Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #12: Thundra

"The warrior woman known as Thundra hailed from an alternate version of Earth in the 23rd century, where the planet is ruled over by the globe-spanning Femizonian Empire. She was renowned as the strongest and most formidable warrior of her day, thanks to a combination of genetic engineering-based physical enhancement and training in combat, martial arts, and military strategy since childhood; this ensured her being a multi-year winner of the Bladed Sisterhood Tournament, a contest held every four years to determine the champion of the Femizons. Her status as the best of the Femizons was considered essential in the efforts to win a long, stagnant war against Machus, a male-dominated colony established on Earth's moon, led by the chauvinistic warlord known as Mahkizmo.

One day, Thundra met with the best scientific minds of the Femizons to determine a way to end the war with Machus once and for all. A plan was then formed, involving the usage of a salvaged prototype time platform built by 21st century scientist Victor Von Doom. Thundra and a small group of handpicked warriors would travel back in time and prevent the formation of Machus by going after Mahkizmo's ancestor and eliminating him. Just as the group was set to go back, an army of male warriors led by Mahkizmo himself attacked the facility where the time platform was located; Mahkizmo's spies had learned of the plan and alerted him, causing him to strike out against the Femizons' efforts. With no time to waste, Thundra and her warriors activated the platform and disappeared into the timestream; Mahkizmo managed to follow them before the platform deactivated.

Arriving in the 21st century, Thundra led her group in search of Mahkizmo's ancestor, unaware that he'd trailed behind them. Their search eventually took them to Tokyo-3, going on one year following the end of humanity's battle with the otherworldly creatures codenamed 'Angels' and the thwarting of the sinister SEELE conspiracy. Discovering Makhizmo's ancestor being a leading scientist overseeing the repurposed Geofront (the former headquarters of the U.N. special agency NERV, which had been tasked with defeating the Angels), Thundra and her group raided the facility and abducted the man, attracting the attention of the Avengers (a team of superheroes made up of various women and girls involved in some way or another in the battles against the Angels and SEELE).

In confronting the Femizons, the Avengers found themselves evenly-matched with the diverse array of fighters in their ranks. Not wanting to drag it out any longer than warranted, Thundra issued a challenge of one-on-one combat to the physically-strongest member of the Avengers: She-Hulk (former NERV tactical operations director Misato Katsuragi). She-Hulk accepted the challenge, on the condition that their captive be let go should she win, and that Thundra and her cohorts explain themselves. Both groups gave the fighters their space, and the battle commenced, with both women perfectly matched in terms of strength and skill. Ultimately, Misato used unorthodox tactics to get the upper hand on Thundra, defeating Feminzonia's finest. Awed by She-Hulk's mercy when she would've expected otherwise, Thundra accepted her loss and explained her story to the Avengers. It was then that Mahkizmo struck and made off with his ancestor, causing both the Avengers and the Femizons to put aside their differences and stop him. They succeeded after the scientist realized how his research on the 'Black Egg' the Geofront was built within would eventually lead to the formation of Machus, causing him to declare his intent to destroy his plans for restoring the Black Egg's antigravity capabilities. A horrified Mahkizmo soon vanished, thanks to the brief temporal paradox that ensued.

Satisfied with their mission's success, Thundra and her Femizons parted ways with the Avengers to await their retrieval by the science team in the future, vowing to have a proper rematch with them. While they stayed in the present, Thundra and her cohorts at one point trained with the superpowered team of female pro wrestlers known as the Grapplers, who were also allies of the Avengers. At another point, Thundra would come to the Avengers for aid against the sinister machinations of her own distant ancestor: Dr. Deidre Wentworth, a misandrist renegade scientist going by the alias Superia, who after discovering Thundra sought to bring about the rise of Femizonia two centuries early. All the while, it became apparent that Thundra had developed something of a minor crush on Misato, despite the latter usually reminding the redhead that she's married."

*Author's Note(s)*

Capping off my new wave of villains (reluctant or not, and oddly, both redheads) is a take on the cult-favorite woman warrior of Marvel known as Thundra, originally introduced in 1972's Fantastic Four #129 as a riff on 'extreme feminism gone wild' (given the backdrop of the peak of 'Women's Lib', you can guess why). Oddly enough, OrionPax09 made mention of Thundra only in one of the 'rejected heroes' omakes of his 'Superwomen of EVA: American Dream' story, in which Thundra was presented as one of the character mantles Mari Makinami could've taken up before he turned her into Captain America (the other contenders were, I kid you not, the Punisher, Wolverine and/or X-23, Hercules, Captain Britain, Psylocke, the Sentry, and Rogue). I decided that Thundra could definitely be her own character in the SWOE environment, and would be an interesting character to interact with given the fanfic series is called 'Superwomen of EVA'. Of course, I did my best to incorporate as much of Thundra's mythos into this take as possible, from her rivalry with Mahkizmo to her complicated family tree with Superia to her (subtle) one-sided crush on She-Hulk.

As for the visual basis for a SWOE Thundra, it took me a while before my perusal of the web brought me to a redhead by the name of Risty...from probably the most fan service-y Japanese franchise I've ever seen: Queen's Blade. For some reason or another, the ladies of that franchise spurred in me the idea of them making a somewhat decent visual basis for the SWOE Femizons, and Risty really fit the bill for what I had in mind for Thundra. (Not to mention she also resembles an anime take on another iconic comic book redhead, Red Monika from Joe Madureira's cult-favorite Battle Chasers series.) Thus, for the Deviation that followed, a lot of Photoshopping work ensued on a Risty character model, including turning her Morningstar into a flail as a nod to Thundra's usual chain weapon. A few bits and bobs added, some recoloring, and we have a SWOE take on the champion of the Femizons.