"There are men so godlike, so exceptional, that they naturally, by right of their extraordinary gifts, transcend all moral judgment or constitutional control. There is no law which embraces men of that calibre. They are themselves law."

Thor History


Thor first showed up in Journey into Mystery #83 in August of 1962. It was published by Marvel Comics and was themed on the Norse Mythology god of the same name. Stan Lee (editor), Larry Leiber (scripter) and Jack Kirby (penciler) worked on this comic.

After Journey into Mystery, Thor's adventures continue in The Mighty Thor, which was 13-page feature. Lee worked on plotting for this and the script was written by Larry Lieber or Robert Bernstein (used R. Berns as a pseudonym). Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Joe Sinnott, or Al Hartly did the penciling.

The Marvel version of Thor is noble and very self-assured, sometimes to the point of arrogance. Thor's father Odin decides his son needs to be taught humility and consequently places Thor (without memories of godhood) into the body and memories of an existing, partially disabled human medical student, Donald Blake.

After becoming a doctor and thoroughly believing himself to be the young surgeon Blake, he later discovers Thor's disguised hammer and learns to change back and forth into the Thunder God. The real Blake's persona remains elsewhere until many years later, after Odin becomes satisfied of Thor's humility and lifts the spell, thereby removing the need for a mortal alter ego. The mortal experience, however, shapes Thor into an honorable and courteous individual, who is loyal to all comrades.

When Kirby quit doing Thor, Neal Adams and John Buscema drew some of the issues. Then in November 1970 John Buscema started a long run as the main artist and Thor went through more changes. This was in issue #182. Buscema continued through issue #278 in December 1978.

So during the reign of John Buscema Thor was written by Len Wein, Roy Thomas, or Gerry Conway. In fact after John Buscema left Roy Thomas kept writing Thor and worked with Keith Pollard as the artist. The Mighty Thor had many changes during this time.

In November 1983 Walt Simonson became not only the writer but also the artist of The Mighty Thor with issue #337. He kept doing both until issue #367 in May 1986. After this he kept writing but only drew it occasionally through issue #382 in August 1987. Simonson was responsible for several popular characters including ones like Beta Ray Bill. The run for The Mighty Thor became very popular as well as critically acclaimed.

In the crossover of the Heroes Reborn that occurred in the 1990s Thor was taken out of the mainstream of Marvel as was other Marvel characters and relocated to an alternate universe. The Mighty Thor became Journey into Mystery again in November 1996 issue #503 which had 4 features named The Lost Gods, Master of Kung Fu, Black Widow, and Hannibal King before stopping with #521 in June 1998.

Along with some other heroes Thor was back at the Marvel Universe and Thor volume 2, which was an 85 issue series came out in July 1998 with #1. This series continued until June 2001. Thor came out with volume 3 in September 2007. This volume had J. Michael Straczynski as the writer and Olivier Coipel as the penciler.

So although Thor went through several changes and several writers, he remained a fan favorite and has appeared in animated films as well as video games. There has also been a rumor that screenwriter Mark Protosevich has been hired to write a script for a live-action Thor film.