What Marvel Gets WRONG About Norse Mythology

Thor. Loki. Odin. Forget Marvel’s version. This is the haunting truth of Norse legend.

V I D E O S T O W A T C H N E X T :

Hades vs Anubis: ⚔️ Who is the TRUE King of the Underworld?

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#mythology #mythologyexploration #mythologyrevealed #mythologyunveiled #mythologyexplained #worldmythology #mythologylovers #mythologystories
#gods #goddesses #mythologicalfigures
#ancientmythology #ancienthistory #ancientgods #legendsandmyths #epicmyths #myths #mythsexplained #ancientdeities #ancientmysteries
#norsemythology #norsemyths #norsemyth #norsegods #aesir #norselegends
#epictales #mythologicalstories #historicalmyths

[atteleo]

after Thor's death, his brother Vidar, fueled by an uncontrollable rage, killed fenrir by tearing his jaws apart

[VOLKHVORONOVICH]

Marvel Comics were just starting out when Lee and Kirby introduced the Mighty Thor in Journey Into Mystery issue 83. Kirby was the one with the instinct for myth, an instinct he showed was still alive and kicking when he created The New Gods for DC. As a matter of fact, the New Gods was Kirby's statement of what happened after Raganrok.

Kirby had been involved with Norse mythology as a fertile field to harvest stories from, since the 1940s. I think it was an early Sandman story entitled, The Villain From Valhalla, where he introduced a version of Thor. This version was actually a crook called Fairy Tales Fenton, who, I guess, rigged up an electric hammer as a weapon. The hammer looked nothing like would appear in comics later. And this Thor was all red-bearded and braided beard, like out of the myths.
During the Atlas era, Kirby used Thor again. The hammer took on the solid block shape with slanted edges we've known since the sixties.
But it was in 1962 that Kirby gave Thor a full development. I imagine the clean shaven blonde Viking appearance was adopted because he looked much more young, rather than that if a burly red-bearded fifty year old. Greater chance of reader identification.
Lee and Kirby weren't trying to do a totally faithful adaptation of Norse myth. They were trying to creates something that would sell, and understood from that viewpoint, they did excellently.
Lee was trying to create superheroes that were at least two dimensional, rather than one, as most comics seemed to be at the time. He didn't know if the Fantastic Four, or Spider-Man, or X-Men were going to make it. Remember also, that they had to produce complete stories and only had a month to do them. That resulted in hitting the ground running.
It wasn't uncommon for a year later, having to change a previous story in favor of a better, more updated version.
I don't know how well Kirby knew the myths. His knowledge certainly was encyclopediac. But he knew how to take some material and apply it for the needs of the story he was telling.
Kirby's been gone since the 80s. Marvel has tried to keep things going. They've tried to innovate. They've tried to improve. Sometimes good ideas. Sometimes disasters.
But, in at least one case, there was a time Kirby added something that was not part of the original myths, but it damn well should have been! And that was the Destroyer. Odin knew that one day a terrible enemy would come to the Earth. The Destroyer was created to be the ultimate killing machine. When the enemy came he would find the Destroyer, and the Destroyer would fulfill its programming and destroy the enemy, thus saving the Earth.

[VOLKHVORONOVICH]

What DOESN'T Marvel get wrong about Norse mythology?