Written by Stan Lee & Larry Lieber – Penciled by Jack Kirby – Inked by Dick Ayers – Lettered by Art Simek

Thor finally starts moving in the right direction.

We open in Asgard.

That alone feels like progress.

Marvel leans fully into its version of Norse mythology right away. The Rainbow Bridge. Heimdall. Loki. It’s all here on the first page, and it immediately gives Thor a world that actually fits him.

No aliens. No communists.

Just gods. And a world with history already built in.

Loki makes a strong first impression. He’s trapped, bound in a magical prison that he can only escape if his situation causes someone to shed a tear. His solution? Poke Heimdall in the eye with a leaf.

That tracks.

It’s an almost absurd moment, but it establishes everything you need to know. Loki isn’t about strength. He’s about tricks. Manipulation. Finding the rub.

showing this aspect of the character in hia first appearance shows us that Marvel already knows what it has with Thor’s adopted brother.

Then he heads to Earth to confront Thor — less a grand mythological clash and more a very early version of sibling rivalry.

Thor still feels a little undefined, and it creates an interesting wrinkle: he doesn’t seem to fully know Loki yet. He reacts to him like a figure out of myth, while Loki speaks as if there’s a long history between them. The dynamic feels slightly off — like Marvel hasn’t fully connected those dots yet.

Jane Foster briefly falls for Loki’s charm — because early Marvel can’t resist a forced love triangle. Reed, Sue, and Namor already proved that. Loki brings the mischief… and a very early glimpse of the collective swoon people have for Tom Hiddleston.

Jane, meanwhile, briefly falls for Loki’s charm — and his looks. Something that reads a lot differently now thanks to the decade-long swoon the world has had for Tom Hiddleson’s portrayal of the god of mischief. But it alsp feels very on-brand for early Marvel. They do love having their characters love interests fawn for the villain.

Once the fight starts, the issue finds something that works.

Loki uses illusions, hypnosis, and misdirection. Thor brings brute force. It becomes a battle of brains versus strength, which is a much better fit for the character than Stone Men, jet fighters or communist soldiers.

There’s also some great Kirby spectacle. Loki throws civilians into danger to create chaos, forcing Thor to respond. At one point, Thor lifts subway tracks and holds up a train. It’s wild, exaggerated, and exactly the kind of scale this character needs.

The ending is still a little strange. Loki’s weakness turns out to be water, which feels less like myth and more like something pulled from the anthology playbook. And just like that, he’s defeated and sent back to Asgard.

Clean. Quick. A little too easy.

But the important part isn’t the resolution.

It’s the direction.

This issue introduces Asgard. It introduces Loki — not fully formed yet, but already more interesting than most of Marvel’s early villains. And it gives Thor a space where his stories can actually match his scale.

It’s not all the way there yet.

But for the first time, it feels like Marvel is ready for epic adventures.

Marvel in the 60s – Entry #18