Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

This was a trip down memory lane that was well worth the price. By far I enjoyed the stories drawn by Jack Kirby - his artwork is awesome!

The stories are so basic and simplistic that one only has to browse the narration, no deep reading needed here. But I knew what to expect when I bought this book so I was not disapointed.

Basic stories, good Kirby art (on most of the stories), and an enjoyable trip to the beginings of "The Mighty Thor"!

I am moved to write by the totally off the wall comments of the writer who trashed Kirby's artwork in early silver age Marvel comics. If you didn't like the books.....fine, but there is no doubt.... none... in any critical venue that Jack Kirby was the innovative genius in early 60's and 70's comic book penciling. I remember seeing my first issues of Fantastic Four, Thor, and Avengers comics. Soon a loyal Batman fan was a Marvel Fan Club Member. Obiously comic book artwork has evolved and so have comics as the tastes and sophistication of todays youth have changed and grown (although I wonder if it is for the better?), but for the times, Kirby was the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of Comics, and Thor was one of the reasons.

an incredible journey back to the days when thor started out as marvels answer to superman...when the mighty thor was hampered by having to pound his hammer any number of times to call upon the storms , lightning, earthquakes, tornados, ect...heck he even had "hurricane breath' in these first seminal appearences...and the ability to cause blinding sparks by rubbing his hands against the magic hammer "creating such intense friction"... these are great stories for those who read them long ago and for those of us who had no idea, thor ever had any of these now forgotten abilities...it would even be interesting to see some creators bring these powers back to the modern day god of thunder ..but let's leave the cheesy villians in the past....the thug??? yikes....

This volume reprints the first 18 stories of the Mighty Thor from `Journey into Mystery' #83-#100 from August 1962 to January 1964. Also included are the first four episodes of `Tales of Asgard'. Only the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk had seen regular publication before Thor - Spider-Man had also appeared in August 1962, but didn't get his own title until 1963. And O.K., Hulk's first series had been cancelled, but he was the first Avenger published, followed by Thor. Don't believe the Hollywood Hype. The stories are primarily by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, with various assistants on scripts and inks. This isn't the Fantastic Four, or Spider-Man. The stories are not the top-of-the-range you get further into the series, but have a period charm, and are one of the foundations of the Marvel Universe. Modern readers might not find them an interesting read, but old hands will remember what it was like when Marvel were only #2, but tried harder.

This is an interesting time for the character Thor just as it was in the embryonic Marvel Universe. He is dressed like the Thor we know, he carries the hammer and has the basic mythos of the character, but he is far from the Thor who would be appearing in just a few years; like the Hulk, Thor would evolve greatly in the comic pages. We don't get to read Lee's pseudo-Shakespearian dialouge and Kirby's art only graces seven stories (plus two magnificent "Tales of Asgard"), still, for a comic fan with a sense of history, reading these stories is like finding a rough version of "To Kill a Mockingbird." You know that there is potential here, it is just waiting to be found.

And you will see glimmers of that potential. Amidst the requiste (for Marvel at that time) Thor vs. the evil Communist stories and Thor vs. mythological characters stories, we get the seminal appearances of the Lava Men, Mr. Hyde and the Cobra. Not only do these stories introduce antagonists that have returned to the pages of Marvel comics today, we get to read Stan Lee as he grafts his popular "soap opera" formula onto the title for the first time and it is a marked improvement.

As an aside, one of the things that struck me about the stories after Lee & Kirby's initial run on the character, is that Thor comes off like Superman, maybe not DC's Superman, but Superman nonetheless, perhaps as viewed through the Archie/Radio Comics of the time.

For an interesting, and entertaining, version of Thor, buy this book.

Without a doubt, Jack Kirby's artwork is some of the most inventive in the superhero genre of comics. His bold lines and expressive figures are pop art in the purest sense. This volume which includes all the early Thor appearances are printed nicely in a hardcover edition. My one complaint is that somehow, the new, improved computer coloring seems somehow a little too slick, too polished. There's something about the bold, flat colors of vintage comics that added to their appeal. But it's nice to have these comics collected in a bookshelf edition and hopefully Marvel will continue to bring back the rest of the volumes.