PART THIRTY-FOUR Of FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST - THOR #432: "AT DEATH DO WE PART!"

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Y'know, it feels odd to be including this particular ish in my FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST spot.  After all, it still seems quite a recent comic to me, so well do I recall buying it back when it first came out.  Then it hits me - that was 1991 - 24 years ago, not far off half my life away, and I realise that, when I was 24, I felt as if I'd been around forever.  That means that a 23 year-old today would probably consider this mag practically prehistoric.  And yet it still seems so tangibly recent to me that it's difficult to accept it's almost a quarter-of-a-century old.

Anyway, this was a pretty hot comic at the time, featuring the death of a Norse god and the introduction of a new THOR.  There's genuine suspense in the tale, told superbly by TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ, in Thor's 350th Anniversary appearance in a mag that was titled JOURNEY Into MYSTERY for its first 125 issues.  It even reprints Thor's debut from JIM #83, though the reproduction in some places looks as if it was yet in the process of being restored for its then-upcoming MARVEL MASTERWORKS presentation, especially in the lettering department. Some bold words contain blurred letters which are whited-out in places, awaiting retouching, but have been left unfinished - probably due to a tight deadline.

For those not in the know, although most of the recent reprintings of Thor's origin are taken from far more faithful sources, back then Marvel had to use the proofs from Thor #158, which had also reprinted the story, but with an altered splash page and final panel.  The splash had to be re-assembled into its original layout, and the logo restored and a speech balloon re-created, but it didn't look exactly the same. The last panel from #158's version was revised only slightly for #432's outing, but was completely re-lettered (badly) 'after the original' for the Masterwork volume.

Anyway, that's enough mind-numbing geekery from me - it's well-past time to look at some dynamic artwork.  So let's say we do so right away, pilgrim.

     

Note that in the intro to this page, LARRY LIEBER, who scripted the tale (based on STAN
LEE's plot), isn't mentioned, nor is JOE SINNOTT, who inked JACK KIRBY's pencils.
(For years the inks were credited to DICK AYERS, though it was obviously Sinnott's style.)
I doubt that Larry's omission was a devious attempt to deny him rightful credit - or give Stan
undue glory - it was most likely the result of someone not knowing the story's genesis

PART FOURTEEN Of COMIC COVERS 'SNAP'!

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Don't you just love it when a classic '60s cover design gets used again?  Such is the case with The FANTASTIC FOUR #12 and The MIGHTY THOR #404.  Of course, some people might say it's a bit sneaky to swipe someone else's layout, but it's an honest 'homage', not a rascally rip-off.  That makes a big difference, as homages are permitted and plagiarism isn't.  (Not that Marvel cares as it owns the copyright on both images.)

However, the cover below may be a double - er, 'homage' (at least), as it looks to me like RON FRENZ has based Goldilocks and BALDER on figures from a JACK KIRBY Thor mag.  If I'm correct and you recognise which one, then let me know the issue number, frantic ones, and I'll add it to this post.  (I'm too lazy to look through my MARVEL MASTERWORKS volumes.)