Thundra
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Thundra is a Marvel Comics superheroine who is often aligned with the Fantastic Four. She is a powerful, red-haired, amazon-like warrior, or Femizon, from a matriarchal, technologically advanced future timeline where men have been subjugated by women. She was created by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, and first appeared in Fantastic Four #129.
[edit] Origin
Thundra is a warrior woman and time traveller from the 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 '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 (unbeknownst to her, that distinction would actually go to the Incredible Hulk). By besting the Thing in combat, she felt she would 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.
Thundra was also recruited into the evil group of supervillains known as the Frightful Four by the Wizard. She secretly had her own agenda and had no real interest in the group, ultimately switching sides and helping the Fantastic Four defeat them.
Thundra has superhuman strength (can lift approximately 60 tons) and endurance, and is a skilled combatant with a sword or chain, the latter of which is her weapon of choice, often attached to a bracelet on her left forearm. She has battled alongside (and sometimes against) the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. At one point, she became a professional wrestler training with 'The Grapplers', a group of female wrestlers who possessed cybernetic-endowed superpowers. In a fixed wrestling match with one Grappler member, Thundra (who had superior strength and fighting skills) was secretly drugged by her opponent, causing her to black out, and lose the match.
When she awoke, 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.
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). She was briefly allied with the duplicate Hyperion while still in service to Roxxon, and later became the consort of the extra-dimensional warlord Arkon.
But Thundra has a special place in her heart for Ben Grimm/The Thing, and in addition to her amorous advances, the two have been involved numerous superheroic adventures; one particularly 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.
[edit] Avengers Forever
Thundra also appears in the Marvel Comics Maxi-Series Avengers Forever. In the storyline, she is a member of a rag-tag remnant of Avengers in an alternate future where Earth has been devastated by evil robotic alien invaders from Mars. She still wields a chain as her personal weapon, and she now goes barefoot (sans her trademark buccaneer boots). Unlike the other remaining Avengers (most notably the Black Panther), it appears that Thundra has not aged. Perhaps this is due to the Femizonian genetic engineering that she was subjected to; the source of her superhuman abilities.
