Thor Odinson

Thor is the blood-son of Odin, All-Father of the Asgardians, and Jord, who was also known as Gaea, the goddess who was one of the Elder Gods. Odin sought to father a son whose power would derive from both Asgard and Midgard (as the Earth realm is called by Asgardians), and hence he sought to mate with Jord. Odin created a cave in Norway where Jord gave birth to Thor. Months after the infant Thor was weaned, Odin brought him to Asgard to be raised. Odin's wife, the goddess Frigga, acted as Thor's mother from that time onward. Not until many decades later did Thor learn that Jord was his birth mother.

The young Thor was raised alongside Loki, who had been adopted by Odin after Loki's Frost Giant father Laufey had been killed in battle. For all of their childhood, Loki was jealous of Thor. Loki's jealousy, which grew to hatred, resulted in a desire to kill Thor. Thus began Loki's enmity for Thor, which persisted for many centuries.

MJOLNIR

For example, when Thor was eight, Odin sent him to Nidavellir, the land of the Dwarves, to bid the dwarf lords Brokk and Eitri to create three treasures for Asgard's ruler. Among the three treasures that Brokk and Eitri created was the Uru hammer Mjolnir. 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 Mjolnir for Thor, who would receive it on the day that great deeds of selfless valor had proved him worthy of its power. For years, Thor strove to become physically strong enough to wield the hammer, and was responsible for many heroic deeds. Finally, when Thor was sixteen, Odin sent him and his friends Balder and Sif on a quest to teach him what was truly required to wield Mjolnir which was a pure heart. Thor became Asgard's greatest warrior. 

LADY SIF

Before Thor was twenty, he had fallen in love with the goddess Lady Sif. In fact, when Sif had been kidnapped by Storm Giants and ended up as a prisoner of Hela, Thor offered his own life in exchange for Sif's freedom. The goddess of death was so impressed by the young Thunder God's nobility that she let both of them go. The romance between Sif and Thor waxed and waned over the centuries.

9TH CENTURY AD

Sometime in the 9th Century AD, Thor traveled to Earth to promote his worship among the Vikings. Both the Norsemen and the Germans, who called him Donner ("Thunder"), came to worship Thor and other Asgardians. Thor actively encouraged the adulation of his Viking worshipers for years, and also encouraged them to find glory in battle.

When Thor discovered that his more zealous Viking worshipers had slaughtered the inhabitants of a Christian monastery, he was shocked and ashamed that they committed atrocities in his name. Thor then withdrew from Earthly activities altogether, and the active worship of the gods of Asgard effectively ended. For centuries, the only memory that man would have of the Asgardians would be through myths and legends.

In the year 893, Thor discovered the corpse of a Native American god washed up on the shores of Scandinavia, coming into conflict with a deicidal alien called Gorr the God Butcher. Attacked by Gorr, Thor wounded him with a thunderbolt and tracked him to a cave near Lake Ladoga, Russia. Gorr captured Thor and tortured him for seventeen days, but Thor's worshipers tracked them down and rescued him - enabling Thor to sever one of Gorr's arms and seemingly kill him. Some time later, Thor was attacked by monsters made of living darkness - minions of Gorr - who dragged him through time to the distant future. Enslaved on the Black World of Gorr, Thor encountered his future granddaughters and attempted to aid their rebellion against Gorr. Rescued by Thor the Avenger - his future self from the 21st century - and All-Father Thor from the distant future, Thor helped them vanquish Gorr and would have claimed Gorr's weapon - the primordial symbiote All-Black - for himself, but was stopped by All-Father Thor.

Sometime later, Thor was taken to the future again to help his future selves fight against the dark elf warlord Malekith, finally proving himself worthy of Mjolnir in the process.

11TH CENTURY AD

During the 11th Century AD, Thor faced off with the Celestial-powered being called Apocalypse. Seeking revenge, Thor blessed Jarnbjorn with his own blood to imbue it with the power to pierce Celestial armor.

At some point during this century, Thor - wielding Mjolnir and Jarnbjorn together - became a member of a team of Avengers that consisted of Nehanda the Black Panther, Hellhawk the Ghost Rider, Bodolf the Black, an Atlantean princess bearing the Iron Fist, an elderly woman indwelled by the Phoenix Force, and Tanaraq of the Great Beasts.

MODERN AGE

Thor led an active, adventurous life in Asgard, doing battle with Frost Giants and other enemies of the Golden Realm. Odin watched Thor become more and more arrogant and banished him to Midgard several times to learn humility. Over the years, 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 another war. Finally, while Thor was engaged in a brawl in an Asgardian tavern, Odin summoned him to his presence.

Odin decided that it was time Thor learned humility. Odin had Thor surrender his hammer to him and then sent him to Earth in the mortal guise of a crippled young medical student named Donald Blake, stripped of his memory of his true identity. As Blake, Thor learned the value of humble perseverance in dealing with his injured leg, and he came to care for the sick and dying, first as a medical student, and later as a successful physician. After leaving medical school, Blake opened a private practice in New York, and quickly gained renown as a great surgeon.

After Thor had spent ten years in the role of Blake, Odin planted within Blake's mind the suggestion to take a vacation in Norway. There Blake encountered a party of alien Kronans, also known as the Stone Men from Saturn. Blake fled from the Kronans into a cavern, the very same one that had served as Thor's birthplace millennia ago, where Odin had left Thor's hammer in the enchanted form of a wooden cane. Trapped in the cavern by a great boulder, Blake struck the boulder with the cane in frustrated anger and was transformed back into his true godly form of 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 of 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 Earth and Asgard, and does so to this day.

For years, Thor was in love with a mortal named Jane Foster who worked as a nurse for Blake. Odin disapproved of his romance and refused several requests by Thor to make her immortal, going so far as to allow Loki to set the Enchantress on Thor to drive a wedge between the couple. Odin even traveled to Earth to end their relationship.

When Thor decided to reveal his secret identity as Donald Blake to her, Odin temporarily removed his powers. Eventually the romance between Thor and Foster came to an end on its own, and Thor renewed his relationship with Sif, though that relationship has suffered strains in recent years.

FOUNDING THE AVENGERS

When Loki's manipulations forced several of Earth's mightiest heroes to band together to stop the Hulk, Thor became a founding member of the superhuman champions known as the Avengers. He continues to serve with the team while also working with other super-heroes, like Doctor Strange (whom he also operated on as Donald Blake). He has, however, left the team several times for extended leaves of absence.

BETA RAY BILL

Sometime later, a cybernetically-enhanced alien known as Beta Ray Bill arrived on Earth and proved worthy of lifting Mjolnir. Odin created a new hammer for Bill and transferred the enchantment that enabled Thor to change into mortal form to Bill's hammer. This allowed Bill to assume his pre-enhanced form but also removed the Blake persona from existence. With the aid of Nick Fury, Public Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Thor adopted a new "secret identity", that of a construction worker, Sigurd Jarlson. Thor did not actually become mortal in his Jarlson identity; he simply dressed as a contemporary human and wore glasses.

DECLINING RULERSHIP

Thor grew a beard to conceal the terrible scars left on his face due to wounds inflicted by the Asgardian death goddess Hela. Hela later healed the scars on his face and Thor shaved himself smooth again. After Odin disappeared during his battle with Surtur, the people of Asgard wished to make Thor, Odin's designated heir, their new ruler. Unwilling to give up his guardianship of Earth or his life of adventure, at least not yet, Thor declined the offer and instead nominated Balder the Brave to be Asgard's ruler. Balder ruled until Odin returned and reclaimed the throne.

ERIC MASTERSON

For a time, Thor was merged with the human Eric Masterson, an architect who first met Thor as Jarlson. The two 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 the thunder god's power to continue in the role of Thor. Eventually, after Loki reappeared, Eric was able to find Thor, who had been hidden within Eric's own sub consciousness, 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 after battling the Egyptian death god Seth. Thor grieved for Eric, who had become a close friend on Midgard.

IDENTITY CRISIS

Odin and Thor eventually learned that the constant shift of identity and sharing of power Odin had encouraged had driven Thor insane, marked by the appearance of a Valkyrie who was a manifestation of Thor's insanity. With the assistance of the Infinity Watch, Thanos, and Doctor Strange, Thor regained his sanity and Odin came to realize the error he had made.

SECRET INVASION

During the Skrull invasion, the Skrulls pulled Beta Ray Bill out of the limbo he had been trapped within, and enabled a Super-Skrull to wield his mystic hammer Stormbreaker. Balder and Beta Ray Bill commanded the gods against the Skrull troops. Thor arrived, retrieved Stormbreaker, and collapsed all of Asgard itself on top of the Skrull. Thor flew to New York and joined with the gathered forces of nearly a hundred other superheroes to repel the Skrull attack. There, Thor was forced to sacrifice a fellow Avenger, the Wasp, when the Skrulls turned her into a last-resort biological weapon that would have destroyed the planet.

THE SIEGE OF ASGARD

During the Siege of Asgard, Thor rushed to the aid of Asgard against Norman Osborn and his invading Dark Avengers. Osborn ordered the Sentry to destroy Asgard before the horrified eyes of Thor. The Sentry, then fully possessed by the Void, proceeded to pummel the heroes until Loki used the Norn Stones to empower them. Realizing that the heroes' power was coming from Loki, the Void attacked him. Loki's attempts to defend himself were unsuccessful, and he apologized to Thor before dying. Spurred on by unabridged rage, Thor and the others attacked the Void, but to no avail until Tony Stark rammed a H.A.M.M.E.R Helicarrier into their opponent at full speed, turning Void into his human form of Rob Reynolds, who begged Thor to kill him. Thor refused, saying that he would pay for his crimes in prison, and prepared to arrest him, but Robert unwillingly transformed back into the Void. Left with no other choice, Thor struck the Void with a lightning blast, leaving nothing but a charred skeleton behind. Thor then wrapped his own cape around Sentry's corpse and disposed of it by throwing it into the sun. Balder lifted Thor's exile and appointed Thor as his adviser.

FEAR ITSELF

Sometime after, Sin lifted a strange hammer in Antarctica and was transformed into Skadi. She then freed the enigmatic Serpent, who claimed to be the true All-Father of Asgard. Sensing this, Odin retreated from Midgard. Thor objected and so was beaten into submission by Odin. Odin recreated Asgard as a war world, intending to raze Midgard and defeat the Serpent once more. After escaping with Loki's help, Thor was banished back to Midgard, though not before having Mjolnir returned to him (as Odin had taken the hammer from him the moment he was beaten). After a short reunion with the Avengers he set off to Antarctica, where the Serpent had recreated his dread citadel, he confronted the Serpent but was sent to New York, where he encountered Nul and Angrir, two of the Serpent's Worthy. He managed to defeat Angrir by impaling his body with Mjolnir. Enraged by the fact that he had to hurt the Thing so badly, he attacked Nul with intense fury, and after stating that there was no way to defeat his opponent, simply removed Nul from the battle by blasting him into the upper atmosphere. He collapsed shortly after. The Avengers carried him to Asgard, where he was healed and given the Odinsword, called Ragnarok, to slay the Serpent. Arriving in Broxton, he was able to kill the Serpent, who took the form of a giant snake, but died as well, fulfilling the prophecy.

THE MIGHTY TANARUS

Thor's corpse was buried in Asgard. As his body burned, a shape was suddenly seen within the fire, and from the flames Tanarus was born, the loud-mouthed, boisterous God of Thunder, both new hero and longtime Avenger. Welcomed by his teammates, only Loki seemed to notice that Tanarus had not always been around. At the same time, Thor's spirit awoke and Donald Blake was separated from him somehow. He found himself on a God Ark, facing the god-eating monster Demogorge. Loki was not affected by the spell which changed everybody's memories, and he tried to find a way to resurrect Thor, asking for the Silver Surfer's help and contacting Blake. Taking his cane, he turned it back into Mjolnir, which returned to Thor, and restored everyone's memories of him. He was able to escape from the afterlife and fight for (the now called) Asgardia from an invasion of trolls and to unmask Tanarus as a transformed Ulik.

GORR, THE GOD BUTCHER

After discovering the corpses of long-lost gods, Thor realized that Gorr the God Butcher was still alive and began hunting him. During his quest to stop Gorr from killing every god, Thor found himself in a distant future, where he encountered his older-self. With the help of this future-self and a past-self Gorr had enslaved, Thor managed to stop Gorr from activating a bomb which would've killed every god across every time and space.

Not long afterwards, Thor learned that his old love Jane Foster had cancer. He additionally confronted a returning Malekith, who had set out to kill every Dark Elf who wouldn't follow him. The Odinson found himself pitted against Roxxon in a confrontation which left the city of Broxton in ruins. While the rest of the Asgardians left Earth, Thor remained and moved his entire castle from Asgardia to Broxton so the residents of the town had a place to live.

ORIGINAL SIN

After finding the corpse of The Watcher on the Moon, Thor rallied his fellow heroes to investigate the murder. When they were all exposed to the secrets contained within Uatu's eyeballs, Thor learned the existence of a secret Tenth Realm, which had been at war with Asgard eons ago. Here, his secret long-lost sister resided. Thor interrupted the investigation of Uatu's death to explore this Tenth Realm with Loki's help, resulting in Odin's return from self-exile to recognize his daughter, Angela, and to stop the conflict sparked by Thor and Loki's arrival. During a subsequent confrontation against Uatu's killer, Nick Fury, Thor was incapacitated when Fury used the knowledge he had gained from the Watcher to confirm Odinson's hidden and hesitant belief that Gorr the God-Butcher was right about the gods being selfish and not caring about mortals. This caused Thor to lose his confidence about his godhood and consequently his ability to wield Mjolnir.

UNWORTHY THOR

Thor fell into despair by the loss of his worthiness. He additionally lost his arm to Malekith in battle, and it was replaced with a black Uru prosthesis arm. Mjolnir ended in the hands of Jane Foster, and she became the new mysterious wielder of Thor's weapon. Thor initially came into conflict against Jane until he bitterly accepted that the hammer was no longer his. Believing himself unworthy of his own name, Thor passed it to his successor as if it was a mantle, and decided to go only by Odinson. When he attempted to investigate the landing of the Mjolnir of a dead universe on the ruins of Old Asgard, Odinson was captured by the Collector. He spent in captivity for months until he finally managed to escape with Beta Ray Bill's help. With the hammer, finally within his grasp, Odinson decided to leave it alone, having come to terms with the loss of his original weapon.

SECRET EMPIRE

During the events of the Secret Empire, Odinson is recruited by an alternate Steve Rogers into joining Hydra's Avengers, having been promised a chance to save Jane, as well as restoring Midgard's connection to Asgardia. However, Odinson eventually becomes disillusioned by Hydra's methods and allows for the Undergound to escape during the Avengers' attack on The Mount. Ultimately, Odinson defects from Hydra's Avengers during the attack on Washington, D.C., aiding the Underground in their efforts to defeat Hydra and restore the United States to normal.

THE DEATH OF JANE FOSTER, THE MIGHTY THOR

Odinson returned to Asgardia not long afterwards, and Jane confessed to him that she was the new Thor. When Jane's human form started succumbing to her cancer, Odinson convinced her to let go of Mjolnir to receive treatment, since everytime she transformed into Thor, any progress from chemotherapy became lost when she returned to her human form. Unfortunately, the Mangog resurfaced and attacked Asgardia. Odinson stood by his father's side but they failed to stop the creature. Odinson assisted Thor in fighting the monster while his people evacuated Asgardia. In order to put an end to the Mangog, Thor fastened it to the hammer with an unbreakable chain and hurled them into the Sun. Since this action resulted in Mjolnir's destruction, Jane returned to her frail human form and passed away due to her cancer. Unwilling to let her go, Odinson attempted to channel the God Tempest to use its power to revive her. Odin joined his endeavor since he had seen hesitation within Jane's own soul at the gates of Valhalla, and they were successful in bringing her back. With the destruction of Mjolnir and her inability to continue as Thor, Jane convinced Odinson to rise up and reclaim his name and identity.

WAR OF THE REALMS

In preparation to take over the last realm standing in the War of the Realms, Malekith trapped Thor in Jotunheim before mobilizing his troops to Midgard. Earth's heroes mounted a counter-offensive, and as part of their efforts, Freyja sent a team of heroes to retrieve Thor from the Land of the Giants. Once back in Midgard, Thor led the final effeorts to fend off the invading forces while trying to find Malekith, who had kidnapped Freyja and Odin.

Malekith challenged Thor to fight him at Stonehenge, where he had erected a magic barrier that would kill his parents if anybody other than Thor passed through. In order to find a way to overcome Malekith's challege, Thor nailed himself to Yggdrasil, which had taken root in the Sun. After sacrificing his left eye and the last shards of Mjolnir in his possession, Thor figured to recruit his older and younger self with whom he had defeated Gorr the God-Butcher. They were joined by Jane Foster, temporarily returned to her Thor form by the reconstituted hammer of the War Thor. During battle against Malekith, who had empoered himself with the Venom symbiote, the God Tempest manifested in the Sun, and Thor commanded it from Earth to reforge Mjolnir. The hammer then made landfall in front of Thor and he managed to lift it, having become worthy again after coming to the realization that his struggle to become worthy in itself was what made him worthy. Thor used his returned hammer to deliver the final blow that defeated Malekith. For proving instrumental in defeating Malekith and saving Midgard, Odin stepped down as the Asgardians' All-Father and appointed Thor as the new All-Father.

BATTLE OF THE BLACK WINTER

A few months after his coronation, Thor began feeling dissatisfied with being the King of Asgard, missing his glory days as a hero; with both Sif and Loki taking note of his desire to shirk his duties and that Mjolnir was becoming heavier. Thor's melancholy was interrupted when a badly-injured Galactus crash-landed into Asgard. Thor initially attacked the World-Devourer, but was told that he faced a much greater threat: the coming of the Black Winter.

Gathering Galactus' former heralds, Thor was informed by the Silver Surfer that the Black Winter had destroyed the 6th iteration of the universe, and if Galactus was going to be powerful enough to oppose it, he had to consume five special planets. Thor prepared a fleet to evacuate those planets in preparation for Galactus devouring them, but was stopped by the World-Devourer telling him that the Black Winter had shown him that Thor was to be his death. Stating that he would keep a close watch over Thor from then-on, Galactus imbued him with the Power Cosmic and turned him into a Herald. Thor led Galactus to the five planets, provoking a skirmish with Beta-Ray Bill that resulted in Stormbreaker being destroyed, but when they arrived on the final planet the Black Winter attacked them. Enraged that Galactus devoured the planet without giving him time to evacuate its residents, Thor promised a reckoning after the Black Winter was dealt with.

Confronting the Black Winter, Thor was forced to confront shades of his greatest enemies but managed to drive it back; learning from the Abstract Entity that Galactus was in fact its herald and had been lying to Thor in the hopes of avoiding being forced to serve it. Furious, Thor stripped Galactus of the power he had acquired from devouring the five planets. When Galactus tried to attack him, Thor drained him of the Power Cosmic - leaving him a desiccated husk - and then used the dying Devourer of Worlds as a bomb to destroy the Black Winter.

Traumatized by a vision of his possible death at the hands of Thanos, Thor withdrew into his throne room and spent the next several months drowning his sorrows in copious amounts of alcohol, only breaking his silence when comforted by the Silver Surfer.