"By Odin's Beard!" - or Something Close to It!

Branagh promoting the film at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con

As of this past weekend's box-office receipts Thor is the #1 movie in America, finally giving Kenneth Branagh the blockbuster director's status he's deserved for over two decades.

Similarly, it has bumped the Mighty Avenger's status from B-List to at least A-Minus-List notoriety a feat that Marvel has been trying to pull off in the five decades since the God of Thunder took to the pages of Journey into Mystery #83.

Although the "general public" has been categorized as being unaware of Thor's presence up until his star-making turn at the cinemas, Thor has been floating around the periphery of pop culture providing some entertainment and quite a few chuckles to those of us who grew-up knowing and loving Longbeard's Son.

Here's a few of my personal favorite Thor appearances in the media that pre-date his super-stardom:

Adventures in Babysitting
1987

Yeah, that's a bleached-out Detective Bobby Goren making a cameo as some mechanic named Dawson, just prior to packing on a record-setting 70 lbs. to blow his brains all over the latrine in the following year's Full Metal Jacket.

Why is he here?

Well, a major plot point of Chris Columbus' Adventures in Babysitting is a little girl's strange obsession with Marvel's most famous Asgardian, a gag that pays off when the girl's babysitter needs to get her car out of hock and Dawson descends to collect the outlandish some of $50 (1987 money) to release the vehicle.  To see how the dyed and teased hair-raising scenario plays out check-out the following clip:

(Note: For decades, whenever I watched Adventures in Babysitting I got jealous of little Maia Brewton's awesome Thor accessories that - to my knowledge - were constructs of the prop department and never made available despite how awesome they would have been to run around with, especially in 1987.  However, with the current marketing blitz going on for the Branagh film  there are similar ones crowding the shelves of stores everywhere... and to paraphrase Step Brothers - "You know what's better than having a Thor hammer when you're ten?  Having one at 35!!!") 

The Incredible Hulk Returns
1988

After nearly a decade off the air, The Incredible Hulk (which up until that point had been the only Marvel property to make it off the page with more than a modest amount of success) indeed returned in a TV movie that was as much a Hulk story as a back-door pilot for a Thor franchise which never materialized. (They tried a similar gimmick the following year for Daredevil which still only fueled the fires for more Hulk...)

This Thor differed greatly from the comic version in that the Norse God was something more akin to a genie who was trapped inside of Mjolnir, and could only be released when the hammer's bearer - in this case, the nerdy Dr. Donald Blake (a nod to Thor's comic book alter-ego) - held the weapon out and screamed "Odin!!!"

However, once out in Midgard this version of Thor, played by Eric Allan Kramer (Little John in Robin Hood: Men in Tights), is less concerned with fighting crime and righting injustices, and more interested in line-dancing with marginally attractive women and participating in overly-long arm-wrestling montages at local biker bars.  (You really gotta see this for yourself.)

Despite a rocky first meeting (shown in the clip below), Thor manages to pair up with the Hulk (whom he calls "Troll") and can't help but become more heroic and want to take down some thugs who want to steal some kind of gamma thing, or whatever.

True story: I literally bumped into Steve Levitt, the actor who played Donald Blake, outside of a theater during the intermission for a Broadway show we were both attending sometime in the mid 1990s. Instantly recognizing him, I lit up and started gushing about how I loved the Incredible Hulk and dug the whole Thor bit at which point he politely shook my hand and said something to the effect of: "Yeah, I don't like talking about that" before briskly walking away.

Justice Friends
1996 - 98

Though not technically Thor, Valhallen was probably the best animated incarnation of the character to appear on television until the recent Marvel's Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (and the Longest Cartoon Title Ever) debuted in 2010.

A brilliant mash-up of the Thunderer and the burnt-out metal heads who worship him thanks to a lifetime of listening to Led Zeppelin, the creators of this Dexter's Lab spin-off character tied it all up in a clever bow by making his name a play on "Van Halen" and giving him a magic "axe" (a synonym for guitar, in case you're a complete dork.)

Valhallen is probably my favorite part of this list thanks to his participation in the Justice Friends shorts - an Avengers spoof by way of the Super Friends - which started on Dexter's Lab and then ran through other Cartoon Network shows like The Powerpuff Girls, making that whole era of CN programming a strangely cohesive universe.

The People's Court
1999

During a stretch of time that I was unemployed in the late 90s, I decided that I was going to attend the taping of as many TV shows as I could dressed in the same outfit as to create a character of Matt. Murray who just magically appeared everywhere from The Daily Show (then starring Craig Kilborn), to Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, to The People's Court, which at the time was presided over by Judge Judy's husband, the Honorable Judge Jerry Scheindlin.

My outfit?

A pair of dirty jeans and a beat-up black t-shirt with four strategically placed silver-blue dots, that looked plain but those in the know would recognize as the Jack Kirby Thor tunic.

Although I did have fun and managed to kill some time by going to the shows, the only time I made it to air was on the episode of the People's Court in which I sat behind the plaintiffs smiling the whole time.  Although I have been unable to find any photographic or video proof of the appearance, it was confirmed by future Marvel editor and family friend CB Cebulski who saw the episode when he caught wind of the feat I was trying to pull.