While mere mortals are rarely worthy of wielding Mjolnir, Thor’s all-powerful hammer, a run-in with Zeus proved that other deities may be up to the task. But can a god of thunder from another time and place truly be as worthy as Thor?
When Thor is transported back in time to the Trojan War, he ends up getting in the middle of a huge mess among the Greeks, the Trojans, and the gods above. ThorAnnual #8, from the original run, first published in 1979, was written by Roy Thomas on art by John Buscema. It’s a classic take on the annual, bringing a hero out of their element to see how they fare at another point in history. And it all begins with Thor in the midst of a battle with Loki and a bunch of Storm-Giants, chasing his trickster brother into a cave... but coming out thousands of years in the past -- and directly into the legendary Trojan War.
Crucially, the first person he meets is Aeneas, from the Trojan side (making him obviously biased against the invading Greeks). Once Thor gets his bearings and re he is also a god in the midst of the massive battle of men and deities, he begins to interact with the Greek pantheon. Despite a general understanding that all-powerful, immortal beings shouldn’t manipulate the lives of mortals, Athena, Apollo, and Aphrodite are all pursuing their own agendas. But there's only one god who wins Thor's attention.
As soon as he’s introduced to the Olympian theater of deities, Thor realizes there’s a god of thunder here, as well. Literally, Thor hears a clap of lightning so powerful that he’s professionally intrigued about where it came from. What follows is a pretty still an impressive Mjolnir feat, and it effectively ended the quarrel.
Thor acted the hero most of the way, siding with his friends, protecting them from deceitful gods here and there, but this story was most interesting in how it dealt with bouts of unworthiness, mostly conforms to the modern idea of god-like beings as moral heroes. The Olympians don’t have that inclination as strongly. There’s a sense that they should take care of mortals, but they’re far more likely to be corrupted by their power, both in this story, and the original myths. When this story compares the two types of omnipotent beings, it contributes to the mythology being written today.
