A few weeks ago I ended my series looking at the legend of Robin Hood, which means it is time to start a new series. It is no secret that I am a huge fantasy nerd, but what you may not have known is that I am also a comic book movie nerd. Ever since I was a little girl I have loved super heroes. At five years old my favorite cartoon wasn’t one about princesses or puppies, but ninjas who happened to be mutated turtles. I am pretty sure if I had been born a boy I would have been an avid comic book reader, but alas, I was not. I didn’t really even know what comic books were until I got older and by that point in time all I cared about was that reading them would get me mocked. So I never did. But I did watch the movies and the television shows (mostly about Superman).
This year is going to be a big year for the super hero movie. We have The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Avengers all coming out in one year. While I am excited about all three (especially the end of The Dark Knight trilogy), I absolutely can not wait for The Avengers. This movie has a lead in that is unprecedented, in that it is building off of four other movie franchises (granted not all four were huge successes). It even managed to keep all but one of the original actors from those separate franchises. That is insane!
So for this series, I plan on looking at the individual character movies and how they have set things up for when the call goes out: Avengers Assemble.
Thor
Last year the movie Thor, starring Chris Hemsworth, was released. One of the really cool things about this movie was that it was created with the knowledge that The Avengers was going to be happening and was a set up for what is going to happen in that movie as well as its own stand alone film. This allowed there to be little easter eggs sprinkled throughout the film that cheered my nerdy little heart upon my second viewing when I actually knew about The Avengers (my favorite being the cameo of one of Thor’s future Avenger mates. Anyone know who I’m referring to?).
Thor is the elder son of Odin, ruler of the realm Asgard. At the beginning of the movie he is a very powerful warrior, but he is also very arrogant and that arrogance lands him in some serious trouble. His father realizes that he is not ready to be given the responsibility that comes along with being King, so he strips him of his power and banishes him to Earth. During his time on Earth, Thor finally learns humility as well as the importance of thinking before acting, especially if your actions will affect others. It is when he demonstrates his newfound wisdom through sacrifice that his power is restored to him.
It is going to be very interesting to see how the lessons Thor learned will carry over when he is asked to work as an Avenger. Even with his lessons in humility, he still has a very big personality that is sure to clash with some of the others from time to time (we have already seen allusions to this in some of the trailers). He is the heir to his kingdom’s throne as well as the fiercest warrior in Asgard, so he is used to being a leader. I think that he will do reasonably well taking orders from Nick Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the man who brings them all together, since he is accustomed to having to defer to his father (and learned the hard lesson of defiance in Thor), but I imagine it will be very difficult for him to take orders from other members of the Avengers team.
The thing that I am most interested in seeing, however, is how the actions of Loki will affect Thor.
Loki is Thor’s brother and is set to be the main adversary that the Avengers must fight against. He is not strong like Thor, but he is very intelligent. In the film Thor, Loki betrayed his brother and tried to kill him. In the end, Thor was able to defeat Loki who fell into a wormhole and disappeared. Thor loved his brother and was deeply hurt by his betrayal. That is sure to carry over and cause him some amount of internal conflict. I would also imagine that some of the others will have a hard time trusting Thor completely, which will probably lead to even more conflict within the group of Avengers themselves.
Between Thor’s confident personality and personal conflict over the actions of his brother, there is sure to be lots of drama and conflict surrounding his character in The Avengers. But no matter what issues arise, I am sure that they will be able to work through them and come together as a team to defeat the threat Loki brings to Earth.
Are you looking forward to the upcoming Avengers movie? Have you seen Thor? What do you think about his character and the way he will interact with the other members of the Avengers team? Do you think he will be able to hold on to the lessons he learned in Thor? How do you think his personal connections with Loki will affect him? Let me know in the comments.
Be sure to look for The Avengers when it hits theaters on May 4 and check out Hypable.com for all the latest news on the movie.
