Throroro is the best ship you’re probably not shipping.

A non-canon ship courtesy of Marvel fandom’s penchant for shipping everything under the sun, pairing up Thor and Ororo just sort of makes sense when you think about it. Thor’s a lightning “god” from Asgard with biceps for days and a heart of gold while Ororo is basically a weather goddess who could change the entire world if she felt like it.

While they aren’t a canon ship, they’ve got a ton of potential as a totally electric ship and a small but dedicated fanbase.

Ororo Monroe

Calling Ororo Monroe a goddess isn’t an exaggeration.

In many versions of the character’s comic appearances, her backstory has her being worshiped as a goddess following her parents’ deaths in Egypt. She’s an Omega-level mutant who can do pretty much anything with her powers including wipe out the planet if she wanted to.  She’s held Thor’s hammer Mjolnir and wielded the hammer Stormcaster.

She’s straight up one of the most powerful mutants in Marvel’s multiverse and one of the kindest considering that if I’d gone through half the stressful crap that she’s been through – assholes keep kidnapping her to be their wife/concubine, for one thing – there wouldn’t be an Earth 616 anymore. Ororo’s been a tough but fair headmistress at the Jean Grey School, a queen at T’challa’s side in Wakanda, and one of like three characters to be a part of all of the main superhero teams across marvel’s history.

(And maybe one day we’ll get a live action version of the character that’s not played by a light-skinned and biracial Black woman because we are overdue.)

Thor

Where do I start with Thor?

Thor is one of the Avengers’ heavy-hitters, a godlike alien babe who wields one hell of a hammer. There are many incarnations of Thor out there and I could spend days talking about each one, but let’s talk about the core basics of Thor’s… Thorness that are present across incarnations and make appearances when fans of Thororo write him.

1. Thor is usually a laid-back dude with a strong core of justice. Think about the hardassed hippie Thor in Mark Millar’s Ultimates series.

2. He’s a huge dork that means well even when he messes up.

3. He’s got so many muscles.

4. Family is clearly important to him.

Most people I’ve seen writing Thor/Ororo stories seem to be going for a blend of characteristics that pull from his characterization in the Ultimates universe as well as from the MCU, home to the best version of Thor if you ask me.

The Ship Itself

Unfortunately, Thororo isn’t canon.

At best, it’s semi-canon thanks in particular to one alternative version of Storm that shows up in What If…? #12 where she becomes a goddess of Asgard and wields Mjolnir, the one-page “From Asgard With Love” from Marvel: Now What, and in whatever universe Saladin Ahmed’s scrapped Thororo baby would’ve come from.

Oh, and the Marvel Adventures: Avengers universe where it’s revealed in the 29th and 31st issues that Thor and Ororo are dating…

Despite being barely canon adjacent, one thing the ship has going for it is the small fact that Thor and Ororo like each other and see each other as kindred spirits. Sure, at surface level it seems as though the only thing that the couple has in common are their similar abilities to control the weather, but both Thor and Ororo are incredibly justice-minded people that believe the world can be a better place and they do their best to make sure it is one. They’re characters whose abilities and personalities match up well and who have no reason not to get along.

Considering all the ships between people who have no business being together and who hate each other across Marvel’s canon, well…

Other ships have sailed for less than mutual respect and similar powers and personalities.

Pros/Cons of the Ship

Pros

• One word: electrostimulation. Yeah, I went with a NSFW “Pro” right off the bat. But I’m right. Admit it.
• Any kids they possibly have would be super (over) powered and adorable. Don’t believe me? Check out this non-canon Thororo daughter that would’ve been amazing had she made it into Saladin Ahmed’s Exiles series.
• Talk about a power couple. They could rule the world if they wanted, but… they’re too chill for it.
• Thanks to the ever-expanding multiverse (our and Marvel’s), there’s at least one universe where Thororo is canon. We just haven’t hit that universe in the comics yet.

Cons

• There’s next to no chance of us getting canon Thororo in the MCU or in the main universe of the 616 universe’s comics.
• Thor is a bit of a fuckboy depending on who’s writing him in and out of canon so sometimes it can be physically painful to ship certain incarnations of him with any incarnation of Ororo.

(Why) Do I ship it? 

Mainly, I just like ships that revolve around Black women being loved like they deserve.

There are some neat and nifty Ororo-centered fanon and canon pairings out there, but Thororo works for me because it combines the best things about shipping and headcanons. There’s a ton of material out there for Thor and a good chunk for Ororo (and yet, it’s never enough) and if you put them together you get… a good ship between two of the most powerful storm-controlling beings in the multiverse.

I’ve written my fair share of Thororo back in my day (like… three years ago or so) and I loved the chance to essentially fit two puzzle pieces together in order to make sense of the ship in a story. I, and a few other Thororo authors I know, built our background for the ship off of a blend of the comics and (in Thor’s case) the live action movies. We don’t go with Halle Berry’s Storm because, well… I don’t know many people who like her for the role.

It’s nice having the room to build a ship from the ground up, one that centers a babe like Thor falling for an amazing Black woman like Ororo. And, since it’s a pretty rarepair with only thirty-six stories for the pairing currently up on the Archive of our Own –  and half of those actually focus on the ship in question – it’s less likely to have weird and racist shit strewn around as it’s not likely to be used as a stepping stone or block for a white dude slash ship.

I’m just saying…

For years, I’ve been a strong supporter of ships where Black women are beloved and get the opportunity to get some serious loving from a strong babe who supports them and keeps them in comfort. The way that most of the little fandom (and Marvel like… once) sees Thororo as a ship between a powerful but gentle woman and the man who’d walk across glass to keep her comforted?

Well, it just happens to be exactly what I want from a ship like that.

Fanwork Recommendations

#thororo hashtag on Twitter

thororo on Tumblr

The “Thororo” tag on Storm’s Sanctum

Double Booked – by… me!

“Who are you?”

After three months of travelling, all Thor Odinson wants to do is sink into his own bed. The last thing he expects is to find a stark-naked woman already there….

Ororo Munroe wasn’t anticipating company either. Thor may be six feet four inches of pure muscle and boast a disturbingly sexy smile, but a fortnight in the South of France is the one thing standing between Ororo and her sanity—and she’s not about to give it up without a fight!

Because Ororo plays to win. The problem? Thor does, too. And with only one bed between them, things are about to get interesting…. (Originally posted on AO3 back in 2014)

Empire State University Stories by… me again!

A series of stories set in a college AU for Marvel. The main pairing is Thor/Ororo. (Originally posted on AO3 back in 2014.)

Summoning the Storm by Kizzywiggle

Response to a Twitter prompt:

“Thor and Storm. Flying. He hasn’t got Mjolnir, so she’s totally in control.”

Hope to be Struck

The first time Tony Stark introduces Thor to the mutant named Storm, he watches her brew a gale with her hands and throw a bolt of lightning that splits the sky in a flash of light so brilliantly white it turns blue at the edges.