Originally Posted by
Doombot
There's certainly a few things I'd like to see if I were magically in control of a Thor book.
1. Fix Odin. I'd try to work out a way to reverse the downward spiral Odin has been on in the last few years, without just outright disregarding it. Odin may have somehow been playing a strategic game, and had some ulterior motive(s) for his behavior in recent years. He's been fighting some sort of shadow war or struggling with a more dangerous reality working behind the scenes. This could also work if you were to make the Odin of recent years not actually Odin, but someone, maybe Cul or another of Odin's sons, playing the role of Odin while Odin himself is either in Odinsleep preparing or on some astral mission, or he's missing altogether. This brings me to getting Odin the character and getting him back to where he should be, imo anyway. Odin shouldn't be a tyrant or a distant yet caring old fart type father figure. He should be a character of terrifying power and deep mystery. I'd like to see Odin depicted as an intense being with a nearly all consuming desire for more knowledge. He should always have this subtext or "b-story" built into his character and interactions with Thor where he is always looking to learn or discover more secrets of the universe. Thor will not always understand this or why. This could help explain his recent behavior and ties him with his more mythic counterpart as well as help direct the character more in the future. Odin sees a much bigger picture than Thor and is always working towards these larger ends. He is obsessed with death, or overcoming death itself, which is why he is always looking for an angle or cosmic secrets to help in his never ending chess game with death. I would also add that Odin knows or has always known that any Ragnarok(s) or 'cycles" have never been the real thing, as many of the real players in that event have yet to show themselves in Thor comics. Characters we've seen that are connected to Ragnarok like, Jormungandr, Fenrir could be revealed to have never been the actual versions of these beings or only aspects of them and Odin knows this. (I've always found Marvel's versions of these characters to be poorly designed and very lackluster) I would actually open a new series with a new villain searching the realms for the hidden location of the actual Fenrir, still bound somewhere in Dwarven fetter, and one of the few beings Odin truly dreads, and is actively working against. (and one that is not just a big dog, but a force of wild destruction and evil)
2. Fix the Realms. To me, nothing is more frustrating then looking back over Thor books and seeing how utterly inconsistent and underdeveloped the Nine Realms and their inhabitants are. Even beings like the eternal-punching bag Frost Giants are never depicted consistently, even in superficial terms, like how big they are supposed to be, what do they wear, what sort of societal structure do they have, how strong are they, sometimes they look like ice people, sometime like just blue skinned humans, sometimes like monsters, which is it? How do you have half-breeds like Loki and Odin himself, who look just like the Aesir? As much as Thor and Asgard dislike the Jotun, have any of the books spent much time in Jotunheim? Not that I remember. Jotunheim is a much fabled Norse realm with the ancient rivals of the Gods that has been almost completely unexplored for 40 years. In the earliest times, Odin was supposed to have stolen much ancient magic and the Runes themselves from the Jotun, what else goes on there? These were the first beings in Realms, they should be depicted as another tribe of wild Gods, not drooling barbarians that Thor can kill by basically sneezing. Why have the Gods been historically afraid of the Jotun if they are such non-threats? And all this is just Jotunheim, not to mention the other Realms, how can you have such rich worlds to explore and build in, yet no one ever has since the 60s? This is mind boggling to me. What happens in Vanaheim? This is another entire tribe of Gods there. What about Muspelheim? It is an entire realm where the living embodiment of cosmic fire lives, you're telling me there's just like a lake of fire and some poorly designed flame goblins that live there? That's it? There's an entire world to explore there, races and creatures and history that would be cut off from the Aesir because Odin and Surtur have maintained an ages old barrier, a mystic "flame curtain" that has kept that realm separated from all others. Let Thor go play there for a while, meet new Fire Gods and Flame Jotun he never knew existed, new lands and seas and continents in a world of heat and flame, something Thor is definitely not comfortable with. Destroy the terrible Cinder character and replace her with something worthwhile. Odin may have trapped an aspect of Surtur in an outer realm, but as long as flame exists, Surtur exists, and the beings of his realm know this and await his full return. I would also find a way to drop or distance the Thor stories from the Angela and Heven nonsense. I'm not sure how, I'd love if it was just ignored forever, but maybe Odin deliberately fathered a child with one of these angels in order to add their might to his War at the end of time. Essentially using the child as a way to artificially add the realm, adding a fake branch to the tree of Yggdrasil in his long game against death.
3. New Blood. Directly connected to fixing the Realms, is not only expanding and deepening the worlds, but creating new characters that live there. Thor has tons of fun characters that we all love, but his book really needs a new wave of interesting, dangerous and exciting characters. Once you start playing more in the other realms it could be done quite naturally I think. Who lives in these places? Friends, foes, lovers, monsters, secrets and mysteries. A "Journey into Mystery" is as easy as going to the next Realm over, in my opinion. You don't need to have Thor and Asgard fight Kree or space empires (although that's fun too, I'd love to see the Aesir deal with a Brood infestation or an attack by an Annihilus Wave) when you have Nine entire realms to explore. I have lots of ideas for new characters, I'm sure many of you do too. As much as I love Loki and Hela, or Mangog and Malekith, they've been done to death at this point and Thor needs new characters to be tested against.
4. Fix Thor. To be honest, I feel this would be the easiest fix for a new series. Thor isn't really broken, despite abuse he's taken in the last decade. All you have to do is pick him back up, dust him off and set him in these new adventures, with new and old characters, and he'll return to who he really is with a little bit of love. He just needs a writer that can see past any stereotypical "Conan with a Hammer" nonsense and remembers that Thor is an ancient being, with deep nobility and charm and thoughtfulness. Thor is not a character that should be going through the "heroes journey", he's way past that, he's ancient, he's experienced more than any mortal can understand. That kind of story is redundant and silly with Thor, I don't know why they keep trying it. He is a God, he's not a Hulk with a hammer, he's full of centuries long experiences of war and love and loss, treat him that way. Thor can at once be a being of terrifying strength and brutality as well as tender, caring and introspective. He's a reflection of the extremes of nature, the devastating hurricane and a warm summer's breeze all at once. He's full of great joy and ancient melancholy. In a heartbeat he would face armies alone and kill enemies without hesitation, yet move a mountain to save a single innocent life. If you can remember these things, Thor can fix himself, he's got big shoulders.