Thor (Earth-199999)

Thor, formally known as Thor Odinson, is an Asgardian hero who through the power of the hammer Mjölnir can harness the powers of flight, lightning and thunder, and superior strength. He is the son and heir to Asgard's king, Odin, and stepbrother to Loki. He is also a founding member of the Avengers. After a time banished to Midgard, Thor fell in love with a human woman, Jane Foster, and the two maintain a heartfelt but pragmatically difficult relationship.

Biography

Son of Odin

In May of 2010, the young and powerful Thor was set to take over from his father Odin as king of Asgard. The ceremony was however interrupted by a covert invasion by a small group of Frost Giants attempting to steal the Casket of Ancient Winters from beneath Asgard. They were quickly killed by the Destroyer, but their attempt nonetheless proved critical. Thor was adamant that Asgard should retaliate, but Odin didn't see it as a reason to break the thousand-year truce they held with the Frost Giants. Thor's brash insistence convinced Odin that he did not yet have what it took to be a king, and called off the inauguration. Thor was unwavering in his beliefs, and assembled a team to go to Jotunheim and find answers.

With his brother Loki, Sif, and the Warriors Three—Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg—Thor went to Heimdall, keeper of the Bifrost. Heimdall readily allowed them passage to Jotunheim as he was himself frustrated by the Giants' recent incursion, the first in history that had evaded his sight. Navigating the icy crags of Jotunheim, the party soon arrived at Laufey's throne, where Thor demanded to know the cause of the incursion. Laufey cryptically told him that there were traitors close to Odin's throne. The impulsive Thor was insulted, and a battle ensued between the Giants and the Asgardians. The Asgardians fought valiantly but were forced to retreat; as they approached the entrance to the Bifrost home, they were interrupted by the arrival of Odin. Odin pleaded with Laufey for peace, but was refused. In response, Odin blasted the swarm of Giants back to allow himself and the rest of the party safe passage back to Asgard. For his arrogant betrayal and for breaking a thousand-year truce, Odin declared his son unworthy, stripped him of his power, and cast him out of Asgard and into the Bifrost. In the process, Odin took Mjölnir, and whispered an incantation into it declaring that anyone worthy of wielding it "shall possess the power of Thor."

Thor landed in the desert near Puente Antiguo, New Mexico, where three humans—scientists Jane Foster and Erik Selvig, and Foster's college intern Darcy Lewis—were studying recent atmospheric disturbances. Thor was in a rage, and his talk of Odin and Heimdall seemed psychotic, so Lewis tased him unconscious. As the three drove Thor away, Mjölnir crash-landed near where he had arrived. Thor was hospitalized, but forcefully checked himself out the following day. Foster and Selvig took him in to where they were staying for study, though they found his blunt, Asgardian behavior to be offputting. While eating out at a diner, Thor overheard talk from the locals of a "satellite" that had crash-landed in the desert fifty miles west and caught the attention of government agents. Thor immediately knew that this was Mjölnir, and was determined above all to find it. Thor asked Foster to drive him there in exchange for information as to his origin, but Selvig vetoed the idea, still suspicious of him. With that, Thor and the others parted ways, though Foster remained curious about his sudden appearance.

As Thor searched in vain for a means of conveyance, Foster returned and agreed to drive him. Arriving at the crash site that night, the two found that S.H.I.E.L.D. had installed a small base around Mjölnir due to the inability of anyone or anything to move it from where it had landed. As Foster watched from a hill overlooking the installation, Thor fought his way through a series of security guards, eventually reaching the hammer at the center of the base. Thor grabbed Mjölnir's handle and pulled, but it didn't budge. Thor fell to his knees and wept as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents calmly cuffed him and took him away. Unbeknownst to Thor at the time, the base was also occupied by Agent Phil Coulson and special operative Hawkeye, a master archer who kept his bow trained on Thor awaiting an order from Coulson to shoot that never came.

Thor was interrogated by Coulson, who presumed him to be an international mercenary. After Coulson left the room, a most unexpected visitor appeared before Thor: Loki. Thor's brother told him a series of lies to manipulate him, including that Odin had died and that Odin's wife Frigga had forbidden Thor's return, as a truce with the Frost Giants was conditional to his exile. Loki had claimed the "burden" of the throne of Asgard, and was outwardly compassionate to Thor's unfortunate situation. He disappeared as quickly as he had come, leaving Thor feeling more hopeless than ever. He was soon released from custody thanks to Erik Selvig, who made up a story about him being a disturbed colleague. Speaking together in a bar, Selvig was still suspicious of Thor's true nature, and told him that he should leave the next day.

Thor brought Selvig to the researchers' residence that night, horribly drunk while Thor was perfectly sober. That night, Thor and Foster bonded; he explained to her Asgard and Asgardian beliefs while she began to feel more and more affection for him. The following morning, four unexpected visitors arrived at the researchers' residence: Sif and the Warriors Three, there to return him to Asgard. Thor was confused, still believing Odin to be dead, but Sif told him the truth of the matter. Their Bifrost arrival did not go unnoticed by S.H.I.E.L.D., who quickly arrived on the scene themselves. The four's arrival was also followed by that of the Destroyer, who had been sent by Loki (through his own magical means, rather than the Bifrost) to ensure that Thor didn't return to Asgard. Sif and the Warriors fought the automaton, but the mass of fire and metal proved too much for them. Sif was prepared to die a valiant death, but Thor told her and the others to retreat and fight another day. As the Destroyer caused wanton carnage across Puente Antiguo, Thor realized that he was the target, and approached the machine. Knowing that Loki would hear him, Thor apologized for whatever he may have done to Loki, but chastised him for attacking innocent people. Thor offered up his life to end Loki's attack, and he was met with a forceful slap to the face, sending him flying across the small-town street and seemingly killing him.

Seconds later however, Mjölnir came flying into the town from its resting place, landing firmly in Thor's hand and calling down a lightning bolt. Thor's ceremonial Asgardian attire returned to his body along with his power, and he thoroughly dismantled the Destroyer in mere moments. His true nature now clear to all, Thor spoke with Agent Coulson and proposed an alliance on the condition that Foster have her work returned to her; Coulson readily agreed. With time short, Thor and the other Asgardians returned via the Bifrost; Thor vowed to return to Midgard, and shared a kiss with Foster.

Shortly after Thor's return, Loki commandeered the Bifrost, aiming it at Jotunheim in an attempt to use the bridge's unmitigated energetic power to destroy the realm. He aimed to win the war he had started, be declared a hero, and finally be Thor's equal in their father's eyes. The two did battle long enough that the Bifrost's energy had grown out of control, and Thor was left with no means to stop it but to destroy the bridge itself, hammering it in two. A gigantic magical explosion resulted; when the eruption cleared, both of them were left hanging off the edge, Thor being held up by none other than an awoken Odin. Loki, gripping the end of his staff in Thor's hand, tried to explain his actions to Odin, but the Allfather was more disappointed than ever. Despondent and hopeless, Loki released his grip, and fell into the wormhole left behind by the Bifrost's destruction. As Odin reclaimed his throne, he commended Thor for his actions, saying that he was proud of him and that he would one day make a wise king. Thor later went to Heimdall at the broken edge of the Bifrost, assuming that all travel with other realms was now lost. But the all-seeing Heimdall told him that there was always hope, and that even at that moment Jane Foster was searching for a way to see him again.

The Avengers

In May 2012, Loki was found on Midgard, apparently aiming to use the Tesseract to conquer the world. Heimdall sent Thor there using dark magic, a dangerous and unstable form of energy, and Thor quickly found his brother captive aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. jet with Black Widow, Iron Man, and Captain America. Without a word, Thor fetched Loki from the jet and flew him to a nearby outcropping to speak. Thor implored his brother to cease his ploy for conquest with the Tesseract, but was interrupted by Iron Man. The two fought in a nearby forest, Thor demanding that Loki be returned to Asgard, while Iron Man insisted that Loki was needed to find the Tesseract. As they did battle, Loki casually watched from afar, allowing the heroes to dismantle each other. Captain America soon arrived as well, attempting to stop the fight, but only angered Thor further. Thor swung his hammer, striking Cap's unbreakable vibranium shield, and causing a gigantic shockwave that leveled much of the surrounding forestation. With the battle brought to a standstill, Thor agreed to cooperate, and Loki was returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. Thor tacitly joined the team that S.H.I.E.L.D. was building, along with Natasha Romanoff, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and scientist Bruce Banner, organized by S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury. He learned that Loki had taken Hawkeye and Erik Selvig under his mind control, and intended to open a large, stable portal with the Tesseract to allow the Chitauri army to conquer Earth, leaving him as its ruler.

Thor learned that S.H.I.E.L.D. had surreptitiously moved Jane Foster to a remote observatory in Tromsø, Norway, keeping her safe from any potential threat. Thor soon bore witness to Stark and Banner confronting Fury about evidence of S.H.I.E.L.D. having developed weapons using the Tesseract. Romanoff and Rogers were also in the room. Fury admitted that S.H.I.E.L.D. had begun researching offensive uses for the Tesseract after the arrival of Thor and other extraterrestrial elements that had exposed the human race's relative lack of firepower. As tensions rose in the room, the Helicarrier was suddenly attacked, violently separating the group. The attack was carried out by Hawkeye and other soldiers loyal to Loki. Widow and Banner were sent into a lower floor, while Thor was knocked into a different area. Maneuvering through the underbelly of the Helicarrier, Thor found Widow being chased by the Hulk, Banner's monstrous alterego. Thor engaged the Hulk in combat, but was easily tossed around by the colossal foe. Elsewhere, S.H.I.E.L.D. deputy director Maria Hill ordered a jet to attack the Hulk from outside. The jet arrived and fired on the monster, but Hulk simply jumped onto it, tearing the pilot out and crashing the jet to the ground.

Thor made his way to Loki's glass cage, where his brother was just being released by one of his underlings. Loki baited Thor into jumping into the cage himself, trapping him inside. Phil Coulson soon arrived with a large, experimental gun, but was quickly stabbed in the back and killed by the deceitful Loki. Loki used a nearby control panel to drop Thor's prison through a hole in the floor, sending it plummeting to 30,000 feet down. Thor used Mjölnir to smash through the glass wall, escaping before it crashed dramatically to the ground. Thor recovered and made his way to Manhattan, where Loki and Selvig had built a machine surrounding the Tesseract at Stark Tower, using the tower's self-sustaining arc reactor as an energy source. Thor confronted Loki on the tower, imploring him one last time to stop this as Chitauri invaders flowed in through a portal in the sky. Loki refused, and fled on a flying Chitauri vehicle. Thor attempted to destroy the device holding the Tesseract, but it was surrounded by an indestructible energy field.

Thor joined up with the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team, who had come to call themselves the Avengers: Black Widow, Captain America, Iron Man, and Hawkeye, whom Widow had broken out of Loki's spell on the Helicarrier. Banner soon arrived as well, voluntarily transforming into the Hulk and using his immense power to combat the larger foes among the Chitauri. The six Avengers used their respective strengths to fight back the Chitauri invasion while trying to figure out a way to close the portal. The Hulk caught up with Loki at Stark Tower, relentlessly smashing him into the ground and leaving him helpless for the foreseeable future. Widow eventually spoke with Selvig, who had been jostled free of Loki's mind control, and learned that Loki's scepter was the key to disabling the portal machine. Hoping to stem the tide of the invasion before it got out of hand, the World Security Council ordered a nuclear strike. As the jet arrived and launched the missile, Iron Man urgently caught up to it and carried it into the portal, throwing it at the Chitauri mothership. The resulting explosion caused a massive feedback discharge, killing the Chitauri forces on the ground. Iron Man's suit ran out of power, and he fell through the portal as Widow closed it with Loki's scepter. Thor flew into the air and caught Iron Man, delivering him safely to the ground. With the invasion stopped, the Avengers returned to Stark Tower, taking the injured Loki into custody. Thor took the Tesseract and used it to transport himself and Loki back to Asgard, finally bringing his brother to Asgardian justice.

Malekith and the Aether

In the time since Bifrost's destruction, the loosely formed Marauders took advantage of Asgard's weakness and rampaged across the Nine Realms, battling formidably against the armies of Asgard and the other realms. Thor dealt a decisive blow to the Marauders on Vanaheim in November 2013, bringing the war to an end. Asgard celebrated gloriously, and Odin assured Thor that he would be king soon. Still, Thor could not find mirth in the occasion, thinking solemnly of Jane Foster, whom he hadn't seen in some time.

Thor spoke with Heimdall, who informed him that the Convergence was approaching: an alignment of the Nine Realms that hadn't occurred in thousands of years, weakening the physical separations between them and creating myriad physical anomalies. Thor inquired as to Jane, but Heimdall bizarrely couldn't see her. As soon as she was visible, Thor went to her at an abandoned warehouse in London. He apologized for not seeing her sooner, and explained where he had been. Police approached Foster for trespassing on public property, but upon being grabbed by the arm she emitted an involuntary burst of red energy. The police began to call for backup, but Thor simply grabbed Jane and took her by the Bifrost to Asgard. They had Asgard's healers examine her: though they could not pinpoint the source of the red energy, they recognized that the enormous amount of energy inside of her would prove fatal if left unchecked. Odin appeared and chastised his son for bringing a "mortal" into their realm. He commanded his guards to take her away, but they were themselves blasted by her red energy.

Seeing this, Odin's interest was piqued. He recognized the presence of the Aether, explaining that it was a primordial force that the Dark Elf Malekith attempted to use it to return the universe to darkness millennia ago. According to popular opinion, Odin's father Bor had destroyed the Aether and the Dark Elves, but the Aether had clearly survived. In any case, there was no clear way to safely remove the Aether from Foster's body.

It soon became clear that the Dark Elves themselves hadn't perished either. There was a breakout in the Asgard dungeons, initiated by Dark Elf Algrim in disguise. Thor flew there to defend Asgard, assured by Frigga that she would watch over Jane. This skirmish presaged a larger invasion, as Dark Elf spaceships (cloaked against Heimdall's sight) soon stormed the city in search of the Aether. As Thor fought the onslaught, Malekith himself arrived and made a beeline for the Aether. Malekith and Algrim confronted Frigga, who used an illusion of Foster to buy time, but Algrim killed her with a blade to the back. Thor arrived too late, forcing them to make a quick retreat from Asgard. With Asgard secure, Frigga was laid to rest, as nearly all of Asgard saw her to the afterlife.

Following the attack, Asgard was virtually defenseless, and in Thor's eyes another assault from Malekith's forces would surely be catastrophic. Thor implored Odin to let him pursue Malekith with Jane to the Dark Elf world of Svartalfheim, preventing Malekith from attacking Asgard for the Aether again. He would allow Malekith to pull the Aether from Jane's body, leaving him and the Aether vulnerable and allowing Thor to destroy them both. Odin believed this plan to be too great a risk, and was willing to let Asgard's soldiers fight and die in defense of the realm instead. Lacking his father's approval, Thor went ahead with his plan nonetheless. Realizing he could not do it alone, he recruited Heimdall and the Warriors Three, warning them that the plan was "treason of the highest order." Odin had closed the Bifrost after the attack, and the Tesseract was safely stored in the vault, so he would need another way out of the realm, and the only option was Loki. Promised vengeance against Malekith for Frigga's death, Loki agreed to help Thor, albeit on a very short leash. With assistance from Sif and the Warriors Three, Thor secured Jane from her guarded room and took her and Loki aboard a crashed Dark Elf ship, pursued by Odin's guard. The ship served as a distraction to allow the three to jump (or in Loki's case, be pushed) onto a watercraft piloted by Fandral and slip off relatively unnoticed. Loki led them to a virtually invisible crack in a mountain in the distance, which led to a portal straight to Svartalfheim.

There, the three were soon confronted by Malekith, Algrim, and other Dark Elves: Malekith had indeed sensed the Aether's presence. They staged a betrayal on the part of Loki, who played at an alliance with Malekith in exchange for the destruction of Asgard. As Malekith began to absorb the Aether, Thor threw off his feigned weakness and blasted a mighty lightning burst at the Aether, causing a dramatic explosion. But the broken shards of the Aether (or rather, its progenitor the Reality Stone) simply coalesced back into one in moments before being absorbed by Malekith. Malekith calmly walked back to his ship to await the convergence, leaving Thor and Loki behind to fight Algrim and the others. Loki handily dealt with the lesser guards, and snuck up behind Algrim to stab him with his own sword. Algrim responded by pulling Loki close to him, thrusting the sword through his abdomen as well. Loki activated a black-hole grenade on Algrim's belt, which detonated moments later, sucking Algrim into nothingness. Thor held Loki and watched him die in his arms, having apparently sacrificed his life to save Thor. Thor and Jane wandered into a cave nearby, happening upon an invisible portal that led back to the warehouse in London.

The two returned to Dr. Foster's apartment/lab, where Erik Selvig, Darcy Lewis, and Lewis' intern Ian Boothby were studying the convergence. The latter two had recently claimed Selvig from a mental institution: though his mind was damaged by Loki's control, leading to a pattern of bizarre behavior, his scientific instincts were as sharp as ever. He deduced that Malekith was going to employ the Aether at a point at which all nine realms connected to each other: each would increase the damaging power of the Aether's output exponentially until it was enough to envelop the universe. Luckily, this point would only exist for a brief time, and through his extensive study Selvig had narrowed down the relevant location on Earth to London.

Darcy and Ian were tasked with installing Selvig's "gravimetric spikes"—devices designed to "stabilize the focal point of the convergence"—around the area as Malekith's ship landed. Thor confronted the Dark Elf, whom with the power of the Aether proved a formidable threat. Foster and Selvig used his technology to harness the power of the convergence, with the goal being to occupy Malekith through the convergence's full realization, which would occur seven minutes from then. Various portals repeatedly opened and closed in the vicinity, sending Thor and Malekith fighting across several realms. In the end, they were unable to stop Malekith from unleashing the Aether at the appropriate time, creating a large, powerful cloud of red mist around him. Thor got close to him with a gravimetric spike, stabbing it into his chest, powerfully knocking him into his own ship, and allowing Foster to blip Malekith back to Svartalfheim. The damaged ship began to collapse onto Thor's weakened and prone body, but also fell into a portal and fell on Malekith on Svartalfheim instead, killing him. Thor returned to Asgard, expecting reprisal from Odin for his treason. Instead, Odin commended Thor's bravery in defending the Nine Realms, valorously risking his life to defeat Malekith. Odin offered Thor the throne, but Thor declined, knowing he could better defend the realms not serving as king. In truth, Loki hadn't died on Svartalfheim, had returned to Asgard, and usurped the throne under the guise of Odin. Loki cast a mesmerizing spell on his father and banished him to Earth, ruling Asgard in his stead once more. The Aether was reclaimed by Asgard (presumably from Malekith's corpse), stored in a small box, and donated to the Collector for fear of keeping multiple Infinity Stones in Asgard's vault.

See also

• Thor of Earth-616
• Thor on Wikipedia