20 times Thor was the best Marvel superhero

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18. When he’s just a little out of touch with humans

It’s bound to happen. After all, Thor has traveled to Earth from a realm so far away that it’s hard to imagine. And it’s not as if Asgard is like any human community you’ve ever seen. It’s full of strange (to us, anyway) buildings, costumes, and mannerisms. Any prince of that society is, therefore, going to be especially entrenched in its culture and ways of living.

That’s all great when Thor is in Asgard. But, in some of the more “traditional” comics depictions of Thor, he starts to look and feel a little out of place when he arrives in Midgard. As much as he loves being a superhero and fighting evil, he still comes off a strangely courtly. His language is peppered with “thees” and “thous”. Depending on the letterer, even the font in his speech bubbles has an old-timey Renaissance fair feel to it.

Don’t get me wrong, though. As silly as this sounds, Thor is perhaps all the more admirable for it. And, in the hands of a good writer and artist, his mannerisms often serve to make him all the more majestic and alien.

That doesn’t mean humor is completely out of the question, as more recent comics storylines will illustrate. Check out Thor: The Mighty Adventure for a recent good example. Certainly, the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok movie, directed by Taika Waititi, will likely lean in that direction.