Comic Books to the Big Screen - Part 1: THOR

I'm thrilled to introduce Devin Rankin as a new contributor to What Valerie Thinks! Devin, an acknowledged "geek" and all around great guy, has a passion for comic book heroes. So thanks to Devin's extensive knowledge in this area (did I mention he was  "geek"?), Devin is writing a 3-part series giving us crucial background information  on comic books which are being made into this summer's Hollywood blockbusters (or as Devin so humbly calls it, "bit of comic book history and back story on these characters"). Take it away Devin!

This seems to be the year of the B list super hero.  Not that I ever thought of them as B list heroes.  But the public certainly has.  You can walk up to just about anyone on the street and they can tell you that Batman is Bruce Wayne and that Superman is Clark Kent.  They may be able to tell you that Superman is from another planet and that Bruce Wayne became The Batman to avenge the deaths of his parents.  These heroes have become part of American (maybe even world) culture. 

But this summer we are getting movies about heroes that are a bit less iconic even though they have been around for about the same length of time.  You are unlikely to know, or find anyone else who knows, the secret identity of The Green Lantern.  If they don’t get him confused with The Green Hornet, they still can’t tell you that there have been five men and one woman (on earth) who called themselves Green Lantern in the last 70 years or so of comic book history.  They don’t know that Steve Rogers is Captain America.  They might be able to tell you that Thor is the Norse God of Thunder, but they don’t know that he sometimes goes by the name Dr. Don Blake.

So here is a little cheat sheet for this summer’s super hero movies.  Just so you know a bit about them when you walk in and take your seat.  Since the movies are not out as I write this, I can’t tell you much about the movies themselves.  This is just a bit of comic book history and back story on these characters.

Thor

Releasing May 6^th in the US

In Old Norse mythology, Thor was the son of the head god, Odin.  Thor was the god of thunder and lightening.  Thunder was believed to be the sound of Thor’s hammer striking the giants as he fought them to protect earth.  Thor was seen as the people’s protector and often worshiped and prayed to in times of trouble.  Today, we have a day in his honor, Thursday, or Thor’s Day. 

In the early 60’s, superhero comics were coming back into fashion.  At Marvel Comics, Stanley Lieber was writing under his now famous pen name of Stan Lee.  He needed a short story to fill a few pages and decided to do something with Norse mythology.  He picked Thor.  He wrote up an outline of the story, gave it to his brother to write the script, and to Jack Kirby to design the look of the hero and draw the story.

 Journey into Mystery #83 (Aug. 1962): the debut of Thor. Cover art by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott.

In this first story, Dr. Don Blake, a frail young doctor who walks with a limp, is on a vacation in Norway when he stumbles across some aliens planning an invasion (hey, it’s a comic book).  They chase him into a cave where he finds an old wooden cane and uses it to replace the one he dropped in the chase.  When he taps this cane on the ground, he finds that it transforms him into Thor and transforms the cane into Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir.  He drives off the aliens.  As it turns out, Odin thought his son was too prideful and vain so he turned Thor into a human with no memory of his past.  Odin did not allow Thor to take his true form until he had learned humility and compassion and made something of himself without his god like powers.  In later stories, Thor’s evil brother Loki appears and mayhem ensues.   As the comic goes on, we see less and less of the Don Blake identity.  I don’t think it is used at all today.

The major things you need to know about Thor are:

Thor is strong and tough.  But, at least in the comics, much of his power flows from his hammer.  Mjolnir can call down lightening and call up huge storms.  Thor can spin the hammer causing hurricane force winds.  When the hammer is thrown, it always returns to Thor’s hand.  Thor can fly by being pulled along by his hammer.  The hammer is enchanted so that Thor is the only one who can lift it.  (Drunken geek debate:  could Superman or the Hulk lift Thor’s hammer?)  As Dr. Blake, he develops a crush on his nurse, Jane Foster.

Not a great deal has been released about the movie’s story.  But it seems that the first part takes place in Asgard, home of the Norse gods.  Thor does something to piss off Odin and he is punished by being sent to earth as a human.  Natalie Portman plays Jane Foster, but it does not look like they have kept any other early elements.  It does not look like Thor loses his memory or that he has Dr. Don Blake as an alter Ego.  In the after the credits scene in Iron Man II, we see Mjolnir at the center of a large crater.  In the Thor movie trailers, it looks like S.H.I.E.L.D. has built some kind of building around the hammer and Thor has to fight his way to it.  There looks to be no mention of aliens, which I see as a good thing. 

Thor is a hard character to do right.  It requires the audience to believe that the Old Norse gods are alive and well in some way and that one of them has come to earth (Midgaurd) to help us poor humans.   I hope they do as good a job with this as they have with Iron Man.  The trailers I have seen look very good.

Next week: Green Lantern!