2025 was a seismic year for Thor lore, as Marvel’s God of Thunder finally met his end… and experienced a stunning rebirth.
Here’s everything you need to know about how Marvel removed Thor from official canon in 2025, and what it means for his stories as 2026 approaches.
Loki Finally Killed Thor in Marvel Lore
Thor spent 2025 battling the Utgard-Gods – immensely powerful gods as far above traditional deities as the Asgardians are above humans. Just as it appeared Thor had triumphed and avoided death, his treacherous sibling Loki stabbed him from behind with an enchanted arrow, ending his life.
However, this betrayal wasn’t quite what it looked like. Loki is involved in a battle with the Utgard-Loki – the ultimate embodiment of storytelling, who was steering Thor towards disaster. Loki killing Thor was a way of changing the narrative – a gambit that was successful in the moment, but comes with major risks.
As Thor died, the antihero Skurge shattered the Rainbow Bridge, severing all connections between Earth and Asgard. This erased all memory of Thor and his brethren from mortal minds, and erased him from Marvel’s past and present. Reality itself changed to erase him, with Thor even being retroactively replaced as a founding Avengers hero (his alien ally Beta Ray Bill took his place in Marvel history.)
Of course, for a god, even death isn’t the end. After battling his ‘brother’ Donald Blake in the afterlife, Thor found a way to return to life. However, this wasn’t a true rebirth. Rather than returning as a god, Thor was reborn as a mortal…
Thor Has Been Reborn as Sigurd Jarlson
As of The Mortal Thor, Thor has been reborn as Sigurd Jarlson – a heroic but fully mortal hero. An amnesiac construction worker, Sigurd has been targeted by the similarly reincarnated Donald Blake, who has set the villainous Sons of the Serpent group on him. Taking up a hammer, Sigurd has fought back against both Blake and the villainous Roxxon Corporation.
In an awesome twist, Sigurd has found himself fighting using an everyday hammer and a piece of bungee cord that causes it to return to his hand when thrown. However, while Thor operated on a higher level, Sigurd is now being investigated by the police, showing how different life is as a mortal vigilante.
While Sigurd is clearly Thor’s reincarnation in some sense, the comics have made it clear that he isn’t truly Thor, and is more of an ‘echo’ of the god. It seems like Marvel may be setting Sigurd up as his own character once Thor returns to his godly status.
There Have Been Major Consequences to Thor’s Rebirth
Thor’s reincarnation is having major ripples in Marvel lore. Recently, Odin revealed that he has returned to life following his death in 2022. In the process, he has sacrificed his ability to ever enter Valhalla again and been reborn as ‘Odin the Wanderer,’ stating he will never rule Asgard again.
That’s a problem, as Thor’s death means that Asgard currently stands without a ruler. Two candidates are being foreshadowed to take the throne – Thor’s son Magni, recently summoned from an alternate dimension, and the recently reborn Heimdall, who Thor saved before his death at Loki’s hands.
Crucially, Magni recently learned he’d inherited Thor’s connection to the Odin Power, essentially making him omnipotent – though so far, he has almost no experience wielding this awesome power.
Finally, Thor’s reincarnation has allowed Donald Blake to manifest in the mortal world. Once a false identity created by Odin, Blake has become the new God of Lies, harboring an immense hatred for Thor and Loki. He’s become the leader of the white supremacist group the Sons of the Serpent, and is working as an enforcer for Roxxon.
2025 totally remixed Thor’s world, resurrecting crucial gods and empowering others, while making Thor himself (or at least Sigurd Jarlson) more vulnerable than ever. 2026 will continue the narrative, and promises to bring back some classic villains who haven’t been a physical threat to Thor in a long time, including the Grey Gargoyle and the Cobra.
The Immortal/Mortal Thor era is hands down the most interesting the hero has been in decades, with Thor‘s mortal rebirth setting up one of Marvel’s must-read titles of 2026.
The Immortal Thor #1-25 and The Mortal Thor #1-5 are available now from Marvel Comics.
- First Appearance
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Journey into Mystery
- Alias
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Thor Odinson, Eric Masterson, Kevin Masterson, Beta Ray Bill, Thordis, Throg, Red Norvell, Jane Foster
- Alliance
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Avengers, Warriors Three, Thor Corps, God Squad
- Race
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Asgardian, Human
- Franchise
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Marvel
