One story that I've seen, maybe more than once over the years, goes like this: Way back in the Silver Age, Stan Lee laid down the law for the benefit of his associates at the Bullpen. He said something along the following lines (paraphrased in my own words, working from rumors I've seen):
"The Asgardians are a bunch of nonhuman immigrants from some other corner of time and space who ended up on Earth, and were a) so incredibly powerful, and b) so susceptible to the power of human imaginations for some reason, that they ended up taking on the roles of the Norse Gods and Goddesses from the legends that were already springing up across Scandinavia. That was probably a few thousand years ago. After all this time, Thor and Loki and the others probably have just about hypnotized themselves into actually thinking they are Supernatural Beings who were born and raised on Midgard -- or in nearby Asgard -- and have been around practically since the Dawn of Time."
Somewhere I saw a claim that something along those general lines was actually inserted into a comic book published back around the 1960s, in order to have that excuse "on the record" in case Marvel was ever accused by angry parents of "promoting paganism" or something by having Thor, an Avenger, run around calling himself The God of Thunder all the time. I don't know if that is actually true. And if it did happen, I don't know if they printed it as dialogue in a story, or just as a one-paragraph-excuse buried in the middle of a letter column in case they ever needed to dust it off and use it to "defend themselves," or what!
I recall that Warren Ellis's scripts explicitly mentioned that version of the background of the Asgardians during his brief run on the Thor title in the mid-90s. And I think a variation of it was referred to by Loki in a bitter speech in "Earth X" or one of the sequels in the "Earth X" version of the future of the Marvel Universe. However, I suspect that most of the writers who have followed in Stan's footsteps over the years as they worked with Thor (and/or any other Asgardian characters) have either ignored this idea entirely (if they ever heard of it in the first place?) or else blatantly contradicted it. Heck, if the Asgardians have really been doing what they do for a few thousand years, and using magic on each other at the drop of a hat, and taking all those painful blows to the head from their constant brawling, then Thor and his budies may not even remember the truth themselves after all this time!
But I am not a big expert on how Thor's continuity has evolved across the decades, so I'm asking for help in pinning down the details of this "secret origin of the Asgardians":
1. Can anyone confirm that the "Asgardians are alien interlopers who now play the roles of Norse mythological figures" excuse was explicitly mentioned in a comic book before the Warren Ellis run in the 90s? If so, which comic book?
2. I've only heard all this as a rumor -- so can anyone point me to any other material in which a "Marvel insider" talks about such a policy, when it began, why it began, etc.? For instance, an old interview with Stan Lee or anyone else who has worked in an editorial position at Marvel?
"The Asgardians are a bunch of nonhuman immigrants from some other corner of time and space who ended up on Earth, and were a) so incredibly powerful, and b) so susceptible to the power of human imaginations for some reason, that they ended up taking on the roles of the Norse Gods and Goddesses from the legends that were already springing up across Scandinavia. That was probably a few thousand years ago. After all this time, Thor and Loki and the others probably have just about hypnotized themselves into actually thinking they are Supernatural Beings who were born and raised on Midgard -- or in nearby Asgard -- and have been around practically since the Dawn of Time."
Somewhere I saw a claim that something along those general lines was actually inserted into a comic book published back around the 1960s, in order to have that excuse "on the record" in case Marvel was ever accused by angry parents of "promoting paganism" or something by having Thor, an Avenger, run around calling himself The God of Thunder all the time. I don't know if that is actually true. And if it did happen, I don't know if they printed it as dialogue in a story, or just as a one-paragraph-excuse buried in the middle of a letter column in case they ever needed to dust it off and use it to "defend themselves," or what!
I recall that Warren Ellis's scripts explicitly mentioned that version of the background of the Asgardians during his brief run on the Thor title in the mid-90s. And I think a variation of it was referred to by Loki in a bitter speech in "Earth X" or one of the sequels in the "Earth X" version of the future of the Marvel Universe. However, I suspect that most of the writers who have followed in Stan's footsteps over the years as they worked with Thor (and/or any other Asgardian characters) have either ignored this idea entirely (if they ever heard of it in the first place?) or else blatantly contradicted it. Heck, if the Asgardians have really been doing what they do for a few thousand years, and using magic on each other at the drop of a hat, and taking all those painful blows to the head from their constant brawling, then Thor and his budies may not even remember the truth themselves after all this time!
But I am not a big expert on how Thor's continuity has evolved across the decades, so I'm asking for help in pinning down the details of this "secret origin of the Asgardians":
1. Can anyone confirm that the "Asgardians are alien interlopers who now play the roles of Norse mythological figures" excuse was explicitly mentioned in a comic book before the Warren Ellis run in the 90s? If so, which comic book?
2. I've only heard all this as a rumor -- so can anyone point me to any other material in which a "Marvel insider" talks about such a policy, when it began, why it began, etc.? For instance, an old interview with Stan Lee or anyone else who has worked in an editorial position at Marvel?
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