Thor Epic Collection, Vol. 5: The Fall of Asgard

Thor Epic Collection

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby (Artist), John Buscema (Artist)

The mountain giants are on the march! Surtur has broken free! Odin sleeps while Loki claims the throne of Asgard! In short, all Ragnarok is about to break loose! When the dust settles, Loki's spells lead to a body-swap between the God of Thunder and his mischievous half-brother. With art by Jack Kirby and Neal Adams, it's an embarrassment of riches! Then, John Buscema steps up to carry the hammer in an equally epic artistic run. Together with Stan Lee, he'll pit Thor against Doctor Doom, unleash the power of Infi nity, combat Hela in the realm of the dead, set father against son, stage the wedding of Loki and Lady Sif and team up Thor and the Silver Surfer! COLLECTING: VOL. 5: THOR (1966) 175-194

Genres: Comics, Superheroes, Marvel, Fantasy, Comic Book

432 pages, Paperback

Published September 25, 2018

About the author

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was 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, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Reviews

[Tony Romine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thor: The Fall of Asgard collects issues #`175-194 of the original Thor comic series (formerly Journey in Mystery, theses issues date from May '70 - December '71. Except for the last two issues, all of them were written by Stand Lee (who at this point was nearing the end of writing for the major Marvel comics). For the most part this collection is excellent with appearances by classic villains like Loki, Mephisto, The Abomination, and Doctor Doom.  It also features a personal favorite, the Silver Surfer, in a few issues as well.  The artwork is outstanding, some of the best you'll see in Marvel comics.  It also includes a bunch of extra orignal art pages at the end so you can see some of the pages before they add color to them.  The shortcomings of it are that the storylines seem very repetitive, in fact the opening and closing arcs are almost identical:  Loki gets his hands on the Odinring, Odin goes into Odinsleep, and Loki wrecks havoc and Thor tries to stop him, but eventually Odin fixes everything.  The most interesting arc in my opinion is Odin and Thor fighting Infinity, a celestial planet eating foe, it's an epic battle that has some very trippy elements to it.  This is a recommended read!

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is sort of an in-between era for THOR. This volume contains the last stories Jack Kirby illustrated (and, let's face it, plotted and wrote), as well as the last stories that Stan Lee scripted. There's a real stuck-in-neutral vibe to the title at this point, but the art by Kirby, Neal Adams, and John Buscema is just plain gorgeous.

[Mark Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've enjoyed the Thor comics for over 50 years now. Going back and reading these stories again is always a treat. But this one is not the best of the bunch at all, but still a good read. Verily!

[Alex Andrasik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty bog-standard late Silver Age Thor, with a couple of weirdly redundant storylines in quick succession about Odin leaving Asgard to the tender mercies of others. I do have to say, there are a couple interesting, even quite mature elements in a couple of spots, particularly in the "World Beyond/Infinity" story, in which Odin hares off after a mysterious incoming threat whose proximity to the worlds of Gods and men starts to wreak havoc on both; not only is the ultimate identity of threat comparatively sophisticated for this stuff, the fleeting depictions of humans facing their doom are effective and affecting ("Gotta get a car! Gotta get a ride out of town! Can't stay behind -- can't stay here to die!" "Where are we running to? What's the good of it? Things are no better anywhere else." [later] "Some do hide -- and some do flee -- and some do stay to loot -- it matters not! 'Twill be the same. How futile seem their now-deserted instruments of war -- silent they lie -- cold and unfeeling as the fate that beckons."), while Thor's conflict with Hela, goddess of death, is eerie and fairly seriously-drawn. (I love that Hela is depicted as physically bigger than almost everyone else, and is a total badass in pretty much every way.) And the imagery of Infinity as this great clawed hand reaching out to snuff the very stars in undeniably eerie-cool.

But some of the rest of this is just not so good. In one extended arc, it's Loki who takes the throne, as well as the Odin-Ring, which I guess magically enforces obedience on the part of all Asgardians? Seems like a poor way to run a government. I wonder if this is ever depicted again. When Odin returns, the ring isn't shown returning to him, much less there being any indication that he's, like, considering maybe removing that particular clause from the Asgardian Constitution. (It's not clear that it's actually magic that gives the ring its power to enforce obedience. Certainly all of our heroes grumble about the requirement to obey Loki, so it's not like it's a form of mind control - which, if it were, would open up a major moral can of worms in Odin's lap. So it leaves it as some sort of oaths-sworn-are-oaths-held situation, a la Game of Thrones, which could have been an interesting avenue for storytelling. But like, why wouldn't Odin have his subjects swear to his person, rather than to an object that anyone could swipe? And in the end it doesn't really matter because pretty much everyone finds a way to resist and work against this oath they suddenly owe their worst foe.)

Ah well. There's the Simonson era to look forward to.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I mean, ideally, Marvel would've squeezed those last few Jack Kirby stories into the previous Epic Collection, because I read this book more as a Kirby fan than as a Thor fan. But I have to admit, Stan and John kept the epic truly epic with the Infinity storyline. It was fun, and Big John sure can draw nice.

[Albert Ballard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Passing the Torch in Asgard

As Jack Kirby left for DC, changes came to many of Marvel's biggest titles. I came to enjoy the work of his successors. Of course, Stan Lee would stop writing the titles they made so popular. More changes, but it made for some new talent to continue the comics I grew up reading. Great nostalgia. Oddly enough, I found Shakespeare easier after these.

[Vaughn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last volume of Stan Lee writing Thor. It's not bad, and it has several high-stakes stories with threats to Asgard. The first and last stories are quite similar, with Loki taking over Asgard using the Odin Ring.
Stan Lee has had quite a long run of writing Thor, and a lot of it got repetitive. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next writer can do.

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume covers the shift from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to other creators. There’s a bit of sameness to the stories - Odin sleeps, Loki attacks, Balder dies, Thor battles, Sif worries, Earth nears destruction, Odin wakes, Loki runs, Balder lives, everything is put back to how it was.

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun easy read, very much focusing on Loki taking over Asgard.

[Ryan Chang · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork: 🤩🤩
The writing: 😐

[ISMOTU · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final few issues featuring Jack Kirby’s art followed by Neal Adams and John Buscema. Lots of Asgardian shenanigans abound.