OneDumbG0
Find Your Own Fire
III. SUPERSPEED
While character talk can be cheap, Thor's speed has always been astonishing to his opponents. The original Black Knight shoots bolas from his lance that are literally surrounding Thor, but because of his speed, Thor knocks the lance away and evades capture. Black Knight exclaims, "I've never seen such speed... such power!!" From Avengers #6:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed05Avengers006.jpg
Here, Hela only has to touch Thor in order to ensnare his soul in 1v1 combat, but is unable to do so because of his speed, "His speed, his anger, are beyond comprehension!" From Thor #354:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSpeed03354.jpg
Here, while fending off two Herald-level foes, Adam Warlock likens his ability to catch his staff mid-swing and his combat speed to that of lightning, "He moves like the lightning he commands, much quicker than I remember." From Infinity Watch #23:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed20InfinityWatch23.jpg
But he has more than just subjective exclamations (no matter how reliable the speaker). What everyone really cares about are the more objective and reliable speed feats. One reliable type of speed feat is where the character moves so fast that they become a blur of motion or move too fast to be seen. Here, Thor fights Heimdall and swings his hammer down on him at speeds "moving too swiftly for the eye to follow," even too fast for Heimdall in Journey Into Mystery #125:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed06JIM125.jpg
Likewise here, Thor digs a trench in a blur of motion that is "almost too fast for the human eye to follow." From Marvel Team-Up #26:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed10MarvelTeam-Up26.jpg
And here, while helping rebuild Asgard, Thor hammers down repeatedly on a pillar and "becomes a blur of motion" in Thor #267:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed14267.jpg
Thor's combat reflex speed feats are impressive in their own right. Here, Thor reacts to a knife being swung down only inches from his face with a mighty heave in Thor #218:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed11218.jpg
Thor reacts and swats away arrows that are only a few feet away from hitting him from behind in Thor vol. 2 #27:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed23v207.jpg
Here, Thor is about to have his face smashed by a cursed Mjolnir which is zooming back to him, but he moves swiftly enough on reaction to dodge it in Thor vol. 2 #27:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed25.jpg
Thor reacts to Wrecker swinging his mystic crowbar onto Thor's head from behind. Literally only inches away, Thor moves so swiftly once again, he snatches the crowbar with his hand in Thor vol. 2 #29:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed27v229.jpg
And it looks like current Thor hasn't lost that bare-handed touch as he catches Bor's axe inches from his face in Thor #600:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed29600.jpg
He's also fended off an ambush by Wolverine who was right on top of him in Wolverine vs Thor #2:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed30WolverinevsThor2.jpg
Another common way to measure those is to see how well Thor does against speedsters. Here, Thor builds a trench around crazed citizens and Avengers, including a zooming Quicksilver in Avengers #98:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed09Avengers098.jpg
Here, Thor punks the Newman speedster, Juvan, who was created by the High Evolutionary, using nothing but his bare hands in Thor #447:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed17447.jpg
Here, Thor catches another High Evolutionary creation who possesses superspeed, the godling, Zefra in Thor #475:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed21475.jpg
And Thor has punked the superspeedster, Hermes, the literal Greek God of Speed, not just once, but twice in Avengers #281 and Thor vol. 2 #27:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed16Avengers281.jpg
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed24.jpg
But even superspeedsters can job and it's difficult to quantify exactly how fast they are going in each instance. But Thor does have directly measurable superspeed feats. Here, he literally snatches a fired tank shell out of mid-air with his bare hand in Journey Into Mystery #93:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed02JIM93.jpg
And similarly snatches a fired missile with his bare hand in Marvel Team-Up #148:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed15b-MarvelTeamup148.jpg
Here, we see Thor flying outside a window and when Jane Foster gets his attention, Thor manages to intercept Cobra's poison dart within a split-second. The dart is fired before he even is inside the room, just to give you the proper frame of reference to understand the speed and reflexes necessary in Journey Into Mystery #98:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed03JIM98.jpg
Here, in the space of one and one-fifth seconds, Thor dives out of the sky, smashes Mjolnir down and causes a shockwave to divert a runaway truck from killing a young boy ACROSS the city in Journey Into Mystery #108:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed04JIM108.jpg
Here, Thor's able to swat away a torrent of flying bricks that used to be half a building, not allowing any of them to pass through in the space of milliseconds. To give you a reference as to how fast he's swinging his arms back and forth, check out panels three and four. Notice how far a speedblitzing Gladiator advances between Thor's swings! From Thor vol. 2 #34:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed28v234.jpg
Here, in the space of micro-seconds before a zooming cursed Mjolnir will strike Thor from behind, Thor lays a haymaker onto an Enchanter and spins around in time to snatch Mjolnir in mid-air, from Thor #144:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed08144.jpg
Now we all know Thor has stopped bullets and energy beams by spinning Mjolnir around. And it's been argued that he has to do that because he's not fast enough to block them traditionally with Mjolnir or bat them away. After all, he'd require faster than bullet ("FTB"😉 and faster than light ("FTL"😉 combat speed reflexes to do so. However, these next scans should dispel ANY doubt whether he does possess FTB or FTL combat speed reflexes since he deflects bullets and energy blasts by moving or swinging Mjolnir once rather than by spinning Mjolnir. Here, with FTB speed, he deflects two bullets with a single swing way back in Journey Into Mystery #100:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed03aJIM100.jpg
Here, he blocks a single bullet with the head of Mjolnir before whirling it to create a field in Thor #246:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed13246.jpg
As for FTL reactions that can be measured in nanoseconds (light travels one foot per nanosecond), he's swung and swatted away Blastaar's energy blasts in Thor #270:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed15270.jpg
Far from a one-off FTL feat, he does the same to Mole Man's energy blaster shot in Marvel Two-In-One #96:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed15aMarvelTwo-In-One96.jpg
Here, Enchantress shoots a blast at Captain America and Thor reacts with FTL speed to cut off the energy blast in mid-flight, from Marvel Comics Presents #44:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed17bMCP44.jpg
Phoenix shoots a telepathic blast at a groggy Thor at the moment Thor's arms are at his side. AFTER the shot is fired and already traveling at him, Thor raises his arms and reflects it back with Mjolnir. Telepathy being instantaneous traditionally (as noted in the narration), we can assume for the sake of argument that it was only traveling at light-speed, making this another FTL feat, from Excalibur #428:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed18428.jpg
He bats away a possessed Iron Man's repulsor rays in Avengers vol. 3 #3:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed22Avengersv303.jpg
And again bats away ray blasts in a training session in Avengers vol. 3 #23:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Stats/ThorSuperspeed26Avengersv323.jpg