Just for a bit of balance over the creation of Thor a snippet of the Kirby interview for the
Prisoners of gravity TV series:
Q: What prompted you to reinvent Thor for the comics in 1962?
JACK: Well, I knew the Thor legends very well, but I wanted to modernize them. I felt that might be a new thing for comics, taking the old legends and modernizing them. I believe I accomplished that.
Q: What is it about ancient heroes like Thor that make them so enduring and relevant today?
JACK: Well, the heroes represent the wholesome part of society. Society has a wholesome side and it has a down side. We know where those facets lie.
They're common to all of us, and if we want to be our wholesome selves, we'll stick with legends like Thor and Odin.
Q: Why are you so fascinated by gods?
JACK: We all have a kind of feeling that I think we've had for thousands of years, that there are higher beings somewhere. I think all our spiritual feelings stem from that. The truth is that the Greeks had Hercules, even as the Norsemen had Thor, and through the ages we have had heroes similar to them.
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Snippets of this and other interesting interviews can be found
<here>
Including him discussing his earlier Thor in
Superheroes: The Language That Jack Kirby Wrote
I did a version of Thor for DC. In the Fifties before I did him for Marvel. He had a red beard but he was a legendary figure, which I liked. I liked the figure of Thor at DC and I created Thor at Marvel because I was forever enamored of legends. I knew all about these legends which is why I knew about Balder, Heimdall and Odin. I tried to update Thor and put him in a superhero costume. He looked great in it and everybody loved him, but he was still Thor.