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Post by Hoosier X on May 12, 2024 10:56:57 GMT -5
Journey into Mystery Annual #11965 "When Titans Clash!: Thor Vs. Hercules!" This is a pretty good one. It's a rather simple tale that reminds me a bit of the Thor vs. Hulk story in JIM #112. Thor runs into another very powerful being and, with a minimal amount of prologue, they fight. The fight with Hercules is set in the mythical past. Well, maybe not the mythical past, since the story is canon. The legendary past? The ancient past? Or maybe just a long time ago, before Odin punished Thor by banishing him to Midgard in the guise of Don Blake. Thor and Loki are pursuing shenanigans, exploring Jotunheim, far away from Asgard. Loki seems to be a bit reluctant to be cavorting about this barren land, but Thor is eager to stir up some trouble with the storm giants. And then ... Oh! Look! Storm Giants! The storm giants were expelled from Olympus many ages ago. And there seems to be a secret cave to Olympus in Jotunheim. And now it appears that the storm giants want to return to Olympus and have been searching for the portal! (The portal is basically just a big mound with a hole in it.) Thor attacks them joyously, wielding Mjolnir like a dandy with his cane and singing the glories of battle. But during the battle, he gets caught in a rock slide and he falls into the portal and ends up in Olympus. It must be Olympus! Ther's a centaur! And a satyr! And a nymph playing a lyre! Thor wanders around a bit and tries to cross a bridge, but there is another powerful figure demanding right-of-way across the bridge, commanding Thor to yield. Well, Thor is not having any of this "yielding" crap. So Thor and this big dude (who turns out to be Hercules) beat up on each other for seven pages over who should cross the bridge the dirst, even after the bridge is destroyed on the first page of the fight. Oh, what a glorious seven pages they are! The Kirby/Colletta art makes this feel like a real FIGHT! They punch each other and throw boulders and then hurl each other across the landscape. Hercules grabs a metal pole and wraps it around Thor, but he just flexes and busts it! And then Zeus shows up and stops them with a gesture. They are both noble and strong, and each is deserving of the victory. But they can't keep fighting forever. They should stop fighting and be friends! So they shake hands and vow eternal friendship. Then Zeus sends Thor back to Jotunheim, and while Loki is telling Thor that he didn't abandon him (he just went to get help), Zeus fills in the portal to Olympus so there won't be any more of that Asgardian rabble wandering in anymore. THE ENDThis lead story was only 15 pages, so there's plenty of room for old JIM reprints! And I think they did a pretty good job of picking the better stories from early in the Thor series. We get Loki's first appearance from JIM #85, the first appearance of the Radio-Active Man from #93, the Demon Duplicators from #95 (OK. This is a bad one.) and the first Lava Man from #97.
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Post by Icctrombone on May 13, 2024 5:08:48 GMT -5
Journey into Mystery Annual #11965 "When Titans Clash!: Thor Vs. Hercules!" Not much to add, as this amounts to being a simple slugfest lacking any real plot. I have to confess that this tale was a disappointment to me. I feel like there was a mandate to produce an annual that reprinted older issues and that the 15 pager was slapped together just for the occasion. Kirby's layouts are lacking their usual zing. But for the first time , I will blame Colletta and say that it looks like this was just laid out by Kirby, maybe breakdowns, and that the inking didn't add any details to the visuals. See, kirby101, I can be fair about Vince sometimes. An example is this page where the faces are obscured.  Yeah, In guess the book introduces Olympus to the Thor cast and Stan will gage the response to them for future possible use. Contained in this Annual is a 2 page map of Asgard which is pretty cool.  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 13, 2024 7:08:53 GMT -5
I love how everything on the map is combat related except for the 'to Shopping Center' at the bottom corner
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Post by kirby101 on May 13, 2024 8:54:28 GMT -5
The two page spread is pretty cool. But here is a reason this book is hardly mentioned when talking about this period. My guess is it was done quickly by both Kirby and Colletta in the midst of their regular work on the series. One of those "weekender" jobs. And Icct may be right that they were not full pencils by Kirby. Somebody, Stan? Goodman? Sol Brodsky? said, "Let's do an Annual".
The second Annual was much better. Which had more awesome Destroyer action.
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Post by Ricky Jackson on May 13, 2024 9:04:41 GMT -5
Did any future fanboy writer ever give us a look at the "shopping center"?
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Post by Icctrombone on May 16, 2024 6:30:56 GMT -5
Journey into Mystery # 119 Writer Stan Lee Artist: Jack Kirby Artist Inks: Vince CollettaPlot summary:As the issue opens, the Destroyer is unloading a force blast to kill the Trapped Thunder God , when he suddenly becomes intangible and escapes. It turns out that Loki went into a trance to save Thor. As the cat and mouse game between Thor and the Destroyer continues, Loki , still trapped in an inescapable dungeon in Asgard summons the Norm queen to help awaken Odin from his regenerative sleep. Meanwhile Thor takes himself over to the still body of the Hunter. He picks him up and tells the Destroyer that if he blasts him, he will also destroy his human body and be trapped in the armored form. Odins voice is heard in the temple telling Thor to back away while he handles his opponent, but Thor tells him that he will fight his own battle. The Destroyer backs down fearing the loss of his body and the hunter returns to his mortal form. Then temple begins to fall apart and Thor wisks the hunter out to safety. In Asgard , Odin punishes Loki by having him work as a slave for Ularic the Warlock. Comments:Nice wrap up to the Destroyer battle but I have some nits to pick- supposedly, the Odin sleep is something that the needed to regenerate his power but the Norn queen awakens him by sending a dream of Thors danger. So, there are no repercussions of waking him prematurely ? It seems that Odin waking up to save the day was a big plot point but he doesn't actually do anything. Thor handles the conflict without his help. The page where the temple falls apart tells us that Thor demolishes the temple but the artwork doesn't indicate that and also his damaged hammer is not able to do that. I'm thinking that Kirby left out that event and Lee fixed it by writing what the art should have shown.  We never are told what the Hunters name is. He probably is never seen again, but still... Cool moments
Thor does the macho thing and takes on the Destroyer without help. We see that the Hammer is incapable of giving him flight, so he uses the norn stones. Tales of Asgard
" Gather Warriors"This chapter of the Quest to find who is attacking the Odin Sword, shows more warriors being enlisted. This Tale introduces Hogan the Grim, Fandral and Volstagg who come to be known as the Warriors three. Volstagg is the first character in this series to be in the role of comic relief. The 5 pager ends with Odin declaring that Asgard is doomed unless the enemy is destroyed.
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Post by kirby101 on May 16, 2024 8:11:33 GMT -5
I serious doubt Kirby "forgot" to have Thor destroy the Temple. More than likely he had margin notes on what was happening which Stan ignored. (this was a common occurrence).
Over all this was a powerful issue that continued Thor's rise as a great book. A far cry from those pre-100 issues.
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Post by Icctrombone on May 16, 2024 8:48:31 GMT -5
I serious doubt Kirby "forgot" to have Thor destroy the Temple. More than likely he had margin notes on what was happening which Stan ignored. (this was a common occurrence). Over all this was a powerful issue that continued Thor's rise as a great book. A far cry from those pre-100 issues. A better explanation would have been that Odin shattered the temple. |
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Post by Icctrombone on May 16, 2024 8:50:06 GMT -5
Another item for #119 is that the cover is actual panels from the interiors. No one drew that cover, maybe the production people did the work.
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Post by kirby101 on May 16, 2024 10:21:38 GMT -5
Another item for #119 is that the cover is actual panels from the interiors. No one drew that cover, maybe the production people did the work. Most likely Sol Brodsky at this point. Who knows, Stan might have rejected the cover or it might not have been done in time or gotten to the office for various reasons. Art did get lost in the mail back then. |
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Post by Hoosier X on May 16, 2024 14:15:13 GMT -5
Mr. Trombone! You forget Tales of Asgard! And this is an important one!
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Post by Hoosier X on May 16, 2024 14:28:32 GMT -5
We haven’t heard from Jane Foster for a few issues. That’s because it’s the off-season for GET JANE FOSTER!
The last time we saw Nurse Foster, Balder was giving her an Asgardian Mickey Finn so she could sleep and forget everything. So she’s going to wake up and wonder what happened during the last two or three days. Then she’s going to find out that Dr. Blake is missing.
After reporting this to the police, she’s going to take a vacation in the Hamptons. And then … spring training starts! She has to get ready for the new season of GET JANE FOSTER! And what better place for spring training for a made-up comic-book game than the X-Men’s Danger Room at the mansion in Westchester?
So stay tuned! Prepare yourself for another exciting season of GET JANE FOSTER! beginning in Journey into Mystery #120!
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Post by Icctrombone on May 17, 2024 6:32:39 GMT -5
Mr. Trombone! You forget Tales of Asgard! And this is an important one! I added it in. |
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Post by Hoosier X on May 17, 2024 21:27:22 GMT -5
Journey into Mystery # 119 This was very likely the first old issue of JIM that I ever saw. I had seen the Thor stories in The Origins of Marvel Comics and Bring on the Bad Guys, but I don't think I'd seen any other old Thor stories, unless you count the beat-up copies of Thor #206, #229 and #231 that I had picked up at used-book stores. This was around 1975 or 1976. It was only 12 to 14 years since the classic Marvel comics of the early 1960s, and some of those comics were sneaking into circulation because uncles and older brothers and cousins were going off to college or into the military or moving away, and old comics were turning up in barns and closets, and younger relatives were getting ahold of these comics and keeping them or selling them. I had a Detective Comics #300 (decorated on the cover with extra dots all in red ink on the cover) and a Flash #117 (first Captain Boomerang) that I had gotten from a kid who acquired his uncle's comics. And I remember my friend Rick had a Fantastic Four #8 that he'd acquired from somewhere. And somebody had a Journey into Mystery #119. I don't remember who it was. I remember being kind of fascinated with it because I hadn't read very much old Thor. I noticed that one of the panels in the story was from the cover and I flipped through it to see if the other panels were right from the story. And there they all were! It's the end of a long story arc that started back in JIM #114, so I was a bit confused. (And the arc continues for a few more issues! This issue just shows us the end of the Destroyer subplot.) Here's Thor flailing around against a powerful robot (created by Odin, animated by a big-game hunter) inside a ... Vietnamese temple? With his hammer broken? Wow. And here's Loki, imprisoned ... and trying to save Thor? And I also got to see Odin in his Odin-jammies. Even though nowadays, I've come to love this whole ongoing story arc, I don't remember thinking much of it at the time. What I really loved was Tales of Asgard! It's so cool! They're getting for some kind of exciting quest. And some of the warriors are being introduced. Hey! I know some of these guys! I hadn't been reading Thor very long (my first issue was in the 240s) but I recognized Hogun the Grim, Fandral the Dashing and Volstagg the Voluminous! Volstagg gets a few panels interacting with Thor. The Thunder God even muses that Volstagg is probably joining the adventure to get a break from his wife and 15 children. This must be the first appearance of the Warriors Three! Also appearing for the first time are a couple of sketchy looking dudes known as Kroda the Duelist and Magrat the Schemer. Kroda has something that looks like an espresso mug over his eye. Magrat looks like Picard with long hair. They don't do anything in this story, but I bet we'll hear from them soon. I suspect they are up to something. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 17, 2024 21:38:03 GMT -5
We haven’t heard from Jane Foster for a few issues. That’s because it’s the off-season for GET JANE FOSTER! The last time we saw Nurse Foster, Balder was giving her an Asgardian Mickey Finn so she could sleep and forget everything. So she’s going to wake up and wonder what happened during the last two or three days. Then she’s going to find out that Dr. Blake is missing. After reporting this to the police, she’s going to take a vacation in the Hamptons. And then … spring training starts! She has to get ready for the new season of GET JANE FOSTER! And what better place for spring training for a made-up comic-book game than the X-Men’s Danger Room at the mansion in Westchester? So stay tuned! Prepare yourself for another exciting season of GET JANE FOSTER! beginning in Journey into Mystery #120! I would definitely buy the Jane Foster one shot with that in it  |
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