Thursday, August 24, 2006

Networked Worshipping

First off, a big "Thank you" to all the Geoff Johns who commented on my Letter to Geoff Johns post. However, I'm going to have to ask the person who claimed to be Spartacus to leave. Here at Reporting on Marvels and Legends, we have a strict "no admittance" policy for people portrayed in movies by crater-chinned Kirk Douglas.

Just look at that thing. Banditos could hide gold in there, and probably have.

Now as to the actual point of this post: Do you think the Norse Gods are worshiped on other worlds? I mean as powerful as Odin seems to be (when he's not asleep, anyway), it would seem like the number of mortals who would not only know of him and his people , but would worship them, would be larger than a relatively small proportion of the population of one minor planet, which orbits a dinky star.

So has that been covered in a Thor comic? Thor shows up on an alien world, and finds out that as the Son of Odin, he is revered by the people?

This actually lead to another thought. We often create a picture of what our Supreme Beings look like, based on certain notions of what they ought to look like. So, is it possible that having arrived on an alien world that worships him, but whose inhabitants don't look a bit human, that Thor's outward appearance would change to meet the expectations of his followers? Odin is pretty powerful, so I'm sure he could do the shape-change bit, and assume a form that would appeal to the residents, which would tend to inform their opinions of what his fellow gods (or offspring) would look like. I mean, the closest I've ever seen to this was when Odin-Power Thor was an active presence on Earth, but he looked human, so it would be hard to tell if people's perceptions altered his image.

Or would Odin have simply appeared on the world as is, and counted on his displays of power and generosity to win over the people, regardless of how he looked?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

great thoughts.
i would like to think that they would be seen as what ever race/species worshiped them.
but id think the true form would be to much for mortal eyes.like in the bible god apears but not as god..he apears as a burning bush..or a voice...so id think if odin had followers on a diffrent planet they would see him as how they look..just like god looks diffrent amongst our races...for example the europeans have the blue eyed jesus...but then blacks see him as black.
and i hope im not offending anyone...im just saying..please no one take that wrong.

gabesummers skinny on any planet!

thekelvingreen said...

Hmmm... I know they retconned Galactus so that his appearance changes depending on who's looking at him. Don't know about the Asgardians. I vaguely recall something about Thor being worshipped on alien worlds, but I may be making that up. What's his exact relationship with the Rigellians (great design, by the by) again?

And isn't the plural "Geoff Johnses"?

CalvinPitt said...

gabe: That seems like that would make sense.

kelvin: Thor and the Rigellians? I know when Thor squared off with Mangog for the first time, the Recorder (a Rigellian construct) showed up because it could have been the end of the universe. And Hemidall mentioned Thor and the Recorder had met before.

Unfortunately, I don't have that issue with me, so i can't reference when that first meeting took place.

As for the plural of Geoff Johns, maybe, but I'm lazy like that, you know?

Seth T. Hahne said...

Didn't Earth-X, Universe-X, et al establish that the Asgardians were just aliens, like Skrulls or something? It's been awhile so I don't have it all clear.

Plus, that was out of continuity. But still...

CalvinPitt said...

dane: I remember that Thor spent some time as a woman, and that at some point it was revealed a human (mortal?) was posing as Odin the whole time, but that's as much as I know.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to have to second the dane. I think the Earth-X series did it the best. The various pantheons were created by the Earth's inhabitants from aliens who were so truly shape-shifters that they had no identity without being shaped by those around them. It works...except there's a metric assload of pantheons and then what about other planets?

We do see other planets' gods every now and then. I'm specifically thinking of the Thor Annual 1998, when he fought Desak the God-Slayer (or something), a cosmically powered anti-hero who went around killing Asgardian-level gods. Unfortunately, he was later played for a straight bad guy in Thor vol. 2. I think that's really the closest they've gotten to meeting gods from other worlds, but I'm still working through a load of back issues myself.

thekelvingreen said...

Thor's been a "friend" of the Rigellians since at least the 80's, although again, I don't know the precise relationship.

More info down the page here.