Every installment of Abandoned Love we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer without retconnng away the previous story. Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of Abandoned Love. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Today, based on a suggestion from reader Ron F., we look at the tangled history of Jane Foster and Sif sharing a body, long before Jane Foster became Thor...

Everything began in a rather dark place, as Jane Foster tried to kill herself. Thor learns the news in Thor #231 (by Gerry Conway, John Buscema and Dick Giordano) and he is distraught. He won't leave her side. Sif sees this and has an idea...



Five issues later (with Sinnott now on inks), after she went on a little adventure to get the stuff needed for the spell, she and the Asgardian Vizier return and successfully save Jane Foster's life by infusing her body with Sif's soul...







Over the next few issues, Jane acts more and more like Sif...



Finally, in Thor #249, new writer Len Wein (with artists John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga) reveal that Sif can be released, just like Thor within Donald Blake...





Here's the thing, though, they all pretty much forget about Jane in Sif's body.

It is not until nearly five years later, in Thor Annual #9 (by Chris Claremont, Luke McDonnell and Vince Colletta), that everyone's like, "Oh yeah, Jane is still trapped within Sif, right?"



But at the end of the issue, Jane just goes away again and that's apparently sort of an okay thing in everyone's book (even Jane!!)?!





So how did this arrangement end (that was Ron's original question, honestly)?

Go to the next page to find out!

It was not until Thor #332 (by Alan Zelenetz, Don Perlin and Vince Colletta) that people were really like, "Seriously, where's Jane?" Specifically, her fiancee, Keith Kincaid (yes, she had been engaged this whole time! Over a hundred issues!) got the police involved. Namely, how did this woman just disappear? Huh, Don Blake?



So finally, in Thor #335 (by Zelenetz, Mark Bright and Colletta), we learned that Jane was trapped within a magical staff and Thor, Keith and Sif went into the dimension of the staff to get her back...









This was mostly Zelenetz clearing the book of continuity debris ahead of Walter Simonson's then-incoming run. There's another major piece of continuity work from this era that I'll address at some point in the future, so don't bother bringing it up, please!

Anyhow, there you go, Ron! Hope this helps! If anyone else has a question about dropped comic book plots, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!