Featured

Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster returns to the MCU this summer in Thor: Love and Thunder—as the Mighty Thor, no less! And, with the arrival of this movie, just like in 2014 when Jane became Thor in the comics, you’ll probably see a ton of retrospectives about Jane that go a little something like “Jason Aaron saved this Silver Age character from obscurity, turning a forgotten damsel in distress into one of Marvel’s most iconic heroes.” And they’ll be mostly right—about the latter part! In truth, we shouldn’t minimize Jane’s long comic history to only the early days, when her only purpose really was pining for Thor and getting kidnapped by villains. Granted, this erroneous view of Jane is popular for good reason: she’d never been the protagonist of her own story until 2014, and her best stories—without exception—have been told since. So, to be clear, my purpose here isn’t to uncover hidden gems but to contextualize how Jane Foster became what she is now, and how Jason Aaron didn’t so much reinvent her as he did advance her into the next logical step. Even with sixty years worth of scattered stories through so many different creators, very few of whom were concerned about Jane’s legacy, a clear picture still emerges if you know where she’ll end up. [Read more…] about The Saga of Jane Foster: Before the Mighty Thor