Thor Odinson, God of Thunder Appreciation 2019

[The Cool Thatguy]

DARIO AGGER WINS and will probably be in Avengers later, thankfully.

Yes, because we need villains that are as nuanced as Dario

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Thor #406 Aug 1989
"War With Wundagore!"
Thor flies to Wundagore and easily defeats the Knights;

Count Tagar is revealed as the mystery man that has been after Thor's tissue samples;

Mongoose has gone insane, but Count Tagar only wants to

bring Hercules and the High Evolutionary back from the Black Galaxy; Thor agrees to help and Eric comes along.

Script by Tom DeFalco (plot; script) and Ron Frenz (plot), pencils by Ron Frenz, inks by Joe Sinnott (finishes)

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

"Let There Be Life!"
Ulagg performs his task and uses a branch of Yggdrasil

to restore life

to a lifeless world:

"Midgard" aka Earth.

Script by Tom DeFalco, art by Tony DeZuniga

[Panic]

I quite like that Tony DeZuniga art - it has that loose Sienkiewicz feel.

[Frontier]

Much like the rest of Aaron's run, it ends not with a bang or a whimper but a wet fart:

spoilers:

Thor only shows up on three pages, one of which is in the preview. The other two are him using Mjolnir to deliver a heart transplant 4,000 miles away and him feeding those Dark Elf children Cul saved. The rest of the issue is barely worth mentioning except that Aaron makes Black Panther the new Senator for Midgard, Dario Agger gets away with everything because we obviously need more of the guy who makes Captain Planet villains look like deep and interesting characters and as one last act of shitting on Odin, Aaron has Freyja reveal to Gaea that he apparently has Alzheimer's. And he's apparently not the only one since everybody seems to have forgotten that Thor has been All-Father and king before.

end of spoilers

spoilers:

So I guess Aaron had to foist one more "real world father" cliche on Odin. Which kind of surprises me since it seemed like his long memory was the only thing Aaron's Odin actually had going for him. Not surprised that Thor apparently does the bare minimum in his own book.

end of spoilers

I love Thor because he made it possible for out-of-shape dad bod lugs like me to walk around like a champ this Halloween with the Fat Thor costume.

I'd thank Chris Hemsworth. That's all him.

(Although the movie sure did make a lot of jokes about his weight...)

Yes, because we need villains that are as nuanced as Dario

Seriously. He's like Aaron's Silver Samurai if he was more overt and cartoonish about how corrupt he is.

Not that I hate him, but I think he's a B-villain at best.

[voidox]

well folks, we've finally made it, aaron's destruction is almost over. The main Thor books is finally free, his pet Jane is contained to her meh book and we just have to survive w.e he does in King Thor which I just know is going to be something bad :/

we can now hope a new writer can come along to begin the road to fixing the mess left behind... probably need a Hickman level new book to start down the road of redemption for the Thor mythos~

[kilderkin]

well folks, we've finally made it, aaron's destruction is almost over. The main Thor books is finally free, his pet Jane is contained to her meh book and we just have to survive w.e he does in King Thor which I just know is going to be something bad :/

we can now hope a new writer can come along to begin the road to fixing the mess left behind... probably need a Hickman level new book to start down the road of redemption for the Thor mythos~

Fingers (and a lot more) crossed

[THORPERION]

Yeah. But with the level of BS Aaron created we’ll need GALACTUS to cross his fingers AND toes!!!

[Digifiend]

From Origins of Marvel Comics 2010:

[Frontier]

From Origins of Marvel Comics 2010:

Ribic drawing early Thor is cool .

[charliehustle415]

Anyone notice the similarities between Thor: God of Thunder #12 and this final issue?

The titles are similar and Thor is doing earthly things for humans; full circle for Thor.

I would never have noticed but someone mentioned it to Aaron on Twitter.

[JKtheMac]

Anyone notice the similarities between Thor: God of Thunder #12 and this final issue?

The titles are similar and Thor is doing earthly things for humans; full circle for Thor.

I would never have noticed but someone mentioned it to Aaron on Twitter.

Very much so. It was the first thing I thought as he was building the church. Not that I would say he came ‘full circle’ so much as he is doing what he believes is right. Odin has it right in is unused speech: “How to rise above our unworthiness by owning it”.

In the God of Thunder story he was still reeling from Gor’s philosophy. Thor was paying his dues, doing worthy things while worrying his unworthiness could be a thing, now he is doing worthy things knowing that these deeds alone are what make him worthy. His status hasn’t changed, at both points he could lift the hammer, but his awareness of what worthiness is has changed.

It has become less abstract and more focused on what he actually does. It isn’t and never has been about the hammer deciding or even an entity in the hammer, it has simply been the enchantment that deemed only that one had to be worthy enough to lift it. Can an unworthy god be worthy enough to trigger that enchantment? Yes, by doing worthy things and genuinely striving to be worthy.

The reason why some of us are happy with this, is that it does away with any nepotism or favouritism. It isn’t about being Thor by birthright, it isn’t about being the chosen person to trigger the enchantment, it isn’t about being a god and therefore automatically worthy. It’s back to being aspirational. That core element from early Thor that before any retcons allowed a worthy human to lift the hammer and transform into Thor.

The transformation isn’t necessary for Thor. Thor is always Thor the God of Thunder. That was his birthright. But that birthright doesn’t make him worthy. Just like us he has to strive to be worthy. The reader is shown by example how to be worthy. This is such an essential element to many of us, that the fact that was not obvious and teased out in stories was a problem. A flaw.

I know that there are fans that will argue until they are blue in the face that this wasn’t necessary. That he was always worthy and always will be. Well then for them normal service is resumed. For the rest of us this was necessary and something that I personally wanted right at the beginning of the run. I felt that lack. The fault line in the logic of Thor. It has nagged at me for decades. I am sure fellow Thor fans can rejoice that we can all be happier now.

[Frontier]

I can at least admit I am happy to not be debating worthiness anymore...although I guess we'll probably still be debating it until we're blue in the face just because of how impactful this run is and that fans can't agree whether it was for good or ill or on Aaron's writing in general. Especially when it actually came down to writing worthiness.

People will also probably still complain if future writers still write Thor like Aaron did. To be honest I'm not going to be completely happy until he gets his arm and eye back.

Very much so. It was the first thing I thought as he was building the church. Not that I would say he came ‘full circle’ so much as he is doing what he believes is right. Odin has it right in is unused speech: “How to rise above our unworthiness by owning it”.

In the God of Thunder story he was still reeling from Gor’s philosophy. Thor was paying his dues, doing worthy things while worrying his unworthiness could be a thing, now he is doing worthy things knowing that these deeds alone are what make him worthy. His status hasn’t changed, at both points he could lift the hammer, but his awareness of what worthiness is has changed.

It has become less abstract and more focused on what he actually does. It isn’t and never has been about the hammer deciding or even an entity in the hammer, it has simply been the enchantment that deemed only that one had to be worthy enough to lift it. Can an unworthy god be worthy enough to trigger that enchantment? Yes, by doing worthy things and genuinely striving to be worthy.

The reason why some of us are happy with this, is that it does away with any nepotism or favouritism. It isn’t about being Thor by birthright, it isn’t about being the chosen person to trigger the enchantment, it isn’t about being a god and therefore automatically worthy. It’s back to being aspirational. That core element from early Thor that before any retcons allowed a worthy human to lift the hammer and transform into Thor.

The transformation isn’t necessary for Thor. Thor is always Thor the God of Thunder. That was his birthright. But that birthright doesn’t make him worthy. Just like us he has to strive to be worthy. The reader is shown by example how to be worthy. This is such an essential element to many of us, that the fact that was not obvious and teased out in stories was a problem. A flaw.

I know that there are fans that will argue until they are blue in the face that this wasn’t necessary. That he was always worthy and always will be. Well then for them normal service is resumed. For the rest of us this was necessary and something that I personally wanted right at the beginning of the run. I felt that lack. The fault line in the logic of Thor. It has nagged at me for decades. I am sure fellow Thor fans can rejoice that we can all be happier now.

To be honest I think most people assumed that's what worthiness meant because those were things inherent within Thor's actual character, well beyond early Thor stories. He was an inherently aspirational and noble figure and that's why he was worthy.

I don't think writers have ever made it come across as an aspect of one's godliness or because he was Odin's son. Heck, in the movie Odin used the enchantment to prevent Thor from wielding hammer until he actually was worthy enough to wield it.

[THORPERION]

I can at least admit I am happy to not be debating worthiness anymore...although I guess we'll probably still be debating it until we're blue in the face just because of how impactful this run is and that fans can't agree whether it was for good or ill or on Aaron's writing in general. Especially when it actually came down to writing worthiness.

People will also probably still complain if future writers still write Thor like Aaron did. To be honest I'm not going to be completely happy until he gets his arm and eye back.

To be honest I think most people assumed that's what worthiness meant because those were things inherent within Thor's actual character, well beyond early Thor stories. He was an inherently aspirational and noble figure and that's why he was worthy.

I don't think writers have ever made it come across as an aspect of one's godliness or because he was Odin's son. Heck, in the movie Odin used the enchantment to prevent Thor from wielding hammer until he actually was worthy enough to wield it.

Truthfully, the ONLY way this mess would’ve made some sense would’ve been to show that you were worthy of wielding THOR’s power by measuring up to THOR himself. All that’s happened with this is the humiliation and degradation of THOR to the point that any Tom, Dick, and Sally can be “Thor” if they’re found arbitrarily worthy of still unestablished parameters! We basically have a situation now where anyone is seen heroic for anything that involves their own personal struggles. Being able to lift MJOLNIR was something awe-inspiring! Now, I don’t even want it anymore because any loser can lift it. I guess BRB wasn’t so special. Neither is cap. If a worthless undeserving nobody like bad mom Fosthor can wield it....ANYONE CAN! She did nothing special so that means lifting the hammer should be quite achievable for the general public now.

“Cancer” is not an overarching struggle. That’s personal. THOR deals with universal struggles that make that cancer seem like a walk in the park. Again, this is fiction. Stop putting a GOD beneath a crappy human being. Can’t wait for a retcon. And I feel one may come sooner than we think.....

[JKtheMac]

I don't think writers have ever made it come across as an aspect of one's godliness or because he was Odin's son. Heck, in the movie Odin used the enchantment to prevent Thor from wielding hammer until he actually was worthy enough to wield it.

Funny how so many people argued exactly these things while Jane was around. Almost as if that’s what the story was trying to tease out! Hmmm.