20 times Thor was the best Marvel superhero

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20. When he was Donald Blake

Which is pretty much all the time. Sure, you can find plenty of Thor comics where he leans a little too far into the self-important tragedy side of things, but that’s not where he shines. Thor is really at his best when he’s a well-meaning gentleman, albeit one with a giant, magical hammer, and a pretty cool helmet.

All of that started very near the beginning of Thor’s Marvel storyline. Though he starts out as Asgardian royalty, young Thor is a bit of a braggadocious jock. He swaggers around the kingdom, flirting with everyone while knocking enemies on the head with Mjolnir, his magic hammer (which is definitely not some kind of metaphor for anything else).

Odin, his father and the head honcho of all the Asgardians, eventually gets fed up with his son. Though Thor is brilliant and a formidable fighter, he clearly needs a lesson in humility. So, like any responsible parent, Odin takes away Thor’s powers and memory. He then transports his son into the body of Donald Blake, a disabled human man.

As Blake, Thor makes his way through medical school and becomes a respected and, more importantly, humble doctor. Though he eventually finds his way back to Asgard, it’s clear that Thor has learned some valuable lessons from his time as a mortal human.