Four & Thor 8

Fantastic Four #15
Story/Art: Jack Kirby, Inks: Dick Ayers, Plot/Script: Stan Lee

Story:  Our heroes are out and about on the town doing their thing (and the Thing himself is being tormented by the dreaded Yancy Street Gang) when Reed summons them to HQ because there's reports of all of the crime bosses from across the US congregating in the US under the auspices of a new leader.  That leader is the Mad Thinker, a super genius dude who plots meticulous, heavily calculated plans that never fail.  Realizing that the only threat to his plans to conquer New York is the Fantastic Four, the Thinker lures all of the members off on various side gigs (Reed gets a fancy science job, Sue becomes an actress, Ben a wrestler, and Johny joins the circus), causing them to split up and abandon their HQ.  The Thinker and his gang conquer the FF's HQ.  Meanwhile, our Heroes get bored with their new gigs and reunite, only to find that their home is now covered in crystal.  The Mad Thinker challenges the FF.  The Four storm the building, only to run into trouble with all of Reed's various gadgets, now being used by the Thinker's gang.  There's trouble with Vibro-Guns, Trippy Gas, and ultimately, the Mad Thinker's Awesome Android, built from Reed's own design.  The Android can adapt to his situation at will, but Reed knows where the shut off switch is, so good night Android.  The FF confront the Thinker, who tries to hold them at bay with more of Reed's weapons (seriously Reed, how many Deadly Weapons do you just leave lying around???).  Unfortunately for the Thinker, the FF's mailman shows up, delivering a package for Reed, and presses the doorbell, which has been rigged up to a device that deactivates all of the equipment in Reed's lab.  The Thinker is rendered defenceless and is sent to jail.  Turns out, the Thinker just couldn't think of everything.

Notes:  The only real note I have on this one is the Drawing of the Thing in a Tutu that declares "The Thing is a Sissy", courtesy of those pesky Yancy Streeters.  We never actually see the Yancy Street Gang, but they do show up to taunt the Thing and throw stuff at him.  Other than that, the illustrations of the Thinker's various crimes are kinda neat (at one point, an organ grinder's monkey proves to be the key to the Thinker's victory).

The Art:  There's some neat stuff here.  The scene with the Gas that alters people's perception is pretty cool, and Reed solves the problem by turning into a Giant Fan, which is also cool.  Other than that, the Awesome Android, with his Biscuit Shaped Head, walks the very thin line between being completely Awesome and completely Stupid at the same time.  Which is what is cool about a lot of Kirby's work in the first place.

Whatta I Think:  Honestly, this issue's kinda boring.  There's a lot of fumbling around and build up, but the fast moving sequence at the end helps to revive this otherwise so-so issue.  Don't worry kiddies, we get Dr. Doom next issue.

Fantastic Four #16
Story/Art: Jack Kirby.  Inks: Dick Ayers.  Plot/Script: Stan Lee

Story:  The FF have been randomly shrinking every so often.  Needless to say, randomly shrinking can be a dangerous thing, so our heroes call up Ant-Man to help them out.  Ant-Man swings by the FF's HQ to give them a couple of vials of Shrinking and Growing Fluid, then bolts.  Our heroes go about their business, but begin hearing a tiny voice warning of Dr. Doom.  Reed decides enough is enough, and has everyone douse themselves in Shrinking Fluid.  Our heroes shrink down into a tiny world that looks kinda like Medieval Europe.  Obviously, Doom is the ruler, having conquered the world with a single shrink ray (man, to already be microscopic, then to get shrunk some more.  Sucky).  The FF get shrunk, but still put up a pretty good fight until Sue gets captured (jeez, Sue, stop getting captured already), forcing our heroes to surrender.  The FF get dumped into the dungeon with the former King and Princess.  The Princess, of course, was who sent out the messages to our heroes.  The Four discover that Doom has summoned the lizard-like alien Tok from a nearby planet, and plans to sell the FF into slavery.  Not cool.  Meanwhile, in Our Larger World, Ant Man stops by FF HQ, and seeing the shattered vial of Shrink Fluid, decides to follow the Four into the Microworld.  Sadly, Ant-Man is quickly captured.  The FF manage to escape the dungeon and revert to ... Full Size (kinda?).  A fight breaks out, and the FF mop up the floor with Doom's soldiers.  When the Tok Ship shows up, the Thing grabs a massive tower, and uses it as a baseball bat to knock the Tok Ship back into space.  Seeing he's outgunned, Dr. Doom flees, Growing back to our Normal Sized World.  Meanwhile, the FF defeat Doom's men and reinstall the King and Princess as rulers.  Time to get back to Normal Size!  Huzzah!

Notes:  Worlds within worlds!  Entire Microscopic Universes so small we can't even perceive them!  Kirby Crazy all the way!  Other than that, Ant-Man is actually kinda pointless in this comic.  I mean, he really serves no purpose besides being there to hype his own book.  Also, we get a one panel cameo by the Wasp.  Also, I think it's funny that the Microworld looks like Feudal Europe.

The Art:  Um, the Thing uses a Tower to Baseball Bash an Alien Ship.  That's Crazy Cool.

Whatta I Think:  Crazy, baby.  Just beautiful crazy.  It's interesting that the individual issues of the FF are getting pretty damn good at this point, but having Dr. Doom in an issue cranks the volume up a couple of notches.  Coolness.

Journey into Mystery Featuring the Mighty Thor PLUS Tales of Asgard #97
Story/Art: Jack Kirby.  Inks: Don Heck.  Plot/Dialogue:  Stan Lee
Tales of Asgard:  Story/Art: Jack Kirby.  Inks: George Bell.  Plot/Dialogue: Stan Lee.

Main Story:  There's a plane crashing, but never fear, Thor is here to save the day.  Back in his civilian identity as Dr. Blake, Don wants to admit his feelings to Jane Foster, but he can't without getting approval from Odin first.  Odin says Hell No.  No Mortals!  Dr. Blake has to keep his feelings to himself, so Jane gets pissed off and leaves Dr. Blake to go off with sophisticated (but extremely creepy) Dr. Andrews.  Meanwhile, the Lava Man (his name should be pretty self explanatory) is heading for New York, burning up everything to prove his superiority as an underground dweller guy.  The Army tries to fight the Lava Man, but they're super useless.  Thor finally shows up, and there's a bit of a fight before Thor finally uses a tornado (man, Thor really, really liked Tornadoes back then) to stuff the Lava Man into a volcano, sending him back home.  Even though Thor has saved the day, he returns to his office as Dr. Blake to see Jane Foster leaving arm in arm with Creepy Dr. Andrews.  D'Oh!

Tales of Asgard Story:  We get an introduction to ancient Viking culture and their mythology.  We see the rise of the dreaded frost giants, and the first of the Aesir.  We get introduced to Ymir the Ultimate Frost Giant, the Well of Life where all waters meet, and Yggdrasil the World Tree.  Also, we get the lineage of Odin (it goes Buri fathered Borr, who fathered Odin).  Oh, and Surtur pops up, waiting patiently to burn everything up.

Notes:  First up, there's the Lava Man.  Not the most interesting villain of all time, but he does pop up later in my favorite issue of Kirby's Avengers, so he's not a total throw away villain.  Also, this is the first time where we start to see the dysfunctional elements of the Thor/Odin relationship.  Other than that, the Tales of Asgard segment is chock full of killer stuff, like Frost Giants, Yggdrasil the World Tree, and a brief appearance by Surtur, who will go on to become the centerpiece of Walt Simonson's epic Thor run. 

The Art:  Welp, we get another Kirby issue, so that alone makes the Art on this one much better than previous issues.  The art on the main story is nice, but the art on Tales of Asgard is absolutely gorgeous!  So many wild and crazy mythological concepts drawn with all of Kirby's skill and panache.  Lovely.

Whatta I Think:  The main story is just kind of more of the same, but the Tales of Asgard back up story is absolutely wonderful.  This is our first hint that this comic is going somewhere special.  Finally.  Oh!  And you might notice that there's no one else doing the Script anymore.  Goodbye, losers!

JIM feat. Thor and ToA #98
Art: Don Heck.  Story: Stan Lee
ToA- Story/Art: Jack Kirby.  Inks: Don Heck.  Plot/Script:  Stan Lee

Main Story:  Thor throws a fit cause he can't marry Jane Foster.  Reverting to Dr. Don Blake, Donny whines a lot.  I mean a lot.  He decides to get the hell out of Dodge and goes to India to hang out with his old teacher.  When he gets there, he discovers his old mentor has been poisoned by a cobra, courtesy of his treacherous assistant.  Turns out, Blake's old mentor was experimenting with Radioactive Cobras for no good reason.  The Radioactive Cobra also bit the assistant, but because the assistant had taken the snake bite antidote ahead of time, the Cobra bite turned the evil assistant into Cobra-man...er, supervillain called the Cobra.  Wow, that made no sense.  Anyway, the Cobra goes to New York, with Thor following suit.  The Cobra invades a place looking for Snake Venom so he can make an Army of Evil Cobra-men (wait?  What?), but Thor shows up to counter him.  Thor fights the Cobra to a stand still.  The Cobra escapes, and ends up going to Creepy Dr. Andrews office where he (all together now) Captures Jane Foster (jeez, she gets captured more often than Sue Storm).  Needless to say, Creepy Dr. Andrews is too scared to do anything about it except cower in fear.  Thor finally arrives to save the day, but Cobra escapes.  In the end, Jane Foster leaves Creepy Dr. Andrews and returns to work for Don Blake.

ToA Story:  It's Odin and his Chariot pulled by Winged Horses vs. the Frost Giants!  Do I even need to say anything else?  Odin stomps their asses and traps Ymir the Lord of the Frost Giants in a Circle of Flame forever and ever.  Awesome.

Notes:  In the main story, we've got the debut of the Cobra, probably the most notable Thor villain that was not created by Jack Kirby.  Nope, I assume we gotta give the credit for this one to Don Heck (more on him in a bit...).  Of course, I don't think I've ever really seen the Cobra in anything, but Kirby will use the character later on in the series.  Other than that, the Cobra's got some neat gimmicks, like Poison Darts, Poison Gas, a Cobra Cord, and he can slither up walls.  Other than that, this marks the end of the ever creepy Dr. Andrews.  Never liked that guy.

As for Tales of Asgard, we get the story of how Odin conquered the Frost Giants (which certainly wasn't a major plot point in a certain major motion picture).  Odin throws Meteor Bolts, the Giants blast frozen North Wind Breath, and Odin sends a bunch of Frost Giants to their doom by opening a crevice beneath them.

The Art:  Don Heck was one of Jack Kirby's more noteworthy Pinch Hitters.  Don Heck ran with Iron Man for most of the early issues, based mostly on Kirby's initial designs of the character.  Heck also worked on the 60s version of Captain America for a little while (I think.  I should probably look that up).  Don Heck also did a brief run on Thor before Kirby took over the strip full time.  His art is okay.

Meanwhile, the Kirby drawn Tales of Asgard is awesome.  It's Odin vs. Frost Giants!

Whatta I Think:  Tales of Asgard continues to be the highlight of this comic.  Part of it is the Jack Kirby artwork, and part of it is the fact that the Mythic scope of these tales is far more suitable to Thor than the various Sci-fi/Superhero tales that we've been bumbling through.  As for the main story... it's not bad...compared to a lot of the previous issues.  The Cobra is one of the better villains we've had so far (better than the garbage we've got so far (not counting Loki, obviously)).  Still, the drama with Dr. Blake and Jane Foster is annoying.  There's nothing I hate more than when a superhero whines and complains about how he doesn't wanna be a superhero.  Unfortunately, that happens a lot in these old Marvel comics (especially the Ditko/Lee Spiderman...oy, that goes on forever).

More Doom!  More Tales of Asgard!  Woo!  Now we're starting to roll!