THOR
Real Name: Thor
Occupation: God of thunder, former physician, (as Jarlson) former construction worker, (as Olson) former paramedic
Legal Status: Citizen of Asgard with provisional American citizenship due to his Avengers status
Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of Thor except as a mythological character. His identity as Donald Blake is secret.
Other Aliases: Thunder-God, Donald Blake, Donar, Donner, Siegfried, Siegmund, Sigurd Jarlson, Thor Odinson, Lord of Asgard, Jake Olsen, Eric Masterson
Place of Birth: Unrevealed, a cave somewhere near Mount Glittertinden (Yggdrasil) in Norway
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Odin (father), Gaea (mother, aka Jord), Frigga (adoptive mother), Loki (adoptive brother), Balder, Bragi, Heimdall, Hermod, Hoder, Tyr, Vidar (half-brothers), Sif, Brynhilda and the Valkyries (half-sisters), Modi, Magni (sons, deceased), Thrud (daughter by Jarnsaxa, deceased), Bor (paternal grandfather), Buri (paternal great-grandfather, alias Tiwaz), Villi, Ve (uncles), Freia (aunt), Idunn, Sigyn, Solveig, (sisters-in-law), Hela (niece), Jormungaard, Fenrir (nephews),
Group Affiliation: The Avengers, The Gods of Asgard, former leader of the Godpack
Base Of Operations: Asgard and New York City
First Appearance: Journey into Mystery #83
Origin: Journey into Mystery #83, Thor #159 and Thor Annual 11
History: Thor is the blood son of Odin, Lord of the Asgardian Gods, and Jord, who is also known as Gaea, the elder goddess of Earth.. Odin sought to father a son whose power would derive from Earth as well as Asgard, and he sought to mate with Jord. Odin created a cave in Ancient Scandinavia that would become part of modern Norway where Jord would give birth to Thor. Months after the infant Thor was weaned, Odin brought him to Asgard to be raised. From that time onward Odin’s wife Frigga acted as Thor’s mother. It is not until recent years that Thor discovered Jord was his mother.
A severed eye of Odin once grew to great size, achieved sentience and informed Thor that he had existed before on a previous Asgard. This previous Thor had red hair instead of the blonde hair of the current Thor and had two sons by Sif. This previous Thor is said to have killed the Midgard Serpent and to have been killed himself by the dying monster’s venom at a previous Ragnarok, the destruction of the previous Asgard. Odin was himself killed, but was restored to life after the few surviving gods of this Asgard, among which was this Thor’s sons Modi and Magni and a daughter Thrud, gave up their lives to restore him to life, and it was this new Odin who sired the current Thor.
Possibly these previous versions of Odin and Thor were earlier physical incarnations of the Odin and Thor of today. However, this account of Thor’s origin by the severed eye of Odin may well be completely false. The eye’s motives for constructing such a story, if it is false, are unknown.
The young Thor was raised alongside Loki who had been adopted by Odin after Loki’s father, the Frost Giant Laufey, had been killed in battle. From, childhood, Loki was jealous of Thor and his hatred of him grew over the years to a wish to destroy him. Thus began Thor’s enmity of Thor, which exists to his day.
When Thor was eight, Odin sent him to Nidavellir, the land of the dwarves, to bid the dwarves, Brokk and Eltri, to create three treasures for Asgard’s ruler. Among the three treasures that Brokk and Eltri created was the enchanted uru hammer Mjolnir (although Loki sabotaged the creation of the hammer so that the hammer would be too short). Odin bestowed various enchantments upon the hammer including one that made it impossible for anyone to lift it except someone who was truly worthy of wielding it. Odin then declared that he was reserving the use of the hammer for Thor who would receive it on the day that great selfless valor had proved him worthy of it.
For years, Thor strove to become strong and worthy enough to wield the hammer and was responsible for many great deeds. Finally, when Thor was sixteen, Odin presented him with the hammer, declaring that he was indeed worthy of it. Thor became Asgard’s greatest warrior.
Before Thor was twenty, Thor had fallen in love with Sif. However, in a previous incarnation of Asgard, he actually took her as his wife, siring two daughters named Lora and Thrud and adopting her son, Uller. In the current incarnation of Asgard, their romance came to an end, but they briefly renewed it in recent years. His best friends as he was growing up were Sif and Balder.
Sometime in the 9th century A.D., Thor journeyed to Earth for the first time and regaled in his adventures with the Vikings. They raised him to the level of a god and started worshipping him as such. Both the Norsemen and the Germans, who called him Donner, came to worship Thor among all the other Asgardians. Thor actively encouraged the adulation of his Viking worshippers for years and also encouraged them to find glory in battle. But finally, Thor discovered that a party of his Viking worshippers had attacked and slaughtered the inhabitants of a Christian monastery. Shocked, realizing that some of his more zealous worshippers were committing other atrocities like this one in his name, Thor started to gradually withdraw from Earthly activities altogether and allowed worship of the Asgardian gods to die out.
According to the severed eye of Odin, Odin himself caused Thor to live on Earth in the mortal guises of the Germanic heroes Siegmund and his son Siegfried. In these two roles, Thor played a major role in Odin’s efforts to regain the dangerously powerful Ring of the Nibelung. Siegmund was killed by the warrior Hunding, but Thor was reborn as Siegfried, the son of Siegmund and his lover Sieglinde. Siegfried took possession of the ring after killing the giant Fafnir who had guarded it for years in the form of a dragon. Siegfried then fell in love with the Valkyrie Brynhilda, but was murdered by Hagen, the son of Alberich, the dwarf who had created the ring and had placed a curse upon it. Odin, however, resurrected Siegfried as Thor, who again had his full godly powers, but wiped out Thor’s memory of these events of his mortal identities. It is unclear how much, if any, of this account by Odin’s severed eye is true.
Thor led an active, adventurous life in Asgard doing battle with the Frost Giants and other enemies of the realm, but Odin grew increasingly dissatisfied with Thor’s headstrong behavior and excessive pride. On one occasion Thor violated a truce between the Asgardians and the Frost Giants thereby nearly starting a war. Finally, while Thor was engaged in a brawl in an Asgardian tavern, Odin summoned him to his presence. Odin had decided that it was time Thor learned humility. Odin had Thor surrender Mjolnir to him and then sent him to Earth as a crippled young medical student named Donald Blake stripped of any memory of his true identity.
After Thor had spent ten years in the role of Blake, Odin placed within Blake’s mind the suggestion to take a vacation on Norway. There, Blake encountered a party of alien Kronans, also known as the Stone Men of Saturn. Blake fled from the Kronans into a cavern, the very same one that had served as Thor’s birthplace some millennia ago, where Odin had left Thor’s hammer in the in the enchanted form of a wooden cane. Trapped in the cavern by a huge boulder, Blake struck the boulder with the cane in frustrated anger and was transformed back into his true godly form as Thor. As Thor, he escaped the cavern and drove off the Kronans.
At first, Thor still had no memory of his past life as an Asgardian god, although as months passed, more of his memories returned. Finally, a few years later, Odin revealed to him the false nature of the Blake identity and the reason for it.
Thor maintained his Blake identity on Earth and continued his medical practice. Part of his affinity for Earth was his subconscious realization that his maternal heritage was on this world. The other part was simply his love for humanity and his need to experience those things that only mortals could know. Thor came to divide his time between Asgard and Earth and continued it for many years.
For years Thor was in love with Jane Foster who had worked as a nurse for Blake. Odin disapproved of Thor’s love for this mortal woman but eventually the romance between Thor and foster came to an end, and Thor renewed his past relationship with Sif. That relationship has suffered strains in recent years and it is unclear what path it might take in the future.
Thor was a founding member of the team of superhuman champions known as the Avengers and has continued to serve with the team from time to time to the present. One of Thor’s staunchest allies in the Avengers has proven to be the Olympian hero, Hercules. Although the two gods first met as rivals, Thor won Hercules’ respect by saving him from Hades, the Olympian god of the dead, and the two have forged a strong friendship. Hercules is the only Avenger Thor is able to approach as a peer.
Eventually, Thor outgrew his need for a dual identity and gave up his identity of Don Blake. In fact, Odin transferred the enchantment enabling Thor to change to mortal form and back again to that of his ally and alien counterpart, Beta-Ray Bill. With the aid of Nick Fury, Public director of SHIELD, Thor has adopted a second mortal identity as construction worker Sigurd Jarlson. Thor does not actually become a mortal in his Jarlson identity; he simply dresses as a normal contemporary Earthman and wears glasses.
Thor eventually grew a beard to conceal terrible scars he had gained on his face due to wounds inflicted by the Asgardian goddess of the dead, Hela. The wounds eventually healed under the beard, which Thor kept for a while until it started to bother him and he had it shaved.
After Odin disappeared during his battle with Surtur, the people of Asgard wished to make Thor, Odin’s designated heir, their new ruler. Realizing the duties would obviously curtail his duties and responsibilities on Earth, Thor declined the offer and instead nominated his friend and half-brother Balder the Brave to be Asgard’s ruler. Odin, however, subsequently turned up as a prisoner of Seth, the Egyptian god of death, who sought to conquer Asgard, and resumed his role as ruler of Asgard.
For a while, Thor was merged with the human Eric Masterson, an architect who first met Thor as Jarlson. The two of men would exchange bodies using Mjolnir, as Thor had done before as Blake. After Loki attempted to kill Susan Austin, the woman who cared for Eric’s son, Thor became furious and slew Loki. As punishment, he was exiled from Earth and Eric Masterson was given Thor’s power to continue in the role of Thor on Earth. Eventually, after Loki reappeared, Eric was able to find Thor, who had been hidden within Eric’s own subconscious, and rescued him from exile.
Eric had proven himself to be a hero in his own right, and Odin rewarded him with the enchanted mace Thunderstrike. Taking Thunderstrike as his alias, Eric continued to serve as a hero on Earth until he died heroically while battling the Egyptian death god Seth. Thor grieved for Eric, who had been one of the closest friends he had made amongst humanity.
Odin and Thor eventually learned that the constant shift in identity and sharing of power which Odin had encouraged had resulted in Thor becoming insane, marked by the appearance of a Valkyrie who was a manifestation of Thor’s insanity. With the assistance of Adam Warlock and Dr. Strange, Thor regained his sanity, and Odin came to realize the error he had made.
Once again attempting to thwart Ragnarok, Odin attempted to trick the world-ash tree Yggdrasil into believing that Ragnarok had already happened. To do so, the Asgardians were transformed into mortals so that they would not be recognized as gods. Odin’s plan had been that Thor would restore the Asgardians to normal, but Price, an agent of Seth, accidentally prematurely activated the plan. Compounding the situation, Thor disappeared while battling the Onslaught entity, and wound up on the new Counter-Earth created by Franklin Richards. By the time Thor returned to Earth, the Asgardians had managed to regain their identities, but were left in a weakened state to be captured by the Dark Gods. Ultimately, Thor rescued his people from the Dark Gods with the aid of Hercules and the Destroyer.
After a paramedic named Jake Olson was slain during a battle between the Avengers and the Destroyer, Marnot, a servant of Odin, gave Thor Olson’s mortal form as a new identity. Although Thor could assume Olson's mortal form, he had none of his memories, and found this identity to be a trouble for him as he stumbled through events in Olson’s life with no memories of them. He also re-encountered Jane Foster while in this identity, and there were brief sparks rekindled between the two. Odin finally separated Olson from Thor, and Olson was allowed to return to his own life.
After Odin fell in a rekindled battle against Surtur, Asgard was left without a ruler. Thor eventually came to reluctantly accept the throne of Asgard and acquired his father's Odin-Power, becoming much more powerful. Thor determined to restore the gods of Asgard to their place on Earth as beings to be worshipped, and moved Asgard into the Earth’s plane of existence that he would be able to still protect it. However, the the timeline that developed, Thor's increased activity on Earth resulted in a resurgence of followers for the Asgardians, and a Church of Thor soon emerged. Many human beings, however, grew increasingly intimidated by Thor’s strong-armed new regime and began striking out at supporters of the new Asgardian religion. Thor's willingness to fight for the lives of his followers eventually set him against his fellow Avengers when he attempted to overthrow the government of Slokovia. The U.S. Government retaliated by ordering separate missile strikes on Thor and Asgard, but the damage from Asgard’s destruction resulted in the complete devastation of New York City and the deaths of its countless heroes, many of whom had been close friends and Allies of Thor. Surviving the nuclear blast meant to kill him, Thor realized that mortal man could not have control of their destiny and rebuilt Asgard on Earth completely dictated by his whims and beliefs. Supported by Loki, he brought about a certain utopia with the gods and left mortals with few liberties under this new regime.
However, this alternate future was attacked by Thor’s old enemy, Desak the God Slayer who showed Thor that by controlling the destiny of mortals that he had robbed them of their full potential. He corrected his error by reaching back in time, and altering events shortly after Asgard appeared on Earth so that this timeline never occurred (although it is possible it might still exist in one of innumerable alternate quantum realities in the multiverse). As a side result of these actions, Loki set the motions for a revised Ragnarok to occur. Thor came to realize that the mysterious Those Who Sit Above In Shadow were responsible for keeping Asgard in this repeating cycle of Ragnarok and gave his life to destroy them as yet another Twilight of the Gods claimed the Nine Worlds, claming the lives of all of the Gods of Asgardians.
About a year later, Mjolnir left adrift in space crashed to Earth in the proximity of Broxton, Oklahoma, and Thor eventually returned to reclaim it. In the destruction of Asgard, spells created linking the Asgardians to Yggdrasil had restored them to life as mortals. Restored back to Donald Blake, Thor eventually awoke and was able to reclaim Mjolnir and reactivate his godhood and the still present Odin-force, which he required to restore Asgardians to life. However, since Odin's death predated the destruction of Asgard, he was among the few Asgardians not restored to life.
Still recognized as Ruler of the Asgardian Gods, Thor set about recreating Asgard in the Oklahoma outback and set about searching for the other Asgardians, now living as guests of Doctor Doom in Latveria. Thor also discovered that Loki had been restored to life in the body of Sif. By now, Loki's interest had changed from conquest of Asgard to the complete humiliation and driving Thor out of favor with the Asgardians. She claimed to have no more plans now that Ragnarok was over, but used subterfuge and deceit to force Thor into slaying Bor, the father of Odin; a murder which resulted in Thor being driven from Asgard and exiled to Earth. In his absence, Thor made Balder ruler of Asgard.
Thor eventually re-joined the Avengers, briefly turning against Iron Man for his role in the Superhuman Registration Act. Using Norman Osborn of HAMMER as his lackey, Loki meanwhile started creating as much strife and disorder among the heroes of Earth. Unfortunately, Osborn sent HAMMER into attacking Asgard. Thor came to defend the Asgardians and had his exile revoked after details of Loki's duplicity in Bor's death became obvious. Loki however gave his life defending Asgard from Hammer, but Thor has since discovered Loki reborn as a young boy named Serrure (French for "lock") living in France.
Thor eventually restored Odin to life for help to defeat the World-Eaters, but in doing so, he awakened Cull the Serpent, an ancient being Odin had imprisoned millennia ago. Thor rallied the heroes of Earth to protect it after Odin decreed he would sacrifice it to protect Asgard, but Thor gave his life his destroy Cull.
Thor's body was given a hero's funeral, burning it on a pyre, but unknown to anyone, in doing so the fire split Thor from his godhood and restored him to Donald Blake. Empowered by Thor's godhood, Ulik the Rock Troll became Tanarus, and aided by spells created by Karnilla, managed to convince everyone in Asgard that he had always been the god of thunder and a member of the Avengers. Loki, however, was the only one not effected by these spells and found Donald Blake, restoring him to Thor in the process who unmasked Tanarus in Asgard.
Thor has since sought out Gorr the God Butcher, responsible for the murders
of several other gods on other planets in the universe. Thor remains one of the greatest heroes of Earth. Due to his Avengers status,
he has the ability to call the team to his side when he deems they are needed.
Height: 6’ 6”
Weight: 640 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde
Strength Level: Thor possesses Class 100 strength enabling him to lift
(press) over 100 tons under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Thor possesses the conventional physical attributes of the Asgardian Gods, but as son of Odin, lord of the Asgardians, and Jord, elder goddess of the Earth, his strength endurance and resistance to injury are greater than that of any other Asgardian. Like all Asgardians, he is extremely long-lived (thought not immortal in the same sense of the Olympian Gods). Like all Asgardians, he has superhuman strength (the average Asgardian male can lift 30 tons over his head; Thor can lift 100 tons above his own) and stamina and is immune to all known terrestrial diseases and is invulnerable to conventional injury. If wounded, his godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his bodily molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for Odin or a number of gods of equal power working together to revive him. His own Asgardian metabolism gives him far greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (Asgardian flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the superhuman strength and weight of the Asgardian race.)
As Lord of Asgard, Thor had the ability to tap into and control the Odin-Force, which enabled him to tap into near-infinite resources of cosmic and mystical power, enhancing all of his abilities to levels equal to Odin. With the vast magical power of the Odin-Force, Thor was able to dent Captain America’s shield with Mjolnir, move Asgard into close orbit with Earth and freely travel through time. He no longer retains these powers.
Abilities: Thor is trained in the arts of war, being a superbly skilled warrior, highly proficient in hand-to-hand combat, swordsmanship, and hammer throwing. Due to his years as the mortal Dr. Donald Blake, Thor also has considerable expertise in medicine.
Weaponry: Thor’s principal weapon is his enchanted hammer named Mjolnir, one of the most formidable weapons to man or god. Forged out of the mystical metal uru by the Dwarves Brokk and Eitri of Nidalvellir, whose chief properties are durability and the ability to maintain enchantment, the hammer is two feet long and its handle is wrapped in leather, which terminates in a thong. Besides being a indestructible throwing weapon, the hammer has been given six enchantments by Odin to augment its physical qualities.
The first enchantment is that no living being can lift the hammer from the ground unless he or she is worthy. Hence, so far, only Odin, Thor, Beta Ray Bill, Eric Masterson, Red Norvall, Tiwaz, Captain America, Wonder Woman and Superman (albeit briefly) have been able to lift Mjolnir. Apparently no one without superhuman strength can lift the hammer, whether he or she is worthy or not. In some instances, though, beings of considerable mystical power have been able to move it by tampering with this enchantment.
The second enchantment causes the hammer to return to the exact spot from which it is thrown after striking its target.
The third enchantment enables the hammer’s wielder to summon the elements of storm (wind, rain, thunder, lightning and so forth) by stamping its hammer twice upon the ground and willing to do so. Thor can also project various forms of mystical energy from the hammer without striking on the ground.
The fourth enchantment enables the hammer to open interdimensional portals, allowing its wielder to travel to other dimensions, such as from Asgard to Earth. (It is not known how Thor locates the dimension to which he wishes to travel.)
The fifth enchantment, bestowed on the hammer in modern times, enabled Thor to transform into the mortal Don Blake, by stamping the hammer once upon the ground and willing the change to occur. When Thor became Blake, Mjolnir took the form of a gnarled wooden cane. By stamping the cane upon the ground once and willing the change to occur, Thor could turn himself back into his true godly form and the cane would once again become a hammer. When the hammer was in the form of a cane, anyone could lift it, and hence, in one alternate reality, Jane Foster used it to become Thordis, a female Thor. A provision of the enchantment required that the hammer could not be out of Thor’s hand for over sixty seconds while he was on Earth without his spontaneous reversion to his mortal self.
Most of this fifth enchantment has been transferred to the hammer of Beta Ray Bill. However, enough of the fifth enchantment remains in Thor’s hammer so that stamping his hammer, he can instantaneously transform his arraignment as Thor into mortal clothing and vice versa as seen through his mortal guise as Sigurd Jarlson. The hammer itself no longer changed form. A form of the enchantment existed for Eric Masterson and while Thor co-existed as Jake Olson.
The hammer has had one enchantment that has been rescinded. Formerly the hammer could be swung in such a way as to generate chronal displacement inertia, enabling its wielder to travel through time. Most of this property, which is separate from the hammer’s power to transcend dimensions, was removed by Immortus, and Thor himself recently exhausted whatever time-traveling power Mjolnir had remaining.
By throwing the hammer and catching its leather thong, Thor can magically propel himself through the air in the semblance of flight. Just as the hammer can magically change its course in order to return to his hand when he throws it, so can it be influenced by its wielder to change its course when in flight. The precise manner by which Thor “steers” his hammer when in flight is not known, nor is the precise speed and distance Thor can attain with a single throw. Thor has been observed to attain escape velocity from the Earth’s gravity with a single throw and to overtake space vessels.
Paraphernalia: Thor possesses an enchanted belt of strength that doubles his strength while he wears it. However, Thor feels physically drained after wearing it. He sometimes wears a pair of iron gauntlets to protect himself when unleashing Mjolnir’s most powerful energies.
Transportation: Thor randomly drives a chariot-like vehicle pulled by two enchanted goats, Tanngniost (“Toothgnasher”) and Tanngrisnir (“Toothgrinder”). These two goats possess unusually high intelligence and can run at incredible speed on land and through the air as they transverse dimensional barriers. The goats also have the power to return to life even after being killed and regenerate lost tissue even after being reduced to bones.
Comments: This bio largely describes Thor in the Marvel Universe; although he has appeared in a much more limited scope within the DC Universe (War Of The Gods #3), his appearances there are not as remarkable and can be placed behind the scenes of his Marvel appearances.
Thor has been played by Chris Hemsworth in Thor (2010), Zachery Ty Bryan in Thor: Hammer of the Gods (2011), Ben Reed in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (Episode: Norse By Norsewest) and Eric Allan Kramer in The Incredible Hulk Returns (1993).
In the Saxon Genealogies, Thor is named as the descendant of Trojan refuges who founded Thrudheim (modern Thrace) whose descendants include the Saxon king Wotan (the model of the mythological Odin), the heroes Sigurd and Beowulf, Hengist and Horsa of Arthurian legend and the modern British Royal Family.
Mjolnir also appears in the series Supernatural (Episode: "What's Up, Tiger Mommy?"), implying it was lost briefly by Thor somewhere behind the scenes, but this could easily be a false Mjolnir or a version of Mjolnir once owned by one of Thor's past incarnations.
Clarifications: Thor is not to be confused with:
Last updated: 11/05/13