MCU: Every Thor Appearance Ranked Worst To Best

I covered this in my rundown of Captain America's appearances, but it bears repeating here that 2011 was a defining moment for the MCU. Both Captain America and Thor were introduced in their solo films that year, two characters that could've fallen flat on their face if Marvel Studios had screwed up their introductions. If their movies hadn't worked, The Avengers - which was already in production before the two films were even released - and the MCU as we know it wouldn't have become what they went on to become.

In Thor's case, we got an introduction that deftly balanced the colorful, Shakespearean world of Asgard that Thor inhabited with the more grounded Earth we'd come to know through the Iron Man films and The Incredible Hulk, the film having enough fun with the fish out of water concept once the character arrived on Earth to acknowledge the potential cheesiness of the whole thing without stepping over the line and disrespecting the character and his comic legacy.

Even if Thor's arc from brash fighter to humbled do-gooder was a bit rushed within the narrative, the fact it worked at all was a minor miracle, a testament to all those involved, including Chris Hemsworth, who worked to make the character palatable for the mainstream as someone who could reasonably exist in a universe where Iron Man was flying around. Thor himself was likable, his introduction opened up a door to a whole new realm of storytelling potential for the franchise as a whole, and without it, we wouldn't have the great character that he is today.