Is Thor Smart?

[Icefalcon]

Aside from the MD, I guess it would depend on how you rate smart. Thor knows a lot of stuff about mythology, legend and other worlds and dimensions maybe even Dr Strange, let alone Iron Man or Reed would ever know.

Could he repair your DVD player? Maybe not, but then could Newton or Einstein?

Comic book intelligence is usually rated against technological and scientific know how the so called 8 smartest men thing is definitely all about this. But would you want Reed or Doom to take your appendix out (Doom would do it whether you wanted him to or not probably).

I'd say Thor knows a lot of stuff most people don't for sure, but by comics standard he's not even in the top fifty

[nose norton]

As with power levels, intelligence often varies. I have seen Thor written as a blundering barbarian and a gifted planner.

In the Simonson run, widely considered one of the best ever, he outwitted both Hela and Loki on different occasions.

And yet, precisely during Simonson's run, Loki would often laugh at his half-brother, for his lack of wits.

[rpmaluki]

I want to say yes but I can't. Not that he's stupid, clearly he isn't but he's surrounded by too many people who use their brain matter a lot more than him.

[Icefalcon]

And yet, precisely during Simonson's run, Loki would often laugh at his half-brother, for his lack of wits.

Ah but Loki is, as Odin would say full of hubris!

[rpmaluki]

He does but he's still smarter than Thor.

[Panic]

...and yet loses to him all the time.

[JKtheMac]

Equating current or recent Thor to Blake is a little off the mark. It depends which of the many retcons you want to consider but for large parts of his story it has not been a valid association.

My feeling on the matter, Thor is below average intelligence, and even in the early days he did not seem to retain Blake's knowledge and abilities while Thor, and some stories relied on that as a plot device.

[Galerion]

Honestly Thor has never struck me as the brightest bulb in the box. Even in the MCU Im given that impression.

Since Im immersed in RPGs currently. He clearly fits the warrior/brawler archetype but not really the thinker/tactician one.
He's probably a boisterous bruiser

[gurkle]

Thor-speak (which I loved) may have unintentionally made Thor look less smart, since when he's with Earthlings, it makes him seem like someone who hasn't bothered to learn that his way of speaking is hundreds of years out of date. Especially after Hercules started talking more normally (as Thor does now).



Of course it may not have been unintentional at all; Stan Lee liked to make fun of his heroes a bit, and I think the Shakespearian dialect was actually supposed to make the Asgardians look a little silly.

[SuperiorIronman]

Thor is highly intelligent but he is a fish out of water. Asgard is highly advanced as a civilization and Thor would have the knowledge provided by it. However bear in mind that once he comes to a world that has less advanced technology as Asgard he would be out of his element. There is plenty of technology (some even somewhat recent) that we would have no idea how to function and the same could likely be said of Thor. Just because one is highly intelligent doesn't mean they know how to operate most machinery no matter how far back you go, that's ridiculous. Thor's intelligence is simply relative to the similarities from the 9 realms technology he has interacted with and that of Earth. He can appear dimwitted to us because he doesn't understand it, but comes from a realm that has progressed far beyond that being necessary and thus has no need to learn how to use it.

In combat Thor is the bruiser simply because that is what he considers the most fun and most comfortable with (he does love a good fight) and because more often than not he encounters things that don't regularly require him to use his tactical knowledge and strengths. The guy can take bullets, and superhuman punches from some of the strongest entities. why would he put so much effort into a regular person as opposed to Loki? And sure he can be dimwitted as far as Asgardians go, but Thor is boastful (has declined but still), a little arrogant, and takes pride in his strength. Of course he is going to be a bit more meat-headed than his brother.

Thor isn't an idiot by any means but its kind of relative.

[yet another]

He's smarter than Absorbing Man and the Wrecker, but dumber than Tony Stark and Black Panther.

[rpmaluki]

...and yet loses to him all the time.

because he, like most villains over estimated himself, not because he wasn't smarter and the narrative dictated he lose to his hero of a brother, no matter what.

[MyriVerse]

Considering all he's been through, I think he should be smarter. It's way past time that he be making his own Mjolnirs and stuff, imo.

[Michael Watkins]

Considering all he's been through, I think he should be smarter. It's way past time that he be making his own Mjolnirs and stuff, imo.

I'm not sure that intelligence works that way. If I gained immortality, I still couldn't learn how to make an atomic bomb.

[Michael Watkins]

He's smarter than Absorbing Man and the Wrecker, but dumber than Tony Stark and Black Panther.

the Absorbing Man learns by osmosis.