Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Volume 1 (Reprints Journey Into Mystery #83-100) (ComicCraft cover) (1999) [Hardcover]

Stan Lee (Author), Jack Kirby (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Entertainment Group (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785107339
• ISBN-13: 978-0785107330
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 7.1 x 2.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,081,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stan Lee is a man who needs no introduction. Nevertheless: Having begun his career with wartime Timely Comics and staying the course throughout the Atlas era, Stan the Man made comic-book history with Fantastic Four #1, harbinger of a bold new perspective in story writing that endures to this day. With some of the industry's greatest artists, he introduced hero after hero in Incredible Hulk, Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men and more -- forming a shared universe for rival publishers to measure themselves against. After an almost literal lifetime of writing and editing, Lee entered new entertainment fields and earned Marvel one opportunity after another. He remains one of Marvel's best-known public representatives.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kirby on the Grandest Scale, September 30, 2001

By 

Ben C. "person" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Volume 1 (Reprints Journey Into Mystery #83-100) (ComicCraft cover) (1999) (Hardcover)

In all honesty, I'm writing this review because I'm sick of the anti-Kirby review being the first one on the page. Kirby is the greatest artist of all time, and this comes through very well on the early Thors. This was super-heroics on a grand, cosmic scale. While some people may not be capable of appreciating his style, they do need to realize that their favorite "new" artists all followed Kirby. He defined more of the artistic language of comics thatn any other three people, and only a select few (Eisner, Siegel & Schuster, a few others) contributed anywhere near the massive amount which Kirby did to the history of comics.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The first Mighty Thor stories in "Journey Into Mystery", February 21, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Marvel Masterworks: Thor (Marvel Masterworks, V. 18) (Hardcover)

After Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk with Jack Kirby and the Amazing Spider-Man with Steve Ditko, he and Kirby came up with the Might Thor. Lee kept trying to come up with somebody bigger, better and stronger than the Thing and the Hulk and was struck with the silly notion of Super-God. But Lee had been hawking Marvel's comics as providing a 20th-century mythology and it suddenly occurred to him that maybe he could do a series feature a god as a comic book superhero. Turning to the Norse mythology of the Vikings, with their tales of Valhalla, Ragnarok, the Aesir, and eternal Asgard, Lee came up with Thor the Thunder God.

This first volume of the Marvel Masterworks series devoted to Thor collects "Journey Into Mystery" issues #83-100. Most of the early stories are plotted by Lee, but scripted by Larry Leiber (his brother as it turns out to be) and drawn by Kirby (with Joe Sinnott and Dick Ayers providing the inks). What is interesting here is to reconsider the problematic element of Thor's origin in "Journey Into Mystery" #83. Lee thought it would be difficult for the average comic book reader to identify with a Norse Thunder God (especially one with long blonde hair, blue tights, and a winged helmet). So he created a secret identity with the old cliché of the frail and feeble Dr. Donald Blake, who is limping around Norway one day on a walking tour when he sees alien invaders from Saturn made of stone. Trapped in a cave he finds a secret chamber and a gnarled wooden stick. When Blake strikes the stick against a boulder it changes into a hammer and Blake becomes Thor. Fortunately the hammer offers an explanation: "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of...THOR" (yes, it has the dot-dot-dot).

By issue #85 when Loki shows up, Lee starts availing himself of the rich aspects of Norse mythology, which makes the whole bit of the lame doctor turning into Thor a bit much. Eventually it would be revealed that Odin had turned Thor into a handicapped mortal to teach his son a lesson in humility, but that necessary revision was a long time in coming. Instead we have the standard superhero love triangle where Blake likes his nurse, Jane Foster, but she likes Thor. Meanwhile, beyond Loki, Thor's great arch nemesis, the villains are all have the same problem: they are going up against a god. The Human Cobra (#98) and Mr. Hyde (#99) e above average villains, but do they really have a chance against the god of thunder? Radio-Active Man (#93) and Lava-Man (#97) have shots, but they are rather boring. Then there is the Carbon Copy Man from Outer Space (#90), who is the bottom of the barrel, and mixing and matching mythology with Merlin (#96).

Clearly when Thor is dealing with Loki and other Asgardians the stories are much, much better. The gulf between the stories grounded in Norse mythology and those without is magnified in "Journey Into Mystery" #97 when Lee and Kirby started doing the "Tales of Asgard" shorts. Many times during this period the main Thor story did not match the five-page "Tales of Asgard" story at the end. This was also where Kirby's artwork reached a new level: compare "Journey Into Mystery" #83 with the "Surture the Fire Demon" short from #99 (i.e., the first and last examples of Kirby's art in this volume), and you will see what I mean. But until the Lady Sif shows up, these Thor comic books are just treading water. Note: Later issues in this reprinted color collection are scripted by Robert Bernstein and drawn by Joe Sinnott and Don Heck.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewer: A reader from TN USA is an imbecile, February 18, 2002

By 

steve carey (bellingham, wa. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Volume 1 (Reprints Journey Into Mystery #83-100) (ComicCraft cover) (1999) (Hardcover)

Obviously this brainless fool from TN just wants to see his stupidity in print. Jack Kirby is known throughout the world as one of the most influential comic artists ever. Marvel did do everyone a disservice by having no-name artists touch-up the reprinting flaws in the Masterworks series but to insult Jack Kirby and his legacy is a good way to show how small your life experience is.