In June 1962, I celebrated my 8th birthday with a trio of perfect presents. The first comic books featuring Spider-Man, Ant-Man and Thor were all on sale that month.
In Journey Into Mystery 83, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s thunder god would stylize the basic concept of a character who had once been the most popular superhero in comics, but who’d vanished nine years before (an eternity to an 8-year-old).
The idea of a weak person changed by magic lightning into a super-strong flying champion would be further electrified by Kirby’s art, so eloquent in displaying both angst and dynamic action.
Captain Marvel had vanished almost a decade before, so Stan and Jack apparently decided it was time to revive the popular concept, with interesting variations. Here’s a caped, flying, super-strong hero with the powers of the gods, transformed from his ordinary existence by a bolt of magical lightning when danger threatens.
Even disability, as a metaphor for weakness, was carried over from Fawcett to Marvel. Both Freddy Freeman, the alter ego of Captain Marvel Jr., and Dr. Don Blake, Thor’s secret identity, were lame. The magic word “Shazam” would solidify into a cane that symbolized disability, then transform itself into a hammer that symbolized power.
In his first adventure, Thor repelled the Stone Men from Saturn.
Alien invaders have the damnedest luck. So many of them land on this planet, brimming with that vast, cool and unsympathetic confidence, bristling with eerie super-weapons and eager to scrutinize and humiliate a typical earthling, only to discover that he’s an invincible superhero who can single-handedly kick their asses.
I mean, what are the odds?
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