| THOR | BIOGRAPHY |
PERSONAL DATA
Aliases: Tor; Thorr; Donner; Donar; Thunor
Identity: The general public believes Thor to be a figment of myth
Occupation: Norse god of thunder
Status: Active
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Sif (wife); Odin (father); Baldur (brother, deceased)
Base of Operation: Asgard
Group Affiliation(s): Aesir (benevolent Norse Gods)
Gender: Male
Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red
First Appearance: ?
| "I am the mighty Thor!" - Thor Quote taken from Sandman Vol. 2 #24 (March 1991) |
OVERVIEW
Thor is one of the greatest of the Aesir, the Gods of Norse mythology. The red-bearded Thunder God is not very active in these days, but has encountered Dream the Sandman and the New Gods, as well as the JSA, the All-Star Squadron, and the JLI. He has a magic hammer called Mjolnir. If he rubs it, it gets bigger.
HISTORY
Thor is the Norse god of thunder and the greatest champion of Asgard. Although hot-tempered and somewhat borish, Thor is always prepared to defend his home and his worshippers. Unfortunately, he has also proven easy to deceive and manipulate, as both legends and history can tell.
Thor was worshipped as the god of thunder, lightning, storms, strength, destruction, and the protector of mankind by the tribes of ancient Germania and Scandinavia. Worship of Thor was at an all-time high during the Viking era, when his name was carried to far-away lands through Viking conquest, trade and raiding. With the advent of Christianity around 1,000 A.D., worship of Thor waned, although his popular standing among the general populace guaranteed his some measure of adoration. His symbol, the Hammer of Thor, is deceptively similar to the Christian cross and was used by some as a sort of "double insurance". His name lives on in the name of the weekday "Thursday" (in German "Donnerstag", in Swedish "Torsdag").
In his prime, Thor was the defender of Asgard and Midgard, the slayer of giants and monsters. He shared several adventures and a friendship with the trickster god Loki, although unbeknownst to Thor, Loki had an affair with Thor's wife Sif behind his back. Eventually, the friendship turned sour when Loki revealed his true colors and instigated the killing of Baldur, god of light. Along with the other gods, Thor fettered Loki in the underworld underneath a venom-dripping snake around 1,200 years ago.
For the next few centuries, Thor did not meddle in the affairs of mortals and slowly he was relegated to the fairytales and folklore in the minds of humans. But the gods were not forgotten. In modern times, sinister forces were able to summon and use the Norse gods to their own purposes. In 1942, Thor (and other Norse deities such as the Valkyries) was summoned and mindcontrolled by Adolf Hitler. This was accomplished through the magic of the Spear of Destiny. Hitler had Thor try to kidnap the leaders of the Allied forces, but he was twarthed by the Justice Society of America.
Thor was also seen escorting his father Odin and a newly released Loki to the Dreaming when a number of supernatural beings were bidding for the keys to Hell. Thor got drunk and bothered the ladies.
During the so-called "War of the Gods", Thor, Loki and a temporarily resurrected Baldur came under the control of the sorceress Circe. Together, they turned the people of a hidden Viking city in Norway into wood and fought the Justice League International.
Even more recently, Thor freed Odin from imprisonment on the Source Wall and fought alongside the New Gods of New Genesis against Darkseid.
When the demon race known as the Vgrtsmyth invaded Asgard in vast numbers, Thor recruited Wonder Woman and Superman from Earth to aid the gods in the battle. When Thor fell in battle, he bestowed his hammer Mjolnir upon Superman before slipping into a healing sleep that would eventually resurrect him. The battle lasted a thousand years, as time is counted in Asgard, before Superman and Wonder Woman led the forces of Asgard to victory and banished the Vgrtsmyth to another dimension. Thor rose again and helped send Wonder Woman and Superman back home again.
Thor would next encounter Wonder Woman when she freed him and the other Norse gods from the stasis they had been put into by the Shattered God.
POWERS AND WEAPONS
Thor is physically one of the strongest of the Norse gods, but also hot-tempered and obnoxious. He has special powers over over thunder and lightning. His weapon is the hammer Mjolnir, which is can shift in size for easy transportation.
Thor thunders across the sky a chariot pulled by two goats, Tanngnost and Tangrisni.
CHRONOLOGY
For a definitive list of appearances of Thor in chronological order click here