Warning! Spoilers ahead for Thor #22
The latest issue of Marvel Comics' Thor is making the twist about the God of Thunder's mother very confusing. While this particular ongoing series is pointing to one surprise person being Thor's real mom, Avengers has been suggesting someone else entirely. Is this a sign of Marvel's writers being confused about Thor's true family tree, or is some bigger narrative at play that has yet to be revealed?
Dating back to 2020's Empyre event, it was suggested that Goddess of the Earth Gaea was Thor's real mother, rather than the mother he'd known Freyja (Odin's wife). While this revelation occurred off the page in a canceled one-shot due to the global pandemic, the results were seen in Empyre's final battle when Thor became a major force to be reckoned with against the planet-based alien forces of the Cotati, having embraced her power. That being said, 2021's Avengers #43 from Jason Aaron and Javier's Garron saw the Phoenix Force claiming that she was Thor's true mother as the first Phoenix of Earth and Odin were founding members of the Ancient Avengers. As a result, many fans assumed that this new Phoenix revelation was a soft retcon of Gaea being the Son of Odin's mother (seeing as how the reveal had been botched).
However, Thor's current battle against his corrupted hammer Mjölnir sees him embracing the power of Gaea once more in Thor #22 from Donny Cates and Nic Klein. Furthermore, his adoptive mother Freyja confirms that Gaea is the God of Thunder's true birth mother. Naturally, this has created some confusion for Marvel fans, leading many to wonder if Aaron and Cates are equally confused about the other's ongoing narratives, or if they're actually in cahoots with some bigger tale that's yet to be told.
At the moment, there's no telling who Thor's birth mother actually is. While the God of Thunder has the power of Gaea in Thor, he's actively resisting the truth about the Phoenix in Avengers. Are they somehow both his mother simultaneously? If the various mythologies of the world share one thing in common, it's that the births of gods are hardly ever conventional.
As both of Marvel's ongoing series continue, it will be interesting to see who Thor's actual mother will be and why the one who may not be his mother claimed to be in the first place. Seeing as how the latest issue of Thor sees the Son of Odin yet again wielding Gaea's power, it seems slightly more likely that the Phoenix Force is wrong about being Thor's mother. Either way, one can only hope that what's happening is more on the side of collaboration between Marvel's writers rather than confusion.
