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The 1970s were a strange time at Marvel Comics. On the one hand,
there were all these young writers and artists coming into the
business with fresh new ideas and attitudes, but on the other, the
company was still largely run by the older crowd, with Stan Lee at the
top. This led to some strange stories and characters popping up, that
today, seem quite dated and silly.
One of the major changes in comics, in the 70s, came from a new
attitude toward women in the comics. The writers of the period were
fired by the rise of feminism as a social phenomenon, and were no
longer satisfied with the women in their stories being the perpetual
hostage, screeching "Save me!" every few pages. They wanted to write
strong female characters, for a change. In order to get them past the
editors, these strong females tended to be written with dialogue
supplied by the most strident feminist thinking of the day. It should
be no surprise, then, that when Thundra appeared in the pages of
Fantastic Four #129, her goal was to humble the strongest man she
could find, in single combat.
A little background, for the uninitiated....
Thundra (her only name, as far as I can determine) hails from an
alternate timeline, where global chemical and biological warfare in
the late 20th century resulted in the sterilization of 95% of the
female population.
From the Handbook of the Marvel Universe....
"The fertile 5% seized political power and began a systematized
program of oppression against men, who were seen as having nearly
exterminated the species. (I suppose this alternate timeline is one
where women never got the vote...)
By the early 23rd century, natural childbirth was totally supplanted
by laboratory birthing, and men were bred only as servants,
entertainers, and breeding stock. The major concerns of the United
Sisterhood Republic, one of the leading nations of the new world, were
exterminating the renegade bands of roving free men and preventing
incursions from foreign nations and powers.
Thundra was born in the Central Birthing Center of Greater Milago
(Milwaukee-Chicago), a government-run laboratory where fetuses are
brought to term in artificial wombs. Genetically engineered for
strength and endurance, Thundra was sent to military school when she
was eight years old. By the age of eighteen, she had distinguished
herself as the finest warrior in the Midwestern Republic and became an
officer in the militia. She led assaults against roving bands of
renegades and the armies of the Central American Empire.
In the middle of Thundra's military career, the USR faced an invasion
from soldiers from another alternate timeline, a world known as
Machus. Men from this alternate Earth hadmanaged to overthrow their
female oppressors generations previously, and used their technology
for inter-dimensional travel to journey to Thundra's Earth to liberate
the men of that world. In an attempt to strike back at the men of
Machus, Thundra stole their dimensional apparatus, planning to launch
a counter-attack on their world. The machine malfunctioned, however,
and displaced her through time as well as space. She arrived in the
twentieth century, and after acclimating herself, decided to humble
the strongest man on Earth, thereby, she believed, preventing the
world of Machus from ever coming about.
Upon her arrival, she was befriended by the criminal Wizard of the
Frightful Four, whose instruments detected Thundra's time
displacement. The Wizard was looking for a replacement for Medusa, and
saw Thundra as an ideal choice. Thundra pretended to go along with the
Wizard's plans in order to exploit his resources. She determined that
the Thing of the Fantastic Four would be the ideal object lesson to
vanquish in battle. Alongside the Frightful Four, she engaged the
Thing in a battle, besting him fairly on at least one occasion.
Recognizing that her actions in the past would have little bearing on
the future, she betrayed the Frightful Four to become an ally of the
Fantastic Four."
Now, anyone who knows my reading habits knows that I am a fan of the
sub-genre of Science Fiction known as "Alternative History". Be it
Harry Turtledove's fascinating and thoughtful "Guns of the South", his
equally fascinating "Worldwar" series (an alternate version of the
second world war, where aliens attack Earth in 1943) or the unique and
immensely satisfying alternate history of L. Neil Smith's "American
Confederacy" series (a Libertarian vision of a world where government
has been allowed to wither away to almost nothing, and almost no one
seems to mind), I love the mental exercise in wrapping my brain around
alternative versions of history. So, it should be no surprise that a
character with a background like Thundra's would interest me.
It is unfortunate that the male and female characters depicted in
Thundra's origin have to be such glaring sexist stereotypes; the
bitter, strident feminist, on the one side, and the brutal,
thoughtless macho male. I guess it was thought best to paint with a
broad brush, but it just seems to me like beating the reader over the
head. Subtlety was never one of Stan Lee's strengths, and a lot of the
writers of that time had spent part of their careers in Stan's mold.
As time went on, Thundra tended to bounce back and forth, between
associating with heroes and villains. She was employed by Roxxon Oil
to lead a troup of super-powered women to sabotage the government
exotic energy facility Project: Pegasus. She was allied with the
Squadron Sinister's powerhouse, Hyperion, for a time. Most recently,
she fought a war with the monarch of Polemachus, the warrior-king
Arkon, but the combined efforts of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four
enabled Thundra and Arkon to discover they shared a strong mutual
attraction. Lately, she's been the royal consort of Arkon.
(Apparently, all she really needed was a strong man to make her feel
like a woman, hmmmm?)
I like Thundra's original costume, but it just needs some details
worked out. First off, that top, it needs to be something a bit more
substantial than cloth, so let's make it chain mail. The chain, which
Thundra wields as a weapon, is fine, but I added the rings on the
ends, to give it a bit more utility. Her hip-huggers are finally back
in style, so I can live with them, but I just hate those cheesy
"thunderbolts" down the outsides of her legs. I prefer a more
"natural" style lightning bolt. I like her boots, always like that
style of boot. I created a headpiece to go with that "wing" thing on
her forehead.
Not a big change, just a little different style.
That's it for this month. See you next time!
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