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As a desperate Thor turns to an unlikely source for help, a new iteration of the Avengers form to bring the thunder and help save the day.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Thor #18, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
With Thor quickly running out of options to prevent his visions of Thanos conquering the Marvel Universe from coming true and the Avengers apparently not up for the task, Thor instead turns to his old, amphibian friend Throg. And with Throg on the hunt for the stolen Mjolnir, the Frog of Thunder isn’t scouring the Marvel Universe alone but has reassembled a new lineup of the Pet Avengers and this roster is the animal superhero’s most powerful yet.
Here are all the heroes on the latest incarnation of the Pet Avengers and what each brings to the team as they race against time to save the Marvel Universe from Thor’s dark prophecy involving Mjolnir and the Mad Titan formed in Thor #18 by Donny Cates, Pasqual Ferry, Bob Quinn, Matt Wilson and VC’s Joe Sabino.
Throg, the Mighty Frog of Thunder
Leading the Pet Avengers is veteran superhero and longtime Pet Avenger Throg, created in 1986’s Thor #364 by Walt Simonson. When Thor was temporarily transformed into a frog by Loki, he befriended another human-turned-amphibian Puddlegulp in Central Park. After the two frogs repelled an attack by rats and Thor was restored to his normal form, he bestowed a fraction of his power to Puddlegulp who then referred to himself as Throg, Frog of Thunder.
Given the source of his powers coming directly from the Odin-Force, Throg possesses similar abilities as Thor and is a formidable fighter in his own right despite his small size. Perhaps most notably, Throg recently put up a surprisingly effective fight against Thor’s dark shadow Donald Blake, nearly outmaneuvering the maddened persona when Blake hunted Throg for his connection to the Odin-Force.
Lockjaw, the Inhumans’ Royal Pet
The other veteran member of the Pet Avengers and a longtime friend and ally of Throg’s is Lockjaw, the royal dog of the Inhumans. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1965’s Fantastic Four #45, Lockjaw inadvertently revealed the Inhumans’ existence to the outside world when he emerged from the Inhuman capital city of Attilan.
Lockjaw possesses an incredible array of abilities apart from his own keen, canine traits including precognition, the ability to consume virtually all forms of matter and to track things through their psionic scent. Most notably, Lockjaw can teleport virtually anywhere in the Marvel Universe, including those with them, through extra-dimensional passages making him one of the strongest teleporters in the universe.
Bats, Doctor Strange’s Ghostly Dog
One of the more recently introduced figures in this new Pet Avengers team is Bats, Doctor Strange’s faithful ghost dog created by Donny Cates and Gabriel Hernandez Walta in 2017’s Doctor Strange #381. While Strange was temporarily retired from his duties as the Sorcerer Supreme, he adopted a basset hound named Bats, retaining ownership of the dog after his canine companion died and rose from the grave as a ghost.
As part of Strange’s enchantment on Bats, the spectral dog is able to communicate with humans and possesses the ability to temporarily possess the living by leaping into them for short bursts at a time making Bats more than just man’s best friend.
Lockheed
Long before the Pet Avengers, the X-Men had a superhero pet of their own named Lockheed, an extraterrestrial dragon created by Chris Claremont and Paul Smith in 1983’s Uncanny X-Men #166. Imprinting on Kitty Pryde while Marvel’s Merry Mutants were on a mission in deep space against the Brood, the dragon followed Kitty back to Earth as her loyal pet.
While a being of extraterrestrial origin, Lockheed displays all the usual powers that would come from a fantasy dragon, including flight and the ability to breathe fire. Interestingly, Lockheed also has a strong sense of empathy that allows him to intuitively comprehend human communication.
Great Odin’s Ravens
Of course, Thor is going to have his own Asgardian representatives on the Pet Avengers as the team takes on a mission of grave importance on his behalf, with the two ravens that always accompanied his father Odin among the superhero team’s lineup.
Just as with their Norse mythological counterparts, Odin’s ravens served as the All-Father’s eyes throughout the Nine Realms, communicating directly back to the King of Asgard whatever they noticed in their observations. With Thor having the Pet Avengers serve as his impromptu spies to locate his hammer, this makes the ravens’ inclusion on the team a natural cinch.
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