‘Thor’ Movie Annotations
With [[[Thor]]] taking the number one spot in box office receipts for the second week in a row, we must consider one of two options:
- There are a lot of people going back to stare at Chris Hemsworth, Kat Dennings, and Jaimie Alexander, or…
- People are hunting for all the Easter eggs and hidden bits in the film.
And so verily, we come to you, ComicMixers, with this list of notes, eggs of Easter, and bits of magic you may have missed when you were recently gazing upon the God of Thunder! Have at thee! Here is the Odin-list of annotations from the recent film released by the Studios of Marvel, of the humble Midgard. Did you catch of these visages, mortal? Let us find out! Huzzah!
Warning: spoilers from this point forward. You’ve been warned.
- There is a billboard in the town advertising for New Mexico tourism that says “Land of Enchantment – Journey into Mystery”. Thor first appeared in Journey Into Mystery #83, way back in 1962, written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber and drawn by Jack Kirby. “Land of Enchantment” is the state nickname of New Mexico, where much of the film was shot.
- Thor is given a shirt to wear with the nametag of Jane’s Foster former beau, one Dr. Donald Blake, and later is given his identity. In the comics, Thor “shares” the body of Dr. Donald Blake, who can call forth the God of Thunder with a rap of his cane. Kenneth Branagh has confirmed that Donald Blake is a character who could show up in a potential sequel.
- The first person to come upon the crater with the hammer and tries to take the Mighty Mjolnir (or as we now call it, the Mighty MeowMeow) is J. Michael Straczynski, former writer of Thor in the comics circa 2007, as well as the writer of the film’s story.
- Later, the person trying to get the hammer out of the crater with a truck is Stan Lee himself. Because it’s a Marvel movie.
- And the hammer landing site was originally shown in a post-credits scene in Iron Man 2.
- During Thor’s raid on the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound, a sniper is asked to “get a bead” on the intruding Thunder God, and he decides to do so with a bow and arrow. Catch the name of that agile archer? Yup, it’s Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye.
- Dr. Erik Selvig, references a brilliant scientist who was a genius with gamma radiation. According to the doctor, S.H.I.E.L.D. made the scientist disappear — a reference to The Incredible Hulk, the 2008 film. Also, on Dr. Selvig’s desk there is a “Culver University” coffee mug. Culver University is where much of The Incredible Hulk took place.
- We hope you waited for all the credits to end. Because then you’d be likely to catch an extra scene, featuring Nick Fury, and a little something called the Cosmic Cube. UPDATE 5/22: That entire scene was directed by Joss Whedon, which implies an even stronger connection with next year’s [[[Avengers]]].
- In case you didn’t pay attention to the credits, the big-bellied Volstagg was played by former Punisher, Ray Stevenson.
- And finally, if you look in the final banquet scene, you can spot the three people in the photograph above. From left to right: Ralph Macchio, former writer and editor of Thor (not the Karate Kid actor); Louise Simonson, writer and editor of X-Men; and Walt Simonson, who wrote Thor for almost four years, and drew the book for almost all that time. If you don’t know Walt’s work on Thor, pick up the [[[Thor Omnibus]]] immediately.
Did you catch anything we missed? Put it in the comments!
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Wasn’t the Infinity Gauntlet supposed to be an Easter egg? I know I missed it!
The Infinity Gauntlet is indeed missing…
The scientist that Erik talks about e-mailing is Ant-Man, but the name was removed because they thought two references in a row was excessive.
That’s a great list – I didn’t catch all of those things but did catch the JMS and Stan Lee appearances.
As well as the Infinity Gauntlet (mentioned above) I’m pretty sute the casket of ancient winters was in there somewhere – I think in Odin’s chest.
As an Aussie science fiction writer:
http://www.goldenvisionsmagazine.biz/AlienHunter….
I’ve written some Thor fan fiction. Scroll down below my author profile to see over 40 stories:
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1276881/David_Scholes
David- the casket of ancient winters was the thing the Frost Giants came to steal, and what Loki used to freeze Heimdal.