How did Thor, the God of Thunder, get a sister in the comics? The last decade has seen Marvel Comics make some lasting changes to their own version of Asgardian mythology. The most notable was the introduction of Angela, Thor’s long-lost sister.
Behind the scenes, though, Angela is one of the most fascinating and complex characters. Her story shines a light on the history of the entire comic book industry, and on the troubled relationship between writers and artists; the very fact she’s now a Marvel character is frankly utterly ironic, and Marvel’s decision to tie her in to the strange comic history of Thor mythology is a fascinating twist on a character Marvel only gained the rights to a few years ago.
Angela’s story begins in the ’90s, in the early days of Image Comics. A number of disgruntled Marvel artists founded Image around the principle that creators should be allowed to retain the intellectual property rights for the characters they created. Todd McFarlane, famed for his work on Spider-Man, was one of Image’s key players; he swiftly created the superhero called Spawn. And in 1993 he hit upon an idea to increase Spawn’s prestige, contacting a number of well-reputed writers – Alan Moore, Dave Sim, Frank Miller, and Neil Gaiman – and offering them a chance to write an issue. That ultimately led to a collaboration between McFarlane and Gaiman, in which they designed Angela.
These were the ’90s, and the original Angela was typical of the age; a superheroine so curvaceous her back should be permanently out of joint, with a costume incorporating countless belts and pouches, and swords wielded as Phallic symbols. She was envisioned as an angel and a bounty hunter, and became a major recurring character in the Spawn comics. As the years passed, McFarlane Toys produced a wealth of Angela merchandise – but in the background, a storm was brewing over Angela’s rights.
McFarlane and Gaiman had a high-profile dispute over just who owned the character rights to Angela, with McFarlane insisting Gaiman had been on a work-for-hire contract. The two initially attempted to reach an agreement, but it soon fell through, and in 2002 Gaiman filed a lawsuit. A jury granted Gaiman joint ownership of two issues of Spawn, an Angela spinoff miniseries, and the disputed characters. But the two then got caught up in further legal wrangling over just how much money had been made from Angela, as well as some analogue characters McFarlane had created. There’s a rich degree of irony in all this, given Image had been founded in an attempt to give creators a stronger degree of ownership. Gaiman and McFarlane settled their dispute in 2012, and as part of the agreement Gaiman was given full control of Angela.
And then, in an amusing twist, Gaiman sold Angela over to Marvel Comics. She made her Marvel debut in the “Age of Ultron” event, which saw the entire time-space continuum shattered. Angela slipped through the cracks from the Realm of Heven, which was ultimately revealed to have been cut off from the World Tree by Odin after the Angels of Heven killed his first-born daughter. But it turned out the girl hadn’t been slain after all; the Angels had taken her as one of their own, bringing her up as “Angela.” A Spawn character had made a remarkable transition into the Marvel Comics universe, and had actually become Thor’s big sister. Marvel retained the same basic look, although little by little their version of Angela has started wearing more clothing. She’s even wound up leading a team called the Asgardians of the Galaxy, an amusing riff on some classic superhero concepts.
But will Angela ever make the jump into the Marvel Cinematic Universe? It’s impossible to say for sure, simply because the terms of the contract struck between Gaiman and Marvel have never become public knowledge. But, given this deal was negotiated in the aftermath of The Avengers‘ $1.5 billion success, it’s reasonable to assume that Gaiman knew any character he sold to Marvel could wind up on the big screen. Thus it’s quite possible he could look to make a profit if Angela did appear in the MCU.
Unfortunately, though, this does look unlikely; Angela‘s role as the previously-unknown big sister was taken by Hela in Thor: Ragnarok, meaning many aspects of her comic book origin have already been fulfilled in the MCU.
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