Gorr

Origin

3000 years ago, on a planet without a name, Gorr lived a life of death and torment. His mother died protecting him from predators, and his wife and child succumbed to the harshness of his homeworld, also perishing. Despite Gorr’s prayers to save them, and the ritual sacrifices that his family made, no gods answered his prayers. These events led him to curse the deities of his planet, and he was cast out by his tribe for blasphemy.

Wandering the scorching deserts, Gorr witnessed two gods fall to the ground, locked in combat. One god is already dead. However, the other asks Gorr for help, infuriating Gorr. Gorr screams: “Where were you when my children were starving? When my wife was screaming for your help?! Where were you when we needed our gods?!” The dead god’s weapon binds itself to him, and in a blind rage, Gorr stabs the injured god to death.

Pondering if there are more gods to slaughter, Gorr picks up the weapon and sets off into space, on a vendetta against all of divinity. However, the god that Gorr thought dead was actually the “god” of symbiotes himself, Knull, who had fallen from space after battling several gods himself. His weapon, All-Black, a symbiotic creature, had bonded to Gorr unknowingly. While Knull was not dead, he was injured enough that his weapon could be removed.

Creation

Gorr the God Butcher was created by writer Jason Aaron and artist Esad Ribic. He first appeared in “The God Butcher, Part Two: Blood in the Clouds” in 2012.

Major Story Arcs

The God Butcher

The Past

Thor (before he could wield Mjolnir) ran into Gorr after he slaughtered several Gods that Thor was going to fight. Gorr proved to be a deadly foe, defeating Thor and nearly killing him. After their battle, he sent word to Thor that he would be waiting in a cave nearby. Again Gorr easily defeated Thor once he entered the cave, capturing him and torturing him for days.

Thor’s Viking friends eventually found the cave and helped rescue Thor, and during an ensuing fight Gorr was injured when Thor slices off his arm and the weapon he utilized to kill Gods was bound to his body. Thor surprisingly strikes Gorr with enough strength to produce a black hole, and in an explosion Gorr disappears, and Thor and the Viking contingent believe him to be dead.

The Present

Unbeknownst to Thor, Gorr continued killing gods across the universe, leaving behind constructs (nicknamed “berserkers”) for anyone who finds the dead gods to battle. Gorr manages to keep himself one step ahead of Thor at all times, attacking Omnipotence City, a nexus for all gods, and where Thor was researching the various gods of the universe.

Gorr makes his way to Chronux, the palace of the time gods, where he travels to the void where the first god created the universe and cuts out his heart. As he returns back to the present, Thor is waiting for him and Gorr sends his constructs to battle him while he travels through time once again, this time to the future.

The Future

In the far future, Gorr has taken control of the universe and has enslaved the majority of the remaining gods. He constantly sends his constructs to battle the now aged Thor in what remains of Asgard. Eventually, Skyfather Thor is overwhelmed by Black Berserkers, but is rescued by present Thor and the two set out to defeat Gorr once and for all.

Godbomb

Gorr continues to travel through time, making his way to the past, a time shortly after his defeat at Thor’s hands. Capturing the young thunder god, Gorr enslaves him in the future on his construct planet. While there, the God Butcher reveals his plan to the young Thor; that he has built a weapon that will destroy all the god’s in the universe, a God Bomb. Young Thor attempts to escape, using a piece of a star to attempt to destroy the Godbomb. This, however, does not destroy the bomb, and only succeeds in catapulting Thor off the planet, where he meets with present Thor and old Thor. The three decide to assault Gorr and his planet for the last time, and nearly succeed in killing him, but due to the berserkers killing of gods in sacrifice, Gorr gets a boost in power and defeats the three Thors, leaving them for dead, and sets off to activate the Godbomb.

However, Gorr’s “son” (in reality, a darkness construct) decides to assist present Thor in bringing down the Butcher. Charged by the prayers of the son, as well as every single surviving god, all through time, Thor absorbs the Godbomb’s blast, as well as the “All-Black” weapon. Mocking Gorr, describing him as a “little man”, Thor steps back and, just as Gorr lets out an anguished scream, allows past Thor to easily decapitate the now-powerless Gorr, ending his tale.

King Thor

Even after death, Gorr had managed to depart his mark on the Thor of Earth-616, as Gorr’s philosophy was to blame for Thor becoming unworthy and being unable to lift Mjolnir.

Gorr’s consciousness was contained inside All-Black, finally gone in an exceedingly world without gods. Eons after his death, Gorr was resurrected by King Loki – All-Black’s then-host – so as to kill him after he killed All-Father Thor. Instead, Gorr interrupted their duel by reclaiming All-Black and impaling King Loki through the rear with it. Crucifying Thor and Loki, Gorr mocked them both but was blasted into orbit by the facility of the All-Father. Recalling the scattered pieces and offshoots of All-Black, Gorr engaged All-Father Thor in an exceedingly battle that devastated solar systems, vowing to form Thor watch as he slaughtered the inhabitants of Midgard and every one other remaining life within the cosmos before creating his own and ensuring they were empty of the requirement for worship. Attacked by Loki, Gorr mutilated him before engulfing both brothers in All-Black, declaring he had transcended mortality and become not a mere god but a force of nature.

The gods who Thor had saved and sent to Indigarr billions of years within the past were awakened by the Goddesses of Thunder, who returned in time to save lots of their grandfather and uncle. Overwhelmed, Gorr was decapitated by Atli Wodendottir, but his consciousness indwelled All-Black, the traditional symbiote preceding to infect the very universe itself. Gorr tried to devour Thor by manifesting a part, but was distracted by King Loki telling him the story of each heroic deed Thor had ever performed – buying time for Thor to unleash the complete might of the God Tempest from within Mjolnir, destroying the All-Black symbiote. Restored to life as a mortal but left amnestic and insane, Gorr was taken in by the Sky Lords of Indigarr to measure out the rest of his days in peace.

Powers

Before his transformation, Gorr was a fairly weak creature with no superpowers. However, thanks to “All-Black the Necrosword”, a weapon Gorr found on the body of a dead god, he attains the following powers:

• Superhuman Strength – Gorr has a strength that is at least comparable to Thor, if not greater. He was able to best young-Thor, present-day-Thor, and Skyfather-Thor simultaneously, and has single-handedly defeated many millions of gods in open combat, including one that reportedly “wrestled with black holes for fun.” The more gods Gorr kills, the more power Necrosword gains, providing Gorr with even more strength.

• Vast Superhuman-Durability – Gorr is extremely durable against all forms of trauma, even able to survive a massive lightning bolt summoned by Thor, or the Godblast of an Odin-Force Skyfather-Thor, which propelled him “several light-years” away.
• Superhuman Speed – Gorr can fly at blinding speeds, as when he quickly overtook the god of thunder on their first encounter, and has been able to move light-years in seconds.
• Superhuman Reflexes – Gorr was able to catch Thor off-guard easily, as well as many other gods.
• Longevity – Gorr has lived for over 3000 years and still looks in his prime.
• Regeneration – Gorr is able to recover from a lightning strike within four days with no signs of injury, as well growing back an arm that Thor had cut off (with assistance from his weapon).
• Darkness Manipulation – After acquiring “All-Black the Necrosword,” Gorr can manipulate darkness into creating “darkness-constructs” (à la Green Lantern), creatures known as “Black Berserkers” (who are powerful enough to stalemate Gods), and create almost anything else he desires – including a new arm, a wife, a son, weapons, chains, armor, and towers. This ability is apparently virtually limitless, as he manages to cover both a planet and a sun in this darkness. Gorr can levitate himself and fly at faster-than-light speeds. All-Black can also extend the length of itself as well, allowing it to reach such an extreme extent that it was capable of cutting through a supernova.
• Combat skills – Gorr has many centuries of combat experience, and is skilled enough with weapons to duel with gods with ease.

In Other Media

Film

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Gorr the God Butcher appears as the main antagonist of the 2022 film Thor: Love and Thunder, part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s Phase 4, portrayed by Academy Award winner Christian Bale. The character was redesigned for the film, sporting a more humanoid appearance, as director Taika Waititi feared the Gorr’s original comic book design would make the character resemble Lord Voldermort from the Harry Potter series of films. Prior to this, some elements of the character had been loosely adapted for Hela in the previous film, 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok.

Similar to his comic counterpart, the movie version of Gorr was once a devout and religious man from a dying desert planet. Following the death of his daughter (leaving him as the last survivor of his species) and a chance meeting with the callous, uncaring god Rapu, Gorr comes to hate all gods and decides to destroy them. After being chosen by the mystical blade All-Black the Necrosword, Gorr kills Rapu and embarks on a galactic campaign of deicide, hoping to find Eternity so that he can wish for the complete extinction of all the gods across the universe. Realizing that he needs the power of the Bifrost Bridge to reach Eternity, he kidnaps the children of New Agard in order to lure Thor into a trap, as the god’s hammer Stormbreaker is now the only item that can summon the Bifrost. This leads Gorr into conflict with Thor, Valkyrie and Jane Foster.

Video Games

• Gorr appears in Marvel Puzzle Quest.
• Gorr appears as a playable fighter in Marvel Contest of Champions.
• Gorr appears in Marvel Future Fight.
• Gorr appears in Marvel Future Revolution.

Merchandise

• Gorr was featured in the HeroClix figure game.
• Gorr was featured in Funko’s Pop! line of bobbleheads.
• The MCU version of Gorr was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Korg Build-a-Figure wave. A comic version of Gorr was later released as an Amazon exclusive.
• Gorr was featured in Hasbro’s toy line for Thor: Love and Thunder.
• Gorr was also featured in Lego’s product line for Thor: Love and Thunder.