Thor #148
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThor #148 is a double-barreled Silver Age key: it introduces Dirk Garthwaite, the Wrecker — a street-level criminal whose accidental empowerment by Karnilla the Norn Queen (meant for Loki) gave Marvel one of its most durable blue-collar supervillains and the eventual seed of the entire Wrecking Crew. Simultaneously, the issue's back-up feature '...And Finally: Black Bolt!' delivers the birth-and-origin of Blackagar Boltagon, showing parents Agon and Rynda discovering the catastrophic sonic power locked inside their infant son — a scene that permanently defined Black Bolt's tragic, silent existence. The creative pairing of two debut origin stories in a single issue, both by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby at the height of their collaboration, makes it one of the most content-dense keys of the Thor run. The Wrecker's longevity across decades of Marvel publishing — from Secret Wars to She-Hulk — traces directly back to the specific accident of fate dramatized here.
In "Let There Be... Chaos!", young Jo—born of the cosmic experiment by Agon and Rynda—unleashes a terrifying power hidden within his voice, threatening to unravel everything his parents have built. Written by Stan Lee and brought to life with dynamic energy by Jack Kirby, with inks by Joe Sinnott and letters by Sam Rosen, this 1968 issue marks a pivotal moment in Thor’s mythos. The cover, a striking collaboration by Jack Kirby, John Romita, Vince Colletta, and John Verpoorten, captures the storm of power just beginning to rise.
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Published with a cover date of January 1968 (on-sale November 2, 1967), the issue was written by Stan Lee with pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Vince Colletta (with Joe Sinnott on the back-up feature), and lettering by Sam Rosen — the standard Lee-Kirby-Colletta creative team steering Thor through its late Silver Age peak. The issue continues a multi-part arc in which Odin had stripped all Asgardians on Earth of their divine powers as punishment, a plot device that conveniently let a powerless Thor be pushed to his limits by a newly super-powered street thug. The GCD notes that the cover was later altered — Thor repositioned and Asgardians changed — likely by John Romita and John Verpoorten, for the Marvel Spectacular #19 reprint. The back-up 'Tales of the Inhumans' slot, which had previously been occupied by 'Tales of Asgard,' was a new feature giving Kirby room to deepen his Inhumans mythology introduced in Fantastic Four years earlier.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and origin of the Wrecker (Dirk Garthwaite), created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby — a former demolitions-crew laborer who accidentally receives Asgardian Norn power intended for Loki from Karnilla the Norn Queen.
- First appearance of the Wrecker's enchanted crowbar, the weapon that would later be used to empower the entire Wrecking Crew.
- Back-up story '...And Finally: Black Bolt!' presents the origin of Black Bolt (Blackagar Boltagon) — specifically his birth and the discovery of his devastating sonic power by his parents, King Agon and Queen Rynda — constituting the first appearances of both Agon and Rynda.
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker) appears only as an image on a television screen — a minor cameo, not a full appearance.
- The issue's main story title is 'Let There Be... Chaos!'; the back-up is '...And Finally: Black Bolt!' — the latter's title was later used as the title of the Season 1 finale of ABC's Inhumans television series (2017).
- Written by Stan Lee, penciled by Jack Kirby, with Vince Colletta inking the lead story and Joe Sinnott inking the back-up; cover date January 1968, on-sale November 2, 1967.
- The lead story has been reprinted in Marvel Spectacular #19 (1975), Essential Thor Vol. 3 (2006, black & white), Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Vol. 6 (2007), The Mighty Thor Omnibus Vol. 2 (2013), and Thor Epic Collection Vol. 3 – The Wrath of Odin (2017), among other domestic and international editions.
- The Wrecker's origin in this issue directly seeds the formation of the Wrecking Crew, who debuted as a team in The Defenders #17 (1974) when three new villains gained power from his enchanted crowbar.
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Agon and Rynda have altered their infant son's genetic pattern to give him the powers of levitation and electron manipulation, but they discover that he has a more dangerous and destructive power in his voice.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).
Key issues in Thor
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