Thor has appeared as a character in various comics over the years, appearing in series from a range of publishers.
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Thor (often called The Mighty Thor) is a Marvel Comics superhero, based on the thunder god of Norse mythology. The superhero was created by editor Stan Lee and penciller Jack Kirby, who co-plotted, and scripter Larry Lieber, and first appeared in Journey into Mystery #83 (Aug. 1962).
On a mission from his father, Odin, Thor acts as a superhero while maintaining the secret identity of Dr. Donald Blake, an American physician with a partially disabled leg. Blake can transform by tapping his walking stick on the ground; the cane becomes the magical hammer Mjolnir and Blake transforms into Thor.
Thor often battles his evil adoptive brother Loki, a Marvel character adapted from the Norse god of mischief, and was a founding member of the superhero group the Avengers. He is among Marvel's most powerful superheroes. Many recurring characters in his stories are based on Norse Mythology. Apart from this main superhero, Marvel features a number of characters based on him.
Chris Hemsworth portrays Thor in films set within Marvel Studios' cinematic universe, first appearing in the 2011 film Thor. Hemsworth reprised his role for 2012's The Avengers and is set to return again in Thor 2.
Thor appears briefly in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. In "Seasons Of Mists", he, Odin and Loki try (and fail) to get the key of Hell. In "Seasons Of Mists", Thor is generally portrayed as being drunk and lewd. This is in contrast to the Marvel Comics portrayal of Thor, where Thor is portrayed as very noble and earnest. Later in the "Kindly Ones", he helps Odin bring Loki back (after he escaped them and caused chaos).
Thor is also a fictional character in the Comico comic book series Elementals. He was created by Bill Willingham and first appeared in Elementals #23 (Volume 1).
The Flemish comic artist Willy Vandersteen started three series in which a Thor was featured. His very first published newspaper comic series (when World War II stopped US-import in 1941) was "Tor de Holbewoner", about a caveman called Tor. Taking into account that "Tor" is a Dutch word for beetle, in Dutch the difference between T and Th is hardly (if at all) heard and that it was about a caveman living way before the invention of orthography, it is no miracle that this caveman returned (still during the war) with his name changed to "Thor".
In "De Rode Ridder" series the existence of the thunder god Thor is shown in #45, (The Hammer of Thor, 1970) and the Thunderer has a role in #63 (The Valkyrie, 1974), in which the Rode/Red Knight has been chosen by Odin to complete a mission the gods cannot do themselves without causing Ragnarok. Both albums are by Karel Biddeloo. Unlike the Marvel Thor, Biddeloo's Thor is more or less a country boy, with enormous powers but bound by responsibility (avoidance of Ragnarok). The hammer of Thor was a weapon mortals could and did carry and use, but it was too powerful to control.
In the most popular series started by Vandersteen, Suske en Wiske (Spike and Suzy), Thor is featured once in #158 in a story by Paul Geerts. Thor in this version is a cruel, grey-bearded god, going a bit bald on top, thundering and lightninging with his hammer, without throwing it. (Odin in this story is the young-looking, bearded redhead). Like Biddeloo’s Thor, this one is also dressed in animal skins, and that may be seen as a reference to the caveman.
This is Thor in the European "comedic adventure" tradition of Asterix, Lucky Luke etc. with the difference that where those series are using history as source material, Peter Madsen uses mythology for his series Valhalla (1978), with the same freedom to make jokes about current reality or other works of fiction, mostly following the Eddas.
Thor is one of the main heroes of the series and can be seen as a central character.
Thor is here rather correctly put, as the honest, red bearded muscular, powerful god, with a bit of extra human weaknesses to keep the comic funny. Statements that he would be fat are false, but may be based on his disguise in #3 as Volstagg, thus parodying Marvel's Asgardians.
Thrud and Modi are his firstborn children (in #2), their mother is Sif (pregnant from the start of the series). Magni has Jarnsaxa as mother and shows up in #9.
Other uses of the name Thor in comics include: