Thor Is Getting Gender-Flipped. Officially.

[norashepard]

Hey, straight women have been lusting after the male Thor for years now. It's only fair lesbians get a go!

Seriously though, I am eager to see what they actually do with this. If it is in fact just Thor again with hips, then it'll really only be good for the aforementioned lesbians (and straight men too I guess). But if they actually do interesting things with the stories, like oh I don't know, comment on how there hasn't ever really been a "Queen of Asgard" before or something like that, then maybe. However, I'm skeptical, because they're probably just going to do all the usual girl tropes now. Some guy will disrespect Thor and she'll smack him, someone will say she fights like a girl, etc. Ugh.

It's like other famous characters who have had their races changed or whatever. It usually stands only to improve the character's complexity and relatability. Especially when you consider that most of these 'classic characters' were created during a time period where sexism in the industry was the norm. Maybe this is a form of correcting the errors of the past?

Now that I think about it, maybe it would actually be infinitely more interesting if she IS exactly the same as male Thor. That would be a twist. And now I'm rambling!

To all the people asking why they don't just create new heroines: how often do you READ comics about new heroines? Rarely I bet. The only popular one in recent memory was the new Ms. Marvel, and even she was a rebranding.

Bottom line though: Awesome. One step closer to a bona fide babe squad.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

I am sure this decision will lead to many civilised exchanges of views on the internet.

Now I must satisfy my hunger for heated maize kernels.

 

[votemarvel]

Both would be refered to as simply Judge Dredd on patrol, like Officer Scott or Officer Hodges. But just because they have similar names doesn't mean they're the same person, nor are they interchangeable. If Joe ever has children (unlikely, but you never know), and they join the Justice Deparment, they would be refered to as Judge Dredd as well.

Joe Dredd does have 'children' of a sort.

Dolman was cloned from Dredd's DNA, not that of Fargo (though technically its the same thing I suppose.)

Also Cadet Jessica Paris is another 'clone' from Dredd's DNA.

Neither of them used the name of Dredd.

Also must mention Judge Rico. He is a clone of Fargo and was originally called 'Judge Dredd' while at the academy. He changed it to Rico instead on getting his full Eagle.

 

[Madame_Lawliet]

Eh, why not.
I mean I don't care about american comic books or superheroes even in the slightest bit, but it's always cool to have more female characters in stuff.
I like the new character design too, she pretty much looks like the old Thor but a girl, not overly sexualized, not made to be more feminine, her physique and body type are about the same, exactly how rule 63 SHOULD be done.

 

[Grimh]

The name thing confuses me but otherwise I don't really have any strong feelings one way or the other.
Probably because I don't read his/soon to be her comics.

Well okay I don't like the helm and the lipstick kind of bugs me.
I do like the rest of her outfit and that she looks somewhat buff though.

 

[Tono Makt]

I'm cautiously optimistic about this. I will probably buy the first few issues, see if it's worth the investment of time and money, something I haven't done with a comic book in more than 15 years. Then I'll make up my mind about it.

 

[Belaam]

This is a bit weird, because Thor is his name, right? I mean, it's not his superhero alias, like Spider-Man or Batman -- a title that could be passed on. Thor is Thor. He's a guy called Thor.

This. You can't call Batgirl Bruce Wayne. A female Martian Manhunter wouldn't be called J'onn J'onzz. Supergirl is not called Kal'El. My boss is named Laura; if I take over her job, my name doesn't become Laura. Thor is a name. It's not a title, an alias, etc. It is explicitly a Scandinavian -male- name that means "Thunder".

I love the idea of more press for a female superhero brawler. Captain Marvel would be perfect. Would love to see her get her own movie. I'd buy tons (more) of her merchandise for my daughters. I'd be down with Sif or Freya taking over from Thor.

But Thor's replacement being somehow suddenly named Thor is just dumb.

Oh, unless Thor gets magically turned into a woman. Which would make sense for her to keep the name Thor. . . . And be insanely problematic if the idea of being a woman was seen as a punishment.

 

[BeeGeenie]

I demand that they do this with all their heroes, and start calling all their female heroes by their male counterparts' names.

Spidergirl's new name is Peter Parker. Supergirl's new name is Kal El, but just call her Clark. Batgirl is now Bruce, etc.

 

[Drake Barrow]

I'm distinctly 'meh' on this. On the one hand, there was a whole What If...? where Rogue got Thor's powers and the ability to wield the hammer. Interestingly, the only reason she could even do it was that she was worthy in the first place. Bottom line: not without precedent, and not in and of itself a completely objectionable judgement.

On the other hand, this smacks of Superman Red/Superman Blue to me. That is, a way to make hash of a completely legitimate character. I like Miles Morales and Val-Zod because they're reasonable methods to make a new character while keeping the original name. This is a little clumsy for my taste.

Bottom line, I'll withhold judgement and see if it's any good. If it is, go Marvel for making a worthwhile comic! If not, then not.

 

[faefrost]

Considering the runaway success that Ms. Marvel has been so far... if this move gets a lot of support and we all go out and buy Thor comics, there'll be a real chance that we might be on the verge of triggering a major industry shift. I hope this comic is good because it would be so cool. If that is a picture of her, she seems to look fantastic at least.

..heck this might even 'save' DC. If Marvel goes through this huge industry warping shift where it realises that there was a huge chunk of the population they weren't selling comics too and now can, both with the Marvel Movieverse and the comics. Maybe DC will get over all this '30 year old men like dark and gritty' stuff that they've been going through recently.

And then maybe they'll uncancel Young Justice because it's no longer a problem that it attracts a female audience. Hey, I can dream.

The thing is, in spite of the name being a poorly conceived way to quickly lock down a possible character rights issue alongside Spider-Woman and She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel has always been a pretty solid, built from the ground up female character. (ok her first few appearences were unbelievably 70's female stereotypes as written by jewish white guys, but still...) My point is while having some connection to Captain Marvel, she was not simply that character with tits bolted on. she grew evolved, and 30 years later stepped into Captain Marvel's title. and they began organically developing a new Ms. Marvel. It feels right, and proper, and the way it should go. It didn't feel like a cheap patronizing stunt.

Whereas this one? It sounds like somebodies bad erotic fan fiction trying to mask itself as feminism. It's just... WHY? Yeah a good writer may be able to do something halfway interesting with it. But a good editor would have taken cyanide after killing the marketing shills with his bare hands before ever letting it get that far. This isn't a real character. It's Fem-Shep. It's Ms. Pac Man. It's like one of those Silver Age stories where Superman grows boobs and Lois Lane gets a Penis. The fact that the producers probably cannot see why this is a bad thing is probably the most disturbing.

And what makes it worse is we all know exactly how this is going to end. I mean every one of us. Precisely 24 months after this begins good old Thor will be back, and Thunderchick will have been handed either Thunderstrikes mace or the other Uru hammer that Loki originally had forged for Storm years ago in the New Mutants XMen Asgardian stories. 24 months to the day and things will be back to normal. Because that is exactly the length of any editorial mandate like this.

And do they really think that this will grow any readers? (Did putting Boobs and a Vagina on Loki help with that a few years back?)

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

what is it with comics and the whole recent swapping of genders and skin colors for characters? i know its to draw attention and get more money.. but it still makes no sense.. to me Thor will always be a guy.. electro will be a white guy that was a former electrical engineer and Beast boy will be green not red colored..

 

[Frozengale]

Speaking as someone who rarely reads comics and only really knows Thor via snippets of info from the Internet, Video Games, and the movies, my view can be summed up as such:

Spoiler

I'm more surprised that so many people seem to care. Weird changes happening in comic books aren't exactly a "new" thing. Thor comics will now be from the perspective of a lady now. Okay, sure, why not.

 

[scotth266]

Before people go nuts, I would like to remind everyone that the last time Marvel changed something significant about a character (making Miles Morales the new Spider-Man) it turned out to be one of the best things in comics.

I'm actually interested to see where this goes. Hopefully new Thor turns out to be good at her job.

That only happened in the ultimate universe not the mainstream universe that people actually care about.

People cared about it enough to make the same arguments that they're making here: namely that "Marvel's just changing characters for no reason and the comic will now suck!" It's the exact same scenario played out but with gender in the equation instead of race.

 

[Dragonlayer]

Ha, them crazy aliens that inspired Norse mythology and their naming conventions!

 

[Vault101]

wait WHAT? this is real

I've seen it around on the web but I assumed it was just a peice of fan art or something

not surprising that its not "actually' thor but...well this should be interesting

 

[Stormfire Rebellion]

This isn't a real character. It's Fem-Shep.

Look, I'll agree with you on a lot of your points. But Fem-Shep is some alternate gender-swap version of an existing character. Both Male Shep and Fem-Shep were created at the same time, and Fem-Shep definitely had a distinctive voice and character separate from Male Shep. For me, Fem-Shep was the real Commander Shepard, and Male Shep the alternate version.

We need more Fem-Sheps. Except ones where no one feels the need to preface the name with fem-BLANK.

 

[Stormfire Rebellion]

EDIT: Double post

 

[Strazdas]

the best i can come up with is why? Thor didnt ask for this. Nobody asked for this. So apperently gender flipping is a thing now. because there is no reason to keep continuity and basic logic in the series.

ALso from what i udnerstand this will be thor with a reskin, so this makes it completely pointless to begin with. if the only difference is outside look, then there is no point to switch.