Thor is one of Marvel’s most storied characters, having starred in multiple books and movies since his debut over 60 years ago. Thor currently stars in Immortal Thor, a name that proved to be a misnomer, since Thor dies in it. Immortal Thor has hewed much closer to Thor’s mythological roots, and writer Al Ewing promises changes to Thor in the next phase of his story with the character. Immortal Thor has been the most inventive Thor comic in ages, and has been very good, but there’s also something that feels rather stagnant about the whole thing. It’s nowhere near a bad comic, but it’s honestly been kind of predictable, and I’m not talking about the death of Thor, which the comic presaged in its opening issues.
Videos by ComicBook.com
If we’re being honest, Thor has been in a rut for a long time. As a solo character, it feels like Thor stories all sort of tread the same ground, and despite the quality of Immortal Thor, the series just feels like more of the same. Thor has become a stagnant character and there needs to be a big change. Marvel fans love Thor; he’s one of the most fun Avengers to read about, and his solo adventures have often taken fans to some amazing places. His fights are always fun to see, and he serves an important role in the Marvel Universe. However, none of that has kept him from falling into the rut he’s in. Can Marvel make Thor feel fresh again? The answer is yes, and the solution can be found in classic Marvel comics.
Thor Is a Much More Versatile Character than He Gets Credit For
Thor was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (well, created is the wrong word, but you get the drift) in Journey Into Mystery #83. One of the things you have to remember about the early Marvel Universe, as well as superhero comics in general, during the Silver Age is how much sci-fi was part of the formula. While Marvel’s Thor definitely had mythological roots, the Asgard of Jack Kirby was a futuristic paradise, and the clothes of the gods who lived there looked more like something out of a sci-fi story than the more traditional garb they wear nowadays. The original Thor stories weren’t the myth-influenced stories we’ve mostly been getting for decades now, but the kind of sci-fi stories that Kirby was known for. Kirby liked to write and draw gods for the modern day — look at his work at DC on the New Gods and the Eternals when he returned to Marvel in the ’70s — and his Thor stories all had that same taste of sci-fi to them. Kirby’s Asgard was a techno-mythological wonderland, where the gods of old used their power and brilliance to create a world unlike the one in the Edda sagas of Iceland. Over the years, the sci-fi influence of Kirby faded, and readers started to get stories that were influenced by the Norse myths than Kirby’s love of techno-gods.
Asgard went from a futuristic Golden City to one that would be more recognizable to mythology scholars. I remember when it was announced that the MCU would make the Asgardians into aliens, and a lot of fans lost their minds. However, one of the things I loved about the Asgard of the MCU is the way that it echoed the Asgard of Kirby. The MCU captured the sci-fi flavor of Thor that the comics had left behind. I love Walt Simonson’s Thor and many of the runs that took inspiration from it, but they’ve placed Thor into a restrictive environment. Thor is an amazing cosmic character, and just keeping him around Asgard and Earth is wasting the character. There used to be a time when Thor went into space and fought the Silver Surfer. He battled Thanos and the Celestials on their home turf. He was more than just the guy who spoke Shakespearean English and constantly had to deal with the drama of his family. He was more than the King of Asgard. He was a god for the modern age, not one for the feudal age.
As In All Things Comics, Kirby Is the Answer
I loved the fact that Immortal Thor felt like an actual mythological story. While many creators go for half measures, Ewing went all the way and it was sensational. However, as good as the book is, it’s just the same kind of Thor story we’ve been getting for a long time. The last time Thor was great, it was when we had Jane Foster as Thor, and it worked so well because it was a different Thor. The Odinson can still have that kind of energy, and the answer is by doing what Kirby did.
Jack Kirby understood that sci-fi and mythology are two sides of the same coin, and he treated Thor as such. Those old Thor stories are amazing, because they found a way to be ancient and modern. We need more of that from Thor. Thor is sometimes thought of the Superman of the Marvel Universe (not counting the many Superman analogues in the Marvel Universe), and Superman stories go in all sorts of directions. It’s time to get back to Thor doing that. Leave Asgard and the Norse stuff alone for a while. Thor is bigger than all of that, and can work in any kind of story. Creators just need to embrace the creative energy that brought us the character in the first place.
Do you want Thor to evolve? Sound off in the comments below.
