Marvel Masterworks #18, the first Thor collection, begins with Journey Into Mystery #83 and ends with #100. Thor began as a feature in that comic, eventually gaining his own title years later.
Here we get his origin and his earliest adventures. We are introduced to surgeon Don Blake. We are reminded every issue he is "lame"...yet his cane/walking stick turns into a mighty hammer with a tap or two. So does Blake into Thor. We meet his perpetually suffering nurse Jane Foster, his God-dad Odin, and his evil brother/arch-nemesis Loki.
Jack Kirby's early artwork retains its' primitive impact, and subsequent artists pale in comparison. Kirby's return later in this book is muted by the heavy-handed inking of Don Heck. Kirby's long-time FF inker Joe Sinnott gets some pencil duties here. I'll just say he's a much better inker.
The first episodes have a frustrating sameness to them; you can see the creators trying to figure out how to make this guy interesting, and failing. Early foes include a Communist South American dictator (no lie), Loki, the Tomorrow Man (a generic science fiction baddie), a Russian Communist Colonel, Loki, a Mob boss named Thug, the Carbon Copy Man ("From Space!!!"), Loki, Loki, The Radioactive Man, Loki, some android thing, Merlin (yes, that Merlin), The Lava Man, the human Cobra, and Mr. Hyde (in a two-parter).
At one point, we see some of the most widespread destruction of national monuments seen in comics! No, seriously, when Thor gets whacked in his "chromosomatic gland" which "determines and changes personality", by an errant toss of his Loki-directed hammer, the two of them destroy the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Panama Canal, the Pyramids, the Empire State Building, the Sphinx, all National History Museums with dinosaurs in them, a South Pacific island, an unnamed Northern European country with windmills, and the United Nations emblem. Additionally, they cause earthquakes and hurricanes.
In four pages.
No tornados though. Thought that would have been a no-brainer with that whirling hammer and all.
Two stories later, Merlin uses the Washington Monument as a club.
After that particular episode, Stan Lee, who initially only plotted the tales, takes over as scribe, apparently in an effort to spare the world from further destruction. You immediately can see his patented magic at work, as the relationship between Thor/Blake and Jane gets a bit more interesting, actually causing some friction between Thor and Odin.
The reproductions and coloring are lovely, as is to be expected with this early Masterwork volume.
And just to be complete, I am a physician, and there is no such thing as a chromosomatic gland...