Marvel characters, but the publisher missed an opportunity to expand the God of Thunder’s “Unworthy Era” into a full-blown series that could have defined an entire generation for the character. Following the defeat of Gorr the God Butcher, Thor was left with a devastating truth that stole away his powers and his future. However, I think Thor should have suffered more.

The Unworthy Thor #1-5 (2016) - by Jason Aaron and Olivier Coipel - is a single chapter in writer Jason Aaron’s greater Thor epic that began in Thor God of Thunder #1 (2012) and finally ended in Thor #16 (2019).

After Thor is told an unbearable truth about the gods and himself, the God of Thunder loses his right to carry Mjolnir and sets off on a quest as the “Unworthy Thor” to rediscover what it means to be a god. While Thor eventually regained his powers, Marvel ultimately didn’t spend enough time on this arc to make the impact worthwhile.

How Thor Became Unworthy Of His Powers

The Unworthy Thor #1-5 (2016) - Written by Jason Aaron; Art by Olivier Coipel; Color by Matthew Wilson; Lettering by Joe Sabino

Long before the God of Thunder lost his powers, the Marvel universe was embroiled in a reality-shattering cosmic mystery after Uatu the Watcher was found murdered. After peering into one of the corpse’s eyes, Thor received visions of a never-before-known Tenth Realm of Yggdrasill called Heven, which secretly housed Thor’s long-thought-to-be-dead sister Angela. When the God of Thunder later confronted Freyja about this harrowing truth, he learned that both Heven and Angela were sealed off from the Nine Realms as punishment for Heven’s revolution against Asgard.

Meanwhile, as Thor sought to undo the failure of his Asgardian heritage, Gorr the God Butcher waged a deicidal war throughout space and time, as he dubbed all gods to be arrogant, self-centered, and cruel. While Gorr was eventually defeated, his beliefs lived on in Thor’s mind. It wouldn’t be until Thor was later confronted by Uatu’s killer, Nick Fury Sr., that Gorr’s words would truly sink in. As Thor questioned Fury’s actions, the SHIELD agent simply leaned close to the God of Thunder and whispered a single, world-shattering phrase into his ear: “Gorr was right.”

The Unworthy Thor Miniseries Was Cut Too Short

Marvel Needed More Time To Flesh Out Thor’s Journey

Immediately upon hearing Fury’s words, Mjolnir plunged from Thor’s hands, stripping the God of Thunder of his iconic weapon, his powers, and his self-perceived worthiness. Not even worthy enough to bear his own name, the newly dubbed “Odinson” left the universe without a Thor to watch over it as he and longtime ally Beta Ray Bill set off to uncover a weapon that once belonged to a long-dead, alternate Thor. Meanwhile, Odinson would continue to wrestle with what it meant to be a god as Gorr’s words soon became his own.

The Unworthy Thor had the potential to become something greater as Aaron had already perfectly stripped Thor down to his barest self

However, the journey was short. Compared to the other major arcs in Jason Aaron’s greater Thor epic, which spanned almost a decade, The Unworthy Thor is a minuscule addition that only served to bridge the God Butcher saga to the War of the Realms event a few years later. However, the Unworthy Thor had the potential to become something greater as Aaron had already perfectly stripped Thor down to his barest self, leaving endless room to rebuild the God of Thunder into something better than he was before.

The Unworthy Thor Questioned Everything That It Meant To Be A God

Thor Was Stripped To His Most Basic Attributes

When this miniseries began, Thor was at his absolute lowest. He had no weapon, he couldn’t conjure his powers, he was left without an arm, and he had practically rejected Asgard for its part to play in his sister’s imprisonment in Heven. Jane Foster soon took over as the Mighty Thor, leaving Odinson completely without purpose or power. Thor didn’t lose his worthiness for anything that he did, it was purely a psychosomatic symptom of his loss of self-worth. Mjolnir, sensing the conflict in its master’s heart, abandoned the instability for someone more resolute.

Stripped of nearly everything that had defined the character, Thor was reduced to his most basic components. What does the God of Thunder do when he can’t call upon thunder? What powers can a god conjure when their most intimate abilities won’t answer? What does it even mean to be a god? Jason Aaron set up an opportunity for Thor to wallow in his self-exile for years, slowly learning how to answer those prevalent questions. Now, he was finally in a position to answer these questions on his own, without Gorr or Odin’s perspective clouding his thoughts.

Marvel Missed Too Many Story Opportunities By Cutting The Series Short

Thor Could Have Become A New Kind Of God

Marvel should have let Thor suffer for longer than it did, allowing The Unworthy Thor to become a full-fledged series. Odinson had an opportunity to be confronted by others, like Beta Ray Bill, who he'd saved or guided, each of whom could have ed wisdom to Thor that he once imparted to them. In Thor’s wandering, he could have come across a struggling world without a god and become the deity for those who had none to protect them. Like many of his variants, Odinson could have re-forged himself into a new patron god of a different power.

The Unworthy Thor needed more substance to allow the God of Thunder to find these answers through trials of his own design.

Thor needed a longer opportunity to dismantle eons' worth of old and broken lessons instilled by Odin and the new corruptive thoughts implanted by Gorr and Nick Fury. Odinson needed to transcend past Odin’s version of “worthy” to define his own sense of worthiness. He needed more reasons to see why Gorr was wrong and that gods did have the capacity to altruistically care for others, even if he was the only god that could. The Unworthy Thor needed more substance to allow the God of Thunder to find these answers through trials of his own design.

Odinson Needed To Have Found This Within Himself

Thor Ultimately Learned His Lesson From Someone Else

While Thor ultimately learns his lesson in Mighty Thor #705 (2018), after Jane helps the God of Thunder realize that he will always be Thor, with or without his hammer, it marks an oddly inconclusive end to the Unworthy Thor saga. Technically, Thor wouldn’t regain Mjolnir or his full powers until War of the Realms, but his loss of powers was only a symptom of what truly made him unworthy - himself. Thor didn’t believe in himself or the gods, and it should have taken more than Jane Foster’s kind words to break him from that stupor.

Mjolnir didn’t determine Thor’s worthiness or his powers; Thor did. As simple as the answer is, finding it isn’t an easy battle. One miniseries and a handful of other issues simply weren’t enough to properly show Thor’s character growth through his Unworthy Era. By the end, it didn’t feel like Thor had discovered these truths himself but that he was told them by someone else. Once again, Thor found worthiness in the words of another rather than coming to his own conclusion over a longer period of self-discovery.

While Thor may reign as the King of Asgard now, his Unworthy Era should have become a more permanent story in the series.