When Avengers: Endgame hits theaters, everyone's going to be gunning for Thanos, and it's hard
to think of a character who has a bigger score to settle with the Mad Titan than Thor.
Here's how the God of Thunder could get his revenge, and take down Thanos once and for
all.
Everyone in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - or at least the half of it that was still
breathing after the end of Infinity War - has a pretty good reason for wanting Thanos dead.
For Thor, though, it's gone beyond just saving the world.
This time, Thanos made it personal.
The very first thing we see him Thanos do in Infinity War is obliterate most of the
remaining Asgardians.
It's especially heartbreaking after the character arc that ran through Thor: Ragnarok, a film
that, despite its comedic moments, was at heart about Thor learning to let go - of his
father, of his hammer, and even of Asgard itself, which he destroyed in order to stop
Hela.
The only consolation was the lesson that he learned from these trials:
"Asgard is where our people stand.
Even now, right now, those people need your help.”
And now, many of those people are dead, including Loki, the brother that he was just starting
to get along with again.
That's the kind of trauma that results in a lot of anger, and for Thor, intense anger
tends to end with someone getting hit very, very hard.
We don't know how long the gap is between the end of Infinity War and the beginning
of Endgame, but judging by the trailers, Thor's had plenty of time to rest up, do some push-ups,
and rethink his strategy.
Of course, that still pits him against the guy who managed to almost effortlessly take
out the Hulk, which is pretty impressive.
After all, Hulk's the strongest Avenger, right?
"Welcome, Strongest Avenger."
"Uh, what?"
Well, not quite.
In the big fight that they have in the Grandmaster's gladiatorial games, Thor is well on his way
to a lightning-powered knockout victory.
The only reason he loses is due to interference from the Grandmaster himself.
Of course, if this battle happened in a movie with Hulk's name in the title instead of Thor's,
we might've seen a different outcome, but still.
The fact that he could level the Hulk with a single punch, even without his hammer, shows
just how much force Thor is capable of delivering.
Thor and Thanos are both known by their signature weapons.
Unfortunately for Thanos, we see at the end of Infinity War that the Infinity Gauntlet
is burnt out from his infamous finger-snap.
That's a situation that Thor's all too familiar with himself.
For ages, he wielded the mighty Mjolnir.
Unfortunately, it was destroyed in Ragnarok when Hela fulfilled the prophecies of the
early '90s and put a stop to Hammer Time.
The good news?
Thor got a brand new mallet called Stormbreaker, and from what we can tell, it's an improvement.
In addition to having all of the original Mjolnir's mystical properties, Stormbreaker
also allows Thor to teleport across the galaxy by controlling the Bifrost.
Plus, the back half is an axe, so, you know, it can cut things.
You can't really do that with a hammer.
For anyone else, taking Stormbreaker to the chest would be a finishing blow.
For Thanos, it's the setup for a one-liner.
"You should've gone for the head."
It's certainly a badass moment for the villain, but it also raises a pretty important question:
why didn't Thor go for the head?
He's a seasoned warrior who has smashed his way through an army of Fire Giants, and he
knows how to take someone out if he needs.
Why would he even take the chance?
In the movie, that fatal mistake happens because Thor is so consumed by his desire for revenge,
but it's easy to see this as the kind of memorable line that begs for a callback.
If Thor gets another shot, it's pretty easy to imagine that he takes Thanos' advice to
heart and just decapitates him without a word.
After all, he's done it before.
In the comics, Thanos has been defeated before, and even died a couple of times.
None of those losses, however, have been quite as bone-crushingly brutal as the one that
Thor handed to him back in 2000.
In a story from Thor #25, Thanos has turned his power-hungry attention to a handful of
mystical artifacts: the Illumination Stone, the Chalice of Ruins, and the Map of All-Ending.
All together, they give him the power to potentially "end all existence."
Things do not look good, and just like we saw in the films, round one ends with Thor
on the losing side… but that's not where the fight ended.
Thor makes a comeback over the course of a six-page slugfest, and winds up beating Thanos
down with Mjolnir over and over until the Mad Titan can't even stand up, let alone conquer
the universe.
It's almost enough to make you feel bad for the bad guys.
Almost.
There was one additional factor at play, though.
In addition to his signature hammer, Thor's last-minute comeback was aided by a new set
of magic weaponry of his own, and it just so happens that a few weapons like that already
exist in the MCU.
Norse mythology has plenty of intensely destructive magical weapons, including Gungnir, the Spear
of Odin; the nearly invulnerable Destroyer armor; and the Megingjord, a magic belt that
can double Thor's strength.
We even know exactly where that one is!
"We just gotta load Tony's old Hulkbuster armor, the prototype for Cap’s new shield,
and the Megin..
The megin…
Thor's magic belt."
Sure, most Asgardian weapons were probably destroyed along with Asgard itself at the
end of Ragnarok, but it's just as likely that they were scattered around the universe waiting
for someone to gather them up.
If things are as desperate as they seem from all that sad music in the Endgame trailer,
it might be time for Thor to gear up and go get revenge.
Thanos is the kind of threat that requires you to pull out all the stops - and it sure
does help if "all the stops" includes a magic spear that will never miss its target.
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