Issue(s): Thor #131, Thor #132, Thor #133
Published Date: Aug-Oct 66
Title: "They strike from space!" / "Rigel Where gods may fear to tread!" / "Behold... the Living Planet!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Jack Kirby - Penciler
Vincent Colletta - Inker

Review/plot: Thor returns Hercules to Olympus where he immediately gets into a fight with Ares. Thor ducks out, rather comically, when Ares includes Hercules' allies in the list of people he considers enemies.

    

Meanwhile, Tana Nile reveals her true big headed form (She's got a green costume in the reprint but purple in the original..

    

She contacts her home planet and claims Earth's space sector.

Thor returns to Asgard and, after Odin finishes a game of Celestial Chess...

...he agrees to allow Thor to marry Jane Foster. There is no discussion of Foster having to pass any tests to become an immortal or anything, but when Thor happily states that he does not need to renounce his heritage, Odin agrees. As we'll see, there's some chicanery going on here. But for now, Thor heads home to look for Jane and instead finds Rigellians in her apartment. Nile's plan to have Foster out of the picture so that Thor wouldn't interfere with the Colonizers didn't work out so well, but she is still able to dominate him with a mind thrust. Thor eventually escapes and finds he is on the home planet of Rigel. While he's fighting his way through the Rigellians (including a robot that looks a little bit like Darkseid)...

...Tana is naively walking about the streets of New York. A cop offers to take her to their leader, and she accepts. He drives her to the police station.

Thor meets the head Rigellian and agrees to end the menace of the Black Galaxy (which is no ordinary universe. It is a bio-verse.). In return, the Rigellians will give up their claim of Earth.

Then, Thor fights Ego the Living Planet!!!!!!

Or, he fights Ego's antibodies and such.

I'd have preferred a direct fight between Thor and the planet himself, but i guess that's not really possible. In the end Thor wins and Ego agrees not to threaten worlds outside the Black Galaxy.

Meanwhile, Jane Foster is contacted by a "Porgia" and a "Tagar", who are speaking cryptically but trying to recruit Jane as a teacher. They'll turn out to be two of the High Evolutionary's New Men (Pig and Tiger, naturally).

Great art by Kirby. The big-headed Rigellians are a great visual and all the epic space battle stuff is really his strong point. There is also some of the strange photo-collage stuff that doesn't come across very well, at least in the reprints.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - first appearance of Ego the Living Planet, first Recorder

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: Thor annual #4, Maximum Security Thor vs. Ego