Thor Week! Black and White Wednesday: "Thor the Mighty!" by Wein, Starlin, and DeZuniga

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Here's another gem obviously intended for the unrealized Thor the Mighty b&w mag Marvel had been planning back in '74. This one finally saw the light of day in Marvel Preview #10 (Spring 1977), and it's another good'un. This time inker Tony DeZuniga was joined by fan-fave author Len (All-New, All-Different X-Men, Swamp Thing) Wein and the king of kozmic Jim (Captain Marvel, Warlock) Starlin. It looked, however, like the team was trying to enter into Conan's territory (and since Conan's Savage Sword mag was a monster hit, I s'pose Stan and company thought it was a great idea), giving us a young Thor and his sidekick (!) Loki facing off against monsters and seductive witches in the Robert E. Howard vein. Fun stuff, to be sure, but evidently it didn't catch on. Still, it was a worthy addition to Marvel Preview's usual high-quality content. The Ken Barr cover and Jim Starlin frontispiece were worth the buck the mag cost--the Thor tale (along with the Hercules back-up--stay tuned) were the icing on the proverbial cake. Check it out, Thor-ophiles!

Thor Week! Grooviest Covers of All Time: Thor vs Odin! Thor vs. the Destroyer! Thor vs. Loki!

Salutations, Stalwarts! Thor Week rolls on with a succinct sampling of some of the most sensational Thor covers of the Groovy Age! With art by the likes of Jack Kirby, John Buscema, John Romita, Gil Kane, Walt Simonson, Keith Pollard, and so many more, Ol' Groove hadda come up with a theme of some sort to narrow things down. But, natch, this being the Groovy One, I couldn't narrow it down to just one topic, but I did force myself to stop at two three.

The first set of cataclysmic covers features the God of Thunder and his peerless pappy Odin. As you can see, their relationship has never been on the "C'mon, son, let's go fishin'!" end of the father/son spectrum...

This second set features Thor and the awesome Destroyer layin' the smackdown 'pon one another. Yeah, Ol' Groove is definitely looking forward to that scene in the Thor flick!

Finally, you can't look back on the Groovy Age of Thor without getting your brain blasted by a pile of Thor vs. Loki covers! Enjoy!

Thor Week! Secret Origins: The Condensed History of Asgard and Thor the Mighty

Hail, Hallowed Ones! Thou has entered into the epic journey that is Thor Week at Diversions of the Groovy Kind. Ol' Groove doth look forward to the upcoming flick with much enthusiasm, an enthusiasm which doth spill mightily over into Groove City! Hearken unto Ol' Groove as he bringeth light into the dark corners of the Mighty Thor of the Groovy Age!

Yeesh, Ol' Groove can only handle writing so much bad pseudo-Shakespeare without getting nauseous, baby! Anyway, we're gonna kick this week off by laying a bit of history on ya! Back in the Summer of '76, mighty Marvel unleashed their fifth Thor Annual. The story in that annual, "War of the Gods" is a high-point in Groovy Age Thor reading (recently reprinted in Thor Versus Hercules). That epic tale by writer Steve Englehart and artists John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga was originally planned for Marvel's never published Thor the Mighty black and white mag, which was mucho hyped-but-never-happened during 1974. To whet your appetite and set the stage for both the new movie and the week to come, here is the (Not) Reader's Digest condensed version of the history of Asgard and Thor the Mighty! Can you dig it?