Jack Kirby and Bill Everett are two of my favorite comic book artists, and Everett is always ranked high on the list of Kirby’s best inkers, but based on the art in #173-175, I’m not seeing it. The inking is very good, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it’s some of the best Kirby’s pencils have ever received. Perhaps the high placement of Everett on those polls is not due to his inking of Kirby’s pencils as seen here, but his finishing of Kirby’s layouts in Tales to Astonish. I can see more Everett in those issues, but not so much more that it overpowers the Kirby. Those are my favorite Kirby/Everett collaborations, not these.
The story in issues #175-177 would have been a good one for Kirby to go out on, and a slight change to the last page and a half of #177 would have made a good lead-in to New Gods by showing exactly how the “Old Gods” might have died.
Issue #178 is a bit of an anomaly, more of a sequel to Silver Surfer #12 featuring Thor than a Thor story itself. But it features the Abomination (not to mention the Stranger), one of my favorite villains whose history I like to trace, and remains a favorite story of mine for that reason.
#179-181 is an odd little three-parter, “odd” because part one is drawn by Kirby and parts two and three by Adams, two artists whose styles couldn’t be more different. The effect of the transition is jarring, and I still like to think of #177 as Kirby’s swan song on the title.
#182-183 is by Lee/Buscema/Sinnott and features Doc Doom. ‘Nuff said!
The bottom line is, if you have read all of the other Lee/Kirby Thor which precedes the stories reprinted in this volume and haven’t read these, buy it; but if you haven’t read all of the other Lee/Kirby Thor, then by all means read those stories first.
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