Marvel Legends: Thor

In preparation for the Marvel Comics event “War of the Realms,” let’s have a look at Legends Thor, as she appears in Jason Aaron’s spectacular Thor run dating from 2014 until just last year. Spoilers ahead, for those who don’t know who this Thors’ secret identity is, so proceed with caution.

 After the more traditional Thor realizes he’s no longer worthy of wielding Mjolnir, the hammer calls to a new bearer. Stricken with cancer that is all but guaranteed to kill her, Jane Foster becomes the Goddess of Thunder, a development that, over the course of a couple years worth of marvelous storytelling, teach her not only about being a hero but also about the value and joys of living, all while the power of the thunder courses through her body interrupting the chemo treatments that the human being needs to fight her illness. It’s a really beautiful story at times of doing what is right or necessary versus doing what may be best for yourself, about putting others before yourself even if that winds up being bad for you. A tale of self sacrifice. It’s not much of a secret that Jason Aaron is one of our favorite comic writers around these parts, so detractors may decry this as being overly biased, but the Jane Foster Thor is one of the best stories in recent memory. It’s important to note that this is not Girl Thor, or some kind of stand-in, temporary Thor, but that Jane real WAS Thor, making “Thor” a title for the person worthy of Mjolnir rather than a specific name, although the Hero Formerly Known as Thor is still known as Thor, as that is his given name.

With Wave mate Hela

The figure has the standard articulation for a Marvel Legends figure, but as the figure is a female buck, it feels pretty slight and . . . I don’t think there’s a real English word for this, so I call it “unsturdy”. The arms specifically are very thin, and are something of a concern at the elbows when bending those joints, for fear of stressing or breaking them. This is a commonly experienced nervousness with smaller or more slender bucks and limbs, which generally is experienced with figures of female characters. There has never been an issue with any of the examples in my collection, but it does make me concerned. I’m apparently either exceptionally lucky with my figures or exceptionally careful, as I’ll see Internet reports of arms and legs breaking with even the gentlest pressure, and I’ve not yet had that happen to any of my figures. A little caution is probably always good though, regardless of what the figure happens to be.

The head sculpt is really strong, and looks just like the cover of the first issue to feature this new Thor. The overall sculpt of the figure is excellent as well. Paint work is good, too. Thor comes with a tiny Mjolnir, and no other accessories. Mjolnir has a little strap at the base of the handle. If the figure were released now, after the identity reveal and everything, there may have been an alternate head included, just to up the parts count, but obviously that would have been a pretty massive spoiler a few years ago when this figure was first released prior to Ragnarok hitting theaters. A spoiler for the character and the then-current comic run, not for the movie.

The cape is soft plastic and plugs into a hole on the back, similar to the way that Mysterio’s does, although this cape does not present as much of a balance issue. This cape comes all the way down to the ground, which may be why it does not effect balance. It is a fairly standard soft plastic cape, as far as this line goes.

Comic book figure collecting is a fairly random part of my collecting approach, mainly reserved for characters that I really love or really love the looks of, but this Thor was going to wind up on my shelf almost no matter what. Written by a writer I really like and a version of the character that I really got swept up in, Thor was an automatic purchase when I found her at retail. Her time in the comic was spent working through a terrific story that was probably the best take on the ol’ Superhero Wrestles With Being Human template that I’ve read in the last few years, possibly longer, and Thor  was a title that I was always looking forward to when we’d visit our comic shop and pick up our books. I’m not trying to spoil anything from the comic for anyone, but when this Thor’s time was up and the book began moving in a new direction again, I was saddened. I did get a chance to meet Jason Aaron at C2E2 2018 and get a few issues signed, and I took a minute to tell him how much I appreciated the work he was doing on the title and with the character. And as a fan, that always feels good to do.

Because I love this character and the writer who brought her to life, I’d recommend this end up in every collection. But again, I have a pretty heavy bias here. I’m right, but in the interest of fairness, I am biased.