Thor’s Rule of Asgard Was Doomed by Odin’s Greatest Forgotten Power

Throughout his governing of Asgard, Mjolnir is not the only thing that weighs Thor down, but an often-overlooked power of his father Odin shows things couldn’t be any other way. Ongoing, unpredictable threats and extreme pressure have led the God of Thunder to believe that his Asgardian takeover has been a failure, branded “the black reign of the Thunder King.” Now, even his hammer has abandoned him, but Thor never had a chance to live up to Odin, whose most overlooked power made him an impossible act to follow.

As the All-Father, Odin possessed abilities not available to Thor, even once he gained the Power Cosmic from Galactus. Loki once referred to his adopted father as “the most powerful being of the Nine Realms,” and that’s been proved time and again, especially in the Fear Itself event. In this story, Odin’s older brother Cul Borson returned to raze Midgard. While Odin couldn’t defeat his eons-old brother without sacrificing Earth in the process, Marvel’s heroes saved the day at the cost of Thor’s life (though he was quickly resurrected.) It was in the aftermath of this grand battle that Odin showed he’s capable of even more than fans assume.

Odin’s ultimate forgotten ability presents itself in Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca’s Fear Itself #7.3: Iron Man. Odin takes a trip to Paris to visit Tony Stark, telling him Thor’s funeral pyre is about to be lit. Angry from antics Odin pulled the day before, Tony abruptly tells Odin he should be back at Thor’s funeral, to which Odin replies, “I am. I am many places.” He lectures Tony on how he has seen the world reborn thousands of times, giving the hero a brief glimpse of how small he is in the face of the cosmos. While Odin eventually uses his powers to heal the people of Paris – who were turned to stone during Fear Itself, despite Iron Man’s best efforts – it’s his ability to be in multiple places at once that really shows why Thor’s reign has been so terrible.

Becoming a supreme ruler is one thing, but it is another for Thor to live up to his father. The duo possess many of the same abilities, and Thor’s greatest ally and weapon, Mjolnir, gives him a leg up in duels. However, Thor’s abilities become minimized as Odin’s extraordinary omnipresence power demonstrates his Asgardian superiority. Even if Thor is the most powerful of the Avengers, he can only be in one place at a time, and with Nine Realms to manage, he’s unable to address every problem, including many he could solve in moments.

Thor has allowed his pride and wrath to dictate his time as king, but he’s also been thrown from one crisis to another, always forced to be in the one place he’s needed most. Odin didn’t have that problem, and over thousands of years, the Nine Realms have grown used to an Asgardian ruler who isn’t limited in the same way. While Thor is well aware of his father’s faults, Odin‘s often-overlooked power to manifest in multiple places at once means that his son never stood a chance at filling his throne.

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