Thor has undergone some massive changes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in his own solo movie franchise. What started as a Shakespearian tragedy in his first movie turned into a critical disaster in his follow-up Thor: Dark World. Then, when Thor: Ragnarok came around, everything looked and felt different, with the movie a quick and fun ride.
The changes in the Thor movies to the comics are also just as striking, as the heroes seem like very different people. The character in the comics is nowhere near as fun and lighthearted as the MCU character and his relationship with others is also massively different.
Updated on July 14th, 2022, by Shawn S. Lealos: Thor: Love and Thunder appears like it will change Thor once again, taking the once adventurous and thrill-seeking God of Thunder and making him want to settle down and leave the battles to others. However, thanks to Gorr the God Butcher, things won’t be easy for the son of Odin, and it looks like he has at least one more major battle coming up before he can finally lay down his battle hammer. The hero in the MCU has changed drastically from the first Thor movie and even with all the changes, he is still very different in many aspects from his comic book counterpart in Marvel Comics.
Thor’s Mother Is The Phoenix In Comics
It is not a surprise that Thor’s parentage is different in the Thor movies compared to the comics. The change in the comics just happened during the Enter the Phoenix storyline that played out in Avengers comics. This story had the Phoenix Force arrive on Earth and force heroes to battle in one-on-one duels, with the winner becoming Phoenix.
Echo became Phoenix in the end. However, there was an even bigger moment. Thor was trying to stop Phoenix along with some other heroes outside the tournament, and that is when the Phoenix Force stopped to talk to him and explain that she was his mother when Odin had a tryst eons before. Thor always believed his mother was Frigga in the comics and movies, and it turned out it wasn’t true.
Thor Is Very Serious In The Comics
In the movies, Thor can border on being goofy. He does have his moments, as the first Thor movie had him almost Shakespearian in his moody actions, but even there he was allowed to show a goofy and lighthearted personality. That is not Thor in the comics.
Thor is almost always serious in the comics and does not have the sense of humor or the time to be frivolous like in the movies. Thor in the movies plays video games and acts like a fool when drinking. In the comics, he drinks just as much, but has no time for games, and is often overly serious, and has no time for fools.
Thor Talks In Shakespearean Speech In The Comics
In the first Thor movie, the God of Thunder spoke in a slight ancient manner, but as time went on, the dialect turned more to normal slang. In Avengers: Endgame, even at his lowest point, Thor talked like a normal guy most of the time. That is not Thor from the comics.
In Marvel Comics, Thor uses the “thous” and says things like “have at thee,” showing he speaks in Shakespearian dialect, unlike the Thor movies. There was one funny moment in the comics where Hercules, who used to talk like that, was fighting the godly version that was separated from himself and raged that it didn’t make sense anymore. Yet, Thor is still talking that way in comics.
Thor Has The Odinforce In Comics
There have been some hints at the powers that kept Odin strong in the MCU Thor movies, such as when he had to go into the Odinsleep. However, the real source of his powers was the Odinforce, which was the mystical energy the Kings of Asgard used to remain all-powerful. The Odinsleep was necessary to keep this power charged.
In the MCU, Odin has died, but for some reason, Thor has not inherited the Odinforce as he did in the comics when Odin stepped down and gave his throne to his son. It might be because Thor gave Valkyrie the keys to the kingdom, but in the movies, Thor has not yet acquired the Odinforce.
There Has Been More Than One Thor In The Comic
In the new Thor movie, there will be a second Thor. This is Jane Foster, who became Thor in the comics after the original was no longer worthy to wield Mjolnir. With Mjolnir destroyed by Hela, it looks like someone or something chose Jane to follow in Thor’s footsteps as the new hero on Earth.
With that said, there have been more Thors than that in the comics, while there was only one until now in the Thor movies. Eric Masterson merged with Thor and they shared a body until he later became his own hero in Thunderstrike. Throg was a frog version of Thor with his own tiny hammer. Storm even served as Thor at one time in the comics.
Thor Had A Secret Identity In The Comics
There was a scene in the first Thor movie that had him see the name, Donald Blake. That was an Easter Egg and was the only time that the Thor movies ever referenced Blake. However, in the comics, Donald Blake was Thor’s secret identity. He was a doctor who walked with a limp and a cane, but when he struck the cane on the ground, he would become Thor.
Later it was learned that Odin created Blake as a fake persona and he and Thor would simply switch places in another realm when the other was active. Thor stopped using Blake’s persona, leaving the doctor in the other realm for years.
Thor Was Powerless Without Mjolnir
There was also a major disadvantage that Thor had in the comics that he never had in the Thor movies. Since Thor had a secret identity as Donald Blake, he was tied to the one item that allowed them to change places. This was Mjolnir, and Thor had to keep his grasp on the weapon at all times.
If Thor didn’t have the hammer in his hands for a certain amount of time, he would turn back into Donald Blake. Thor was also unable to do much without Mjolnir in the comics, as that supplied his power.
Thor Is More Powerful In The Comics
While Thor was unable to remain in his superhero form without Mjolnir, at the end of the day, he was much more powerful in the comics. In the Thor movies, he needed to pull into himself to retrieve the power Odin hinted he had in order to match up to Hulk’s power in Thor: Ragnarok.
While Hulk and Thor are a more even match in the comics, Thor is one of the most powerful heroes in the universe. He was kept out of the Civil War storyline in comics because of his power. He has single-handedly defeated Galactus in the comics, making him infinitely more powerful than his movie depiction.
Thor Was Not Funny In The Comics
The one big thing that Thor has going for him now in the movies is that he is funny. He walks a thin line between being goofy and dumb and being self-referentially aware of himself. In both ways, there are plenty of laughs in Thor’s appearances in the MCU and much of it comes from him.
However, Thor is deadly serious in the comic books. He is a loyal and dedicated hero who would die to protect his friends and allies. However, he is also someone who takes this role seriously and he refuses to join in with other heroes who are cracking jokes, remaining a stoic god among men.
Thor Had Lots Of Girlfriends In The Comics
In the Thor movies, he had a girlfriend on Earth, Jane Foster. The two seemed to break up and that was it for him. He did, at one time, seem like a good fit to date Sif, but that never happened and isn’t likely to happen in the future. In the MCU, Thor seems to be a permanent bachelor.
In the comics, Thor got around a bit. He was with Jane Foster for a long time, but that ended and the two remain just friends. In more recent comics, he dated She-Hulk most recently, and there have been plenty of women in his past.
Hela Was Not Thor’s Sister In The Comics
In Thor: Ragnarok, Hela showed up after Odin died and revealed that she was Thor’s older sister and the true new ruler of Asgard. Hela then became a powerful Thor villain, killing countless Asgardians, and it took all Thor, Loki, Valkyrie, and Hulk had to beat his older sister. Hela is not related to Thor in the comics.
In the comics, Hela is Loki’s daughter with a sorceress giant named Angerboda. This makes her, at best, Thor’s adopted niece. She also served as the ruler of the underworld of Hel in the comics, giving her a very different origin story than the Thor movies.
Thor Had Another Brother In The Comics
Instead of having a sister in the comics, Thor had another brother, one that never appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This brother was Balder the Brave. His history was unique, as the story of Ragnarok prophesized that Balder’s death would set the end of times into motion.
This was very different than the Ragnarok that played out in the MCU movies. Balder played many roles in the comics, from serving as King of Asgard to dying and setting off Ragnarok and then returning to help battle in the War of the Realms.
Thor Is Smarter In The Comics
In the Thor movies, he is not the smartest man. He is often shown as dimwitted and he often needs things explained to him. He is the brunt of jokes and has gotten to the point where he will make fun of himself in a self-deprecating manner.
This is nothing like Thor in the comics. While Thor had his fish-out-of-water moments on Earth, he is one of the greatest of the Avengers and is a very smart and intelligent warrior. He stands strong with men like Iron Man and Captain America.
Thor Has Been The King Of Asgard In The Comics
In Avengers: Endgame, Thor chose not to lead Asgard. At one point in the MCU, he looked forward to the time that he would take on more responsibility. However, when Odin died, he seemed to lose interest in anything but protecting his people. In the end, he left Valkyrie, one of Thor’s best supporting characters, in charge of his people.
In the comics, that is very far from the truth. Thor is now the King of Asgard and has served in this role before. He has pushed his friends aside in order to take on this role and he has become a serious and determined ruler of his homeland.
Thor Is A Real God In The Comics
In the Thor movies, there are no gods. There are only humans and aliens and the gods of Asgard are simply aliens who live in another world. The Nine Realms are also simply alien worlds, albeit connected to Earth through the Bifrost. In the comics, Thor is the Asgardian God of Thunder.
He is not an alien, but one of the ancient gods that people on Earth worshipped for as long as anyone can remember. Thor is well over 1,000 years old, and he might even be older, as he has operated on Earth in one form or another for most of human history.
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