Former founding member of the Avengers, apparently deceased; past participant in the Thor Corps. 

     Thor was the warrior prince of the Asgardians, a superhuman otherdimensional race of immortals worshipped by the ancient Norsemen as gods and widely regarded as mythical today. Son of the Asgardian monarch Odin and the Earth goddess Gaea, Thor possessed near-limitless strength and wielded the enchanted, indestructible uru hammer Mjolnir. Long considering himself a protector of humanity, Thor was far more involved in the affairs of Midgard (Earth) over the centuries than most of his fellow gods. In recent years, he divided his time between Earth and Asgard, battling threats to both or either of the two realms he called home. During his time on Earth, he sometimes used mortal dual identities such as Dr. Donald Blake, Sigurd Jarlson and Jake Olson.
   

     Thor is a pivotal figure in Avengers history--and not just as a founder, a past leader of the team, a major powerhouse and a longtime member; Thor is also the reason the Avengers formed in the first place. Thor's evil half-brother Loki, Asgardian god of evil and mischief, had concocted a scheme to draw Thor into battle by framing the monstrous Hulk for criminal acts. By the time Thor confronted and subdued Loki, these events had attracted the attention of Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, who joined forces to battle the Hulk but relented when Thor revealed that Loki was the true villain. After Ant-Man foiled Loki's last-ditch attempt to destroy the group, the five heroes remarked on what a great team they would make and decided to remain together as the Avengers. Loki never forgave himself for this, and tried repeatedly to erase his error by attempting the destruction of the Avengers.

     As noted, Thor was one of the team's most powerful and longest-serving members. His godly pride and his competing responsibilities in Asgard occasionally led him away from the group for extended periods, but he always returned, often during dire circumstances when the team needed him most. He was the second Avenger to serve as a full-time chairman of the group, succeeding Captain America when Cap took a leave of absence, but Thor never resumed the chairman's post after resigning it during a membership reshuffling. In recent times, Thor had been troubled by a growing awareness of the mortality of most of his Avengers comrades, and had begun to wonder if he should leave the team to spare himself the pain of their inevitable deaths; but a fellow immortal Avenger, Firebird, successfully encouraged him to overcome his fears and sustain his friendship with the Avengers.

     Despite this renewed sense of dedication to the Avengers, Thor was soon forced to leave the team when he inherited the throne of Asgard after the death of his father, Odin. After that, Thor became an infrequent participant in Avengers business, devoting most of his time to his new duties as the ruler of Asgard. This new role sometimes brought him into conflict with Earthly authorities, including the Avengers. Matters came to a head when Thor, Iron Man and Captain America were all drawn into an international crisis masterminded by Doctor Doom, a crisis that spurred Thor and his fellow Asgardians to fight on behalf of an oppressed people who worshipped them as gods. In the end, the military conflict ended without major loss of life and the Asgardians relented, but a heartsick Thor reluctantly severed his ties with the Avengers since he could not reconcile his mortal affiliations with his new role as ruler of Asgard. More recently, the long-prophesied Ragnarok cataclysm finally claimed Asgard and its people, including Thor. Whether he and his Asgardian brethren will ever be reborn in some form remains to be seen.

 Thor [II] (Eric Kevin Masterson)
     Alias assumed by Eric Masterson when he was given Thor's powers and instructed to take Thor's place as protector of Earth, including Thor's membership in the Avengers. With the original Thor's eventual return to activity, Masterson assumed a distinctive identity of his own as Thunderstrike.