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64th out of 97 books
—
5 voters
Essential Thor, Vol. 1 (Essential Thor #1)
by
Stan Lee,
Jack Kirby
Relive meek Dr. Donald Blake's transformation into the legendary God of Thunder in this collection of the Mighty Thor's earliest classic adventures! With his mystical hammer Mjolnir at his side, Thor sets out to bring justice to Earth. Collecting: Journey Into Mystery #83-112
Paperback, 536 pages
Published
February 16th 2011
by Marvel
(first published 2001)
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I love having the Essentials series for historical purposes, but like others have said, this volume illustrates how clearly it took a while for the Thor series to come into its own. For the first couple of years Thor's adventures were frustratingly earthbound, with only hints of the level of cosmic power worthy of the God of Thunder that Thor would begin to encounter later in the 60s. While the Loki stories are clearly the best of this collection, in these early years Thor battles a bunch of unm...more
This would be one star if it was just the first portion of the book. But then Jack Kirby returns to the art and they start immersing the book in more of the Norse myth world.
Thor has a terrible initial status quo. And Jane Foster starts as Stan Lee's most annoying love interest that I've read (the rumor that she will start out as a doctor over Donald Blake in the movie I think is a good rumor; none of this nurse stuff). But when Jack Kirby returns the book finds its rhythm a little better, thoug...more
Thor has a terrible initial status quo. And Jane Foster starts as Stan Lee's most annoying love interest that I've read (the rumor that she will start out as a doctor over Donald Blake in the movie I think is a good rumor; none of this nurse stuff). But when Jack Kirby returns the book finds its rhythm a little better, thoug...more
Like all of the really early Marvel stuff this was kind of hard to get through at times. For being a comic it's amazing how word heavy they were back then, although I enjoy being able to compare that to newer stuff and being able to really appreciate how far the medium has come. I have to say though, the first half of this seemed to go even slower than normal. I'm not sure why... it could be that Thor isn't really a character that I hold dear to my heart, or it could be that the stories in there...more
Old Marvel comics are a special genre. Completely ridiculous, but fun to read. This collection includes Thor's origin story and early adventures, with a couple of appearances by The Avengers and one by Magneto, and the introduction of villains like Radioactive Man, Mr. Hyde, and of course Loki, whose hatred of Thor is well-established. As cartoonish as the whole thing is, Loki actually does come across as somewhat menacing. Part-way through, as Thor became more popular, Marvel introduced a "Tale...more
It took Kirby and Lee a long time to invent Marvel Comics. This evolution was especially slow for the character Thor. There is interest in seeing the title character grow as his world was slowly broadened, but while Lee was always editor, others wrote and drew most of the stories in this book. After the initial Lee/Kirby start, the evolution stalls for a very long time. Then Lee first and soon Kirby return and the evolution resumes, but the only story in this book that is truly satisfying, which...more
Collecting Journey into Mystery #83–112, this volume gives us the very first tales of the Marvel universe version of the old Norse god of thunder, Thor. In an interesting opening, Dr Donald Blake is given the power of Thor and much of the storytelling stems from a "mere" human being handling such powers (this of course being before retcons, by Stan Lee himself, making Thor into the actual Thor and Blake merely a persona created by Odin). After which the series goes into various directions, as it...more
I really enjoyed this compilation of the original 30 Thor comics. They were uncolored, so that loses some of the fun, but it was nice to be able to read up on where the character started. A little inconsistent at times in the characterization of Thor (like how powerful he is or how he reacts to things), but highly entertaining nonetheless. My favorite villain was Loki, who appears the most often anyway, and I also liked when they added the "Tales of Asgard" feature at the end.
There were dated moments in this but overall I really did enjoy the origins of the stories and how the character had developed over the years. Entertaining stories about a doctor who finds a staff and becomes a god. Trying to balance his life as a doctor and superhero is hard, particularly when it comes to romance.
unless you are a huge fan of classic comics, this will be a tough read. I am a fan of Thor and the mythos but even so, I was unable to make it through the whole thing. I really enjoyed some of the stories but others just dragged on and beat the same dead horse.
Thor's first thirty or so appearances reprinted in a chubby trade paperback make for mostly unimpressive reading. There's some nice Kirby art (and some pretty bad art by other hands) but little in the way of good stories.
Futuristic rainbow space vikings! I'm on a Jack Kirby binge right now, was convinced to check out his work on THOR after reading the Kirby coffee-table biography, and enjoyed it way more than I thought I would.
Superhero comics from the fifties and sixties seem to be half adventure and half romance. This volume also contains a series of tales dealing with Asgard and Thor's friends, family and childhood. Very cool.
The Naff value is pure comic genius!
Takes about half the book to hit its stride, but after that it's all gold.
"The Tales of Asgard" are the best part.
Nothin' but cheesy old-school Marvel awesomeness.
Classic thor!
Apr 25, 2013
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Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) is 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, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Captain America, and many other characters, int...more
More about Stan Lee...
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Captain America, and many other characters, int...more
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12 juin 09:41