The New, Original Thor!

And then there was that time that Thor had his butt kicked by...well, by Thor!

See, Thor accidentally brought a TV news crew to Asgard so they could film a documentary.

See, they hid inside an evil computer. No, really. Long story.

You'd have thought that Odin would have brought out the whipping stick, but everyone got distracted when Loki arranged for Balder to be killed by a mistletoe arrow. Yup, it's Ragnarok!!

Meanwhile, the news crew's cameraman, Roger "Red" Norvell, developed quite a crush on Sif. Of course, it was unrequited, because her boyfriend was the God of Thunder.

Well, out of the goodness of his heart, Loki decided to help Red compete for Sif's hand on a more level playing field:

But Red is thinking with his loins, so no matter how wacky it seems...

And the result of the belt and the gloves and the fire is...

And you wouldn't think so, but ersatz Thor is just as tough as real Thor:

Nay, tougher!!

Well, Sif agrees to take off with Red, in exchange for his sparing Thor's life. But the beauteous Asgardian manages to convince Red that if Ragnarok comes and there's no Thor to protect the Realm Eternal, their honeymoon will be quite short lived.

So, with a classic heel-turn, Red comes back to help clobber the Midgard Serpent!

Noble, but the result is that Red, well...dies?

And so...

The forces of Asgard, led by the original Thor, go on to actually win Ragnarok!! How is that possible?!?

See, Odin decided to create a "false" Ragnarok, to fool the forces of evil, and set them back many years with a devastating loss in what turned out not to be the "final battle" after all. So he arranged Balder's death (he got better), arranged for a false Thor to die, etc.

What a dick.

As to Red becoming Thor? It turns out that years earlier, Odin had imbued the belt, gloves and flames with the "essence" of Thor, an energy duplicate that Asgard could call on in emergencies if Thor was stuck in traffic on Midgard or something. So, using those items turned Red into an actual Thor, not just a fake Thor!!

Well, at a much later date, Odin resurrected Red, and gave him his own hammer, so for awhile he could become Asgard's protector while Thor stayed on Earth.

Then, when Thor was off in Image-land during Heroes Reborn, Red/Thor helped find the "Lost Gods" and stopped Seth from conquering Asgard. Red hung around for a bit after Heroes Return, but he kind of vanished at the end of The Dark Gods story, and hasn't been heard from again. There's no clue if he was resurrected along with the rest of the Asgardians post-Disassembled. It's been well over a decade since he's had an appearance...

So, the takeaway? Odin is a dickweed, and we've got a potential boyfriend/rival for Jane Foster-Thor!!

From Thor #273-278 (1982)