Thor #1 spoilers

[vitruvian]

Wouldn't it be better to just write him with some humility instead. Mjolnir's enchantments were suppose to help him be worthy of being Odin's heir. Odin himself not lifting it means he is thus not remotely worthy of being the All-Father. We can do something about that but given that Thor, Odin and Loki are the three most recognisable names of Norse Gods means he's gonna keep being mentioned. So write him with some respect, we'd really be none the worse for it.

First off, the complaint was not that Odin should be able to lift the hammer due to worthiness, but that he's always been the master of the hammer and its enchantments before this, worthiness notwithstanding.

Secondly, he has practically never been written to be consistently humble or otherwise really worthy of the respect he demands... if he were to just suddenly start acting like a humble, understanding, and reasonable father to Thor, readers would be wondering who was impersonating him, frankly.

[themortalfist]

I really think we have already been shown all the clues we need to deduce who is behind the current change in Thor's status. We just have to observe that Marvel and Disney seem to have fairly decent coordination of books and movies these days. For example, Jason Aaron and Al Ewing seem to be working well together telling a coherent story, and Aaron appears to be using certain elements from the Thor movies such as Malekith.

We know that the All-Mothers decided to acquire some manifestation of an alternate future Loki. I assert we know that an alternate future Loki is saying that if the present follows his advice there will be a future golden age of Asgard(ia). We have seen Aaron and Ewing using alternate future Loki as trying to manipulate the present to his future advantage. And in the movies, Loki has been shown to have used deception to have maneuvered himself into a position of great power.

Future alternate Loki(s) have been shown to have motive, the opportunity, and the means to be the one(s) manipulating current events. At least one of them had ability to communicate with the All-Mothers. I conjecture he made certain predictions to the All-Mothers that turned out to be true such as the rediscovery of the Tenth Realm and told them they must follow a certain path to avert disaster from the attack by Malekith.

I also conjecture current developments in Thor are related to an agreement Natalie Portman has with Disney that if there is a Thor 3 she will feature prominently if not be the dominant character in that movie. That is why I think it is Jane Foster who must attain the power of Thor.

Interesting deduction. And I'm inclined to agree for sort of selfish reasons: I've been arguing for quite awhile that few of these recent changes are done independently of the MCU, regardless of what the top brass say in the media. Regardless, I would hope that by becoming Thor, Jane Foster -- who's supposed to be on Asgardia anyway -- will be cured of cancer. Or this is how she'll go out in a blaze of glory!

[jphamlore]

I'd like to extend my sympathies to the Thor fans who are so upset about the loss of his hammer.

I found myself miffed whenever someone else was carting around Illyana Rasputin's Soulsword, so I get it.

Current Thor writer Jason Aaron has showed a future where Thor Odinson reigns as King Thor and the new Thor is forgotten so it's hard to understand much of the angst.

As for Magik, she seems so ridiculously powerful in Bendis's X-Men work that I wonder if she's going to wind up being the X-Men version of Bendis' Sentry / Void. I'm hoping to see a throwdown between her and the new Red Skull.

[vitruvian]

I wouldn't because it wouldn't make a lick of sense. The All-Mother is nowhere near as powerful as Odin. Not even remotely close.

If we're speaking strictly of Freyja/Frigga, then no, she's never been portrayed as near Odin's power level in previous Marvel comics - although there's a darn good argument that Freyja was close to coequal to Odin in the original mythology, not just in magic but in the number of slain warriors she commanded. But then, neither had she been Freyja rather than Frigga prior to showing up as the All-Mother in Fraction's run, where she hadn't shown up at all by either name since the last Ragnarok in the whole time Asgard was back and over Oklahoma, and a lot of the Asgardians have been more or less different from earlier incarnations since Thor brought them all back. Perhaps, like Loki coming back as a kid, she not only changed her name but underwent a reversion to some earlier template where she was more powerful. And even back in the classic Thor days, it was Frigga who teamed with the other mother goddesses to present the Young Gods to the Celestials, a gambit that succeeded where all Odin's attempts to oppose the space gods had failed miserably. Hard to tell how powerful she was really supposed to be even back then, really. What with the number of different magicians that have enchanted or ensnared Odin himself, not just one of his creations, I think you may be estimating the difficulty of cleverly messing with his enchantments a mite too high, honestly.

And if we include Gaea as part of the All-Mother, then no, Odin is not more powerful than the Elder God that represents the spirit of the Earth.

[DurararaFTW]

First off, the complaint was not that Odin should be able to lift the hammer due to worthiness, but that he's always been the master of the hammer and its enchantments before this, worthiness notwithstanding.

I'm allowed to make my own complaints, I think.

Secondly, he has practically never been written to be consistently humble or otherwise really worthy of the respect he demands... if he were to just suddenly start acting like a humble, understanding, and reasonable father to Thor, readers would be wondering who was impersonating him, frankly.

If dealing with his sons was the one place where Odin falls short then fine. But when dealing with Thor, his wife, the machinations of his own enchantments, the ruling of his people, the ravens and the frontgiants and everything are all things Odin fell short in then I'm a little disappointed. I HOPE he was just having a bad day. Odin traded an eye for wisdom and adopted a frostgiant out of pity and sent Thor to Earth to teach him humility. None of that character is reflected here.

[vitruvian]

I'm allowed to make my own complaints, I think.



If dealing with his sons was the one place where Odin falls short then fine. But when dealing with Thor, his wife, the machinations of his own enchantments, the ruling of his people, the ravens and the frontgiants and everything are all things Odin fell short in then I'm a little disappointed. I HOPE he was just having a bad day. Odin traded an eye for wisdom and adopted a frostgiant out of pity and sent Thor to Earth to teach him humility. None of that character is reflected here.

But most of the character as he's appeared in previous issues of Thor titles, is. Sure, there have been times where he's come off as a wise ruler, but more often than not he's an overbearing tyrant who makes unreasonable demands of his son, despite constantly having to be bailed out by that same son when his deus ex machina Odinpower gives out due to the Odinsleep or getting sent to limbo or just getting jobbed by the villain of the month.

[TheMadTitan]

Maybe Cul is involved. He's supposed to be Odin-Level, no?

[PocketfulofKryptonite]

Maybe Cul is involved. He's supposed to be Odin-Level, no?

No, Cul is strong but Odin is stronger because Odin absorbed the life forces of his two other brothers when they were dying. Cul is meant to be his older brother but he's still only got the strength of one Asgardian, Odin has the strength of three.

[jphamlore]

Like I posted previously, there seem some parallels between Aaron's story and Ellis / Deodato's Thor World Engine. And in that story Odin was a ranting cruel despot as well even to his son Thor, or in World Engine, especially to his son Thor.

[vitruvian]

No, Cul is strong but Odin is stronger because Odin absorbed the life forces of his two other brothers when they were dying. Cul is meant to be his older brother but he's still only got the strength of one Asgardian, Odin has the strength of three.

Then why didn't Odin just whomp on him in Fear Itself? It's pretty evident that he was not more powerful.

[DurararaFTW]

But most of the character as he's appeared in previous issues of Thor titles, is. Sure, there have been times where he's come off as a wise ruler, but more often than not he's an overbearing tyrant who makes unreasonable demands of his son, despite constantly having to be bailed out by that same son when his deus ex machina Odinpower gives out due to the Odinsleep or getting sent to limbo or just getting jobbed by the villain of the month.

Well Odin was the one that enchanted Mjolnir and decided on the parameters that Thor had to possess to be worthy, which produced the hero that's been bailing him out. That's the part of Odin relevant to the "whose worthy of Mjolnir" story in my eyes. Waste to have him around to just be a blustering fool about everything.

[jphamlore]

Then why didn't Odin just whomp on him in Fear Itself? It's pretty evident that he was not more powerful.

Because in the follow-up that showed the origin of the events, writer Matt Fraction depicted the World Tree as telling Odin that the price for Odin's being able to overthrow Cul was that Odin's first born son Thor and Cul would kill each other in battle?

[hawkeyefan]

The hammer is an object with enchantments, the inscription has never flipped upside down before. Obviously it's just a mistake the artist made for convenience because otherwise it would have been harder to read upside down but it's still a little lazy and wrong.

The inscription doesn't even usually appear. And as this very issue shows, the inscription can be changed. So its orientation on the hammer can change too.

But it's such a minor point either way, I think it falls into the category of picking nits.

[tabo61]

Odin has always been a pain in the ass in the comics.

[PocketfulofKryptonite]

The inscription doesn't even usually appear. And as this very issue shows, the inscription can be changed. So its orientation on the hammer can change too.

But it's such a minor point either way, I think it falls into the category of picking nits.

It's always there on one side. Always. So you're incorrect. It's not shown in every single panel but it has usually appeared like this



and when held towards the ground like this.



So it's not nitpicking, there is historical precedent in previous depictions that show the text doesn't tilt like an iPhone image.