Marvel Comics · Journey Into Mystery #114 · March 1965 · 12¢ · 36 pages
Grade: F- 5.5
Cover by Jack Kirby.
“The Stronger I Am, The Sooner I Die!” — penciled by Jack Kirby. This is the one. Loki, pulling strings from Asgard, arranges for a prison-hardened convict named Crusher Creel to drink an enchanted potion. The result: a man who can absorb the physical properties of anything he touches — including Asgardian steel, stone, or the very substance of a god. Creel goes up against Thor not with cunning but with raw, escalating force, and the threat here is genuinely structural — the stronger Thor hits, the stronger Creel becomes. The issue is part two of a continued story, and Kirby is operating at full throttle: dynamic layouts, impact-heavy combat choreography, and a villain design that reads as an immediate physical threat rather than a gimmick.
The issue also carries a “Tales of Asgard” backup — the regular mythological series written by Stan Lee and drawn by Kirby, pulling from Norse mythology to build out the broader Asgardian world. These backups were running consistently through this period as a secondary feature, giving Kirby room to do epic, large-scale world-building within the same issue.
Absorbing Man became one of Marvel's go-to powerhouse antagonists — he showed up in Hulk, tangled with the Avengers, and made it to Secret Wars. The first appearance is here, issue #114, in a Kirby-drawn Thor run that collectors have tracked seriously since the Bronze Age. Mid-grade copies of this issue move — it's not an easy book to find in any condition with both stories intact and the cover holding.
Condition F- 5.5 — .
We use what the scientists are calling artificial intelligence to research and write our descriptions — it gives us more time to add books to our website and provide you with a wider array of inventory. We think Klaatu would approve. Details are verified but the robot does slip up. We're not infallible. Every book is graded by a human collector who has actually held it. If anything ever looks off, reach on out at robopictocomics@gmail.com.
Marvel Comics · Journey Into Mystery #114 · March 1965 · 12¢ · 36 pages
Grade: F- 5.5
Cover by Jack Kirby.
“The Stronger I Am, The Sooner I Die!” — penciled by Jack Kirby. This is the one. Loki, pulling strings from Asgard, arranges for a prison-hardened convict named Crusher Creel to drink an enchanted potion. The result: a man who can absorb the physical properties of anything he touches — including Asgardian steel, stone, or the very substance of a god. Creel goes up against Thor not with cunning but with raw, escalating force, and the threat here is genuinely structural — the stronger Thor hits, the stronger Creel becomes. The issue is part two of a continued story, and Kirby is operating at full throttle: dynamic layouts, impact-heavy combat choreography, and a villain design that reads as an immediate physical threat rather than a gimmick.
The issue also carries a “Tales of Asgard” backup — the regular mythological series written by Stan Lee and drawn by Kirby, pulling from Norse mythology to build out the broader Asgardian world. These backups were running consistently through this period as a secondary feature, giving Kirby room to do epic, large-scale world-building within the same issue.
Absorbing Man became one of Marvel's go-to powerhouse antagonists — he showed up in Hulk, tangled with the Avengers, and made it to Secret Wars. The first appearance is here, issue #114, in a Kirby-drawn Thor run that collectors have tracked seriously since the Bronze Age. Mid-grade copies of this issue move — it's not an easy book to find in any condition with both stories intact and the cover holding.
Condition F- 5.5 — .
We use what the scientists are calling artificial intelligence to research and write our descriptions — it gives us more time to add books to our website and provide you with a wider array of inventory. We think Klaatu would approve. Details are verified but the robot does slip up. We're not infallible. Every book is graded by a human collector who has actually held it. If anything ever looks off, reach on out at robopictocomics@gmail.com.
