How do you feel about former comic book fans? 
I haven’t bought a comic book in close to 40 tears. But, since I was a kid during “The Marvel Age” of comics, I’ve made a point of seeing the recent crop of movies based on their characters. I loved the Spider-man, X-Men, & Iron Man movies & am pretty freaking curious at how they will pull off Thor, Captain America, & the Avengers.
Oh, & Thor wasn’t a 2nd rate hero. At least not when Jack Kirby was drawing him.
Didn’t she transform into The Valkyrie, or was that someone else? It’s been a while.
Probably Lady Sif.
No, Jane Foster was briefly given immortality and Asgardian godhood, but she didn’t become the Valkyrie.
I read Thor comics off and on (mostly on) for over 20 years, and none of that time coincided with his alter-ego being Don Blake. Most of the time he didn’t have an alter-ego, and for a while he was either Eric Masterson (later spun off as Thunderstrike) or Jake Olsen (no relation to DC’s Jimmy). He also had another identity (mainly before I started reading) that wasn’t him transformed into a mortal, but just him wearing normal clothing, Sigurd Jarlson.
I still know of Don Blake from reading reprints of origin stories and other older issues, but he’s hardly as integral to the concept of Marvel’s Thor as Clark Kent is to Superman or Peter Parker is to Spidey.
Shhh… Nobody tell wedgehed about Thor Girl…
If you ever pick up the MARVEL VS DC crossover from the '90s, Thor squares off against Captain Marvel – who eventually calls down the enchanted thunderbolt and changes back into Billy. Thor quips that at least Cap’s alter ego isn’t lame of leg; Billy says, remind me to introduce you to a guy named Freddy.
I didn’t know he was a comic character until another CS thread a couple of weeks ago. I’ve seen Adventures in Babysitting and assumed that the kid was fixated on Thor from Norse mythology.
I was unaware of that, but I can’t say I’m surprised. My comic book purchases pretty much ended when they gave Spider-Man two extra pairs of arms & a Spider-mobile.
The crapitude of Gil Kane & Ross Andru gave me no pause for regret.
I actually own every Marvel Thor comic ever published so I’m not exactly unbiased. That said, in my experience he’s fairly well know outside of the comic book community. Not Superman or Hulk or Spiderman level but moreso than say the Silver Surfer or even the Fantastic Four (pre movies).
The helmet & hammer help.
Distinctive, in the superhero set.
This is about what I expected, shy guy.
I have pretty much all the Thor comics published between 1971 and 2006, so I qualify as a big fan of the thunder god, but I suspected that his fame outside comics fandom was nowhere near as great as Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, etc.
I subscribed for a few years, starting a couple years before Simonson took it over and the Beta-Ray Bill stuff started up. So, I am (or at least was) a fan.
On a different note: Thor, God of Thunder!
I think the God of Thunder has a bit of help, recognition-wise, from the punchline to the old joke:
God of Thunder: “Madam, I’m Thor.”
Woman: “YOU’RE thor? I’m tho thor I can’t even pith!!”
I’m surprised nobody has really brought it up (unless I missed it), but they are making a movie of it, which I assume makes the question (much to droppy’s chagrin) more than an academic one.
I’ve been reading Marvel for as long as I can remember, but I never “got” Thor. Never read his comics and he never really showed up in anything I followed, so while I knew of him (and Loki), I didn’t know how the whole Deity thing really operated in the “real world”. Was he an actual God, or just some superhuman dude like Green Lantern, but with a hammer? How did other heroes (the non god-like ones) relate to him? Not really urgent questions, but also not ones with intuitive answers, which is probably why he’s always been off the radar for me.
It’s complicated. These are the exact issues the book has dealth with for the last ~8 years, and it’s been a pretty fun ride. Start reading Thor vol 2 around issue . . . (off the top of my head) . . . 35 if you’re interested. Come back when you’ve finished volume 2 and are up to date on volume 3. It gets REALLY good when J. Michael Straczynski (creator of Babylon 5) starts writing it.
Thanks. Definitely not going to happen (I don’t have the time/$$/inclination to read comics anymore), but I figured the perspective from someone who did have a passing familiarity with the comics world was worth sharing.
There’s a hammer and helmet. There’s smashing (I presume) and maybe lightning?
Ah, ok. Well, your issues have been addressed at length in the comics now. If you ever get the time and inclination, your public library system probably has the trade paperbacks. You’d probably want to start at Gods On Earth, but if you really want to know what’s going on, go back a few more and start at The Death of Odin . . . unless you really want to know what’s going on, in which case start at Thor: Resurrection, unless you REALLY REALLY want to know what’s going on . . . :p:D.
Yeah, I like Thor.
Yeah, I figured he couldn’t have survived this long without some heavy backstory and mythology-building (so to speak) going on.
I think I’ll just wait for the movie. 
My pub trivia team was confronted with a picture of Marvel’s version of Loki, and I was a bit surprised that I was the first to identify him. Three others had looked at the picture before me. Though if it had been handed around the table the other way, the guy to my left would have definitely got it.
So I take that to mean that most do not know Thor.