Captain America - Civil War coming in 2016 to include Iron Man, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Falcon

People who get carried away by it and insist on jackbooting it on other, more tolerant souls.

 

Just wondering, was this a special preview or is it in limited release already? What was the audience reaction?

 

Perhaps the better part of tolerance might be not to get one's knickers in a twist about the "God-botherers" in regard to this issue without some actual evidence that it's the case. To me, it seems equally likely that the writers decided to go with an "alien" narrative rather than presume the truth of Norse mythology all on their own. Anyway, I hope it doesn't spoil anyone's enjoyment of the movies. I'm OK with either interpretation.

 

I come here to enjoy discussing media without name-calling. There is enough of that in the real world. So I wish everyone would refrain from it on all sides.

 

My initial post:

I was curious as to why he managed to be a God for so long (even in Marvel years) without anybody worrying about it. Actually, it was in reply to something I posted here ages ago that somebody took me to task for not realising he was an alien, but I have heard it since.

Lee and Kirby and many others presumed the truth of Norse mythology. It is after all, a comic book and a series of movies. Perhaps I could've phrased it better, but there are some pretty strange folk out there who might have found that a tough ask, which is what prompted my admittedly sarcastic comment. I mean, most of us can see that it's a comic book - and it used to be a good one at that. You're right, of course, I should've turned the other cheek, but I am curious as to when this changed - if it indeed did and I haven't been led down the garden path by some misguided soul with his own agenda - and why.

 

I don't see any evidence that anybody "worried" about it, certainly not in the sense of a bunch of religious people warning Marvel that they better not be implying that Thor is a real-live god. To me. it makes just as much sense if not more to say, "Hey, what do we normally call super-powered beings that live in outer space and sometimes show up on Earth and either threaten us or save our collective posterior? Oh, yeah, aliens. That'll be easier to square with the rest of the Marvel universe than actual Norse deities." Furthermore, I see no reason to presume that the change was made with religious people in mind - it may have well be made with non-religious people in mind, who might find the idea of presumed actual deities to be preposterous. De-mythologizing religious and mythological elements in entertainment is far from a new concept.

Just for giggles, I Googled the question of when Thor was first portrayed as an alien, and I came up with this discussion, which traces it as far back as 1980. It may not be definitive but it at least implies that this was not an innovation for the movies:

When was Thor first portrayed as an advanced alien, not a god? »

 

Hmmm. I was curious, that's all and I was, as I'm sure you were aware, thinking of a type of religious people rather than all religious people. From the link you posted, seems as if the makers of the movies can't make their mind up either, though it was always quite clear that Thor was a god and that was clearly Lee's intention when he and Kirby 'invented' him.

 

But the point is that name-calling "a type of religious people" is against this board's rules.

And there is nothing wrong with people not liking Thor portrayed as a "real" pagan god. Respect their opinion and be done with it.

But as said above, there is no evidence that they changed the character for those reasons anyway.

Peace

 

no I live in Australia where it got released yesterday! oh stay on after the credits ! the audience loved it ! laughed at the right places they enjoyed it

 

Includes some new stuff:

 

For me personally, I look forward to and enjoy all of these movies, but I'm looking forward to this movie more than any other ever! I'm not exactly sure why that is, but probably has to do with the already incredible word of mouth, obvious confidence of the studio, and that the last Cap movie was both amazing and more resonant with me on a deeper level than most super movies. It looks like many of the characters are going to be pushed outside of their comfort zone and that is a very good thing! Can't wait! I've bought tickets earlier for this film than any other film I've ever attended. Got the tickets the same week that BVS opened!

 

............................... The point I was getting at - again - is: is that what it was, or was it something else? "And there is nothing wrong with people not liking Thor portrayed as a "real" pagan god." And, of course, the fact that it's a comic book. I also wondered if it had something to do with the need to sell this to a Chinese audience. Maybe they're not keen on other people's gods over there. I don't know. The characters been around since, what, 1962; it seems a little late in the day to freak out over the fact he's a Norse god and a comic book one at that. Not real. If I offended your beliefs, however, myapologies. Peace, indeed.

 

Thor~ Comics.
He was a Doctor and had a waking stick, which he struck on the ground and a bolt of lightning appeared the stick changed into a hammer. Always thought that was cool.

 

I did too, even if later on he became more scientifically oriented rather than the general practitioner he started out as.

 

Wow Dallas. Now that's a gamble that high but I sure hope it works out for the kid. He's a good guy and a hell of a player .

 

Guess the movie version wanted no earthly day time job for the hammer throwing guy.

 

That was a misplaced thread!

 

Weekend #1 (excluding North America, China and Russia opening next weekend): $200 million +, yeah it's going to make some coin this one.

 

The way they dance around the copyright issues is complicated at best. For example, the mutant-free adaption hoops they had to jump through for Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in Age of Ultron were.... interesting.

 

Comes out Thursday night.

Can't wait!!!

 

Out in Japan last Friday. Top film, everything fits - no sense of it being overly busy like Ultron, each scene develops a character a little further. Quite probably the best in this 'Universe' for me so far, topping Winter Soldier.

 

Saw this today. I enjoyed The Winter Soldier but for me this one is better. This is a better Avengers movie than Ultron.

 

Here's an archived interview with one of the writers of the first Thor movie. I don't know if it'll answer any questions directly but I don't see any hem-hawing here over how Thor's "god" status will be dealt with. It doesn't appear to me that it was ever a point of concern. The Norse gods, like the Greek gods, were always basically just super-powered human beings anyway.

WebCite query result »

And I have to ask, I've seen all of the movies involving Thor, and have the Asgardians ever claimed to be "aliens?" Are they really on "another planet?" It looks to me as if Asgard is some kind of other-dimensional plane of existence, not a standard "alien planet." The self-consciousness of the Asgardians hasn't changed really, it's just that in ancient times, humans accepted them as "gods", and now they don't, because of course. If an actual Thor turned up on Earth today, we wouldn't all immediately conclude, "OMG The Norse Myths Are All TRUE!", we'd say, "Here is a super-powered humanoid alien."

 

I don't know where I heard it, but from one of your other posts, it's clearly not just me - and I'm pretty sure someone replied to one of my posts on another thread that this was the case when I referred to him as a Norse God. However, I'm happy with Lee's idea as set out in Origins of Marvel Comics that our boy is indeed the Thunder God of Norse mythology, though many years later, Marvel developed this convoluted (not to say downright silly) idea that co-opted all the gods who turned up in their stories (and we're talking Norse, Greek and Indian, for some reason - and maybe Egyptian too) and incorporated them into the Marvel Universe mythological landscape. There's something nagging at me that suggests there was one of those double page 'maps' of these areas and earth's relation to it. They were always careful which deities to mess with - there was nothing remotely resembling an actual belief system when they went way out West with Wyatt Wingfoot (Toomazooma???) and Red Wolf and they stayed clear of similar matters when dealing with the Black Panther's homeland. Too much research and too confusing, I suspect.

Oh, and if Thor arrived on earth today I'd probably gripe that he wasn't dressed the way Jack Kirby intended!