Thena

Thena (born Azura) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is a member of the Eternals, a race of superhumans in the Marvel Universe. She first appeared in the 1976–78 comic book series The Eternals. She was also a member of Heroes for Hire.

This article is about the Marvel Comics Eternal. For the Marvel Comics goddess, see Athena (Marvel Comics).
Thena
Textless cover of Eternals #3 (October 2008).
Art by Daniel 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. Burnstein
Jack Kirby
In-story information
Alter egoAzura
Team affiliationsEternals
Heroes for Hire
Stark International
Notable aliasesThena Eliot, Athena, Zura, Betty Sue Bialovsky, Prime Eternal
Abilities
  • Superhuman speed, strength, durability, and regeneration
  • Energy blasts
  • Flight
  • Illusion generation
  • Matter transmutation
  • Mind control
  • Telekinesis
  • Telepathy
  • Teleportation

In 2019, it was announced that Angelina Jolie would be playing Thena in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, debuting in The Eternals (2021).

Publication history

Thena first appeared in The Eternals #5 (November 1976).[1]

Marvel Comics continuity was later retconned so that the character presented as the mythological god Minerva, introduced in Red Raven Comics #1 (August 1940), was, in fact, Thena.

Fictional character biography

Thena was born in the city of Olympia in ancient Greece, and is thus one of the Eternals of Olympia. Originally named Azura, but her father Zuras had her name changed by royal decree to resemble that of Zeus' daughter Athena (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 of Athens was apparently built for her, not the goddess, although Thena later allowed it to be conquered by the Spartans in 404 B.C.

Thena became a scholar and a warrior as she grew. She encountered Kro in Babylon 2,500 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 the Vietnam 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.[2]

When Kro led his armies in an attack on New York City, Thena opposed him to help rescue Sersi. Thena was reunited with Kro, and publicly declared herself to be an Eternal.[3] After Kro called a truce, he showed her Ransak the Reject, a genetically stable Deviant. Thena was convinced by the Deviant Karkas to grant both of them sanctuary and take them under her protection. She then participated in the Uni-Mind.[4] With Karkas and the Reject, she battled Zakka and Tutinax.[5] She met and became an ally of Thor,[6] and then battled Athena of Olympus, during a battle between the Olympian gods and Eternals.[7] She then formed the Uni-Mind again, and battled Maelstrom alongside the Avengers; she was chosen by the Uni-Mind to stay on Earth.[8] After Zuras' death and the subsequent departure of most of Earth's Eternals, Thena became Prime 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. She thwarted the other Eternals' efforts against Kro and turned against Ikaris to help save Kro's life, but later relinquished her title to Ikaris 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 the West Coast Avengers.[9] She was eventually reunited with her children and Kro.[10]

Eternals (2006)

In the 2006 Eternals title, Thena is married to Thomas Eliot, with a son, and is a researcher at Stark Enterprises. Like Sersi and Makkari, she was affected by Sprite's reality warping to have no memory of her past as an Eternal.[11]

She was released from a hostage situation by Iron Man in relation to the Civil War comics event. 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. She is then enlisted by Ikaris to help stop 'The Dreaming Celestial' from awaking in his sleeping place beneath Los Angeles.

By the end of the story, she remains one of the Eternals, keeping her (human) child with her in their home after a heated argument with Ikaris.

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.[12]

Powers and abilities

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 cast illusions to 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 the Uni-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.

Other versions

MC2

In Avengers-Next issue #2, It is revealed that Thor had a daughter in the alternate timeline, who is also called Thena, and possesses her father's storm god powers.

In other media

Television

Film

Notes
  1. 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. ISBN 978-1-4654-7890-0.
  2. revealed in Eternals: The Herod Factor #1
  3. Eternals Vol. 1 #5
  4. Eternals Vol. 1 #8-12
  5. Eternals Annual #1
  6. Thor #285-289
  7. Thor #291-292
  8. Avengers #246-248
  9. Eternals Vol. 2 #1-12
  10. Eternals: The Herod Factor #1
  11. Neil Gaiman (w), John Romita Jr. (a). Eternals v3, #1 (August, 2006), Marvel Comics
  12. Avengers (vol. 8) #4
  13. "Voice Of Thena Elliot - Eternals". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved July 22, 2019. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources
  14. 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. Archived from the original on July 22, 2019.
gollark: Oh, that sort of test.
gollark: polaris.apionet.irc has been fixed and cannot be escaped from.
gollark: They apparently can't see each other over the apiohypermemetic links.
gollark: ... bee? polaris.apionet.irc is down.
gollark: I see. Well, you are to rejoin at some point.

References
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.