 |
| Copyright DC COMICS |
So who created Thor? Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, or Jack Kirby? Maybe none of them, as Bill Finger seemingly came up with nearly all the concepts of Marvel's Thor in 1959, in Batman #127. For instance, Thor's hammer always returns to him after it's thrown; Thor, in reality, is a puny, skinny guy who'd probably have to run around in the shower to get wet; and when his human identity touches the hammer, he transforms into Thor. Coincidence? Whoever was responsible for the Marvel incarnation, perhaps Lee, Lieber, and Kirby were subliminally influenced by this tale or simply unashamedly appropriated its concepts for their own use.
What do you think, Crivvies? Which of the three Marvel luminaries do you think 'ripped off' DC and claimed the idea as their own? Comments welcome, as always. And if you'd like to read this tale for yourselves, the facsimile edition is available now from all good comics shops!
IMO Kirby's the most likely suspect. I think that even in his middle years he was consuming books and movies voluminously, though not with the conscious intent of stealing. It's like the question of the Thing's strong resemblance to the monster in HAND OF DEATH. The movie hadn't been released to theaters before FF #1, but he would only need to have seen a photo for the movie to have subconsciously copied it. Ditto taking the visage of The Demon from one PRINCE VALIANT strip.
ReplyDeleteTo be sure, Simon and Kirby had done a fake Thor back in the forties SANDMAN, so Kirby would've been borrowing from Finger only the weakling alter ego-- which i'll check out in a bit.
Kirby did a strip in Tales Of The Unexpected #116 (1957) which featured Thor, but apart from the design of the hammer and circles on his chest, it was nothing like Marvel's. Larry Lieber claims to have written his Thor tales full script, and it was him who dialogued the origin in JIM #83, as well as coming up with the names Don Blake and Uru, so I'd say it's still uncertain whether Jack was the chief initiator behind Marvel's Thor, GP. Perhaps we'll never really know.
DeleteKid, of historical note, 1959’s Batman #127 was the very first US Batman comic to be officially distributed in the UK, with the only addition being 9d (9 old pence) stamped on the cover.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that, Anon. Ah, the old Thorpe & Porter price stamp - how I miss it.
DeleteNo idea why DC decided to choose this issue for reprint, as it seems to have no discernable tie-in to current films. Love the Dick Sprang art on the first story. As Anon noted, this was the first Batman comic to hit the UK stands courtesy of T&P ; I managed to collect all Batman issues back to #127 in the early seventies.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's DC's way of showing they had 'Thor' (and 'Ant-Man' in #156, their companion facsimile) before Marvel, B? Or perhaps it's just because they knew it was the first Batman comic to hit UK stands, courtesy of T&P?
Delete