Lady Sif in the MC2

 

With Thor: Love and Thunder now in theatres I’d be foolish not to make a post or two tangentially related to a character or two from the film. So today, let’s take a very brief look at Lady Sif in the MC2.

 

Lady Sif first appeared in the pages of Marvel Comic’s Journey in Mystery #102 in 1964. As for the MC2, Lady Sif makes her first and only appearance on-panel in Last Planet Standing #2. It’s there that we see Sif assisting with the evacuating of Asgard just prior to its destruction at the hands of Galactus.

As I’ve discussed previously Thena, the daughter of Thor states she is the ‘daughter to the most honored Lord and Lady of Asgard’ and that during the events of Last Hero Standing she was on a quest with her mother and thus not present in Asgard when Earth’s heroes ended up there (Avengers Next #2). Furthermore, during the events of Last Planet Standing, Thena attempted to join her father against Galactus but was commanded by her mother to aid those fleeing the destruction of Asgard (Avengers Next #3).

Naturally, one of the major candidates for Thena's mother was Thor's long-time off-and-on love interest Lady Sif. 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.

 

Anyway, sadly that’s all we have for Lady Sif in the MC2. I’d love to see her return, especially paired with Thena on an epic quest.

 

Until I stop thinking about the stories still yet untold in the MC2, I remain

 

frogoat

 

Thena: Who's Your Mama?! (Part 2)

 

A while ago, I took a stab at figuring out just who the Asgardian goddess Thena’s mother could be in the MC2. Well, now is probably the best time to dust off the topic and discuss another option, given that the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Eternals is in cinemas right now. Why? Let’s jump straight in and find out!

 

While we never saw any of the Eternals in the MC2, we nearly saw prominent member Thena in a perhaps less than unexpected place. If you’ve read the title, you may already know where this is going. Here are some extracts from Comic Shenanigans Episode 744: Interview with Ron Frenz on A-Next:

 

‘I was not lucky enough to be a part of the later A-Next mini-series and stuff. That was always something that I was all for, the roster changing just like it did in the original Avengers, you know. That there would be new characters introduced and all this kind of stuff. I played a much smaller role behind the scenes. I had originally conceived of a daughter for Thor in some of my sketches. So, when she finally did show up, Ron Lim was working off of those sketches. He made adaptations of his own which is only right since he was the one handling the character. Originally the name I had for her was Thera, T-H-E-R-A, which I thought was a nice kind of sort of Thor-sounding-but-not. Tom ended up going with Thena and I don’t know if at the time he realized that was already the name of a character in the Eternals. But in my head now I have this story we could tell at some point, if anybody cared, where Thor actually named his daughter after the leader of the Eternals upon the signing of some peace treaty or something like that.’

 

This idea could have made for a fun story and if it was canon, would have worked as a nice detail to add to the lore of the MC2. But Mr Frenz goes on to further add the following even more intriguing notion:

 

‘So when Tom did that, my brain immediately went to ‘now, why would he name his daughter after the leader of the Eternals?’ and there’s a story there. If you really want to be dirty about it, maybe Sif wasn’t her mother, I don’t know. Maybe Thena is her mother, I don’t know. I don’t know exactly how much we were committed to because as I said I wasn’t involved directly in Last Hero Standing or Last Planet Standing or any of those mini-series so I don’t remember what has exactly been established or not.’

 

So Thena, the Asgardian goddess and child of Thor, was nearly or could potentially be the daughter of Thena of the race of Eternals. I would love to see these story ideas explored in someway in the future, one way or the other.

 

Until I find more time to write these little tie-in posts, I remain

 

frogoat

Thena: Who's Your Mama?!

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

Mike Wieringo and the MC2

Recently I've been thinking about well-established artists in the comics industry who's take on the MC2 characters we've yet to see. Then I remembered there are a bunch of artists outside of MC2 mainstays such as the wonderfully talented Ron Frenz, Pat Olliffe, Paul Ryan, Ron Lim or Todd Nauck who've in some way worked on my favourite fictional universe. Every so often I'll try and dedicate a short post to each artist's brief foray into the MC2 Universe.

Mike Wieringo

Despite the passage of time, I still find myself missing the inimitable artist Mike Wieringo. I first encountered Mike's unique art style while still in school when I picked up Tellos from the local library and instantly fell in love with his work. It's truly a tragedy that he died so suddenly in 2007 of an aortic dissection. Today, I'll be looking at Mr Wieringo's affection for and contributions to the MC2.

Mike Wieringo first provided covers for the Last Hero Standing mini-series in 2005, specifically issues #2 and #4.

I personally love seeing Mike's rendition of MC2 characters, so it was wonderful when he returned as cover artist for the 2006 Avengers Next mini-series, this time for all five issues. Here's the cover to #5:

 Sadly, these would be Mike Wieringo's last published contributions to the MC2. However, over on his own website, Wieringo posted a sketch of Spider-Girl to accompany a heartwarming entry about the series:

I’ve never quite understood why SPIDER-GIRL isn’t just as popular and successful as ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN.

Sure, May “Mayday” Parker isn’t a young Peter Parker– she’s the daughter of Peter and Mary Jane in a book set in the M2 Universe of the not too distant future. But to my eyes, that just makes her cooler. Instead of a ‘reboot’ of the SPIDER-MAN mythos, SPIDER-GIRL is an exciting extension of that concept. Like ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, there are re-imaginings of the classic villains from the parent book (as well as lots of heroes)…. but in my opinion, these characters are a lot more imaginative and fun than they are in ULTIMATE. I think that if you’re a fan of straight-out superhero comics, SPIDER-GIRL is just about a perfect book. Not only is it a comic you can enjoy yourself (if you’re anywhere NEAR as old as I am), but it’s also a comic you can give to children without fearing that it’s too dark and adult for them to understand or enjoy. In today’s comic world, that’s a rarity.

SPIDER-GIRL has had a tumultuous ride during its run…. to say the least. The book’s been on the chopping block more than once, and now, it seems, it’s in peril of cancellation once again. I don’t understand the rationale for this, personally. I know that Marvel has had immense success with sales of SPIDER-GIRL digests in places like TARGET. And why is that…? Because SPIDER-GIRL is something that will appeal to such a wide audience. Boys, girls, women, men… they can all enjoy this comic as much as I do. That’s a cash cow, really… so this is kind of puzzling to me. SPIDER-GIRL has a very loyal and vocal fanbase, so perhaps if we all pull together, we can stop this cancellation from happening, because if you ask me, we can’t afford– as an industry– to lose a book like SPIDER-GIRL; a book that has the potential (and seems to be realizing that very potential) to reach a wider audience outside of the direct market.

I recently bought issue #11 of WRITE NOW!. from TOMORROWS PUBLISHING. It’s got a wonderful interview with Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz inside… and they talk extensively about their collaboration on the creation of SPIDER-GIRL and their recent work on the book. These guys love working on SPIDER-GIRL. It’s a concept they both enjoy immensely… and it shows in every issue of the book. If you want any proof of a couple of comic book creators who are at the height of their powers and loving what they’re doing, then seek this magazine out, read the interview, and perhaps it’ll make you a believer and prompt you to try SPIDER-GIRL. Some fans need to be convinced (for some reason) to even try a new book…. so maybe that would do the trick. Barring that– Marvel just released a trade paperback of the recent LAST HERO STANDING miniseries (written by Tom D. and drawn by the talented Pat Oliffe). It’ll give you a taste of what the M2 Universe is like. That, or one of the several recent SG trades that you can also find on AMAZON.COM will give you a sense of the thrill ride that is SPIDER-GIRL.

Let’s keep fun and imagination alive, shall we…?

OK.

This is Entry 186.

Mike

You are sorely missed, Mike.


frogoat