Thor's New Origin Can Totally Redefine One of His Best MCU Moments
Marvel recently teased that Thor's secret origins will be revealed in Jason Aaron and Kev Walker's Avengers: 1,000,000 B.C. #1, set to release in July. These origins, based on the cover art, seem to point towards the God of Thunder's connection to the Phoenix Force. In the meantime, Thor's current story arc reveals him to be the biological son of the first wielder of the Phoenix Force, rather than Gaea, Goddess of Earth, as he previously believed he was. This new Avengers one-shot promises to deepen this connection, hopefully filling in any plot holes and continuity confusions that might exist in lieu of the twist. For Thor, such a Phoenix Force connection not only has potential ramifications for the character as he exists in the comics but his movie adaptations as well.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Thor: Ragnarok, the title character and the Incredible Hulk are having a conversation about their respective anger issues where Hulk states that he himself is like fire while Thor is like water. On the other hand, Thor insists they're both like fire, only for Hulk to retort that the green giant is actually like, "real fire ... raging fire," while Thor is more, "like smoldering fire." The exchange is treated to the audience and in-story as nothing more than a humorous exchange and, thus, is never brought up again.
However, the MCU inadvertently foreshadowed Thor's current fate trajectory in the comics. Or, rather, that same fate has potential to have the power to re-contextualize both how audiences view previous comics and also previous MCU moments like this one. While Thor merely jokes and alludes to his own connection to fire in Ragnarok, a deep connection to the Phoenix Force could bring his statement to life, making him literally built from not only fire but cosmic energy just waiting to burst alive at any moment. Perhaps even Hulk could be proven to be right soon. As Thor has lived unaware of his true potential for so long, he may actually be a smoldering flame at the moment. But as that flame discovers its true nature (and, in Thor's case, expands his growing new fire abilities), that fire is just begging to burn bright in an effervescent rage.
A connection to Phoenix Force may even give the God of Thunder an unexpected edge leading into his upcoming battle with Hulk for Hulk Vs. Thor: Banner of War by Donny Cates and Nadia Shammas, currently set for a September 2022 release. Both heroes have traded blows with each other over the years in both comics and movies, suggesting that the two are more or less evenly matched, but when engulfed in the raging fire of The Phoenix Force, Thor may be too indestructible, even for the Hulk.
However Thor's connection to The Phoenix Force becomes expanded upon, it's bound to drastically alter how his past, present, and future are viewed in comics and movies.
Readers can expect to find more answers about Thor's origins when Avengers: 1,000,000 B.C. releases in July and can also see the results of his explosive battle with Hulk when Hulk Vs. Thor: Banner of War releases in September of 2022.