7 Comics Characters Who Have Defeated Thor

WhatCulture

Lets take a look at them: 7 Comics Characters Who Have defeated Thor

Transcript

00:00I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 7 comic characters who have killed Thor.

00:057. The Fantastic Four

00:07With every good Marvel character, there's naturally a dramatic zombie-based death.

00:12It almost appears to be one of the unwritten rules of the House of Ideas.

00:15For Thor, this death takes place in the Marvel Zombies' dead days,

00:18and sees the alive Thor foolishly take on the very undead Fantastic Four,

00:23which naturally ends up getting him bitten, killed, and reanimated

00:26into the monstrosity we see in the Marvel Zombies arc.

00:30It's all of the grisly joy that makes the zombie spinoff so good,

00:33and having a hugely powerful character like Thor die at the very beginning of it all

00:36only enhances both the excitement and the threat of the invading undead forces.

00:41It's by no means the most breathtaking superhero death ever,

00:44but there are few occasions where you get to see a Norse god chewed on by a family of scientists,

00:49so yeah, it's well worth a read.

00:516. Mikhail Rasputin

00:53Thor's death in the X-Men Age of Apocalypse storyline may be the single most overlooked

00:58example of the hero dying in comic history. It's practically a footnote in the overall story,

01:04which kind of makes sense given that it's a story focusing on the X-Men themselves,

01:08but still feels a bit unfair given that Thor is a major character in the Marvel Universe.

01:12Admittedly, this may be because of Thor's status in this particular dimension,

01:16as within the Age of Apocalypse storyline, Thor hasn't found Mjolnir,

01:19and so believes himself to be just a regular human, totally unaware that he could have had

01:23some sweet thunder god powers. This means that when he finally gets into a fight with

01:27Colossus' equally intimidating brother Mikhail Rasputin, there's very little chance for him

01:32to escape it alive, especially when Thor decides to end the fight by launching him and Mikhail

01:37out of the top of Big Ben, where the pair fall to their deaths.

01:405. The Beyonders New Avengers number 32 marks both the death of Thor and the rise of the

01:47saddest buddy cop moment ever, as both the God of Thunder and Hyperion make one last stand against

01:52an almost endless horde of homicidal aliens known as the Beyonders. It's clear from the offset that

01:57there's no chance of this pair winning, as only Starbrand manages to take out one of the powerful

02:02creatures, and even then, only a single Beyonder. With just one proving to be a potent threat,

02:07the surge of Beyonders approaching the pair feels catastrophic, and makes both appear all the

02:12braver for stoically facing them, despite there being no possible way that either would leave

02:16alive. Not only does this effectively work to raise the stakes of the huge storyline,

02:20but it also works as perhaps the most in-character death imaginable for Thor,

02:25bravely facing off against an unwinnable battle alongside a trusted companion,

02:29racing each other towards Valhalla.

02:314. Thor

02:33In every superhero's time, there comes a moment when they realise that they have to sacrifice

02:37themselves for the good of something greater. For Thor, this comes in the form of Thor Dissembled,

02:42which placed the God of Thunder in a position where he discovers that the only way to prevent

02:46the destruction of the universe is to bring about the cycle of Ragnarok, which requires him to destroy

02:51Yggdrasil, ending his own life. While it's ambiguous if Thor totally ceases to exist, as he states that he

02:57will be in the sleep of the gods waiting to be reborn, his mortal form definitely does die at

03:02the end of the 1998-2004 run. As in the third volume of the Thor comic, he's brought back to

03:08life from the void by the summons of Donald Blake, who is able to do so due to him being the mortal

03:13host of the lightning god for a period of time. This means in the canon Marvel universe, Thor was

03:18essentially dead for three whole years, which creates all sorts of interesting dynamics between

03:23him and the other Avengers, not to mention a hilariously awkward storyline where he confronts

03:27Tony Stark for creating a clone of him while he was gone. Yeah, that was pretty awkward.

03:323. Mangog

03:33It's a dying shame that fans who didn't like Jane Foster are unlikely to have followed her arc as

03:38Thor to the end of her run, as even if you didn't like her, you'd still be blown away by just how

03:43spectacularly she goes out in Mighty Thor number 705. After a brutal fight against the fearsome godkiller

03:49Mangog, Foster throws the beast into the sun, which turns out not to be enough to kill him,

03:54as in order to go down for good, Mangog needed to be unable to escape the fatal flames. Aware of this,

03:59Jane binds him with the chains made to hold Fenrir, and uses Mjolnir one final time, to fly Mangog,

04:05chains and all, deep into the sun. Both Mjolnir and Jane are lost as a result of this action,

04:11with the hammer melted inside the sun, and Jane finally succumbing to her fatal illness as she

04:15reverts back to her human form.

04:172. Rogue

04:18What if number 66 saw a particularly unusual event, even by the comic's usual speculatory standards?

04:25In it, Rogue uses her power to absorb Thor's abilities, taking his lightning powers, his super

04:30strength, and crucially, his ability to will Mjolnir. Which naturally means that Rogue then

04:34gains the title of being Thor, as the superhero alias belongs to whoever holds the hammer. While

04:39Rogue doesn't technically kill Thor, she does absorb him into her psyche, only for him to seemingly

04:44remove himself from existence when he claims that she is now the true Thor. Even if she hadn't

04:49accidentally removed him from existence, Rogue still completely takes over his life, with Odin

04:54claiming that he has lost a son and gained a daughter. It's a cool story and a rather novel

04:59idea, but one that makes you feel more than a little sorry for the actual Thor. It takes his dad

05:03a couple of pages before he totally forgets his son is now dead, and something about that just makes

05:08you feel bad, even if Odin wasn't exactly winning any awards for being a good father in the first

05:12place.

05:131. The Serpent

05:14In a fight that had been predestined since the dawn of time, and in the actual Norse mythology

05:19that Thor is based off, the Fear Itself series saw the God of Thunder fight Jormandor, known

05:24as the World Serpent, or the Serpent to friends. With so much of Thor's lore in and out of Marvel

05:29being built around the fact that he will die if he fights the Serpent, the tension when the two

05:34of them appear in the same battle is pretty palpable, with the beginning of their clash

05:38being almost as exhilarating as the moment that Thor strikes down the Beast, causing his own death.

05:43Even better, this moment comes as a total surprise, as several previous storylines, such as Odin

05:48trying to fool the world into believing that Ragnarok has happened, or making other Thors

05:52so that they could instead die fighting the Serpent, suggested that the climactic battle may never

05:57happen in the comic universe, which makes it actually occurring all the more epic.

06:02And there we go my friends, those were 7 comic characters who have killed Thor, I hope you

06:05enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section

06:09below. As always I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJ with

06:13a zero, or you can swing by Liv and Let's Dice where I do all of my streaming outside of

06:17work, and it'd be great to see you over there. As always I've been Jules, you have been

06:20awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon, bye.

06:32YouTube, the unexpected frontier. These are the videos of whatculture.com, its continuing

06:46mission to list strange new facts, seek out news and offbeat discoveries, to boldly go where

06:55they know what culture channel has gone before.

07:02Hey! How would you guys like to start a Star Trek channel?

07:14Hi, I'm Marcus, Marcus Brunzi, new presenter for Trek Culture. Whatculture's new home for

07:17all things Star Trek related.

07:21Now, we've already got a bunch of great content like Adam Cleary's ups and downs for every

07:37new episode of Picard, and we'll of course have a bunch of great content like Adam Cleary's

07:43Ups and Downs for every new episode of Picard, and we'll of course have all of the lists and

07:50rankings that you know and love us for.

07:52Fancy yourself a Trekkie and want to contribute? Well, Whatculture is hiring video editors and writers,

07:58so if you want to get involved, fire over a CV and cover letter to trekculture at whatculture.com.

08:03And while you're at it, don't forget to slap subscribe and give us a follow on Twitter.

08:07It would be a great dishonour if you didn't.

08:14I've been Captain Marcus Brunzi, until next time, kaplah!

08:37Bye!

08:38Bye!

Category

Transcript

Recommended