In “Lest Mankind Fall”, Thor and Sif continue their battle with the hordes of Pluto while in the time funnel surrounding the Atomic Research Center, where a mysterious being of power is found within a cocoon.

I like Thor’s indignant “Thy words blaspheme” at the suggestion that anyone claim to have powers to match Odin. He’s such a daddy’s boy.

Speaking of Odin, he sends Balder, heartsick over his feelings about the Norn Queen Karnilla, down to Earth to fetch Odin and Sif, so he’s on hand, with the army, when Thor finally breaks them out of the time funnel, and great battles ensue until Zeus decides to pay attention and enforce the covenant eternal that keeps Pluto in the netherworld. Meanwhile, the cocoon opens.

Action filled issue, very heavy on the big images (four full page splashes), with a few interesting moments. It’s one of those issues where you get a bit of a feeling that the plot was somewhat altered, as was the case for many THOR issues of this period, though I don’t recall any specific examples of unused pages from this story. Still a lot of fun. One thing I noticed was that, rather oddly for such an action filled 1960s Marvel, there were almost no sound effects in the issue. Kind of weird how back then one issue could go overboard on the sound effects and another could not have them at all.

Vince Colletta inked the cover and 20-page story.

Published 1969