Who is Lady Thor, the new hero of Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder?

Marvel fans have been eagerly awaiting Natalie Portman’s return as Thor ever since she took to the San Diego Comic-Con 2019 stage holding the Hammer of Thor. The first trailer has been released. Thor: Love and Thunder, they’ll have their chance. You might also be interested in: How does Jane Foster become the Thor-like power?

The answer is: Since 2014’s Thor#1, where a new mysterious superheroine, Mjolnir, appeared in Marvel Universe. Come with us on a quick trip through the story of Jane Foster’s turn as the god of thunder.

Thor’s power will be granted to the one who holds the hammer, provided they prove worthy

Image by Russell Dauterman/Marvel Comics

With the collaboration of many great artists, comics writer Jason Aaron took the helm of Marvel’s Thor comics in 2012, and stayed there long enough to complete a seven-year epic of godly drama. The very first thing he did was introduce the character of Gorr the God Butcher, an antitheist alien bent on killing every god in the universe in order to free mortals from believing in them, who’ll appear in Thor: Love and ThunderAs played by Christian Bale.

Aaron changed the entire Thor cosmology after he retired two years ago. Thor lost a mental struggle with the legacy of Gorr, and realized in his heart that gods were not worthy of mortal adoration — and thus, he became incapable of lifting Mjolnir. Comics fans know that Thor lost the ability of lifting his hammer when Nick Fury whispered something to his ear. Aaron and his collaborators kept the secret of Thor’s depowerment for three years.

Aaron brought a new Mjolnir wielder. It was a mysterious, headless woman known only as Thor. Aaron ThorRussell Dauterman, artist, worked hard on this idea. “You pick up this book and it just says ‘Thor’ on the cover, which features a new female version of Thor,” Aaron told Comic Book Resources in 2014. “It’s pretty much telling you she’s not She-Thor or Lady Thor. She’s not Thorika. She’s Thor. This is the new Thor.”

Just like the source of Odinson’s unworthiness, Thor’s true identity remained a tantalizing secret, and also helped to make the “Thor” name truly stick to her. If they couldn’t call her “Lady Thor,” and she didn’t have a secret identity, fans simply had to call her Thor. The guy Thor started going by “Odinson,” as Thor’s book proved more successful than even Aaron’s first 2012 Thor series. Seven months later, Aaron Dauterman and Russell Dauterman finally revealed the truth.

Thor was Jane Foster. Until she became Thor, Aaron’s Thor epic had been pretty light on involving Jane — early in the series, it was revealed that Jane had been diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, and despite Thor’s urgings, decided to rely on medicine for treatment rather than the kind of magical means that often require an unexpected cost. The reveal that she was Thor showed that all that was half misdirection: half set-up, half exactly-the-thing-Jane-hadn’t-wanted-from-magical-cancer-cures.

Image: Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman/Marvel Comics

Jane had found herself worthy, and couldn’t stand by when she could prevent suffering as a superhero. But, every time she transformed back from goddess to mortal, she transformed into her body’s “default” state, erasing the progress made during her cancer treatments. Although being Thor meant she was helping others, it was also killing her. Still, she kept at it, all the way up through the finale of Aaron’s Thor tenure, The War of the Realms, which featured four Thors — Thor Odinson, two other versions of him brought out of time, and Jane-as-Thor — squaring off against the dark elf warlord Malekith wielding the long-lost weapon of Gorr the God Butcher, All-Black, the Necrosword.

How much of any of this — Thor’s unworthiness, Jane’s cancer, Gorr’s butchery — will make it into Thor: Love and ThunderThis teaser trailer is only the beginning. Gorr doesn’t even appear in it, and he’s a weird, almost-naked grey alien with tentacles on his head, so, like, we would have noticed.

What happened to Mjolnir’s return after Hela broke it during Thor: Ragnarok.

If I could, please, I’d have a dollar for every Mjolnir defeat. Jane herself threw it into the center of the sun and told it to stay there during Aaron’s run. There are millions of ways you can do it. Thor: Love and ThunderI could put that particular Humpty Dumpty together again.