A while back (on the old board) I took a look at a lengthy run of Thor comics looking for a break point. I started with Journey into Mystery #114 because that issue had no plot or sub-plot carried over from the previous issue. I had to go as far as Thor Annual #2 until I got to a story which had no continued plot elements whatsoever, but even then someone (I think it was Luke) pointed out that I had missed one. About a year ago, I read up through MMW Vol. 9, and more recently I began reading Vols. 10 & 11, starting with #184, issues I had never read before.
If volume 9 presents the transition in art from Jack Kirby to John Buscema (and it does, with a Neal Adams two-parter sandwiched in between), the volume 10 is the transition in writing from Stan Lee to Gerry Conway. The trend of continued plot elements continues, but although it was foreshadowed in issues #182-183 with Odin repeatedly calling Thor back to Asgard to deal with some as-yet-unrevealed emergency, volume 10 (comprising #184-194) is, for the most part, one uninterrupted arc broken into three parts.
Here is how it begins.
NARRATION: “Behold the figure of a warrior--rippling with strength--throbbing with power--grim-visaged and proud! Behold the rightful son an heir of almighty Odin! Behold our hero--Thor, the God of Thunder!”
THOR: “Imperial Odin hath summoned me--for dread danger doth threaten the realm! And, as I be Prince of the Realm--as I be Flesh of His flesh--when the All-Father commands--the Thunder God obeys!”
Okay, so far so good. We’re off to a good start.
Issue #184 introduces “The Silent One” which in turn leads to the threat of Infinity., which runs through #188. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but I will say the resolution of the threat thwarts Hela’s plans, which leads directly into her seeking revenge on Thor in #189-190. No sooner has Hela been dealt with than Loki acquires the Odin-Ring, which finishes out the volume, #191-194.
With the power of the Odin-Ring in his possession, Loki sends Odin to bed (literally, to sleep the Odin-Sleep). The situation is finally resolved with the help of the Silver Surfer in issues, 193-194, Gerry Conway’s first. Based on the credits (“Stan Lee--Overseer Supreme” and :Gerry Conway--Scripter Supurb”), I suspect that #193 was scripted over Lee’s plot but Conway had taken over for good with #194. Stan scripts in near-perfect iambic pentameter throughout, and if Coway’s dialogue isn’t quite as good, cut the kid some slack… he was only 18 years old at the time! Hard to believe in another five years he’d be Marvel’s EiC!
This volume would have come to a perfect ending had Odin not screwed up big time by banishing Loki to a planet under which a foe of Asgard lies entombed beneath the surface. If Loki finds and wakes that buried foe, “the foundations of a universe will crumble! Yea. Tell not the young ones… soon enough, they will learn… Odin hath damned Asgard--hath damned us all!”
I took a detour from MMW Thor Vol. 11 to read MMW Captain America Vol. 5, but I’ll be back to this thread before you even notice I was gone.
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I doubt that was me. As a kid I loved Kirby's issues of Fantastic Four, but I didn't get to know his Thor run as well.