ThunderCats is an American media franchise, featuring a fictional group of cat-like humanoid aliens. The characters were created by Tobin 'Ted' Wolf and originally featured in an animated television series named ThunderCats, running from 1985 to 1989, which was animated by Japanese studio Pacific Animation Corporation, and co-produced by Rankin-Bass Animated Entertainment.^[1]

History[edit]

The original ThunderCats show was animated in Japan while being produced, written and voice acted in the United States.^[2]

Equipped with a magic arsenal ( Plasma Whip, Thunder Lock, Warp Launcher.) - Master the bullet time to reach the highest scores - Play through 5 different levels - Different play modes ( Arcade, Free run, One Shot One Kill.). 30 Challenges to accomplish - Play solo or in coop mode - Compare your scores thanks to local and online ranking. Find & Download Free Graphic Resources for Thunder. 3,000+ Vectors, Stock Photos & PSD files. Free for commercial use High Quality Images.

Thunder Bay Press is an imprint of Printers Row Publishing Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Readerlink Distribution Services, LLC, the largest full-service book distributor to non-trade booksellers in North America. Thunder Bay publishes across a wide and varied range of formats and categories, from fun, interactive activity titles and kits on subjects such as origami, cooking, crafts. Thunder Software will strive to be a premier provider of leading edge distributed business solutions. Our clients will always conclude they have received the best service and most effective solutions possible for their investment. They will readily return to us for assistance in making them competitive in the marketplace.

The series was originally distributed by Rankin-Bass Productions' then parent company Telepictures Corporation, which would later merge with Lorimar Productions in February 1986.^[3] In January 1989, Lorimar-Telepictures was purchased by and folded into Warner Bros., whose television syndication arm would eventually assume distribution of the show; Warner Bros. has owned the rights to the series (and all Lorimar Telepictures programming) from that point on.

Notable Characters[edit]

Later adaptations[edit]

Comics[edit]

There were also several comic book series produced. A ThunderCatscomic book series based on the animated series was originally published by Marvel Comics through its Star Comics imprint in 1985, lasting for three years and twenty-four issues.^[4] During this time, a new series was published by Marvel UK consisting of 129 issues and was also published for three years.^[5]

Beginning in 2002, ThunderCats titles were published by Wildstorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics (Warner Bros. corporate sibling), and included five non-canon miniseries and several one shots.^[6] In 2012, Panini Comics began publishing a new series in the United Kingdom to tie-in with the television series of 2011, titled ThunderCats Magazine. The first issue featured a strip called Safe Haven which was written by Ferg Handley and drawn by Cosmo White.

Video game[edit]

A side-scrolling video game based on the series, ThunderCats: The Lost Eye of Thundera, was published in 1987.

Other merchandise[edit]

Items of clothing featuring the ThunderCats logo were available in the 1980s, and DVD boxsets releases of the original series helped new clothing products enjoy a resurgence in the mid to end of the 2000s, as nostalgia for the former children's favorite grew.^{[citation needed]}

Film[edit]

A film adaptation of the series was announced on June 2007; Aurelio Jaro was to produce a CGI animated feature film of ThunderCats, based on a script written by Paul Sopocy. Jerry O'Flaherty, veteran video game art director, had signed on to direct. The film was being produced by Spring Creek Productions.

It was originally set for release in the summer of 2010,^[7] but the movie was never greenlit,^[8] and as of 2020, has yet to be produced. Concept art for the film has also been leaked online.^[8] In 2011, test footage in CGI was leaked onto YouTube. In 2017, during the promotion of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Milla Jovovich expressed interest to portray Cheetara.^[9]

Television series[edit]

ThunderCats (2011 TV series)[edit]

A second television series of the same name premiered in 2011. It was initially-planned to have a fifty-two episode-long first season, but it was shortened down to 26, and cancelled shortly after season one finished airing. It later had reruns on Adult Swim's Toonami block, alongside Sym-Bionic Titan.

ThunderCats Roar[edit]

A third ThunderCats cartoon, ThunderCats Roar, premiered on Cartoon Network in 2020. The show's developers are Victor Courtright and Marly Halpern-Graser. Courtright previously worked on Pickle and Peanut as a writer/storyboard artist and created the Cartoon Network Studios digital series Get 'Em Tommy!. Halpern-Graser previously worked as a writer for various DC Nation Shorts, and was co-creator of the show on Disney XD, Right Now Kapow.

ThunderCats Roar features an explicitly cartoonish art style with a more lighthearted, comedic tone than previous ThunderCats installments. The show's premise is similar to the original; the ThunderCats escape their dying homeworld Thundera, only to crash land on Third Earth, facing off against various villains and their evil overlord, Mumm-Ra.^[10]

References[edit]

1. ^'Those Thundercats just keep on coming back'. Honolulu Observer. Archived from the original on December 1, 2006. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
2. ^'EXCLUSIVE: 'ThunderCats' Producer On Redesigning The Cast, Absent Characters, Tygra's Whip, More...'MTV News.
3. ^Boyer, Peter J. (February 3, 1986). 'TOY-BASED TV: EFFECTS ON CHILDREN DEBATED'. New York Times. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
4. ^'ThunderCats Marvel Comics'. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
5. ^UK Marvel Comics at ThunderCats.org; Accessed Sept 11, 2015
6. ^'ThunderCats revived by Wildstorm Comics'. ThunderCats.org. Archived from the original on March 10, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
7. ^Graser, Marc (June 5, 2007). 'Warner purrs for ThunderCats'. Variety. Retrieved June 6, 2007.
8. ^ ^ab'Concept Art For Warner Bros.' Thundercats'. 'ThunderCats.Org'.
9. ^Cassidy, Mark (January 8, 2017). 'Milla Jovovich Wants To Play Cheetara In A ThunderCats Movie'. We Got This Covered.
10. ^Agard, Chancellor. 'Cartoon Network bringing back ThunderCats for new animated series'. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 21, 2018.

Thunder is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Judd Winick and artist Tom Raney in the Modern Age of Comic Books. She is first mentioned in Green Arrow vol. 2 #26 (July 2003) and first appears a month later in Outsiders vol. 3 #1. Born Anissa Pierce the eldest daughter of superhero Black Lightning, she is a metahuman in the DC Universe. She is capable of increasing her physical density, rendering herself bulletproof, and creating massive shockwaves when stomping upon the ground.

Pierce is also the older sister of Jennifer, herself a superhero operating under the alias Lightning. Against her parents' wishes, Anissa chooses to utilize her abilities to fight crime. She is invited and accepts a position with the superhero team the Outsiders. Pierce is involved in a relationship with her teammate Grace Choi.

Along with her presence in various comic books Thunder has made appearances on a number of television shows and appears in the live action series Black Lightning where she is portrayed by Nafessa Williams.

Fictional character biography[edit]

Daughter of Black Lightning[edit]

Although it is not clear but one assumes she got her powers genetically from her father who is also a metahuman. Her father Jefferson Pierce (Black Lightning) and her mother Lynn Stewart did not want her following in his footsteps, and he struck a bargain with her: she would graduate from college before considering a career in crimefighting. She did, and the same night of her graduation she donned a costume and became Thunder.^[1][2] She is also the older sister of Lightning.

Outsiders[edit]

Shortly after Thunder had started her solo career, she was approached by Arsenal, who offered her a spot on the new team of Outsiders. Reasoning that she could best learn the superhero trade with a team, she agreed to this offer and became an Outsider. Although she got along with most of her teammates, she seemed to come into conflict with Grace, a tough promiscuous bouncer, constantly. They were however quite effective as a team, and the two slowly came to a grudging respect between them; later on they became lovers.^[3]

Eventually her father appeared at the Outsiders headquarters, demanding her resignation from the team.^[4] Naturally, she refused and when the danger of Sabbac arose again, her father even decided to accompany the Outsiders.^[5] During that adventure, the two came to respect each other's abilities, neither having seen the other in action before, and Thunder was allowed to remain an Outsider.

The extent of her invulnerability was tested during a fight with the re-formed Fearsome Five. The matter transmuter Shimmer converted the air in her lungs to water, which caused an inflammation so great that she had pulmonary edema and Acute respiratory distress syndrome, which nearly killed her.^[6] She recovered and continued to serve with the Outsiders.

'One Year Later'[edit]

OYL, Anissa remains a member of the Outsiders (a team that was currently believed to be dead), and has been involved in the attempted toppling of the regime of Mali. Her role has been instrumental in the mission, having gone undercover amongst the government, a role that has required her to pretend she was having a sexual relationship with the country's ruler Ratun Bennin; in actuality Metamorpho used a hallucinogenic compound to fool the dictator. She compromised the team's mission when she revealed her cover and attacked Mali's army, who were going to slaughter a village.^[7]

It was revealed that Thunder has been in a romantic relationship with her teammate Grace, making her one of a handful of LGBT people of color in the DC roster.^[3] Thunder was recently kicked off The Outsiders upon Batman's reorganization of the team, being replaced by the Martian Manhunter.^[8] She rejoined the team, when Grace invited her on a mission, without Batman's approval.^[9]

During the Batman R.I.P. events an assembly of the Outsiders, including Anissa, receives a message from the missing Batman, asking them to feed a secret code in the cybernetic mind of the ReMAC, allowing him to track the Caped Crusader and the Black Glove and help him into his fight. As they reluctantly comply, due to Batgirl, the code reveals itself as a cybernetic boobytrap set by Doctor Hurt, the mastermind behind Batman's downfall, and ReMAC explodes. Several Outsiders are wounded, and Anissa sustains brain injuries severe enough to knock her in a seemingly irreversible coma.^[10] However her in-costume appearance in the 'Final Crisis: Submit' story suggest she recovered afterwards, as the Final Crisis storyline occurs after the events in R.I.P.,^[11] though Thunder is still shown in a coma during the Batman and the Outsiders Special, where her father ultimately joins up with a new roster of Outsiders to take her place.

Thunder eventually reappears many months later, now living with Grace in a state of semi-retirement. The inconsistencies regarding her coma are briefly touched upon when it is explained that Anissa had been 'in and out of hospitals' for a prolonged period after her initial injuries. Following a botched mission, Black Lightning arrives at Anissa and Grace's apartment with several other fugitive members of the new Outsiders, telling Anissa that he simply wishes to see his children again after spending months without any contact with his family. He briefly expresses discomfort over his daughter's sexual orientation, but Anissa tells him off by stating that Grace was there for her when he wasn't. When the Justice Society of America attacks the apartment in order to bring the Outsiders into custody, Anissa chooses to side with her father and fight off the attacking heroes, which ultimately leads to a confrontation with her younger sister, Lightning, whom she claims was always thought of as the 'favorite'. After the fight is broken up by Doctor Fate, Anissa and Grace choose to rejoin the Outsiders on a mission to Markovia, where they have been tasked by Amanda Waller with capturing Geo-Force.^[12]

Powers and abilities[edit]

Thunder has the ability to increase her body's mass while preserving volume, which effectively increases her density. In this state she is near-immovable, almost completely invulnerable. A mob enforcer once suffered a compound fracture after trying to punch Thunder in the face. Notably, she can make her skin strong enough to withstand bullets. Just by stomping the ground she can create massive shockwaves.

Other versions[edit]

Kingdom Come[edit]

A young boy inheriting his father's powers and being the new owner of the genie Thunderbolt is the version of Thunder appearing in the 1996 graphic novel by Alex Ross and Mark Waid.

In other media[edit]

Thunder Manga Downloaderdragon Software

Animation[edit]

• A teenage version of Thunder appears in the 'Thunder and Lightning' segment of the DC Nation Shorts voiced by Cree Summer. She and Lightning become superheroes and receive their outfits from Peter Gambi where they help their father fight Doctor Polaris.
• A teenage version of Thunder appears in the web series DC Super Hero Girls, voiced again by Cree Summer.
• A young version of Anissa makes cameos in Young Justice: Outsiders, voiced by Masasa Moyo.

Live-action[edit]

• Anissa Pierce makes her live-action debut in the television series Black Lightning, portrayed by Nafessa Williams.^[13] She started developing her superpowers in the first episode following Black Lightning rescuing her and Jennifer from 100 member Lala. When she joins her father in his superhero activities, Thunder gets a special suit made by Peter Gambi. She later adopts the alias of 'Blackbird' an identity she uses when not with Black Lightning, in order to steal money from criminals to give to the church and to the poor.

References[edit]

1. ^Outsiders vol. 3 #1 (August 2002)
2. ^Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files and Origins #1 (December 2003)
3. ^ ^abOutsiders #41 (December 2006)
4. ^Outsiders #9 (April 2004)
5. ^Outsiders #10 (May 2004)
6. ^Outsiders #14 (September 2004)
7. ^Outsiders #34 (May 2006)
8. ^Outsiders: Five of a Kind - Thunder and Martian Manhunter #1 (October 2007)
9. ^Batman and The Outsiders #1 (December 2007)
10. ^Batman and The Outsiders #12 (December 2008)
11. ^Final Crisis: Submit (December 2008)
12. ^Outsiders (vol. 4) #36
13. ^Andreeva, Nellie (2 March 2017). ''Black Lightning': Nafessa Williams & China Anne McClain To Star As Jefferson's Daughters In the CW Pilot'.

External links[edit]

Thunder Manga Downloaderdragon Software