Shout out to faithful blog-reader
arias-98105 for suggesting this topic! It's nice to have reader engagement and I greatly appreciate it! So today, I'm going to examine the
MC2's Thena and try and work out who her mother could be. But first, a little background information on
Thena.
First appearing in
2006's Avengers Next #2,
Thena is the daughter of
Thor, the
Asgardian God of Thunder.
Thena grew up alongside her cousin
Sylene, daughter of
Loki the
Trickster God. We learn that she survived
Galactus' destruction of
Asgard (during the events of
Last Planet Standing) and was tasked with restoring
Kevin Masterson's powers as
Thunderstrike.
While we know from the start
Thor is her father, the identity of
Thena's mother is still a bit of a mystery. Here's are the facts:
- Thena states she is 'daughter to the most honored Lord and Lady of Asgard' (Avengers Next #2).
- During the events of Last Hero Standing Thena was on a quest with her mother, thus explaining her absence during that story (Avengers Next #2).
- During the events of Last Planet Standing, Thena attempted to join her father against Galactus but was instead commanded by her mother to aid those fleeing the destruction of Asgard (Avengers Next #3).
As pointed out to me by
arias-98105, prior to the events of
Onslaught and
Heroes Return (
see here),
Thor was romantically involved with the
Asgardian villainess
Amora the Enchantress! For those who follow this blog regularly, you will know that the late
90's are where most of the
MC2's shared history with the
Main Marvel Universe ends, thus making
Thor's romantic entanglements around that time relevant to solving this mystery.
History lesson time! In a four-part story published in
Thor #491-494 by
Warren Ellis and
Mike Deodato Jr called
'WorldEngine',
Thor and
Amora begin a relationship during their time exiled on Earth. Beware: Very
90's art!
In addition to this, the relationship storyline is continued by the following writer (
William Messner-Loebs) on the book leading up to the events of
Onslaught (
Thor #495-502). After
Onslaught the title was renamed back to
Journey Into Mystery starting with issue
#503 while
Thor was absent and widely believed dead. From then until issue
#513 the title was written by none other than
MC2 co-creator
Tom Defalco who also touched upon
Amora's feelings for
Thor while he was assumed dead.
Clearly,
Amora had genuine feelings for the
Thunder God despite her past of manipulation. Given the couples ongoing romance around the time,
Thena's blonde hair and even some readers desire to see the two have a child together (see the reader's poll and letters pages below from
Journey Into Mystery #505, #
506 and #
508, respectively) a case could be made for
Amora being
Thena's mother.
Naturally, the other major candidate for Thena's mother was Thor's long-time off-and-on love interest Lady Sif who made her first and only MC2 appearance in Last Planet Standing #2 during the destruction of Asgard. The strongest evidence for this becomes clearer when the relevant pages and panels from both Last Planet Standing #2 and the flashbacks in Avengers Next #3 are viewed in sequence:
So, Sif was given the job of overseeing the evacuation of Asgard's most vulnerable subjects, the same task Thena was entrusted with by her mother. This strongly suggests Sif is Thena's mother, but obviously we don't have any definitive answers.
So, who do you think is Thena's mother: Amora the Enchantress? Lady Sif? Or someone else entirely? Let me know! This was fun to research and theorize about, I may just do more like this, perhaps exploring the mystery of Sylene's mother?
Until I get exiled to the Isle of Silence and can no longer produce this blog, I remain
frogoat
