Thor is famous for being one of the Avengers’ heaviest hitters. While founding members included powerhouses like Iron Man and the Hulk, having an actual god on the team truly made the group “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” Since that time, there have been many successors to Thor, including the Greek god Hercules and Jake Olson, a mortal man who merged with Thor to become a new Thunder God.
In one future timeline, however, Thor’s successor is not an Asgardian warrior but a human teenager. Despite this, the future “Thor” has strong ties to both Asgard and Thor himself and has proved himself a worthy successor to the Thor legacy.
The Son of Thor
The teenager in question is Kevin Masterson, the son of Eric Masterson, an architect who was once good friends with Thor in the mainstream Marvel Universe. At one point, Thor and Eric merged together into one being with the ability to switch between their two forms by stamping a wooden cane onto the ground. The cane would then become Thor’s hammer Mjolnir, similar to the way Thor once switched back and forth from his mortal guise of Dr. Donald Blake.
But where “Donald Blake” was originally established as a false identity created by Odin to teach Thor humility (although recent storylines have made him much more), Eric was a man who had a life well before his dealings with the Asgardians. Eric was even a divorced father whose preteen son – Kevin – idolized Thor and had no idea that his father and the Thunder God were one and the same.
Eventually, Eric and Thor managed to separate and go back to living separate lives, but Eric’s adventures were far from over. After receiving a new walking stick from Odin, Eric discovered that if he stamped this cane on the ground, it would become a mace called “Thunderstrike” and grant him Asgardian abilities, although he was now only half as powerful as Thor. Eric adopted a more street-smart version of Thor’s costume and began calling himself Thunderstrike, quickly establishing himself as a new hero. He was even given his own comic book, but shockingly he was killed in the final issue, leaving Kevin without a father.
A New Thunderstrike
In the alternate future depicted in MC2’s A-Next comic book, the rest of the Avengers had all fallen in battle or retired. In this new world, Kevin grew up never really knowing his father but was later invited to Avengers Mansion (which had become a tourist attraction) to receive his father’s mace, Thunderstrike. The Avengers’ former butler (and now chief-of-staff) Jarvis assured Kevin that the mace no longer had any magic, but shortly after he received the “family heirloom,” he was attacked and kidnapped by Asgardian trolls who transported him to Asgard. Luckily for Kevin, several superheroes – including Mainframe, J2, Stinger, Jubilee, Jolt, and Speedball – came to his defense and were transported along with him.
It turned out that Thor’s stepbrother Loki had used the trolls in a plan to harness the residual magic in Thunderstrike as a weapon in yet another scheme against Thor and the rest of Asgard. Unwilling to let Loki use his father’s mace for evil, Kevin grabbed it as Loki cast his spell and was somehow merged with the mace to become a taller, superhuman version of himself. Now calling himself “Thunderstrike” Kevin assisted the other heroes in taking down Loki and later joined a new team of Avengers.
As “Thunderstrike” Kevin has several powers that neither Thor nor his father possessed. He can shapeshift back and forth between his superhuman body and his mortal form without the aid of magical tools. While he technically doesn’t possess his father’s superhuman strength, he can fire devastating blasts of thunder from his hands, allowing him to shatter stone and takedown villains much stronger than himself with a “Thunder Punch”. He can also fire the shockwaves at the ground and propel himself through the air, much like the Hulk’s superhuman leaps. Kevin proved quite creative with his power and even learned he could shatter solid structures by synching his blasts with their resonance frequency.
However, while Kevin technically isn’t Asgardian, his Thunderstrike powers are tied to Asgard, which proved to be his undoing when Galactus destroyed Asgard in the Last Planet Standing miniseries, severing Kevin’s connection to Asgardian magic and erasing his powers. Even so, Kevin continued helping the Avengers by offering technical support from their headquarters. Fortunately, Thor’s daughter Thena was able to later restore Kevin’s powers in a subsequent storyline and let him return to active duty.
Kevin originally joined the Avengers because he hoped it would help him understand his father better. However, in one weird adventure, he journeyed to an alternate universe where his father was still alive but part of a Gestapo-type regime. The two Thunderstrikes ended up fighting each other and Kevin learned that his alternate self had died on this world, driving Eric Masterson over the edge. Kevin managed to reconnect with the parallel version of his dad and decided to stay with him for a while to help him reform.
The Thunderstrike of the Mainstream Marvel Universe
Throughout his tenure as Thunderstrike, Kevin proved to be a decent and courageous hero – at least in the MC2 Universe. Later, however, writer and artist Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz (who had originally created the MC2 Thunderstrike) reimagined the character for the mainstream Marvel Universe. This version of Kevin is an angry teenager who regularly gets into fights. When he receives the Thunderstrike powers, he adopts a more arrogant personality and even discovers he can shapeshift into more outlandish versions of Thunderstrike, including one with a lightning bolt-shaped mohawk.
Nevertheless, Kevin ended up fighting on the side of the heroes, showing that there were still elements of courage and decency in him. He later even joined Avengers Academy to be trained as part of a new generation of heroes, showing that this arrogant teen may yet become a worthy future Thor just like his alternate universe counterpart.