Rating: 
Summary: The first Mighty Thor stories in "Journey Into Mystery"
Review: After Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk with Jack Kirby and the Amazing Spider-Man with Steve Ditko, he and Kirby came up with the Might Thor. Lee kept trying to come up with somebody bigger, better and stronger than the Thing and the Hulk and was struck with the silly notion of Super-God. But Lee had been hawking Marvel's comics as providing a 20th-century mythology and it suddenly occurred to him that maybe he could do a series feature a god as a comic book superhero. Turning to the Norse mythology of the Vikings, with their tales of Valhalla, Ragnarok, the Aesir, and eternal Asgard, Lee came up with Thor the Thunder God.This first volume of the Marvel Masterworks series devoted to Thor collects "Journey Into Mystery" issues #83-100. Most of the early stories are plotted by Lee, but scripted by Larry Leiber (his brother as it turns out to be) and drawn by Kirby (with Joe Sinnott and Dick Ayers providing the inks). What is interesting here is to reconsider the problematic element of Thor's origin in "Journey Into Mystery" #83. Lee thought it would be difficult for the average comic book reader to identify with a Norse Thunder God (especially one with long blonde hair, blue tights, and a winged helmet). So he created a secret identity with the old cliché of the frail and feeble Dr. Donald Blake, who is limping around Norway one day on a walking tour when he sees alien invaders from Saturn made of stone. Trapped in a cave he finds a secret chamber and a gnarled wooden stick. When Blake strikes the stick against a boulder it changes into a hammer and Blake becomes Thor. Fortunately the hammer offers an explanation: "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of...THOR" (yes, it has the dot-dot-dot). By issue #85 when Loki shows up, Lee starts availing himself of the rich aspects of Norse mythology, which makes the whole bit of the lame doctor turning into Thor a bit much. Eventually it would be revealed that Odin had turned Thor into a handicapped mortal to teach his son a lesson in humility, but that necessary revision was a long time in coming. Instead we have the standard superhero love triangle where Blake likes his nurse, Jane Foster, but she likes Thor. Meanwhile, beyond Loki, Thor's great arch nemesis, the villains are all have the same problem: they are going up against a god. The Human Cobra (#98) and Mr. Hyde (#99) e above average villains, but do they really have a chance against the god of thunder? Radio-Active Man (#93) and Lava-Man (#97) have shots, but they are rather boring. Then there is the Carbon Copy Man from Outer Space (#90), who is the bottom of the barrel, and mixing and matching mythology with Merlin (#96). Clearly when Thor is dealing with Loki and other Asgardians the stories are much, much better. The gulf between the stories grounded in Norse mythology and those without is magnified in "Journey Into Mystery" #97 when Lee and Kirby started doing the "Tales of Asgard" shorts. Many times during this period the main Thor story did not match the five-page "Tales of Asgard" story at the end. This was also where Kirby's artwork reached a new level: compare "Journey Into Mystery" #83 with the "Surture the Fire Demon" short from #99 (i.e., the first and last examples of Kirby's art in this volume), and you will see what I mean. But until the Lady Sif shows up, these Thor comic books are just treading water. Note: Later issues in this reprinted color collection are scripted by Robert Bernstein and drawn by Joe Sinnott and Don Heck.
Rating:
Summary: The first Mighty Thor stories in "Journey Into Mystery"
Review: After Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk with Jack Kirby and the Amazing Spider-Man with Steve Ditko, he and Kirby came up with the Might Thor. Lee kept trying to come up with somebody bigger, better and stronger than the Thing and the Hulk and was struck with the silly notion of Super-God. But Lee had been hawking Marvel's comics as providing a 20th-century mythology and it suddenly occurred to him that maybe he could do a series feature a god as a comic book superhero. Turning to the Norse mythology of the Vikings, with their tales of Valhalla, Ragnarok, the Aesir, and eternal Asgard, Lee came up with Thor the Thunder God. This first volume of the Marvel Masterworks series devoted to Thor collects "Journey Into Mystery" issues #83-100. Most of the early stories are plotted by Lee, but scripted by Larry Leiber (his brother as it turns out to be) and drawn by Kirby (with Joe Sinnott and Dick Ayers providing the inks). What is interesting here is to reconsider the problematic element of Thor's origin in "Journey Into Mystery" #83. Lee thought it would be difficult for the average comic book reader to identify with a Norse Thunder God (especially one with long blonde hair, blue tights, and a winged helmet). So he created a secret identity with the old cliché of the frail and feeble Dr. Donald Blake, who is limping around Norway one day on a walking tour when he sees alien invaders from Saturn made of stone. Trapped in a cave he finds a secret chamber and a gnarled wooden stick. When Blake strikes the stick against a boulder it changes into a hammer and Blake becomes Thor. Fortunately the hammer offers an explanation: "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of...THOR" (yes, it has the dot-dot-dot). By issue #85 when Loki shows up, Lee starts availing himself of the rich aspects of Norse mythology, which makes the whole bit of the lame doctor turning into Thor a bit much. Eventually it would be revealed that Odin had turned Thor into a handicapped mortal to teach his son a lesson in humility, but that necessary revision was a long time in coming. Instead we have the standard superhero love triangle where Blake likes his nurse, Jane Foster, but she likes Thor. Meanwhile, beyond Loki, Thor's great arch nemesis, the villains are all have the same problem: they are going up against a god. The Human Cobra (#98) and Mr. Hyde (#99) e above average villains, but do they really have a chance against the god of thunder? Radio-Active Man (#93) and Lava-Man (#97) have shots, but they are rather boring. Then there is the Carbon Copy Man from Outer Space (#90), who is the bottom of the barrel, and mixing and matching mythology with Merlin (#96). Clearly when Thor is dealing with Loki and other Asgardians the stories are much, much better. The gulf between the stories grounded in Norse mythology and those without is magnified in "Journey Into Mystery" #97 when Lee and Kirby started doing the "Tales of Asgard" shorts. Many times during this period the main Thor story did not match the five-page "Tales of Asgard" story at the end. This was also where Kirby's artwork reached a new level: compare "Journey Into Mystery" #83 with the "Surture the Fire Demon" short from #99 (i.e., the first and last examples of Kirby's art in this volume), and you will see what I mean. But until the Lady Sif shows up, these Thor comic books are just treading water. Note: Later issues in this reprinted color collection are scripted by Robert Bernstein and drawn by Joe Sinnott and Don Heck.
Rating: 
Summary: the "art" is just awful
Review: an incredible journey back to the days when thor started out as marvels answer to superman...when the mighty thor was hampered by having to pound his hammer any number of times to call upon the storms , lightning, earthquakes, tornados, ect...heck he even had "hurricane breath' in these first seminal appearences...and the ability to cause blinding sparks by rubbing his hands against the magic hammer "creating such intense friction"... these are great stories for those who read them long ago and for those of us who had no idea, thor ever had any of these now forgotten abilities...it would even be interesting to see some creators bring these powers back to the modern day god of thunder ..but let's leave the cheesy villians in the past....the thug??? yikes....
Rating: 
Summary: whosoever reads this book..shall know thors power...
Review: an incredible journey back to the days when thor started out as marvels answer to superman...when the mighty thor was hampered by having to pound his hammer any number of times to call upon the storms , lightning, earthquakes, tornados, ect...heck he even had "hurricane breath' in these first seminal appearences...and the ability to cause blinding sparks by rubbing his hands against the magic hammer "creating such intense friction"... these are great stories for those who read them long ago and for those of us who had no idea, thor ever had any of these now forgotten abilities...it would even be interesting to see some creators bring these powers back to the modern day god of thunder ..but let's leave the cheesy villians in the past....the thug??? yikes....
Rating:
Summary: The essential fiction of the "babyboomers" youth
Review: I am moved to write by the totally off the wall comments of the writer who trashed Kirby's artwork in early silver age Marvel comics. If you didn't like the books.....fine, but there is no doubt.... none... in any critical venue that Jack Kirby was the innovative genius in early 60's and 70's comic book penciling. I remember seeing my first issues of Fantastic Four, Thor, and Avengers comics. Soon a loyal Batman fan was a Marvel Fan Club Member. Obiously comic book artwork has evolved and so have comics as the tastes and sophistication of todays youth have changed and grown (although I wonder if it is for the better?), but for the times, Kirby was the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of Comics, and Thor was one of the reasons.
Rating:
Summary: The essential fiction of the "babyboomers" youth
Review: I am moved to write by the totally off the wall comments of the writer who trashed Kirby's artwork in early silver age Marvel comics. If you didn't like the books.....fine, but there is no doubt.... none... in any critical venue that Jack Kirby was the innovative genius in early 60's and 70's comic book penciling. I remember seeing my first issues of Fantastic Four, Thor, and Avengers comics. Soon a loyal Batman fan was a Marvel Fan Club Member. Obiously comic book artwork has evolved and so have comics as the tastes and sophistication of todays youth have changed and grown (although I wonder if it is for the better?), but for the times, Kirby was the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of Comics, and Thor was one of the reasons.
Rating:
Summary: Kirby on the Grandest Scale
Review: In all honesty, I'm writing this review because I'm sick of the anti-Kirby review being the first one on the page. Kirby is the greatest artist of all time, and this comes through very well on the early Thors. This was super-heroics on a grand, cosmic scale. While some people may not be capable of appreciating his style, they do need to realize that their favorite "new" artists all followed Kirby. He defined more of the artistic language of comics thatn any other three people, and only a select few (Eisner, Siegel & Schuster, a few others) contributed anywhere near the massive amount which Kirby did to the history of comics.
Rating:
Summary: Definitive Thor vs. Loki : One of Stan Lee best..
Review: Marvel Masterworks: Thor vol. l HC contains the earliest (?) adventures and saga of Thor mythos. I found , after reading this, this an excellent book, with great stories I think still could hold up up to today standard, a book of introduction, about the most important Thor characters in Marvel universe, like Thor himself, his alter ego Don Blake, his love Jane Foster,Odin, Loki, etc. I believe this book is suitable reading for new oand od (collectors) alike. It certainly worth as a keepsake copy into the future. The stories here, I found are quite intense, hard in action, violent as well as with great characterization of those who concern ,esp. the protagonists and important villains such as Loki.Stan Lee certainly outdid himself during that era as in like a harbinger to come whom he seen through it that it shall remains the very best stories ever told of Thor. To substantiate my point, the characterization, which I think should always be the heart of storytelling, Stan Lee somehow manage to show us his character bursting rich in depths widths.For example, Don Blake not only he potray to us his frail- physical side, his good-natured personality, his secret, and passionate love for Jane Foster, etc. as well as his more tangible side such as his occupation as a doctor, knowing & sharing time in terms of pysicality with his alter-ego Thor, etc.A lot of them are potrayed well, the example is justone of many what I cited. There are alot of good stories here, but in my opinions, the most intense, moving , violent and compelling stories are stories of Thor vs. his half-brother Loki. The plot and action sequences are hard, involving & classics. Stan Lee masterpiece of story between Thor vs. Loki here is simply , or all of them are a classics. Not to be missed.Surely, those shall be among the very best even up to today when a balloting is conducted- both from critics and fans alike.Also recommend,Thor Masterworks vol. 3 HC, it features Thor vs. Loki (again?) in one of their finest clashes aptly titled "Trials of the Gods". Highly recommended for Thor fans, as a keepsale. And also for newcomers who want to wet his feet into the water!
Rating:
Summary: Reviewer: A reader from TN USA is an imbecile
Review: Obviously this brainless fool from TN just wants to see his stupidity in print. Jack Kirby is known throughout the world as one of the most influential comic artists ever. Marvel did do everyone a disservice by having no-name artists touch-up the reprinting flaws in the Masterworks series but to insult Jack Kirby and his legacy is a good way to show how small your life experience is.
Rating:
Summary: the "art" is just awful
Review: Surely no one buys these things to read them; comics, especially old ones like this, exist as an outlet for the drawings. This book features the artwork of Jack Kirby, who is surely the worst artist ever to work in comics, which paradoxically is why he was so influential.The drawings here are so simplistic, crude and unutterably ugly that I, and all the other kids I knew, were embarassed by them, but they appeal greatly to the visually illiterate preadolescents who made them popular.Kirby and his imitators are the ones who drug the level of superhero comics down to their current pro-wrestling level. Spare your eyes and avoid this one.
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