I think it's a gargoyle. Should have been colored the same green as the bed wood or all purple.

I don’t know how many times I’ve read this story. A dozen? And I never noticed the guy yelling to tell everybody to shut the hell up!

LMAO! Now I won’t be able to read “Let silence reign! The God of Thunder must take his rest!! By order of Imperial Odin!!” without hearing it in the voice of the grumpy Insomniac Bear in that cartoon.

Thor #128 is a great issue, the whole concept of Pluto trying to lure Hercules into his trap with promises of celebrity stardom is just great and very much of the era

I am reading #129 and taking a few notes so I can write it up later.

And for some reason, every time I see Netherworld, it looks like Netherlands for a second.

So Hercules is saying stuff like, “I cannot bear the thought of an eternity, spent in the shadowy desolation of the Netherlands!”

And then Zeus has to step in and explain that Hercules must honor the contract. “I DO BANISH THEE TO THE NETHERLANDS!”

I’ll be posting the review in a few hours. Hopefully, Hercules will have gotten over his fear of the Netherlands.

This is of interest to this thread. A comparison of what Kirby suggested for dialog and what Stan wrote for the splash page of issue #127. I am not trying to start anything about whose words work better, let each decide for themselves, it's just interesting that the tone is different.

The printed page. Jane tells Thor that his defeat by Hercules doesn't change her love for him. Thor is despondent and full of self incrimination in a long soliloquy.


Kirby does not have Jane talk about her love, instead he has Jane say "Don't let your defeat by Hercules destroy you". Thor responds "Don't Torment Me, Girl. Go Away" His body language showing his emotion.



The direction, especially how Jane talks to Thor, is quite different.

THOR #129
June 1966
"The Verdict of Zeus!"

Co-written and penciled by Jack Kirby
Co-written by Stan Lee
Inked by Vince Colletta
Lettered by Artie Simek
Edited by Stan Lee

This story arc that I love so much, it's from #125 (maybe #124) to #130, and I don't really have a name for it. I guess I could call it something like "The Adventures of Hercules among the Midgardians". It's bookmarked between two classic battle issues, Thor vs. Hercules in #126 and Thor vs. the inhabitants of the Netherlands in #130. (I mean the Netherworld. Sorry, Netherlands!)

The issues in-between aren't always so focused as we follow the various subplots (the villainy of Seidring, the kingdom of the rock trolls, Hercules in Hollywood, Jane rushing to the side of an accident victim, Odin mulling some of his bad decisions, Thor hunting the beast-fish on the frozen sea of Marmora) and these issues don't usually lack for action, but they're still pretty awesome even when everybody is running around and talking and staring into space and not actually fighting so much.

Take #129 for example. Hercules fights a yellow-crested titan for a few pages. And he gets a little tough with Ares. And that's pretty much it for fighting, except for the end where PLUTO'S MINION DRAG HERCULES TO HELL!! (Oops. I mean HADES!!)

But that doesn't mean there aren't a number of awesome panels and sequences! I'll point them out as we go along!

So we start with Thor landing on the street in New York City. He's just come from Hollywood where he left Hercules with the problem of trying to figure out how to get of his contract with Pluto to take over as ruler of the Netherworld. Everyone is crowding around Thor, asking about Hercules, asking if there's trouble coming, asking about the Avengers. Thor tries to fly away but he can't swing his hammer with so many people around. So a yakky cabbie offers to give him a ride to wherever he's going.

I love this scene! Here's some good scripting from Stan. The cabbie spends about three panels explaining his philosophy, and he finanaly tells Thor that he thinks he's a regular guy. "In spite of them crazy golden curls, you're an A-1 Joe in MY book," says the cabbie.

Thor thanks him as he arrives at his destination and then boldly stalks forward as he enters Jane's apartment building. 

And then we turn the page to one of my favorite panels ever! It's the whole page! Olympus! The court of Zeus! Dionysus, Zeus, Artemis and Hera, I presume, are being entertained by dancers, musicians and acrobats.

And then Pluto shows up. What a drag he is! He waves the Olympian contract in Zeus's face and reminds him that by decree of the gods, whoever signs cannot break it. Zeus says that he will of course enforce the contract, but he wonders who could be dumb enough to sign. I get the feeling that he realized who is that dumb as soon as he said it. It's Hercules, isn't it? HERCULES DUMB!

Hercules is climbing Olympus to appear before Zeus and ask for help but he is stopped by a yellow-crested titan. He looks like a monster yam. Hercules defeats him and continues on. But Zeus stops Hercules with a thunderbolt and his disembodied voice tells Hercules there is no sanctuary in Olympus. Hercules signed the contract and Zeus will not help him. However, he concludes with these words: "FIND YE ONE WHO WILL FIGHT IN THY STEAD! ONE WHO WILL RISK THE NETHERWORLD HIMSELF TO FREE THEE!" 

So Hercules only has to find a champion who will fight Pluto's minions. Well, that's something, I guess!

And now we get to Tana Nile. She's Jane's new roommate! That's what Jane was doing last issue! She was looking for a roommate! Her name is Tana Nile and she looks like Christina Ricci! (I love her Capri pants in this issue!)

I love Tana Nile! She is hilarious! I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here because SPOILERS!! She's only in two pages here, but Thor bows before her and says: "May the stars of Asgard shine upon thee, Tana Nile!" Tana doesn't think there's anything strange about getting such attention from a literal Norse god. But Thor stares after her and muses that "an enigma is upon us." Thor and Jane have a heart-to-heart and Jane pours him some coffee. Finally Thor announces that he's going to talk to Odin and renounce his godly heritage to be with Jane. It's quite a weighty moment but it kind of gets lost in the shuffle with everything going on in this issue. (You'll notice I didn't give it a separate paragraph.)

Tana Nile spies on them through the curtains: "Thor must not return to Earth again! For, if he should, it would spoil all my carefully laid plans! And I have come too far to be stopped now!" (Every time I read this, I hear it in my head with Christina Ricci's voice.)

So that's what Jane is dealing with at home. ROOMMATE TROUBLES! (And Tana Nile will be making up her own rules for GET JANE FOSTER! Rigel style!)

Thor goes to Odin to discuss renouncing his godhood but Odin stops him before can say a thing. There are much more weighty matters to discuss before any of Thor's trivial matters can be heard. You see, THE BOOK OF THE ENCHANTERS says that Thor must go to the DOORWAY TO ALL THE WORLDS to await his destiny. There is somewhere he must be. And he has to go RIGHT NOW! VERILY!

And so Thor ends up in THE LAND OF LIMBO in a heavy fog, waiting for fate or something to tell him where to go next.

TALES OF ASGARD: “The Hordes of Harokin!”: Loki is grabbed by the guards to be punished for his responsibility for Ragnarok in the future. Well, they can’t really punish him AFTER! I can totally see Odin’s point on this issue.

Loki is thrown into the Well of Eternal Sleep where he will be in suspended animation until he escapes and fulfills the prophecy to unite the Forces of Evil and get Ragnarok rolling. (I have a sneaking suspicion we will see him again long before that.)

Odin gathers Thor and the Warriors Three together and sends them on a quest to go to Muspelheim and get the Warlock’s Eye, a powerful artifact that will help to avert Ragnarok.

But at an Asgardian outpost on the border of Muspelheim, Harokin gathers his hordes on the plains below. He has the Warlock’s Eye! It’s one of those nice Asgardian hats. It’s about two feet wide and looks like a big red eye.

Harokin shoots a ray out of it and knocks over the Asgardian outpost in one panel!!

How will Thor and his little Boy Scout troop overcome this?!

TO BE CONTINUED!!

COMMENTARY: I said so much in the prologue that I don’t have too much to add in the commentary except ANOTHER GREAT ISSUE!!