When the Enchantment of the Cosmic Coals reveals that the universe is to be claimed by the World Beyond, Thor is left to save Asgard from the unknown threat, standing against Odin himself for the victory! Plus: only the Silver Surfer canhelp Thor against the might of Durok the Demolisher! And even if Thor can survive the supreme power of Loki, Hela has claims on the life of Thor!
Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
Kirby left Thor last volume, Lee hands the book over towards the end of this one, and we have Gerry Conway and Jon Buscema on board. But they’re still doing imitation Stan & Jack. Thor seems to be a book where the Lee/Kirby formula is hard to break from*. In its favour, that means everyone knows what they’re doing and the stories gallop along - for early 70s Marvel this is a brisk, exciting read. The downside - even at this early stage you’ve seen allll this shit before.
Thor’s commitment to big panels and lots of action mean these issues are oddly decompressed - there are only two actual stories in Vol 10, each taking six months to resolve. In the first, the universe is threatened by unstoppable cosmic horror from “the world beyond” which possesses assorted Asgardians so they have to fight Thor. In the second, Odin has left his ‘Odin Ring’ lying about and Loki finds it, granting him immediate absolute power, which means assorted Asgardians have no choice but to… fight Thor. As is often the case the motor of the stories is Odin making a mistake or frankly being a dick. And the stories end when Odin does something about it. There’s also increased use of a magic reset button on Odin’s part for when the plot gets too apocalyptic - which really doesn’t help the general feeling here of wheels being spun.
*Conway is being a company man but there’s evidence from the original art that Buscema’s softer, more romantic lines could have taken the comic in an interesting direction, a little more Hal Foster maybe. Joe Sinnott on inks is treating everything like it’s Kirby anyway though, so the opportunity is lost.
Thor! Sif! Fandral! Horgrun! Loki! Odin! Balder! Karnilla! Big John Buscema, legendary artist. Gerry Conway. Another great volume in the annals of Thor.
Infinity threatens asgard , Loki tries to kill Thor, Baldar gets himself into trouble. A typical book for Thor, some character, lotsaof fights. The action is taking place now more on Asgard and it really works because the reader is introduced to more of tse myth. The artwork is also improving. A good read.
The Marvel Masterworks volumes are fantastic reprints of the early years of Marvel comics. A fantastic resource to allow these hard to find issues to be read by everyone. Very recommended to everyone and Highly recommended to any comic fan.
Almost a four. The first set of stories in this collection are really good, with Odin and Infinity and Hela etc. The Loki arc at the end takes a back seat to it, but is still decent.