Is Thor the real glue of the Avengers?

[JKtheMac]

Simple answer - No.

The fact is Thor has no dog in the fight when it comes to Civil War. He has more to worry about anyway, and his secret identity hasn’t been used for years, and even then wasn’t really the same thing.

Avengers start fighting each other then sure there is a reasonable argument that he wouldn’t pick sides, but that is partly proven wrong by Secret Empire, where being guided by his trust of Captain America and Mjölnir placed him on the wrong side and then his uncertainty made him question Cap and change sides.

To be the ‘heart’ of the team one needs to be partly moral guide, partly the one everyone is close to, partly the one who cares about everyone, partly the one that holds the idea of the team above their own place in it. Even the biggest Thor fan couldn’t make the claim Thor ticks all those boxes.

[leokearon]

I won't call Thor the Heart of the Avengers especially as he isn't the most reliable of members.

[Rosebunse]

I don't think there really is a glue to the Avengers. Thor, frankly, has been pretty unreliable for a long time. And the guy has had other and more imporant things to worry about half the time.

None of the Avengers really "keep the team together." They sort of shift in and out.

[Huntsman Spider]

Last time I saw Jarvis was Waid's run. When it was Tony and Sam mentoring the younger heroes.

The No Surrender weekly mega-arc before Aaron started his run was where I last saw him, and despite being out of commission for the first half of it (for plot reasons), he got in a really good speech during the second half about what being an Avenger means. That speech, for me, redeemed the Avengers as a team and a concept after (too many) years of them being written as ineffectual, infighting, and even (somewhat) hypocritical jack@$$es. To me, that makes Jarvis the glue that holds the Avengers together and the heart of the team.

[Tony Stark]

The No Surrender weekly mega-arc before Aaron started his run was where I last saw him, and despite being out of commission for the first half of it (for plot reasons), he got in a really good speech during the second half about what being an Avenger means. That speech, for me, redeemed the Avengers as a team and a concept after (too many) years of them being written as ineffectual, infighting, and even (somewhat) hypocritical jack@$$es. To me, that makes Jarvis the glue that holds the Avengers together and the heart of the team.

Thanks for the info. I didn't get No Surrender so I was unaware that he showed up there.

[kilderkin]

As much as I love thor I don't think he's the heart, the champion maybe, certainly the last call when all else fails imo

But I'd put Clint, cap, Janet, Tony above him, and vision above them too a lot of the time

[Geralt of Rivia]

I wholly agree and I think Kurt Busiek does too, based on how back in the Avengers / JLA crossover *everyone* got so upset when Thor got a beatdown from Supes.

[DrNewGod]

Captain America was the glue. Until CW decided he wasn't. Like Claremont said about Prof X when Claremont was trying to get old and new X-Men fighting, (paraphrase) he had to get rid of the Prof because he was the one guy that both sides would listen to when he said "stop it, you're being stupid."

In the spirit of the question, Thor would absolutely have stomped on CW. When Clor came out, he would have absolutely stomped on Iron Man and the rest of The Smart Boys.

[Frontier]

The fact is Thor has no dog in the fight when it comes to Civil War. He has more to worry about anyway, and his secret identity hasn’t been used for years, and even then wasn’t really the same thing.

He probably would have been a factor in terms of who the government would've wanted to register, which is part of why Iron Man approached him, but the reaction would've been the same as it was with JMS.

Avengers start fighting each other then sure there is a reasonable argument that he wouldn’t pick sides, but that is partly proven wrong by Secret Empire, where being guided by his trust of Captain America and Mjölnir placed him on the wrong side and then his uncertainty made him question Cap and change sides.

He was in "Odinson" mode then, so I would think a more proper Thor would not have acted the way he did in that event.

To be the ‘heart’ of the team one needs to be partly moral guide, partly the one everyone is close to, partly the one who cares about everyone, partly the one that holds the idea of the team above their own place in it. Even the biggest Thor fan couldn’t make the claim Thor ticks all those boxes.

I actually think he ticks off most of those boxes.

[Anthony W]

Yes, absolutely.

He is super powerful and a good and hearthy dumb guy, which almost everyone loves on teams and real life.

He is also very wise and just when absolutely needed to be.

Let me guess, most of what you know about Thor comes from Aaron's run?

[comicscollector]

There was a storyline way back in the Avengers about trying to make sense of a Avenger like Thor being as powerfull as he is, not just being used as a all time solution to face all the Avengers villains.
Don´t quote me on that because i don´t remember in which storyline it was.
But yeah the way Thor is way more powerfull that the other Avengers don´t make him to me the most essential Avenger as is Captain America.

[MichaelC]

There ISN'T a glue holding the Avengers together, and that's kind of the point. If there's a glue, it's the villains. The villains force this group of people with clashing personalities and agendas to work together because they're all essentially good people at heart. The Avengers is a team the way the Horde and the Alliance are a team right at the end of every Warcraft expansion when this expansion's Big Bad makes his move.

[theoneandonly]

the way he is currently written he can barely keep himself glued together let alone the rest of the team. I think you will see woe is me where is my hammer thor soon in avengers. Aaron can't resist unworthy thor or Phoenix wolverines.

[Gaastra]

I saw wasp as the heart of the early avengers. This goes double for the earths mightiest heroes cartoon. Wasp names the team, she is the one to talk cap into joining, she talks hulk into coming back after he leaves. She holds the team together in that first season. Shame the new writing team came along in the second season and turned her into a jerk. (look at the captain marvel episode to see how much of a jerk she became)

I wholly agree and I think Kurt Busiek does too, based on how back in the Avengers / JLA crossover *everyone* got so upset when Thor got a beatdown from Supes.

Ugh. You just had to bring that out of character moment up. Thor has been beat many times with the avengers and they never acted like that. It was just to make the avengers look bad and the jla look good. I hated that scene. I love the jla avengers series but that and supes catching thors hammer (it would have broke supes blasted hand!) and the "they are the real ones" line when kyle and wally are replaced by the hal and barry (who by the way are NOT the originals but younger replacements) are three of the worst things about that otherwise fun series.

As for thor the heart of the team. Nah can't see it at all. He wasn't even in many of the teams over the years plus he got replaced by eric for most of the 90s.

[XPac]

I saw wasp as the heart of the early avengers. This goes double for the earths mightiest heroes cartoon. Wasp names the team, she is the one to talk cap into joining, she talks hulk into coming back after he leaves. She holds the team together in that first season. Shame the new writing team came along in the second season and turned her into a jerk. (look at the captain marvel episode to see how much of a jerk she became)




Ugh. You just had to bring that out of character moment up. Thor has been beat many times with the avengers and they never acted like that. It was just to make the avengers look bad and the jla look good. I hated that scene. I love the jla avengers series but that and supes catching thors hammer (it would have broke supes blasted hand!) and the "they are the real ones" line when kyle and wally are replaced by the hal and barry (who by the way are NOT the originals but younger replacements) are three of the worst things about that otherwise fun series.

As for thor the heart of the team. Nah can't see it at all. He wasn't even in many of the teams over the years plus he got replaced by eric for most of the 90s.

THough I loved JLA/Avengers I thought the scene after Superman beat Thor was utterly ridiculous and made both teams look like idiots.

After Thor goes down literally all the most powerful Avengers gang jump Superman. With like a third of the Avengers, all the more powerful ones, jumping on a single League member you'd think the rest of the JLA (who already slightly outnumbered the Avengers in the fight) would have swept through the rest of the Avengers like a hot knife through butter. But nope... the rest of the league just sort of stops fighting to watch Superman get beat up I guess.

Frankly I'm not sure which team ended up looking stupider in that exchange.

But it's a small complaint. Overall I loved that story.