The time period of November 1961 until November of 1962 may be one of the most creatively fertile in comic's history. The first issue of the Fantastic Four appeared with a cover date of November 1961. Two months later in January 1962, Ant-Man begins to take shape in Tales to Astonish #27. May of '62 finds Sub-Mariner back in action (over in Fantastic Four #4) for the first time in years. The following issue (Fantastic Four #5) introduces Doctor Doom to the world. May finds Dr. Bruce Banner dealing with exposure to massive radiation by becoming larger and very grey. In August, Peter Parker is bit by a spider and can suddenly crawl up walls.
That very same month August, 1962, the Norse God of Thunder Thor debuts in Journey into Mystery #83.This summer Thor takes center stage as he follows Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and Iron Man into theaters around the world.
This is a tremendous run of major characters all being introduced in a very short time span. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were operating at a breakneck pace in terms of creating memorable characters. Considering that Iron Man shows up about nine months later, the high level of memorable characters being created and introduced is amazing. And this was being done without any real firm indication as to whether the books were really selling or not. So Lee and company were swinging for the fence each time and not sure where the ball was landing. They just kept going. This was a real leap of faith on both the part of the creative teams and the publisher.
During the early sixties most publishers had to wait months to see if their characters were popular with fans. Recalling the 1956 introduction of the Silver Age Flash in his 2000 autobiography Man of Two Worlds, Julie Schwartz said "...it usually took three to five months to get an indication of how a given issue's sales were because back than all of your distribution was through newsstand." It is also important to remember that at the time, Marvel was still being distributed by DC due to a deal they had made during the Atlas years in the fifties. And that deal was restrictive. Marvel had to introduce these characters in titles that were already out there. So the odds are really stacked against Marvel and Company.
Reduced to their simplest concepts, many of these characters from the beginning of Marvel's Silver Age were rooted in the science-crazy mindset of the early sixties. The Fantastic Four went into space and came back changed. The Hulk experienced an Atom bomb and came back changed. In his first story Ant Man was a scientist who was trying to shrink himself. He became a hero later. And Spider-Man was a high school science nerd who was bit by a radioactive spider. In short, all of these concepts were rooted in science.
Which brings us to the main question: How does a thousand year old Norse God of Thunder wake up in the body of a disabled doctor named Donald Blake? Where is the science? How did the string of science-related heroes suddenly veer into Norse Mythology?
The answer is simple. Stan Lee felt that he needed to make the next character he created stronger than The Hulk. Since The Hulk was essentially a human, Lee figured that the only way to top this was to move into the world of god-hood.
As he wrote in his 2002 autobiography Excelsior!: The Amazing Life of Stan Lee, "How 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"
But the origin of Thor wasn't completely based in ancient mythology. Given the nature of the time of his first appearance, science fiction elements had to show up somewhere in his origin story. Doctor Donald Blake was vacationing in Norway when he witnessed an alien landing! Having just finished medical school Blake certainly didn't want to die at the hands of aliens so he takes of running and finds a nearby cave.
Inside that cave was Thor's Hammer, Mjolnir. This amazing artifact was disguised so that when Blake strikes it against a rock he is in for the surprise of his life. The hammer had been hidden in an altered form so that Thor's Father, Odin, could teach his long haired boy a few things about humility and humanity.
The duality of Thor's god-hood and Donald Blake's humanity (coupled with is physical disability), is one of the most interesting concepts of the series. Compare this with a similar idea in Superman. In Superman, the god-like status in heavily implied by virtue of his incredible powers. Even in his civilian guise as Clark Kent, Superman is still one prime package for the ladies. While Clark Kent's attractiveness is seldom a story line, he's still physically Superman with glasses. Dr Blake, well he has his degree and occupation but when he goes into a disco the women aren't exactly falling over him.
Basing the series inside a mythological world opened up a range of possibilities for Marvel. A scant two issues after his introduction in Journey into Mystery #83, Thor's step-brother Loki shows up in #85. In addition to immediately becoming Thor's number one villain, he also helps introduce other villains such as The Absorbing Man and The Destroyer who will both go on to plague Thor until the present day.
In these first few years Thor's history grows quickly. We learn of his actual home in Asgard. We meet his father Odin and learn that his mother is Gaea, an Elder Goddess. The series is never more than a page away from its roots in actual mythology. Hercules becomes Thor's close friend and near the end of the decade Thor escapes death at the hands of the Goddess of Death, Hela (Who is based on the actual Norse myth of the Goddess Hel.)
Outside of his own series, Thor develops even further as a character due to his membership as an Avenger. It is this relationship that feeds his growing love of being on Earth and his own Humanity. It also contributes to his own impression of himself as a superhero instead of a god. An impression that has gone through some changes over the decades.
While the character is one of the most popular characters in the Marvel Universe, It is the membership in The Avengers that has helped bring Thor to the silver screen. As Marvel made clear at the end of the first Iron Man film, they are planning films far into the future.
Comics heroes, just like traditional mythology, grow and change as each story teller tells their own version. The writers and artists who have worked on the character are among the best in comic history. In the 1970 Neal Adams briefly added his stamp on the story line, but the decade mostly featured the style of John Buscema who drew the book from late 1970 until 1978 with very few interruptions. In 1983 Walter Simonson introduced Beta Ray Bill to the mythology and added an entire new dimension to Thor's life in print. Simonson stayed on with the title as either artist/writer or just writer until 1986.
As Thor entered 2000 he became ruler of Asgard following his father's death. But, like almost all of comics, we all know that time lines, concepts and stories are easily explained and rationalized away. No matter what happens to him Thor, Thor has proven himself to be indestructible in comic shops and on newsstands around the world.
The film opens May 6, 2001 everywhere. Judging from fan anticipation as well as the trailer shown during The Super Bowl (and now available on line everywhere), Thor, Mjolnir, Director Kenneth Branagh, Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hokins and Natalie Portman may just knock them dead at the box office.