Thor in comics

Did You Know?

• In America's Best Comics' Top 10, Thor appears as Þunor, a belligerent, red-bearded, balding man who is swiftly taken down by Smax after refusing to cooperate.
• Peter Madsen's Danish series Valhalla (1978) portrays Thor as an honest, red-bearded, muscular god with human weaknesses, and his children Thrud, Modi, and Magni appear in the series.

Marvel Comics

Thor Odinson, also called the Mighty Thor, is a Marvel Comics hero drawn from the Norse god of thunder. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Larry Lieber brought him to life, with his debut in Journey into Mystery #83 in 1962. Sent by his father Odin, he poses as Dr. Donald Blake, an American doctor with a limp. Tapping his walking stick on the ground turns it into the hammer Mjolnir and transforms him into Thor. A founding Avenger, he frequently clashes with his scheming adopted brother Loki. Other characters, like Jane Foster, have also wielded the Thor identity. In film, Chris Hemsworth has played him since 2011's Thor, appearing in multiple movies including The Avengers and Thor: Love and Thunder.

DC Comics

Jack Kirby created a Thor story in Tales of the Unexpected #16, where a cowboy finds Thor's hammer in the American desert and uses it for his own gain until Thor reclaims it. This version predates the Marvel character and has minor similarities such as the design of Mjolnir and circles on Thor's chest. Thor appears in the first issues of Jack Kirby's Fourth World by John Byrne, with red hair, a beard, and a brutish personality; he and the Asgard gods are related to the Old Gods, later clarified as echoes of them. In Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, Thor appears in "Seasons of Mists" as a lewd drunk who tries to get the key of Hell, and later helps Odin capture Loki in "Kindly Ones". In another story, Wonder Woman and Superman travel to Valhalla and help Thor in a war for a thousand years.

Willy Vandersteen group (Flemish)

Flemish comic artist Willy Vandersteen began three series featuring Thor. His first published newspaper comic, "Tor de Holbewoner" (1941), featured a caveman named Tor, later renamed Thor. In "De Rode Ridder" series, Thor appears in #45 (The Hammer of Thor, 1970) and #63 (The Valkyrie, 1974), by Karel Biddeloo, as a country boy with enormous powers bound by responsibility to avoid Ragnarok. In the Suske en Wiske series, Thor appears in #158 by Paul Geerts as a cruel, grey-bearded, balding god who thunders and lightnings with his hammer without throwing it.

Other uses of Thor in comics

Thor shows up now and then in the Karl Vincent: Vampire Hunter series from KRG comics. Over at Fox Feature Syndicate's Weird Comics, two different Thors appeared. First came Grant Ferrell, a regular guy who got lightning powers and Mjolnir from the actual Norse god, lasting five issues. Then issue six swapped him for Peter "Dynamite" Thor, a demolition expert who couldn't be hurt by explosions and flew using dynamite; he fought spies and mad scientists in Weird Comics #6-7 and later in Blue Beetle #6-8. David Brin's The Life Eaters includes Thor and other Norse gods. The 1987 series Thôrr-Sverd: The Sword of Thor #1-3 flipped the script, suggesting giants were the good guys and gods the villains. Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon features a red-headed, villainous Thor, and Rob Liefeld's Youngblood also has a bad-guy Thor. Argentina's El Cazador de Aventuras ran a Ragnarok story in issues 32-34. In Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya, the antagonist Beatrice Flowerchild uses a Berserker Class Card to wield Thor's powers and hammer. Disney comics feature Thor too, most notably in Carl Barks's Uncle Scrooge story "Mythtic Mystery" from June 1961. Other characters named Thor include a caveman in Johnny Hart's BC strip and a dog that helped the Quality Comics Manhunter.