Infopost: The Two For One Edition
May. 3rd, 2024 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ifwebeworthy
Now that I have your attention...
Before we get started: comics fandom means never having to say you're not cherry-picking. Writers will straight up contradict each other just because they feel like it or because they never read that other run in the first place, and there's no way I could ever read every comic Thor has ever been in since his debut in 1962, so: I am pulling Thor and Don from the beginning of the "Broxton, Oklahoma" arc of Thor that ran from Thor's post-Ragnarok resurrection at the beginning of J. Michael Straczynski's run on the title through to the Siege crossover event. That is where the bulk of my characterization and reference comes from. I haven't read every Thor comic that came before or after those points, and if you're familiar with Thor & Don's storylines post-Siege...I'll cross and/or burn those bridges if and when I get to them.
You know Thor, right? Norse god of thunder, son of Odin, wielder of the hammer Mjolnir, ex-boyfriend of one Dr. Jane Foster, et cetera and so on? And Donald Blake, that was his secret identity back in the day, right? Well...I mean, the first part's correct. The second part's a long story.
When Dr. Donald Blake first appeared, he thought he was an ordinary human New Yorker surgeon with some sort of vague permanent leg injury, but then he went on vacation to Norway, found a stick that turned out to turn into a magic hammer, and gained the ability to transform into Thor, god of thunder....and then he found out he wasn't real. Dr. Donald Blake was, in fact, a construct created by Odin to give Thor some character development. (Yes, Don was created with a bad leg because Odin thought it would build Thor's character. Relatedly, Odin is a dick.) For a while after this revelation, Thor retained the ability to transform into Donald Blake, but after he briefly lost custody of Mjolnir to Beta Ray Bill, Donald Blake, for complicated godly magic reasons, ceased to have existed, with only a few people close to Thor like core Avengers and Jane Foster remembering there had ever been such a person.
That is, until Thor died stopping the cycle of Ragnarok. You see, though Don ceased to have existed within the nine realms, he did, unbeknownst to Thor or anyone else, persist as a spirit in the "void of nonexistence," (It's not exactly a void. It has form. But that's what it's called.) because the person Odin created in "Donald Blake" was way more complex than "Thor with amnesia," and was enough of a person to exist in his own right, but for, again, complicated godly magical reasons, not quite at the same time as Thor. So, since Thor was dead, Don Blake could live...but the world still needed Thor, so Don's spirit woke Thor's from the void and told him as much, resulting in Thor dragging himself--and Don--back to life...with a twist.
Post-resurrection, Thor and Don effectively exist on the border of life and death. At all times, one of them is in the realm of the living and the other is in the void of nonexistence. When the one in the living realm strikes Mjolnir, in the form it takes for them, against the ground, there is a crack of thunder and bolt of lightning as they switch places--including indoors, but any nearby electronics will be fine...unless you want them not to be, of course. They don't share a body; they don't shapeshift. They take turns existing. Their connection can only be broken if the one who's currently 'alive' dies, and in that case the other would, rather than losing their tether, become alive without conditions, as demonstrated when Thor is in a near death state and Don is able to exist in the living realm separate from him.
Comics operating on the vague sliding timescale that they do, it's hard to say how long Don and Thor are supposed to have been dead for. I'm going to say for Don it was around ten years, while Thor was gone for more like a very eventful two-ish. Officially, Don returned to reality at the moment of Thor's death, but what he was doing between then and the moment he grasped Mjolnir in the field it fell into after Ragnarok and thus woke Thor in the void is not covered during this arc. Maybe it comes up at a later point I haven't caught back up to in my canon review, but for simplicity's sake I'm sort of ignoring the period he's supposed to have already been alive again and treating it like they resurrected together, which is basically what the comic does after both telling and showing us otherwise.
How much Don's extended time alone in the void impacted him remains to be seen, but while in the void he tends to casually spout deep cut secrets/truths of the universe like, "It is not for the gods to decide whether Man exists, it is for Man to decide whether or not the gods exist," like that's a normal thing to say or something, so...yeah.
Due to their connection, the one in the void can hear everything the one in the living world can, and can speak to them. The one in the living world has to speak aloud to reply, though, there's no mind reading here, so you may see both Don and Thor talking to themselves. It's less clear whether they can see what their other half does, so I'm gonna say not without making an effort. Additionally, the "dead" partner can temporarily manifest as a spirit, visible in the comics only to the living half of the pair or another dead spirit, as in spirit form, they can see and converse with other spirits before they cross over. The spirit partner appears to have a pretty short tether to the living partner: we only see spirit!Don even in another room from Thor once, and then Thor's just out in the hallway.
TL;DR: two characters who were once one character but it was always messy, and now their slot in the world of the living is a timeshare. Comics!
Dr. Donald Blake is a human surgeon from New York. He has no powers except for the ability to strike his walking stick against the ground and transform into the god Thor, which is, you have to admit, a banger as "one neat tricks" go. The walking stick, which just looks like some random appropriately-sized stick he picked up off the ground, is actually Mjolnir, and he'll be keeping it close at hand as in stick form it doesn't do that neat magic recall thing the hammer does, plus in walking stick form the 'worthiness' clause applies to the ability to transform it into the hammer, not picking it up. In theory anyone random could walk off with it. So Don will be really cautious about anyone trying to touch the stick, and you shouldn't touch someone's mobility aid without their permission anyway.
When you look at Don, you're not going to think, 'That guy looks like Thor.' He's averageish height, and he's wiry, almost skinny: his official, Marvel-given height and weight is 5'9" and 150 pounds. He walks with a limp thanks to that permanent injury to his left leg, which sort of comes and goes based (Doylist) on whether or not the writers and artists remember it, so I'm gonna say (Watsonian) he has good days and bad days. On good days, Don won't need the stick at all, he'll just carry it around in his hand. On bad days, he'll use the stick more, or Thor will do stuff while Don retreats to the void. He has sandy blond hair, and his face is pleasant enough, but, as you can see above, very much not the same as Thor's. The main thing he has in common with Thor physically is that they have the same very blue eyes. Don used to wear suits back in the day, but post-resurrection he appears to be no longer about that life and tends to dress very casually (t-shirts, cargo shorts, hoodies) when he's not in scrubs. He spends a concerning amount of his time in Broxton wearing a bucket hat. This man has no fashion sense, is what I'm saying.
In his current incarnation, Don is fully aware of his past: that is, that he was not born but made by Odin as a character development exercise for his son. He doesn't consider this to make him any less real or any less a distinct person from Thor--however, he was not always so distinct. Their identity during Don's first period of existence is sort of muddled, and the way they talk about things like their former relationship with their universe's Jane Foster or Thor's early years with the Avengers may give that away. It is generally agreed that Don started existing at some point during medical school, so I'm going to say he doesn't really have a past beyond that point and, again, he's not currently stressed about it, but he'll kind of avoid talking about his past or lack of same, especially with people he doesn't know well. He'll be more open about having been dead for ten years, since where he's from that sort of thing kind of just happens to people sometimes.
Look, we all know Thor. He is who he is: big (6'6" and 640 pounds, which...even if that's counting the armor and the hammer I have no idea how Marvel arrived at that number), blond, thunder and lightning. Face like a very handsome battleaxe. Big hammer energy, one could say. Talks and dresses like he walked out of a Norse Ren Faire and we love him for it. This is not the MCU's Thor, even though I'm using the icons because...look at him. This Thor has a lot more gravitas to him, a lot less obvious humor*, partly because that's just how he is and partly because he's coming from post-Ragnarok, in which Asgard was destroyed and everybody died, including himself. Currently, Thor is the only Asgardian "alive." The spirits of most of the others are riding shotgun in unsuspecting mortals, and before Thor can start waking them up and extracting them from said mortals he needs to figure out how to restore Asgard so they have somewhere to go...which brings him to Fandom.
No, don't worry. I'm not posting Asgard up next to Ingvar. In the comics it ends up outside of the small town of Broxton, Oklahoma, and that's right where it'll go this time, too, it's just going to take a while for Thor (and Don) to figure out how to do it. Don and Thor resurrected after Marvel's Civil War storyline, meaning the Superhero Registration Act is still in effect in their universe, and they figured it would be wise to lay low until they have more of a plan. When an offer of a teaching position at a small university off the coast of Maryland landed in Don's lap, they figured it was perfect, especially since Don's still working on getting his medical license reinstated after being dead and not existing.
...what do you mean, Jane's here? And Tony?...and Steve?! But Steve's dead!
*That's not to say he can't be funny:
If you want your character to figure out that Don and Thor are one and the same...it's definitely possible! In the comics they do not exhibit a great deal of sneakiness, so they're going to be pretty casual about keeping their secrets. The lightning strike every time they swap places, which will happen pretty regularly, could for sure raise some flags all on its own. Like I said above, they don't look very much alike, but their eyes are the same very bright shade of blue, and I like to imagine they share some expressions and mannerisms from having been kind of the same guy for a while. So: the clues are there to be spotted, plus certain characters will find out pretty quickly, because it would never occur to either of these ding-dongs to hide anything from Steve Rogers.
If you want your character to get some kind of entirely wrong impression of what the deal is with Jane Foster's two exes who showed up on the island at the same time and share an address and apparently a bed: PLEASE do!
If you want your character to see Don or Thor in their spirit form: there's a scene where Thor's spirit sits in the booth across from Don in a crowded diner and not a soul blinks, so they're not visible on the level of 'of course everyone can see ghosts,' but if your character can see ghosts/spirits as a special ability, then I'll say that they'd be able to see them, and it's possible the spirits might be able to make themselves visible to more mundane folk, but they haven't yet tried. The spirits appear looking like themselves, only transparent and kind of glowy. I'm gonna say others cannot, however, hear them when they're speaking from the void without manifesting as a spirit...but again, they can definitely hear the living partner reply, because they have to do so out loud.
If your character is from Marvel and you think there's something we need to go over regarding Thor and/or Don and how they would react to your character or your character would react to them that we haven't discussed yet, please reach out to me! I don't bite! Don will be (again, due to the extended stint of being dead) fairly out of the loop, but I'm assuming Thor, having been a core Avenger for many, many years, will have at least vaguely heard of most Marvel superhero types who were around prior to his death in Ragnarok (so not Kamala), although he might not remember details beyond, say, "Gambit? He was definitely an X-Man at some point, I think."
If you're not sure if your character would recognize/know my guys: All Marvelites, please feel free to recognize Thor if he exists in your character's universe. He's a very distinctive guy, and I'm using some MCU icons, so, y'know, yes, he looks like MCU Thor, and also he's basically wearing the same outfit as the island's Dr. Jane Foster. Don is in most versions of Marvel somewhat obscure (due to not existing for many years) or else nonexistent. There was an Easter egg mention of him as Jane's ex in the first Thor film, so he does exist in the MCU...as a separate random guy with no connection to Thor except they both at some point dated Jane Foster. (Jane is about to have a very weird time. Sorry not sorry, Jane.)
As for my other characters, you can find info on Lydia here, Raiden here, and Gray here.
I am Mary aka Z and I'm in the US Central time zone, and I have been poking at this idea since this arc of the comic was first coming out, which would have been, um, circa 2008. And then one day I looked at Gray and Raiden and realized I was playing a duo where one is 5'9" with a chronic condition caused by supernatural means and the other is over six and a half feet tall and played by Chris Hemsworth, and I was like, "Well, I might as well do it for real..." So here we are: newbies sixteen years in the making.
Did I forget anything? I know I went on forever, but I feel like I probably forgot something. Let me know if I forgot something!
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Date: 2024-05-03 06:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-03 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-03 07:02 pm (UTC)The representative from "We do not speak of the Bemis run. Or Age of Khonshu. Or the time when Marc's altars were Spider-Man, Cap, and Wolverine" vehemently agrees.
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Date: 2024-05-03 07:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-03 07:24 pm (UTC)Also as Steven himself is dealing with the concept of being a construct that became a person, I'm both open and interested in however that might shake out if our kids spend time together. :)