About

Thor refers to the Marvel Comics character based on the Norse mythological god of thunder. Thor is one of the founding Avengers notably portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012) Thor: The Dark World (2013) Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).

History

Thor appears in Norse mythology as the son of Odin, living in the fictional land of Asgard. Thor originally appears as a character in the Marvel universe in the series "Journey Into Mystery" #83,^[15] which was released in August of 1962. Thor got his own self-titled comic books series in March of 1966 with the first issues titled "Whom the Gods Would Destroy!" The series continued for over 400 issues through 2009. From 2011-2012 a series titled The Mighty Thor put out 23 issues, and from 2012-2014 Thor: God of Thunder put out 25 issues. Then On May 6th, 2011, the film Thor^[9] was released, starring Chris Hemsworth as the titular Thor.

The Female Thor

On July 15th, 2014, Marvel announced^[16] on the morning talk show The View that in an upcoming comic Thor would become a woman. The same day many sites covered the news supporting the change including TIME's^[20] article "Here’s Why a Female Thor Makes Total Sense." Other sites focused on other angles to the story, like Wired's^[21] piece which explained the speed the news traveled through mainstream news sources is proof comic culture is truly mainstream and The Guardian^[22] opinion piece titled "A female Thor is good – a feminine male superhero would be better." Jason Aaron, a writer for the Thor comic book series explained exactly what a female Thor would mean, saying:

"This is not She-Thor. This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is THOR. This is the THOR of the Marvel Universe. But it’s unlike any Thor we’ve ever seen before."

Reception

The first Thor film was a critical and commercial success, earning a rating of 77% on Rotten Tomatoes^[10] and earning over 440 million dollars^[11] worldwide. Hemsworth also appeared as Thor in the 2012 Marvel film The Avengers. On November 18th, 2013, Thor: The Dark World^[12] was released. The film earned a rating of 65% on Rotten Tomatoes^[13] and earned over 640 million dollars^[14] worldwide.
Thor: Ragnarok released in 2017, was especially well-received earning 854 million dollars and earning a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[26] The film was noted for its more lighthearted and humorous tone, an experiment for the MCU.

The next installment in the Thor series, Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) received a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, and was widely interpreted as leaning into the comedic elements that had made Ragnarok a great hit. Directed by Taika Waititi, it portrayed Thor's ex-girlfriend, Jane Foster, taking his hammer and assuming his powers.^[27]

Online Presence

As of July 2014, the Facebook page^[1] for the film Thor has gained over 12.1 million likes and the film's Twitter account^[2] has gained over 260,000 followers. On May 8th, 2011, the /r/Thor^[3] subreddit was launched for discussions related to the superhero, as of July 2022, the subreddit has over 10,500 subscribers.

Fandom

There are numerous Thor fan blogs on Tumblr, including fuckyeahthor^[4], verily-thor^[5] and ask-the-mighty-thor.^[6] As of July 2014, more than 170,000 images have been uploaded to DeviantArt ^[7] under the tag "Thor" and over 7,000 Thor related stories have been submitted to the fanfiction database Fanfiction.net.^[8]

Related Memes

Loki

Following the release of the 2012 film Marvel's The Avengers, a fandom arose surrounding Tom Hiddleston's portrayal of the villain Loki. In April of 2012, a Quickmeme^[22] page titled "Loki" was created, which features photographs of Hiddleston that can be edited with custom captions (shown below).

On April 4th, a Facebook page titled "I Love Tom Hiddleston (Loki Page)" was launched, accumulating more than 15,000 likes in the first 16 months. On Tumblr, several Loki-related fan blogs have been launched, including "F Yeah Loki",^[23] "Loki Lovers"^[24] and "Loki's Monster Crotch."^[25] On July 21st, 2013, Hiddleston appeared as Loki at the San Diego Comic-Con and took over comedian Chris Hardwick's panel to address the audience (shown below).

Viral Videos and Parodies

On June 2nd, 2011, YouTuber HISHE ^[18] uploaded a video titled "How Thor Should Have Ended." As of July 2014, the video has gained over 9.7 million views. On October 29th, 2013, YouTuber Screen Junkies^[17] uploaded an Honest Trailer for Thor. As of July 2014, the video has gained over 3.3 million views.

On November 5th, 2013, YouTuber CinemaSins^[19] uploaded a video titled "Everything Wrong With Thor In 8 Minutes Or Less." As of July 2014, the video has gained over 2.8 million views. On February 14th, 2014, YouTuber Screen Junkies^[17] uploaded an Honest Trailer for Thor: The Dark World As of July 2014, the video has gained over 3.7 million views.

I've Never Met This Man In My Life

Continuing the interest expressed in Hiddleston's Loki character by memers, a quote by Loki in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok where he denies knowing Thor became a popular reaction image macro expressing willful ignorance. On November 2nd, 2017, Tumblr ^[28] user maryxglz posted a GIF of the moment. The post received more than 300 notes in less than two years (shown below).

The quote, which sees Loki denying knowing Thor, has been applied to many different contexts since its creation and original popularization.

You Can't Defeat Me

Another meme from Ragnarok featured a dialogue exchange between Thor and the film's antagonist, Held, played by Cate Blanchett. Hela tells Thor that he cannot defeat her, but then Thor shows that he has enlisted a large flame to help him. The three-panel dialogue spread widely as an object-labelling meme, first used in reference to the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

On July 5th, 2018, Imgur ^[29] user DrZorkkins posted a variation of the meme in which the characters are labeled "depression," "my alcoholism" and more. The post (shown below, center) received more than 2,000 points and 11,000 views.

Screaming Goats

In Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi and his CGI team made an artistic choice to give the two goats pulling Thor's chariot make the Screaming Goat Sound which spread as a meme in 2008 and then reached peak popularity with a series of remixes, most notably a 2013 remix of Taylor Swift's hit "I Knew You Were Trouble" (see below) which, in its various versions, received millions of views.^[30]

As Waititi told Insider in a 2022 interview,^[31]

The goats were always going to be in there because they are in the comics, but we didn’t know how they would sound. Then someone in post-production found this meme of a Taylor Swift song that has screaming goats in it. I didn’t even know that existed. So I hear the screaming goats and I just felt it was awesome. A lot of people think it’s me screaming. It’s not.

Search Interest

External References