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

Oof.

That cover.

“Prisoner of the Reds!”

It feels like three steps backward for Thor after introducing Loki, Odin, and Asgard.

The setup immediately pulls the character back into Cold War pulp.

American scientists are disappearing, leaving behind notes claiming they’ve defected “to the Reds.” Marvel still avoids naming specific adversarial countries outright, which creates a strange half-real version of the world — one where The Korean War exists, but Thor is still fighting vague comic book communism. Although Kirby’s imagery leaves little doubt that this is meant to be the Soviet Union.

And if Marvel’s tendency toward anthology-style Cold War stories wasn’t bad enough, we also see them trying to force in some of their romance-comic DNA.

awkwardly.

The Jane Foster–Donald Blake–Thor love triangle rears its head, and it doesn’t work because Jane mostly exists to pine after Thor while ignoring Blake. Worse, the story treats Blake’s disability as part of what makes him undesirable.

The entire dynamic feels less romantic and more a tone deaf relic of the past.

Woof.

Then Blake inserts himself directly into an espionage plot by pretending to be a scientist who created a biological weapon.

Double woof.

Where is the mythological adventure?

At least Kirby hasn’t stepped backward.

The Blake-to-Thor transformations continue to look fantastic. The action grows more dynamic with every issue. Kirby keeps finding inventive new ways to use the hammer, pushing the visuals toward something grander and more mythic than the scripts themselves seem interested in.

Because the story around Thor keeps shrinking him, treating him like a mortal adventurer.

Hypnotizing gas. Russian dungeons. Soldiers narrating the plot out loud. Thor, a Norse god, trapped inside a Cold War spy comic.And yet, the character keeps trying to break free of it.

Also, for the first time, Thor starts speaking more like, well, Thor here. Using “thee” and “thy,” especially when invoking Odin. The mythology is pushing through the cracks of the story Marvel is trying to fit him into.

Which only makes the mismatch feel even stranger.

Thor using divine Norse power to wipe out communist soldiers isn’t epic.

It’s awkward.

By the end, Thor destroys the enemy base, rescues the scientists, and returns home for more yearning over Jane Foster.

It’s a mess.

Because these ideas are too small for the character.

This issue keeps trying to force Thor into a kind of story he simply doesn’t fit inside anymore.

But Kirby’s art points to the future anyway.

The scale is growing. The action is growing. The mythology is growing.

Marvel just hasn’t fully realized it has yet.

Marvel in the 60s – Entry #27