In the Marvel universe, Paganism is a provably true religion. Thor and Hercules aren’t mythical figures - they’re people you can walk up to on the street and shake hands with. And their powers are obviously real. You’d think their presense would have led to a major revival of Paganism.
- I think most people don’t believe Thor is who he says he is, apart from maybe some relatively recent storylines where he tried to take an active role in being a “god” on Earth
- Hercules is 3rd string player who has gotten relatively little attention until World War Hulk (I know he was an Avenger and has had a couple miniseries but he’s never been a hugely popular Marvel character)
- It’s a comic book. If you start asking logical questions, there will be no bottom to the rabbit-hole.
If I had to guess - probably due to all the OTHER people with powers falling out of their face-hole that could give Thor et al at least a pretty tough time if they tried hard enough. After seeing people on the news every two weeks who can beat your God to a pulp, well, you might as well worship the one who at least hasn’t been disproven omnipotent.
I don’t think Thor is meant to be omnipotent, and he is probably the most powerful Marvel “hero” (excluding cosmic entities like Galactus, Eternity, etc.) Silver Surfer and Hulk can give him a run for his money, but I don’t think they can beat him, and surely not to a pulp.
In a way, it makes more sense that in the Marvel universe there should be less paganism. Religion tends to be about worshipping the intangible, and Thor or Hercules would be too real.
Even more so, religion tends to be about getting some benefit from the worshipping, and… Thor and Hercules have absolutely no power to answer worshippers’ prayers. Odin, maybe; but not the other Asgardians or “gods”.
Sure, Thor might come beat someone up if you’re his worshipper, if you manage to run into him on the street, and if you’re wanting him to beat up Ultron or something. But, heck, She-Hulk might do the same under the circumstances… and we don’t really expect Marvel pagans to start worshipping She-Hulk.
I do!
C’mon, Lightray! You had to know THIS would be a response around here… 
Didn’t the 2099 universe have Thor-worshipers as a major faction?
Yes, and Thursday was renamed Thor’s day. (or maybe returned to it’s original name)
It’s because in real life the editors and writers responsible for the comic’s content live in a primarily Christian (or agnostic or atheist) USA and don’t need the hassle of being accused of promoting paganism.
Within the continuity of the comics, the general idea seems to be that the Asgardians are sort of “retired” gods, still honored in myth and story but no longer seeking active worship. There was one story where the last true worshiper of the Norse gods- the last survivor of a lost colony of Vikings- died and was escorted to Valhalla and it was generally accepted that that closed the book on further recruits. In another story Thor needed some living worshippers to augment his power and he had to go time traveling to recruit them. And in another storyline some neopagans wanted to be Thor’s followers and he seemed more embarassed by it than anything, especially because a Christian minister went apeshit about it.
Oooh, that reminds me. Earlier this decade, when I was reading Thor on a regular basis, there was a bit of a fuss in the letters column about Thor being called a “god”. To the point that Quesada, I believe, actually kind of sort of apologized and they wrote a little thing into the story about “the one who is higher than Odin” or somesuch. I’m probably getting most of the details wrong but there was some pretty overt Christian-appeasing going on. Look around The Mighty Thor Volume 2 issues 25-35ish if you’ve got 'em. I do, but they’re packed away at the moment.
Even with no hope of getting prayers answered, you’d think quite a few atheists and agnostics would go ahead and believe in Thor and Hercules, purely because they verifiably exists.
Occasionally, I toss out a straight line. My way of giving back, and all. 
You’d think having Christian authorities spend several centuries telling everyone that paganism is completely false and just a myth, having Thor show up in person would be a blow to their credibility. I’ll admit if Xenu showed up, demonstrated his superpowers, and said that he actually had been the leader of a Galactic Federation and killed a billion people in a volcano, I’d have to seriously rethink my opinions on Scientology.
I’ve asked this question of fellow local comic fans and this is the answer I get the most often, and the one that makes the most sense. When you’ve got a dozen different people with god like abilities and one claims to be the actual Thor, god of thunder, your natural response is going to be that he’s a science accident with a gimmick.
That’s pretty much what I was getting at in post #2, point #1. I recall some storylines wherein even his fellow Avengers explicitly state that they don’t believe he’s really Thor.
Probably for the same reason that Reed Richards Is Useless.
Sometimes life really does imitate art. I can’t help being reminded of a recent news story about some child super-genus who’s decided to study a field of mathematics so abstruse that only 10 other people in the world understand it. :rolleyes: :mad: 
Eh? Since when did Norse mythology get co-opted by paganism?