Thor debuted in Journey Into Mystery 83, cover-dated August 1962. This was, of course, the very early days of modern Marvel. The Fantastic Four had only 5 issues under their belts, and the Incredible Hulk had just 2. JIM was a monthly title (FF and Hulk were bi-monthlies), so Thor was actually the first super-hero headliner to appear every month, beating out Ant-Man by a month. Spider-Man also debuted in Aug '62, but would have to wait 7 months to get his own magazine.
Of all the Silver Age Marvel books, JIM/Thor seems to get a lot less love and respect than other creations. That may be because Thor is not really a creation of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee as it is their adaptation of the Thor of Norse myths. There is one aspect of Marvel's Thor that is possibly borrowed from the Fawcett Captain Marvel, and in some of the early stories, Thor comes across as a poor man's Superman.
In the first year or so, Stan sometimes was credited as the writer, sometimes only the plotter. It's debatable how much he did or didn't do - it always will be, I suppose - but one thing for sure, he very obviously didn't do the dialogue every issue. Jack did the pencils on JIM 83-89, 93, and 97, and then was the regular penciller every month starting with 101. Jack also did the backup feature, Tales of Asgard, starting in JIM 97, a very significant - and excellent - strip on its own.
Inspired by the Baron, I'm going to re-read the Thor stories starting with JIM 83 and give you my thoughts. I may stop at Kirby's last issue, or I may keep going, I haven't really decided yet. Like Bob, I'm going to try to be succinct, even though it's not my strong suit - I'm sure I'll be long winded from time to time. I'm looking forward to what you guys think of these stories as well.
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One of my brothers lives in Anaheim; I'm at the other end of the vicinity of I-10, in Jacksonville, FL, and my other brother lives somewhat in-between in Houston.
Richard Willis said:
I think the first one is very accurate. I've not read most of the other early ones so I can't give you chapter and verse on them. For a while they were loosely based on mythology. Some were original stories with some authentic mythological elements (such as "The Golden Apples" in #114: Idunn and her apples are from mythology but the story, judging by its synopsis, was apparently after "Little Red Riding Hood"; the Fenris wolf is from mythology but he didn't lurk in disguise), and others were loose retellings of myths (such as "The Challenge" from Journey into Mystery #116: in the source story, the giant sea creature Thor hooks is the Midgard serpent and it gets away, and the goblet shatters on Hyrir's head because his head is so hard). I don't recall any childhood of Thor stories. He didn't have to win his hammer: it was one of the gifts created for the gods as part of bet between Loki and a dwarf.
From memory, the Ragnarok episodes are fairly authentic, although I'd have to dig them out to check their details. The device of having them described by a witch is after the poem Voluspa. I haven't seen the preceding quest storyline: there the inspiration may have been some version of the story of Jason and the Argonauts, or a Sinbad movie, or the movie The Long Ships (1964).
Fafnir from Thor #134-#136 is from mythology, but his back-story and fate are different, as explained here. Prior to writing this post I only knew of the version of his story in Wagner's Ring cycle, in which Fafner is one of the two giants who build Valhalla, kills his brother over the ring, changes himself into a dragon to guard it, and is killed by Siegfried.
Been quite some time since I read the Norse myths, Captain. Great overview! Funny that the culture out of which the Vikings came, with myths that celebrated death in battle, would eventually become one of the least violent and most secular regions in the world. I do recall reading that the one of the reasons the leaders of the Catholic Church inititated the Crusades was to give the knights throughout Christendom something to do aside from fighting with one another and slaughtering peasants. Seems the non-Viking Scandinavians were just as happy to see their violent kin go off to sea so they could have some relative peace at home for a while. Both Eric the Red (the historical one!) and his father, Thorvald Asvaldsson were exiled from their communities, in Norway & Iceland, respectively, for murder (apparently they figured exile was a better punishment than execution, in sharp contrast to much of the "civilized" world at a time when you might find yourself guilty of a capitol offense and sentenced to be burned at the stake for the crime of failing to say "god bless you" and offering a hanky when Baron Kleenex sneezed.
Captain Comics said:
I also believe the first "Tales of Asgard" tale was pretty accurate; Philip Portelli gives chapter and verse earlier in the thread, and I'll add to it here (summary from the Prose Edda):
Midgard is apparently located directly between Niffleheim (land of ice) and Muspellheim (land of fire), because that's where the Ginnungagap used to be. That void was where dew formed from the mix of winds between the fire and ice worlds, which became Ymir.
Audhumla the cow somehow appears and licks the ice Ymir lives on, revealing Buri, the first god. Buri begets Bor (somehow) and Bor marries a giant and begets Odin, Vili and Ve. They kill Ymir, whose blood drowns all the other frost giants except one couple, who repopulate the race.
The brothers created Midgard out of Ymir's parts as a bulwark against the hostile giants. Walking on Midgard, the brothers find two trees, an ask (ash) tree and an embla (elm) tree. Odin gives them life. Vile gave them understanding and movement. Ve gave them names and clothes. They were Ask and Embla, the first man and woman.
Captain Comics said:
I think it must reflect an assumption that the sky is solid. My recollection is the creation of heavens from the skull of a slain monster is also an element in the Babylonian creation myth.
Journey Into Mystery 100 (JAN 64)
"The Master Plan of Mister Hyde!"
Written by Stan Lee, Illustrated by Don Heck
Cover by Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky
Thor is puzzled to find ordinary citizens are fearful of him, and that the police open fire when they see him. He overhears he is wanted for bank robbery, and figures out Mister Hyde must have impersonated him. He returns to his office and changes back to Don Blake. Jane comes in and reminds him he promised to take her out for dinner tonight on her birthday. They leave the office and walk down the street arm-in-arm, discussing their plans, unaware they are being watched by Hyde. At dinner, the dolled up couple are enjoying each other's company when Hyde appears, and takes them prisoner. He takes them back to his hideout, and ties Don up, with the cane just out of reach. Hyde says a bomb will go off in 24 hours in his hideout, and if anything happens to him, Blake is doomed. Hyde leaves, and takes Jane along for the crime of the century - he plans to steal a Polaris submarine. "Once the sub is mine, I shall roam the seven seas like a king ... and you shall become my queen!"
Don spies the cane just out of reach. He strains and stretches, almost breaking his arm, but manages to reach it, and now Thor is on Hyde's trail. At the naval yard, Hyde uses Jane as a hostage to keep guards at bay. From Asgard, Odin views the scene, just as Thor arrives to see Hyde attempting to get in the sub. Hyde rips a piece off the sub and throws it at Thor, only slowing him down for a moment. Hyde boards the sub, with Jane still his hostage. Thor quickly follows. Hyde gets the jump on him and vows to use his strength to finish Thor, but this only enrages the thunder god, who is obviously much stronger than him. As they fight, Thor drops his hammer, and Jane covers it up with canvas, hoping that it will give Hyde a chance to escape. She feels she has to do this to protect Don Blake's life.
Hyde pulls a gun, and Thor cannot see his hammer. The 60 seconds are winding down, so Thor whirls his cape to create a tornado. Hyde drops the gun, and can't see Blake because of he tornado. Blake finds the hammer, and as Thor is about to get Hyde, Jane stands in front of him, pleading that Hyde be allowed to escape, to save Don Blake's life. The villain dives in the water and gets away. A policeman tells Thor "We now know Hyde impersonated you." Thor asks Jane why she is still worried, and she says she doesn't know if Don is alive or not. Thor thinks he must put her mind at ease and still protect his secret identity, and tells her he will fly to Hyde's castle and set Don Blake free. A puzzled Jane wonders how Thor knows where the castle is, or how he knew Don was there.
As Thor flies off, an image of Odin appears. He tells Thor that Jane is not worthy of immortality because she prevented him from capturing Hyde. Before Thor can explain, Odin vanishes, and Thor laments his now hollow victory, but vows not to despair and keep hoping to achieve happiness.
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My rating: 8/10
I liked the conclusion to this two parter better than the first part. Jane Foster comes off much better this time. She doesn't fall apart when Hyde takes her and Don prisoner, or lose her cool when she's a hostage. She puts herself in a lot of danger to protect Don's life. I like that she is clearly in love with Don Blake, and not Thor, and we're spared the silly love triangle with the everyday identity competing with the heroic one. Thor comes off a bit unintelligent at the end, almost giving away his secret identity when he wanted to protect it. By the way, it seems now we have a Don and Jane relationship where they are a couple, getting all dressed up for a dinner date at the most glamorous restaurant in New York, and having the place to themselves.
Hyde was a good foe, resourceful, cunning, and ruthless, but he got a cold dose of reality when he thought his strength was a match or greater than Thor's. Stealing the Polaris sub was a daring crime, although his next step was really silly; I thought selling it to the Commies would have been more likely. He's the second villain to make his escape at the end of the story, and I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying we'll see him and the Cobra again.
Even without the later ret-cons, I think Odin sees what he wants to see in regards to Jane, or at least he's going to selectively use what he knows to justify what he says. Or he really is that dumb.
The policeman saying they knew Hyde impersonated Thor and robbed the bank didn't make much sense. It comes out of nowhere, and it's not like Hyde confessed or Thor proved his innocence. Even in the word balloon, that bit of dialogue looks different, as if Lee and Heck went back after they finished the story and realized that subplot hadn't been resolved. But that's just a minor irritant in an otherwise very good story.
Issue #100 brings MMW Thor v1 to a close. It was as much of a slog to read as I had remembered; no wonder I haven't readi to more than one in over 30 years. As I recall, back then my "Earth-J edit" was "just the Kirby stories," but I think I can cut it down a bit from that. I think only the story and maybe one or two of the Loki stories are absolutely essential, but truly, next time I'll limit my perusal of this volume to the covers only. I had planned to go on beyond this volume but I find myself in need of a break.
Without having re-read JIM 100, it seems to me that even if Thor hadn't intervened Hyde wouldn't have been able to single-handedly run off with a Polaris submarine.
And didn't he tear a chunk off it, too?
Richard Willis said:
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