Autumn, it seems, is becoming the season of change for the
Marvel Universe, and (as is geek nature) not everyone is happy about it. One of
the most controversial changes is that Thor, The God of Thunder, will soon be a
woman.
Apparently, the current Thor will somehow be deemed unworthy to wield
his famously picky hammer, Mjolnir, and a woman will be stepping in to take his
place. This is not like any of the numerous alternate realities in which a
woman ends up with Mjolnir (like the “What if” issue when Jane Smith kicked
some ass as Thordis), or in the current reality when Storm was able to use the
real Mjolnir to destroy the fake hammer that Loki gave her several decades
before (because that wasn’t convoluted at all). No, we are being assured that
this is the real deal; she will be
Thor. According to writer, Jason Aaron,
Here is where my first issue with this announcement crops up
(which my friend, Dave, of The Week in Geek, will probably be surprised to
hear): What Aaron has essentially implied is that ‘Thor’ is not a name, but a
title. Thing is, much like Superman, Thor was born Thor. He is the son of Odin.
He is the God of Thunder. He is Thor.
It’s going to take some damn fine writing to make this fundamental concept
change work, in my opinion.
Now, we don’t yet know the identity of this woman. In fact,
the whole of what we do know can be summed up in this snippet from the
announcement:
“The story behind her
is that she created herself. She was saved by Thor, and she came down from
Earth – followed him – and made herself look like Thor. And now she’s taking
over.”
What is even more confusing
than the sentence structure of that announcement, is that it was delivered by
Jenny McCarthy (yes, that Jenny
McCarthy) on ‘The View’. No, that’s not a typo. Marvel decided to make the
announcement that Thor will now be a woman, on ‘The View’. The only way they
could have made this a more obvious marketing stunt is if they paired the
announcement with the arrival of new ‘Thor’ brand tampons. I would be genuinely
shocked if there has ever been another segment on ‘The View’ about a comic
book. Ever. Their choice to announce that one of the oldest Marvel superheroes
is suddenly going to be a woman, on a daytime talk show aimed at housewives and
stay at home moms, screams pandering to me. This doesn’t seem like a
groundbreaking, well thought out decision. No, this seems more like a cheap,
easy way for Marvel to throw a pair of tits on an established character that is
already earning them tons of money (thanks to the popular movies which will
likely not follow suit with the gender swap), and point to it as proof of their
progressive thinking and general support of women everywhere. The most
disturbing reaction I’m hearing from a lot of women is that we should be
thanking Marvel for taking such a daring step towards gender equality. I think
that’s crap. If Marvel is truly interested in equally representing women in
comics, they can either start seriously promoting any of the female superheroes
they’ve already got, or they can work to create a new dynamic female superhero
that is representative of women without being a flying sex symbol (pants,
people, women can wear pants). Sorry, guys, but I don’t feel the need to thank
Marvel simply for throwing womankind a bone.
All that being said, I am willing to give Aaron and the rest
of the creative team the chance to come up with some sort of epic storyline in
which this all makes sense. I really would like to believe that perhaps they
are trying to do this for all the right reasons. At the end of the day, though,
I worry that this is going to alienate more readers than it draws in.
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