Thor Writer Talks Grit, Being a God, and Battling Frogs

I have to admit, I’m not the biggest fan of Thor. Not that I have anything against the guy, but I just never warmed up to the speaking pattern and the whole God stuff. I was never really all that interested in the God stuff in comic books, to be honest with you, so Thor was always on the peripheral during my comic book reading days, some guy with a hammer who showed up to speak in a funny accent whenever Captain America or Iron Man got into a jam. He never did much for me. But thankfully, the guys over at Marvel seems to understand what makes the guy tick and how to make a good movie out of it, and they’ve hired a writer who seems to know even more.

The blokes over at CineFOOLS (no jokes, please) cornered “Thor” writer Ashley Miller, and threw him some questions:

The biggest challenge for Thor is his otherworld godliness. How do you make him approachable? And tie it in with the realism of Marvel movies?

AM-Thor’s powers are godly, yes. And his zip code is a little different. But at the end of the day, he’s a man. In the comics, Odin sends him to Earth because he’s not perfect. He’s brash, arrogant. Even over-confident. We all know that guy — some of us have even been that guy. Stan Lee’s genius was to give Thor-as-hero an emotional throughline we could all relate to, and knock him down a couple of pegs. So on that level, your question answers itself. The challenge is to dramatize that and make the audience see what the fans have known and believed about the character all along.

As for realism, i have to ask you back: what does that mean? If the standard is, does he throw his back out if he hurls the hammer a little too hard… probably not. He’s a god. He’s incredibly strong. He can fly. He tosses lightning bolts. There’s nothing realistic about any of that. But he also bleeds. He struggles. Life kicks him where it hurts the most. Dramatically speaking, the powers and Asgard are gravy. The meat — and what makes it a Marvel movie — is the character.

About bringing grit to a guy who talks using words like “thee” and “thou”:

As a writer what would you like to bring to the characters in the Thor Saga?

AM-Grit. Not in the sense that you’d want to see a generic “dark” take on Thor, but in the sense that you want to feel Thor’s rage when he rages. You want to see him fight like hell, and take as much he dishes out — maybe more. You want to have a visceral reaction to the guy, and what happens to him. You don’t want his adventures to be clean and antiseptic. You want to see the dirt, and grime and blood. You want to feel every bone crunching moment of every fight. And when he unleashes the storm, you want to feel like you’re seeing the power of a GOD at work.

The best example I can give you is the end of Ultimates 2. When Thor shows up and kicks ass, he shows up and kicks ass. He isn’t screwing around. There’s a certain brutal, cock-eyed realism to Thor in that moment (and through that book in general) that I really resonate to and want to expand on.

You can read the rest of the interview and all things Ashley Miller related over at CineFOOLs.

Below: Luckily for Thor, being a Thunder God means you can’t catch colds.