Heroes and the Creation of Myth: Thor (2011)

Superheroes occupy a nearly-unique position in the history of human character creation. They are creatures of myth, but at the same time people with the concerns of human beings, even when they are themselves alien. This puts them in a position to not only be the subjects of myth, but to interact with and in some cases control the creation of the mythology which surrounds them.

In this series I set out to analyze the different ways heroes participate in the creation of their own mythology. I've decided to begin with the largest single continuity ever attempted in film, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the time leading up to the release of The Avengers: Infinity War I'm going to watch or rewatch the eighteen existing MCU films in order to look at them specifically from this perspective. Today we get a new mythic perspective with Thor (2011).

Unlike our previous two heroes, Thor comes with his myth ready-made. In fact, it's a myth that existed before he did, in some sort of Battlestar Galactica "all this has happened before and all this will happen again" fashion, which is a little strange. But however he got it, Thor is so comfortable with his myth that he never even gives it a second thought. Thor's tendency to respond to his mythic nature only with one of those gormless grins makes him essentially useless for our purposes. So we're going to talk about someone else.

For someone who's supposed to be the Master of Lies, Loki's attempts to manipulate the narrative around him are surprisingly ham-handed. His initial plan to let frost-giants into Asgard and goad Thor into attacking them, bringing disgrace, is pretty good from a mythmaking standpoint, although perhaps tactically questionable. But it goes downhill from there.

After Odin collapses and Loki takes the throne, his excuses for why he can't revoke Thor's banishment are poor. The first one, that his first act as king cannot be to revoke Odin's last, makes some sense. But he can't stick to it. He prevaricates, makes ever-worse excuses, and ends up with a lie that will be revealed the minute anyone bothers to talk to Frigga, which is bound to happen more-or-less immediately. This isn't Loki, powerful king of Asgard. This is Loki, doesn't have the confidence to handle the job.

Then he visits Thor in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, where he tells him that Odin is dead and that the truce with the Frost Giants will be broken if his banishment is reversed. And then he throws Frigga under the bus again, telling Thor that she has forbidden his return. Apparently in Loki's mind Frigga never talks to anybody. Maybe he thinks Thor won't ever talk to anyone from Asgard again, but even so these aren't the lies of a master liesmith, they're merely the barbs of an adolescent whose only goal is to do the most possible damage.

Loki then goes to Jotenheim, where he offers the Frost Giants the source of their power back in exchange for sneaking into Asgard and killing Odin, which they agree to do because apparently Frost Giants aren't very bright. This is an offer that would inspire even the most naive and blindly-trusting person

to question what motivation the one making the offer would have to make payment after the fact.

But the leader of the Frost Giants comes to Asgard to kill Odin anyway, and Loki, to no one's surprise, betrays him in a transparently-choreographed scene directly in front of Frigga. Now she's not supposed to wonder what Loki was doing in Odin's bedroom dressed in full armor. Fortunately Thor shows up before she can think it through, and reveals some of Loki's other nefarious deeds. Despite the fact that the narrative he's gone to so much trouble to build is in shambles, Loki runs off to try to destroy the Frost Giants anyway. There's no longer any justification for it but pure villainy, but Loki doesn't care.

In the end it's Odin who finally calls Loki on his lies about his motivation for his actions, and Loki handles it so well that he sacrifices himself to the universe. Certainly a true Master of Lies would have some history with what happens when they are found out, and some emotional tolerance for the experience. But as we've seen, Loki isn't really a master of lies, he's merely a very frequent user.

Previous entries in this series:
Part 1: Iron Man (2008)
Part 2: The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Part 3: Iron Man 2 (2010)