I remember when Fat Thor made his first appearance in Endgame, and for just a moment, I felt more seen by the MCU than ever before. I am certainly not the star of an action movie franchise, but I am a cisgendered, straight white guy, so I’ve never really hurt for representation in media. I’m also a guy who put on a lot of weight when he was sad over the direction his life had taken, and who worked incredibly hard (relatively speaking – again, I’m not an action movie star) to try and lose it.* Seeing Thor, the God of Thunder, wallowing in his own crapulence after losing so much, when loss wasn’t really something he’d experienced before we met him in the movies… it resonated with me. I also enjoyed how the movie didn’t feel the need to further pad its runtime with a montage of Thor getting back in shape to take on Thanos again, too. He’s an Asgardian, with magic weapons; did he ever really need to train like Rocky did for Apollo Creed?
I knew that in whatever direction Thor took in the MCU following Endgame, it probably wouldn’t involve Hemsworth wearing that fat suit for much longer, and I get why they wouldn’t do that. But, I thought there were some real possibilities for Fat Thor, among a group of characters who look like they’re always hungry, and never talk about their feelings. So, in the Phil Wrede Marvel Action Figure Comic Universe, Thor’s still fat.
*The weight came back, by the way, but I’m still working on losing it again. There are successful days, and less successful ones, but I won’t lose hope!
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