God of Thunder

Thor

Taking a sort of chronological approach to Make My Marvel, I'm kicking off with my first continuity change following my rolling start of Marvel Comics timeline.

As I mentioned in my MMM kick-off post, I'm 100% on-board with Marvel continuity up through the end of Civil War.  My first deviation kicks in in September of 2007 with the never-happened introduction of Thor vol. 3.  Here's why that'll never happen in my Marvel.

Unlike seemingly every other comic book fan out there, I've never cared much for Thor when he focused on his Asgardian heritage.  At my core, I'm a superhero fan, and I like seeing Thor acting in Midgard as a hero, rather than hanging out with all his god friends in Asgard.  In fact, my favorite period of Thor's history was when the son of Odin was banished and his powers bestowed on mortal man, Eric Masterson.

They added some armoring to his costume, but without going full-on Viking like in recent years.

This aesthetic will influence my costuming decisions for MMM Thor.

By coincidence, when last we saw Thor, he and all of Asgard were destroyed in the most recent period of Ragnarok during Avenges Disassembled.  That was back in 2004, so by the end of Civil War, Thor had been dead for three years, with only his hammer, Mjolnir, appearing on Earth as it crashed into Oklahoma in 2006.

Thor vol. 3 sets the big Asgard reset button as a Doctor Don Blake latches onto the hammer, revealing himself to be the son of Odin, and going on a quest to revive all the previously-dead Asgardians.

I call bull%@#$.

The death of Thor was one of those bold moves I really appreciated, all the more because it sets me up for the Thor stories *I* want to tell.

See, following Mjolnir's appearance, I imagine tons of people and organizations would be attempting to claim it, but for all the wrong reasons.  Thanks to the hammer's enchantment, none were able to lift it.  Time passes and, other than the reactivation of nearby Fort Cobb as an Army outpost to keep an eye on the artifact, nothing much has developed from it.  

This volume of Thor introduces the character of Grant Stewart (or whatever I decide to name him), a former sheriff's deputy who was retired from the force due to injuries received in the line of duty.  Grant's opening storyline will have him be the first person to attempt to claim Thor's hammer for entirely selfless reasons (in general terms, related to the circumstances behind his injuries) and gaining the powers of Thor.  Without retreading old ground of having Thor's mortal form being a medical man, he still retains his status as a civic servant, and his connections with the sheriff's department tie him into the crime-fighting community of the region.  On the throw-back side, though, his injuries do require him to walk with cane, so he gets that old familiar device for summoning Mjolnir.  I admit Broxton, Oklahoma is a tough sell for supervillainy, but since I'm writing these stories, all I have to do is write stories with supervillains.  I think we're past the point of needing to justify their appearance.

Grant's supporting cast include his friends at the sheriff's office, significant members of the nearby Army base, whatever conspirators were involved in his injury, and the townsfolk of Broxton.  Three townsmembers in particular will demonstrate a penchant for getting into trouble and, while they will become strong allies of Thor, their tendency to need rescuing will take steps toward cancelling that out.  Although I've no intention of resurrecting the Asgardians, these three will have shades of Warriors Three, and may even take on that name during their adventures.

The only exception to my "No Asgardians" rule is the survival of Loki.  If anybody's clever enough to survive Ragnarok, it's Loki, and he returns to pester this new wielder of the power of Thor.  I may even pick up on events in the comic where Loki took on the form of a woman. I don't think I ever understood the reason for that in the comics, but I like the look the artists generated for Loki's female form, and can probably think of a reason Loki would need to change forms in order to survive Ragnarok.

Thor's appearance would also change to mirror his new "host body," and I'm even tempted to make Grant a redhead, not only to dial into the mythology of Thor as a ginger, but also to match this awesome illustration of a redheaded Thor by a bloke named "MasterOniHunter" over at Superbuddies.net:

Although I would very definitely include the masked helm as seen on Erik Masterson.