Wikipedia

Thena

This article is about the Marvel Comics Eternal. For the Marvel Comics goddess, seeAthena (Marvel Comics).

Thena(bornAzura) is a character appearing inAmerican comic bookspublished byMarvel Comics.Created by Martin A. Bursten andJack Kirby,the character first appeared asMinervainRed Raven Comics#1 (August 1940), but was later reintroduced as Thena inThe Eternals#5 (November 1976).[1][2]She is a member of theEternals,a race ofsuperhumansin theMarvel Universe.She was also a member ofHeroes for Hire.

Thena
Textless cover ofEternals(vol. 4) #3
(October 2008).
Art byDaniel Acuña.
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceAs Minerva:
Red Raven Comics#1
(August 1940)
As Thena:
The Eternals#5
(November 1976)
As Corona:
New Eternals: Apocalypse Now#1
(February 2000)
Created byMartin A. Bursten
Jack Kirby
In-story information
Alter egoAzura
SpeciesEternal
Team affiliationsEternals
Heroes for Hire
Stark International
Notable aliasesThena Eliot
Athena
Zura
Betty Sue Bialovsky
Prime Eternal
Abilities

Angelina Jolieportrays Thena in the 2021Marvel Cinematic UniversefilmEternals.

Publication history

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Thena first appeared inJack Kirby'sThe Eternals#5 (November 1976).[3]Marvel Comics continuity was laterretconnedso that the character presented as themythologicalgodMinerva,introduced inRed Raven Comics#1 ( "Mercury in the 20th Century" by artist Kirby and writer Martin A. Bursten; August 1940), was actually Thena.[1][2]

The character appeared in the ongoing seriesThe Eternals,written by Jack Kirby and later in aThorstoryline that ran fromThor#291–301.[4]

She become one of the main characters of theEternals(vol. 2) in 1985 written byPeter B. Gillisand pencilerSal Buscema,[5]and in the one-shot comic calledThe Eternals: The Herod Factor#1 in 1991.

Fictional character biography

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Beginnings

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Thena was born in the city ofOlympiain ancient Greece, and is thus one of the Eternals of Olympia. Originally named Azura, but her fatherZurashad her name changed by royal decree to resemble that ofZeus' daughterAthena(Roman name Minerva) to seal the treaty between the Olympian gods and the Eternals, in which the Eternals would act as the gods representatives on Earth, with Thena serving as Athena's personal representative. Due to this, she has often been mistaken for Athena and Minerva. The city ofAthenswas apparently built for her, not the goddess, although Thena later allowed it to be conquered by theSpartansin 404 BC.

Thena became a scholar and a warrior as she grew. She encounteredKroinBabylon2,500 years ago. He had a chance to slay her, but did not; as the years passed, the two of them grew closer together. Thena and Kro made love during theVietnam War,resulting in Thena becoming pregnant with twins. She placed them inside of Ms. Ritter, an infertile woman, who raised them as her own twin children,Donald and Deborah.[6]

Modern age

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In recent times, the eternals and deviants revealed themselves to the human world. When Warlord Kro led his armies in an attack onNew York City,Thena opposed him to help rescueSersi.Thena was reunited with Kro, and publicly declared herself to be an Eternal.[7]After Kro called a truce, he brought her to the Deviant city of Lemuria to try to resume his relationship with her. However Thena was horrified with the Deviants' customs including the mass killing ofundesirables.Thena meet Brother Tode, the leader of the deviants and watched a gladiator match between Deviant champions.[8]She watched thatRansak the Reject,a genetically stableDeviantwas fighting the horribly mutated but well-manneredKarkas.Thena was convinced byKarkasto grant both of them sanctuary and take them under her protection, running away from Lemuria with them. She then participated in theUni-Mindwith other Eternals to decide what to do with the Celestial crisis.[9]With Karkas and the Reject, she battled Zakka andTutinax.[10]She met and became an ally ofThor,[11]and then battled Athena of Olympus, during a battle between the Olympian gods and Eternals.[12]

She and the rest of the Etenals were captured by the Deviants aristocracy, but were rescued by Iron Man (James Rhodes). Thena was contacted by her father's spirit and proposed to the Eternals the need of going to the space.[13]She then formed the Uni-Mind again, to decide the matter and battledMaelstromalongside theAvengers;she was chosen by the Uni-Mind to stay on Earth.[14]After Zuras' death and the subsequent departure of most of Earth's Eternals, Thena becamePrime Eternal(leader of the Eternals of Earth), but she was traumatized by her father's death and was being subtly influenced by a Brain-Mine Kro had placed upon her. Thena was angry when few eternals assisted to her crowning ceremony.[15]In a new conflict with the deviants, Thena meet Kro again and helped him to escape from High PriestGhaur's control. She thwarted the other Eternals' efforts against Kro and turned againstIkaristo help save Kro's life, but later relinquished her title to Ikaris after a ceremony, and was banished. She was captured with Kro by Ghaur, and freed from Kro's brain mine; when she learned of the Brain-Mine, she was furious with Kro. She battled Ghaur alongside the Eternals, Thor, and theWest Coast Avengers.[16][6]

Some time later a maddened Dr. Damian transformedAjakinto a monster through the use of Celestial technology, sending them to kill Thena andKro's twin children,Donald & Deborah Ritter.The monstrous Ajak killed many sets of twins along the way. After the Eternals restored Ajak to their true form, suddenly grief-stricken with the deeds that committed as a monster, Ajak committedsuicide,additionally disintegrating Dr. Damian himself. Thena was reunited with her children and Kro, forming a family.[6]Thena then sent Gilgamesh to help the Avengers, and later helped the superhero group in the fight against Proctor and his Gatherers.[17]Kro and Thena searched for their children when they were captured by the villain Maelstrom.[18]When the mad priest Ghaur tried to form anAnti-Mind,he captured the twins and Thena. Kro led his deviant faction to rescue his children and his lover, with help of theHeroes for Hire.However he was outmatched by Ghaur's power and kept up the fight as his family escaped.[19]Later, Thena and the rest of the Eternals had to fight Apocalypse and posed as a superhero group.[20]

Memory loss and aftermath

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In the 2006Eternalstitle, Thena began as normal woman married to Thomas Eliot with a son, Joey, and a researcher atStark Enterprises.LikeSersiandMakkari,she was affected bySprite's reality warping to have no memory of her past as an Eternal.[21]Thena assisted at a Vorozheika party organized by Sersi. In the party, the amnesic eternals were attacked by mercenaries of another faction of Vorozheika government, killing her husband. The reunion of four eternals triggered a recovery of their powers.[22]With their returned powers, Thena frees herself from the mercenaries that captured her. Afterwards, she began to suffer terrible nightmares in which she was indeed immortal, and fought off various multicolored Deviants with ease. When she awoke from one of these dreams, she found she had gained back her costume and powers.[23]The Eternals, now remembering their past, arrived to San Francisco to deal with the Dreaming Celestial.They realized that they cannot stop the Celestial (they are programmed to protect him) and leave him be. The Eternals then embark on a quest to go and recruit the other members who have similarly forgotten their true selves due to Sprite's trickery.[24]Thena remained one of the Eternals, keeping her (human) child with her in their home after a heated argument with Ikaris.[25]

Thena kept caring for Joey and began to bicker with Ikaris for the method of awakening Eternals. She did not recognize that her son was host to a Horde' scout.[26]

Death

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Later when the Celestials' Final Host arrived on Earth, Thena along with all the Eternals killed themselves after realizing the true purpose for which they were created.[27]

Powers and abilities

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Thena is a member of the race of superhumans known as the Eternals. As a result, she has superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility, and reflexes. Thena also possesses the ability to manipulate cosmic energy to augment her life force, granting her virtual invulnerability and immortality, the ability to project cosmic energy from her eyes or hands in the form of heat, light, or concussive force and possibly other powers. Thena has total mental control over her physical form, granting virtual invulnerability and immortality. She also has the ability to levitate herself and thus fly at superhuman speed, the psionic ability to rearrange the molecular structure of objects, the ability to castillusionsto disguise her appearance and that of others from the perceptions of normal human beings, the ability to teleport herself and others with her, and the ability to initiate formation of theUni-Mind.

Thena has a gifted intellect, and has studied under the greatest Eternal and human scholars throughout her lifetime. She is highly educated in numerous areas of Eternal and human knowledge. Thena is also a formidable hand-to-hand combatant, with extensive training in unarmed combat and the use of many ancient and Eternal high-tech weapons.

Thena wears body armor of unknown composition. She carries a bow that fires arrows that release "cold energy", and she carries an energy spear that surrounds victims with a ring of intense heat and light or bombards them with anti-gravitons.

Reception

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Accolades

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  • In 2019,CBRranked Thena 6th in their "The 15 Most Powerful Eternals" list.[28]
  • In 2021,Screen Rantranked Thena 2nd in their "10 Most Powerful Members Of The Eternals" list[29]
  • In 2021,CBRranked Thena 7th in their "10 Strongest Characters From Eternals Comics" list.[30]
  • In 2022,Syfyranked Thena 4th in their "5 Marvel heroines who deserve their own MCU movie franchise" list.[31]

Other versions

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MC2

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InAvengers-Nextissue #2, It is revealed that Thor had a daughter in the alternate timeline, who is also calledThena,and possesses her father's storm god powers.[32]

In other media

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Television

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Film

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  • Thena appears inEternals,portrayed byAngelina Jolie.[34]This version suffers from "Mahd Wy'ry", a condition which the Eternals believe to be the result of accumulating so many memories over their centuries-long lives. They later discover that it is the result of an unsuccessful mind-wipe, which is performed on every Eternal after completing a mission. She has a close bond withGilgameshand faces off against Kro.

Video games

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References

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  1. ^abPierce-Bohen, Kayleena (2021-06-13)."Eternals: 10 Things Only Comic Fans Know About Thena".ScreenRant.Retrieved2023-01-07.
  2. ^abDavison, Josh (2021-07-24)."Eternals: 10 Things To Know About Thena".CBR.Retrieved2023-01-07.
  3. ^DeFalco, Tom; Sanderson, Peter; Brevoort, Tom; Teitelbaum, Michael; Wallace, Daniel; Darling, Andrew; Forbeck, Matt; Cowsill, Alan; Bray, Adam (2019).The Marvel Encyclopedia.DK Publishing. p. 373.ISBN978-1-4654-7890-0.
  4. ^ThorAnnual #7 (1978) andThor#291–301 (May 1979 - November 1980)
  5. ^The EternalsatDon Markstein's Toonopedia.ArchivedMay 27, 2024, atarchive.todayfrom the original on June 17, 2016.
  6. ^abcEternals: The Herod Factor#1
  7. ^The Eternals#5
  8. ^The Eternals#6-7
  9. ^The Eternals#8-12
  10. ^The EternalsAnnual #1
  11. ^Thor#285-289
  12. ^Thor#291-292
  13. ^Iron ManAnnual #6
  14. ^The Avengers#246-248
  15. ^Eternals(vol. 2) #1
  16. ^Eternals(vol. 2) #1-12
  17. ^The Avengers#374-375
  18. ^The Avengers#370-371. (1995) Marvel Comics.
  19. ^Heroes for Hire#5-7. (1997) Marvel Comics.
  20. ^The New Eternals: Apocalypse Now#1, 4-6
  21. ^Eternals:(vol. 3) #1. Marvel Comics.
  22. ^Eternals:(vol. 3) #2. Marvel Comics.
  23. ^Eternals:(vol. 3) #3-4. (2006) Marvel Comics.
  24. ^Eternals:(vol. 3) #3-7. Marvel Comics.
  25. ^Eternals(vol. 3) #6
  26. ^Eternals:(vol. 4) #1-7. (2008) Marvel Comics.
  27. ^Avengers(vol. 8) #4
  28. ^Lealos, Shawn S. (2019-07-27)."The 15 Most Powerful Eternals, Ranked".CBR.Retrieved2022-08-30.
  29. ^Harn, Darby (2021-05-27)."10 Most Powerful Members Of The Eternals".ScreenRant.Retrieved2022-08-30.
  30. ^Harth, David (2021-11-13)."The 10 Strongest Characters From Eternals Comics".CBR.Retrieved2022-08-30.
  31. ^"5 Marvel heroines who deserve their own MCU movie franchise".SYFY Official Site.2022-03-29.Retrieved2022-08-30.
  32. ^Avengers Next#2-5
  33. ^"Voice Of Thena Elliot - Eternals".Behind The Voice Actors.RetrievedJuly 22,2019.Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  34. ^D'Alessandro, Anthony; Ramos, Dino-Ray (July 21, 2019)."'The Eternals' Details Unveiled At Marvel's Comic-Con Panel, Angelina Jolie Surprises Hall H; Pic To Open November 2020 ".Deadline.Archivedfrom the original on July 22, 2019.
  35. ^MARVEL Super War - Thena.Marvel Super War.31 October 2021.Retrieved21 November2021.
  36. ^Dellosa, Catherine Ng (17 November 2021)."Marvel Future Fight Adds Kingo, Gilgamesh, and Thena to the RPG in Latest Eternals Update".Pocket Gamer.Retrieved21 November2021.
  37. ^Hashimoyo, Marika (18 November 2021)."Fight Side-by-Side with the Eternals as Companions in the Latest Update for 'MARVEL Future Revolution'".Marvel.Retrieved21 November2021.
  38. ^"Cards".

Further reading

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