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Post by Batflunkie on Sept 15, 2024 9:16:57 GMT -5
Comics books were written for kids back then and all men were afraid of women and all women were virgins. To be fair though, Marvel probably had better written female characters for the time back then. Iris from Flash and Carol from Green Lantern were also decently written women, strong and incredibly motivated |
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 22, 2024 16:23:43 GMT -5
The Mighty Thor # 137 Story: Stan Lee/Jack Kirby
Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Vince Colletta
Plot summary: The issue opens with Thor and Sif showing off their skills to one another when they are attacked by an army of Trolls. Sif is abducted and Thor is confronted by Ulik the Troll who is feared as the strongest troll and maybe mightier than Thor. They both mix it up and Ulik seems to get the better of the Thunder god when suddenly Ulik disappears. The Troll king , who has sent Sif to earth, informs Thor that he has sent Ulik to earth as well and to save Sif he must follow him there. It's all a plan to get rid of the Asgardian Avenger in order to invade Asgard. The issue ends with Thor arriving at earth starting a search for his opponent. Comments:Hoo boy, this is 2 issues in a row that seem to have a subpar story. Ulik is an interesting rival for Thor and seems to actually be stronger than the Thunder god. He beats on Thor until he is numb and it looks like he's going to defeat Thor until the Troll king interferes. This is my first complete read thru of this book, so I'm wondering if Ulik is indeed stronger than Thor. This would mean that he's stronger than Hercules and the Hulk, which I doubt. So it means that it's yet another intro to a character and he's overpowered for the sake of the first appearance. When I read the conclusion and future issues featuring Ulik, I will know if he's this strong all the time. I want Jane back.At least when she was the regular hostage, it was because she was a normal woman. Sif is an Asgardian and went down like a sack of potatoes. Some warrior woman... Cool images:
This opening splash page with Sif reminds me of the splash in Mr. Miracle highlighting Barda.   The first look at Ulik is cool  Tales of AsgardOn the way back to Asgard, Thor and the warriors three come across a person strung up and fatally wounded. It turns out it's countrymen of Hogun the grim. He was killed for fleeing the rule of a despot named Mogul of the Mystic Mountain. Hogan swears to find him when he suddenly appears. Before they could battle, a Jinni appears and takes Mogul away but they vow to confront him in his kingdom. Comments:This story introduces some backstory about Hogun and has nice visuals of Mogul and his Jinni.   Ads and stuff 
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Post by berkley on Sept 22, 2024 16:58:10 GMT -5
The Mighty Thor # 137Story: Stan Lee/Jack Kirby
Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Vince Colletta
Plot summary: The issue opens with Thor and Sif showing off their skills to one another when they are attacked by an army of Trolls. Sif is abducted and Thor is confronted by Ulik the Troll who is feared as the strongest troll and maybe mightier than Thor. They both mix it up and Ulik seems to get the better of the Thunder god when suddenly Ulik disappears. The Troll king , who has sent Sif to earth, informs Thor that he has sent Ulik to earth as well and to save Sif he must follow him there. It's all a plan to get rid of the Asgardian Avenger in order to invade Asgard. The issue ends with Thor arriving at earth starting a search for his opponent. Comments:Hoo boy, this is 2 issues in a row that seem to have a subpar story. Ulik is an interesting rival for Thor and seems to actually be stronger than the Thunder god. He beats on Thor until he is numb and it looks like he's going to defeat Thor until the Troll king interferes. This is my first complete read thru of this book, so I'm wondering if Ulik is indeed stronger than Thor. This would mean that he's stronger than Hercules and the Hulk, which I doubt. So it means that it's yet another intro to a character and he's overpowered for the sake of the first appearance. When I read the conclusion and future issues featuring Ulik, I will know if he's this strong all the time. I want Jane back.At least when she was the regular hostage, it was because she was a normal woman. Sif is an Asgardian and went down like a sack of potatoes. Some warrior woman... I definitely never wanted Jane back but I agree, theyreally didn't give the warrior woman idea much support, which was a big disappointment. I think they could have gotten away with a story like this if it had been for one time only - with the excuse that she was young and inexperienced. But it became a pattern, which for me was a huge failure of vision. Could Barda have been in part a conscious effort to redress the previous failure to write Sif as a warrior? The Jinni felt a bit empty and hollow to me (edit: visually, that is), as if he was just an ephemeral illusion. Maybe it's the colouring, all one shade of green, even clothes and accessories. |
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Post by Batflunkie on Sept 22, 2024 18:47:44 GMT -5
I loved EVERYTHING about the Troll War epic Icctrombone . It is however quite sad that neither Ulik or Absorbing Man have been in a film adaptation yet. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 22, 2024 22:06:12 GMT -5
GET SIF just doesn't have the same ring as GET JANE FOSTER.
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 22, 2024 22:50:43 GMT -5
GET SIF just doesn't have the same ring as GET JANE FOSTER. The sad thing is that it’s not that much harder to GET SIF than it is to GET JANE FOSTER. |
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Post by Yasotay on Sept 22, 2024 23:41:06 GMT -5
GET SIF just doesn't have the same ring as GET JANE FOSTER. Better than getting syphilis (it had to be said). |
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Post by Yasotay on Sept 23, 2024 0:20:48 GMT -5
Comments:Hoo boy, this is 2 issues in a row that seem to have a subpar story. Ulik is an interesting rival for Thor and seems to actually be stronger than the Thunder god. He beats on Thor until he is numb and it looks like he's going to defeat Thor until the Troll king interferes. This is my first complete read thru of this book, so I'm wondering if Ulik is indeed stronger than Thor. This would mean that he's stronger than Hercules and the Hulk, which I doubt. So it means that it's yet another intro to a character and he's overpowered for the sake of the first appearance. When I read the conclusion and future issues featuring Ulik, I will know if he's this strong all the time. I want Jane back.At least when she was the regular hostage, it was because she was a normal woman. Sif is an Asgardian and went down like a sack of potatoes. Some warrior woman... Haven't read this or next issue but guessing you're right and it was an OP first appearance. In his later appearances Ulik would give Thor a good fight but always get his ass kicked pretty good in the end. This is part of why I'm not a big Silver Age Thor fan. When I started reading him in the 1970s, he was clearly established as the most powerful Marvel hero along with the Hulk. But in most of these Silver Age stories, he just doesn't seem that impressive.
I think I'd mentioned in an earlier post within this thread that I've always been bothered by the inconsistent portrayals of how powerful characters are from writer to writer and sometimes even by a single writer. In the Bronze age I think it was pretty clear that Thor and the Hulk were at the top (and equal) and below them were a bunch of characters like Hercules, the Silver Surfer, Namor (in water), Wonder Man, Iron man and the Vision. I loved when they tried to make the pecking order official with those Official Marvel Handbooks but, unfortunately, those were vastly flawed.
Regarding Sif, I always found it strange that, even into the late 70s, when other heroines were no longer just being damsels in distress and were actually starting to do something in fights, Sif was often portrayed as needing rescuing. Maybe it was the whole medieval mystique and the idea that medieval damsels always needed rescuing. But you're right, she frequently went down like a sack of potatoes.
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Post by berkley on Sept 23, 2024 0:41:55 GMT -5
Even though the concept was never quite realised I still rate Sif way above Jane Foster in my personal register of Marvel's Thor characters simply because it was a better character concept. Jane Foster to me was always one of the series features that kept Thor down on Earth (as opposed to keeping someone "down to earth", which is usually a good thing). IOW, limited the Marvel Thor to a second-rate imitation of DC's Superman.
The best Thor stories - does anyone disagree? - were the Asgardian-based ones or the SF ones with Ego, or Tana Nile (though initially connected to her earth activities, admittedly), etc. And yeah, once that Asgardian basis was established as not an only ostensible, in-name-only thing but as the real identity of the series, then they could proceed to do some very cool earth-based stories - and very different from Superman and much more interesting to even the 6 or seven or 10 year old me.
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 23, 2024 1:14:25 GMT -5
Did anybody notice the name "James Shooter" on that list of MMMS members?
Cei-U!
I summon the early cameo?
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 23, 2024 3:57:56 GMT -5
Did anybody notice the name "James Shooter" on that list of MMMS members? Cei-U! I summon the early cameo? ha, I listened to a podcast where it's mentioned that he was fearful of Weisenger finding out his name was printed in a Marvel book. It sure seemed like all the creators were terrified of the DC editors back in the day. |
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Post by berkley on Sept 23, 2024 10:49:48 GMT -5
Did anybody notice the name "James Shooter" on that list of MMMS members? Cei-U! I summon the early cameo? ha, I listened to a podcast where it's mentioned that he was fearful of Weisenger finding out his name was printed in a Marvel book. It sure seemed like all the creators were terrified of the DC editors back in the day. I wonder if at that young age, did he somehow unconsciously absorb the - mistaken, IMO - lesson that that was how an editor was supposed to be? That a good boss was someone who bullied his artists and writers and kept them in a state of fear and insecurity? That might explain a few of his problems. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 23, 2024 12:20:43 GMT -5
ha, I listened to a podcast where it's mentioned that he was fearful of Weisenger finding out his name was printed in a Marvel book. It sure seemed like all the creators were terrified of the DC editors back in the day. I wonder if at that young age, did he somehow unconsciously absorb the - mistaken, IMO - lesson that that was how an editor was supposed to be? That a good boss was someone who bullied his artists and writers and kept them in a state of fear and insecurity? That might explain a few of his problems. I wouldn’t want to turn this is to a Shooter thread, but I will say that it was probably unavoidable that some of his personality rub off. But he WAS NOT totally like Weisinger. There were plenty of people that liked Jim and would do anything for him. Listen to the CCF podcast if you want a battle between shaxper and me about the subject. |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,874
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Post by shaxper on Sept 23, 2024 13:00:49 GMT -5
I wonder if at that young age, did he somehow unconsciously absorb the - mistaken, IMO - lesson that that was how an editor was supposed to be? That a good boss was someone who bullied his artists and writers and kept them in a state of fear and insecurity? That might explain a few of his problems. I wouldn’t want to turn this is to a Shooter thread, but I will say that it was probably unavoidable that some of his personality rub off. But he WAS NOT totally like Weisinger. There were plenty of people that liked Jim and would do anything for him. Listen to the CCF podcast if you want a battle between shaxper and me about the subject. I'd add that, to the best of my knowledge, most of his detractors never accused him of being a bully; just a micro-managing hypocrite. Here's a link to the podcast. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 23, 2024 19:38:06 GMT -5
The Mighty Thor # 137 Yeah, it is pretty lame that they got rid of nurse hostage Jane Foster just as she was expressing herself and trying new things and stepping out of Thor’s shadow (and Odin took away her tiny steps toward independence by lining up a job for her) and then replaced her with goddess-warrior hostage Sif, who didn’t even get one good hit on the troll army. Let’s hope that improves a little bit in the following issues. And you can’t help but notice that Thor and Sif don’t seem to notice that Asgard is in a state of war and there is a troll army swarming around their quaint forest clearing. Asgard’s security SUCKS! And on top of the ease with which Sif is captured, it’s an essential part of Geirrodur’s plan! He is counting on Sif’s utter helplessness! Ulik will be holding Sif hostage on Midgard and Thor will have to leave Asgard, giving the trolls a chance to attack Asgard while Thor is gone, which, I guess, leaves Asgard pretty much HELPLESS!! There’s just no way that Sif could escape and fight Ulik or anything like that. Nope. Let’s leave everything to the men-folk. Sif may be a pretty good fighter for a GIRL but she’s no match for any mythical creature who happens to be a male. And this an improvement over Jane Foster how exactly? Aside from that missed opportunity, I love everything else about this main Thor story. Especially the trolls! Ulik is pretty scary, all muscle and all anger and all hate. Geirrodur is wrinkled and crafty, and always has a sneaky trick up his sleeve. If Sif is this easy to abduct, he is certainly willing to take advantage of that to create all the drama for the next few issues. The art is great for all the troll sequences. You can almost smell the body odor from all those sweaty trolls. Those caves look hot and humid and generally uncomfortable. In Tales of Asgard, we are now in the Magic Mountain arc, and I think this one goes on a bit. Oh, sure, it has its moments, like the Jinni (and one of my favorite panels in all comic-dom is coming up in a few issues) but I think Jack and Stan were running out of ideas and it’s no surprise that Tales of Asgard will be wrapping up by #145. |
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