Written by Stan Lee (credited to Larry Lieber) – Penciled by Jack Kirby – Inked by Joe Sinnott – Lettered by Art Simek

The moment power stops feeling like a curse.

That cover alone is doing heavy lifting.

Thor spinning the hammer. The dramatic angle. The motion. It’s already iconic. Even before you open the book, it feels bigger than the typical alien-of-the-month story.

And yet… inside, the anthology roots are still very visible.

The villains are the Stone Men from Saturn — which sounds less like a long-term nemesis and more like something that would show up in a black-and-white B-movie double feature.

They exist mostly so Thor has something to hit.

This issue may show that Marvel still hasn’t completely figured out villains, despite Dr. Doom showing up. But what they have figured out here is spectacle.

Donald Blake discovering the cane, striking it against the ground, and transforming into Thor is pure fantasy wish fulfillment. There’s something genuinely joyful about it. Unlike Banner’s torment, Ben Grimm’s bitterness, or Spider-Man’s pathos, Blake revels in the power.

Thor smiles. He poses. He experiments.

This is Marvel realizing that being a hero can be fun.

The early transformation sequence has hints of what we’d later call Kirby crackle — energy bursting around the page. Then we get a full two-page stretch of Thor discovering what the hammer can do — whirlwinds, flight, shockwaves. It almost reads like he’s explaining it to himself… or maybe to us.

The fight with the Stone Men is secondary. They’re disposable. The point isn’t tension. The point is seeing what this character can do.

And visually, Kirby is in full invention mode. The hammer spin alone feels revolutionary. The sense of movement. The weight. The drama. It’s superhero spectacle leaning away from horror and fully into myth.

Thor also feels different structurally. Blake isn’t fully distinct from Thor yet. He’s more of a vessel — a doorway into power. That tension between frailty and godhood isn’t deeply explored yet, but it’s there.

The lame doctor who becomes a Norse god? That’s not sci-fi accident. That’s fantasy.

If Spider-Man gives Marvel a conscience, Thor gives it grandeur.

The anthology aliens are still hanging around.

But now they’re being hit with a hammer.

Marvel in the 60s – Entry #9