THORDIS
Real Name: Jane Foster
Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Earth-788) mystically-enhanced human
Occupation: Adventurer, nurse
Group Membership: Avengers of Earth-788 (Captain America, Giant-Man, Iron Man, Wasp)
Affiliations: Dr. Don Blake
Enemies: Loki, Radioactive Man, Molto the Lava Men, Cobra, Mr. Hyde, Tomorrow Man, Mangog (all of Reality-788)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: New York City (Earth-788)
First Appearance: What If? I#10 (August 1978)
Powers/Abilities: Thordis possessed superhuman strength (Class 100), stamina, vitality and resistance to harm. With her hammer Mjolnir, she could channel lightning, fly through the air, and change form from her normal mortal guise to her immortal guise, and back again. Whenever she hurled it away as a throwing weapon, the enchanted hammer would always return to her grasp.
As Jane Foster, she had exceptional skills as a nurse.
Height: (Thordis) 6' (by approximation); (Foster)
5'7"
Weight: (Thordis) Unrevealed; (Foster) 135 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: (Thordis) Blond; (Foster) brown
History:
(What If? I#10) - Jane Foster was a nurse who worked with
Doctor Donald Blake in New York City--she was very much in love
with him, but he felt unworthy of her because of his lame leg.
Jane accompanied Blake to Norway on a vacation, where they witnessed the invasion of the extraterrestrial Kronan race. She and Blake fled, but Blake tripped and dropped his cane into a ravine; as the lame doctor was helpless without it, Jane went to retrieve his lost cane, but she slid down into the bottom of the ravine. After advising Blake to hide between some rocks, Jane herself went into a cave to hide; but as she went deeper into the cavern, she found her only possible exit to be blocked by a huge boulder.
As she leaned against a section of the cave wall, Jane discovered a secret chamber behind it, where she found a gnarled cane-like piece of wood, so she tried to use it as a lever to move the boulder; but when she found the task to be impossible, Jane struck the boulder with the wooden stick out of frustration. Bombarded with the mystical energies stored in the wood, she became charged with the power of the Norse thunder god Thor, and the gnarled wood returned to its normal form as Thor's hammer Mjolnir.
After reading the inscription on the hammer, the transformed Jane realized that she now possessed the power of the thunder god, so she called herself Thordis (...after a Norwegian girl she knew in nursing school). Thordis then saved Blake and drove the Kronans from Earth.
(What If? I#10 - BTS) - At some point after returning to America, Jane had a piece of the Norwegian wood carved into a hairbrush, which she placed in her purse (...as it was inconvenient for her to always carry the gnarled "cane" around ). With just one tap against the pavement with her innocent-looking brush, she could become Thordis, goddess of thunder.
(What If? I#10) - But Loki, the foe of the true Thor, freed himself from his eternity-long imprisonment within a tree, and he renewed his enmity with the thunder-god--he was delighted to find that someone else had recovered Mjolnir. He tried to seduce Thordis into surrendering the hammer, but she proved to be more than a match for him. She returned Loki to Asgard by tying him on her enchanted hammer and hurling it skyward; but the sight of Mjolnir compelled Thor's father Odin to request his son's return home. Foster responded to the summons as Thordis, but once Odin realized that he had made a mistake leaving Mjolnir to be found by a mortal, he became so offended that he cast her out of Asgard and back to Earth--Sif, Thor's true love, was in attendance as this occurred.
Back on Earth, Jane used her alter-ego's power to rescue others and battle superhuman criminals; she eventually became a founding member of the Avengers.
Meanwhile, Sif descended the Rainbow Bridge to Earth in secret, where she found Thor in his mortal guise of Don Blake, which Odin had created years earlier (see comments). She cured Blake's lame leg and resumed their romance without telling him he was the true Thor--Loki refused to allow her to reawaken those memories of Blake's true identity and went to kill him, but Thordis came to the rescue and stopped the villain.
However, the alien entity known as Mangog invaded Asgard and nearly caused Ragnarok. Thordis transported herself, Sif and Blake to Asgard, where they fought valiantly in the creature's defeat. Since Blake had proved his bravery to reclaim Mjolnir, Odin restored his true identity--consequently, the mortal Jane Foster was stripped of her guise as Thordis. Odin begged Jane's forgiveness for ever doubting her, then rewarded her for her valor by bestowing her with the power of a true immortal goddess.
Believing that as a goddess, she was now worthy of Thor's love, Jane approached him; but when she saw Thor and Sif embracing, Jane could only weep, for she realized she had lost him.
However, when Odin came to console her, Jane soon realized that the very qualities she admired and loved in the mortal Don Blake were also present in the father of the immortal Thor. A royal wedding eventually took place, and Jane remained in Asgard as Odin's queen (see comments).
Comments: Created by Donald Glut and Rick Hoberg.
These events diverge from Journey Into Mystery I#83, wherein Don Blake went to Norway alone.
In regards to Jane and Odin's wedding: An editor's note on page 32 explained that unlike his mythological and Reality-616 (mainstream Marvel Universe) counterparts, the Odin of this reality didn't have a mate, so there's no problems with bigamy; however, since he's at least a thousand years older than his bride, you could say he was "robbing the cradle".--Ron Fredricks
It can be assumed that once this reality's Thor regained his identity after the defeat of Mangog (which coincided with the events depicted in Thor I#154-157) that the rest of the timeline continued nearly identically to that of mainstream Earth-616. However, it could be assumed that at least any alteration caused by Foster as Thordis diverged more incidents that caused this reality to no longer have anything in common with the lives of its mainstream counterparts.
A later issue of Thor (Thor I#159) subsequently revealed that Donald Blake was simply a facade created by Odin to teach Thor humility--these facts have no effect on this story, which if anything actually ascertains many of those details before the fact.
The concepts of Jane Foster using Mjolnir to become Thordis and Mary Jane Watson using a sword to become Red Sonya that same year in Marvel Team Up I#79 both predate Adora using a sword to become She-Ra by almost ten years!
And the cover of this issue's 33-page story--What If Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor?--was done as an homage to the cover of Journey into Mystery I#83, Thor's first appearance.--Ron Fredricks
New and additional images by Ron Fredricks.
Profile by Thor2000 (Will U).
CLARIFICATIONS:
Thordis is not to be confused with:
images: (without ads)
What If? I#10, p8, pan1-2 (main image - Thordis; inscription on Mjolnir)
What If? I#10, p17, pan2 (headshot - Thordis)
What If? I#10, p7, pan2 (Jane Foster finds gnarled "cane" in cave)
What If? I#10, p9, pan1 (transformed Jane Foster decides to call herself Thordis)
What If? I#10, p33, pan1 (immortal goddess Jane Foster with Odin)
What If? I#10, cover (Thordis vs Kronans)
Journey into Mystery I#83, cover (Thor vs Kronans)
Appearances:
What If? I#10 (August 1978) - Don Glut (writer), Rick Hoberg (pencils), Dave Hunt (inks), C. Gafford (colors), Carol Lay (letters), Roy Thomas (editor)
First posted: 08/27/2003
Last updated: 11/04/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099
Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!