Customer Reviews

Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Volume 4

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Now Lee and Kirby start to hit their proper stride with these issues. They've started to find the right approach to Thor. (The Tales of Asgard episodes were maybe testing the waters?) The grandeur with the Hercules/Pluto issues shows what the Thor comic is capable of becoming. Still later will come the Living Planet and Him, but that will have to wait for another volume.

Also, an important addition to the team is inker Vince Coletta. He gives the proper look to Kirby's pencils for Thor--sort of a Hal Foster "Prince Valient" feel. Compare these issues to earlier ones and you'll see what I mean.

Wow - this particular masterwork really reprints some classic classic stuff. For me, this brings back a ton of memories. Sadly, I wasn't old enough to watch the great issues unfolded first hand but I remember one of my first encounters with Marvel Comics being a treasury edition that reprinted the whole of the Thor vs. Hercules battle that is a big part of this hardcover. And then as I scourged the world looking in flea markets, old book stores, yard sales and other places for the elusive early Marvel issues I ran across reprints of the battle with the Absorbing Man that start off this masterwork. To have all this together in one hardcover on high quality paper is truly wonderful. This is the stuff that hooked me on what was to become a lifetime passion. As Stan might say 'Nuff Said! Read it and enjoy it for yourself. I guess for me because this came just about first in my reading experience, this volume may be the best Marvel Comics ever. And yes, there are important issues published elsewhere but for me this would be my desert island classic.

The earlier thor is alot of fun for sure. But by volume three and this one the series reaches a more mature nature in writing and style. ( for 60's comics) , the whole feel of the book is better executed and everything clicked with this and the third volume. Altough I loved the first two volumes too, Old comics are just a blast to read for me. They'd be just a popular today if they would have them in the convience stores with this old pencil to penink style as well as the painted ones in comic stores. Oh well , at least we get a great looking book here with the greatness of lee and kirby who make thors story a delight to look at and read. These guys were doing something really different here and you can see the fun they were having. Thor is coming as a movie , I hope they retain some of this era of thor because it's just great.

Marvel Masterworks' fourth Thor compilation collects the next ten issues of the Thunder God's exploits. First we get Journey Into Mystery #121-125. He gets his own title, "The Mighty Thor" for #126-130.
These are all Stan Lee/Jack Kirby classics, with Vinnie Colletta ink's getting a bit bolder, and hence, better.
We start with the conclusion to the cliffhanger from the previous Masterwork volume, with The Absorbing Man and Jane Foster's mysterious abductor.
We meet the evil but somewhat lame Witch Doctor...excuse me...the Demon. Thor finds out about this guy by reading a newspaper in front of a newstand.
And that's the whole splash page. Not exactly a dynamic way to start a tale.
There's plenty of Don Blake/Thor/Jane Foster drama, with a momentous reveal and a supremely ticked off Odin. Odin sentences Thor to the Ritual of Steel, where pretty much everybody in Asgard, on the count of three, jumps on Thor.
Hercules gets sent to Earth by Zeus, to apparently star in a Hollywood movie.
Pluto shows up, and not one person in Hollywood mentions Mickey's dog. Apparently no one knows anything about Greek mythology either, unless it is assumed that all movie directors are Satan, Pluto being the Greek version of that big bad guy.
There is a grand, multi-issue epic involving Thor and Herc and Pluto and the netherworld, which ends abruptly because Pluto gets upset that Thor is trashing his pad.
These stories are laced with always entertaining Kirby fight scenes, especially the Hercules/Thor one.

Each issue also has a short "Tales of Asgard" segment, giving some backstory to the Asgardian mythos. These here tell us a lot about Ragnarok.

There's a little surprise at the end of the book, a reprint from Not Brand Ecch #3. The Origin of Sore, Son of Shmodin, another Lee/Kirby classic. The fabulously dated humor is terrific. Time for an Ecch Masterwork I think?

I love this era of Marvel...the humor, the unbridled energy and enthusiasm behind this storytelling. I had to laugh when I read, under the credits for issue #130's "Tales of Asgard", after script, art, inking and lettering, came "costuming."

"Asgard Haberdashery"