I love the Thor forums. There are enough threads here that indicate to me that fans of the character are very passionate about him. I also notice a lot around here seem to share Stan Lee's original vision of the character of Thor as a "Superman killer", meaning, Stan Lee created the character of Thor (borrowing from Norse mythology) because he wanted "a cape" at Marvel comics and somenone who could actually, not only outdo all the characters that had, at that point in time, become hits (Fantastic Four, Hulk...), but become Marvel's one-up to DC's Superman.

However, Marvel no longer seems to share that vision. Thor's power levels, particularly the decade beginning 2000 (Quesada's era), seem to be up and down, and Marvel could care less whether or not Thor gets punked in an Inter-Company crossover (Jim Shooter - where are you when we need you man!).

So...who here thinks the character Thor would best be served somewhere else? Image? Dark Horse? I would be willing to bet someone at one of those two companies would LOVE to have the extra money Thor fans could afford them, and would have no reservations about writing the Thunder God to his potential. Heck, maybe someone could hire Todd McFarlane to inject new life, and a new direction, into the God of Thunder.

Thoughts?

It's hard (no, impossible) for me imagine Thor being produced by anyone other than Marvel. I've been reading Thor for over 40 years (yeah, I'm an old geek) and I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly from Marvel's bullpen. I understand your concern and you are probably right, another publisher could give us a far greater Thor. Why can't Marvel get their act together and do it right? With the success of the recent movie and the upcoming Avengers movie, you think Marvel would "seize the day" and take the God of Thunder to a new level.

Time will tell.

Yea, but not Marvel's Thor.

I agree with revbucky Thor's universe isn't the problem. I think the problem lies in trying to humanize a god. It shouldn't be done. It seems like gods would be slow to change so Thor going from a Happy adventurer to emotional and sad seems completely out of character.

@revbucky said:

It's hard (no, impossible) for me imagine Thor being produced by anyone other than Marvel. I've been reading Thor for over 40 years (yeah, I'm an old geek) and I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly from Marvel's bullpen. I understand your concern and you are probably right, another publisher could give us a far greater Thor. Why can't Marvel get their act together and do it right? With the success of the recent movie and the upcoming Avengers movie, you think Marvel would "seize the day" and take the God of Thunder to a new level.

Time will tell.

This.

@revbucky said:

It's hard (no, impossible) for me imagine Thor being produced by anyone other than Marvel. I've been reading Thor for over 40 years (yeah, I'm an old geek) and I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly from Marvel's bullpen. I understand your concern and you are probably right, another publisher could give us a far greater Thor. Why can't Marvel get their act together and do it right? With the success of the recent movie and the upcoming Avengers movie, you think Marvel would "seize the day" and take the God of Thunder to a new level.

Time will tell.

I hear you. Thor was one of my all time favorites back in the 70s. It is very sad for me to see Thor where he is today. On another comic site, fans of Thor, including myself, have complained, I'm guessing, to people fairly close to those who could carry those complaints to the higher ups. We were consistently trolled by one of the mods over there. I finally gave up discussing the issue. I really don't think anyone at Marvel really gives a crap what direction Thor is headed in, or whether or not there is any consistency in the way the character is portrayed. Marvel WILL not get there act together. As you know, Stan tried to design characters around a level of "suspension of disbelief". Joe Quesada ushered in the era of, "It's comics! Anything goes!!", which mantra incidentally, Matt Fraction has also adopted. Stan designed Thor to be a competitor in power to Superman. When Quesada took over...well we all know where that theory went; down the crapper. And remember; writer's and artists and editors can all be fanboys. Kurt Busiek, who is in a pretty high position over at Marvel is a huge Superman fan and has professed he is not a Thor fan. See how that might be problematic to writing Thor the way Stan intended him? It will not happen as long as the character remains at Marvel. And yeah, you would think that Marvel would be riding the crest of popularity the character is currently enjoying. Again, people at all levels are fans of characters. Mark my words; as long as Thor remains at Marvel comics, the character will never be portrayed by Marvel as Stan Lee intended the character to be.

And by the way; prepare for disappointment if you think Marvel will portray Thor accurately in the Avengers movie. Thor was always "depowered" in the Avengers comic. Expect the same in the movie. It is irritating though when my kids or wife watches, like the "Hulk vs" DVD, where Wolverine actually makes a better showing than Thor. I feel the need to educate (and have) whenever I see baloney like that.

Thor is already the best in my heart :), i don't need a new company to write him to make me think he is better than superman!......

@Malevolent1 said:

It is irritating though when my kids or wife watches, like the "Hulk vs" DVD, where Wolverine actually makes a better showing than Thor. I feel the need to educate (and have) whenever I see baloney like that.

Yes! Yes! A thousand times; Yes!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Absolutely not. Thor is who and what he is today because of Marvel. Giving him to another company would change the very purpose of the character.

No, but I feel your pain about he avengers thing. If they fight in the movie and iron man wins, I might end up standing up in the theater and yelling...

@Malevolent1 said:

And by the way; prepare for disappointment if you think Marvel will portray Thor accurately in the Avengers movie. Thor was always "depowered" in the Avengers comic. Expect the same in the movie. It is irritating though when my kids or wife watches, like the "Hulk vs" DVD, where Wolverine actually makes a better showing than Thor. I feel the need to educate (and have) whenever I see baloney like that.

PIS. Craig Kyle and Craig Johnson want to make Thor look weak.

Mmmm....as does Kurt Busiek evidently.

*sigh*

My Europenan connection on CBR has said Thor has some of the best feats in the Avengers movie and that was not upstaged by Iron Man or Hulk. I'm assuming by now, everyone knows who the villain is in Avengers 2?

thor has made it big for marvel. i don't think any other company would make thor as valuable as marvel has, not including marvels crap to THOR in recent years.

I just think maybe marvel should hire a new writer (potentially poach from another company) to write Thor, but he is Marvel.