Originally Posted by
Panic
Yes, Jason Aaron's depiction of Odin is not totally without precedent. Thor is a long-running comic book, and we've seen several different depictions of Odin over time, some popular, some not so much. We've seen some great stories involving Odin, we've seen some bad stories, we've seen a whole bunch of stories that don't make a lot of sense as they conflict with previous stories and later stories.
So my question is not "does this depiction of Odin have any basis in any previous Thor stories?", because at this point you can find all sorts of behaviour in most long-running characters - Captain America, for example, supposedly the poster-boy for goodness and morality for the MU, happily sent Carol Danvers off with the man who mind-controlled her into having sex with him and hijacked her vagina to use as a get-out-of-limbo-free card; no Cap fan actually wants to dip into that well for future depictions of Cap, though it would arguably make Steve Rogers a more complex, more human character, because it would lessen readers' respect for the character and his status, in universe and out, and more importantly, it would add a layer of feel-bad and shame to a character who is supposed to be an empowering hero. Cap's fans would be up in arms; the readers who find Cap too perfect to be a believable character, on the other hand, would probably praise the dirtying-up of the character, especially as it would make room for other heroes to take centre-stage. But do you really want to change a character to appeal to readers who aren't fans at the expense of those that are?
And this is the thing: I think a lot of support for Aaron's Thor run is coming from readers who are not primarily Thor Odinson fans, and not fans of Odin at all. Many of the people praising Aaron's run have been brought in by Jane as Thor, and are primarily Jane's fans, not Thor's; Jane fulfils the role of wish-fulfilment hero, the powerful, smart, heroic character that acts as a stand-in for the reader, holding viewpoints that the reader empathises with, doing the things the reader would like to do, i.e. beating up the bad guy; they're quite happy to see Thor written as stupider, less competent, less sympathetic, because it helps give Jane-as-Thor a place and relevance she would not have if Thor Odinson was written as what I will call "Classic Thor" - smart, resourceful, sympathetic, and, yes... classy.
And "classy" is what is missing from Aaron's depictions of Thor and Odin. It's not the only thing, but it is one of the most glaring things. Aaron has given us a redneck Thor and Odin: moonshine swillin', backward thinkin', no book-learnin', hillbilly horndogs. Look down on them, kids, they're not as sophisticated as you or I, but they are quite funny. Hel, I wouldn't be surprised if Odin's legendary sacrifice of his eye and his hanging nine nights on the world-tree were reinterpreted as drunken accidents.
My question is "does this depiction of Odin give us a character that works for the position he fills, i.e. Asgard's God of Wisdom, ruler of the gods, and the man Thor has pledged his allegiance to?" I don't think he does. What I've seen of Aaron's Odin is a character is is not smart or sophisticated, and therefore when he does awful things there doesn't appear to be any real complexity at work, just stupidity. And stupid characters are not interesting. Same goes for Thor. Don't give the audience a hero that is stupider than they are, it's annoying. The classic green Hulk was supposedly stupid, but in his own book he actually was deceptively smart despite his limited diction, and since Marvel gave him Banner-level intelligence he hasn't revered back. Hulk fans don't want the character to backslide, it's devolution not evolution. Those of us who are Thor Odinson fans similarly don't want Thor stupider and less capable than when we became fans, and that is what we have been complaining about for years. It's a bad direction, and it's one that Marvel has been pushing Thor and Odin in since before Aaron came onto the scene. If you are going to give Odin a dark side, at least write him with Magneto-like complexity and depth - he's the God of Wisdom, for pete's sake.
And yes, new fans are no less important than old, but this is the Thor Odinson Appreciation Thread, we're just like most of the other appreciation threads - we don't like our hero being short-changed or pushed in an unflattering direction. Yes, Aaron's run has been a quality run in that it has had great art and emotionally involving storylines, but what it generally hasn't done is exactly what is going to matter to Thor Odinson's fans most - it hasn't done the character justice, and it hasn't pushed him in a good direction. We've seen his credibility plummet and his character devolve, and Odin, whom he is tied to, has been similarly mistreated. As I said before, I feel a lot of the support for Aaron's run is coming from people who like Jane and Loki more than Thor, and while that is a perfectly valid viewpoint in other threads, in the Thor Odinson appreciation thread it's going to meet with opposition, imo.