M401--Thundra

Thundra
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #129 (December 1972)

Arcadia was paradise precisely because of the hard work of its women.  Daughters were born in accordance with the stars, their alignments determining each child’s potential.  All came into the world unique, and all had a role to play in society.  Thundra was born under the sign of the ox, and she grew to be a giant of great strength with which she used to tend to her family’s ranch that helped feed the greater Miago plains area.  She became the heroine she was always meant to be when she drove back an attack from the wandering Mahkiz-mo beast and slayed it.  For this she was inducted into the A-Force, and eventually became their greatest champion and leader.

But when an interloper known as Richards became the first man to ever enter Arcadia’s plane of reality his presence threatened to bring paradise down.  Together with the rest of A-Force, Thundra chased Richards back through the dimensional rift from which he came, but was lost within the infinite void of limbo.  It was an organization called the Future Foundation that pulled her out into a place known as “America.”  The intruder she was chasing was nowhere to be found in the Baxter Building, but a similar man by the name of Reed Richards was.  Held against her will as a “temporal anomaly,” she felt this must have been Richards’ doing, and was easily swayed by another foundation technician by the name of Bentley Wittman who was plotting his own revenge against the so-called Mister Fantastic.

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“Thundra” was the title given to her for her besting of the Mahkiz-mo beast, a creature of thunderous energy powers that left its mark on her left arm.  The FF is keeping her in the Baxter Building in hopes of finding a way to send her back without causing potential multiversal damage, not realizing that she believes they’re keeping her as an enemy of war, which is how Wittman frames it when he recruits her to be the final member of the Frightful Four alongside himself, Trapster, and Sandman.

I first mentioned Thundra way back in my America Chavez entry all those years ago, where I first wrote about my "Arcadia" concept, which combines aspects of America Chavez's "Utopian Parallel," Secret Wars' "Arcadia" domain, and Thundra's goofy-ass "Femizonia." Thundra and Femizonia were a product of their times when "battle of the sexes" stories were all the rage at the time and the setting is really hackneyed and dated. I incorporated parts of it here and there, but rather than a warrior of a fascist empire of super babes she is a hero who ends up getting pulled to our universe and tricked into joining the Frightful Four. "Mahkiz-mo," the monster who she slayed, is named after her arch-enemy from the comics, "Mahkizmo," who was a ruler of an alternate empire dominated by men. I elected to make him into a monster because he's a) dumb and b) I thought, as a paradise, Arcadia should be free of war, and thought it'd be more interesting if they had to fight monsters instead.

I think my design is pretty straightforward, I just want to shout out two fan redesigns that helped inspire me--the dark eye makeup is something I just straight up ripped off @VegetarianGoat 's take on Thundra. And some aspects of the armor and her hair was inspired by Sam Wood's take on an MCU styled design for her, particularly the boots and hair. The scar on her arm was a late addition to her design after realizing I kinda removed the thunderbolt patterns on Thundra, so I thought, what if she got that name from fighting a lightning monster or something?