When Danny Fenton got into MIT, he thought the biggest challenge would be balancing ghost hunting with college coursework. What he didnât expect was to impress Dr. Jane Freaking Fosterârenowned astrophysicist, literal genius, the mind behind the Foster Theory, and, unbeknownst to her, his idol since age thirteenâduring a campus science expo when he presented his thesis on interdimensional ectoplasmic lattice fluctuations as a potential fuel source for wormhole stabilization. He thought sheâd walk by his booth with a polite smile. Instead, she paused, squinted at his equations, asked three rapid-fire questions, then turned to the MIT faculty and said, âIs this kid legally allowed to work in a government lab yet?â
Thatâs how he became her apprentice.
Danny thought it would be, you know, an internship. Fetch coffee, carry papers, maybe input data if he got lucky. What he didnât expect was to be living in New Mexico three months later, standing on a roof beside Jane Foster while she casually pointed at the sky and said, âIf this gravitational anomaly maintains its trajectory, weâll have a Yggdrasil branch brush up against the heliopause by Tuesday. Thatâs new.â
Danny nodded, mostly pretending he understood.
What neither of them anticipated was Thor crashing into their lives again like a golden retriever with a god complex and a hammer. He landed dramatically during a research presentation, lightning still fizzing off his cape, and made such eye contact with Jane that the projector screen behind them shorted out.
And then he saw Danny.
âYoung one!â Thor bellowed, eyes wide, blond hair tousled by divine winds, âYou must be her son.â
Danny blinked. âIâwhat?â
âOf course!â Thor clasped his shoulder. âYou have her radiant intellect and tenacity. Truly, you are worthy of Midgardâs finest mother.â
âIâsheâs notââ Danny tried.
Thor turned to Jane, face alight. âYou did not tell me you had borne a child! And one so strong in spirit! A scholar of the stars!â
Jane rubbed her temples. âThor. Heâs nineteen. I met him last month. Heâs my apprentice. He is not my son.â
Thor shook his head gravely. âSay no more, Jane. I understand. You wished to protect him from the dangers of our past. But I vow upon Mjolnirâs handle, I shall be a father to him.â
âWhat the hell,â Danny muttered.
Over the next few days, things escalated fast.
Danny woke up one morning to find a goat outside the lab. A live goat. Wearing a ribbon. The tag read: For my brave son, may his mornings be strong of milk and noble of beard. Jane nearly choked on her cereal. Darcy screamed and immediately named the goat âSpacey.â
Thor showed up during Dannyâs lecture on cosmic radiation and brought a sack of Asgardian textbooks written in glowing runes, which promptly caused two lab interns to faint and one professor to file a complaint.
Danny begged Jane to tell him this would stop.
âNo,â Jane said, sipping her coffee without looking up. âYouâre his emotional support stepson now.â
âI donât want to be anyoneâs emotional support anything!â Danny cried. âI have ectoplasmic trauma and insomnia!â
But Thor persisted.
He invited Danny to spar in the desert, claiming it would âtoughen his warrior instincts.â Danny blasted a crater in the sand when a ghost startled him mid-match, and Thor wept with pride. âSuch fire! Truly, a son worthy of thunder.â
Jane sighed. âYouâre going to give him a complex.â
âI already have a complex!â Danny yelled from where he was half-buried in sand.
Then came the night Thor pulled Danny aside with intense solemnity.
âDaniel,â he said, kneeling, âI seek your blessing.â
Danny froze, halfway through a sandwich. âIâwhatâblessing for what?â
âTo court your mother.â
âSheâs NOT myâ!â
Thor raised a hand. âPlease. I know you wish to protect her. But my heart is true. I have spent long hours learning Midgardian courtship. Observe.â
He pulled out a guitar. A guitar. From nowhere. And began strumming aggressively while singing off-key.
âOh Jane, fairest in the stars, your eyes burn like a neutron quasaaaaaarââ
Danny screamed into his sandwich.
Jane screamed into her coffee.
Darcy recorded the entire thing.
By the time the Avengers got wind of what was happening, it was too late. Tony Stark showed up purely out of pettiness.
âSo this is the âson,â huh?â he said, looking Danny up and down like he was a new model of iPhone. âYou do look like Jane. Same âdonât talk to me before coffeeâ vibe. But with a sprinkle of sleep-deprived raccoon.â
Danny glared. âYou must be the one Jane threatens to launch into orbit when sheâs annoyed.â
âSee? Family resemblance,â Tony muttered.
Then Steve Rogers took Thor aside and whispered, âAre you sure heâs her kid? Jane wouldâve told us if she had a child.â
Thor nodded gravely. âIt is the only explanation. He speaks with passion, has knowledge of the stars, and I saw him summon green fire from his hands!â
âIt was a ghost, Thor,â Danny shouted from across the lab. âIt was literally a ghost trying to possess a vending machine!â
âExactly!â Thor beamed.
âThor. Iâm nineteen. Jane is thirty-seven.â
âShe is a goddess among mortals. Perhaps she birthed you when she was five.â
âThatâs not howâYOU KNOW WHAT, NEVER MIND.â
Soon, even Loki showed up, slinking into the lab with a smirk like a serpent in silk.
âI had to see for myself,â he purred, circling Danny like a shark. âThe mortal child who ensnared my brotherâs affections.â
Danny just blinked. âIâm not his kid. Or Janeâs. Iâm not even sure Iâm awake right now.â
Loki chuckled. âYouâll make an excellent prince. Do you have any interest in necromancy?â
âIâm a ghost half the time,â Danny deadpanned. âDefine interest.â
Loki grinned wider.
Eventually, S.H.I.E.L.D. got involved. Fury showed up, took one look at the sceneâthe goat eating research notes, Thor trying to build Danny a golden throne, Jane yelling about radiation levels, and Danny levitating out of sheer stressâand muttered, âNope,â before turning around and leaving.
But beneath all the chaos, Danny⊠didnât hate it.
Jane never treated him like a kid. She taught him everything, from solar flares to Bifrost trajectories. She let him make mistakes, then helped him fix them. She told him he was brilliant, and for once, he kind of believed it. And Thor, for all his thunderous confusion, brought him starfruit from Alfheim and carved him a wooden Mjolnir as a âcoming-of-ageâ gift.
Danny didnât even mind the goat anymore.
He still insisted, every day, that Jane was not his mom.
But when Thor presented him with a massive, hand-forged broadsword inscribed with: To my noble son, may your ghosts be vanquished and your GPA ever high, he kind of teared up.
A little.
One evening, as they watched the stars from the roof, Jane handed Danny a cup of tea.
âHe really does think youâre my kid,â she said.
Danny took a sip. âYeah. I gave up trying to convince him.â
âIs it weird?â
âKinda. But⊠not bad.â He hesitated. âDo you⊠mind?â
Jane looked at him, surprised. âNo. I meanâyouâre not. But if you were, Iâd be proud.â
Danny stared at the stars until they blurred.
Later, Thor appeared beside them, cape fluttering dramatically despite the lack of wind.
âI have returned with tales of valor,â he declared, âand also cheesecake.â
Danny took the box.
âSon!â Thor beamed.
Danny sighed.
âFine. You can have my blessing.â
Thor dropped Mjolnir in joy.
Jane looked horrified. âDanny, what the hell?!â
âI didnât say I wanted it to happen,â Danny muttered. âI just figured heâd stop bringing me swords if I gave in.â
âHe wonât,â she said flatly.
He didnât.
The next morning, Danny woke up to find a full set of Asgardian armor beside his bed and a note that read: For my beloved heir. P.S. I have begun planning the wedding. Do you think your mother would prefer swans or flaming eels as decoration?
1984's Comics Interview N°9 cover by cover artist Walt Simonson. According to the signature, this was drawn in early October 1983, when Simonson was busy with his legendary run on Thor. Source