Saturday Splash Page may be done with Thor, but Sunday Splash Page demands its turn at the God of Thunder! The digests of Thor The Mighty Avenger also included his first four appearances in Journey Into Mystery. The book started as a horror title, then shifted to a sci-fi monster of the week theme before Thor premiered in issue #83. Eventually, it was Thor's name atop the cover.
In a lot of ways, it feels like one of the sci-fi monster of the week stories. Race of alien rock-men from Saturn show up with the intent to conquer. All humanity's conventional weapons are powerless. Except instead of their defeat coming at the hands of a scientist or plucky teenager, it comes at the hands of a doctor who finds a walking stick in a cave and gains the power of the Norse God of Thunder.
The next three issues are Thor contending with a brutal Communist general, Loki escaping imprisonment in a tree via liberal interpretation of the terms of his curse and making a beeline for Earth, and Zarrko the Tomorrow Man stealing an experimental cesium bomb to take back to his time and cow everyone in the year 2262 into making him their ruler.
The faux-Shakespearean dialogue and dramatics haven't developed at this point. Thor's speech is still more formal than an average person - Stan Lee's not trying to be hip yet - but it's not the distinctive voice it will be later. In some ways, Thor/Don Blake pull from the Superman/Clark Kent playbook, as Blake tends to be very milquetoast, telling Jane Foster he doesn't read newspapers because they upset him, or claiming he was absent when Thor saved them from jet fighters because he got nervous and fell overboard. At the same time, Blake and Jane don't hesitate to go on a humanitarian mission to San Diablo despite the risk of the "Executioner".
Jane Foster is, well, she's a woman written by Stan Lee in the '60s. She swoons over Thor, she wishes Dr. Blake could be more like Thor (while Blake chortles to himself about what she'd think if she knew the truth). When Loki makes the scene, Jane's first thought is that it's a lovely name, and he seems so dashing and romantic. But, whatever she might think of her boss, Jane went on that humanitarian mission, too, so there's something tough in there.
With almost every page a 7-panel layout, Kirby doesn't really have the room to show off the scale and grandeur he would later. Asgard's barely in these issues, so we get only a glimpse of what he'll eventually make of it. But there are panels where he has enough room, or makes enough room, to really show off Thor's power, or go with a more dynamic layout. Thor leaping into the air, being pulled by Mjolnir right at the reader. Things like that.
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