Thundra

Thundra was created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, and first appeared in Fantastic Four #129.[2]

Thundra clobbers the Thing.
Art by John Byrne and Terry Austin.

Thundra is a warrior woman and time traveler from an alternate future 23rd century. In the future society she hails from, planet Earth is now known as Femizonia and is ruled by amazon-like female overlords (Femizons) who have conquered and enslaved the diminished male population. The former United States is now the 'United Sisterhood Republic', and Thundra hails from the megalopolis of Greater Milago (a merged sprawl of Milwaukee and Chicago), located in the United Sisterhood's Midwestern Republic. Thundra is renowned as the United Sisterhood's most formidable warrior, having been physically enhanced by genetic engineering and trained from childhood in combat, the martial arts, and military strategy.

She is sent to the 20th century to challenge Fantastic Four member the Thing to a bout of one-on-one combat, believing him to be the strongest male of all time. By beating the Thing in combat, she feels she can prove once and for all that women were superior to the male gender, and finally end a stagnant war between Femizonia and the warlike, male dominated planet of Machus, where the female population had been subjugated by its ruler Mahkizmo.

Thundra is also recruited into the evil group of supervillains known as the Frightful Four by the Wizard, and they battled the Fantastic Four.[3] She secretly has her own agenda and has no real interest in the group. She battled the Thing in personal combat, and then wound up ultimately switching sides and helping the Fantastic Four defeat the Frightful Four after she quits that group.[4]

She later battled the Hulk, who was possessing the Thing's body at the time.[5] Thundra later assisted the Fantastic Four against the Frightful Four again,[6] and then assisted the Fantastic Four against Namor the Sub-Mariner.[7] Her time travel from 23rd Century Femizonia, an alternate future Earth ruled by women, to prevent the formation of Machus, a planet in her alternate future dimension ruled by men, was finally revealed. Alongside the Fantastic Four, she battled Mahkizmo. She ultimately remained in the 20th Century after a dimensional interface of Femizonia and Machus occurred.[8] She later assisted the Fantastic Four and Tigra against the Frightful Four,[9] and then assisted the Fantastic Four, Tigra, and the Impossible Man against the Brute, Mad Thinker, and Annihilus.[10]

Thundra later met wrestling promoter Herkimer Oglethorpe, and on his advice she became a professional wrestler training with the Grapplers, a group of female wrestlers who possess cybernetic-endowed superpowers. In a fixed wrestling match with one Grappler member, Thundra (who has superior strength and fighting skills) is secretly drugged by her opponent, causing her to black out and lose the match.[11]

When she awakens, it was revealed that the Grapplers were actually agents working for the Roxxon Oil Company, a multinational petroleum company which was covertly involved in developing advanced technology and weaponry for sinister motives. The Grapplers were assigned to trick Thundra into helping them sabotage Project Pegasus, a prison/research facility built for housing supervillains. They were employed to smuggle the Nth Projector out of Project Pegasus.[12]

As a result of the deception by Roxxon and the Grapplers, Thundra came to blows (yet again) with the Thing (with whom she has expressed a romantic interest in, on more than one occasion).[12] Alongside the Thing, Quasar, Giant-Man, and the Aquarian, she fought the Nth Man.[13] She encountered the duplicate Hyperion and the Avengers, and battled Ms. Marvel.[14] She is briefly allied with the duplicate Hyperion while still in service to Roxxon, and with him stole the Nth Projector from the Nth Command, before she returned to an alternate Femizonia which did not interface with Machus.[15]

Sometime later, Thundra was revealed as the Empress of Femizonia. She teamed with the Thing to battle Machan rebels.[16] She later abducted the Avengers and Fantastic Four to the future to enlist their aid in defending Femizonia from the extra-dimensional warlord Arkon and his warriors from Polemachus. She fought Arkon in personal combat, and became romantically inclined toward him.[17]

However, Thundra has a special place in her heart for Ben Grimm/the Thing. In addition to her amorous advances, the two have been involved in numerous superheroic adventures; one significant pairing of the two involved enlisting Grimm to help liberate Femizonia from a powerful, six-armed android sent from Machus to conquer the Femizons. After defeating the android, Grimm informed Thundra that they could never be together, expressing his love for Alicia Masters. Thundra then allowed him to return to the 20th century.

As a result of genetic engineering, Thundra has vast superhuman strength and resistance to physical injury sufficient to allow her to stand toe to toe with the likes of the Thing. Her speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes are heightened to the peak of natural human capability. She has undergone intensive pain-management training.

Trained as a warrior, with extensive training in the hand-to-hand and military combat techniques of the 23rd Century, she is a seasoned combat veteran who possesses superior fighting skills and is considered to be the greatest warrior among her people. Thundra is also a skilled combatant with a sword or her three-foot linked chain, the latter of which is her weapon of choice, often attached to a bracelet on her left forearm.

Thundra was ranked 62nd in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.[29]

• List of women warriors in literature and popular culture

• Thundra at Marvel.com
• Thundra on Marvel Database, a Marvel Comics wiki