Chris Hemsworth’s Thor may be the most tragically misunderstood character in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. At the very least, he’s the most inconsistent: he suffers the most from Marvel’s episodic approach, with each writer and director delivering a different idea of his character. Kenneth Branagh introduced Thor as an upstart prince who spoke in Shakespearean verse; those who followed used him as either comic relief or a punching bag, saddling him with one tragedy after the next in lieu of true character development.
For every attempt to introduce some true pathos — like his grappling with grief and failure in Avengers: Infinity War — it’s swiftly undermined by another bizarre, surface-level pivot. He loses one of his eyes in a battle with his half-sister, Hela (Cate Blanchett); he gets that eye back two movies later. He goes on a whole odyssey to create a new weapon after his mythical hammer, Mjolnir, is smashed to pieces, but Mjolnir returns before long, too. He falls into a depression after losing the fight with Thanos (Josh Brolin) and becomes “Fat Thor,” only to reclaim his superhero build in his next solo film. Marvel still has to answer for its crimes against Jane Foster, but that’s an issue for another day. The point is, nothing ever seems to matter for the God of Thunder... but his next appearance could finally make up for all that inconsistency.
