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Post by sabongero on Sept 19, 2019 17:55:39 GMT -5
Which pantheon of Gods did Thor battle w/ that's interesting? And what other mythological inspired antagonists did Thor fight as well?
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Post by berkley on Sept 19, 2019 21:20:28 GMT -5
I can't think of any standouts myself- in fact these stories tended to be disappointments, much of the time, for me: I remember one with the Egyptian god Set as the villain, for instance, that I thought should have had much more potential than was realised on the page - though admittedly this was during a long, humdrum period for the series in general (this particular story was around the #240s or 250s, I think).
Pluto was a recurring villain dating back to the Kirby/Lee days, but again, these weren't among my favourites, though I found pretty much everything from their run at least entertaining and fun. Could be I'm forgetting some good ones that someone else will remind us of.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 23, 2019 8:25:33 GMT -5
I enjoyed the Celtic gods that Thor teamed up with in the big storyline leading up to 400.. I think Set was the villain there, as well.
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Post by berkley on Sept 23, 2019 16:11:37 GMT -5
One that was interesting, though a just a one-off, was the issue right after the big Celestials epic finished, around #300 or #301, where Thor went around to all the different pantheons asking for a fraction of their divine energy so he could reconstitute Odin and the Asgardians, or something like that.
I think perhaps one reason I dn't recall many stories of this kind that I liked is because the basic premise doesn't agree with me: there tends to be a sort of "our gods are better than your gods" feeling at the bottom of it, even if not always acknowledged explicitly. Not only is this a dangerously divisive way of thinking, I believe it's at odds with the pagan or pre-Judaeo-Christian outlook I like to think is part of the Thor series at its most interesting.
Not that this attitude never made itself felt in pagan culture at all, but it was less systematic, less all-pervasive, less ingrained into the very basis of their world-view. To take a famous example, when the Trojans and the Achaeans go to war in the Iliad, we don't have a Trojan/Asian pantheon fighting an Achaean/Greek pantheon of national gods: there's just one set, one universal pantheon of gods acknowledged by both sides and the division of pro-Trojan vs pro-Achaean gods is one that occurs within that single pantheon. I think that we moderns tend to take the Judaeo-Christian idea of "our" gods vs theirs so much for granted that we forget to keep this important difference in mind when we read things like the Iliad.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 24, 2019 18:00:35 GMT -5
I liked the idea behind one annual (I think it was #10), in which it was explained how there could be so many pantheons instead of just a single “real” one and a bunch of imposters.
Apparently, when the Earth was formed, there was some kind of energy called “godstuff” that could be manipulated by mankind’s dreams, imagination and faith, and given actual, physical form. That means the gods in the Marvel universe are real, in the sense that they are myth given form (complete with their own mythical attributes, including that of having been the creators of the world).
That issue featured the death gods from several pantheons. They were alas used as divine red shirts to show how scary the main baddie was, but it was cool to see new faces.
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Post by Duragizer on Sept 24, 2019 23:28:58 GMT -5
I liked the idea behind one annual (I think it was #10), in which it was explained how there could be so many pantheons instead of just a single “real” one and a bunch of imposters. Apparently, when the Earth was formed, there was some kind of energy called “godstuff” that could be manipulated by mankind’s dreams, imagination and faith, and given actual, physical form. That means the gods in the Marvel universe are real, in the sense that they are myth given form (complete with their own mythical attributes, including that of having been the creators of the world). That issue featured the death gods from several pantheons. They were alas used as divine red shirts to show how scary the main baddie was, but it was cool to see new faces. Hmm. I'd prefer a " blind men and the elephant" approach, myself. I suppose it'd be hard to square with Marvel's corporeal depiction of the pantheons, though.
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