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Thundra

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Thundra
Cover art for Hulk: Raging Thunder #1.
Art by Greg Land.
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceFantastic Four #129 (Dec 1972)
Created byRoy Thomas (Writer)
John Buscema (Artist)
In-story information
Alter egoThundra
SpeciesFemizon
Place of originFemizonia
Team affiliationsLady Liberators
Code Red[1]
Frightful Four
The Grapplers
Roxxon Oil
Squadron Supreme
AbilitiesVast superhuman strength and resistance to injury
Peak level speed, agility, stamina, and reflexes
Superior hand to hand combatant
Carries a sword and a three-foot linked chain as weapons

Thundra is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is often aligned with the Fantastic Four. She is a powerful, red haired, amazon-like warrior, or Femizon, from a matriarchal, technologically advanced future timeline where men have been subjugated by women.

Publication history

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Thundra was created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, and first appeared in Fantastic Four #129.[2]

Roy Thomas recalled the character's creation, "A 7-foot Amazon type that I conceived as an homage of sorts to characters like Kirby's Big Barda in his Fourth World by DC Comics. I asked John Buscema to give her a bandolier around her torso because a number of women's-lib types were wearing them (sometimes with real bullets) in photos in newspapers and magazines."[3]

Fictional character biography

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Thundra clobbers the Thing.
Art by John Byrne and Terry Austin.

Thundra is a warrior woman and time traveler from the 23rd century on Earth-715. In her timeline, Earth is now known as Femizonia and is ruled by Amazon-like overlords (Femizons) who have enslaved Earth's men. The former United States is now the 'United Sisterhood Republic', and Thundra hails from the megalopolis of Greater Milago (a merged sprawl of Milwaukee and Chicago), located in the United Sisterhood's Midwestern Republic. Thundra is renowned as the United Sisterhood's most formidable warrior, having been physically enhanced by genetic engineering and trained in combat and tactics from a young age.

She is sent to the 20th century to challenge Fantastic Four member the Thing to a bout of one-on-one combat, believing him to be the strongest male of all time. By beating the Thing in combat, she feels she can prove once and for all that women were superior to the male gender, and finally end a stagnant war between Femizonia and the warlike, male dominated planet of Machus, where the female population had been subjugated by its ruler Mahkizmo.

Thundra is also recruited into the evil group of supervillains known as the Frightful Four by the Wizard, and they battled the Fantastic Four.[4] She secretly has her own agenda and has no real interest in the group. She battled the Thing in personal combat, and then wound up ultimately switching sides and helping the Fantastic Four defeat the Frightful Four after she quits that group.[5]

She later battled the Hulk, who was possessing the Thing's body at the time.[6] Thundra later assisted the Fantastic Four against the Frightful Four again,[7] and then assisted the Fantastic Four against Namor the Sub-Mariner.[8] Her time travel from 23rd century Femizonia, an alternate future Earth ruled by women, to prevent the formation of Machus, a planet in her alternate future dimension ruled by men, was finally revealed. Alongside the Fantastic Four, she battled Mahkizmo. She ultimately remained in the 20th century after a dimensional interface of Femizonia and Machus occurred.[9] She later assisted the Fantastic Four and Tigra against the Frightful Four,[10] and then assisted the Fantastic Four, Tigra, and the Impossible Man against the Brute, Mad Thinker, and Annihilus.[11]

Thundra later met wrestling promoter Herkimer Oglethorpe, and on his advice she became a professional wrestler training with the Grapplers, a group of female wrestlers who possess cybernetic-endowed superpowers. In a fixed wrestling match with one Grappler member, Thundra (who has superior strength and fighting skills) is secretly drugged by her opponent, causing her to black out and lose the match.[12]

When she awakens, it was revealed that the Grapplers were agents working for the Roxxon Oil Company, a multinational petroleum company which was covertly involved in developing advanced technology and weaponry for sinister motives. The Grapplers were assigned to trick Thundra into helping them sabotage Project Pegasus, a prison/research facility built for housing supervillains. They were employed to smuggle the Nth Projector out of Project Pegasus.[13]

As a result of the deception by Roxxon and the Grapplers, Thundra came to blows (yet again) with the Thing (in whom she has expressed a romantic interest, on more than one occasion).[13] Alongside the Thing, Quasar, Giant-Man, and the Aquarian, she fought the Nth Man.[14] She encountered the duplicate Hyperion and the Avengers, and battled Ms. Marvel.[15] She is briefly allied with the duplicate Hyperion while still in service to Roxxon, and with him stole the Nth Projector from the Nth Command, before she returned to an alternate Femizonia which did not interface with Machus.[16]

Sometime later, Thundra was revealed as the Empress of Femizonia. She teamed with the Thing to battle Machan rebels.[17] She later abducted the Avengers and Fantastic Four to the future to enlist their aid in defending Femizonia from the extra-dimensional warlord Arkon and his warriors from Polemachus. She fought Arkon in personal combat, and became romantically inclined toward him.[18]

However, Thundra has a special place in her heart for Ben Grimm. In addition to her amorous advances, the two have been involved in numerous superheroic adventures; one significant pairing of the two involved enlisting Grimm to help liberate Femizonia from a powerful, six-armed android sent from Machus to conquer the Femizons. After defeating the android, Grimm informed Thundra that they could never be together, expressing his love for Alicia Masters. Thundra then allowed him to return to the 20th century.[17]

Secret Invasion: Inhumans

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Medusa and Crystal infiltrate Thundra's present-day homeland to retrieve part of a device required to rescue Black Bolt from the Skrulls. As tensions between the two disguised women boil over, Thundra appears and compels them to undertake the ritual combat required of the society to resolve the disagreement. Thundra is convinced to hand over the Skrull intelligence agent after Crystal makes an impassioned speech.[19]

Lady Liberators

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Thundra, Sue Storm and Valkyrie team up with She-Hulk and her Skrull partner Jazinda (masquerading as a Shi'ar) to forcibly distribute stagnating aid in the corrupt country of Marinmer.[20][21]

Alliance with the Red Hulk

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The Red Hulk battles the Lady Liberators and tricks them into believing they caused him to pass out. Red Hulk then kidnaps Thundra, and offers her an alliance after deducing she was the only one of the group that was willing to kill him.[22] After agreeing to the alliance, Thundra becomes a subordinate of the Intelligencia, a group of genius villains founded by Leader. After Red Hulk is betrayed by the Intelligencia in the "Fall of the Hulks" storyline, Thundra aids him in his escape and leaves the group.[23] Since her departure from the group, her daughter Lyra has joined their ranks.[24]

Powers and abilities

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As a result of genetic engineering, Thundra has vast superhuman strength and resistance to physical injury sufficient to allow her to stand toe to toe with the likes of the Thing. Her speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes are heightened to the peak of natural human capability. She has undergone intensive pain-management training.

Trained as a warrior, with extensive training in the hand-to-hand and military combat techniques of the 23rd century, she is a seasoned combat veteran who possesses superior fighting skills and is considered to be the greatest warrior among her people. Thundra is also a skilled combatant with a sword or her three-foot linked chain, the latter of which is her weapon of choice, often attached to a bracelet on her left forearm.

Other versions

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Avengers Forever

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An alternate timeline variant of Thundra appears in Avengers Forever. This version is a member of the Avengers.[25]

Hulk: Raging Thunder

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A future version of Thundra took cell scrapings from the Hulk which were used by scientists in the future to impregnate her.[26] This Thundra later gives birth to a green skinned daughter who is the child of herself and the Hulk.[volume & issue needed] This girl, Lyra, is later nicknamed "She-Hulk".[volume & issue needed] She later returns to the future to insert Lyra's birth.[27]

JLA/Avengers

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Thundra appears in JLA/Avengers.[28][29]

Marvel Zombies: Return

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A zombified alternate universe variant of Thundra from Earth-91126 appears in Marvel Zombies: Return: Avengers.[30]

Reception

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Thundra was ranked 62nd in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.[31]

In other media

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Television

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Thundra appears in Ultimate Spider-Man, voiced by Tara Strong.[32] This version is a member of the Frightful Four.

Video games

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Merchandise

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Thundra received an action figure in Hasbro's Marvel Legends line.

See also

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Women warriors in literature and culture

References

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  1. ^ Hulk vol. 2 #14
  2. ^ DeFalco, Tom; Sanderson, Peter; Brevoort, Tom; Teitelbaum, Michael; Wallace, Daniel; Darling, Andrew; Forbeck, Matt; Cowsill, Alan; Bray, Adam (2019). The Marvel Encyclopedia. DK Publishing. p. 381. ISBN 978-1-4654-7890-0.
  3. ^ "The Roy Thomas Marvel Comics Characters, Concepts and Creations Part 2".
  4. ^ Fantastic Four #129-130
  5. ^ Fantastic Four #133
  6. ^ Giant-Size Super-Stars #1
  7. ^ Fantastic Four #148
  8. ^ Fantastic Four #149
  9. ^ Fantastic Four #151-153
  10. ^ Fantastic Four #177-178
  11. ^ Fantastic Four #179-183
  12. ^ Marvel Two-in-One #53-55
  13. ^ a b Marvel Two-in-One #56
  14. ^ Marvel Two-in-One #58
  15. ^ Avengers Annual #8
  16. ^ Marvel Two-in-One #67
  17. ^ a b Fantastic Four #303
  18. ^ Avengers West Coast #75
  19. ^ Secret Invasion: Inhumans #3-4 (2008)
  20. ^ She-Hulk vol. 2 # 34
  21. ^ Lovett, Jamie (December 23, 2016). "5 All-Female Marvel Teams Ready For A Movie Or TV Show". Marvel. Retrieved September 19, 2024.
  22. ^ Jeph Loeb. Hulk vol. 2 #7-9 (Dec. 2008-Feb. 2009)
  23. ^ Loeb, Jeph. Hulk vol. 2 #14-17 (October–December 2009)
  24. ^ Fall of the Hulks: Gamma
  25. ^ Avengers Forever #4 (1999)
  26. ^ Hulk: Raging Thunder (2008) #1 (Aug. 2008)
  27. ^ Fall of the Hulks: Red Hulk #2
  28. ^ JLA/Avengers #1 (September 2003)
  29. ^ JLA/Avengers #4 (May 2004)
  30. ^ Marvel Zombies: Return #5 (2009)
  31. ^ Frankenhoff, Brent (2011). Comics Buyer's Guide Presents: 100 Sexiest Women in Comics. Krause Publications. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-4402-2988-6.
  32. ^ "Thundra Voice - Ultimate Spider-Man (TV Show)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved January 27, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
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