Thor Is Getting Gender-Flipped. Officially.

[Grimbold]

It is quite disrespectful, treating a god like this. Gender swapping was seen as very shameful in Norse society.
It is like if some Japanese made a manga about Lady Jesus.

 

[Baresark]

Right, so this is established in continuity and does make some sense. There have been many times where Thor has been unworthy to lift his own hammer, and numerous other characters have managed to wield it (Captain America can normally hold it, Superman could sometimes hold it in some of the crossovers (although not all of them), there was that one random paramedic who handed it to Thor...)

He was never actually not worthy before. That is a new twist. If Thor is not around and his Hammer is there,and you are worthy, you get the power. There is an established history of other beings being worthy, it's not super rare, so far as I can tell. During the Civil War, Tony Stark and Reed Richards used a combination of magic and science to create a Thor clone, who consequently could wield the hammer and used it to kill Goliath during a battle. Thor got sweet revenge on Iron Man after that one by showing him how weak and insignificant he is compared to Mjolnir's Power.

I think the main issue for me is not that it's woman or anyone else (people love to vilify myself and others like me just because we have any criticism at all) , just that it doesn't make sense to keep the name. Should be interesting to see how he is all of the suddenly not worthy though. It honestly doesn't make any sense, but fiction.

 

[tzimize]

This may not be "Thorita" but this is a male superhero that they have slapped breasts on. Again, they really need to promote their legitimate female heroes more rather than aping long-established characters.

I've never understood this line of thinking at all. Women are just men with some breasts slapped on (OK, and some other parts changed/removed too), and vice versa for men. Yes, there are tendencies and attitudes that are more common to men or women, but that only matters when you're taking averages or doing statistics, individually the distinction is basically meaningless. A woman "acting like a man" is nothing unusual or bad, and neither is men "acting like women", I thought we'd moved on from that kind of crap?

Why does a female hero have to act in a "legitimate" female way? Do you examine each male hero to ensure they're living up to their legitimate manliness, too? Isn't all this incredibly sexist?

Like I said, I just don't get it at all.

Sexist. Not sure you really know what that means. Equality doesn't mean men and women are the same. It means they should have equal opportunities. Which are two completely different things.

Slapping breasts on a male is a perfect statement to sum up what they are doing. And its even worse since Thor is not a "mantle" like Batman, but an actual character. It would make as much sense to make Bruce Wayne into Babette Wayne just because we need more women in comics. Its a stupid move and I hope it blows up in their face.

Dont take that to mean I dont like women in comics. Quite the opposite. Hell, I'm rooting my ass of for a Wonder Woman movie. But honestly. Do it right. A GRAND example would be the Alias comic from MAX. Jessica Jones is a GREAT and fleshed out character. Just make more characters. Dont just slap boobs on men.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

He was never actually not worthy before. That is a new twist.

Really? Never? I assumed they did that at least once in the comic, since that is what happened in the first film. I know Beta Ray was unworthy of his hammer at one point (for going insane after Galaticus ate his world or something) I just assumed they applied that to Thor at least ONCE in the comics up to this point.

 

[Baresark]

He was never actually not worthy before. That is a new twist.

Really? Never? I assumed they did that at least once in the comic, since that is what happened in the first film. I know Beta Ray was unworthy of his hammer at one point (for going insane after Galaticus ate his world or something) I just assumed they applied that to Thor at least ONCE in the comics up to this point.

Haha, I know, crazy. Nope, never has not been worthy. Once he was dead, which lead up to the whole clone thing. But a each of those times others utilizing the hammer for an extended period of time (IE Beta Ray Bill) was due to him getting separated in some way from the hammer.

 

[votemarvel]

He was never actually not worthy before. That is a new twist.

Really? Never? I assumed they did that at least once in the comic, since that is what happened in the first film. I know Beta Ray was unworthy of his hammer at one point (for going insane after Galaticus ate his world or something) I just assumed they applied that to Thor at least ONCE in the comics up to this point.

He couldn't lift the hammer in 'The Reigning' storyline as I recall. However he had been separated from his human 'host' at the time.

Though at the end of the arc, still separate from Jake Olson, he was able to lift Mjolnir again to fix his mistake.

 

[Charli]

It is quite disrespectful, treating a god like this. Gender swapping was seen as very shameful in Norse society.
It is like if some Japanese made a manga about Lady Jesus.

Boy better fear from those still practicing norse worshippers. There'll be bombings next.

Or just shut our pie holes and enjoy playing with what is essentially mythology. Same as every other dead religion that has fanfiction and work written about it.

And I'm pretty damn certain out there, somewhere, there's a lady jesus comic. And I'd read it with gusto.
Hell Japanese manga already made a thing where he and the holy buddha hang out in modern times and have an apartment together, if that's not some good old fashioned sacrilege, I don't know what is.

 

[Harrowdown]

I don't... I can't... what? What in the nine hells is this? Thor is a bloody name not a title. God/Goddess of Thunder should be the title. Can't she have her own fucking name, something that doesn't sound anything close to Thor, like Jessica or something. I hate to be the cynic here, but I agree with LightKnight, for now anyway. Their just strapping boobs onto a guy. I really hope they prove me wrong, I really hope so.

Jessica, the great and powerful goddess of thunder. yeah, that sure sounds impressive. [/sarcasm]

Thor doesn't have an alter ego, so the name is synonymous with the title of 'God of Thunder'. When Eric Masterson briefly took up the role, he went by Thor. I don't really get why you're quite this indignant. It's not the end of the world, man.

This may not be "Thorita" but this is a male superhero that they have slapped breasts on. Again, they really need to promote their legitimate female heroes more rather than aping long-established characters.

Personally, I think this is a positive move. It's long been established in the canon that Thor's powers derive from the hammer Mjolnir, not from Thor himself. "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." Despite the gender-biased use of pronouns in that quote, the point is that the powers, and by extension the role of Thor, can be held by anyone worthy. Indeed, multiple characters throughout the comic's history have wielded Mjolnir, including some women. So although Thor himself is unchanging, his hammer and powers(and by extension his role as the God of Thunder, e.g. Eric Masterson) aren't tied exclusively to him. Ergo, this is not strapping boobs onto a male character. Rather, it's passing on a traditionally masculine role(not male, MASCULINE. There is a difference) to a female character who has proven herself worthy of the role. There's a lot of opportunity here to experiment with the concepts of gender roles and gender identity, and the fact that Thor is such a high profile character makes this a very strong statement of intent from Marvel, in relation to their attitude towards diversity in their comics. Besides, it's almost certainly a temporary move. Chances are good that Thor will get his hammer and title back, and the female Thor will get a title of her own.

Either that, or she'll end up in a fridge. Marvel has a shaky history with female characters, after all.

 

[Harrowdown]

I don't... I can't... what? What in the nine hells is this? Thor is a bloody name not a title. God/Goddess of Thunder should be the title. Can't she have her own fucking name, something that doesn't sound anything close to Thor, like Jessica or something. I hate to be the cynic here, but I agree with LightKnight, for now anyway. Their just strapping boobs onto a guy. I really hope they prove me wrong, I really hope so.

Jessica, the great and powerful goddess of thunder. yeah, that sure sounds impressive. [/sarcasm]

Thor doesn't have an alter ego, so the name is synonymous with the title of 'God of Thunder'. When Eric Masterson briefly took up the role, he went by Thor. I don't really get why you're quite this indignant. It's not the end of the world, man.

This may not be "Thorita" but this is a male superhero that they have slapped breasts on. Again, they really need to promote their legitimate female heroes more rather than aping long-established characters.

Personally, I think this is a positive move. It's long been established in the canon that Thor's powers derive from the hammer Mjolnir, not from Thor himself. "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." Despite the gender-biased use of pronouns in that quote, the point is that the powers, and by extension the role of Thor, can be held by anyone worthy. Indeed, multiple characters throughout the comic's history have wielded Mjolnir, including some women. So although Thor himself is unchanging, his hammer and powers(and by extension his role as the God of Thunder, e.g. Eric Masterson) aren't tied exclusively to him. Ergo, this is not strapping boobs onto a male character. Rather, it's passing on a traditionally masculine role(not male, MASCULINE. There is a difference) to a female character who has proven herself worthy of the role. There's a lot of opportunity here to experiment with the concepts of gender roles and gender identity, and the fact that Thor is such a high profile character makes this a very strong statement of intent from Marvel, in relation to their attitude towards diversity in their comics. Besides, it's almost certainly a temporary move. Chances are good that Thor will get his hammer and title back, and the female Thor will get a title of her own.

Either that, or she'll end up in a fridge. Marvel has a shaky history with female characters, after all.


EDIT: Sorry, accidentally posted a duplicate.

 

[DementedSheep]

I'm still a bit iffy about this though having read what the writer was going for it might be ok. I still think they should change the name and I would have preferred they were promoting a completely different character with there own powers in his place to begin with. They don't know who she is so could just refer to her as Goddess of Thunder or something. Yes it stupid when other characters take his name as well but I guess this is silly point to get stuck up on. It sounds like Thor is not getting ditched. He just doesn't have his hammer. I doubt it will stick though, maybe they will give her a knock of hammer not straight up kill her when they decide to give Thor his hammer back.

It is quite disrespectful, treating a god like this. Gender swapping was seen as very shameful in Norse society.
It is like if some Japanese made a manga about Lady Jesus.

I'm pretty sure anyone who is legitimately worshipping the Norse gods and isn't a teen trying out more obscure religions cause it cool would already find Thor disrespectful. It's not like it's been faithful (or as faithful as you can get with stuff like this) religious studies up till this point.

 

[chinangel]

so by now everyone knows that Thor in the comics is turning into a girl. What's hilarious though is the resulting nerd rage from it.

The most common shriek is that "THOR IN THE VIKING STORIES WAS A GUY!"

really? You're pulling the historical accuracy card now? After Thor was a girl...twice in previous comics, was not actually a god in the Marvel comics...had an ice-giant adopted brother...could fly (sort of)...fought aliens from other dimensions...tangled with The Hulk...and Captain America...and Iron Man...was a greenpeace freedom fighter (it happened) and whos power was considered worthy of being given to an alien with the face of a horse AND A GODDAMN FROG at one point.

AND NOW you're calling bullshit?

Come on...if you're upset about it at least say the real reason: thor is a girl and now I can't relate to her. And possibly, 'thor is now a chick and is not dressed like a slut'.

I get people are angry about this, I just wish they wouldn't use strawman arguments.

I, for one, think the idea is...stupid. But not for the reasons given. I think it's stupid because Thor is *NOT* being turned into a girl but rather HIS power is being given to a new girl, along with the name and title.

And this is a failing. Why? Because NOBODY in the Marvel universe, the Villains especially, will have any reason to care. They have NO connection to this person and just because they're named 'Thor' doesn't mean they're Thor.

it would've been better to actually turn Thor into a chick, because that way, the villains would have a reason to stick around and have their connection to the genderswapped hero, it would make Thor really question his identity and give him a lot of personal reflection and give the public some insight into what it's like to be transgendered: to look int he mirror and know what's looking back isn't right.

Not to mention Thor's relationship with his family, friends and his girlfriend would all change. It would all really make for more interesting reading than 'Thor with boobs'.

Just my two cents, but that's how I see it.

 

[Madkipz]

It is quite disrespectful, treating a god like this. Gender swapping was seen as very shameful in Norse society.
It is like if some Japanese made a manga about Lady Jesus.

Loki did some gender swapping to the point of actually birthing sleipnir.

This is likely no different.

Also. Just to mention it. The real Thor is an asshole.

 

[votemarvel]

Thor doesn't have an alter ego, so the name is synonymous with the title of 'God of Thunder'. When Eric Masterson briefly took up the role, he went by Thor. I don't really get why you're quite this indignant. It's not the end of the world, man.

Personally, I think this is a positive move. It's long been established in the canon that Thor's powers derive from the hammer Mjolnir, not from Thor himself. "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." Despite the gender-biased use of pronouns in that quote, the point is that the powers, and by extension the role of Thor, can be held by anyone worthy. Indeed, multiple characters throughout the comic's history have wielded Mjolnir, including some women. So although Thor himself is unchanging, his hammer and powers(and by extension his role as the God of Thunder, e.g. Eric Masterson) aren't tied exclusively to him. Ergo, this is not strapping boobs onto a male character. Rather, it's passing on a traditionally masculine role(not male, MASCULINE. There is a difference) to a female character who has proven herself worthy of the role. There's a lot of opportunity here to experiment with the concepts of gender roles and gender identity, and the fact that Thor is such a high profile character makes this a very strong statement of intent from Marvel, in relation to their attitude towards diversity in their comics. Besides, it's almost certainly a temporary move. Chances are good that Thor will get his hammer and title back, and the female Thor will get a title of her own.

Either that, or she'll end up in a fridge. Marvel has a shaky history with female characters, after all.


EDIT: Sorry, accidentally posted a duplicate.

When Eric Masterson was Thor, most people didn't know it wasn't the same person, he also took on the physical appearance of Thor.

Indeed he continued to look like Thor when he became Thunderstrike. He then changed his 'costume' to avoid any confusion.

Thor's powers at Marvel are his own, he's quite capable of calling lightening and storms without the hammer. Jason Aaron's own stories confirm this.

Mjolnir has a powerset of its own, as well as letting the worthy duplicate Thor's. The hammer creates passages through space and into other dimensions for example.

 

[dystopiaINC]

So if the first Thor movie is any evidence it is kind of implied that Thor may be a title and not necessarily just a name.

"Whoever wields this hammer shall wield the power of Thor." Or something along those lines, as opposed to God of Thunder.

While within the themes of the storylines, I suppose I find it more odd they can't make a new character through some different means that perhaps opposes Thors power with a similar power set as God/ess of Thunder and make for an interesting battle between the two, something kind of normal for Asguardians, as opposed to him just losing his worthiness, but it has some intrigue to it at least.

Still it seems like she is still a new character all around.

Really? if we are going by the movies example I would say it does the opposite. In the movie Thor was Thor with out the hammer until Odin punished him. Until he launched his attack on the ice giants Thor didn't have the hammer he took it from the vault for his assault. As punishment for his poor choices Odin bound his power into the hammer. making him for all intents and purposes Human with out the hammer. but up until then he was still a powerful Asguardian on his own, made more awesome by his big magics hammer.

 

[conmag9]

I'm not much of a comic book fan, so take my opinion on the matter either with a grain of salt or that of a viewer from the outside, whichever best suits you.

This isn't really what I'd call progressive. To me, it reeks of publicity stunt. The whole action looks like something designed to appear diverse while missing the point of diversity. Changing character designs to match public mood, rather than for in-character reasons sits poorly with me (a bit of a hang up I have from all my rp-ing: never let OOC influence IC). I get the goal, and I whole-heartedly support the idea of more diversity with characters (mostly for other people's sake. In games and such, I don't really care about gender one way or another, just the character's actions and attitude. I get that others care more though, and that's fine).

This isn't the way to go about it though. Make NEW characters. Experiment with fresh designs and see what sticks, then build from there. You can work from a blank slate that way, not stepping on the toes of established creations (you know the old saying, if you want to make enemies, try and change something?). Just making "x character, but female" sorta feels insulting to me. And with fresh characters, you also avoid lots of secondary pitfalls like the immense web of legal craziness that comics sometimes have to deal with. End result: more fleshed out worlds, more character designs, more for everyone.

 

[renegade7]

This is a bit weird, because Thor is his name, right?

Actually it was a gender neutral name. A lot of women took his name in addition to men to protest the Christianization of the Norse culture. Thor also had an important feminine aspect, as he was also the god of healing and fertility.

 

[Maxtro]

Just a guess, is the current Marvel guy Thor, the original Thor?

What if Thor was named after the god Thor and received his power?

The inscription on Mjolnir says "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." So I'm thinking that there was an original God named Thor, that the current Thor was named after. I really can't imagine the name on the inscription changing with whoever is worthy of the hammer. For example, I can't see the inscription saying ""Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of John."

So basically Thor is the dudes name and his title. For example, what if one of the Robins in DC was actually named Robin.

With that in mind, it's possible to have somebody else have the power of Thor and be called Thor.

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

Thor be a lady tonight?

So will Thor in Avengers 2 or Thor 3 be the new female Thor?

That picture of frog Thor is both hilarious and awesome at the same time.

Also, I have wondered about something. "Whoever wields this hammer, if he proves worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." So what if in the first Thor some random guy who was worthy happened to come by lift the hammer?