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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 137473
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| Posted: 03 November 2026 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | 1
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“Never give the fans what they THINK they want.”Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Stan and Jack did. The retcon that cost us Don Blake was intended to satisfy those fans who wrote in demanding to know where the REAL Thor was while Blake was wearing his form.
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 13440
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| Posted: 03 November 2026 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | 2
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Funny how Lee/Kirby within a couple of issues, i.e., almost immediately, introduced Loki and Odin, etc., pretty much as themselves, no explanation, they yet kept Don Blake/Thor around for years, until they explained which one was real. Also funny that when it was explained, Lee wrote: "Though in spirit I am Donald Blake... 'Tis Thor that I have ever been." Still kinda confusing...
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 137473
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| Posted: 03 November 2026 at 6:03pm | IP Logged | 3
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Loki made his debut in the first Thor story I read, at one point bringing to life the Pegasus symbol from a gas station sign—which I thought was the coolest thing ever!
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Brandon Carter
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2431
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| Posted: 04 November 2026 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | 4
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I recall myself being surprised when looking at Thor's entry from the original Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and seeing his real name listed as Thor and not Don Blake.
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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 32372
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| Posted: 04 November 2026 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | 5
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Surprised Gruenwald didn’t list it as Thoragus Thormas Thorodinson.
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Wallace Sellars
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 17859
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| Posted: 04 November 2026 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | 6
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To this day, I prefer the Donald Blake Thor. It fit in well with what Marvel was doing with its characters at the time.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 137473
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| Posted: 08 November 2026 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | 7
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With you there, Wallace!
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Vinny Valenti
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Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8757
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| Posted: 08 November 2026 at 8:38pm | IP Logged | 8
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Not there necessarily *should* have been one, but was there ever an explanation for why Thor spoke like a regular human in the first issues, but slowly took on the Asgardian speech patterns as we know them today? Once Thor spoke (and thought) in a unique pattern, I suppose it didn't make sense to continue saying that they were truly the same person.
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Scott Gray
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 August 2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 115
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| Posted: 14 November 2026 at 11:52am | IP Logged | 9
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Even after reading the "Odin construct" retcon, I still thought of Don Blake as an individual who was sharing space with Thor. He felt like a proper person to me. Odin is a god - he might have *thought* he was only creating a mortal shell for Thor, but I think the spell got away from him and did far more than that.
I enjoyed the murkiness of the Don Blake/Thor relationship - they had each other's memories but they usually referred to each other by their separate names, like Billy Batson and Captain Marvel.
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Eric Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 October 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 2597
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| Posted: 14 November 2026 at 10:12pm | IP Logged | 10
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A "THOR: CHAPTER ONE" would be great! The first year or so was completely different than what came after Kirby returned to the feature. It originally felt like Stan was writing his version of Superman.
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Josh Goldberg
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 October 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 2168
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| Posted: 15 November 2026 at 1:02am | IP Logged | 11
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"Surprised Gruenwald didn’t list it as Thoragus Thormas Thorodinson."****
I'm too lazy to dig into my long boxes right now. But when Thor testified at Namor's trial during JB's run, didn't the court call him "Thor Odinson"? I could be misremembering.
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"was there ever an explanation for why Thor spoke like a regular human in the first issues" ****
Several years ago, I was showing a friend Walt Simonson's Thor #337. My friend asked me why Thor spoke the way he did when he clearly knows how to speak "normally" when he's Don Blake.
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Bill Dowling
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 07 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2187
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| Posted: 15 November 2026 at 9:00am | IP Logged | 12
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I'm too lazy to dig into my long boxes right now. But when Thor testified at Namor's trial during JB's run, didn't the court call him "Thor Odinson"? I could be misremembering. ********* You’re not misremembering.
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