Special Marvel Edition #1

This 1971 Marvel double-feature special opens with a dramatic split cover by penciler Marie Severin and inker Joe Sinnott: on one side, a blond man clutching a cane flees through jungle undergrowth as armed pursuers shout "Kill him! Kill the Yankee dog!", while on the other, the Mighty Thor erupts in a burst of brilliant energy, Mjolnir raised high and ready to strike. The cover dialogue — "My only chance is to use my cane… turn into—" — leaves the transformation tantalizingly mid-sentence, bridging both halves of the image with real momentum. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's "Into the Blaze of Battle!" promises the kind of high-stakes adventure that made Thor one of Marvel's most compelling figures of the era.