Avengers Assemble: Thor aka Donald Blake

Thor is exactly who you him to be, God of Thunder from from Norse mythology.  Thor first made his appearance in 1962.   The world of Marvel comics used their anthology based on science fiction/fantasy entitled Journey into the Mystery  to launch Thor; he first debuted in issue # 83.  Two of the four men created Iron Man came together to create Thor for Marvel, and they were the brilliant Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

In the book Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee he talked about the birth of Thor in congruence with the creation of Thor.  Lee wanted to combat the fact the fact that he had created Hulk who had this eternal strength.  Stan Lee stated this:

"[H]ow do you make someone stronger than the strongest person? It finally came to me: Don't make him human — make him a god. I decided readers were already pretty familiar with the Greek and Roman gods. It might be fun to delve into the old Norse legends... Besides, I pictured Norse gods looking like Vikings of old, with the flowing beards, horned helmets, and battle clubs.  ...Journey into Mystery needed a shot in the arm, so I picked Thor ... to headline the book. After writing an outline depicting the story and the characters I had in mind, I asked my brother, Larry, to write the script because I didn't have time. ...and it was only natural for me to assign the penciling to Jack Kirby.."


This is a fascinating look into the creation of Earth's most powerful heroes and his origin.  Journey into the Mystery was later re-titled Thor.  Marvel knows how the capture lightening in a bottle, and has told some great stories over the years, and while I have never been an avid Thor reader, the film got me more interested in his character.


Like within the the film Thor was sent down to Earth in the body of a human who had lost his memory.  The human name he took was Donald Blake.  Blake became a doctor and fell in love with a nurse name Jane Foster.  The basics are there in the film.  Good job Marvel!  Soon Blake used his Hammer to combat aliens and his arch nemesis and half brother Loki found him on on Earth, and the battle raged on.  Loki became the first villain the Avengers faced in the comic book, and he will be the first villain the team faces in the film.


It seems as though the film did a job with the lore and story from the comic book with Thor.  I would have like them to focus more on the world Thor comes from, Asgard, but Kenneth Branagh did a great job with this film.  Chris Hemsworth played Thor like no one else could, and he was beautifully brilliant (key word beautiful).  The real scene-stealer in the film was Tom Hiddleston who played Loki; he played Thor's jealous half brother with humor and venomous rage well.  I am excited to see Loki back on the screen in a few more days!