Shadow of the Bat

BEFORE I DISCOVERED MARVEL COMICS IN THE MID-1960S, I was something of a Batman fan, specifically the stories of the 1950s (which I enjoyed in the Batman Annuals of the period and last years of the Jack Schiff era in the early 1960s. Back then, the go-to artist for Batman was Shelley Moldoff, who had jettisoned his Golden Age, Alex Raymond influenced style and aped the rather limited and cartoony abilities of Bob Kane.

As a direct literary descendant of the pulp hero The Shadow, Batman did quite a bit of shadow-casting himself, being that he was a "creature of the night, dark, terrible" and all.

Moldoff didn't start as Bob Kane's ghost-artist until the late 1950s, but while I was researching Batman covers for an earlier post, I noticed another strange trope that would crop up again and again in Moldoff's cover art - a weird, Bat-Signal style shadow, cast by Batman.

Forged in simpler times, The Shadow spent quite a bit of his time casting weird shadows, something often referred to in the text as well as being depicted frequently on the covers.

Now, because Batman was largely inspired by the long-running pulp and radio star The Shadow, Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger appropriated quite a lot of the tricks and gimmicks from The Shadow stories. Blending with the darkness, impenetrable disguises and of course, casting weird shadows.

Some examples of Batman shadows on covers of the 1940s. Curiously the cover for Batman 16 is essentially the same as that of Batman 9, just flopped.
Click the image to enlarge.

So it seemed only natural that Batman should do a lot of the same. And indeed, he cast many a shadow on the Batman and Detective Comics covers of his 1940s heyday.

Pencilled by Jim Mooney, this cover to Detective Comics 132 (Feb 1948), does kind of foreshadow the odd, Bat-signal inspired shadows Shelly Moldoff would start drawing on Batman covers almost a decade later.

Then, around the middle of 1956, Curt Swan, who'd been pencilling the Detective Comics covers, and Win Mortimer, who'd been providing pencils for the Batman covers, were both replaced by Sheldon Moldoff. I couldn't find any reason for this in any interviews given by Moldoff, but he does mention that Kane had told him the gig didn't pay much, but would be steady work. My suspicion is that Kane was trying to save himself some money.

Batman 102 was the first to use the stylised shadow trope. It's not immediately obvious, because the colourist used a pastel shade, but it's there. Batman 108 (Jun 1957) and Batman 129 (Feb 1960) would follow.

It wasn't afterwards that Moldoff started slipping these stylised shadows of Batman into the covers he was knocking out for the Bob Kane studio. The earliest one I found was for Batman 102 (Feb 1956). Then there was a short break and another couple cropped up on Batman covers.

As these covers were a little later, the Bat-Shadow is a little more pronounced, solid black instead of an outline filled with colour. Along with Detective 242, there was Detective 246 (Aug 1957) and Detective 286 (Dec 1958).

Over on Detective Comics, the same gimmick was showing up. Detective 242 (Apr 1957) was the first to use the stylise shadow on the cover art, then in the months that followed, the trope would show up several more times.

These early 1960s covers are Batman137 (Feb 1961), Batman 139 (April 1961) and Batman 154 (Mar 1963) - all still rocking the Bat-Signal shadow motif.

As we moved into the early 1960s, Moldoff was using the trick even more frequently, especially on the Detective Comics covers. Though it might just have seemed that way because Detective was a monthly and Batman came out eight times a year.

Detective Comics 298 (Dec 19161), 302 (Apr 1962), 304 (Jun 1962), 306 (Aug 1962), 315 (May 1963) and 320 (Oct 1963).

Then a curious thing happened. Faced with declining sales, DC were considering cancelling the Batman title. It has been reported elsewhere that DC had been thinking about cancelling Batman, but it seems unlikely that anyone would think discontinuing the flagship title - the very comic that gave DC its name, Detective Comics - could ever be a good idea. Whether the story is true or not, it does seem like DC used it to get Bob Kane to loosen his grip on the character, allowing incoming editor Julius Schwartz (replacing Jack Kirby's old nemesis Jack Schiff) to give the character a sleek makeover, getting rid of the aliens and mutations and placing Batman in a more realistic environment. Carmine Infantino was drafted in to redesign the look, and although Sheldon Moldoff would survive the cull, he'd start drawing more like Infantino and less like Bob Kane.

But that's not all. The strange Bat-Signal shadow would continue to show up ... even on covers pencilled by Infantino. The idea was like chewing gum - impossible to shake off. The earliest instances were on the Detective Comics covers ...

Detective Comics 328 (Infantino art, Jun 1964), 344 (Infantino art, Oct 1965), 349 (Kubert art, Mar 1966), 351 (Infantino art, May 1966), 354 (Infantino art, Aug 1966), 358 (Infantino art, Dec 1966).

But later, it started showing up on the Batman covers, too, albeit a little bit later and on covers pencilled by a variety of artists.

Batman 195 (Infantino art, Sep 1967), 203 (Infantino/Adams art, Jul 19168), 204 (Novick art, Aug 1968), 214 (Novick art, Aug 1969), 216 (Novick/Giordano art, Nov 1969), 217 (Adams art, Dec 1969).

And finally, even Batgirl started getting in on the Bat-Signal shadow action, though curiously Robin never rated a special shadow of his own.

Detective Comics 358 (Infantino art, Jan 1967), 369 (Gil Kane art, Nov 1967).

The weird Shadow of the Batman device continued up until about 1970 or so, then pretty much died out as new artists came in and regard for the character's history naturally waned away.

Even so, there are a few examples of this phenomenon during the 1970s as well, but as this blog has the phrase "Silver Age" in its title, I don't like to wander too far into the Bronze Age.

If you want to see more, you can always go to the Grand Comicbook Database and have a browse through the covers stored there ... I'm not going to do all the work for you.

Next: Ads in the comics

Thor - The Legend Years: Part 3

FOR MOST OF 1965, Journey into Mystery, Marvel's vehicle for the adventures of Thor, had increasingly come to focus on Thor the Thunder God rather than on Thor the Superhero. Starting with "The Trial of the Gods" in Journey into Mystery 116 (May 1965) we would see a lot more of Odin, Balder and the ever-machinating machinations of Thor's half-brother and arch enemy Loki, God of Mischief.

Though mostly reprints, the first Marvel Annual to feature Thor gave us a 15-page battle between the Asgardian God of Thunder and Hercules, son of Zeus.

Around the same time, Stan and Jack threw us another curve-ball and, in the first Journey into Mystery Annual (Aug 1965), introduced Hercules and the pantheon of Greek Gods.

There are some odd plotting decisions in this story, which lead me to think this was largely Kirby's work. To begin with, if I had an adopted brother who'd already tried to kill me several times, I doubt I'd be socialising with him, especially unaccompanied by witnesses. And even if this were a good idea, I'd have have picked somewhere other than Jotunheim, shown to be home of the diabolical Snake Men in JiM 113?

The story title, "When Titans Clash" is pretty much the whole thing. Out for a pony trek with his evil kid brother, Thor comes across a couple of Storm giants up to no good. Thor casually mentions that they're trying to dig their way back to Olympus home of the Greek Gods, from whence they were banished centuries before. After a bit of argy-bargy, Thor falls down a hole and emerges in Olympus.

The first meeting of Thor and Hercules is straight out of the Sherwood Forest playbook, when Robin and Little John both refuse to give way on a narrow bridge. The ensuing eight pages of carnage all seem a bit pointless ... like a WWF wrestling match.

Pretty much the first person he meets is Hercules, son of Zeus. For no reason that makes any sense, the pair start fighting an escalating battle of godly super-strength, until Zeus shows up and boxes their ears for them. Thor is sent back to Asgard, but decides to keep the existence of Olympus to himself, for fear Loki will attempt to make mischief with the knowledge - though doesn't Loki already know that was the entrance to Olympus because Thor told him so at the start of the story? That's it.

Astonishingly, Zeus finds the Thor-Hercules battle to be "honorable", when he should actually be paddling the pair of them for being arrogant, thick-headed idiots ...

As Marvel Annuals go, this one isn't in the league of those of the previous year. Of the 15-page new story, eight pages are just panel after panel of punching, without a whiff of motivation. And with just a two-page panorama of Asgard as the bonus feature and reprints of some key earlier Thor stories, the thrill factor is a bit lacking.

What is important - and probably accounts for the very high prices being asked for even tatty reading copies of this book - is that it introduces Hercules and Olympus to the Thor canon. And, as you'll see, Stan and Jack would be quick to capitalise on that, and starting to downplay the mortal persona of Don Blake (not even mentioned in the Annual story) and to minimise the use of Earth as a backdrop for the next round of Thor's adventures.

I'm doubtful that a regular Earth steel furnace would be strong enough to repair Thor's broken Mjolnir ... shouldn't he have taken it to Asgard to have it serviced by trolls or something?

After the sidebar of the JiM Annual, the main storyline continued in Journey into Mystery 120 (Sep 1965) without missing a beat. While repairing his hammer damaged in the battle against The Destroyer, Thor enjoys a macho male-bonding moment with some steel workers before heading out into the country side to commune with nature and check that he has all the magic pebble he confiscated from sneaky Loki.

To show what a mensch Thor is, Stan has him plead with his father to go easy on Loki. After all, he can't help being a douche.

But, unnoticed by the Thunder God, he drops one of the Norn Stones, important because this will come back to bite him later. Meanwhile, Loki is in a bit of a huff, after being demoted by Odin to assistant to Asgardian mage Ularic and is already plotting his revenge.

So, Thor nips back to Earth to check up on his love interest Nurse Jane Foster but finds Don Blake's surgery all closed up and the landlord knocking on the door demanding rent. Where has Jane disappeared to? In a bit of a panic, Thor starts combing the city, even considering enlisting the newly-formed Avengers v2.0 in his quest. I guess Thor can be forgiven for not recognising Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as he has been a bit busy since the lineup changed in Avengers 16 (May 1965).

This is what you get for taking your eye off the ball. While you're trying to find your girlfriend (could she have ditched you for someone else, like she did once before?) your brother has teamed up with your worst enemy to mess you up for good.

Even as a kid, I found the whole "romantic" sub-plot of Thor-pining-for-Jane-Foster a bit tiresome. I'm sure Stan was going for Shakespearian tragedy here, but to my ten-year old sensibilities, it just seemed that Thor was being a whiney little wimp. Anyhow, while the Thunder God's acting like a lovesick teenager, Loki is getting his game on and planning the mother of all comebacks for the foe that nearly defeated Thor last time ... ladies and gentlemen, Crusher Creel, The Absorbing Man.

A rare instance in Marvel Comics where the stature of the villain on the cover is literal instead of symbolic. Yes, Crusher Creel really is thirty feet tall in the story.

Journey into Mystery 121 (Oct 1965) is where Stuff Gets Real. Essentially a 13-page slugfest between Thor and Crusher Creel, the Kirby action barely pauses to take a breath. Yet the 13 pages pivot on Creel's ability to absorb the properties of his surroundings: bricks, Thor's uru hammer, Thor himself, concrete and steel of buildings, glass(!), and the iron of a bank vault.

The Absorbing Man is a great villain to pit against Thor (despite the daft name). As an antagonist he was less effective against other heroes, like his later appearance in Avengers 183-184 (May-Jun 1979).

The only three non-battle pages in the entire episode reveal a little of the sly plottings of Loki behind the whole drama and a glimpse of Jane Foster's captivity at the hands of a mysterious hooded figure. As with the recent Journey into Mystery Annual story, the persona of Don Blake isn't mentioned, though he would be back in Journey into Mystery 122, as the mystery of the hooded man is resolved.

Only three of the pages in JiM 121 carry the plot forward, and one of those doesn't do much except remind us that Thor has dropped one of the Norn Stones in the middle of a forest somewhere, where it still lies.

It's an enjoyable episode, though there's little in the way of bones to hang an actual story on. Kirby always excels at this kind of action-oriented tale and it does kind of feel that Stan Lee was already starting to leave Jack a bit to his own devices. I don't really mind that here, but page 12 does feel like it was tossed in for a bit of padding at the last minute.

Great cover, interestingly not inked by the hackmanlike Vince Colletta, but by former EC superstar and Marvel newcomer Wally Wood. Wood was also contributing art to Daredevil around this period and inks on Avengers 22 (Nov 1965).

As the story continues in Journey into Mystery 122 (Nov 1965), we get to see Loki's masterplan unfold. Where in the past - for example in the battle he'd engineered between The Destroyer and Thor - he'd been a little wary of incurring the wrath of Odin, this time he's about to challenge his adoptive father head-on.

Even as Crusher Creel thinks he has Thor beaten, the Thunder God's fighting spirit causes him to redouble his efforts and suddenly the Absorbing Man sees his fortunes take a downward turn. But Loki, monitoring all this from Asgard, snatches his pawn away from the battle just as Creel's defeat looks inevitable, transporting the thug to Asgard itself. This is a pretty risky move by Loki ... if his plan to wrest control of Odin's throne doesn't pan out, he's going to get a lot worse than a spell of indentured servitude to Ularic.

Isn't it lucky that Asgardian sorcerer Ularic has this handy Attractor Beam in his workshop so that Loki can rescue his proxy warrior Crusher Creel from near-defeat by Thor and haul his thuggish carcass to Asgard?

Thor, being nobody's fool, recognises that Creel's vanishment can only mean that Loki has transported his henchperson to Asgard. But before he can set out in pursuit, a disturbance from above attracts his attention. In the mother of all coincidences, it's the captured Jane Foster. Thor smashes his way into the apartment then, despite not knowing just who Jan's captor is, transforms into his mortal identity of Don Blake. Astonishingly, the abductor simply takes a picture of Don Blake, then reveals his identity as reporter Harris Hobbs, whom Thor had befriended in an earlier battle against Crusher Creel.

Now, I have more than a few problems with this plot twist.

1. Why would Hobbs ever suspect Thor had a mortal identity?
2. Even if he did suspect such a thing, why would he - from past experience a decent and honest journalist - put his friend Thor on the spot by threatening to expose his dual identity? Especially when Thor saved his life (JiM114)
   
   
   
   
   
3. Why would Hobbs terrorise an innocent young woman just to get a story - especially when kidnapping and false imprisonment is a pretty serious crime, regardless of the intention.

It's the worst kind of plot-driven storytelling, so I strongly suspect we can lay this one at Jack Kirby's door, though I couldn't say why Editor Stan didn't get this "reveal" redrawn into something more plausible. Deadline problems?

Faced with either saving Asgard from Loki and Creel or saving Jane Foster, Thor goes with Jane ... I think Stan and Jack missed a trick here by not making it more of an agonising decision.

Even as Loki and his attack dog Creel are invading Asgard, Thor is still on Earth, playing patty fingers with Jane Foster. He doesn't seem in much of a hurry to tear himself away to deal with Loki's threat to Asgard, but drops everything when he gets a call from reporter Hobbs. By the time Thor agrees to return to Asgard - taking Hobbs along for the story of the century - Loki and Creel have already reached Odin's throne room ... and things aren't looking too great for the monarch of the gods.

Even more surprising, Don Blake hangs around on Earth to minister to Jane, as Asgard is being systematically demolished by Creel and his wrecking ball.

Yet, as bad as things may seem right now, they're about to get even worse when, in the next issue, we get to learn the fate of the missing Norn Stone.

As mentioned in my May 2021 blog entry, this cover shows signs of art department tampering. The original drawing by Jack Kirby had no floating heads. The added vignettes were lifted from interior art panels from this and the previous issue.

Journey into Mystery 123 (Dec 1965) ties up the "Absorbing Man in Asgard" storyline and introduces a new menace ... the Norn Stone powered Demon. Interestingly, until now, I'd forgotten that Kirby had drawn this earlier version of The Demon seven years before his DC Comics character of the same name.

This whole sequence - with Thor surprised by Loki and Creel's attack on Asgard - indicates that Stan hadn't re-read JiM 122 before embarking on the script for this issue.

When Thor arrives in Asgard with his unwelcome companion reporter Harris Hobbs, he seems a little surprised that Crusher Creel is already there. Yet, in the previous issue, Thor recognised the beam that transported the Absorbing Man away from almost certain defeat to be the Attractor Beam of Asgardian court magician Ularic. Judging from Stan's recap of the story so far on the first page of JiM 123, I'd say that Editor Stan just forgot that Thor did in fact suspect that Loki has transported Creel to Asgard.

In setting up the next menace to threaten Thor, some ramshackle plotting is manfully papered over by Stan, asking us to accept that the dropped Norn Stone (see issue 120) is flitting about the planet under its own power.

But just as The Absorbing Man begins his attack on Odin himself, we cut away to the jungles of Mongolia, where the Norn Stone has mysteriously dropped within the grasp of an un-named village shaman. Thor had examined the Stones shortly after leaving Pittsburg (JiM 120), inadvertently dropping a stone in some woodland just outside the city. Stan deftly scripts over this creaking plot-hole by telling us that the Norn Stone cannot remain in one place for very long and randomly transports itself to new locations.

The stone charges the shaman with Asgardian power and sets about beating the tar out of his communist oppressors, then returns to his panic-stricken village congregation.

Loki and Crusher Creel are so busy bickering over who will wield Odin's sceptre of power that they fail to recognise its status is merely ceremonial. And for all his scheming, Hobbs discovers that fate has a way of punishing the deserving.

Back in Asgard, Loki and his attack dog appear to be on a roll. Every force Odin hurls at them, Crusher Creel simply hurls back. Though Thor pleads with his father to be allowed to deal with the evil pair, Odin seems unruffled and calmly hands over his sceptre of power when Loki demands it. Of course, simply holding the Supreme Sceptre isn't enough to rule Asgard, as Loki finds out when Odin propels him - and his thuggish ally - into the endless depths of space.

But this doesn't mean that Thor's troubles are over. There's still the Demon to deal with ... and Stan and Jack bring back Hercules to further complicate things.

Hercules must have been a hit with readers in Journey into Mystery Annual 1 (1965), as Stan and Jack waste no time in bringing him back, making him the main focus of the cover and adding Thor's battle with the Demon almost as an afterthought.

The first Journey into Mystery of the new year is 124 (Jan 1966) and starts with a few pages of Thor on Earth and some unnecessary comedy shtick - a policeman orders Thor now to swing his hammer on a crowded street as he doesn't have a permit. But there's a telling scene in which a little girl tells Thor her daddy is fighting in Viet Nam and Thor delivers a speech about "brave patriots" like her daddy "holding aloft the torch of liberty".

This sequence of Thor interacting with the public still has glimmers of Marvel's strong anti-communist position that ran through their comics from the mid 1950s to the mid-1960s.

I think Stan and Jack can be forgiven for this 1965 viewpoint. Both had served in the US Army during World War II, when the enemy was far more clearly identifiable. But Viet Nam was a murkier situation and with no direct threat to the United States, public opinion was turning against America's involvement in South-East Asia. Just a few short years later Stan, along with the rest of the country, was taking a less hawkish stance regarding the Viet Nam war. In an unaired 1968 television talk show, Stan declared, “I would never defend the war in Viet Nam. I think it’s an utterly indefensible war. I think it’s a ridiculous war.”

But on with the story ...

Thor's next stop is to check up on the wellbeing of Jane Foster who - mysteriously - does not seem to be responding to medical treatment. The problem appears to be to strange and frequent disappearances of Don Blake ... so Thor does the only sensible thing. He reveals his double identity to Jane. And as you might imagine, Odin is not best pleased at this development. Now, I think that's a pretty big plot development and I'm kind of surprised that Stan didn't trumpet it on the cover. But for whatever reason, the return of Hercules seemed more important.

Thor's decision to reveal his secret to Jane Foster does seem a little abrupt and unheralded. I would have thought Stan and Jack might have strung it out a little more to milk the drama, perhaps making it the cliff-hanger of the issue ...

While all this is going on, The Demon is gathering an army in Asia and increasing his grip in the region. So despite his promise to not leave Jane Foster again, Thor decides duty comes first and sets off to stop the unstoppable Demon ... and at the same time Zeus despatches Hercules to look into these strange, unprecedented occurrences on Earth.

I'm still not sure why it's such a big issue for Odin that Thor reveals his mortal identity. As with Superman, it's the civilian person that's the false construct, so what's the harm? Regardless, there will be consequences.

The scene is set for a monumental three-handed confrontation ... but surprisingly, that's not what happens.

It's a strangely cryptic cover ... no mention of the villain of the piece The Demon, and just the barest hint of Hercules' presence is depicted, even though he'd been the main part of the previous issue's cover.

In Journey into Mystery 125 (Feb 1966) - the last of the title before it officially changed to The Mighty Thor - Hercules is finally given something to do. But it's not related to the ongoing villain of the last couple of issues, The Demon. In fact, Thor's dispatch of the holder of the Norn Stone is a little underwhelming, in that it happens so quickly and easily ...

It's a bit like Bugs Bunny in a Warner Bros cartoon. Thor plugs the end of the bad guy's cannon which backfires, leaving The Demon with a sooty face.

The Demon's power is no match for Thor's, so the former village shaman tries to use heavy artillery instead. Thor jams the muzzle of the cannon, which explodes, taking out The Demon and a few of his henchmen. The Norn Stone is recovered and that's the end of that plot-thread.

For daring to reveal his true self to Don Blake's nurse Jane Foster, Thor is sentenced to undergo the Ritual of Steel, which he may or may not survive. Boy, that Odin's strict.

However, back in Asgard, Thor must now face the anger of Odin for revealing his true identity to the love of his life Jane Foster. Thor is forced to fight the elite of Asgard's warriors ... but rather than battle to the inevitable outcome, Thor chooses to flee to Earth, where more drama awaits.

If you just substituted Superman for Thor and Lois Lane for Jane Foster, this scene would play like a Weisinger-era DC comic.

While Tor is trying to avoid the rather over-the-top punishment meted out by Odin, Hercules has arrived in New York and has wasted no time in attracting the attention of Jane Foster ... there follows some clunky plotting, driven by jealousy and misunderstanding, leading to another battle between the two evenly-matched heroes ... though we'd be made to wait till the following issue to see any actual scrapping between Thor and Herc.

As you can see, my copy is a little tanned around the edges. Removing the "Journey into Mystery" part of the logo does have the added benefit of giving us a bit more space for Kirby's art.

With issue 126 (Apr 1966), Journey into Mystery became The Mighty Thor, or just Thor for short. But the story carried on as if nothing had happened.

Once again, most of the issue is taken up with endless pages of typical Kirby action. It's great stuff, but I kind of wonder why Kirby was squabbling over plotting credits when there isn't a great deal of plotting going on.

Essentially, the two gods bash the living heck out of each other for ten of the sixteen pages of this episode. And while that's happening, Odin is stroking his beard, wondering how he can punish his wayward son for wanting to date a girl he doesn't approve of. 

While Odin is removing half of Thor's power, Hercules drops an apartment building on the Thunder God ... which does seem like the definition of excessive force.

In the end, he decides to remove half of Thor's power ... but unable to do it himself, he relinquishes his "Odin power" to a dodgy-looking advisor called Seidring (and you just know that's not going to end well).

With half his strength gone, Thor is no match for the son of Zeus, who wins by a knock-out in the final round. Then, in a surprising turnaround, Odin admits to Jane that he may have over-reacted, and sends her after Thor.

Seidring obliges and half Thor's strength is removed ... whereupon Hercules pounds him into the dust. Yet Odin surprises us by showing a little sympathy, and tells Jane that Thor needs her support right now.

That's a pretty powerful cover - one of the best of the era. It certainly made me pick up that issue in 1966 when it hit the spinner racks.

The second issue of The Mighty Thor, 127 (May 1966), polishes off the Seidring story arc and foreshadows the next adventure by introducing us to Pluto, Greek God of the Underworld. I'll save my recounting to the Pluto saga for another time and stick with Seidring for the moment.

We start off with Thor feeling a bit sorry for himself, after his defeat at the hands of Hercules. He even rails against Jane, saying that in defeat he now feels unworthy of her love. Nothing Jane says can convince Thor that he has no reason to be ashamed, but Thor won't take a telling and hurtles off into the sky.

The story starts off with Thor being a bit churlish about having his head handed to him by Hercules - not through cowardice or stupidity, but because his father removed half his strength.

Meanwhile, in Asgard, Odin is also feeling a bit ashamed - as well he might. So much so that he seems to forget that he's given over his godly power to sneaky advisor Seidring, who grabs the opportunity to defy Odin with both hands.

A few mystic bolts later, Odin is on the floor with his former advisor gloating over him. Not even Balder and the other Asgardian warriors are much help. However, Thor has chosen the right time to return to Asgard.

So, of course Seidring - who we'd never seen before this story arc - turns on his king and uses Odin's own power against him. Yet even as that is happening Thor is rushing to his father's aid, the recent punishment all but forgotten.

Though Thor possesses just half his normal power, he not only faces off against Seidring, but through sheer willpower and indomitable spirit, claws his way to the legendary Odin-Sword and threatens to draw it - thereby precipitating Ragnarok - unless Seidring relinquishes the Odin-Power.

Realising that Thor is not bluffing, Odin's senior counsellor doesn't have the stomach to call Thor's bluff, and Odin's power is restored to him ... but at great cost. Thor collapses over the Odin Sword, his strength spent.

Heedless for his own safety, and ignoring the fact that he possesses only half his strength, Thor hurls himself at Odin's attacker, using cunning and willpower to force Seidring to surrender the Odin-Power.

The final scene has Odin gather up his son, remorseful over judging him so harshly.

From here on in, the Thor title would move the God of Thunder away from Earth-bound adventures and focus on other worlds and realities. After this Asgard-set story, the next arc would take place in Olympus and related realms (Thor 128-131). Then Stan and Jack would turn their attention to other galaxies and have Thor thwart an invasion of Earth by Coloniser Tana Nile and her felow Rigellians (Thor 132-133).

But this can wait till another time ...

Next: The Shadow of the Bat

Thor - The Legend Years: Part 2

LAST TIME, WE LEFT THOR standing amid the ruins of deserted mansion, having defeated Mr Hyde and The Cobra, holding the stricken form of Jane Foster in his arms. Jane would recover, of course, but we wouldn't be party to that in the very next issue of Journey into Mystery.

Journey into Mystery 112 (Jan 1965) featured the "untold" story of Thor's epic battle with The Hulk during the earliest days of The Avengers.

Strangely, Thor's next outing in the title would be a kind of filler issue which gave us a flashback to the events of Avengers 3 (Jan 1964), a year earlier, in which Thor and his teammates battled former Avenger The Hulk and his new chum, The Sub-Mariner.

Quite why Stan and Jack chose to run this flashback at this particular time is lost in the mists of history. But in retrospect, I've wondered if it didn't start with Stan saying, "Hey, let's have Thor fight The Hulk in the next issue of Journey." Then Jack came up with the resulting 13 pages of carnage - and three page framing sequence - on his own. I can't help thinking that if this were Stan's work, there would be more storytelling, a reference to Jane's health and some glimpse of Thor's life as Dr Don Blake. But, no ... what we get is a brawl, full of sound and fury (and not a little rage) that goes, well, nowhere, really. It's great fun, but doesn't advance the saga of Thor one bit.

Stan and Jack use an argument between the Thor and Hulk fan clubs to frame a flashback to the time of Avengers 3 and an "untold" battle between the Thunder God and the Big Angry Green Guy.

But what it does do is mark the beginning of a transition in the Thor strip. For me, this and the next couple of issue denote a watermark, where I see Stan stepping back a bit from involvement in the overall direction and plotting of the Thor feature and the hand of Jack Kirby being more evident.

For me, this issue marks the end of Thor as a super-hero series, pitting the two strongest Marvel characters agains each other. Journey into Mystery 113 would see the start of more Asgardian characters showing up in the storylines at least for the next twenty or so issues.

With that in mind, it's easy to see now, in retrospect, that Journey into Mystery 112 does have the feel of a filler issue. Lots of big, impactful panels means less drawing for Jack, perhaps buying him time while he pondered where to take the storyline next. Not that he'd need it ... for in the very next issue, we get a lot more Asgard, without treading on the toes of the "Tales of Asgard" series ...

At first glance, Journey into Mystery 113 (Feb 1965) probably looked a lot like the superhero Thor tales that came before - the cover certainly pitches it that way - but as you get into the story, you realise there's a lot more mythology going on here than previously.

Journey into Mystery 113 sports a fairly standard superhero cover, yet more than a third of the 16 page lead story is devoted to action and machinations in Asgard ... yet not even mentioned in Stan's cover lines.

The story opens with a spectacular action prologue, where Kirby really pulls out all the stops to immerse us in Asgardian mythic action. It's not clear who the Demon Men of Jotunheim (whom the Asgardians are fighting) are, but it doesn't really matter too much. All we need to know is that Thor acquits himself admirably in the eyes of his father, which make his almost instant fall from grace more of a surprise.

Battle action in Asgard: Odin and his warriors attack the Demon Men of Jotunheim (whoever they are) and bust a few heads. Not quite sure about Thor's cry of "For Asgard and freedom", as it appears the Asgardians are the aggressors here ...

Doggedly, Thor returns to Midgard, determined to reveal his true identity to the object of his affections, Jane Foster. It was always a bit of a mystery to me - I would have first read this comic when I was almost 11 years old - why Don Blake would give up being Thor for a girl. Not even a cool girl, but a complete wimp like Jane Foster. I don't know whether it was Stan or Jack who bears responsibility for the way Jane is portrayed and that Thor is so drawn to her. In retrospect, it seems more in keeping with 1950s sensibilities than those of the 1960s. Perhaps the intention was to deliberately make Jane unheroic and "normal" to create a greater contrast between her and Thor. Or perhaps it was the last glimmerings of Don Blake's personality that caused the attraction. Or maybe Jack (or Stan) just got it wrong. Whatever the cause, we'd see an effort to tie up that storyline over the next year or so.

"No really ... I'm Thor. Look, I'll show you ... wait, what? My hammer doesn't work!"

So Thor tries to show Jane that he and Don Blake are one and the same, but Odin - a bit cross - has removed Thor's power and he's stuck in his Don Blake persona. This is the point where The Grey Gargoyle crashes through the window of his surgery. And for the next few pages, a powerless Blake tries to protect himself and Jane Foster from the seemingly unstoppable villain ... which is a bit of a flashback to Journey into Mystery 107 (Aug 1964), where Thor was also forced to battle the Gargoyle in his Don Blake identity.

But Blake has friends in Asgard, and a mysterious helper is watching over Blake and Jane Foster. Odin isn't quite as hard-hearted as we're led to believe, and has despatched an Asgardian warrior, Honir the Hunter, to help Blake in his near-hopeless battle against his super-powered foe.

Just when things look darkest, help arrives in the form of an Asgardian warrior, Honir, who restores Thor's power long enough to deal with the pesky Grey Gargoyle.

It all ends with Don Blake thinking that it may be rash of him to give up his Thor identity for the love of a mortal ... though he'd continue to waver over the next several issues.

Journey into Mystery 114 introduced a terrific new villain, The Absorbing Man. A career criminal, Crusher Creel is all powered up by Loki solely for the purpose of defeating Thor.

Journey into Mystery 114 (Mar 1965) has Loki once again coming up with a plot to defeat his hated adopted brother. This time, though he uses his Asgardian magic to give a sociopathic mortal - the criminal Crusher Creel - the ability to absorb the characteristics of anything he comes into contact with, including living beings.

The issue opens with a slam-bang action sequence that ladles on the excitement. An "enemy agent" is escaping at high speed in a modified racing car pursued by Thor. Quite why Thor - a Norwegian god - would care about an enemy agent escaping from American authorities with some artefact that isn't explained or identified is a bit of a mystery, in retrospect.

Who is the "enemy agent"? Why is he fleeing from Thor? Where did he get the racing car from? Who gave him a high tech blaster to threaten Thor with? Does it really matter?

It does however, serve to lead into yet another failed attempt to ruin Thor's day by Loki, self-styled god of mischief. And no sooner has Loki applied the power pill to Creel's water glass, than we switch to Dr Don Blake's surgery where an injured reporter is promising to let the doctor know when he locates the recently escaped super-convict. Though, again, it's not explained why the reporter thinks Blake would be interested.

"Button nose"? Really? Even as a ten-year old I thought this was pretty mushy stuff. I was counting the days till we saw the back of Blake's nauseating infatuation with the wimpy nurse.

Nevertheless, that snippet of information is enough to get Doctor Don to transform into Thor and nose around in the Black Mountain Swamp area, looking for the super-powered crim.

Show rather than tell - Jack Kirby's storytelling skills quickly allow us to see the full extent of Creel's abilities and that the pesky reporter just gets in the way.

Then just when we think this is a standard, Thor-battles-another-super-strong-villain yarn ... it all takes a sharp left turn to Asgard, where the wily Loki has kidnapped Jane Foster (again) and brought her to the realm of the Norse gods. So Thor takes off to rescue Jane, leaving The Absorbing Man thinking he's beaten Thor.

Just as Thor is realising that The Absorbing Man can match his power, Balder arrives with a message that Jane Foster has been carried away to Asgard by crafty Loki ... and there will be much rueing of the day ...

All of this sets us up for a longer storyline, with more mythology and a little less superheroics, as the action shifts away from Midgard and things get out of hand in Asgard. But first, Thor has to deal with Crusher Creel ...

Not the best cover of the run, and I do wonder that if there'd been more time in the schedule whether Stan would have asked this one to be reworked.

Journey into Mystery 115 (Apr 1965) opens as Thor arrives in Asgard to confront Loki and rescue Jane Foster. Unusually, Loki actually takes on Thor in a physical fight. Not known for his courage, this is an out-of character move for the God of Mischief. Though the outcome is never in doubt, the battle is interrupted by Odin, who puts a stop to the fighting in his own omnipotent way ... though for an omnipotent being, he's a bit easily taken in by Loki's clumsy lies.

I would imagine that the physical fight between Thor and Loki is something Jack would have put in to add a bit of action to the story, but for me it doesn't sit well with the cowardly, sneaky persona Stan had built up for Loki over the previous couple of years.

All of this results in Odin ordering the "Trial of the Gods". Whatever that is, it completely blew my tiny 11-year-old mind. Who knew that gods could be put on trial? But before that happens, Thor is granted permission to return Jane Foster to Midgard, and to settle up with Crusher Creel, The Absorbing Man.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, the rather unpleasant Crusher Creel has staged a home invasion, and is currently terrorising a defenceless suburban couple. Fortunately, Thor and the reporter Harris Hobbs arrive just in time to save the hapless husband from being crushed by Crusher.

This home invasion scene is a little brutal for a kids' comic. Again, this feels like something Kirby would have added, and indicates that he's putting a bit more into the story development at this point.

A mighty battle ensures, in which Creel absorbs an escalating variety forms - iron, fire and, penultimately, "every element from the earth beneath". But Thor has a sneaky trick up his sleeve (I know he doesn't have a sleeve). Using some hitherto unmentioned power of his hammer, he converts Crusher Creel into helium and watches as the villain floats away ... indeed, a tonitrua deus ex machina (look it up).

The ending is a bit convenient. It's never been mentioned before that Thor has the power to transmute elements, and I suspect the ending would have been different if Stan had been plotting this.

All that remains is for Thor to swing his hammer majestically, check up on the still-unconscious Jane Foster, then hie to Asgard where Odin, Loki and the Trial of the Gods awaits.

After seeing Thor battle "the Reds", Mr Hyde and The Cobra and The Lava Man, this version of Thor was strange and oddly disturbing.

I don't think Journey into Mystery 116 (May 1965) was the first Thor book I bought as a kid, but it's the one I have the strongest memories of. I'm fairly sure I came to it without having seen the issues immediately preceding it, because I can remember being a bit confused by the story, and thought the environment Thor found himself in was completely alien to the other Thor stories I'd read.

The premise is that Loki has kidnapped Jane Foster and brought her to Asgard then, when found out, blames it on Thor. Odin, for his part should be a bit more sympathetic to his son, but strangely isn't.

Bong! Let the Trial of the Gods begin. Though, in reality, all this could have been avoided if Odin has just listened to his decent son and not to his scallywag son ... but you know parents.

Instead, he insists the two foes undergo a trial by combat (not a trial in courtroom, as I had surmised from the cover), and dispatches the pair, weaponless, to the hostile land of Skornheim. From there, they'll have to fight there way home using only their natural strengths and wits.

Except that Loki is a cheating little sh*t and has brought some magic gems to rig the trial in his favour, and uses them to show Thor being menaced by The Enchantress and The Executioner (again!).

Fortunately, Thor's friend Balder the Brave, gets wind of Loki's little scheme and interrupt's Odin's yearly bath to inform him of this rotten ruse to sway the outcome of the Trial. Clad in his bathrobe and fluffy slippers, Odin confirms Balder's story, and despatches him to head off The Enchantress and The Executioner at the pass.

Back on Earth, Jane Foster is being dragged off by two Asgardian allies of Loki. Strangely, the passersby in the street rush to Jane's aid, which is strangely out of character for Kirby's Kast of Kharacters, who usually think unearthly happenings are either publicity stunts or none of their business.

Meanwhile, a member of Rick Jones' Teen Brigade has also spotted to two Asgardian villains menacing Jane Foster and desperately radios around, trying to enlist the aid of some other superheroes, but to no avail. I'm not really sure what the point of this sequence is as it doesn't add much, other than to showcase cameo appearances of some of the other Marvel characters, perhaps by way of product placement.

Finally, Balder arrives to help Jane Foster, but will he prevail aganst the two villains? And at the very end of the Trial, Thor struggles to catch the cheating Loki. (Apologies for the poor scans, but Colletta's scratchy inking doesn't reproduce well in these collected editions.)

We leave the story with Thor in Skornheim, trying and failing to catch up with Loki, and Balder preparing to intercept The Enchantress and her cloddish companion. Strangely, The Executioner makes no mention of having been turned into a tree by The Enchantress back in Journey into Mystery 103. Other than that, things aren't looking too good.

This issue marks quite a few changes in the path of the Thor strip. First, 12 of the 16 pages are set in Asgard, or adjacent realms, with just four page of Earthly action. Though this was far from a smooth or even transition, it would continue as (I'm assuming) Kirby began to distance Thor from his ties to Midgard.

The next change was that we lose the smooth inking of Chic Stone and instead are inexplicably lumbered with the spidery penmanship of Vince Colletta, an inker whose work I never liked. Reading later accounts of the period, I gather that Colletta ran an inking shop and always guaranteed to do the cheapest work for publishers ... which explains a lot. Notorious for erasing pencil art he couldn't be bothered to ink, Colletta always managed to make the worst of any penciller he was inking.

And finally, here is where the Thor strip begins to turn away from Earth-bound adventures and, by setting the action in strange and wondrous locations, emphasises to idea that Thor is a god, not a superhero. And aside from the unfamiliar terrain the stories are set in, the other thing that disturbed me a little when I was a kid was the stern and cold demeanour of Odin towards his supposedly favourite son. Maybe that was deliberate, as it definitely made me empathise with Thor's plight. Because what kid hasn't felt fear and frustration over not being believed by a parent? All in all, and unsettling but compelling read for an eleven year old.

The episode in Journey into Mystery 117 is a brief diversion from the main plotline, in which Thor becomes involved with a hapless family, victims of the war in Vietnam.

Then, after all the breathless action in issue 116, Journey into Mystery 117 (Jun 1965) is a bit of a pause in the story. Stan and Jack use it to clean up the loose ends from The Trial of the Gods, which takes up about seven pages. 

To cover up that he'd cheated in the Trial of the Gods, Loki sends the Norn Stones to Midgard where "Thor will never find them." Meanwhile, just by showing up, Balder spooks The Enchantress and The Executioner into abandoning their attempt to kidnap Jane Foster. 

The remaining nine pages are taken up with Thor travelling to Earth where Loki has concealed the Norn Stones. His quest takes him to South-East Asia and there follows the nearest thing Stan gets, so far, to criticising the war in Vietnam, with a subplot about a family torn apart when the eldest son joins the Communist cause.

Thor quickly tracks the hidden Norn Stones to Vietnam and is befriended by a South Vietnamese family, which results in tragedy and death. 

For the most part, Marvel in the Silver Age mostly avoided commenting on the touchy political topics of the day, and Vietnam was an especially hot potato. Stan finally addressed the matter of political commentary a couple of years after JiM 117, in the first few Bullpen Bulletins - April and October 1967. I've already covered those editorials in an earlier instalment, so I won't rehash them here, except to say that though Stan first protests that Marvel is simply here to entertain, he'd get a bit more serious in the later bulletin, asking readers if they thought Marvel should take a stance on contemporary political issues. But the question went mostly unanswered, until incoming younger scripters like Denny O'Neil, Steve Gerber and Steve Englehart were able to make their own views on The Issues of the Day plain in the stories they were writing.

So impressive as a villain is The Destroyer that he was chosen as the antagonist for the first Thor movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Journey into Mystery 118 (Jul 1965) introduced a new and terrifying foe for the God of Thunder. There was a hero of that name during the Golden Age, appearing in All-Winner Comics 2 (Oct 1941) and cropping up in various Timely comics until the end of WWII. Thor's version of the character would be comparatively underused, appearing in Thor Annual 2 (1966), Thor 151 (Apr 1968), controlled by Sif, and Thor 228 (Oct 1974), where he becomes the herald of Galactus to free Firelord. The name would be adopted by Jim Starlin for his version of The Destroyer, Drax, in Iron Man 55 (Feb 1973).

From the opening encounter with a US Army helicopter, Thor manages a couple of lines of dialogue before he lands and encounters the hunter. So, still in Vietnam, then.

After his run-in with the Viet Cong in the jungles of Vietnam, Thor is about to leave the area, when he decides to stop and check that the Norn Stones are safe. This is a poor decision because a "renegade hunter" happens to be nearby and figuring Thor might be worth something on the open market, tranquilises our hero with knock-out gas. Guided by Loki, the hunter is compelled to have his bearers tie up Thor with a few ropes and then, following an irresistible urge, he sets off to find a nearby temple. Loki causes the temple to be revealed and the hunter enters to find a weapon, The Destroyer, concealed there eons before by Odin. The hunter's life essence is absorbed by the Destroyer, activating the metal monster. Meanwhile, Thor revives and snaps his bonds like so much spaghetti. He follows the hunter to The Temple of Darkness and finds the paralysed mortal body of the hunter. Without warning, The Destroyer attacks and Loki, watching from afar, realises he may have made a mistake. Fearing that Thor will be killed rather than just humiliated, he rushes to confess to Odin before too much damage is done. But Odin sleeps the Odin-sleep and cannot be awakened for fear he will forfeit his immortality. A ranting Loki is locked up by Odin's guards and the end seems inevitable for Thor, as his hammer is damaged and, trapped by The Destroyer, he's helpless to escape the creature's "elemental destructive" bolts.

So here's an epic villain fail ... tie one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel universe to a bamboo bed. With ropes. And how is it with all the clamour in the doorway of his bedroom, Odin sleeps right through it?

Now, because we're seeing a much greater emphasis on the Asgardian side of Thor's life by this point in the series, I'm presuming this is around the time in which Jack Kirby is pretty much plotting the strip and handing the pencil art to Stan for dialoguing. I'm fairly confident about that because the plotting is pretty terrible.

Bear with me ...

So, conveniently, there's a hunter (with a full entourage of bearers), of questionable moral character, hunting, for goodness sake, in the jungles of Vietnam while the war rages around him. He knocks out Thor with some gas and ties his captive up with rope. A hunter, who knows who Thor is, who has presumably hunted elephants and maybe rhinos, and he thinks a few ropes will hold Thor. The bit about finding the Temple I can swallow, as Loki's doubtless guiding him, but my main problem with this is that Odin hid a supremely destructive weapon, still active it would seem, on Earth. Where any dodgy character could find it. And then, in the mother of all coincidences, Odin is asleep and can't be disturbed.

Thor trapped, his hammer sliced in half and deadly bolts of elemental destruction creeping steadily towards him. Now that's a cliffhanger ending.

Don't get me wrong ... I still love these stories. And The Destroyer is one of the greatest of Thor's adversaries. But my problem with the plotting here is exactly the same as I would have with Kirby's later Fourth World books for DC. Tons of great ideas, not very well thought through, not played out to any kind of logical conclusion, and all driven by coincidence and deus ex machina. It's left to Stan to paper over the cracks with his dialogue. Which almost - but not quite - works.

Not the best cover of the run - made up of art lifted from interior panels, the chances are the lack of an actual cover from Jack Kirby was some sort of deadline crunch.

Fortunately, the following issue wrapped up the tale in a style that relied a little less of forced plot machinations. In Journey into Mystery 119 (Aug 1965), even though Loki contrives to have the Norn Queen awaken Odin from his sleep, and though Odin is prepared to step in to aid Thor, The Thunder God prefers to defeat The Destroyer himself. By using the hunter's mortal form as a shield, he's able to force the hunter's life essence back to his own body and The Destroyer once again becomes immobile.

Even though Odin offers to shut down The Destroyer Thor, in true hero style, prefers to get himself out of the mess and initiates his human shield plan.

I'm not entirely convinced by Thor's ploy of trusting that The Destroyer wouldn't destroy his human shell. After all, if he controls The Destroyer, why would he ever return to his vulnerable original form? But Stan literally doubles down on it by having The Destroyer say that Thor is pledged never to take a mortal life (panel 1, page 8) and have the hunter repeat it as thought it's a new thought in panel 4 on page 10.

Loki's punishment is to be indentured to Odin's imperial warlock ("a wizard," Stan footnotes helpfully), and Thor is left with a wonky hammer. He'd have to repair it next issue, in a scene that may have inspired the creation of Stormbreaker in Avengers: Infinity War.

Sometimes I really do wonder just how smart Odin is. Locking Loki up in a sorcerer's workshop doesn't seem to me to be the best way of keeping a cunning master of magic like him out of trouble.

All-in-all, an improvement from the previous issue ... except for that cover. Obviously hastily cobbled together by the production department, it's pretty disappointing. And knowing that Jack Kirby wasn't one to miss a deadline, I had a little trawl around to see if I could spot a reason for this.

 Here's the panels from the story used by the Marvel production department to create the cover for Journey into Mystery 119 ... the real mystery id why this was necessary.

I noticed that Kirby was only supplying layouts for August's Captain America story in Tales of Suspense 68. And beginning in the following month's Tales to Astonish 70, he would again only be supplying layouts for the Hulk story. It didn't take me long to notice that both Journey into Mystery Annual 1 (Sep 1965) and Fantastic Four Annual 3 (Oct 1965) were cantering up in the schedules (due on sale in the July), and with an extra 40 pages to pencil, Jack was probably a little squeezed for time. And all of that might explain why Stan didn't have time to fix the questionable plotting in Journey into Mystery 118 ... because we know that Editor Stan Lee wouldn't hesitate to have Jack redraw something if it didn't fit Writer Stan Lee's standards of storytelling.

Just like Jack, I'm a little squeezed for time as well, so I'll leave it here and pick up with the remaining six issues of the Journey into Mystery run, along with the Journey into Mystery Annual, next time.

Next: Hello Hercules