Mighty Marvel Masterworks - The Mighty Thor Volume One

 

Comics are never far from my purview and there have been many reminders of the coolness of Marvel's 60's and 70's outputs so when I discovered that Marvel was releasing reasonably priced compilations of some of their first superhero releases, I started to pick some up - this one being the first.

My older brother first got me hooked on comics in the early 60's when he started buying most of the superhero titles, so I have read many of these stories, but, since we no longer have the originals (unfortunately), it has been quite a while since I've even glanced at a reissue. 

This book compiles the Thor stories from Journey Into Mystery issues 83 through 100, chronicling Thor's first appearance through many adventures on Earth and in Asgard. The artwork is simple, comparatively, as are the plots, and the stories always have a lovelorn hero who cannot get the girl he loves due to his heroic responsibilities, and Thor's powers evolve and change throughout, sometimes seemingly at random. Of course, some of the storylines are way past being improbable - Dr. Don Blake creating a lifelike android, a mad scientist creating a ray that could magically duplicate anything from a building to Thor himself, and lots more. But, that's the fun of suspension of disbelief. No one ever thought that these stories could possibly ever come true - this was years before Marvel tried to be as realistic as possible. And, let's not even get into the politically incorrect characterizations and the good vs. evil politics themselves!

Regardless, this is all good fun and it's great to revisit these stories. I'll be looking forward to picking up more!