The Mighty Thor / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Odin: Is usually a master schemer who is ahead of everyone else yet balanced by nobility, compassion and truly cares for his subjects and humanity. Other writers have him as a General Ripper and Jerk with a Heart of Jerk who viewed humanity as dung worms, and was willing to enthusiastically exterminate billions of innocent bystanders with no displayed regret, stated that all the innocent victims of Galactus' genocides too weak to stop him deserve to die, and is genuinely a horrible father and leader. How much he cares for Loki, being either neglectful and emotionally abusive, or a good father who's frustrated with Loki's refusal to see good in him, also comes up quite a bit.
- Hela: Is Hela really irredeemably evil? Or is she simply a product of her rather tragic upbringing? Let's see, in her original backstory, she was born to parents who clearly couldn't give a damn about her, she was ripped apart from her siblings and cast out to The Underworld by her own (adoptive) grandfather purely on the word of others, even though she hadn't even yet done anything to deserve such treatment and then she was basically left there with only the souls of the dead as companionship. Is it really that surprising that she feels such bitter resentment towards Odin and the other Asgardians? That's not even taking into account the later retcon in Journey Into Mystery where it was revealed that she was actually created by Kid Loki (rather than fathered) as his ideal friend but then cast back in time (by herself no less) so that she could be protected from Evil Loki, meaning she was forced to grow up alone, without her soulmate and with no family or friends to speak of.
Alternate Self Shipping: Loki fangirls tend to pair his female form with the man himself, usually his Tom Hiddleston incarnation. Or they just pair multiple male forms with each other, considering one of his tricks in the movies is to make multiple copies of himself. Fics make those copies tangible, of course. Since Loki: Agent of Asgard there are actually multiple versions of him around thanks to an impressive Timey-Wimey Ball, yes, some people ship them.
Arc Fatigue: Four causes in Jason Aaron's run:
- More than two years after his introduction, Dario Agger is still yet to have a hammer wipe that smug grin off his face. Thankfully, he finally got what was coming to him. Not in Thor’s book, but rather in Immortal Hulk, of all stories.
- Up until 2017, fans still didn't know what made Thor unworthy. It was ultimately revealed to be Nick saying that Gorr was right about gods.
- Post-Secret Wars (2015), Marvel began teasing the idea that Thor would be given the hammer of his Ultimate Marvel counterpart. The followup arc then showed that Thor had found it...but was being held captive somewhere. Then they announced The Unworthy Thor ongoing series...and Thor still failed to get the hammer several issues in and also turned down receiving the hammer of Beta Ray Bill. At this point fans are just desperate for Thor to have a hammer, any hammer. This is made even worse by the fact that at the series conclusion, when Thor finally has a chance to gain the Ultimate Mjolnir, he refuses to, instead allowing some other, new Thor to take it instead.
- The "War of the Realms" arc has been built up for years since 2013, yet it's only until the start of 2019 will the arc begin. By then, a lot of fans have stopped caring. Not helping matters is the constant teasing of who Female Thor really is taking up a huge chunk of the plot.
Ass Pull: How and why Female Thor replaces Male Thor. Nick Fury whispers something to Thor, rendering him unworthy to pick up Mjolnir, then Mjolnir became sentient to the point where not even Odin, the one who put the "worthy enchantment" on the hammer, can lift it, and suddenly a woman shows up on the moon and is able to lift the hammer effortlessly, and wield it like a god(dess) with no difficulty.
Audience-Alienating Era: See the Marvel page for the topic.
Broken Base:
- Thor's fans disagree over his treatment by Marvel, specifically Marvel's tendency to subject him to The Worf Effect every time there's some big criss-cross crisis event and they need to tear down a really powerful hero to build up the threat. Avengers Vs. X-Men is one of the biggest offenders, and Thor's not the only victim of poor treatment in the story^note. Others argue that it's justifiable as the ones who typically inflict The Worf Effect on him are usually cosmic powerhouses themselves.
- Jason Aaron's run has been quite divisive:
  - The reveal that Thor is going to be replaced with a new woman wielding Mjolnir has already caused a large base breaker for all manner of different reasons. Some like it, some hate it, some like the idea but hate the execution, some merely find it pointless, among other issues.
  - The rest of Jason Aaron's run after the God-Butcher arc. It's either awesome or complete crap, especially after female Thor is introduced.
  - The fact that Jason Aaron likes to write Thor as Mystery Fiction (God of Thunder 1st arc: serial killer investigation, 3rd arc: hunt after an escaped criminal, Thor v4 1st arc: the mystery of the Goddess of Thunder, Thors: serial killer investigation) sometimes works for people other times not so much.
  - The identity of the female Thor (Jane Foster) has fans divided because many thought, and liked the idea of her identity being Roz Solomon. While some are interested in what could be done with a Thor who has cancer, others think it just gives the character a poor shelf life.
- The quality of Warren Ellis' short stint on the title during the 90's. Some fans find it horrible because Thor stopped wearing a costume, shacked up with Enchantress and lost his powers (though the last bit happened after Ellis had already left the title), while others claim that it was an interesting new direction for Thor, and that it was a welcome change after the long run of terrible storylines that Thor had been subjected to for most of the early 90's.
- Jack Kirby gets this occasionally as well, with quite a number of fans feeling his initial Journey into Mystery run to be mediocre by today's standards. Once it made the transition to The Mighty Thor, though, it's near universally regarded to have Growing the Beard.
- Amora the Enchantress:
  - Should she be an ill-tempered, spoiled, but ultimately decent and maybe even potentially heroic character? Or should she be an out-an-out monster as evil as they come? For the most part, people seem to prefer the former, but sometimes she's written as the latter, and it's common enough to assume some see her this way.
  - After the MCU got popular, fanfic involving Loki tends to follow a similar split; either Amora is included with something resembling the former characterization, albeit with her also being Promoted to Love Interest, while others cast her as the latter so that Loki's wife Sigyn or an Author Avatar Original Character can look more sympathetic. It seems to be dependent on if they decide Amora herself is a good enough projection for themselves to be his love interest in the fics or if they want someone more "innocent" in the role.
- Speaking of Loki, fans are divided on whether Loki should be an Anti-Hero or go back to being Thor's Arch-Enemy and one of the major Big Bads of the Marvel Universe.
Can't Un-Hear It:
- Fans tend to hear the voice of Rick D. Wasserman or Chris Hemsworth as Thor whenever they are reading his lines.
- It's probably safe to say that most who have seen Thor: Ragnarok will be hearing Cate Blanchett's wonderful contralto in their head every time they see Hela in the comics from that point on.
- Odds are that whenever you read Loki's lines, the voice in your head will likely belong to either Graham McTavish or Tom Hiddleston.
Complete Monster: See here.
Creepy Awesome: Malekith The Accursed, Depending on the Writer. He's an undead dark elf depicted as half blue-skinned elf down one side of his body and half black-with-rot corpse or living shadow down the other, wielding powerful sorcery and an almost Loki-like skilled planner and manipulator.
Draco in Leather Pants: Partly thanks to Tom Hiddleston's admirable performance, there are many who see Loki as a troubled Anti-Hero.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Leah, Hela's handmaiden and Kid Loki's proclaimed "BFF", has gained an incredible popularity for her dynamic with Kid Loki.
- The Warriors Three in general but especially Volstagg, for being a boisterous Lovable Coward while also being an awesome father to his kids.
- Thunderball, as the lone smart guy, tends to get plenty of solo appearances and more prominent usage than the rest of the Wrecking Crew.
- There's also Beta Ray Bill, due to being one of the few heroes other than Thor who's worthy of wielding Mjolnir.
- Absorbing Man, largely for being one of the few Earth-based enemies for Thor who's managed to keep being a legitimate threat to him.
- Thunderstrike became this after he stopped impersonating Thor and grew into his own character.
- Kid Loki became one very quickly, and eventually, Teen Loki.
Evil Is Cool:
- When he's the villain, Loki has style and charisma. He's also one of the only people who've been able to go into a deal with Mephisto and come out on top.
- Surtur the Flaming Giant, during Walt Simonson's run.
- Gorr the God-Butcher especially in Jason Aaron's signature storyline with him, the original 11 issue arc in Thor: God of Thunder, has quickly become one of the greater new villains in the Marvel Universe.
Fan Nickname: Loki's reincarnated self is Kid Loki, or less often Little Loki. Loki as a woman is Lady Loki (with the official Marvel description of that period on their site being Loki looks like a Lady.
- Unfortunately, and crudely, some circles of fans have also taken to nicknaming the New Thor 'Whor'.
- With the big reveal that Fem!Thor is Jane Foster she has gained the more generous nicknames of Jane Fos-Thor and The Mighty Jane .
- Beta Ray Bill has been dubbed both 'Beta Ray Bro' and 'Thorse.'
Fanon: Amora being Childhood Friends with Loki is a common fan idea for the two. Canon has never referenced this outside of once being involved in a scheme or two of his when he was young, but the origin of how they began working together has never been explored, and Depending on the Writer they do sometimes appear to have a Villainous Friendship, so casting them this way seems to be a way to add backstory and play them both more sympathetically.
Gateway Series: The character and series has been noted by various Norse mythology enthusiasts as the catalyst for their interest on the subject matter, such as Neil Gaiman.
Faux Symbolism: After his reincarnation as Kid Loki, his gold headband doesn't have his horns, but a little V that looks similar to them (the V is also on his tunic). The headband also has little wings over his ears—just like the ones on Thor's helmet. Commentary on how he could still be good, perhaps? When he pretended to betray Asgard out of resentment, the flames of Muspelheim surrounding him briefly took the shape of his old horns.
Harsher in Hindsight: In Walt Simonson's run, Jormungand taunts Thor by saying he intends to erect a tombstone for the fallen hero, using shattered New York buildings as construction material. He specifically expresses his interest in destroying the World Trade Center, making for an extremely uncomfortable speech after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Loki got reincarnated as a boy, and Asgard wants him dead? Not only that, but he's also solving the mysteries that surround him with his female sidekick? And adding to that, he solves a mystery which involved extracting evil nightmares from suffering dreamers? Sounds sort of familiar...
- Since the Fem!Thor is Jane Foster, the "What If?" story on her finding Thor's Hammer became unintentional prediction in hindsight.
Jerkass Woobie:
- Loki's troubled childhood involving abusive biological parents and being ignored by most Asgardians who far preferred his brother over him is considered by many why he ended up becoming the Jerkass God of Mischief and Evil/Lies.
- No matter how you feel about Kid Loki, his methods, or if Ikol has a bigger plan in store for him, watching him in the new Mighty Thor issues eight and nine, first struggling to remember his brother and then after achieving that having to deal with the fact that no one else does just makes you want to hug him. He also only really acted like a jerk to Donald Blake after the doctor asked how Loki could forget Tanarus, driving the knife deeper.
- He does however quickly get an ally and recovers Mjolnir, and that ally just so happens to be The Silver Surfer.
- Gorr the God Butcher. He may be a murderer who wants to slaughter the Asgardians, but dear God is his backstory screwed up.
- The Executioner. The only reason he's even a villain to begin with is because of the Enchantress stringing him on and manipulating him.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Loki. Dashing? Handsome? Bisexual? Capable of Gender Bender at will? Played by Tom Hiddleston? Is it really a surprise some believe he has awoken certain feelings in all members of the Young Avengers and at least half of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Love to Hate: Loki. He's quite cruel on occasion but he's also cool, stylish and a Magnificent Bastard.
Magnificent Bastard: Loki himself, Thor's wicked younger brother, is the God of Mischief and frequently forms schemes to embarrass or damage Thor and Asgard itself, which he has repeatedly taken over in some gambit or another. It is later revealed Loki even used time travel to arrange his own adoption at the hands of Odin, murdering his own abusive biological father Laufey, in a clever gambit to get revenge against Asgard in the future. Even when killed, Loki arranges to bring back his younger self and takes him over to return, simultaneously one of Thor's deadliest enemies and beloved brother, rarely lost for his charming smile and a backup plan, who defends Asgard and its people as much as he threatens it.
Memetic Badass: Heimdall both in and out of universe, especially his MCU incarnation.
- Thor himself is this in and out of universe as well. He was originally made to be even stronger than the HULK. Despite Hulk later regaining the title of "strongest one there is" in later storylines, Thor tends to be the only one that can be counted on to fight evenly with and have high chances of winning against the Green Goliath more often than not. To put things into perspective in JLA/Avengers, Superman, while eventually victorious against him, stated that Thor was the strongest opponent he ever faced, arguably more so than Darkseid and friggin Doomsday. The absurd amount of smack talk that he can almost always back up adds to this.
Memetic Mutation:
- "My god has a hammer. Your argument is invalid."
- The reveal that Female Thor has cancer led to a massive amount of call backs to an infamous◊ Spider-Man meme.
- "I do what I WANT, Thor!"◊ Yeah, that's telling him, Loki!
Moral Event Horizon:
- In one issue, the first thing Malekith the Accursed does after escaping Niffleheim is to massacre an entire dark elf village in Svartalfheim, his home world. He stays past the line when he decides to kill many other dark elves that have scattered throughout the nine realms with his own loyal army, believing that they are no longer the people he used to rule.
- Loki has certainly done many terrible things in the past:
  - Some would also claim that tricking a woman, Sigyn, into becoming his wife after Loki made sure her betrothed had an "unfortunate accident" would count as among his first.
  - He also held Eric Masterson's son, Kevin, hostage to goad Thor to fight him. When he expressed reluctance at killing him, Loki showed him he was very willing to kill by blasting at Kevin and his mother. While the Enchantress managed to have Kevin's guardian Susan get hit instead, his point was made very clear—especially since this happened in front of the young boy. This act was so heinous that Thor did kill Loki for it—for a little while.
  - His actions during the Dark Reign and Siege arcs - among other things, suggesting to Norman Osborn that he stage some sort of "incident" giving Asgardians a bad reputation, leading to Osborn deliberately sending the U-Foes to fight Volstagg in a crowd, getting a lot of people killed in the collateral damage of the fight for an excuse to attack Asgard - were so heinous even he realized his reputation was irreparable and he was beyond redemption. So he arranged for two copies of himself, one a mostly innocent child with the personality and morality of his younger self and few memories of evil Loki's deeds and the other an "echo" of evil adult Loki's mind and memories, then got himself killed. Fortunately for everyone involved except the wicked old god, the old Loki is dead, and the new versions - including the merger created when the echo assimilated the child - are a case of Clones Are People, Too, though tormented by guilt over their progenitor's actions and fear that they'll become like him.
My Real Daddy:
- First off, many consider Jack, rather than Stan, to be Thor's "true" creator, as Jack was much more invested in and ambitious with the character. Taking the entire history of the character into account, though, the stories and art of Walt Simonson will probably never be surpassed, and are universally beloved by both fans and creators.
- Though Loki had been under the pen of different writers over the years, it was under Kieron Gillen that Loki transformed from a typical Cain and Abel Card-Carrying Villain into a more layered and complex villain/anti-hero.
Narm Charm:
- Some of the Shakespearean dialogue can be downright silly. But when you have a god with a hammer that shoots lightning engaged in mortal combat with thirty-foot frost giants, it just seems appropriate. And, well, awesome.
- This is the only reason Frog Thor works. The whole storyline seems ridiculous, but the frogs are just so... noble. And once you're sucked in, you can ignore how absolutely bizarre the actual Frog Thor looks.
Never Live It Down: The Executioner is a rare case that was hit by a positive event. He had always been a guy armed with an axe, but his Dying Moment of Awesome, a Last Stand while holding the bridge at Gjallerbru in the underworld, dual-wielding M-16s against an onrushing horde of the dead, changed that. Although he remained dead, he has been back "temporarily" in comics such as Asgardians of the Galaxy and Beta Ray Bill, and he always displays great liking for human guns, even if he had never used them before that point. Even his adaptation in the MCU seemed to be just to set up the scene in a Thor film.
Older Than They Think:
- The idea that Thor is blond and clean-shaven is not Marvel's. Thor's Fight with the Giants features a similar Thor.
- The concept of a woman being worthy to wield Mjolnir is not new, as Storm and Rogue and even Wonder Woman (in a crossover◊) have all used it.
- The concept of a mild-mannered person with some form of PHD turning into Thor was previously featured in a 1959 Batman story.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- Thunderstrike, after he stopped impersonating Thor and was able to grow into his own character.
- Thanks to the mediocre reception of Thor: The Dark World and Malekith's characterisation as a Generic Doomsday Villain, Malekith became infamous for being among the MCU's most forgettable villains, and newcomers to the comics transfer their dislike for the character to his comics self. But thanks to Jason Aaron, Comics Malekith comes back with a vengeance. Despite the divisiveness of Aaron's later run, Malekith is considered by readers to be one of the run's best parts for being a Creepy Awesome villain.
Seasonal Rot: Jason Aaron's run was initially lauded by many during the God-Butcher arc, with some comparing it to the best of Walt Simonson's works. However, once his run on the Female Thor arc began, a lot of fans began to lose interest due to a divisive lead character, Thor being shelved to the background and the dragged out plot with Malekith.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: Thor/Jane Vs. Thor/Sif. Some feel that Jane humanizes Thor in ways that Sif can't, while others feel that Jane is too boring for Thor (even when she's masquerading as the new female Thor) and feel that Thor has better chemistry with the fiery Sif. And that's not even getting started on the Thor/Jane versus Donald/Jane ship.
Signature Series Arc:
- In the Lee-Kirby era, there was "Tales of Asgard", "Ego the Living Planet", and "Mangog".
- In the Walt Simonson era, there are two major story arcs, "The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill" and "The Surtur Saga".
- In Jason Aaron's run it's the opening "The God Butcher/Godbomb" 12 issue story arc running in Thor, God of Thunder.
Theme Pairing: Thor / Storm has a substantial following due to the fact that both of them are associated with weather and thunder. Image like this◊ just encourages comments like "Bring on the biracial thunder babies".
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Out of all of Thor's main supporting cast, poor Sif is probably hit the hardest with this trope. For years, her main characterisation is limited to being an Action Girl and a Satellite Love Interest to Thor. And just when she gets to star in her own series, it ends up getting cancelled. To rub more salt to the wound, she ends up getting sidelined by new female characters such as Female Thor, who is ironically Jane Foster, whom Sif replaced as the main love interest in the old comics.
- "Kid Loki" was a chance to see what good Loki could accomplish if he weren't an utterly egocentric Jerkass. Status Quo being what it is, this was casually discarded as just another way to stave off for a few more fleeting issues being considered predictable. This was ultimately subverted when it turned out that when Kid Loki merged with Ikol, an echo of old Loki's memories, it cursed them both with a guilt complex and the same inner goodness he had. While try as he might, the resulting younger Loki couldn't fully commit to his previous villainy, and ultimately he's not the same fiend he once was, and while "Kid Loki" may be gone, the influence he's had has caused Loki to follow his example, and become a very popular Anti-Hero in the vein of his Marvel Cinematic Universe counterpart.
Tough Act to Follow:
- The original Lee-Kirby run was such a defining classic that it took a long while for later writers to measure up to it.
- Walt Simonson was the major exception to the above and his epic run in The '80s as writer/artist is the definitive run on The Mighty Thor, and a classic superhero run.
- J. Michael Straczynski and the succeeding run by Kieron Gillen were likewise this to Matt Fraction's, which was considered by most to be an Audience-Alienating Era.
- Divisive as it is, Jason Aaron's run on Thor is also considered one for the record books, and whoever follows him will have a lot to step in to.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Much like what Jason Aaron's Last Days of Magic arc would do to magic by barely portraying it as a force of good worth saving later on, the Gorr the God-Butcher story-line is mainly used as a vehicle for the Jerkass Gods and The Gods Must Be Lazy message with barely any good counterpoints against it. It even went as far as to make Thor unworthy afterwards because most, if not all the gods that Gorr killed just happened to fit the tropes listed earlier. It is not a big surprise if you had reached this conclusion due to how the plot conveniently makes the overall argument constantly on Gorr's side rather than an actual debate, which also makes it hard to root for Thor as he is the moral loser in this story. And it doesn't even make a good case for Gorr's side as the run is dreadfully prone to not only ignore Show, Don't Tell, but actively contradicting what it's showing and expecting you to believe what it's telling. (Ie. it's full of atrocities committed against gods but shows almost none perpetrated by them (with the exception of the Shi'ar ones), but they totes deserved it because it says so.)
The Woobie:
- Loki's wife Sigyn. This poor woman had the misfortune of catching the trickster god's eye, who kills her fiance so he could have her to himself. Loki would impersonate her dead fiance all the way until the wedding ceremony, where the revelation that she is now eternally bound to the most hated person in Asgard causes her to break down in tears. Afterwards, she is forced to be complicit in many of Loki's evil schemes and gets punished for it.
- Kurse. The poor guy just gets shit on time and time again. Betrayed by his master Malekith, turned into a monster, briefly rendered amnesiac and mentally disturbed, and finally killed during Ragnarok.
- Kid Loki. People cannot seem to help but feel pity for his kid counterpart after all the hardships he goes through up to an echo of the old Loki forcing him to assimilate with him.
Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Loki's female form (as drawn by Olivier Coipel) is unsettling and creepy despite him inhabiting a beautiful body. The reason? No eyebrows.◊

YMMV / The Mighty Thor

Edit Locked