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Thena

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Marvel Comics Eternal. For the Marvel Comics goddess, see Athena (Marvel Comics).
Thena
Textless cover of Eternals (vol. 4) #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. 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

Thena (born Azura) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Martin A. Bursten and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared as Minerva in Red Raven Comics #1 (August 1940), but was later reintroduced as Thena in The Eternals #5 (November 1976).[1][2] She is a member of the Eternals, a race of superhumans in the Marvel Universe. She was also a member of Heroes for Hire.[2]

Angelina Jolie portrays Thena in the 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Eternals.

Publication history

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Thena first appeared in Jack Kirby's The Eternals #5 (November 1976).[3] Marvel Comics continuity was later retconned so that the character presented as the mythological god Minerva, introduced in Red 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 series The Eternals, written by Jack Kirby and later in a Thor storyline that ran from Thor #291–301.

She become one of the main characters of the Eternals (vol. 2) in 1985 written by Peter B. Gillis and penciler Sal Buscema,[4] and in the one-shot comic called The Eternals: The Herod Factor #1 in 1991.

Fictional character biography

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Early life

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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 be similar to that of Athena and seal the treaty between the Olympian gods and the Eternals.[2] 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.

Thena became a scholar and a warrior as she grew. She encountered Kro in Babylon 2,500 years ago. He had a chance to kill her, but did not; as the years passed, the two of them grew closer together. During the Vietnam War, Thena becomes pregnant with twin children from Kro. She implants the children inside Ms. Ritter, an infertile woman, who raises them as her own children, Donald and Deborah.[5][2]

Modern age

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In modern times, the Eternals and Deviants reveal themselves to the human world. When Kro leads his armies in an attack on New York City, Thena opposes him to help rescue Sersi.[6] After Kro calls a truce, he brings Thena to the Deviant city of Lemuria to try to resume his relationship with her. However, Thena is horrified by the Deviants' customs, including the mass killing of "undesirables". She leaves Lemuria with the Deviant gladiators Ransak and Karkas.[7]

After Zuras' death and the subsequent departure of most of Earth's Eternals, Thena becomes Prime Eternal, leader of the remaining Eternals on Earth.[8]

Memory loss and aftermath

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In the 2006 Eternals title, Thena appears as a normal woman married to Thomas Eliot with a son, Joey, and working a researcher at Stark Enterprises.[2] Like Sersi and Makkari, she was affected by Sprite's reality warping to have no memory of her past as an Eternal.[9] While at a party, Thena is attacked by mercenaries, who kill her husband. Thena's proximity to the other Eternals causes all of them to regain their powers.[10] With their returned powers, Thena frees herself from the mercenaries.[11]

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.[12] Thena and the other Eternals are later resurrected simultaneously.[13]

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 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.[2]

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, CBR.com ranked Thena 6th in their "The 15 Most Powerful Eternals" list.[14]
  • In 2021, Screen Rant ranked Thena 2nd in their "10 Most Powerful Members Of The Eternals" list[15]
  • In 2021, CBR.com ranked Thena 7th in their "10 Strongest Characters From Eternals Comics" list.[16]
  • In 2022, Syfy ranked Thena 4th in their "5 Marvel heroines who deserve their own MCU movie franchise" list.[17]

In other media

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Film

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Thena appears in Eternals, portrayed by Angelina Jolie.[18] 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. It is later learned that Thena's condition is the result of an unsuccessful mind-wipe, which is normally performed on every Eternal after missions.

Video games

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Miscellaneous

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Thena appears in Marvel Knights: Eternals motion comic, voiced by Lisa Ann Beley.[23]

References

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  1. ^ a b Pierce-Bohen, Kayleena (June 13, 2021). "Eternals: 10 Things Only Comic Fans Know About Thena". Screen Rant. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Davison, Josh (July 24, 2021). "Eternals: 10 Things To Know About Thena". CBR. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
  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. ISBN 978-1-4654-7890-0.
  4. ^ The Eternals at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Deprecated link archived May 27, 2024, at archive.today from the original on June 17, 2016.
  5. ^ Eternals: The Herod Factor one-shot (November 1991)
  6. ^ Eternals #5 (November 1976)
  7. ^ Eternals #6-7 (December 1976 - January 1977)
  8. ^ Eternals (vol. 2) #1 (October 1985)
  9. ^ Eternals: (vol. 3) #1 (August 2006)
  10. ^ Eternals: (vol. 3) #2 (September 2006)
  11. ^ Eternals: (vol. 3) #3-4 (October - November 2006)
  12. ^ The Avengers (vol. 8) #4 (September 2018)
  13. ^ Eternals (vol. 5) #1 (March 2021)
  14. ^ Lealos, Shawn S. (July 27, 2019). "The 15 Most Powerful Eternals, Ranked". CBR. Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  15. ^ Harn, Darby (May 27, 2021). "10 Most Powerful Members Of The Eternals". ScreenRant. Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  16. ^ Harth, David (November 13, 2021). "The 10 Strongest Characters From Eternals Comics". CBR. Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  17. ^ "5 Marvel heroines who deserve their own MCU movie franchise". SYFY Official Site. March 29, 2022. Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ MARVEL Super War - Thena. Marvel Super War. 31 October 2021. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  20. ^ Dellosa, Catherine Ng (17 November 2021). "Marvel Future Fight Adds Kingo, Gilgamesh, and Thena to the RPG in Latest Eternals Update". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  21. ^ Hashimoyo, Marika (18 November 2021). "Fight Side-by-Side with the Eternals as Companions in the Latest Update for 'MARVEL Future Revolution'". Marvel. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  22. ^ Reyna, Leo (June 14, 2024). "New Season of MARVEL SNAP Introduces the Eternals". CBR. Retrieved May 2, 2026.
  23. ^ "Thena Elliot Voice - Eternals (TV Show)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved July 22, 2019. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)

Further reading

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