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.
The logical flow and conclusion of the bounty of plots are not always smooth. Kirby may be overworked at this point and may be beginning to lean out of Marvel despite the workhorse number of pages he continues to produce.
There are still great melodies being played but the flow (never Kirby’s strong suit) lacks polish.
In the intro, Evanier states the obvious struggle they were having with balancing Thor’s earthly adventures to the easy cosmic/mystic trend. The obvious efforts to re-invigorate Donald Blake and the streets of New York add to the herky jerky plotting. It also causes some reversion to elements that it had felt like the book had outgrown.
This kinda sounds like a negative review, but basically I am saying why this didn’t land a 5-star like the last Thor volume.
The end of Tales of Asgard is abrupt to make way for the Inhumans back-up story.
First appearances: The Wrecker Hela (first appearance outside of Tales) Karnilla had appeared before in Tales (and maybe a quick moment in Thor) but this appearance is an important distinguisher
This volume was primarily about Odin being immature. After a couple of battle issues with Replicus and the Super-Skrull, Thor and Odin battle the Enchanters, wonderfully imaginative Kirby giant-helmet creatures with a living talisman in each of their chests. The rest of the story is what happens when Odin decides to be a toddlerish brat about Thor liking being a doctor and helping people. This gets him first hypnotized into working with the Circus of Crime, then stranded on Earth with his friends Odin has also chosen to punish, Balder, Sif, and Loki. Loki's relationship to Thor is quite odd as his half brother and essentially his enemy, but it's a little more complicated than that, hence Odin freeing him from punishment, only to take away his godly powers as punishment for going to Midgard (Earth). In an amusing twist, Loki sets out to get his god-powers back via his sister, the Norn Queen Karnilla, but when a new thuggish villain called the Wrecker attacks Loki and briefly puts on his helmet, she gives Loki's powers to him instead so that he can now topple buildings just by sticking his crowbar under them. This is the most amusing of a whole series of plot twists that follow. The gods all get their powers back, but it still ends on a cliffhanger. This is a definite page turner, especially after the first two stories. Don't miss the cameo by Jane Foster and her unidentified beau!
Thor loses his powers, fights Loki, meets the circus of crime and faces the wrecker for the first time. There's some surprisingly good character bits when Thor loses his powers, and it gives you the most insight into his character so far. There's still plenty of action but the plots are slowly becoming more interesting. 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.