How Gorr the God Butcher Is Better in the Comics

Gorr the God Butcher is one of Marvel’s most intriguing characters. According to Taika Waititi, he even tested the highest amongst all other villains we’ve seen so far. However, was the MCU version of Gorr really that good? Or is the one in the comics better, and how exactly are they different?

Gorr the God Butcher in Marvel comics is a man turned god-slayer who loses faith in deities after his family perishes. He is much better than the MCU’s version because of the rich history, background, and character depth the comics give him.

Let me tell you straight off the bat that I loved Christian Bale’s Gorr. The actor tried to give a good performance that was eerie, devious, and yet empathetic at the same time. But, and this is a big but, the character wasn’t written well at all.

Before I painstakingly dig into the many flaws of MCU’s Gorr, let’s turn our heads away for a few moments and look at the mighty god-butcher in the comics.

Gorr the God Butcher in Marvel Comics

In the comics, Gorr has existed for thousands of years across millennia. His story begins with him being a simple man on a dying planet, who believes in the existence of gods, prays to them, and even fears them.

However, since the planet is dying, Gorr loses his family members, such as his wife and son. This affects him so profoundly that he ultimately stops believing in god. Due to this, he is exiled by his people.

While wandering off, he encounters two gods battling each other and thus begins the character’s story. He was furious when he realized that gods actually do exist because so far, they hadn’t answered his prayers or helped him.

So, he starts killing off gods one by one. His Necromancer swords appear as a result of this, and his killing spree becomes his life’s motto. While there’s a lot to cover and say about this character, I’ll just highlight some key specifics which would show how dangerous he really was:

• Gorr has fought across two or three millennia against gods and has come face-to-face with Thor multiple times.
• He has managed to kill thousands of gods, including those of war, fear, genocide, earthquake, and many more.
• Once, three Thors from different times attacked Gorr to finish him but failed due to the God Butcher’s sheer strength.
• The character affected Thor and many other gods, even after his death.
• Ultimately, all his powers had to be taken away, and the man was captured and kept by someone. He then spent all his days in peace.

So, this is all you need to know about Gorr the God Butcher in the comics. This is merely a glimpse at how much destruction the character has caused in the universe, and you should check out the comics for more. Now, moving on to the MCU version.

Why was Gorr the God Butcher portrayed poorly in Thor: Love and Thunder?

The main problems with Gorr’s portrayal in the film lie in the character development and, in general, the tonality of the rest of the film. But before I state anything, here’s something that I can demonstrate.

When you read the facts about the God Butcher in the previous section, you would’ve felt a sense of awe. He might not be as mighty as Thanos, but his feats sure did surpass other MCU villains such as Ronan.

Now, if you’ve watched Thor: Love and Thunder, you’ll realize that you didn’t feel anything while watching Christian Bale as Gorr. It was so underwhelming, and you can attribute this to two simple things.

First, the character didn’t seem scary enough. He hadn’t shocked us with his deeds or created a sense of fear in our minds. The film, which lasted two hours, didn’t give the character the required time to unfold.

Second, every time the character was on screen, we only heard words of what his character should be like. It’s like the difference between hearing that something is evil vs actually feeling it.

In a nutshell, this was the issue with the character development. Now, if we look at the film’s tonality, you’ll see that the environment is relaxed every time Gorr isn’t on the screen. People are throwing pop culture references; there are way too many witty one-liners, the background score doesn’t stop, and so on.

If you look at your reactions retrospectively, you’ll realize that you only cared about Natalie Portman’s character, future, and dynamic with Thor. Let me lay it out for you to give some more perspective on this.

There is a God Butcher slaying gods like they are nothing, and you’re wondering if the male and female lead will get over their break up and patch up once again. The stakes clearly don’t feel high enough.

In the comics, Gorr is known to set some of the smartest traps for others, and the way he executes his plans is brilliant. There are layers to every single move of his. But all we see in the film is him kidnapping a bunch of kids and waiting for Thor.

Even when he comes, there’s no ingenious way of trapping him. He just summons his shadow monsters, who do the job for him. Now, I understand the phrase ‘Keep it simple,’ but this is definitely not it. There is no shock value or a moment that would make our jaws drop.

So overall, when there’s so much gap between a character and the remainder of the film, the experience becomes jarring, and all our attention goes to one thing that stands out the most. In this case, it was Gorr the God Butcher, and not in a good way.

Similarities and Differences Between MCU and Comics’ Gorr

To start off with similarities, Gorr loses his family in the comics and the film. The Necromancer sword is his main weapon. His philosophy around gods, the loss of faith in them, and the thirst for vengeance are the same. As long as similarities go, this is it.

But there are quite a few differences between the original and the film’s version. In fact, the film barely captured anything significant about Gorr. We aren’t shown how exactly he kills Gods, and we didn’t see him in action until he met Thor.

The main differences are that he has a son and a wife in the comics, but in the film, he has a daughter. Gorr’s look in the comics is pretty different from the one we saw on the silver screen.

In the comics, he doesn’t have a nose; his costume is different, revealing more of his bare body and antenna-like features protruding from his head. In the film, Gorr does have a nose; he wears a robe-like clothing covering most of his body and doesn’t have antenna-like features. Overall, these are the similarities and differences between the two characters.

About Thor: Love and Thunder

Thor: Love and Thunder is a MCU movie and the fourth installation in the Thor series. It is directed by Ragnarok’s director, Taika Waititi, and will show Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman reprising their roles as Thor Odinson and Dr. Jane Foster.

The movie will be based on The Mighty Thor comics in which Thor Odinson loses the ability to lift Mjolnir, and Jane Foster takes on the role of Mighty Thor. After the events of Avengers: Endgame, Thor teams up with The Guardians of the Galaxy for a short time, leaving Valkyrie as the ruler of New Asgard. But Thor returns to team up with Korg, Valkyrie and Jane’s Mighty Thor to take down Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) – before he takes out all the gods in existence.

Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson return for Watiti’s second go, while Russell Crowe and Natalie Portaman join Taika’s project for the first time. The movie is out on July 8, 2022.