Tag: Marvel Comics

Deano’s answer to: “In Thor, does Thor’s power originate entirely from his hammer? Or were there other powers that Odin stripped from him?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

Thor’s power originates within Thor. He’s the God of Thunder, not the Dude Who Carries Thunder-God-Power-Hammer.

That said, magic is a funny thing, as are curses. In Thor’s case, his own powers are “removed” until he can pick up the hammer, and he can’t pick up the hammer until… Well, spoilers, you know…

Anyway, as for Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer’s name) itself, the powers are basically agreed to be the following:

  • It’s a very good hammer, good at hammering just about anything, really really hard (basically as hard as Thor wants it to hit).
  • When thrown, it will unerringly return to Thor’s hand.
  • When Thor aims it, it doesn’t miss.

Between the movie and the comics, there are a few other powers hinted at, though I would submit that the majority of these (like teleportation) are actually particular manifestations of one or more of the above powers combined with Thor’s own (say, unerringly aiming the hammer at a point halfway across the galaxy, then throwing it so hard it travels there instantaneously).

In a nutshell, it’s a really big(*) hammer, that allows someone with god-level powers to actually do even more damage when he hits something – or, conversely, a lot LESS, based on his desires.

When you think about it, it’d be pretty ridiculous for a god to carry around weapons that didn’t make him even more powerful.

(* It also has, according to Norse mythology, the ability to shrink to a pocketable size when not in use)

This answer originally appeared on Quora: In Thor, does Thor’s power originate entirely from his hammer? Or were there other powers that Odin stripped from him?

Deano’s answer to: “Were the Hulk movies accurate in portraying Hulk’s strength?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

It would be exceedingly difficult to claim that a movie didn’t portray the Hulk’s strength accurately, for one simple reason:

The madder he gets, the stronger he gets.

(Rarrr… Image Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/tim…)

Thus, any time the Hulk appears to be “weaker than he should be” could be argued away as merely a reflection of his lack of sufficient anger at the given moment… Or, in general, a lack of adrenaline, which is not always induced by anger (there’s a scene in The Incredible Hulk which covers alternate potential means of transformation, but those images are all protected by copyright)

(Let’s just say this is a fair facsimile, and be done with it. Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/the…)

Given the comics’ precedent that there is no significant “upper limit” to the level of the Hulk’s strength, which can reach so-called “Cosmic Levels” under the right circumstances, it’s basically impossible that anything the Hulk does in the films could be considered to be “too strong for the character”, for similar reasons[*].

Where the movies tend to fail is in over-simplifying or misunderstanding the Hulk’s many weaknesses.

[* Actually, since the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk movie appears to have closer ties to “Ultimate Hulk” – a creature born of a mutated gamma-irradiated version of Captain America’s Super Solider Serum, there probably is a more reasonable upper power limit, we just haven’t come close to hitting it yet.]

This answer originally appeared on Quora: Were the Hulk movies accurate in portraying Hulk’s strength?

Deano’s answer to: “Did the Invisible Woman (Invisible Girl) have a catch phrase?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

For the vast majority of her existence – No.

Susan Storm was largely the token girl[*] on the Fantastic Four team, a good princess-figure in semi-constant need of rescue despite her quite formidable abilities. Indeed, despite the vast number of comely intelligent women in the Marvel Universe, she was fought over fairly constantly by several of the FF’s male antagonists Doctor Doom, Namor, and even occasionally the Mole Man and other 2nd-tier garbage. Perhaps if she had a catch phrase back then, it would’ve been “Save me, Reed!”

(Nothing will save her from this spanking, though – Photo courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/gru…)

Starting in the late 90s/early aughts, however, she has been known to throw the occasional bad pun, especially if it relates to a general “women not being invisible anymore” theme. This was also reflected in various costume changes, which were (ironically?) much more revealing than in her earlier incarnations…

(She’s also awesome to cosplay – you don’t even need to show up to the con – photo courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/vic…)

Digging through back issues, and a few pizza-stained comic geek friends[†], though, the best I can come up is the following: “The Female of the species is more deadly than the male.” 

(Er, Rudyard Kipling was not… visibly a woman, so it makes sense… Photo courtesy of ancient history)

In summary, it’s kinda pulling at straws to come up with a real catchphrase for Sue Storm. And honestly, comics in general are kinda over catchphrases, so I’m not sure we’ll see a good one arise in the future. Still, the FF has almost always been written and drawn by men, and 3/4ths of the team are guys. Perhaps, with a woman’s touch?[ª]

[* as referred to in the question, her original “code name” was Invisible Girl, not Invisible Woman. Get with the times, Stan!]

[† thanks to Robert McCarthy (howcomics.com), especially, for the much needed assist here and there]

[ª Just, please, not this woman: http://barbara.guanabee.com/2011… ]

This answer originally appeared on Quora: Did the Invisible Woman (Invisible Girl) have a catch phrase?