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
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Jane Foster (Valkyrie) Reading Order!
Until the last decade, the tale of Jane Foster wasn’t a particularly noteworthy one. She was nothing more than the usual example of a 60s love interest, used as a secondary character to a male hero for a few years before being pushed aside and fading to the background of the Marvel universe.
But this all changed in 2014, when writer Jason Aaron pushed his run on Thor in a whole new direction by replacing the god of thunder with a new Thor, the Mighty Thor, the Goddess of Thunder : Jane Foster. Accompanied by Russel Dauterman’s gorgeous art, Aaron reinvented her as a superhero, protecting Asgard and the Nine Realms as Thor, while battling breast cancer as Jane, with the complication that using Mjolnir cancels the effects of chemotherapy on her body, thus putting her life on the line even more each time she picks up the hammer.
When the time came for Jane to stop being the goddess of thunder however, she didn’t stop being a hero, instead taking on the mantle of Valkyrie to defend the Realms and accompany the souls of dead heroes to Valhalla. And now that she is is about to come back to the MCU in a big way as the Mighty Thor in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, it’s a great time to look back on the story of Jane Foster, both as the Mighty Thor and as Marvel’s new Valkyrie. [Read more…] about Jane Foster (Valkyrie) Reading Order!