“Ultron, we would have words with thee.”
That line, written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by the legendary George Perez, is one of the penultimate moments in my Thor fandom. That may have been when I went from a casual, “Hey, Thor is cool” to “Holy crap, this GOD is on the side of the angels!”
This was right after Heroes Reborn went down and all of the major Avengers titles were relaunched with new creative teams.
This fed into Bendis’ run, which led to Avengers Disassembled. Worth a read, of course. I say that as a guy that enjoys Bendis’ work though. Maybe you hate him, and that’s ok. You’re wrong, but it’s ok.
The stand-out in those stories was the Thor arc. I had never seen a story like this prior. It was really one of the closest I’ve seen a character get to breaking the 4th wall, without actually doing it. Certainly not in a funny, Deadpool/Ambush Bug way.
In the Dissasembled Thor arc, he realizes he’s part of an endless, never-ending cycle of Ragnorok. The Asgardians are born, live, and die the same way. The process then repeats. In reading, it has been repeated countless times.
Because of this, Thor, with Loki’s speaking head in a bag beside him, realizes he must end the cycle. Thor decides that once and for all, he is letting his fellow Gods and Goddesses stay dead, to earn their rightful place in Valhalla.
And he meant it. At least for a while. That’s why Thor wasn’t around for the first Civil War, and why they made a clone that accidentally killed Goliath.
Of course, he came back, masterfully so, at the hands of MJS. This lead to Dark Reign, and the destruction of Asgard at the hands of the Sentry. This, of course, is a VERY condensed version of Thor’s comic history for the last two decades.
However, without it, we never get to Jason Aaron’s fantastic run. I know folks had an issue with it, and Jane Foster as Thor specifically. I have to believe the people who had the problems never read the run, because man, it was incredible. That run saw Thor put through a ringer like never before.
I’ve not picked up any of Danny Coate’s run yet, but I have heard nothing but great things about it, so I am looking forward to it.
So why all of this about a totally different Thor?
I feel like all of those events gave us the MCU Thor, but like the Hulk, the MCU never really realized the full extent of his powers. Except in a very few key scenes.
I am left with so many questions. In Ragnarok, we see our MCU Thor accept his mantle. He knocks out the Hulk, saves the Asgardians even as Hela and Surtur are destroying Asgard.
This is the most powerful we have ever seen the MCU Thor up until this point. The next time we see him, after realizing his full potential, is at the start of Infinity War. Where he gets all but murdered by Thanos.
What? So this is the same Thor who JUST did all of those things in Ragnarok?
Doesn’t add up. But still, the next time we see Thor take on Thanos in IW, he literally barrels through everything Thanos can throw at him, WHILE THANOS HAS THE GAUNTLET AND FIVE OF THE SIX INFINITY STONES!
YES! His arrival in that final battle scene is one of the youtube video fan reactions I still rewatch. I get chills from it.
We then see Thor again, in Endgame. 20 minutes into the movie, he dispatches Thanos in one swift motion.
“I went for the head.”
Fast forward five years later, Thor is the Big Lebowski and living a life of shame and failure.
And threatening teenagers in Fort Night. Now THAT is an impulse I can get behind.
However, at the end of Endgame, we see a bearded, long-haired, braided version of a freaking Viking God. A god now in full possession of the Odin-force. A god twenty times more powerful than previous versions. He goes up against a non-Infinity Gem having Thanos and gets his clock cleaned. Immediately.
I can’t make it make sense, but it did give us the Cap/Mjolnir scene.
That was in 2018. We now finally have THAT figure. The fully realized, God version of Thor. The overweight, before P90X body picture. At first I was a little annoyed with it. I want my heroes to be better than me. Sure, I can’t control my buffalo wing intake, but the God of Thunder, and All Father of Asgard, shouldn’t have to watch his calories.
It didn’t take long before I was ok with it. After all, I’ve maintained for decades that it really doesn’t matter what kind of physical shape Superman is in. He can bench press his own body weight 97 times a day, but he would never be SWOL enough to move the moon out of orbit.
Much like Kal-El, Thor’s strength has NOTHING to do with the physical shape he’s in. His power comes from inside, or even from the World Tree. But it doesn’t come from not having triple chins.
So how does this figure stack up? Good question.
What comes with the Marvel Legends Infinity Saga Thor figure?
Enough. How you like dem’ apples?
Seriously though, we get a Strombreaker.
A Mjolnir.
Two holding hands as seen above, and two hammer callin’ hands.
Finally, two identical lightning effect pieces.
A detailed shot of the Odinson belly:
What doesn’t work with the Marvel Legends Infinity Saga Thor figure?
The Marvel Legends Infinity Saga Thor figure really doesn’t have a lot of low points for what it is. I would have loved seeing a headsculpt with SOME personality in it, but unless it’s third-party aftermarket, I doubt we will get it. I have the Mafex preordered as well, so I’ll get options there.
Why no fist? Thor hits things. A lot.
No real up or down head movement. Why aren’t butterfly shoulders just part of the package now?
It would have been nice to have non-electrictrified weapons, but I guess we have other versions of Thor we could use for those. Speaking of electrified, they didn’t bother scaling down that effect from the IW three-pack for Mjolnir so it it looks silly.
What works with the Marvel Legends Infinity Saga Thor figure?
The photorealistic headsculpt of Hemsworth isn’t bad at all.
If I’m being completely honest, I love the hammer calling hands. For me, it makes him really impressive to display. I know that sounds dumb, but…
I think they look cool.
His articulation is about what you’d expect, with double-jointed knees and elbows. In other words, it works.
Should you purchase the Marvel Legends Infinity Saga Thor figure?
If you are into the MCU, yes. If you’re a Thor fan, yes. At this price point, I think it’s a great figure. Sure, an extra head would have been wonderful, but the one we got isn’t bad. I’m ok with it. I have to be, right? I think he’s a really strong MCU Legend. Is the Marvel Legends Infinity Saga Thor “Figure of the year” Contender? No. Not by a long shot.
He’s just a cool Chris Hemsworth Thor figure.
You can grab him here:
Now… let’s take a moment to talk about Thor toys. Specifically, the lack thereof when I was a child.
The only Thor figure I remember having was the Mego Thor. I remember it took me three minutes to lose the helmet. It then would have taken my mother roughly two more hours to realize we lost it and beat me for it.
Other than that… I don’t remember a lot of Thor figures or Thor-related merchandise. It seems like he should have been a shoo-in for the Secret Wars Toyline. I mean, he was actually in the comic. Daredevil wasn’t. Baron Zemo wasn’t. Falcon wasn’t. Hobgoblin wasn’t. But Thor was.
Maybe they didn’t know how to make his helmet? That’s a dumb guess. I have to wonder though what the thought process was at the time. Best guess: having a toy “god” would offend parents.
Speaking of the Secret Wars figures, I was pretty sure I had the entire line. However, I didn’t know they made a Hobgoblin or a Falcon. I did have the rest. I will say, the level of rage I felt at 11 when I saw they didn’t give Captain America his shield, but instead the same secret identity insert was palpable. Lame.
Having these figure be the same size as the Super Powers line was a stroke of genius. Or maybe because Star Wars had set the standard for 1:18 several years prior? In my mind, they all existed in the same world. It was an amazing time to be alive.
Regardless, at least we Thor fans can get a decent Thor figure these days. Maybe we’ll even get a more current comic look for him than the Unworthy figure. Hasbro? Love and Thunder is still two years away. Regardless… here’s a few more pics to wrap!
