The Mighty Thor Dies, But Jane Foster Lives

The following contains spoilers for The Mighty Thor #706 by Jason Latour, Russell Dauterman, and Matthew Wilson.

It finally happened. Following a lengthy battle with cancer that was exacerbated by the magical power of Mjolnir slowly killing her, Jane Foster tied the mythical hammer to the evil Mangog and sent them into the heart of the sun, thereby killing both her enemy and herself.

The Mighty Thor... is dead.

But this is not the end. When Mighty Thor #706 opens, Jane has found herself in Valhalla, where all noble warriors go upon death. As she stands at the gates, Odin joins her, berating her for his slights against her alter ego before begrudgingly opening the gates for her to find peace. Though Jane is awestruck at just how beautiful the view of the hallowed land is, she knows that she can't cross the threshold; despite the risk she made in taking Mjolnir to fight, she wasn't ready to die. And just as she isn't ready to die, her friends aren't ready to give up on her.

In the real world, the lack of Mjolnir is causing the skies to blacken as the thunderous power of the powerful God Tempest emerges. An enraged Odinson dares it to strike him, who uses it to try and resuscitate Jane. Even when his Uru arm is melted to a stump, he still tries to use the lightning to save his friend, calling back to the first issue of Jane's book by declaring she has "thunder in her veins." It takes the combined power of Odin and Odinson to wield the powerful lightning and bring the Goddess of Thunder back. With each attempt, Jane in Valhalla muses about the future she wanted for herself. "I know I had more to give," she says. "I wish I'd had just one more... peal of thunder."

And it's there, in the name of Asgard and Thor, that father and son do the impossible and revive Jane. For the first time in a long time, Jane put her faith in the gods and had it rewarded by them literally giving her the gift of life.

Days pass as Old Asgard is reconstructed by the survivors of the Mangog's attack. Jane and Odinson walk together as she helpfully informs him (and the audience) that she's going to her chemo treatments now at the insistence of Roz and Frigga. With Mjolnir gone, the cancer is all that's on her mind, and she knows that she'll beat it. But Odinson remains dejected at having truly lost his old weapon, even if he considers it to be a "worthy death." He's convinced that he'll now forever be confined as the unworthy prince of Asgard, and in his newfound maturity, he's come to accept that the age of Thor has passed. But that clearly can't be how either of their arcs end, since this is a story about faith above all else, and Jane reminds him as such when she gives him a pebble of what used to be Mjolnir.

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When she picked up Mjolnir on the moon so many years ago, her first words when grabbing the handle were "There must always be a Thor," and she was right. She knows that now is the time for her friend to reclaim his name and show the universe what a Thor can be when they don't have Mjolnir. Taking her words to heart, Odinson eagerly sets off to find some blacksmith dwarves to build not just one new hammer, but several, and we all know where that's going to lead him. As for Jane? She'll miss the flying most of all, but she has complete faith that like her, the skies won't be going anywhere at all.

"The Death of the Mighty Thor" is fatalistic in its ending, but only on paper. In truth, it's incredibly hopeful, from Odinson's attempt to save his friend to the final shot of Jane looking to the horizon as an image of Thor flies mightily through the air. Usually, a hero returning to their old mantle comes by way of their successor dying or being forced off the board, but this is a very natural end for Jane's story. If anything, it's her giving her original mantle for him to borrow; she's currently sworn off any Asgardian adventures, but her lingering glance at the shattered remains of the War Thor's Mjolnir offers a small tease that she could wear the helmet again someday.

Even if that possibility doesn't happen, Jane and Odinson still both have bright futures ahead of them. Jane will get to "beat those cancerous sons of bitches" like she wanted to, and he'll get the chance to define his name again--they now have freedom to be their own people, truly giving them the "Fresh Start" that Marvel is hoping for this June.

In the end, The Mighty Thor could only have ended with Jane and the Odinson standing together side by side. Though the title refers to her, they're both protagonists of the story: A Thor desperate to keep power at the cost of her own life, and another who would do anything to reclaim his lost mantle. In doing away with Mjolnir, Aaron has made both characters worthy to live their own stories.