Jane Foster is coming back to the MCU, so it’s time to get to know her comic counterpart a bit better!

Before we start, I need to give a quick trigger warning for mentions of cancer and death in Jane’s story.

Name: Doctor Jane Foster

Superhero Name: Mighty Thor, Valkyrie

Created By: Stan Lee, Larry Leiber and Jack Kirby

Played By: Natalie Portman

Powers: As a human, Jane has no powers. But as Mighty Thor, she has all the powers of Thor, as well as all the powers Mjolnir gives its owner, though Jane has proved to be one of the best at wielding the hammer. Unlike others who have wielded Mjolnir, Jane can control the hammer’s direction after she has thrown it, so she can change its velocity and trajectory. As a Valkyrie, Jane has all the powers of a Valkyrie, as well as control of a weapon known as Undrajarn The All-Weapon, which changes its shape into any weapon at Jane’s will.

Mini Bio: Jane Foster was raised by her father, a plumber, after her mother died of cancer when she was nine years old. He worked two jobs to get her through medical school, but never missed a birthday or any other important event in her life until he died of a heart attack.

Once qualified, Jane took a job as a nurse at Donald Blake’s medical practice, where the two fell in love, both unaware of Donald Blake’s actual identity as Thor. Odin forbade the romance though, as Jane was not a Goddess, and eventually, the two broke up. Jane eventually married a man named Doctor Keith Kincaid, and the two had a son together, though she lost custody of the child after the couple divorced.

Jane went on to open a medical with Donald Blake in the City of Asgard, but was diagnosed with breast cancer with Blake was away, battling Gorr The God Butcher as Thor. She underwent treatment but refused magical treatments. Unbeknownst to her, Thor had become unworthy of Mjolnir at this time, but the hammer called to her. With Heimdall’s help, she found the fallen hammer and picked it up, gaining the power of Thor. The original Thor was initially unhappy about this, but did eventually accept things, and gave the hammer, and the name of Thor, to Jane, though he did not know at the time it was her wielding his hammer.

There was, however, a catch to becoming Thor – whenever Jane became Thor, all of the progress she had made in chemotherapy was lost, until things got to stage 4, and she was warned by Doctor Strange that if she became Thor one more time, she would die. Jane agreed to never become Thor again until Asgard was threatened during the War Of The Realms, and while she defeated the villain and saved Asgard, she died.

Thor, now knowing who Mighty Thor truly was, refused to accept this, and with help from Odin, used Mjolnir to bring Jane back to life. She decided then to focus on chemotherapy and convinced Thor to take up his mantel again and continue the fight in the War of The Realms.

Jane did, once again, end up fighting in the battles, rallying the Asgardians when the All-Mother and the Valkyries were gone and using the hammer once more to land a powerful blow against King Laufey. The blow knocked Mjolnir apart, and the pieces came together as a vambrace on Jane’s arm.

The spirits of the Valkyries, including Brunnhilde, came to Jane and asked if she would become a Valkyrie, as there were none left. Jane accepted and was transformed, curing her of her cancer.

Interesting trivia: Gwenpool knew of Jane Foster being Mighty Thor before anyone else, as she had been reading the comics in the real world.

First Comic Appearance: Journey Into Mystery issue 84 (September 1962) as Jane Foster, Thor issue 1 (October 2014) as Mighty Thor and War Of The Realms: Omega issue 1 (July 2019) as Valkyrie

Most Common Team Ups: Avengers, Valkyrior

Comic Recommendations: Journey Into Mystery (1962) by Stan Lee, Thor (2014) by Jason Aaron