Why aren't writers more versatile with Thor's powers?

[finfangfool]

I liked the old wacky magic powers Lee & Kirby would give him. The whole plot device thing was OK, because they could just come up with something else wacky to challenge him in the next issue (or ignore what happened in past issues because comics weren't about continuity but about fun). I'd like to see Namor get his weird fish powers back. Puffing up to 3 times his size, or channelling electricity, or using his hypno-fish, it seperates him from Aquaman (and other guys with flight and super-strength).

[XPac]

I think typically, Thor tends to slowly ramp up in battles.

Plan A for thor is to essentially punch it, or throw his hammer at it. And that actually works pretty well for most things.

Plan B is to use lightning.

If that doesn't work, then he moves on to Plan C... his more exotic asgardian bag of tricks... the god blasts, dimensional portals, and what have you.

But because Thor often slowly ramps it up as a battle progresses, I think that's usually seen most often in longer more drawn out battles. And that's usually (though not exclusively) reserved for his solo book. Preferable when he's not surrounded by 6 or so of his buddies, who can potentially get caught in friendly fire as Thor begins to cut lose a bit. That's the other issue really... when you've got Hawkeye and Captain America 10 feet away, it's not necessarily the safest thing in the world to call down a hurricane. Sometimes throwing your hammer at something is the way to go.

[MichaelChen]

Versatiliy in general isn't really that popular. Dr Strange has never sold well. Readers like action stars to be brawlers mostly, though they also like cunning; the hero who uses his environment in some clever way after trying to brawl and getting pounded.

Versatility works against both action tropes. There's no need to brawl if you can pull out a plot-device. And there's no need to be cunning if something innate to you is better than anything clever you can do to the environment.

That's why versatile characters are rarely the star. Even in something like the Harry Potter series. Sure, Harry is a wizard, but he's a mediocre wizard who mostly just uses his wand like a pistol. What makes Harry special is actually mostly athleticism: he's the quidditch player with extremely sharp reflexes. He can't do much but he can do it FAST by wizard standards.

Hermione, the actual versatile traditional wizard with the huge variety of exotic abilities usually gets taken out before the end of the story and spends it as a statue or something.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

Versatiliy in general isn't really that popular. Dr Strange has never sold well. Readers like action stars to be brawlers mostly, though they also like cunning; the hero who uses his environment in some clever way after trying to brawl and getting pounded.

Versatility works against both action tropes. There's no need to brawl if you can pull out a plot-device. And there's no need to be cunning if something innate to you is better than anything clever you can do to the environment.

That's why versatile characters are rarely the star. Even in something like the Harry Potter series. Sure, Harry is a wizard, but he's a mediocre wizard who mostly just uses his wand like a pistol. What makes Harry special is actually mostly athleticism: he's the quidditch player with extremely sharp reflexes. He can't do much but he can do it FAST by wizard standards.

Hermione, the actual versatile traditional wizard with the huge variety of exotic abilities usually gets taken out before the end of the story and spends it as a statue or something.

Uh... What about The Doctor? (Doctor Who)

He's all about versatility.

[Spidey_Legend]

Because some writers are simply lazy.

[tigerkaya]

Versatiliy in general isn't really that popular. Dr Strange has never sold well. Readers like action stars to be brawlers mostly, though they also like cunning; the hero who uses his environment in some clever way after trying to brawl and getting pounded.

Versatility works against both action tropes. There's no need to brawl if you can pull out a plot-device. And there's no need to be cunning if something innate to you is better than anything clever you can do to the environment.

That's why versatile characters are rarely the star. Even in something like the Harry Potter series. Sure, Harry is a wizard, but he's a mediocre wizard who mostly just uses his wand like a pistol. What makes Harry special is actually mostly athleticism: he's the quidditch player with extremely sharp reflexes. He can't do much but he can do it FAST by wizard standards.

Hermione, the actual versatile traditional wizard with the huge variety of exotic abilities usually gets taken out before the end of the story and spends it as a statue or something.

Screw the damn brawlers and melee fighters. Their a dime a dozen at Marvel these days they add nothing new
other than to suck away any creativeness or wonder. Its wonder Marvel is still in business when the majority writers
are filled with indie writers. There kind don't belong in either Big name companies.

[littleredhat]

I don't think that its so much that Thor is too powerfull but that the villains they keep trying to use are too weak. A good villain should have a plan for Thor. If not that then an ally that can stand against him.

Thor is a god but so are most of his villains or at least high enough level as to not make a difference. Curbstomping gets boring quickly so let the bad guys show thier stuff.

Also more storm powers because they look darn cool.

[The_Ronin]

I don't think it's about creativity, I think it as many people have already said, Thor's just not a versatile character to begin. To make matters worse, if they do do something like one of those writers/artists, readers think they're being unoriginal.

Thor is incredibly versatile!

[destro]

Because Marvels main writers don't have the imagination and creativity of the likes of Lee, Kirby, Simonson and Busiek.

Yup. Yes part of Thor is a Viking warrior who likes to mix it up at close range. But like Conan he isn't stupid, he's quite intelligent and shouldn't be portrayed as a guy who can't do anything but hit stuff with his hammer.

Thor DOES philosophize about things, plans things and uses creative approaches against enemies to outwit them. Or he used to anyway. It's easier to write him as a big dumb brick I guess.

[HaveAtThee]

I agree with the sentiment that there generally is a lack of mega-powered and mega-clever villains in comics these days. A great hero needs to be constantly challenged both physically and mentally. It also sucks that Loki is no longer a villain.

What if Thor were to become a villain? I think an interesting arc would be if he became annoyed with all the petty BS of Earth and its heroes, and his natural arrogance causes him to disassociate himself from his team and Earth. Maybe he crosses some kind of line and they have to send Hulk or Dr. Strange or Hercules after him.

[MichaelChen]

Uh... What about The Doctor? (Doctor Who)

He's all about versatility.

Huh? His only major power is regeneration. He's all about the other half of what I said: cunning.

[Frank]

I liked the old wacky magic powers Lee & Kirby would give him. The whole plot device thing was OK, because they could just come up with something else wacky to challenge him in the next issue (or ignore what happened in past issues because comics weren't about continuity but about fun). I'd like to see Namor get his weird fish powers back. Puffing up to 3 times his size, or channelling electricity, or using his hypno-fish, it seperates him from Aquaman (and other guys with flight and super-strength).

Yea when you read the old comics Lee and Kirby had Thor do a lot of wild stuff, they were more creative at playing with Thor's powers than writers in recent times. I think it's because character is more important now and you have more talking heads while in the Lee/Kirby days the Marvel stories were basically "Battle Books" it was always about getting the characters into the action and have them fight. So most of their times the creators had to find new ways for the heroes to win. So if last time Thor swang his hammer and created a cyclone then maybe next time the cyclone will be so big and powerful that it will transport the bad guys to another World like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

[Spidey_Legend]

I agree with the sentiment that there generally is a lack of mega-powered and mega-clever villains in comics these days. A great hero needs to be constantly challenged both physically and mentally. It also sucks that Loki is no longer a villain.

What if Thor were to become a villain? I think an interesting arc would be if he became annoyed with all the petty BS of Earth and its heroes, and his natural arrogance causes him to disassociate himself from his team and Earth. Maybe he crosses some kind of line and they have to send Hulk or Dr. Strange or Hercules after him.

Don't we had this one? I don't remember the name of the saga, but he also married Amora and had a child.

[DiceRoll]

Don't we had this one? I don't remember the name of the saga, but he also married Amora and had a child.

I wanna say The Reigning.

[jpbl1976]

They need to take Thor off the Avengers. He could assist them with supremely powerful villains every so often, but it does look silly whenever they're facing off against human-level villains and Thor's just window-dressing for the "main battle." The problem with this is that he's one of Marvel's main characters, and it would be akin to removing Superman from the Justice League. Another problem is that if Thor spends most of his time in Asgard or throughout space and its various dimensions, the human element of his character and universe gets lost.

The whole "Thor is dumb" argument is ridiculous because someone who is over 1,000 years old should have an unbelievable amount of knowledge, specifically in his most obvious profession (fighting). This is why I loved how JMS portrayed Thor as being "neutral" during the whole CW aftermath when he returned.

I absolutely agree. In the first place, someone who's been a warrior that long will have learned to use anything and everything to gain the upper hand in a fight. This isn't about academic IQ but skill gained through repetition, experience and savvy. Thor's been fighting for several millenia; he'd have picked up all manner of tricks over the ages. That's why I was really annoyed at the AvX fight with Frost: Thor should never have fallen for that. Even the movie version of Thor was smarter; he pinned Loki down with his hammer. The current marvel Thor is like Ben Grimm with a hammer (in fact, Ben Grimm's actually had a better run in AvX and his skill set is a lot smaller than Thor's).

I've been saying this again and again in these forums: it's not that Thor is a bad character; it's that Marvel doesn't have the right writers on him -- Neil Gaiman showed in Sandman that you can have the most powerful characters in creation and still make them interesting at a human level. It's a mistake to reduce Thor to a stupid brute (as opposed to a savvy, veteran warrior).

Marvel's always had trouble finding the writers to pen their exceptionally powerful characters. Look at what they did to Franklin Richards over the years -- he's either been regressed, de-powered or driven mad. That's why it was so refreshing to see Hickman show what Franklin can do (well, at least "adult" Franklin) -- he beat a boatload of Celestials by himself with a Pet Galactus.

As for the others -- heck, the "Alpha +" class character are all in another part of the Universe -- out of sight, out of mind.