Thor’s first appearance in Marvel Comics was in 1962 in Journey into Mystery #83, created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Larry Lieber. Over the course of his extensive comic book history, the Odinson has faced a number of extremely tough and brutal villains.
One of these villains recently made his debut in the new trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder ⏤ Gorr the God Butcher, as played by Christian Bale. Who is this new MCU villain, and why is he called the God Butcher?
Who is Gorr the God Butcher?
Even though Thor has been around Marvel Comics for nearly 60 years, Gorr the God Butcher only made his debut in 2012. While he was mentioned in the first issue of Thor: God of Thunder, Gorr did not actually appear until Thor: God of Thunder #2, where he fought Thor for the first time. The issue was written by Jason Aaron with pencil art by Esad Ribić.
Gorr was born on a nearly inhospitable planet and grew up starving. His mother and father died while he was young, but before that, they taught him to trust in the gods. Gorr also had a wife by the name of Arra, but she died during an earthquake while pregnant. The pair had children before she died, but all of them ended up dead except for one, a boy by the name of Agar. Unfortunately, Agar was the last one to die and he starved to death.
Gorr was forced out of his village for blasphemy because he didn’t believe in the gods after his entire family had perished. After encountering two battling gods, Gorr was not only confronted by their existence, but he also became enraged after one god begged for his help. Gorr bonded with the sword of one of the gods, Knull. This Necrosword, known as All-Black, was the first symbiote and was made out of complete darkness.
Gorr used his new sword to kill the wounded god and travel the cosmos to kill as many gods as he could find. All-Black possesses a number of abilities, which allowed Gorr to earn his title of God Butcher. These abilities include superhuman strength, durability, speed, and reflexes, as well as longevity, regeneration, matter and dark energy manipulation, and the power to kill a god. Of course, All-Black the Necrosword bonded to Knull and, in the comics, he used these powers for 3,000 years.
Gorr would first encounter Thor in the 9th century where, while in Midgard, Thor came across a number of dead gods. When he investigated their murder and tried to hunt down who was killing them, he was attacked by Gorr. Thor nearly perished in their first encounter, but he managed to summon lighting to strike Gorr just as he was about to kill him. Gorr escaped their encounter and spent another 1,000 years eliminating all the gods he came up against.
Gorr created minions dubbed the Black Berserkers, who took different forms like dogs or ravens and aided Gorr in his god-killing exploits. Gorr traversed time and space, killing a number of gods and enslaving others to create an all-powerful weapon that would wipe out all gods, the aptly named Godbomb. Unfortunately for Gorr, he created a copy of his son with the All-Black, but it wasn’t really Agar, just a representation of his own self.
This version of Agar helped Thor, King Thor ⏤ who was a Thor from the future ⏤ and Young Thor, who would all come together to stop Gorr from detonating the Godbomb. Together, they defeated Gorr and forced him into the All-Black, killing him and storing his consciousness inside.
Gorr the God Butcher returned in King Thor, where he was resurrected when Loki wielded the All-Black. After nearly destroying the world with the All-Black, Gorr was left without memory and insane, but he lived out the remainder of his life in peace. Thor, on the other hand, destroyed the All-Black and sacrificed himself to hold back the darkness that threatened their world.
Marvel fans should be more than excited for Bale’s portrayal of the God Butcher. As if Bale’s pedigree wasn’t enough, director Taika Waititi hyped up Bale’s performance, calling him the best villain Marvel has had so far. Gorr’s addition to the already brilliant cast of Thor: Love and Thunder is going to make this one film you won’t want to miss.
Thor: Love and Thunder flies into theaters on July 8, 2022.