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Description
THOR
The THOR stories started off fairly weak, almost like Stan Lee was trying to write SUPERMAN. Unlike most of the other Marvel big stars, Thor's origin did not relate to a radiation accident, but rather Dr. Don Blake with a lame leg found a stick that turned into the mythic Thor's magic hammer. Artist Jack Kirby left the feature for about a year, but then he came back and things changed. More time was spent on Asgard and in space, and things started getting majestic and cosmic. Based on his later solo work on NEW GODS and ETERNALS, I'm going to go ahead and give a lot of the credit to Kirby for the change. Cosmic entities like Ego and the High Evolutionary were introduced as well as Hercules and the Greek Pantheon and a new back-up feature TALES OF ASGARD began, lasting many years, so there was the mythic aspect present in every issue. After many years of Lee/Kirby magic, John Buscema became the longstanding artist with a bold but realistic style paired with writer Roy Thomas and others. In the 80's, writer/artist Walt Simonson took over and reinvigorated the series, taking it back to its mythic/cosmic roots while introducing Beta Ray Bill, dispensing with the Don Blake alter ego, and he was the first to give Thor a beard.

Description
THOR
The THOR stories started off fairly weak, almost like Stan Lee was trying to write SUPERMAN. Unlike most of the other Marvel big stars, Thor's origin did not relate to a radiation accident, but rather Dr. Don Blake with a lame leg found a stick that turned into the mythic Thor's magic hammer. Artist Jack Kirby left the feature for about a year, but then he came back and things changed. More time was spent on Asgard and in space, and things started getting majestic and cosmic. Based on his later solo work on NEW GODS and ETERNALS, I'm going to go ahead and give a lot of the credit to Kirby for the change. Cosmic entities like Ego and the High Evolutionary were introduced as well as Hercules and the Greek Pantheon and a new back-up feature TALES OF ASGARD began, lasting many years, so there was the mythic aspect present in every issue. After many years of Lee/Kirby magic, John Buscema became the longstanding artist with a bold but realistic style paired with writer Roy Thomas and others. In the 80's, writer/artist Walt Simonson took over and reinvigorated the series, taking it back to its mythic/cosmic roots while introducing Beta Ray Bill, dispensing with the Don Blake alter ego, and he was the first to give Thor a beard.