Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor, Vol. 3

Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor #3

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby (Illustrator)

The Thunder God faces the rampaging power of the Incredible Hulk, tackles the fighting mad Gray Gargoyle, and grapples with the awesome Absorbing Man and his creator, Loki, in a battle that will lead to the staggering Trial of the Gods! Also includes 'Tales of Asgard' and the first appearance of Hercules.
Collecting JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #111-120 and ANNUAL #1

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Fantasy, Superheroes

248 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2003

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Evan Leach · Rating 3 out of 5]

The almighty Thor took his sweet time to become readable. For over two years (1962-64), Thor’s Journey Into Mystery series was seriously lame, at least in this reader’s opinion. Doctor Don Blake repeatedly blew off his patients (Hippocratic Oath be damned) in order to battle a series of silly aliens, uninspired supervillains, dumbass gangsters and (of course) commies. But by 1965, Marvel had finally gotten a read on the character and the issues in this collection are a significant improvement on those that came before. The story is much more serialized, centering on the conflict between Thor and Loki. The two end up going mano-a-mano in the “Trial of the Gods,” a challenge that sucks in Jane Foster and others in its wake and takes most of the collection to fully resolve. These issues feature the first appearance of Marvel’s Hercules, along with the Destroyer (one of the villains from the first Thor film):



I still don’t think that Thor had the strongest series during the mid ‘60s, but I’m not a huge fan of the character so my personal biases could definitely be coming into play. Even I have to admit that the series had a pulse by 1965, and Thor fans receptive to Stan Lee’s style will probably really enjoy this one. 3 stars.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once more

Funny how the book improves as it increasingly ignores the Blake/Foster/artificial weakness dramas.

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They are better figuring out how to draw drama out of Goldilocks without resorting to Mjolnir being out of Thor’s hand for 60 seconds. Jane Foster is still too often the boiler, but her end is coming.

This set begins with some conclusions (last Cobra/Hyde teamup in this book, revisit of Grey Gargoyle who then gets a long rest in Thor) some non-answers (a inconclusive fight with Hulk) but then we get some new in both characters and storytelling.

First Appearances:

Absorbing Man
The Destroyer
Hercules

In Tales of Asgard we get

The Warriors Three (which means all is right in Thor)

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Older review: At the same time the Lee/Kirby engine is maturing in the serializing of their stories in other books, Thor hits a new level. Kirby's imagination isn't yet in full bombast but you see this book grow mightily in these issues. So much more to come, though.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took the Thor feature in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY several years to become readable. It was a slow journey with many atrocious stories followed by a period of improvement that eventually led to several issues that were pretty good, but not really satisfying. A corner was seemingly turned with #112, and Thor was mostly good thereafter. This book reprints issues 111-120 plus the new material from the JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY ANNUAL #1, so it contains three almost good issues (#113 and the Annual are also let downs), but the rest of the book is Thor near his best, which means that it features the work of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby near their best. Thor gets even better after this.

[Christopher Obert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great hardcover book that collects “Journey into Mystery” Nos. 111 to 120 & Annual No. 1. These comics feature The Mighty Thor and the Gods of Asgard! As you can imagine the stories include Thor, Loki and Odin but the also have appearances by The Hulk, The Absorbing Man, Hercules, Mr. Hyde and The Cobra. The book is very attractive and the comic books are reproduced in full color. Truly one of the best ways to collect old comic books is with this type of book…

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not my first foray into classic Thor comics; I've read a couple of back issues of Simonson and Wein here and there. Most superhero comics, especially in classic times, tend to be wildly bizarre (this is not a complaint); Thor comics, which combine the superhero genre with Norse mythology, rather manages to take the top prize for Weirdness Factor in many cases.

But while Simonson and Wein seem to lean towards weird, wild, outrageously psychedelic, random, crazy, otherworldly fever dreams that are a joy to behold, this volume seemed a little more ... workaday in its Weirdness Factor. Thor spends the first few issues punching monsters. After that, we get into a bit of a groove: Loki comes up with a ridiculously convoluted plan that involves tracking down a monster to defeat Thor, Thor defeats the monster, wash, rinse, repeat. There is not a lot of cleverness to the storytelling approach (well, I liked the arc with the Norn stones; that made a bit more effort in cleverness).

This may be because the Thor comics of Simonson and Wein seem designed to be enjoyed by *all ages*, whereas the Thor comics of Lee and Kirby seem designed to be enjoyed by *children*. If Simonson's run is Doctor Who, I think Lee's may be The Sarah Jane Chronicles. Which is not inherently bad, but did lessen my interest.

... oh, but there were a few hidden gems. Loki is delightfully bad at making plans, for instance. I think my favorite plan was when he woke up the Destroyer (that's the Murder 'Bot from the first Marvel movie) to kill Thor, then went, "... crap, if the Destroyer kills Thor they'll know it was *my fault*, so I gotta save Thor, because if he dies, I'll die!", and then must go to great lengths to undo his own plan. You feel a bit sorry for him. (I'll give him this, though: he never quits. "My evil scheme may not have worked, but that's okay! My brilliant evil mind is already working on a new plan that is *the most evil plan of all time*!!" *Persistence.*) I am also fascinated to know why everyone lets Loki hang around on Asgard and, like, *help*, because his "help" is 99.9% of the time an attempt to kill Thor. Have they just not noticed yet? Do they forget?? No one knows!! This is outstandingly delightful.

Also, there are some true gem moments of hilarity with the dialogue or artwork. And, speaking of artwork: this is my first Kirby book, and I started to get pretty quickly why people gush about his art. Strong, bright, bold and brilliant artwork, popping off the page with each panel.

So: I don't think I'll be reading a ton more Lee installments. But it was neat, to see the early days of these characters.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was fun.

I like the balance of the very comic book main story with the 'boy's own book of myths and legends' of the back ups.
Lots of big action, nice art and big, crazy ideas.

The 'love triangle' between Thor, Jane Foster and Don Blake is clunky and probably the weakest bit of the book, but early stuff showing the dysfunctional family aspects of Thor and Loki growing up were decent.

Plus, the first appearance of the Absorbing man, the Destroyer and the Warriors 3!

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lee and Kirby really find their footing here. Thor battles the Hulk one on one for the first time, undergoes the Trial of the Gods and has his first clash with the Asgardian Destroyer. Spectacular Kirby action, solid melodrama and the storylines begin flowing into each other seamlessly. Not without its flaws — there's some Vietnam stuff I could do without — but overall excellent.

[Eric David Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kirby really starts to hit his tride here. The art becomes grander, the stories more epic, dealing more and more with the Asgardians. The sense of powerful motion and action that leaps off the page shows just how brilliant Kirby was.

[Mhorg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thor gets better!

Loki and his machinations.
The grey gargoyle returns.
Crusher Creel, the absorbing man returns.
Donald Blake and Jane foster abut their love.
Ask with the art of Jack Kirby!

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continues to inspire

The wild genius of Stan “the Man” Lee and Jack “King” Kirby are on full display in this volume. It’s fascinating to see how refined Kirby’s artwork became over time.

[Michael Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome stuff!!!

The incredible art of Jack Kirby, the amazing storytelling of Stan the Man Lee. Sam Rosen and Art Simek lettering. Every page was exciting. Felt like a kid again. Was a thrill.

[L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this collection Loki gets a makeover (ugh), Odin wears the hell out of some funky helmets (heh), and Thor gets involved in the Vietnam War (ack).

[Tanner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gets better and better with each volume. 3.5

[JW David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Journey Into Mystery #110-119.

[Timothy Bui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 3

I reading and watching The Mighty Thor because, he was superheroes of all time and he has hammer called Mjolnir.

[Joshua Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

As per usual, the interesting portions take place on Asgard and the earth portions are a snore

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories got better and had more depth beginning with #114, but unfortunately, they chose to end the book on a cliffhanger (The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 sort of does this, but this was intentionally avoided in The X-Men vol. 2 and Daredevil vol. 1, both of which included extra issues to prevent this). The Annual that concludes the book is set in the past, so it doesn't count (ChronologyProject.com places it after the Tales of Asgard story in #111). There is an amusing gaffe in which there is a fictitious issue number at the top of a story, one that could only be right if they count each Thor and Tales of Asgard story as separate issues, and I wasn't even able to check that with the number in front of me. This volume contains the infamous Vietnam War story cited in Sean Howe's Marvel Comics The Untold Story . In it, Loki tossed the Norn Stones he had used in the "Trial of the Gods" into a Viet Cong ammo dump for Thor to retrieve and prove that Loki cheated in the competition. He meets three Vietnamese siblings, Cho, Kim, and Hu Sak, and their elderly mother. Hu Sak, allying with the Communists, kills Cho and his mother out of his devotion to the cause, then kills himself destroying the ammo dump, realizing that Communism must therefore be evil. It's an insipid piece of propaganda in support of an unpopular war that didn't do Marvel many favors among their collegiate readership at the time. Presenting the captialist Cho as a freedom fighter is ignorant and biased, but Thor puts Kim in the custody of the Americans so quickly at the beginning of the next issue that any further ideas with this scenario are quickly dropped, as though Marvel had received a barrage of phone calls rather than letters in regard to the issue.

The best part of this volume is Loki's efforts to save Thor from the Destroyer after realizing Thor's death will be blamed on him if he does not intervene. The Destoyer is animated by an unnamed Great White Hunter who would not be out of place in Jungle Action when it was a reprint book that Don McGregor was outraged that Marvel continued to published, seeing its stories of Lozar (self-knockoff of Ka-Zar) and Lorna the Jungle Queen as not only antiquated but racist. It would have been more interesting has they done more with this character than sling mud at a stupid archetype, but it at least carried more drama than I was expecting based on my memories of the Destroyer's Marvel Universe entry.

In spite of all its faults, there is definitely a marked improvement in this series with the stories in this volume, which has been so far one of the biggest disappointments (as with all of the Avengers' solo titles and Doctor Strange) of all the early Marvel series relative to my exposure to later renditions of the characters.

[Adam Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book collects Thor stories from Journey Into Mystery #111-#120 and Annual #1

The Thor stories begin by finishing a story involving Cobra and Mister Hyde from the previous book. Then in Issue #112 we learn of one of Thor's battles against the Hulk in an awkward way as he happens to be flying by and overhear a group of young people talking and explains a private (undocumented battle he had with the Hulk in Avengers #3. It's really cheesy. Issue 113 has him deciding to give up being Thor but then the return of the Grey Gargoyle changes his mind.

The book then enters a very long interconnected storyline running from Issues 114-120 involving he and Loki engaging in, "The Trial of the Gods" and it's aftermath. It really is a very intricate storyline that has one story running through it but a lot of twists and turns along the way including Loki forced to try and save Thor.

Clearly, Lee and Kirby were enjoying playing around with Norse mythology. This is true in the main Thor titles and also in the Tales of Asgard shorts which Marvelizes a lot of Asgardian legends, most of them center around younger versions of Thor and Loki, playing to the popularity of Loki as a villian (although there is one explaining the "true" version of Little Red Riding Hood.)

Journey Into Mystery Annual #1 features a battle between Thor and Hercules when Thor crosses into Olympus. The story is your standard, "two heroes stumble onto each other and fight story," but it helps that it's drawn by Jack Kirby who provides superb art on every page of the book. The Annual also features a map of Asgard with a map pointing to a shopping center. (Yea! Verily.)

My biggest complaint is that the book ends in awkward places with both the Thor stories and Tales of Asgard at a high tension "to be continued" place. But to be fair, it may have been hard to find a good stopping place on this one. As is, this is a very fun and creative book and I look forward to more.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outside of Jane and Lee/Kirby's stubborn insistence on battering us over the head with Thor's love for Jane "no personality" Foster, The Mighty Thor is just plain amazing. MMW v. 3 gives us the first Destroyer and Absorbing Man, a slew of great cliffhangers, and the beginnings of the most epic "Tales of Asgard" back-up serial. Loki stirs the pot in just about every issue, which is maybe a tad tiresome - when will Thor and Odin learn and put a stop to it?! But the Destroyer chapter is just plain thrilling, as Thor faces an absolutely unstoppable foe and Stan and Jack do a pretty fair job making it look like a hopeless cause for nearly twenty pages. This comic is just big fun, and I'm glad it's available for us to read.

[Edward Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

Featuring Journey Into Mystery issues 111 to 120, plus the first annual, this collection is a little better than the previous ones as clearly sales were dwindling and The Avengers and The Hulk were called on to boost them.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Brook Gale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Except for the last few pages from Not Brand Ecch! this was an awesome volume.

[Patrick Artazu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the cover of this edition depicts Thor re-forging Mjolnir in the blazing furnaces of PITTSBURGH.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous stuff from Lee and Kirby at the height of their work together. Well, except for the clunker story in Vietnam, anyway.