Thor, mythology meets the MCU
In Norse mythology (Vikings, Germanic paganism), the god Thor was designated as responsible for thunder, like Zeus in Greek mythology. The Marvel universe came up with the idea of borrowing characters directly from this mythology to turn them into superheroes in its comic books, and then in its live-action films. We retrace the evolution of the god-superhero from the cold.
The origins of Thor Marvel
In the early 1960s, Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby created a new superhero based on Norse mythology. In their fantasy universe, they came up with the idea that the domain of the Norse gods, Asgard, was actually a planet. As a result, the gods of Asgard (Odin, Thor...) are aliens, whom Earthlings take to be gods because of their powers.
The son of Odin, Thor begins life as an arrogant, impulsive man with little respect for rules. He finds himself in conflict with Loki, his evil adoptive brother, and his sister Hela (inspired by the goddess Hel, who guards the realm of the dead). Kept at arm's length by Odin because of her overweening ambition, when he dies she returns to wreak havoc and bring about the destruction of the kingdom of Asgard, the notorious Ragnarök.
In the Marvel universe, Thor becomes the protector of planet Earth. He is one of the founders of the Avengers, along with Iron Man, the Hulk and Ant-Man. Soon enough they were joined by Captain America, whom they freed from the ice. Later they would also welcome Spiderman and Black Panther, among others.
Enemy of Thanos
Thanos is also an alien with immense powers. He hails from the planet Titan and is Thor's main enemy, as well as that of the Avengers. Thanos' popularity and charisma stem from the fact that his motivation, though cruel, is well-founded: he noticed the overpopulation of his planet Titan and predicted its collapse unless the population was radically controlled by wiping out half of it. Banished from his planet, he watched helplessly as it was destroyed, and vowed to manage the entire Universe as he would have done for his home planet: to prevent its collapse by eliminating half its population. To achieve this, he forms an alliance with Thor's half-brother Loki, who conquers the Earth and brings him the Space Stone.
Thor and the Avengers succeed in defeating Loki and thwarting Thanos' plans for the first time. But this is only the beginning of an epic war in which the very existence of the Universe is at stake.
Films of increasing quality
The hero Thor, with his famous hammer Mjolnir, is best known to current generations thanks to the film adaptations of the Marvel Cinematographic Universe (MCU). He is played by actor Chris Hermsworth, while Josh Brolin takes on the role of Thanos.
In the first film, from 2011, Thor is banished to Earth by Odin because his arrogance has led to serious conflict. As Odin enters a period of rest, Loki takes the opportunity to take the throne. On Earth, Thor resigns himself to his human life and forges a relationship with Doctor Jane Foster. His former friends come to Earth to overthrow Loki, but are attacked by the Destroyer. Thor tries to sacrifice himself to save them, which earns him the right to wield the hammer Mjolnir once again.
The film, directed by Kenneth Brannagh and starring Nathalie Portman (Foster), Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Anthony Hopkins (Odin), was fairly successful, but was considered rather mediocre by the critics. It was followed in 2013 by Thor: The Dark World, with the same cast and directed by Alan Taylor. This film is considered to be an average and conventional sequel, but was more commercially successful.
2017 saw the release of Thor Ragnarok, starring Cate Blanchett as Hela. The film was directed by Taika Waititi and marked a major turning point: it was a huge commercial success and managed to win over the critics thanks to its humour and more endearing characters, but also its comments on colonialism and the treatment of the natives.
In 2022, "Thor: War and Thunder" emerged as a decent sequel to Ragnarok, and was still a commercial success. It stars Christian Bale as Gorr, the Butcher God, and Russell Crowe as Zeus.
Thor and the Avengers
Of course, Thor and his actor Chris Hemsworth have also had their work cut out for them with the Avengers film series: The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). The superheroes are coordinated by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the boss of S.H.I.E.L.D..
The Avengers film is set to be a sequel to 2011's Thor, with its battle against Loki, still in search of the Tesseract. In its sequel, Age of Ultron, Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Bruce Banner (Hulk) create an artificial intelligence, Ultron, who decides to eliminate humans in order to save the Earth. At the end of the film, we discover that Thanos has manipulated the AI to achieve his ends, foreshadowing the sequel.
In Infinity War, Thanos himself takes action and achieves his goal, causing the event known as "The Blip", the destruction of half the life in the Universe. This leads to a great deal of time travel for the film Endgame, in order to undo the Blip.
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