Thor Odinson: God of Thunder Appreciation 2020

[Cronus]

Odin's beard she's gorgeous!

One of the loveliest ladies in Marvel Comics!

[Wall-Crawler]

Agreed. Aaron can write a compelling narrative - after all, he made Jane a compelling character... except he did it by ****ing over everyone else. Great independent universe story, but horrible for an in-continuity tale.

The most damaging stories for heroes are the ones written not by bad writers, but by good writers who just don't care about said hero but craft a story popular enough that it sticks.


Yeah, he really did himself no favours there. It's very difficult to respect who someone who uses a position of power like that, but it is what people in positions of power do: see President Trump.



Yes, I agree we should not shout so loud about Marvel hating Thor, especially outside of this thread. We don't need anymore standalone threads complaining about Marvel's treatment of Thor, because it's doing for Thor's fanbase what a few individuals have done for Storm's , imo. No offence meant to anyone.

I don't think the current Marvel writers hate Thor. On the other hand, I do not think that they like classic Thor, the idealised hero who talks big. The Marvel Architects have an idea of the general dynamic of the MU, and it has Cap as the idealised hero, the paragon, "the alpha of alphas" as I heard someone put it; classic Thor would at best take away from Cap, and at worst dominate centre stage. Marvel are committed to the Thor brand, not so much the character. I think they've been testing out the waters to see if they could get rid of Thor Odinson and replace him with someone less threatening to their vision of the MU. This has kind of split the fanbase. The other thing I think they've been doing is turning Thor into a version that they enjoy writing, moving him away from the paragon category and making him a slightly comedic jerk - less threatening in the 'he's better than your hero' mould, more 'funny muscle'. We know that a Thor written with the classic hero personality set works because, well, it did - it did throughout Kirby to Simonson, and places inbetween; plus, this is exactly how Jane was written as Thor, and that worked too (with the exception of screwing over everyone else to make her look awesome).


If you want to see a really horrible case of a talented writer destroying a hero in a classic run, check out Bendis' Daredevil story where White Tiger (Hector Ayala) is tried for robbery: Bendis starts off by making Hector look fairly incompetent, trying to stop a pair of no-name thugs robbing an electronics store, but getting temporarily overpowered and then being arrested by beat-cops who find him standing there like an idiot, holding a TV. Matt Murdock tells Hector he absolutely must not lose his temper in court. He loses his temper in court, and gives a ridiculous rant about how if he wanted to take stuff, no one could stop him. This makes him look particularly stupid (and macho) to the reader, especially because we saw that he couldn't even handle two stupid thugs. Then he unfairly blames Murdock for his disaster on the stand, losing any sympathy the reader has for him as he's blaming his stupidity on Murdock and not taking any responsibility for himself. Then he totally loses it in court when he's found guilty, grabs a gun off one of the guards, and runs out of the courthouse with a gun in his hand, straight into a bunch of cops who shoot him dead.

Now that is merciless treatment from Bendis, a writer arguably at the height of his powers. He utterly destroys any credibility Hector Ayala had, making him look weak, stupid, macho, irresponsible; then he kills him. He even has Foggy say that Hector has "loser stink" all over him (or something like that - it's been a while). That's not just throwing a hero under the bus, that's then backing the bus over him a few times, then pissing on the corpse. Not actually a bad story though, but a very unflattering characterisation of a perfectly good hero. He wasn't one of my favourites, but there wasn't anything wrong with him, and his fanbase certainly deserved better. Writers just do this stuff sometimes, when they stop seeing the heroes as important, and just see them as a toy to be messed with and discarded.

Excellent post btw

[JudicatorPrime]

And if that doesn't work, we can alway defer to Ororo's own thoughts on who's superior....

Attachment 96644

Actually, that scene was meant to emphasize the difference between how Thor and Storm control the weather, not necessarily to say that he's greater at it. There's this old line (paraphrased) said of two of the preeminent dancers of their era, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire: "Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything that he did … only she did it backwards and in high heels." That same distinction aptly applies to Thor and Storm as well.

Thor's control is purely magical in nature. Storm, on the other hand, has to work with the elements and the lines of energy and force to achieve a given weather phenomena. In many respects that makes Storm's ability to control weather and atmospheric condition far more wide ranging than Thor. For example, Thor can't create humidity or control snow. Storm can. As depicted in one of the classic X-Men issues, Storm can turn on a blizzard at the snap of her fingers. She can also take the oxygen out of a room, making it difficult for a combatant to breathe. Thor can't accomplish that same exact feat, although he can summon winds that can probably achieve an approximate effect over time. Storm can also use her mastery over the lines of force coupled with her lightning powers to set off an EMP pulse in someone's brain. Thor's powers have never been shown to be that surgically precise as far as I know.

Nevertheless, Storm's powers have a limitation. She cannot create weather or atmospheric effects where the components for it doesn't exist. (At least that used to be her primary limitation.) Thor on the other hand is just tapping magical forces, so bending the laws of physics to create a storm anywhere he wants to, or shut it down with the tap of Mjolnir to the ground is child's play to him.

[GodThor]

Thor is stomping the poll but Storm fans seem to be more active in the comments. The arguments are kindergarden level, it actually hurts to read so much ignorance.

LOL true.

someone even said read the original source and then you will know that Thor cannot use his powers without a hammer.

[Panic]

To be fair to the Storm fans, if Aaron were writing the match, Thor wouldn't even be able to win an arm-wrestling contest with the Goddess.

The reason why I feel rumbles culture is so toxic to comics is that if 'Writer-A' makes a big deal about how 'Hero-A' is so much stronger than 'Hero-B' that he would wipe the floor with him in a fight, in response 'Writer-B' who is writing 'Hero-B' will give B a power-up so he is now the stronger, and back and forth until everyone is totally OP and the fictional world collapses. It's pointless and self-defeating. There is too much emphasis on being stronger than the next hero, and not enough on building up new rogues galleries and supporting characters. Using other heroes as supporting characters (ie glory-fodder for the main hero) is like watching Marvel cannibalising itself. I guess part of it is that the writers are determined not to throw too many good character or world-building ideas Marvel's way if they don't get a share of the profits, but whatever the reason behind it is, I don't like it.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

LOL true.

someone even said read the original source and then you will know that Thor cannot use his powers without a hammer.

That's just like saying that Aquaman can only talk to fish.

[juan678]

https://www.cbr.com/godbomb-marvel-u...illing-weapon/

https://www.cbr.com/whosoever-holds-this-hammer-thor/

[Agent Z]

I always wondered why Batman is the only superhero who is liked by people who don't care about superheroes.

Not quite true. Garth Ennis is a Superman fan.

[GodThor]

https://www.cbr.com/whosoever-holds-this-hammer-thor/

never really liked how they changed the description.

from he to she, from she to they.

I know they wanted to put it like it's for everyone but I NEVER took the he as male only.

they changed it to she because female got it.

I know one of the main reasons was equality but to me, he had a much better ring to it than they and she.

[JudicatorPrime]

never really liked how they changed the description.

from he to she, from she to they.

I know they wanted to put it like it's for everyone but I NEVER took the he as male only.

they changed it to she because female got it.

I know one of the main reasons was equality but to me, he had a much better ring to it than they and she.

Sometimes we cling to things out of familiarity. Right or not; proper or not. If Stan, Larry and Jack had simply stated the inscription thusly from the very beginning, no one would be complaining about it now:

"Whosever holds this hammer, if worthy, shall possess the power of Thor."

Bombastic verbosity is how you wind up with unnecessary pronouns. I'm not going to fault patriarchal programming, but at that time no one intended for any gender other than a male to wield Mjolnir and become the god of thunder. They were simply adhering to the mythos. But times change and a much simpler inscription covers all bases.

[GodThor]

Sometimes we cling to things out of familiarity. Right or not; proper or not. If Stan, Larry and Jack had simply stated the inscription thusly from the very beginning, no one would be complaining about it now:

"Whosever holds this hammer, if worthy, shall possess the power of Thor."

Bombastic verbosity is how you wind up with unnecessary pronouns. I'm not going to fault patriarchal programming, but at that time no one intended for any gender other than a male to wield Mjolnir and become the god of thunder. They were simply adhering to the mythos. But times change and a much simpler inscription covers all bases.

the fact that it changed in the first place makes no sense whatsoever.

[JudicatorPrime]

the fact that it changed in the first place makes no sense whatsoever.

What if the inscription is actually the spell that bequeaths the power of Thor? Then it must change, because magic can be very specific. It means that no woman could ever wield the hammer, because the magic prevents it. It's not just some sort of PC pitfall.

[GodThor]

What if the inscription is actually the spell that bequeaths the power of Thor? Then it must change, because magic can be very specific. It means that no woman could ever wield the hammer, because the magic prevents it. It's not just some sort of PC pitfall.

use understandable words xd

however, the woman already lifted it to begin with.

the entirety of Mjolnir absolutely makes no sense since they put some sentient Mother Storm bullcrap in it.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

use understandable words xd

however, the woman already lifted it to begin with.

the entirety of Mjolnir absolutely makes no sense since they put some sentient Mother Storm bullcrap in it.

Remember when Odin could take control of the hammer any time he wanted? Like when it stopped it with one hand when Bill threw it at him?

[GodThor]

Remember when Odin could take control of the hammer any time he wanted? Like when it stopped it with one hand when Bill threw it at him?

he is the creator of the enchantment after all but they had to put some Mother Storm in it to defy it.