Thor, often called The Mighty Thor, is a Marvel Comics superhero, based on the thunder god of Norse mythology. The superhero was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Journey into Mystery #83 (1962).

On a mission from his father, the king god Odin, Thor acted as a superhero while maintaining the secret identity of Dr. Donald Blake, an American medical doctor. Once Blake tapped his walking stick on the ground, it transformed into the magical hammer Mjolnir and Blake transformed into Thor. Thor often battles his adoptive brother Loki, another Marvel character adapted from a Norse god, and is a member of the all-star superhero group The Avengers.

Throughout the last 40 years, Thor has been a somewhat important Marvel character, although writers have varied in the degree of actual Norse mythology they implimented into the character's series.

Deviations from norse mythology

The visual appearance of Marvel’s Thor is much different from that of the Norse god, as Marvel Comics' Thor is blond and usually clean-shaven. There are a number of other differences between Marvel Comics' version of Thor and the other Norse gods, such as undoing the death of Balder and giving Thor's lover, Sif, black hair.

Fictional biography

According to the current version, Thor's history follows the traditional myth and later on, he abandoned his worshippers in disgust when they massacred a Christian mission; although he has been seen in flashbacks to have befriended many of his followers and personally guaranteed their passage into Valhalla, he and his other Asgardians have abandoned their roles as figures of worship.

Much later, his father Odin decided that Thor had to be taught humility, and so transformed into Donald Blake (aka Don Blake), a human medical student who was lame in one leg, and erased his memory. For years, Thor trained to be a physician and lived upon Midgard with no knowledge of his true nature. Eventually, Odin was satisfied that Thor had spent enough time without his power and subconsciously guided him on an mountain outing where he discovered a wooden walking stick.

Just then, aliens attacked and trapped Blake in a sealed cave with little hope of escape. Desperately, Blake tried to used the walking stick as a lever to remove the blocking rubble. When he struck the rocks, he triggered the special change spell of the stick and Blake was transformed into his true form of Thor and the stick became the uru war hammer Mjolnir.

The hammer amplifies Thor's control over the elements, grants the user the ability to fly, and always returns to the master after being thrown. The hammer is mystically enchanted so that only those of worthy character can wield it. Thor is immune to all terrestrial diseases due to his god-like physical constitution. Thor is a superb hand to hand combatant, even against other Asgardians. He is very cunning and intuitive in battle, but is not the greatest thinker.

With his rediscovered power, he escaped the cave and defeated the aliens. With that, Thor dedicated himself to fighting evil. At this time, Thor had no memory of his true identity and history for some time and the character was depicted as a Norse version of Captain Marvel. That situation was reinforced with a new spell on the hammer that would change Thor back to Don Blake if he was out of physical contact of his hammer for more than 60 seconds. That condition reinforced the notion for Thor that Don Blake was his true identity, but fortunately Mjolnir was small enough to tuck in his belt so he would not have to continually hold the hammer to keep his Thor form. (It was later revealed that Donald Blake was a real person who had been placed into suspended animation by Odin; the real Blake was accidentally killed by Sigyn, who then created a duplicate of him that would reappear years later, believing itself to be the real Donald Blake.)

Soon he gained of enemies such as his adoptive brother Loki, who had sworn to kill him. To that end, he created powerful minions like the Absorbing Man and the Wrecker and manipulated other enemies like Ulik of the Trolls to challenge the thunder god; one of these manipulations resulted in the formation of the superhero team called The Avengers, a team in which Thor has for years served as one of the core members. At the same time, Thor had a romance with his nurse, Jane Foster, which Odin disapproved of; that attitude proved a source of constant frustation for Thor, who at one point even unsuccessfully appealed to Odin to allow him to bring Foster to Asgard.

This status quo in the comics was shaken up in the 1980s under the authorship of Walt Simonson, beginning with Thor's encounter with the monsterous yet noble alien called Beta Ray Bill. At the request of SHIELD, who had observed Bill's ship destroy a star to refuel and feared that it may do the same to the sun. His teleporting aboard the ship caused it to release Bill. During the subsequent fight, Thor lost contact with his hammer for too long, causing him to revert to Blake. Ignorant of the hammer's power, Bill picked up the cane and struck it in frustration against a wall - being judged worthy to hoist Mjolinr in the process, and was transformed, gaining Thor's power (and a variant of Thor's costume) for his own, before being summoned to Asgard by Odin, who confused Bill with his son - upon realizing his mistake, he retrieved Thor as well. Bill claimed Mjolnir as a prize of fair combat, which Thor - being disadvataged by his reversion to Blake - naturally disputed. Odin had the matter settled by trial by combat in the volcanic World of Skartheim, "where even Gods may perish." Bill won a close fight, but, though his ability to defend his people would have been greatly aided by Mjolnir's power, he did not feel it was right to claim a hammer forged for Thor. On hearing this, Odin worked out a compromise for the equally worthy warriors, with Bill receiving a close copy of Mjolnir called Stormbreaker and transferred the transformation spell to it so Bill - whose altered form he despised and made him, essentially, a pariah to the people he had taken it to defend - could enjoy his original form when he wanted it, while Thor finally abandoned the Don Blake identity. Sif, who had become depressed and estranged from Thor, left with Bill.

Soon afterward, the fire-demon Surtur would forge his sword, Twilight, and march on Asgard to light it with the Eternal Flame, with the intention of bringing an End to Everything. Odin summoned all of Asgard's warriors to the battle, including Bill and Sif. Loki was the only one not to respond. The armies of Asgard then left for Earth, to prevent Surtur and his armies from crossing Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge. Having set light to New York though, Surtur tricked Thor into drenching the city in a rainstorm to extinguish the flame, creating a rainbow for a brief moment as he cleared it, allowing Surtur passage to Asgard, who then shattered Bifrost behind him. Thor teleported himself to Asgard, leaving Bill in charge of Asgard's armies in the fight that still raged on Earth, but Sif was stopped by Bill from following. Enraged, she lept further into the battle, vanishing as she fought a rearguard action. The rest of the army, aided by the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and the Norn Queen's army, destroyed the portal Surtur's army came through, returning them to Muspelheim.

Meanwhile, Thor engaged Surtur at Asgard's gates, and was overwhelmed by the fire-demon. Upon his defeat, only Odin seemingly stood between Surtur and Armageddon. Soon, even Odin fell, and Surtur lowered his sword into the flame...

...to find nothing happened. He turned to find Loki taunting him over falling for such an illusion. Loki bought enough time for Odin and Thor to recover, then the three attacked Surtur in concert. Thor, realising just how much of Surtur's strength came from Twilight, managed to knock it from his hand, and Odin knocked the demon into Muspelheim, pledging to prevent Surtur's return as he fell with him.

In the aftermath on Earth, Sif was found badly injured, but recovered quickly with the help of the Asgardians' healing techniques and teleported to Asgard to find Odin gone and Thor as emotionally shattered as the remains of the Rainbow Bridge. He bade her to return to Earth and co-lead Asgard's warriors with Bill, until a way could be found to return them to Asgard. (Due to Bifrost's shattering, only Thor, Sif, Bill and the Enchantress were able to move directly from Earth to Asgard), while Thor left for the mountains to grieve. After his rescue from a Hela-engineeered avalanche by Tiwaz (unbeknowst to Thor, his great-grandfather Buri), he remained with Tiwaz at his insistence until he was recovered.

After, by the combined powers of Thor & Bill's hammers, the Asgardians were returned to Asgard to find Odin gone, Thor declined to take the throne that was his birthright, instead passing the regency to Balder the Brave.

Eventually, Odin was found, imprisoned by Seth, the Egyptian god of death and, with a few hiccups, remained the Lord of Asgard until his recent true death. Then Thor, upon inheriting the Odinforce and with his human side seperated into another vessel, took the throne and began to rule Earth with an iron fist. His rule lasted for 200 years, until his son, Magni, finally convinced him of the wrongness of his actions. He returned to the past and gave his 200 years of memories to his younger self as a warning, before rejoining him with his human side, who then returned the Asgardians to the true Asgard.

Ragnarok

This situation would not last long, however. The Odinforce had become sentient and, appalled by what he saw in Thor's memories, left him. In addition, Loki recovered the Mould of Mjolinr and raised Surtur, who agreed to make new hammers using it as repayment for his return to life. Loki and his followers then proceeded to devestate Asgard, killing several and shattering Mjolnir in their first attack. Ragnarok was upon Asgard. Gradually, more and more fell until a desperate fightback, aided by the return of Bill, stemmed the tide. Thor placed Bill in the leadership of Asgard, while he, followed by the Odinforce in the form of a child, underwent the trials Odin undertook as a young man, only more so - sacrificing both his eyes for knowledge and spending a week dead hanging from Yggsadril to gain the wisdom of the runes. At the end, he saw that the Ragnarok cycle was caused by the leeching of a group of self-styled "Gods to the Gods," known as Those Who Sit Above in Shadow, who depended on the Ragnarok cycle for their survival. Appalled at the thought that the Asgardians' sacrifices meant nothing, and bolstered by the human side that was his birthright from his mother and strengthed by Odin placing him in the Don Blake identity for years, Thor resolved to end the cycle. At ANY cost.

His sight (though not his eyes) restored by the return of the Odinforce to him and the runic magic, Thor single-handedly devestated Valhalla, where the victorious Loki now resided, ripping Loki's head off and attaching the still-living head to his belt. He then did the unthinkable, and made a deal with Surtur - in return for the reforging of Mjolnir (he felt it appropriate for Surtur to be the one to remake it), he would blast a clear path for him to Asgard. The final battle unfolded, with Thor's only part the return of Beta Ray Bill to the Earth dimension - feeling that a non-Asgardian had no place dying in his race's final battle, he bade Bill to remember them. When all lay dead, and Fenris had consumed the remains, he shattered the Fates' weave to prevent the cycle's continuation. Finally, uncertain of his future, he decided to "sleep the sleep of the gods."

"For awhile, at least..."

Bibliography of Thor titles

• Journey into Mystery #83-125 (Marvel Comics, August 1962 - February 1966)
• Journey into Mystery Annual #1 (Marvel Comics, 1966)
• Thor #126-502 (Marvel Comics, March 1966 - September 1996)
• Thor Annual #2-19 (Marvel Comics, 1966 - 1994)
• Thor Corps #1-4 (Marvel Comics, September - December 1993)
• Thor (1998 Series) #1-85 (Marvel Comics, July 1998 - October 2004)
• Thor Annual '98 (Marvel Comics, 1998)
• Thor Annual '99 (Marvel Comics, 1999)
• Thor Annual 2000 (Marvel Comics, 2000)
• Thor Annual 2001 (Marvel Comics, 2001)
• Thor: Rough Cut #1 (Marvel Comics, September 1998 - pencil-only reprint of Thor (1998) #1)
• Essential Thor #1 (Marvel Comics, February 2001, ISBN 0785107614)
• Thor: Godstorm #1-3 (Marvel Comics, November 2001 - January 2002)
• Thor: Son of Asgard #1-12 (Marvel Comics, May 2004- January 2005)

External links

• Marvel Directory (http://www.marveldirectory.com) - Thor (http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/t/thor.htm)

de:Thor (Comicfigur)