Thor Odinson, God of Thunder Appreciation 2019

[phantom1592]

After seeing the January solicitations I may drop Thor, another universe ending threat for Thor is a bit old hat. We just had 7 years worth with Aaron, I would love more Earthly adventures with Thor or even a Young Thor title that looks at his time fighting Apocalypse (especially because of his prominence in Hickman's X-Men) or other monsters during the viking age.

Seems that that going thing... Necroswords, Old phoenix Logan, King Thor, Galactus and Franklin, and now apparently Immortal Hulk...

WAY too many stories focusing on the end of the universe and the last beings alive for it.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Thor #408 Oct 1989
"The Fateful Decision!"
Hercules, High Evolutionary, Eric Masterson and Thor have returned to Wundagore;
High Evolutionary tells them they should leave because they are returning to study the Black Galaxy;
Mongoose attacks and during the battle, Eric lifts Mjolnir, but receives a fatal blast before he can strike;

Hercules manages to drive Mongoose off and Thor pleads to Odin to spare Eric;

Eric becomes Thor's new secret identity.

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

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Tales of Asgard back-up
"There Dwells a Monster!"
Thor goes to the Land of the Trolls, to stop their raids on the countryside at the source;

The Rock Trolls capture Thor and present them to their leader, Grundor the Greater.


Script by Tom DeFalco, pencils by Mike Mignola, inks by Bob Wiacek

[kilderkin]

Seems that that going thing... Necroswords, Old phoenix Logan, King Thor, Galactus and Franklin, and now apparently Immortal Hulk...

WAY too many stories focusing on the end of the universe and the last beings alive for it.

Gotta say I agree, the thanos wins story I'll lump in too

Too much future narrative imo, no interest for me at all

They can't all be relevant so I just lose all interest especially since something or some other writer will just info, rewrite, ignore them

[catman]

Gorr's thought and idea(every sentient being who worship gods should die and I will create new universe without gods) are typical Evil God's deed he despises, aren't they?
He seems to be always god of hypocrisy.

[charliehustle415]

Seems that that going thing... Necroswords, Old phoenix Logan, King Thor, Galactus and Franklin, and now apparently Immortal Hulk...

WAY too many stories focusing on the end of the universe and the last beings alive for it.

Gotta say I agree, the thanos wins story I'll lump in too

Too much future narrative imo, no interest for me at all

They can't all be relevant so I just lose all interest especially since something or some other writer will just info, rewrite, ignore them

Exactly, how many alternative "The End" timelines will we get?

We even have "The End" one shots coming up in December.

[PCN24454]

Wait a second?!

Has Thor been involved in the Absolute Carnage story at all? Besides Spider-Man and Venom, he’s probably the character that come in contact with symbiotes the most.

Are they really going to go through the entire story without him playing a vital role?

[The Cool Thatguy]

Wait a second?!

Has Thor been involved in the Absolute Carnage story at all? Besides Spider-Man and Venom, he’s probably the character that come in contact with symbiotes the most.

Are they really going to go through the entire story without him playing a vital role?

The necro sword yes, the suits no.

[PCN24454]

The necro sword yes, the suits no.

That just means there was no point in connecting the symbiotes to the Necrosword in the first place.

[The Cool Thatguy]

That just means there was no point in connecting the symbiotes to the Necrosword in the first place.

I disagree. I've little doubt that Cotes will have Thor clashing with Knull soon, but the suits aren't powerful enough last 5 seconds against Thor.

This late in the game, Thor would overwhelm the bad guys and destroy the horror vibe.

Though I would agree that it's not been handled well within the series :P

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

I also wonder if the we will continue to have a introspective Thor - the one who looks inwards before acting and not just brute force and violence.

I know a lot on these boards hate that because it makes Thor look "weak" but I do hope that Thor doesn't revert back into non-thinking man of violence.

I really enjoyed JMS introducing that into Thor's characterization and then, of course, Aaron taking that baton and running with it.

I think action and sensitivity can exist in Thor and I hope Cates keeps it and doesn't discard it for Heavy Metal action.

There's a difference between making a character introspective and making him a crybaby jobber.

[JKtheMac]

There's a difference between making a character introspective and making him a crybaby jobber.

Well its a good job that nobody has done that recently.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

Exactly, how many alternative "The End" timelines will we get?

We even have "The End" one shots coming up in December.

I hope they don't do a new ''Thanos the end'' story. It would fail to capture the introspective and emotional ending of the 2003's one, where Thanos sacrifices himself to restore the universe, in favor of another ''Thanos is the most evil and edgy villain ever!'' drek.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

There were barely any universal threats that present-day Thor actually dealt with in Aaron's run besides Gorr. After the God-Butcher arc, God of Thunder was just "The Accursed" arc where Thor and the League of Realms hunted down Malekith and "Last Days of Midgard" where he fought Dario and Roxxon over Broxton. There was no universe-ending threat in the Thor and Loki: Original Sin mini. He barely fought any villains in either of Jane's volumes and the Unworthy mini just involved him fighting the Collector, Black Swan, Proxima Midnight and a disguised Hela who even together aren't a universe-ending threat. The most recent volume of Thor focused on the present-day Thor for barely half of it's 16-issue run, in which none of the threats he faced were anywhere near a universe-ending threat. And the WotR was barely a threat to a couple planets, hardly universal.

I agree War of the Realms was a misleading title since it was another alien invasion of Earth that didn't involve the nine realms.

Although Aaron did brought back Mangog, who is a galactic threat. However, Thor and Odin failing to defeat him together but super special awesome Jane managed to defeat Mangog alone? I do have some issues with that.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

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.

Words cannot describe how spot on your wall of text Is.