Tales Of Asgard!

When I read Kirby's Tales of Asgard this time, it was with a keen eye to the notion that these stories are a direct precursor to the Fourth World material he'd generate at DC after his famous migration in the early 70's. For there to be "New Gods" there must have been "Old Gods" and these are them.

Thor started as a somewhat peculiar superhero feature with secret identities, offbeat romances, super-villains, and all the trappings. But slowly it became something else as more and more aspects of Thor's Asgardian roots appeared in the story. It became less and less about his timid romance with Jane Foster and more and more about his relationship with Odin and the other denizens across the Brifrost.

Eventually the drive to give the series a mythic thrust gives us small vignettes which dramatized Norse myths. We get the origin of the universe, the world, the gods and man. We meet Odin, his allies, his enemies, and eventually his sons Thor and Loki. We see Thor as a boy and Loki too, as their eternal enmity begins to express itself. We meet Heimdall, the guardian of the Rainbow Bridge and others such as Balder the Brave. More myth is adapted as the series slowly begins to slow its pace and offer up extended stories.

A real shift came when Odin sends Thor on a quest to investigate the advent of Ragnarok and along with him are a crew which includes Hogun the Grim, Fandrall the Dashing, and Volstagg the Voluminous. These "Warriors Three" begin in the the Tales of Asgard feature and then become a reliable part of the main modern story up front in the comic.

It is in this tale of Ragnarok that these warriors find their own end and the hints of a new world to come. It is in the pages of these short back up yarns that the seeds of the Fourth World are planted.  We even meet one of Kirby's first passes as a Hive community, an idea he develops in the Fourth World with Forager and his ilk. Later we'll meet the Lightning Lady and her minions in the pages of Captain Victory.

Following the discovery the end of the world and the hint of a new, the heroes go on other quests. They seek out Harokin, a brave warrior who ends up being embraced by the goddess of the death Hela. They find and confront the dragon Fafnir who offers up a terrible tempation.

They even end up visiting a distant territory which evokes the magic and wonder of The Arabian Knights. All along the way the stories grow more and more baroque with Kirby's art getting increasingly abstract as he develops into his mature stage. Vince Colletta supplies the inks to nearly all of these tales save for a few in the early days inked by Don Heck and  George Bell and a later tale inked by Bill Everett of all people.

The Tales of Asgard feature ends and is replaced by The Inhumans (and odd place for them, but the one comic which seemed to be largely controlled by Kirby). It offered up a delightful brew of heady adventures and it offered up a glimpse of what was to come.

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