Thor in the 1960s

In 1966, Marvel Comics was released from a printing contact that limited the number of comics they were able to publish on a monthly basis. With that, they finally shook off the last of their anthology titles and replaced them with on-going monthly titles featuring the characters that started dominating said books. Journey into Mystery ended its run after 125 issues and was replaced by the first volume of Thor. Thor continued the numbering from Journey into Mystery because there was a persisting idea that comic books with a high issue count would attract more readers who were weary of a title being canceled due to poor sales.

Anyway, this entire run of Thor was written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. Although Stan’s name is listed as writer, if you compare this to Jack Kirby’s later work you can tell that Stan was phoning it in and Kirby was the one coming up with most of the ideas. There are a lot of Kirby tropes in this run of Thor: A focus on evolution, eugenics, gods from space, androids, synthetic life, replicants, and characters adapted from mythology with differently spelled names. While Thor and Fantastic Four were the books that gave Kirby his voice, these ideas seem tired if you’ve read any of Kirby’s later works (The Eternals, the New Gods, Jimmy Olsen, Mister Miracle, Kamandi etc. etc.) Kirby was always derivative of himself so seeing the same themes over and over again gets tiresome to read. The other problem with Kirby’s narrative story telling is he doesn’t take the time to flesh out ideas. He’ll move on from one idea to another without really any sort of satisfactory conclusion. It’s just one thing after another, after another. It is a little more restrained here because Stan Lee was “writer” and editor, but you can tell Kirby got bored with ideas half way through a plot and wanted to move some place else. As I’ve said in other primers, Jack Kirby was an iconic artist, but he was a one-trick pony when it came to writing and it wasn’t very good either.

Thor picks up where Journey into Mystery left off, with Thor battling Hercules over the love of Jane Foster. Issues #125 through 130 led into a plot where Thor has to fight to free Hercules from a contract with Pluto that would have left him trapped in Hades. This quickly moved on to issues #131 to 133 where Thor convinced the Colonizers of Rigel to not conquer Earth by saving them from Ego the Living Planet. Issues #134-135 led to the introduction of the High Evolutionary, his New Men and the Man-Beast. Then issue #136 jumped to a story where Odin finally decides to give Jane Foster a chance as Thor’s lover by making her an immortal. Given the fact that she was always written as a damsel in distress at this point, she fails the test and is banished from Thor’s life with no memory of her love of Don Blake. This leaves the door open for the introduction of Sif into the book as Thor’s new love interest leaving Jane Foster as nothing but an after thought for the rest of the decade. Issues #137 through 139 introduced readers to a new foe, Ulik the Rock Troll. This was followed by a few one off stories: A battle with Kang in issue #140, Replicus in 141, the Destroyer in Annual #2, and the Super-Skrull in issue #142.

This was followed by a 4 part arc from issues #144 through 147 where Thor is stripped of his godly powers and slums around with the Circus of Crime. True to type, the Circus of Crime tries to trick Thor into committing a robbery for them and he busts them just in time to get his powers back and fight Loki for the umpteenth time. Issues #148-150 introduced yet another new foe, the Wrecker, a criminal with a magic crowbar. Issues #154-157 saw the Ragnarok myth brought into a modern context and it’s not that great. Lee and Kirby introduce a creature called Mangog, the personification of an alien race’s hatred of Odin for some centuries old punishment.

By this point, Thor had been thoroughly established as the mythical god of thunder, leaving a lingering question: If this is the true Thor, then what’s the deal with the whole Don Blake thing that has been an ongoing limitation to Thor’s power since his first appearance back in Journey into Mystery #83. Issues #158-159 finally answer that mystery. It is revealed that Don Blake was Thor the entire time and that Thor had been banished from Asgard in mortal form years earlier to teach the thunder god a lesson in humility. It would still be another 20 years before they finally do away with Don Blake, which was about 20 years later than needed if you ask me. Thor having a weakness that forced him to change back into Don Blake in battle after being separated from Mjolnir for more than 60 seconds got belabored and I’m glad Walt Simonson finally got rid of it.

Issues #164-165 saw the return of Him, the character who would become Adam Warlock. Another dalliance into Kirby’s boner for artificial beings. Him’s story arc is your typical damsel in distress story where Him is the acting cock block between Thor and Sif. Yeah, another down point on this run is the fact that Sif is always said to be a great warrior woman but is always playing the damsel or being told not to get involved in a fight because fighting is for men.

Issues #168-169 finally tells the origins of Galactus, something that was teased in issue #162 and took five issues to get around to because Kirby had to tell stories about Pluto and Him because his narrative pacing runs like a kid with ADD.

The decade ends with some lackluster stories about the Thermal Man, a communist made robot (because it was the 60s, you have to have a communist inspired villains, even in Thor!) and then a rematch with the Wrecker.

The title also had a number of back-up features. Mostly, it was a continuation of the Tales of Asgard features that appeared in Journey into Mystery. Issues #126 to 128 wrapped up the Ragnarok storyline with fingers being pointed at Loki and getting punished before he could bring about the twilight of the gods. This will become another tired out trope soon enough in the title. Ragnarok is going to happen, Loki is implicated and punished, only to break free and start it all over again. Issues #129-133 saw Thor and the Warriors Three clashing with Harokin, which stood as a tale about what happens to Asgardians when they die in battle. This set the tone for the rest of the Tales of Asgard stories: Thor and the Warriors Three fighting some new threat to Asgard. This was wrapped up in issues #137 to 145, which featured a story about Thor and the Warriors Three avenging Hogun’s people who were killed by Mogul of Mystic Mountain. Mogul’s entire thing was adapted from One Thousand and One Nights, with butchered versions of all the characters, a trope that Kirby will perfect when he did the New Gods and Eternals.

Issue #146 saw Tales of Asgard get replaced with stories about the Inhumans. Telling their origins in issue #146-147, the origin of Black Bolt in 148-149. Issue #150 through 153 featured a story about Triton going to Hollywood, just showing how few ideas that Kirby actually had for the Inhumans and the feature quickly ended without much fanfare.

The most insufferable story of the whole bunch has to be Thor #154. By this point, someone — probably Stan Lee — was really playing it fast and loose. In a story where Mangog — a creature that will usher in armageddon — is on the loose, Thor is frittering his time on Earth wondering why he doesn’t get a call from Odin. He knows something is wrong, but he is wasting his time busting muggers and telling a bunch of hippies to stay in school. Like what the fuck is even going on guys?

Anyway, Thor in the 60s was an interesting mix of mythology and science fiction. There are some interesting ideas put forward, but Kirby’s haphazard story telling never allowed these stories to really form themselves before they move on to something else. It’s not as bad as things get in the 70s after Kirby departed, but we’ll get into that later.