Thor: Love and Thunder’s after credits scene shows the fate of Jane Foster

In 2018, Marvel Comics published “Death of the Mighty Thor,” a seven-issue arc that brought an end to Jane Foster’s tenure as the Goddess of Thunder — though not, happily, to her life. Jane stayed put, which was good because Thor had to have all the help he could for the next conflict, the War of the Realms. Jane was involved in this cosmos-spanning war. FourIt took Thors to defeat Malekith, the Accursed, his troll, angel, elf and fire elemental armies.

How does this impact the fate of Thor in Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future? Let’s examine.

[Ed. note: This piece contains major spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder, naturally.]

Image by Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman/Marvel Comics

In 2018, Jane Foster died. In Mighty Thor#705, she saved Norse gods from a foe that no other gods could defeat. She also gave up her life, succumbing in the breast cancer. If you’ve seen Thor: Love and Thunder, you’ll know that that’s pretty much what happens in the movie as well.

However, comics one month later revealed that in Mighty Thor #706, Jane Foster rose again.

How did Jane Foster die in Marvel Comics?

Image by Jason Aaron/Russell Dauterman/Marvel Comics

Jane’s powers in the comics were quite similar to the movie — Mjolnir gave her the power of a god, but exacerbated her cancer. Love and ThunderThe comics may be a little vague about why but it is clear that Jane’s release of Mjolnir was the moment she returned to her normal self. And “as-is” meant Without chemotherapy drugs, but withHer cancer was a result of her biology. Every transformation she made was undoing the progress that her treatments had made.

In “Death of the Mighty Thor,” Jane’s friends finally held an intervention and got her to agree to go through with her doctor’s advice and stop being a superhero so that she wouldn’t die. Unfortunately, this is exactly when one of Asgard’s most powerful foes made his return. The Mangog (created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, so you are not allowed to make fun of his name) was a personification of the hatred of “a billion, billion beings” killed by the hand of All-Father Odin and a recurring Thor villain.

The creature unleashed tore at gods like paper, until it found only one solution: Thor, Goddess of Thunder. The battle was the culmination of Jane’s thematic role, as a mortal who sought to demonstrate how gods could be worthy clashed with divine unworthiness made flesh. Jane finally tied Mjolnir and the Mangog together in Fenris’ legendary chains, then hurled the hammer into Fenris’ core, trapping him in its fires.

But without Mjolnir in her hand, Jane returned to her mortal form and expired in Thor’s arms.

What is the secret to Jane’s return to health?

Image: Jason Aaron/Marvel Comics

Through the mercy of All-Father Odin. Jane’s victorious sacrifice over a foe created by his worst negligences won her the respect of Odin, who up until this point had viewed her as a thief, wielding the hammer he’d given to his son. Combining his powers with Thor’s, the two harnessed the energies of the untamable God Tempest to resurrect Jane as she stood hesitant at the very gates of Valhalla.

And so, Jane was alive again, and with Mjolnir’s destruction, she could no longer become Thor and arrest the progress of her cancer. She eventually made a full recovery, just in time to pick up the hammer of a Thor from another universe (don’t worry about it) and battle Malekith in the climax of the War of the Realms. War of the Realms was the last Jane Foster story in writer Jason Aaron’s long tenure with the Thor mythos, and he left Jane with a parting gift: A new piece of gear, the magically transforming godly artifact Undrjarn the All-Weapon, and a new superhero role.

Jane Foster is Marvel Comics’ Valkyrie.

Image by Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman/Marvel Comics

A note on the MCU’s Valkyrie: She’s very nearly an original character! A valkyrie inspired by Tessa Thompson’s turn in Thor: Ragnarok has only recently started appearing in Marvel Comics (she’s even got a first name, Rūna). Jane was The Valkyrie after all of Asgard’s valkyries had perished in a massacre during the War of the Realms. She is now a Marvel Comics employee and spends her time in New York City’s morgue. Horse.

What does this mean for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future?

End of Thor: Love and ThunderThe screen, like all Marvel movies, promises its hero that he will return. And if he does in a fifth solo movie, it’ll be unprecedented in the franchise, where superheroes are generally phased out once they hit trilogy length. There’s nothing we know for certain about how Thor might return, including whether director-writer Taika Waititi will come back to direct. But the War of the Realms, new valkyries, and resurrection of Jane Foster would be a natural continuation of Waititi’s interest in the Thor stories of Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, and Esad Ribić.

There are many ways you can catch up with the story of Gorr the God Butcher and Jane, the origins of Thor’s eminence, the transformation of Thor into Thor, the birth of Thor, the War of the Realms, and the fate of Jane.