Her Name ... Thundra!

Standing Up For the Rights of Women?

Meet Thundra! From an alternate future circa the 23rd Century, Thundra comes from a time when a few fertile women rule the world! Most of the female population was rendered sterile by an accident and the women blamed the men. Thus was the United Sisterhood Republic established and so were men subjugated. Alternate futures being what they are, however, there was another alternate dimension where things happened ... er, well, alternately. On the world of Machus, the men were barbarians who had subjugated women! And once their world was under control, they turned their gaze across the dimensions (good trick, eh?) to see their brothers imprisoned on Thundra's world! Since this is Marvel Comics, they attacked.

Thundra, a military commander for the U.S.R., took possession of one of the dimension-spanning devices and accidentally fell back through time to the 20th Century! There, a few things happened. She became convinced that if she defeated the strongest men of our era, that she would prevent alternate futures of dominant men from occurring. And, to that end, she joined the Frightful Four. Apparently not only because they were there, but because the men of the group were rather far from the strongest men of our era. (Really. You don't get much wimpier than the Wizard and Paste Pot Pete.)

Art by Brian Bolland

Changing Sides

After crossing paths with the Thing a few times, in Fantastic Four #129 and #133, Thundra learned that she wasn't doing anything right. The Frightful Four were evil, and a waste of her time, and conquering the strongest men of the present was not going to do anything to change the future. So it was that she became an ally of the Fantastic Four, assisting them on several adventures between her first appearance in FF #129 up until she wandered out of the book around #185.

Thundra is a classic concept in comic books. She's the Avenger of Female Status, the Defender of Sisterhood, and one heck of a Power Fantasy Gone Awry. Stan Lee gave us a doozy, friends! She's super-powerful, dominant, beautiful, and single. She tries on several occasions to make the Thing marry her, and ol' Benjy just can't say yes! When you think about it, those cosmic rays must have really took their toll on rational judgement. Amazon women in spandex are illegal in several states like Oklahoma and Florida, which is why Thundra stayed in New York.

Interestingly, the Thundra-Thing relationship seems to be a predecessor of the Maxima-Superman relationship. Thundra? Maxima? Hmm ... super strong, red hair, rules a world, arrogant, buxom, ... I suppose there are a few passing similarities, don't you?

Art by Rich Buckler

Feminine Wiles

Although Stan Lee and Gerry Conway wrote significant Thundra stories, the most recent primary writer behind Thundra has been Roy Thomas. He wrote the last of her adventures in the Fantastic Four, and has been responsible for the few encore appearances she made after making her way home in Marvel Two-In-One #67. Using a dimensional projector of the Brand Corporation, she left our dimension for an alternate version of hers (where her world did not merge with Machus), and also left behind Hyperion of the Squadron Sinister. Hyperion knew a good thing when he saw it and tried to stay with Thundra, but was stranded in limbo when he did not succeed in making the dimensional jump. It was from that failure that Hyperion went on to face the true Hyperion in Mark Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme maxi-series.

Of course, before she wrapped up her stint in the Fantastic Four, Thundra had her shot at revenge on the Frightful Four. She actually waits in a line of applicants to the group until she can charge them in an attempt to single-handedly wipe them out. Thundra is ignobly defeated by the Frightful Four in about four panels. We also learn where the Wizard's weaknesses lie, because he is unable to dispose of such "a fetching wench" as she.

Thundra may have been secured by Paste Pot Pete, but she would be freed and aid the Fantastic Four in sending their frightful counterparts packing. As you may suppose, strategy was never one of Thundra's specialties. As for the panel to the left, Thundra was still too new to our world to realize that most men aren't going to forget seven foot tall redheads with chains. A lot of time is wasted in New York looking for such women.

Art by George Perez

Will We See Her Again?

Oh, sure, she's around regularly.

What? Don't take the subject literally? Sheesh. Okay, so to my knowledge, Thundra's last significant appearance was in Avengers West Coast #75, which guest starred the Fantastic Four. The FF and the Avengers hop on a roller coaster that has been rigged as a dimensional vortex into Thundra's dimension. (If it was that damn easy all along, why was she here in the first place? *grumble*) ANYWAY, half of the FF/Avengers mix ends up with Thundra while the other half ends up being brainwashed by everyone's favorite barbarian land baron Arkon.

Art by Carlos Pacheco

Arkon doesn't like macho women. Thundra doesn't like macho men. Naturally, therefore, their dimensions are now at war. Thundra has bought half of the heroes to her to try to make Ben marry her yet again. Ben, at this point, has lost his longtime girlfriend to a marriage with one of his teammates, has had his new girlfriend mutated into a lumpy monster that betrays him to Doctor Doom, has no other prospects whatsoever, and still turns her down. What a guy.

The rest of the story is rather predictable. The heroes meet the other half of their group on the battlefield and are able to remove Arkon's control over them. Eventually, the battle comes down to a personal contest between Thundra and Arkon, who start kissing after smashing each other down. We are left believing that after their thwarted attempts at romance (Thundra's attempts at the Thing and Arkon's attempts at the Scarlet Witch), that these two have found each other. Personally, I think that not only is Arkon all wrong for Thundra, but he was in for a rude awakening the morning he woke up to find himself in the labor camps with the men of Machus.

Thundra had a few forgettable appearances with her new mate in Avengers #359 and in Quicksilver #2-#3. She recently appeared (and lost an eye!) with her new husband in the latest Avengers series! Thundra also recently appeared in the excellent Avengers Forever as a member of the Avengers led by Black Panther in an alternate timeline featuring (altogether now) a post-apocalyptic future!