Why is Thor the State Avenger of Oklahoma

The state rock of Oklahoma is the barite rose rock.  The state bird is the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.  The official state beverage is milk.  But what about the state Avenger?  Every state has one.  Awhile back Marvel Comics launched a new Avengers title and released a ton of variant covers of each state with their very own Avenger.

All 50 states got one plus Washington DC, Puerto Rico and, for some reason, Canada.  Avengers for everybody!

Since a ton of Marvel's characters live and work in New York, they had to get a little creative to cover every location.  So let's dive into the reasoning behind the 46th state's super hero.

So what's Thor doing in Oklahoma?  There are actually a couple of reasons.  In 2007 write J. Michael Straczynski moved Thor's mythical home Asgard to the real life town of Broxton, Oklahoma.  Specifically, it was floating several feet about the town.

Imagine a "Green Acres" or "Newhart" type fish-out-of-water situation except with super heroes.  Imagine the hijinks.  So why did Straczynski pick Oklahoma?  The primary theory involves the Heavener Runestone in eastern Oklahoma:

Urban legend says that the stone's markings were carved by ancient vikings who had somehow made their way to Oklahoma.  Maybe they ran into Bigfoot while they were there.  The general consensus seems to be that the markings were made more recently in history by anyone other than vikings.  But the connection was more than enough to get us a Norse god-inspired superhero.

Awhile back we headed out to Heavener Runestone Park to shoot this video for your viewing pleasure:

So the next time you think Oklahoma never gets a fair shake, just remember that we got one of the top Avengers and Wisconsin had to settle for "Quasar."