During one of his darkest hours, Ultimate Thor gets help from Iron Man who helps him regain his lost powers and iconic Mjolnir
One version of Thor reclaims his powers and Mjolnir thanks to Iron Man and the unusual powers of his Ultimate Universe version. Thor is a long-time member of his world’s version of the Avengers called the Ultimates but falls on difficult times, losing his powers when his beloved Asgard falls due to an evil supervillain’s machinations. When faced with another world-ending threat which brings him into conflict with former heroes and teammates, Thor gets a huge assist from Iron Man who cobbles together a suit of armor that returns the God of Thunder to his former glory.
Although Thor proved pivotal during moments like the Ultimates’ battles with the Chitauri or their evil opposites, the Liberators, he found himself at a loss when the former Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards returned as the unhinged Maker. During his pursuit to conquer the world, he captured Thor and lay siege to Asgard, where the Asgardians fought valiantly but fell one by one. Ultimate Thor’s version of Ragnarok ended with the World Tree Yggdrasil destroyed, leaving Thor depowered and relying on Iron Man’s weapons during his following adventures, such as his quest to find the Infinity Gems alongside Susan Richards. This quest became a competition between the Ultimates and their sinister opposites, the Dark Ultimates, who consisted of Kang, Reed, and also two former teammates, Quicksilver and the Hulk.
Ultimate Iron Man Restored Thor’s Powers
In Ultimates Comics: Ultimates #30 by writer Joshua Hale Fialkov, Carmine Di Giandomenico, and Jim Charalampidis, the Ultimates and their allies have not only lost their quest to collect the Infinity Gems but have been captured and imprisoned in the Negative Zone while their world falls under the Dark Ultimates’ control. Fortunately, the surviving Ultimates are freed by Iron Man whose consciousness survived the Maker removing an Infinity Gem from his brain long enough to hack one of his robots. During the ensuing battle, Tony chooses to even the odds and use his powers (which make Ultimate Iron Man different from his Earth-616 version) of technokinesis to assemble a suit of armor and a hammer using the Maker’s advanced technology, restoring Thor to his former status as a god.
The interesting point about this is that Tony himself is also playing god by working with the limitations placed on Thor earlier. Other Ultimate stories about Thor show him earlier displaying power similar to his mainstream Marvel counterpart but upon coming to Midgard, his powers fell victim to the machinations of his half-brother Loki. Loki used his powers to manipulate reality so that Thor’s powers were limited, making him dependent on his harness and new Mjolnir to activate his powers, making everyone believe that Ultimate Thor was crazy. Although this did not stop Thor from becoming one of his world’s greatest heroes and even from defeating Loki himself, this changed his godly status, which however came in handy when the source of the Asgardians’ divine powers was permanently erased with Asgard’s demise. All Iron Man does is exploit that loophole to empower Thor to tip the odds back in the Ultimates’ favor.
With Thor repowered, the Ultimates with Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos defeat the Dark Ultimates and restore order to their world. Although another world-ending threat was just around the corner, Thor owes his Iron Man a debt of thanks for exploiting a loophole to restore his full powers.
