I Love Ya But You're Strange - Even Thor is Obsessed With Who Would Win in a Fight Between Hulk and Thor

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Jun 4, 2015

Every installment of I Love Ya But You’re Strange I spotlight strange but ultimately endearing comic stories. Here is the archive of all the installments of this feature. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have a suggestion for a future installment!

Today, we take a look at the issue of Journey Into Mystery where Stan Lee and Jack Kirby address the fan obsession with who would win in a fight between the Hulk and Thor by having Thor show a heavy interest, as well...

One of the things that made Marvel Comics stand out in the 1960s was their responsiveness to readers. The Superman titles were famous during the 1950s and 1960s for being extremely responsive to fans, but Stan Lee and Marvel took it one step further, by essentially DIRECTLY engaging with the fans (the Bullpen Bulletins soon became a staple of Marvel Comics). Lee clearly got a kick out of how enthusiastic the fans got about certain issues and in 1964's Journey Into Mystery #112, he and Jack Kirby (with inker Chic Stone) devoted an entire Thor story to the way that the fans obsessed about who would win in a fight, Hulk or Thor.

First off, here is the epic opening, where fans are essentially having dual protests over who would win in a fight, complete with giant signs featuring the heads of their faves (by the way, it is kind of weird to see so many kids being fans of what was, in effect, a rampaging menace of destruction, right?)...

I just love that opening so much. Thor, naturally, is in tune with their debate. How great is the panel of Thor just sitting on the curb with the kids?

Thor then gives us a recap of Avengers #3. I figure I'll just show you the ACTUAL Avengers #3 fight (complete with Lee mistakenly calling Bruce Banner "Bob Banner," which he did in a few comics around this time)...

Then Thor explains that during the fight, he just became so obsessed with deciding just who WAS stronger, him or the Hulk, that he asked Odin a special favor...

They then have a big ol' fight, which I won't really feature here, since it is not strange, it is just awesome.

But in the end, as is expected, circumstances prevent a true conclusion...

As then the Hulk returned to the rest of the Avengers #3 fight, as shown above. There's a great panel where Thor trails off for a second telling the story...