Journey Into Mystery #125, February 1966
Here’s a great action page from Journey into Mystery #125 — the “final” issue before the book simply became Thor with #126.
It had been a long time coming. Monsters, aliens and demons had once filled Marvel’s story lineup, but by 1966 they’d pretty much been pushed aside — unless, as here, they were turning up as antagonists in the superhero books. Kirby, of course, never really stopped drawing monsters. Now they just had Thor to deal with.
Nothing new has been said about inker Vince Colletta in about 50 years, so I don’t have much to add to that conversation. I will say that I’m finally hearing more fans acknowledge that his Thor work, as evidenced here, isn’t bad at all — and in places, it’s quite good.
Colletta may have been an imperfect match for Kirby, but on Thor he often brought something that worked: a lighter, more decorative touch that suited the fantasy setting. And he certainly knew how to make the Asgardians look pretty and regal. (All that work on those romance titles paid off.)
But, as always, Kirby supplies the heart of the story — the movement, the scale, the impact. And, in this case, a reminder that Marvel’s monsters hadn’t really gone away. They’d just found themselves in a different kind of comic book.
