The Thor Comics Can Help Us Understand What Happens to Jane After Thor: Love and Thunder

The post contains spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder

Thor Odinson thought his old hammer Mjölnir had been lost forever. In Thor: Ragnarok, the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) fought his evil sister Hela (Cate Blanchett) and lost—at least initially, anyway. In a devastating blow, Hela cracked Thor’s mighty hammer into tiny bits.

But in the new film, Thor: Love and Thunder, Mjölnir is back, and, like a fickle pet has chosen a different owner: Thor’s ex-girlfriend, scientist Jane Foster. Indeed, the hammer calls to Jane (Natalie Portman), who is undergoing chemotherapy to treat Stage 4 cancer. The hammer, which can be picked up by those it deems “worthy,” helps her transform into Thor and gives her health and strength—at least for a time.

Jane and Thor, after reuniting as a couple, eventually discover that the hammer is, in fact, sucking the life force from her. Thor begs Jane to put down the hammer so that they can have more time together. But when Thor is nearly killed by the villainous Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), Jane transforms into Thor to save her true love. The decision eventually kills Jane, though we see in a end-credits scene that she does get a hero’s afterlife in Valhalla.

Thor is shocked by Jane’s transformation. Movie fans may be shocked by her death. But Marvel comics devotees were likely unsurprised by the plot twist. The movie closely parallels a relatively recent storyline in which Jane Foster, fighting cancer, takes on the mantle of Thor and sacrifices her life. What happens next in the comics may offer us a hint about Jane’s fate in Valhalla.

What is Jane Foster’s history in the Marvel comics?

Jane Foster is a longtime fixture of the Thor comics. A creation of Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby, she debuted in 1962’s Journey Into Mystery #84. Originally Lee and Lieber wrote her as a nurse, though she eventually was made a doctor.

She first wielded Thor’s hammer in 1978 in a What If? comic. Those comic books—now the basis for a Disney+ animated series—apply the titular question to the Marvel canon: What if Peggy Carter had taken the supersoldier serum instead of Steve Rogers? What if a virus turned the Avengers into zombies? But it wasn’t until 2014 that Jane-as-Thor on the big screen became not just a possibility, but a reality.

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How did Jane Foster become Thor?

At one point in the comics, Thor Odinson (the original Thor, the son of Odin) was deemed no longer worthy of carrying the hammer. Later, Frost Giants begin to invade Earth and a new Thor appears to defend the planet. For seven issues, the writers kept her identity a mystery. Thor Odinson tries to reclaim his title and tries to figure out new Thor’s true identity. But after watching new Thor in action, he admits that she deserves the mantle.

Thor Odinson initially suspects Jane might be this new hero. But he eliminates her from his list of suspects because she is going through chemotherapy for breast cancer, which, he reasons, would make her too weak to fight. Of course, he’s wrong. The hammer is giving her power. Thor Odinson eventually begs new Thor to reveal her identity, and—surprise!—it’s his former lover.

We learn that becoming the Goddess of Thunder is actually hastening Jane’s demise. The transformation cleanses “toxins” from her body—including, unfortunately, chemotherapy—each time she picks up the hammer. Jane refuses to give up the hammer and becomes an Avenger. At a certain point her illness gets so bad that Doctor Strange warns Jane that picking up the hammer will probably kill her. She does so anyway to defend Earth and sacrifices both her life and Mjölnir in the fight.

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What’s next for Jane Foster in the MCU?

Death is rarely permanent in comic books. Thor is able to revive Jane using the power of a storm (don’t ask). When she returns to Earth, she commits herself to concentrating on her health rather than fighting bad guys, and eventually her cancer goes into remission.

The comics storyline no doubt laid groundwork for the events of the film, so we may yet see Portman’s Jane alive and well in the MCU. After all, why include an end-credits scene in which Jane enters Valhalla if we won’t be visiting that realm again, perhaps to see Thor visit and retrieve Jane from the afterlife.

How did fans react to the Jane-as-Thor comics storyline?

When Marvel announced a woman would be carrying Thor’s hammer in 2014, fans were mostly excited by the prospect.

Of course, predictably, certain sexist fans online called out the decision. This was nothing new: Just about every effort to promote any female, BIPOC, or queer hero in the comics caught at least some flack from endlessly angry trolls. At the time, I spoke to Thor writer Jason Aaron, who pointed out that many comic book characters had picked up Thor’s hammer over the decades. “I think if we can accept Thor as a frog and a horse-faced alien, we should be able to accept a woman being able to pick up that hammer and wield it for a while, which surprisingly we’ve never really seen before,” he told TIME.

Read More: Marvel Comics Writers Explain Why They’re Making Thor a Woman

By the time the MCU announced that Natalie Portman’s Jane would wield Thor’s hammer at Comic-Con in 2019, fans were excited not only for Portman’s return to the MCU—she had exited after Thor: The Dark World—but a shakeup in the Thor storyline. Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi presented Portman with Mjölnir onstage at the convention, and fans gasped and cheered.