Real name: abandoned aliases (former) Jake Olson /
(former) Dr. Donald Blake
Occupation: God of Thunder
Identity: Secret
Legal Status: None
Place of Birth: Asgard
Group affiliation: (current) Asgardians, (former) Avengers
Base of operations: Asgard; Avengers Mansion
New York City
First appearance: Journey Into Mystery #83 (1962)
Height: 6'6" as Thor
Weight: 640 lbs. as Thor
Eye color: Blue
Hair color: Blond
|
Thor & Argardians
|
Synopsis:
He is the Norse God
of Thunder, master of the storm and lightning, heir to the throne of legendary
Asgard. Summoning the enchanted Uru hammer Mjolnir.
Powers:
Thor's principal weapon is the enchanted hammer
Mjolnir, one of the most formidable weapons known to man
or god. Among the hammer's various enchantments are its
indestructibility and the ability to summon all the elements of
storm (wind, rain, thunder, and lightning). His hammer can be
thrown both as a means of flight, and as a weapon that always returns
to its wielder's hand. Thor's superhuman strength is matched with an
immunity to all human diseases, superhuman speed, agility, and simulated
flight when he hurls his enchanted hammer Mjolnir.
Weapons: The
enchanted hammer Mjolnir, made of mystic Uru metal, is nearly indestructible.
The mallet derives the remainder of its powers from Odin's six enchantments:
No living being, unless worthy, may lift it; it always returns to the
exact spot from which it was thrown; it channels Thor's ability to control
the elements of storm and project mystical energy; it allows its wielder
to open transdimensional portals; it enables Thor to transform himself
into human form; and it grants its user the power of flight.
History:
Descended from Norse gods and raised in the hallowed halls of Asgard,
Thor nearly precipitated a war by violating a truce with his family's
ancient enemy: the Frost Giants of Jotunheim, one of the nine worlds
of the Asgardian cosmology. Odin, Thor's father, banished the young
God of Thunder to Earth without his memory to teach him a lesson in
humility.
After a decade as
a mere mortal, the feeble Dr. Donald Blake was drawn to Norway. There,
he encountered a race of warmongering aliens. Seeking cover in a cave,
Blake discovered a mysterious wooden cane. Actually the enchanted hammer
Mjolnir, it transformed him once more into the mighty Thor. After expelling
the alien threat, the Thunder God took his place among the Avengers,
Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Thor is forever torn between his divine home,
Asgard, and the troubled lands of his adopted world, Earth.
While
fulfilling Odin's lesson in humility, Thor developed an appreciation
for mortals and the planet Earth. Eventually, he learned Don Blake had
not existed prior to his appropriation of that form: Odin merely had
remade Thor as a mortal. In light of this revelation, Thor established
a new identity: Sigurd Jarlson. To effect this guise, he pulled back
his hair, wore glasses and dressed like a normal human. During a battle
with the villain Mongoose, Thor's friend Eric Masterson was gravely
injured. As a gift to his son, Odin merged Masterson with the Thunder
God in a similar manner to the creation of Don Blake. In this case,
however, Masterson and Thor were two separate beings.
Thor's adopted brother
-- Loki, Norse God of Mischief and Evil, diminutive scion of Laufey,
king of the Frost Giants -- has been a constant thorn in the Thunder
God's side. Motivated by his jealousy of his foster brother and a desire
to seize Odin's throne, Loki strayed from his honored place. Now, this
prince of Asgard will stop at nothing to destroy Thor and all he holds
dear. In one of his many depraved schemes, Loki tricked Thor into "killing"
him, thereby breaking Asgardian law. Thor was to be banished, but asked
that Masterson be spared his fate. Retaining the abilities of Thor,
Masterson was left to become Earth's guardian.
Thor soon reclaimed
his power, but nearly was killed in battle with the metallic menace
known as the Destroyer. Merged with EMS technician Jake Olson, Thor
once again took to living a double life. To sully the reputation of
Thor's human identity, Loki raised the real Jake Olson from the dead.
However, Thor defeated Loki's puppet in the guise of his alter ego.
This failure led Loki to believe the only way to best his foster brother
was to possess Olson's body. But before Loki could kill Thor, Odin imprisoned
his essence in human form.
Thor's encounter with the monsterous yet noble alien called Beta Ray Bill. Thor was
sent to encounter Bill at the request of S.H.I.E.L.D., who had observed Bill's ship
destroy a star to refuel; S.H.I.E.L.D. feared that the ship might do the same to the sun.
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, enacting its mystical enchantment. Being judged worthy to
hoist Mjolnir in the process, Bill 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, Odin retrieved Thor as well.
Bill claimed Mjolnir as a prize of fair combat, which Thor — being disadvantaged 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 an
evenly matched fight due to his distinct biological make up that caused the heat from
the volcanic world to revive him. Though Bill's 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 that 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.
The Surtur War 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, Surtur then 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. Thor inherited the Odinforce. With his
human side separated into another vessel, Thor 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. Thor 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, a
ppalled by what he saw in Thor's memories, left him. In addition, Loki recovered the Mould of
Mjolnir 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 devastate Asgard, killing several and shattering
Mjolnir in their first attack. Ragnarok was upon Asgard. Gradually, more and more fell until a
desperate retaliation, 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: Thor sacrificed both his eyes for knowledge
(Odin had lost only one eye) and spent a week dead hanging from Yggdrasil 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,
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 devastated Valhalla, where the victorious Loki now resided. Thor separated Loki's
head from its body, attaching the still-living head to his belt. Thor then did the unthinkable, making
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. Thor's true focus, however, is not
with Surtur but with the Norns who watch over a temporal loom which contains all events in linear form.
Unable to change what has already occurred, Thor destroys the loom and breaks the cycle of Ragnarok
once and for all, succeeding where his father failed, all because his human side is unreadable by
Those Who Sit Above in Shadow. All are consumed in the resulting chaos of the loom's destruction, e
xcept for Beta Ray Bill, who Thor protects and returns to the Earth dimension as a witness.
(Feeling that a non-Asgardian had no place dying in his race's final battle, Thor bade Bill to
remember them.) When all lay dead, and Fenris had consumed the remains, Thor 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..."
These events were part of the Avengers Disassembled events, and were the doing of none other than Thor's
teammate, the chaos spawning Wanda Maximoff.
|
