturn who have landed in their spaceship when he stumbles into a cave and discovers an ancient cane. When he strikes the cane against an immoveable boulder it transforms into a hammer and Blake becomes the legendary god of Thunder. The hammer has an inscription, in English no less, proclaiming "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of...THOR (yes, the inscription even includes the elipses).

Don Blake, with his bum leg, and his secret affection for his pretty young nurse, Jane Nelson (who ended up being renamed Jane Foster), is set up in the mold of mild mannered Clark Kent and bookworm Peter Parker, where he is two-thirds of a love triangle all by himself (and his alter-ego). On the one hand the first couple of issues clearly give Thor the powers of the Norse thunder god--he not only calls forth rain and thunderstorms, but makes a volcano erupts--but the stories do not deal explicitly with whether he is indeed a deity. However, all of that begins to change in the third story when Loki, god of mischief, shows up and starts living up to his name.

Loki's arrival is crucial in Thor's transformation, not only because it is the beginning of taking the Norse mythology angle seriously (and the Thor comics would provide a scholarly fidelity to the subject), but also because the god of mischief became Thor's major foe. The opposition was ideal because unlike Thor's human opponents, such as the Cobra and Mr. Hyde, Loki could keep coming back for more issue after issue, either directly or through a proxy. Loki only arrived on earth after sneaking by Heimdall, the warder of the rainbow bridge called Bifrost, and once that door was open Odin, Balder and the rest of the Norse gods and goddesses were close behind.

Unfortunately the Tales of Asgard fillers are uniformly superior to the main adventures in "Journey of Mystery." Part of it is that they were written by Lee and drawn by Kirby, unlike the other stories (Lee and Kirby actually do less than half of the actual writing and drawing in this collection), and part of it was that they stuck to the ancient Norse legends about the gods. The other flaw was that they stuck with Don Blake and his romance with Nurse Jane, even while Odin went off on his "no son of mine is going to marry a mortal" rant. Eventually we will get around to the Lady Sif, but that is still a long ways off. For now, the more these early issues focus on Thor, Loki and the rest of the Asgardians, the better the stories. The rest require us to believe mere mortals and various meta-humans have a chance against an actual thunder god. But we still are not up to the glory days of the charcter, which is why the next volume of "The Essential Thor" is way past due.

I would first like to say that Marvel Comics should have done these reprints a long time ago. But better late than never. These inexpensive reprints are very good to own as you can read them without worrying about the condition of the comic book. And while the Marvel Masterworks are cool to own as hardbacks, they are a bit pricey for someone who just wants to read the comic books reprinted. This review really goes for all of the Essential paperbacks that marvel is putting out but this is one I have waited a long time to read because Thor has always been one of my favorite characters. If you enjoy this one then please check out the others. One more thing. For those complaining about the paper quality I would say that you can spend a few thousand dollars for the originals if you want. If so go ahead. But as for me I will enjoy these cool reading copies.

Essential Thor Vol. I is worth having if for no other reason than it shows what this classic Lee/Kirby character was up to before he really built up a head of steam. Like the very first Fantastic Fours, this series started out sort of mediocre and then later developed into one of the best series of comics of all time. The Tales of Asgard secondary stories are probably the best thing about this volume - they started off strong, relying on minimalist dialogue and true Kirby power right off the bat. Looking forward to Volume II.

I discovered THOR in the early seventies just prior to issue 200 so i missed a lot of the early stories. Thor has become my favorite since the eric masterson stories of the 90's and I have been trying to collect as many old issues as I can to catch up on all I missed. This anthology is a great addition to my collection. A wonderful collection of stories and a historical document in some ways as it is interesting to see how far the artwork and interpretation of these familiar characters has evolved. It is amazing how complicated these stories were for the time they were written and how much care went into developing this character and supporting cast at a time when comics were considered disposable entertainment. I enjoy reading these stories written by great storytellers who cared and respected their readers as much as any literary novelist...

...and his mother thought he was god!"

In Spiderman, Marvel played with the idea of the hero as everyman. To bring the Superhero down to earth. In "the Mighty Thor" they elevated the superhero as mythological figure. In so doing they exploited the vulnerabilities, the "fatal flaws" of pagan heroes. In a sense "Thor" is an extrapolation on the question posed by George Carlin: "Does Superman have 'super-anxieties' as well as super-powers?" With Thor the answer is a resounding "YES"!

We see the gradual evolution of the comic, moving from one-shot adventures--rather formulaically ending with Nurse Jane Foster, asking why Don Blake can't be more like Thor, and Blake replying some variation of "we can't all be heroes"--and moving away from somewhat contrived situations (How many times can Thor/Blake thoughtlessly drop his hammer/cane?) towards more 2 and three part adventures with the love triangle (quartet?) between Jane, Don/Thor, and Odin the driving theme. We see Thor gradually adopt the *faux* Elizabethan idiom we've come to know and love: from just in discourse with Odin, to when he in Asgard,
until it's all the time.

While Thor will develope a gallery of stock villians (most of them stereo-typic "mad scientists"), Thor's great advesaries will be other gods, and his own internal torment. But that will come later. Interestingly enough the idea of a double is used quite frequently in the early issues. Does this reflect the tentativeness of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby over who/what Thor was supposed to be?

The romance with Jane Foster is interesting is itself interesting. In issue 84 she's calle Jane *Nelson*, much later when she's mentioned she's become Foster. He relationship with Don Blake is distinctly maternal, doting over him as though he were a helpless child. Her early fantasies of Thor are likewise domestic, thinking how she would give him a haircut, press his cape, and polish his hammer (!!!!!!!!) Is it a coincidence that Jane is a *nurse* and her last name is *foster*? Or that Odin should insist of coming between them! ("Paging, Dr. Wertham, we need a Freudian on aisle 5!")

These are the first 30 issues of Thor's appearance in "Journey into Mystery", by the end of the book the comic is "journey into mystery with THE MIGHTY THOR" and well on its way to becoming just simply THE MIGHTY THOR. Can't wait for Vol II!

ESSENTIAL THOR REPRINTS JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #83-112. MANY OF THE ISSUES CONTAIN THE LEGENDARY TANDEM OF STAN LEE(WRITER) AND JACK KIRBY(ARTIST). THE ADVERSARIES WHO FACE THOR ARE POWERFUL AND ENTERTAINING, SUCH AS ZARRKO, THE TOMORROW MAN. THE STORYLINES INVOLVING THOR/DR. DON BLAKE AND HIS NURSE JANE FOSTER ARE COMPELLING. ALSO, THE BACK-UP STORIES OF "TALES OF ASGARD" ARE AN ADDED TREAT. PRESENTING THE BOOK IN BLACK AND WHITE FOCUSES THE READER'S ATTENTION ON THE ART. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READING!

Marvels third most powerful super-hero (Pheonix #1,Silver Surfer#2) has his earliest stories re-told in this issue(a steal at twice the price!).While some of the villains are a little cheesy,many are often under-rated today(re:radio-active man,Mr. Hyde) and some are epic;without Loki there would have been no Avengers.Comics were character driven back in the 60's and Thor is no exception,his secret love of Jane which he doesn't realize is requited strikes true.The only drawback of these tales is the repeating theme of the villain seperating him from his hammer,but without that he really could take anybody(To all you superman plebes out there-Thor is magical,one Magic lightning bolt would kill the the big blue limburgher,besides the fact that Thor is a God (in the comic-book sense) while supes is merely Earths mightiest mortal(sorry CM),NO CONTEST).Anyway, Thor is part of what makes Marvel far superior to they're distinguished competitors-great characters that still suffer from the human condition. p.s. JIM#112 THOR vs. HULK is worth the price of admission! MAKE MINE MARVEL

After the first couple of pages, you don't even notice it's in black and white. The artwork is fantastic. Thor is illustrated with more realistic athletic proportions as was typical of the earlier comics. I guess it wasn't until the eighties or so that they started drawing the characters with muscles bulging down to the pinky level. The stories are very imaginative and top of the line. Of course, you'd expect that with Stan Lee at the wheel. Share it with your kids, or read it yourself to bring back those comic book memories. After reading the "Frog Thor" series (Thor 363 - 366) to my six year old son (who laughed hysterically when the frog lifted the hammer), he's requested that one Thor adventure be read each night. With over 500 pages, this comic should last about a month for the littlest comic book junkie in the family.
P.S. Don't buy a six year old a Thor hammer. Ouch, even those plastic ones really smart!!! Just kidding. Thanks, Stan.

Although some of the comics in the middle of this essential tome miss the mark, it's the bookend collaborative efforts of Lee & Kirby that make this collection a must for any comics library.

Now, if they'd only get around to publishing ESSENTIAL THOR VOL. 2; that's where things really get interesting...!