Kirby's Artistic Skills Are Reaching Their Peak
The battle continues as Sif in the body of the Destroyer is forced to face off against her beloved, powerless Thor. Meanwhile in the Norn Queen's realm, Balder is captive and subject to Karnilla's whims.
This is an interesting story as Stan Lee is starting to really get the hang of cutting between two parallel storylines and keeping them both moving. In the Thor/Destroyer half, Thor gets his powers back, but Sif loses control of the Destroyer while still trapped within, a nice plot twist; and in the Norn Queen's realm, there's an insurrection brewing - another nice plot twist.
Overall, 'King' Kirby's art is reaching its peak here in the late 1960s - nearly every panel is a mini pop-art masterpiece. Stan's dialogue, however, leaves something to be desired - the pseudo-Shakespearean of the Asgardians wouldn't be a problem if they weren't so redundant in their statements and so frequently speaking the obvious. The starkest contrast between the creators' diverging talents, however, is the Triton backup story where Kirby seems to have really thrown himself into the work in a way he didn't last issue, while Lee's dialogue seems campy and cliched; perhaps it was an attempt at humor.
All-in-all, a solid issue.