Created by editor-plotter Stan Lee, scriptwriter Larry Lieber, and penciller-plotter Jack Kirby, Thor debuted in Journey Into Mystery #83 on August 1962.
The character was inspired after the Norse mythical God of Thunder. He possesses the similar enchanted hammer Mjolnir.
Stan Lee was quoted in an interview that he had wanted to create a character after the coming of Hulk. And what could be stronger than the strongest man on Earth but a God?
Thor's father Odin decides his son needed to be taught humility and consequently places Thor (without memories of godhood) into the body and memories of an existing, partially
disabled human medical student, Donald Blake. After becoming a doctor and on vacation in Norway, Blake witnesses the arrival of an alien scouting party. Blake flees from the aliens into a cave. After discovering Thor's hammer Mjolnir (disguised as a walking stick) and striking it against a rock, he transforms into the thunder god. Later, in Thor #159, Blake is revealed to have always been Thor, Odin's enchantment having caused him to forget his history as The Thunder God and believe himself mortal.
Falling in love with Jane Foster, Thor disobeys his father and refuses to return to Asgard, an act for which he is punished on several occasions.
Like all Asgardians, Thor is incredibly long-lived and relies upon periodic consumption of the Golden Apples of Idunn to sustain his extended lifespan, which to date has lasted many millennia. Being the son of Odin and the elder goddess Gaea, Thor is physically the strongest of the Asgardians.
Thor possesses a very high resistance to physical injury that approaches invulnerability, keen senses that allow him to track objects traveling faster than light and hear cries from the other side of the planet, and has the ability to travel through time.
He has great stamina, and has shown the ability to regenerate wounded portions of his body. Thor also has superhuman speed, agility, and reflexes, enabling him to deflect bullets with his hammer. In early stories, Thor has shown to be capable of vortex breath, which produces powerful winds. Like all Asgardians, he has immunity to all Earthly diseases and some resistance to magic. Exceptionally powerful magic can overwhelm Odin's enchantment that transforms him between Asgardian and mortal forms.
As the Norse god of thunder, Thor can summon the elements of the storm (lightning; rain; wind; snow) and uses Mjolnir as a tool to focus this ability, although the hammer cannot command artificial weather, only natural.
