(Mr. Trombone has asked me if I can review two issues in a row because of circumstances. So without further ado, here's JIM #125.)
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #125February 1966
"When Meet the Immortals!"
So Thor has chosen the Demon subplot and he flies somewhere in Asia to fight the Demon. And he beats the Demon by the end of page six. And that includes two pages of the Hercules subplot.
Seriously, my notes for this issue just say "Thor fights the Demon" for this segment. They grapple and then Thor uses his hammer to block a giant rocket cannon that the Demon's army has acquired in their rampage through generic Asia, and the rocket cannon explodes and the Demon is defeated and Thor picks up the Norn stone.
The art is beautiful. In one iconic panel, Thor smashes a boulder that the Demon had thrown at him. But you can't deny that the Demon is bit of a flop as a Thor-worthy opponent. He should have appeared before Journey into Mystery #100. He might have lasted more than four pages and been defeated by a new Mjolnir power that was never heard of again.
The Demon was a victim of bad timing!
I'm guessing Kirby was getting kind of bored with the Demon subplot. It was good for a few panels here and there for a few issues, and then a great cliffhanger! But by the time they actually got to the battle, Hercules was waiting in the wings! Disposing of the Demon in four pages was probably the best option. Otherwise, Hercules and Jane would have been sitting in that soda fountain for the whole issue waiting for the fight with the Demon to end while all Asia shuddered!
During the fight, we find out what Hercules has been doing since he wandered down the mountain to the world of mortal men. He has somehow made his way to (I think) California and he's taking a nap.
These next two pages are some excellent, economical storytelling. Thor is awakened by a train whistle and he walks down the tracks to find that a huge sequoia tree is blocking the train. To the surprise of the onlookers, Hercules effortlessly tosses the tree to the side. The grateful train personnel offer Hercules a free ride and he asks where they are going. They say they are going to "the city," which is very exciting to Hercules! He would love to go to a city! A few pages later, he's in New York City!
Meanwhile Thor takes the Norn stone to Asgard. Odin is glad the stone is being returned but otherwise, things go very badly! It was just last issue that Thor told Jane about the whole secret identity thing, and the All-Father is very angry and he decrees that Thor must face THE RITUAL OF STEEL! And if he survives, he can never return to Earth. So all the warriors attack Thor to punish him for loving a mortal and they try to keep him from leaving Asgard. THE RITUAL OF STEEL is quite a bit different from GET JANE FOSTER!
More lovely art with Thor fighting alone against all the warriors of Asgard.
We now check on Hercules to find him already quite content and quite comfortable, deeply embedded in one of New York's finest restaurants, drinking wine, feasting on all the house specialties, listening to music and entertaining sophisticated New York ladies with songs and stories. He borrows a guitar from the band and while he's starting some Olympian folk song, generic New York gangsters attack the restaurant! It does not go well for the gangsters or the guitar ... or the plate-glass windows ... or the light pole that Hercules uses to trash the getaway car!
It's another great Hercules sequence! A couple of panels establishing more about Hercules' character, and then two pages of action as Hercules makes short work of the restaurant robbers.
Nearby, Jane is leaving the hospital. She hears the disturbance, and she thinks that maybe Thor has returned! So she rushes to the scene to find ... Hercules! Well, he's no Thor, but he's not bad. Not bad at all.
And here Jane Foster totally upends the card table on GET JANE FOSTER! It's as if the plastic mouse in Mouse Trap decided to play the darn game instead of just sitting there, waiting to be trapped! Jane is not just a pawn, the helpless prey of every super-villain and every god with an amnesia spell. She is taking charge of her own fate as best she can, and soon she'll be playing the field ("Thor, I think I should see other gods"), sharing an apartment with an alien and, eventually, tutoring a whole menagerie of half-animal evolutionary wonders.
I really love this late-stage Jane Foster. She gets a lot of flak for the way she's portrayed in the earlier issues. But I think she makes up for that in the next year or so of the Thor series. Up to this point, she's been the worst of the Marvel heroines, just a prop for the most part, with almost no real personality outside of being a nurse and being the love interest. But that's changing. I just wish they had done more with it instead of writing her out of the strip after she fails the Asgardian goddess entrance exam.
(One of my most wished-for projects is 1960s Thor from Jane's perspective. We know so little about her! I still don't know if she's a native New Yorker or not. I tend to think "no" because she doesn't know anybody except Thor and Don Blake. But maybe there's another reason she keeps to herself a lot!)
Anyway, getting back to JIM #125, Hercules sees Jane walking towards him and is immediately smitten! Something in her eyes ... He takes her hand and they stroll off to get a soda.
Meanwhile, in Asgard, Thor manages to fight his way through the gauntlet of Asgardian warriors and flies back to Earth. He wants to check on Jane at the hospital because he's certain that she's just moping in bed, waiting for him to arrive and give meaning to her puny mortal life. He sees the crowd near the hospital. They're all staring through the window at a soda shop ...
He looks in the window and sees Jane and Hercules drinking sodas. Oh boy.
"Jane! I have returned!" says Thor.
To which Jane says, "Really? I forgot you had been away!"
Jane tears his head off. He promised never to leave her again but then he took off - again - without a word - again! Leaving her behind to worry with no idea what he's facing - again. (Be reasonable, Jane. At least he didn't apply the amnesia spell again!)
Hercules, not always the most tactful sort, rises and greets Thor. The thunder god is very dismissive. I'm not talking to you, butthole.
That's no way to talk to Hercules. And Hercules doesn't like it very much when Thor ignores him and turns back to Jane.
So, Hercules knocks Thor down! Right there in the New York soda shop that's across the street from Midtown Hospital!
It's on! It's on like flan!
Thor rises to show Hercules who is the boss!
TO BE CONTINUED
Commentary: I should state now that this issue is the beginning of my favorite Thor storyline, JIM #125 and then Thor #126 to #130. It's one of the great all-time comic-book storylines. And one of the reasons it's so great is Hercules. He's not a super-hero. He's an adventurer! He likes to sit in taverns and drink ale and chew on a whole beef. He sings and tells stories. He's very impulsive. He's a good guy at heart, but he's not always particularly efficient at it. He doesn't think things through. But hopefully things will work out right because he has some powerful allies. The glory and the acclaim are more important than being a do-gooder.
The next few issues are crackin'!
I didn't read these issues when I was a kid. Just before I started reading comics in the summer of 1975, these issues were reprinted (with a little editing) in Marvel Treasury Edition #3. I missed it. I might have seen it at the newsstand (it wasn't that old) but I didn't become a Thor fan until early 1976, so I passed.
But in the 1990s, I saw a copy on sale cheap in the Comic Buyers Guide and I ordered it. And after I read it, I realized I was reading one of the classics of the Silver Age and that I was missing out by continuing to be unfamiliar with Thor after JIM #112. I started making more of an effort to read all Kirby Thor.
It took a while, but I finally read them all through library reprint volumes and I now own them all through Marvel Masterworks and digital copies.
And just think! Mr. Trombone has the originals for most of them!
TALES OF ASGARD: "The Queen Commands": The Flying Trolls attack! Thor tries to defuse the situation by telling the trolls that they are on a quest for Odin. They are Asgardonauts! The mission is what's important.
But Loki - with the help of Kroda the Duelist and Magrat the Schemer - attacks the flying trolls with poison gas bombs! The Flying Trolls scatter - but they will be back.
Thor confronts Loki about this challenge to his leadership and Loki taunts Thor, calling him unfit to lead because of his cowardice. While they are arguing, the swarm returns! They know who pelted them with gas bombs, and they abduct Loki by tangling him with slings and carrying him off. It probably wasn't that hard. There weren't very many Asgardonauts rushing to save him. I'm sure Fandral was saying something like: "They're abducting Loki. Oh dear. I'm too busy waving my blade at these Flying Trolls. Too bad. So sad."
With Loki abducted, the trolls call off their attack.
Even though he's awful, they can't just leave Loki with the Flying Trolls, so Thor sets course for Thryheim, the hanging cave-island of Ulla. And Queen Ulla of Thryheim announces that they must prepare for the arrival of the Asgardonauts.
TO BE CONTINUED
Another really good installment in the Asgardonauts serial in Tales of Asgard.
