The MCU’s gods mythology is a complete mess

Thor: Love and ThunderThe heroes face a new threat: Gorr, the God Butcher (Christian Bale), a supernatural assassin who seeks revenge. As his name implies, Gorr’s whole schtick is killing gods, a mission he took on for himself after the god he worshiped wouldn’t lift a finger to help him in his time of need. With his dark, shadowy Necrosword, Gorr is on a quest to kill every god ever, because as far as he (or we) can tell, they’ve done nothing to help their followers, or even to marginally make the multiverse a better place.

Since Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is a god himself, he disapproves of Gorr’s murder spree, especially when he and other survivors of the destruction of his home, Asgard, become Gorr’s next targets. Thor mourns some of the gods Gorr has killed, and seeks help from some who haven’t been targeted yet. A wide variety of creatures he meets along his journey brings up an interesting question for the MCU. Especially as the mythological deities have become increasingly important to the movie: “What the heck makes a god?”

[Ed. note: Some broad story spoilers ahead for Thor: Love and Thunder.]

The Asgardian Dilemma

Image: Marvel Studios

Doesn’t Thor: Love and Thunder This question is required: you might ask.The immortal beings that all mortal species revere are called gods.Oh, it would be that easy. Here’s one complication: When the Asgardians were first introduced in 2011’s ThorThey were presented as aliens.

The movies avoided magical and mystical elements in their early years of the MCU. Action and technology were the main focus of all action. These elements felt much more grown up than any wibbly-wobbly fantasies. The “magic” of Asgard used to be just very advanced science, something Jane Foster noted when she visited Asgard in 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. This extended to the rest of the MCU, with Wanda Maximoff’s powers initially explained in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron because of scientific experimentation and not magic. Nobody identified her as a “witch” until WandaVision Tradition and history of witches have been established.

So once upon a time, all the magic in the MCU was really just science… until it wasn’t. You can’t have Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, without some magic. The MCU now fully embraces magic as a type and power source, so gods from other worlds are able to be gods. But at the same time, they’re also still kinda aliens, since so much of what they do involves going into space.

Image: Marvel Studios/Disney

Thor: Love and ThunderThor (and his buddies) seek assistance in Omnipotence, where the gods are found in what seems like a space station. It is ruled by Zeus, played by Russell Crowe. When Thor and his friends arrive, they walk through a host of other gods — some referencing or inspired by real-world cultures, and others from MCU fiction. Amid some of those real-world deities, like the beings in traditional Aztec attire, there’s also the rock god that Taika Waititi’s rock alien Korg worships (he sits proudly on a throne of vanquished scissors) and Bao, the god of dumplings. (He isn’t an actual Chinese mythological figure, but he’s adorable nonetheless.) A couple of the Eternals’ Celestial masters appear as well. Other MCU gods have not been mentioned, but they are similar in appearance to Egyptian deities. Moon Knight.

It is clear that traveling to Omnipotence city requires you to travel somewhere in space. Classic superhero comics often blur the lines between magic and science — not surprising in a genre that’s only slightly younger than broadcast radio, and a couple of decades older than the space race. The MCU reflects this loosey-goosey cosmology — what exactly is the difference between Doctor Strange’s sorcery and Scarlet Witch’s witchcraft? Except for being told witchcraft was bad, we never discover the truth. If Wanda’s powers have been always inside of her, and were just activated by Baron Strucker’s HYDRA experiments, what does that make the Infinity Stones, or the Necrosword itself? Is it possible for beings from other universes to be included in the cosmology? The questions keep expanding along with the MCU, but that’s probably a subject for another article.

Here’s the verdict All gods can be described as aliens and our minds are not capable of understanding the differences.

The Eternal Question

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So far so good — except that in 2021’s EternalsIt turns out that many Earth religions are based on myths and legends inspired by near-immortal beings known as the Eternals. These Eternals guided mankind for thousands upon years.

All of the Eternals aren’t directly seen as gods, but they did inspire the stories of heroic mythological figures: Sersi is the sorceress Circe; Ikaris is Icarus, the dude who flew too close to the sun; Ajak is the Greek warrior Ajax of IliadGilgamesh was the main character from The Odyssey. Epic of Gilgamesh. Legends of other members of this group inspired legends about mythological concepts such as druids or sprites. However, Phastos and Makkari share direct Greco-Roman counterparts at Mercury, Athena and Hephaestus. It’s a big part of Eternals that their guidance of humanity inspired stories across cultures, and the closing credits, which juxtapose some of the actors’ names with artistic representations of their characters’ mythological counterparts, hammers this connection home.

That would actually support the “All gods are actually aliens, and humans are just too dumb to know the difference” idea, if Zeus wasn’t introduced in Omnipotence City as “a god,” in the traditional human sense. Other than a slight nod towards Dionysus the wine god, no mentions are made of Greek mythological figures within the city. But Zeus sparks obvious questions: Were some of Earth’s Greek deities god-gods, instead of just Eternals or passed-down legends of Eternals? Does it seem like there was an Athena who lived in Omnipotence, but did the rest of her work on Earth with Thena The Eternal? Could belief in a god-figure help create or empower an actual god, the way it does in (for instance) Neil Gaiman’s novels?

Image: Marvel Studios

But what about their Roman counterparts. Zeus is actually Jupiter since Roman mythology is almost a copy of Greek mythology. Some parts have been removed in order to add pizzaz. Or is there a different Jupiter who fills in for Zeus when he’s too hungover to throw lightning bolts around? Actor Carmen Foon is credited as Minerva (Athena’s Roman counterpart) in Thor: Love and ThunderWho is the most generous? It is not played by Angelina Jolie, who plays Thena — so does that mean there AreSeparate Greek and Roman Deities

Then there’s the question of the Celestials, the primordial race responsible for creating the Eternals. They are the oldest beings in the universe, and in fact created it — which would make them the closest thing to the Abrahamic God in the MCU so far. Ego, the Guardians of the Galaxy’s Celestial counterpart in comics but made into one for the MCU, is the only Celestial that anyone but the Eternals appears to be aware of. Since then, no MCU property Eternals has acknowledged Tiamut, the giant celestial that started to hatch from the Earth’s crust. Even though Sersi turned it into marble, it’s still there, which you’d think Earth’s heroes might notice.

This is the new verdict SomeThe primordial race of godlike, godlike aliens has sent gods to Earth. Some gods may even be aliens. Only a few gods, however, are actually the mythological gods that we have come to know.

Moon Knight, what the heck is going on?

Image: Marvel Studios

And then there’s Moon Knight.

Moon Knight draws heavily from Egyptian mythology and establishes that the Egyptian gods exist but don’t directly interact with humanity anymore. They empower people to do their bidding as avatars. Many of these are Moon Knight is far removed from the MCU — beyond a brief Black Panther reference when Moon Knight’s human personalities, Steven and Marc, wander into the Land of the Dead and meet the hippo goddess Taweret, there actually isn’t much to tie it to the rest of the MCU.

Image: Marvel Studios

It is, however. IsThis intricate web of gods is still in place. Moon Knight writer Jeremy Slater revealed that the show’s team had to cut some script references to Gorr the God Butcher because they simply did not know whether Moon Knight Before publication Love and Thunder.

They are also available in the Moon Knight gods the same type of gods as the ones we see in Omnipotence City — immortal, powerful beings that aren’t just high-tech aliens or servants of an even higher power? They most certainly are. aren’tIn Omnipotence City, despite their separation from the rest of humanity.

This is the new verdict It isThese are actual gods, but they’re really removed from the day-to-day machinations of life, so they use people as avatars to do their bidding, and also don’t even hang out with their fellow gods, likely because Zeus is an exclusionist asshole.

It all comes together

Norse gods can be described as Asgardians who are aliens. The Greek Pantheon is made up of some empowered beings, but also some gods, and we’re not sure whether Greek gods and Roman gods are the same. Egyptian gods are actual gods, but they don’t really do the god thing anymore, and instead just use humans to do their bidding. The gods of major real-world religions that are still being practiced don’t come up in these stories, but gods of religions practiced by aliens certainly do. The MCU now has magic, except when it doesn’t. PerhapsThor: Love and ThunderDirector Taika Waititi says it best.

“There’s a certain line where you gotta leave the other stuff behind,” he tells Polygon. “Otherwise, you get bogged down in this idea of honoring the truth or the authenticity of something. Any comic book character is reinterpreted a different way by different writers and different artists each time there’s a new run. That also proves that nothing is actually sacred.”

Let’s get to the bottom of it: Everything is made up and nothing matters, so let’s just have some fun and use gods as little paper dolls for our cinematic universe playtime.

Photo: Jasin Boland/Marvel Studios

Thor: Love and Thunder It’s available now in cinemas