“Now Ends the Universe” is the middle of the big Mangog storyline, as Thor observes the dark storms that portend trouble in Asgard, and finds Sif in a hospital bed from their previous adventure, heals her and departs for Asgard. We also catch up with Balder, having his own troubles with the Norn Queen, and a brief reminder about the colonizers of Rigel, the Recorder and Ego for future storylines.

As usual for this era of Thor, my favourite scene involves the Warriors Three, first doing some of their normal brawling for fun, then informed by Loki that Mangog approaches as Odin sleeps his Odinsleep, and sends them off to do battle.

First the Storm Giants and then the forces of Asgard battle bravely but futilely against Mangog (including, oddly a very futuristic rocket called an Odinian Force Arrow. Always thought the mix of old styles with modern technology in Asgard was weird). Thor follows the trail of carnage, finally finding the Warriors Three imprisoned and coming face to face with Mangog.

Great issue, very densely plotted, fast moving and taking advantage of the various parts of the mythology that had been introduced in the previous years, and the artwork is just gorgeous, full of power and clever storytelling bits.

Colletta inks the 20-page story and cover.

Published 1968

This issue opens with the Evil Factory creation the Four-Armed Terror making its way towards the Project, attracted by the atomic radiation it feeds on, taking out the Outsiders on the way.

Meanwhile, our heroes are participating in a “Hairies” experiment that converts radio signals from the stars into sounds and images, which leads to three collage pages by Kirby before they’re disturbed by the shockwaves from the Terrors attack on the Habitat in the Wild Area. Superman goes out to confront it, with Jimmy and the Newsboys defying his orders and following. As the Terror reaches its destination, Simyan and Mokkari hatch a whole army of Four-Armed Terrors.

It’s pretty amazing how many concepts Kirby had introduced in his early issues on this book, many of them dropped into this issue. Unfortunately a lot of them would sort of fall by the wayside in the second half of the run, and never be as fully explored as I’m sure Kirby planned. Still a lot of fun while it lasted.

A 22-page story inked by Vince Colletta (with Murphy Anderson doing the DC-ification of Superman and Jimmy) and Neal Adams inking Kirby on the cover.

Published 1971