Journey Into Mystery #89

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Cover Date: February 1963

Plot Overview: Thug Thatcher escapes from the police after being arrested for selling faulty steel. During his escape, he is shot in the shoulder. Thatcher's henchmen abduct Don Blake to fix him up. Blake plays along and removes the bullet from Thatcher. With the help of Odin, he becomes Thor and makes short work of Thatcher's men.

Thatcher escapes and uses Jane Foster as a hostage until Thor can rescue her. Thatcher again escapes to a construction site where a faulty girder causes Thatcher to be captured.


My Take: This issue was not very good. The story was coherent but the art was just brutal in spots. It feels like Kirby drew a few panels and then handed it over to someone else for the rest of the issue. The panel with Odin in it is just brutal and looks like a 7 year old drew it. This is where you can see how Lee and Kirby doing everything has an adverse effect on the product. The story didn't feel well thought out and the art was really uneven.

And again we come to Thor's villains. I really hate Thor fighting mobsters and Communists. It's a bad match for the kind of hero he is. You end up with these contrived situations to keep Thor from just running over these guys like he should. That's why he needs super villains. Loki isn't a match for Thor physically but Loki can outsmart Thor in most situations. That's better than the constant hostage taking that puts Thor on the shelf briefly.

Also this issue is the second time where Blake has changed to Thor in front of people and none of the bad guys have really caught on that maybe Blake and Thor are the same guy. Thatcher noticed a bond between the two but that's as close as it's come.

Anyways, I really disliked this issue. The story wasn't interesting or fun. The art was average to bad. We're also like 7 issues into this series and the character development just isn't happening. I'm not really enjoying the Thor book too much at this point.

I'll give this * out of *****

Notes: There was nothing of note for this issue.

Next Issue: Strange Tales #105

Posted in: Jane Foster,Journey Into Mystery,Thor