Thor’s story is one of the most interesting in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Chris Hemsworth’s version of the hero is undoubtedly a beloved character, but he’s not on the level of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man or Chris Evans’ Captain America, despite being treated on the same level in the superhero world. has not been reached. A big reason for that is the quality of the Thor movies. Few individual series in the MCU have received as much negative reviews among fans as the four films starring Thor, his Asgardian allies, and their powerful foes.
Video by ComicBook.com
There are multiple reasons why the Thor series isn’t as beloved as the Captain America series or Guardians of the Galaxy. But the big problem is that many feel these movies don’t do justice to Thor’s vast character. These five Thor characters were ruined by the Marvel movies, leaving the God of Thunder’s reputation in flux.
Thor
A great place to start is with Thor himself. To begin with, Marvel Studios doesn’t really know how to handle powerful beings, especially heroes, so Thor’s powers and fighting skills wax and wane throughout the Thor and Avengers films. Sometimes he is an extremely powerful god, and other times he is on the same level as Iron Man. This kind of inconsistency is Thor’s biggest problem in the MCU.
RELATED: The MCU needs to distance itself from this Wolverine story
Thor is at times an eccentric, frazzled boy, and at other times a Viking warrior with thousands of years of experience in battle. The main character can basically be whatever the writer needs at the time. So in his first two movies he’s a powerful god dealing with Asgard’s problems, and in the last two he’s stupid. Each Avengers movie features a completely different Thor, even though they’re all played by the same actor. His character arcs in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame were given passing marks, but otherwise, Thor’s inconsistency throughout the MCU meant he never really lived up to his comic book counterpart. You’ll never reach the same level as the character.
Jane Foster/Thor
Jane Foster, played by Natalie Portman, wasn’t actually a character in the MCU. She was Thor’s romantic foil, but to be honest, she wasn’t that different from the original Jane. However, something happened to Jane in the comics that changed the character forever. After Thor Odinson lost his Mjolnir worth, Jane became Thor and starred in the best-selling Thor comics of the decades.
Fans loved Jane Foster as Thor, and many were excited to have the chance to see her in an MCU movie. The problem, of course, is that she was in Thor: Love and Thunder. The film is considered the worst Thor movie until Love and Thunder, although many fans and critics feel it may be as bad as Thor: The Dark World. was. Foster’s Thor never got the development she got in the comics, but Love and Thunder barely tried to develop her role. Porter did his best for Jane in the film, but she could only work with what she was given. In the comics, Jane Foster becomes a three-dimensional character who fights the Marvel Universe’s greatest threats. The movie Jane barely even reached the point of being two-dimensional at best.
odin
The casting of Anthony Hopkins as Odin pleased many Thor fans. Hopkins did a great job with this character, Anthony Hopkins, but there was a limit to what he could do with the material he had. Odin in the MCU was a grumpy king who then died.
This is a gross oversimplification of Odin in the comics.
He is a warrior king feared by both his enemies and allies. He is an intelligent monarch who has been dealing with all kinds of threats for thousands of years. Odin is cunning and always one step ahead of everyone. In the MCU, Odin is a cliché who never seems dangerous. He never felt like he was the mastermind, rather he was being made into a king available to everyone. Anthony Hopkins’ skills as Odin were completely wasted.
Meek
Meek was introduced to MCU fans in Thor: Ragnarok, but in the comics, Meek never met Thor. Meek hails from the hit novel Planet Hulk, which introduced Sakaar, the setting of Ragnarok. Meek, who appeared as a gladiator in both stories, played a major role in the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk comic storylines. He became one of Hulk’s first allies on Sakaar, helping Hulk escape a gladiatorial match, and later helping lead the army that liberated Earth from the clutches of the Red King. In the end, Meek interbred with the Brood aliens and was secretly responsible for the destruction of Sakaar, all because Meek wanted to continue fighting while Hulk wanted to settle down.
Meek was a master manipulator in the comics, and in the movies he was just… there. That’s all I can say about Meek in the MCU. The aliens don’t do much in the movie except hang out with Korg and Thor. In the comics, Meek was a pivotal character in two of Marvel’s best stories of the 2000s. But in the MCU, Meek wasn’t even an actual character.
Volstagg
This could have been any of the Warriors Three, but Volstagg was always the best of the trio, so he was the one who messed up the most. Although played by the late, great Ray Stevenson in the MCU, longtime Thor fans quickly realized something was missing. In the comics, Volstagg is known as Volstagg the Volminus, a rotund warrior known for his love of food, drink, and battle. He’s a fun character, always ready for a joke, but the MCU hasn’t really captured that part of the character. Stevenson was unable to convey Volstagg’s size, both physically and in personality.
The Warrior Three was never as cool in the MCU as it was in the comics. In other words, MCU fans couldn’t understand why comic book fans loved the Warriors Three so much. Volstagg and his compatriots were never just background characters, which is a tragedy.
