How Marvel May Have Been Setting Up Rune King Thor Since Thor: Ragnarok

Rune King Thor is regarded as one of the fan favourites and maybe the most powerful version of Thor we have ever seen in Marvel Comics, so it was not surprising that, as of November 2025, rumours were circulating that Marvel Studios was looking to bring this version of the character into Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars. There is quite a bit of evidence in what the studio has already done with Thor, starting all the way back in Thor: Ragnarok, that this may very well have been the plan the entire time.

For such a fan favourite, he did not exist for long in the comics: only a couple of issues and one particular run. On top of that, I see a lot of misinformation online about who and what he actually was. So here is the whole story, fact separated from fiction, followed by the evidence that the MCU has been laying the groundwork.

Rune King Thor first appeared in The Mighty Thor 80 through 85

There seems to be a lot of misinformation, or at least mislabelling, about which version of Thor was actually Rune King Thor and which story he first showed up in. He first appeared in The Mighty Thor 80 through 85, a run that was basically a prologue to Avengers Disassembled. In this storyline, Thor assigns Beta Ray Bill to be king in his stead and sets off to learn more about Ragnarok, because he wants to finally end the cycle.

When he gets there, he runs into the spirit of a young boy who tells him that not only can he give him Odin's powers to become an even greater god, he can actually make him more powerful than the Allfather. Believing the ghost, Thor willingly plucks out both of his eyes and drops them into the well of Mimir. In that moment, "The magic of the runes and wisdom from the well of Mimir give Thor the power to know the past, control the present, and guide the future." Thor could see through the veil of time, past the knowing of the gods.

His sacrifices do not end there. He is told that to complete the process and gain the Odin power, he will need to die and be reborn, which he willingly does. In doing so, he becomes what is referred to as one of the most powerful versions of Thor, if not the most powerful: Rune King Thor.

Rune King Thor can erase foes like the Mangog with a thought

Some diehards will love to argue that there are more powerful versions of Thor, but I honestly feel like it is no debate, because his power set is absolutely insane. He has all of the powers of Thor and the Odin Force you would expect, at their absolute maximum level, plus ridiculous godlike abilities. He can see the future and actually impact and warp reality in the present. His rune magic mastery is turned up high, which makes him ridiculously powerful, but beyond that he can erase villains and foes with a thought.

He demonstrates this almost immediately after his transformation. He runs into the Mangog, one of his most powerful adversaries and someone he always struggles against, and this time he literally just touches the Mangog's head and erases him from existence. That is the kind of power level we are talking about.

When he then goes up against Those Who Sit Above in Shadow, the council that has been feeding off the cycle of Ragnarok in the first place, he is able to defeat them easily, basically with one swing. With the cycle finally ended and his ascension complete, the story closes on Thor standing alone like an eternity-like entity, entering the slumber of the gods, or something akin to the Odin sleep.

Thor: Ragnarok already foreshadowed the Rune King arc

This certainly feels like the track Marvel has been on for quite some time, going all the way back to Thor: Ragnarok. It lines up pretty nicely and foreshadows his becoming Rune King Thor. In Ragnarok, he loses one eye and then almost immediately levels up with the Odin Force.

The cycle of Ragnarok in the MCU is done, too. He solved it in a similar way, not by defeating a council or becoming Rune King Thor, but by letting the cycle actually end and letting Ragnarok happen. We could be on track to see him ascend to full Rune King Thor if a couple of specific things happen in Doomsday.

Doomsday rumours pointed to a Thor sacrifice inspired by New Avengers

We covered an original report from Lizzie Hill, editor in chief at The Cosmic Circus, who reported: "From what I've heard, Thor will reunite with Loki at some point during these films, and he'll essentially be one of the last OG Avengers remaining."

Our friend Alex Perez also heard a rumour that Marvel wanted to give Chris Hemsworth's Thor a proper, epic send off in these movies, with sources pointing to New Avengers volume 3, number 32 as inspiration. In that issue, Thor sacrifices himself alongside Hyperion in order to defeat the Beyonders and give the Avengers a chance to survive.

That is not exactly the way he sacrificed his life in The Mighty Thor run, but it would still be a sacrifice. To me, that keeps the intrinsic value of the storyline intact, Thor sacrifices and Thor gets more powerful, if they are truly doing this arc.

Incidentally, it would also reconcile some of the rumours with some of Kevin Feige's comments. On one hand, there were rumours of Thor dying in Avengers: Doomsday and getting a proper send off. On the other, Feige said he could see Chris Hemsworth, who is "in his prime", play Thor for another 10 years. How do you have him play Thor for another 10 years if you are killing him off? Not only is it Marvel, where no one truly dies, but his death could actually be the conduit, pun totally intended, to becoming one of the most powerful Avengers. That would bring us full circle to the joke about him being the most powerful Avenger. If he becomes Rune King Thor, he just might be.

The MCU power creep means Rune King Thor may not be too powerful

The Russos famously depowered the Hulk during Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame because they thought he was a solve all, something I bring up quite often. As powerful as the Hulk can be and was back then, he is nowhere near some of the power creep characters who have entered the MCU recently, like Sentry and Franklin Richards, and now apparently characters on the horizon like Rune King Thor. On some level, their approach to a character being a "solve-all" is going to need to be addressed.

Normally I would say Rune King Thor may be just too powerful to show up in any film, because he would just kill everybody with a thought. But when it comes to God Emperor Doom and where things are headed with Avengers: Secret Wars, I really do not feel like anything is off limits as far as powers go, because Franklin Richards breaks the symmetry of all that. When you have too many characters who are too powerful, it is not about depowering them to fit the story. It is a different kind of challenge to make the story compelling, and I am just wondering how they are going to address it.

Thor could lose his other eye, die and return as Rune King in Secret Wars

Rune King Thor as the end of his arc, or maybe Thor entering a slumber at the end of Secret Wars so he can return in the future of the mutant saga, sort of feels like exactly where they are going, especially since they already wove small elements of this storyline into his arc starting in Ragnarok. Since he is already down to one eye and got the Odin Force for it, can you imagine how powerful he will become if he loses the other eye and then his life?

Instead of an exact one to one adaptation of the Disassembled storyline, they could have him sacrifice himself alongside Hyperion or another character, or simply have Thor die, go to Valhalla, and then return in Avengers: Secret Wars at the right moment as the all powerful Rune King Thor. Maybe that is exactly what is going to happen. There could also be a whole Thor corps in Secret Wars, with characters like this variant alongside Beta Ray Bill and countless others, which I am sort of hoping for.

Would you want to see Rune King Thor in Secret Wars as part of a full Thor corps, or saved for the future of the MCU?