With Thor: Love & Thunder just a week and change away and bringing in Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor, it’s no surprise that Square Enix’s Marvel’s Avengers game is adding her to its superheroic roster. While she’s sure to basically play about the same as Thor Odinson from the base campaign, the bigger question — for those who still play the game — has been how she’d get worked in, narratively. Earlier in the week, Crystal Dynamics released an animated short drawn by Ms. Marvel artist Takeshi Miyazawa that sets the stage for her incoming arrival, and it’s actually a pretty interesting way to include her in the heroic fisticuffs.
While the game’s take on Jane went through the same life as her comics counterpart — being a girlfriend of Thor, getting cancer, and receiving Mjolnir — the big difference is in where she comes from. Voiced by Zehra Fazal, the game’s version of Jane Thor hails from another timeline, one where she served as a protector of Earth and Asgard with her Avengers. When the Odin of her universe went mad with power after Odinson disappeared, she allied with Loki to bring the All-Father down for good. And Loki being Loki, he turned on her once the deal was done, throwing her into the universe of the Avengers game.
Now that sounds like it could be a campaign worth playing; one of Marvel’s Avengers high points has been its characterization and writing. It would be interesting to see this version of Thor try to get on with people who are, in her eyes, alternate versions of the friends she’s fought beside and lost in a 2-3 hour story. It’s a shame, then, that “Mighty Thor” sounds less like a full blown campaign on the level of the ones for Black Panther and both Hawkeyes, and more like a mini-event on the level of Spider-Man for PlayStation users. She’ll still probably be fun to play, but a world where she’s given room to breathe and actually be a character rather than simply another hero to put on the splash page would be nice.
The Mighty Thor will come to Marvel’s Avengers next week on June 28, with a gameplay reveal the day prior.
Want more Gizmodo news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.