Essential Thor - Volume 1 [Paperback]

ESSENTIAL THOR VOLUME 1 is a very affordable way to get acquainted with The Mighty Thor. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a struggle for me to finish it. Collecting Journey Into Mystery # 83 - 112, it features the earliest appearances of Marvel Comics' god of thunder. While Marvel gets credit for reinvigorating the comic industry's Silver Age with excellent titles like Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, Thor was an awkward entry in their line-up of titles. His early appearances in JIM are written more like the dull, formulaic stories that were appearing from DC at the time, where the hero jumps from issue to issue taking on the threat of the month (be it aliens, gangsters, "Reds", or an amazingly uninspired supervillain), with no real focus on a continuing storyline or character development. Writer Stan Lee does the reader a favor by introducing Thor's father, Odin, and half-brother, Loki, and finally steps things up with the addition of "Tales of Asgard", a regular back-up feature that fleshed out the history of Thor, familiarizing the reader with the Norse myths from which he is derived. These are excellent stories that introduce additional mythological characters such as Heimdall, Hela, and Surtur. Tales of Asgard begins to eclipse the regular Thor feature, to the point that more Asgardians, such as Balder, the Enchantress, and the Executioner, eventually are incorporated into the regular stories, to great effect. Unfortunately, with so much potential in these early issues, we still don't learn the answers to the big questions of Thor's origin, such as why the enchanted hammer Mjolnir was disguised as a cane and hidden in a cave, or why Dr. Donald Blake should be considered worthy to wield the power of a god. In addition, you'll have to put up with some of Stan Lee's signature hand-wringing romantic melodrama between Blake and his nurse, Jane Foster. Oh well, nobody said this was going to be easy.

The art quality is all over the place. Jack Kirby provides action-packed pencils for the majority of the stories, but his work is often marred by inept inkers, to the point that it doesn't even remotely resemble his style. But once Chic Stone comes on board, all is right with the world of Thor. This volume is worth the hassle, just to get to the next volume of stories, where the series really kicks into high-gear. You'll be glad you tried it!

In certain ways, the Sixties were a simpler time. Sure, there were things like Vietnam, the civil rights movement and assorted assassinations to make things complicated, but at least with comic books, it was a gentler era. Although the storytelling might have been constrained by the Comics Code, there were still the opportunities to tell good tales. Stan Lee, one of the principal creative forces of the period, put together a lot of good stories. Unfortunately, while The Mighty Thor is not bad, it is also not Lee's best writing of the period.

The Essential Thor #1 covers the earliest Thor stories, back in the days when the magazine was officially named Journey into Mystery. Donald Blake, a vacationing doctor, stumbles upon a stick that, when struck against the ground, transforms him into the god Thor. Within the issues covered, Thor battles such adversaries as the Cobra, Mr. Hyde, the Enchantress, the Executioner and assorted aliens, but his chief adversary is his step-brother, Loki. In addition to the main stories, we are also provided tales of the Norse Gods in the land of Asgard.

While plot-wise, these stories are all decent, they suffer from characters who are relatively bland or ill-defined. I've noticed that the Lee's strongest writing in this era is with the Fantastic Four and Spiderman, where not only are the characters more interesting, but there is a decent supporting cast as well. Here, there are few supporting characters. Love interest Jane Foster is a stereotypical comic book woman of the era; she pines after Thor, faints a lot and is in constant danger. Outside of villains, the only other recurring character of note is Odin, Thor's very powerful father. Odin's behavior is erratic; although described as having great wisdom, he is constantly being duped by Loki.

The character of Thor himself is problematic. While it is clear that Thor and Blake share the same identity (this is not a Jekyll-and-Hyde thing), it is rather hazy as to who is the true version: is it Don Blake, who (like Spiderman), came across a super power, or is it Thor, who merely adopts Blake as a mild-mannered alter ego (like the early Superman disguising himself as Clark Kent)? This is rather inconsistently dealt with, and in fact, there are no real answers within this volume.

I know that I may be overanalyzing this material; after all, these are just comics, aren't they? Yet, I can compare this to other works of the same time (like the previously mentioned FF and Spiderman) and find this to be an inferior work: not bad, but not great: a high three-stars at best. While many will find this entertaining, I cannot recommend this as a first choice in the Essentials series. Instead, I would look elsewhere and come to this book later.

I bought this item not too long before the movie came out, so it was on back-order for a while, which was understandable. This was also the case at other online bookstores, but Amazon had the lowest price by about $10.00. After receiving it, I read it and loved it. This is the first volume, and as such it is the beginning of Thor's adventures. Although it is in black and white, and not color, the artwork it fantastic. I highly recommend this to any Thor fan, or anyone who might be interested in comics. Buy it and read it. Thor is an awesome character.

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