We're just days away from the new season of Marvel Rivals, which brings another new Marvel character to the roster. This time it's Angela, known in Marvel Comics as "Asgard's Assassin," who is the long-lost sister of Thor. But that's not where her story starts. In fact, it doesn't even start at Marvel, as Angela first debuted at Image Comics as a supporting character for Spawn.
Angela's jump to Marvel is one of the most fraught and interesting real world tales of the comic book industry. On the eve of her Marvel Rivals debut, we're digging into both her comic book story, and the real life backstory that brought her from one publisher to another - a rare feat for a comic book character.
Angela in Image Comics
Angela's life begins as a supporting character in Spawn. For those not in the know, Spawn is one of the biggest and best selling comics of the '90s, setting massive sales records and becoming a huge global sensation.
First appearing in 1993's Spawn #9 by writer Neil Gaiman and Spawn creator/artist Todd McFarlane, Angela is a renegade angel who operates as a bounty hunter outside the purview of the strict hierarchy of Heaven and its celestial warriors.
Angela first encounters Spawn, a human who is bound to a hellish symbiote and who is cursed to a nightmarish eternal life, as an antagonist, attempting to slay him for his demonic nature. But they quickly form an uneasy alliance against the devil lords of Hell, even leading to Angela and Spawn sharing a surprising romantic connection.
This version of Angela is kind of a quippy badass - a bit like a way more cheesecake-y Wolverine - operating on her own and occasionally acting in ways that defy her angelic nature. Sadly, Angela dies in Spawn #100 while fighting Malebolgia, the demonic overlord responsible for Spawn's condition. With Malebolgia defeated, in large part thanks to Angela, Spawn returns her body to Heaven.
How Angela came to Marvel
And that's the comic book history of Angela's time at Image Comics. However, her transfer from Image Comics to Marvel is a saga all its own. As mentioned, Angela was co-created by Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane, Spawn's creator. Angela continued on at Image for years, but Gaiman eventually decided to look into the amount of money he was getting from royalties for co-creating the character, who had since become a hit toy.
McFarlane would regularly pay Gaiman royalties every so often, though they had no formal agreement. This led Gaiman to realize his end of the deal wasn't being totally held up, as he believed McFarlane was giving him a smaller share of Angela's profits than he deserved.
Gaiman began a lawsuit against McFarlane that would last for years, with Gaiman even agreeing to create the title 1602 for Marvel Comics, who had their own beef with McFarlane, in exchange for help with the legal costs.
Gaiman eventually won sole ownership of Angela in 2012, selling her to Marvel as part of their agreement to help with the lawsuit. Thus, Angela became a Marvel Comics character with a totally different backstory, and a new history alongside Thor, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and more.
Angela in Marvel Comics
Angela's life at Marvel Comics began quite differently from her original backstory. Rather than being a warrior angel who left Heaven to fight on her own terms, the Marvel version of Angela is actually the long-lost sister of Thor, who was kidnapped as a baby and taken to the secret Asgardian realm of Heven, a kind of Norse twist on Heaven itself.
Her real name, it's later revealed, is Aldrif Odinsdottir, who was believed to be killed as an infant in a war between Asgard and Heven, leading Odin to seal Heven off from the rest of the Marvel Universe.
When she first arrives in the Marvel Universe thanks to ripples through the so-called "omniverse," Angela meets the Guardians of the Galaxy, quickly joining the team. Things would soon become complicated however when the armies of Heven returned, leading Angela to capture Thor, before winning her own freedom from service to Heven and helping Thor defeat Loki, who was engineering the conflict.
From here, Angela would go onto star in her own comic title, Angela: Asgard's Assassin, in which she and her lover Sera, another angel, kidnap Odin's newborn son in order to prevent him from becoming the reincarnation of Surtur, the fated destroyer of Asgard.
Sadly, Sera is killed in battle, leading Angela to travel to Hel, the Asgardian realm of the dead, to steal the throne of Hela (herself a popular Marvel Rivals hero) and bring Sera back.
Since then, she's appeared sporadically, though her Marvel Rivals return could lead to a resurgence in comics as well.
Angela in Marvel Rivals
In Marvel Rivals, Angela is a Vanguard (the Rivals equivalent of a tank), and let's be real: she's an absolute muscle mommy in the game, a massive brickhouse of angelic power that combines different elements of her many incarnations over the years.
Along with carrying her Lance, an angelic weapon that, in her original Image Comics incarnation, had the power to erase demons and hellish entities from existence, Angela is also the first flying tank in Marvel Rivals, thanks to her one big ol' wing.
In fact, her attacks change somewhat whether she's flying or hanging out on the ground, as she trades in her Lance for a pair of axes. She also carries a shield that helps her survivability, alongside her movement abilities.
All in all, Angela is shaping up to be one of the most interesting new additions to the Marvel Rivals roster, especially since she's something of a dark horse candidate for inclusion in just about any Marvel game, considering how long it's been since she was regularly appearing in comics.
Angela debuts in Marvel Rivals on September 12. While we wait, check out our picks for the best video game based comics of all time.
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