When Marvel’s founding father, Stan Lee, debuted the character of Thor in 1962, the idea was to create a hero who was naturally stronger than the recently launched Hulk. (No lab accidents, exposure to radiation, etc.) Superhero fans already knew Batman — a brooding human whose “superpowers” are money and brains — and Superman, an alien who might have been a regular guy on his home planet, Krypton, had he not been launched as a baby to Earth, where his every move is stronger / higher / faster / better. Thor represented a new direction for Marvel, the comics’ first effort to take ancient legends and modernize them. And he was not a man but an actual god, the Norse god of thunder. 

Thor was an inspired choice, born with all the superhero traits you could want. He was the strongest of the gods. He could manipulate the weather. And he had a chosen weapon, the magic hammer Mjolnir, which enabled him to fly and (needless to say) beat the stuffing out of any assailant. 

Thor didn’t arrive at the Marvel party alone. Through him, comic books could access all the characters in a rich, mythological world. And unlike the Greek gods and goddesses who were better known to most Americans, the Norse family of gods was more remote — but just as quarrelsome, powerful, and fascinating. These gods lived in Asgard, ruled by Thor’s one-eyed father, Odin. 

The Norse gods’ world is all about fierceness in battle, which is one reason the most desirable real estate in Algard is the banquet hall, Valhalla, where the Valkyries bring warriors who died bravely in battle. In the golden hall, the heroes eat and drink endless godly food and mead, and tell war stories. (Who are the Valkyries? Supernatural warrior maidens whose job it is to decide who lives and who dies on the battlefield, and where the dead should spend the afterlife.) 

Thor is the gods’ most powerful warrior — but in myth as well as the modern Marvel world, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. So all the dilemmas that require cleverness fall to Loki, Thor’s adopted brother, who has also gone on to become a hugely popular character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (The trouble with Loki is, his solutions generally harm as much as they help.)

From his first appearance, fans loved Thor. They sympathized with his occasional bumbling moments as well as his fearlessness, and they loved his superkeen senses, which allow him to hear a distress cry from the other side of Earth, and even to travel through time. 

In the Marvel Universe, Thor appears in many more worlds than Asgard. He is one of the original Avengers, and a bitter enemy of Thanos, the depopulation-crazy villain we’ve talked about before.

And for today’s movie fans, it’s important to say that Thor also launched the superpowered career of Australia’s Chris Hemsworth. The tall, buff, strikingly handsome actor turned out to have a lively sense of the ridiculous, happy to make fun of himself along with everybody else. 

Hemsworth’s physical presence and buoyant personality have made Thor one of the most popular characters for movie fans around the world. 

In Avengers: Endgame, Hemsworth even dared to break the most basic superhero taboo: His Thor showed up fat! With a beer gut! And he was just as much fun as ever.

Needless to say, Thor has appeared in lots of films, animated series, and action figure collections. One of Thor’s most popular movie adventures was Thor: Ragnarok. The film’s story was taken from actual Norse myth, in which Ragnarok is the name of a long-predicted, cataclysmic event that is destined to destroy Asgard. No spoilers, but the film is huge fun, not least because of Cate Blanchett, a villain so fabulous she rocks a headdress with antlers.

When we last saw Thor in the movies, Asgard was in the past, and the thunder god was thinking about maybe getting back to work, partnered with a new and slightly off-kilter galactic crew. Where they’re going, we’re not sure. But one thing is certain. Thor will be back.

While Thor is one of my favorite superheroes, I chose to have the superheroes in the Cockroach the Superhero stories be more realistic. Well, kinda realistic. They aren’t gods, but they are ordinary people who have found their way to superpowers through magic rings, radioactive acorns, a test of a military weapon, and so on. I tried to capture that lighthearted spirit of Thor in my superhero stories. But my hero, 11-year-old Kyle Alexander, is not fearless like Thor. He’s a kid who is often scared half to death. But maybe that makes him braver because he faces the dangers despite his fears.  

You can get to know Cockroach in two stories so far: “Breakfast of Superheroes” and Kyle’s newest adventure: “The Secrets of the Superhero’s Ring.” Enjoy!