Thor Is Getting Gender-Flipped. Officially.

[Delock]

Didn't this already happen with Hawkeye? And then we had a situation where when he returned his series was all the better for having her stick around?

After the fact that Agent Venom, who looked so 90s anti-hero it hurt, turned out to be really good, along with the new Ms Marvel, Ghostrider, and Miles Morales, I'm going to wait and see how this plays out before I make any assumptions.

If I'm going to say one thing, it's that her armor does look a little more like Valkyrie's than Thor's for my taste.

Still, I'm more excited about the upcoming "what if Gwen Stacy was the one bitten by the Spider?" story than this, but Marvel Now has a good track record so far so once again, not counting it out.

On the other hand, none of this matters because Marvel already made their greatest series ever with the Superior Foes of Spider-man and the fact that this is not an announcement of that being available in hardcover is practically criminal (mostly joking here, but seriously, those book need something more permanent than softcover).

 

[The Bucket]

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.

Meh, it is a step in the right direction, at least she doesn't have double Hindenburgs coming out of her chest, and her armour actually looks like it would function as armour and covers her while still be fashionable.

It's pretty clear that this is just a reaction to the recent explosion of gender politics in comics and nerd culture, but at least they've actually listened and have got some stuff right, they just need this to sell well to actually prove whether or not there is a market for female superheros that aren't pin-up fan service.

I don't really understand how they can still have male Thor if "this new Thor isn't a temporary female substitute - she's now the one and only Thor, and she is worthy" It seems a bit bizarre to retire him when he's one of the mainstream Avengers now with his own set of films.

Its a thing those in the business call lying. When Bucky took over for Captain America when he died, they swore it was permanent as well.
This is nothing to get too excited about either way, this might last a year at most. Best case we might have some good stories in that time and she's able to maintain semi relevance with a new identity afterwards (like Bucky)

 

[Lieju]

3) Honestly I'd prefer the Earth X version where Loki duped Odin into turning Thor into a woman as a further lesson in humility and worthiness.


Actually that would make a more interesting story as gender issues and the discrepancies within could be more at the forefront as thor has to adapt to a new cultural paradigm and serious issues of gender identity. I've wanted that from Ultimate Spider-Woman for years and they've done little more than jack and shit.

Yeah, that'd be interesting.

Not that I have a huge issue with this. I'm a bit unsure how the Thor-thing works in the main Marvel universe now? In the very beginning it was the doctor guy (Blake?) getting Thor's power and turning into Thor, so similarly wouldn't it make sense for a woman to also turn into 'Thor', but as a female version?

Although I have no idea what's the canon on how that thing works ATM.

 

[Falterfire]

Yeah, I love me some Legacy characters, but it does feel really weird in this case. "God of Thunder" is a title. "Thor" is a name. If they want to call whoever the new person is "Susan, God of Thunder" then sure. I don't even care if they opt to go with God instead of Goddess. But you can't just take somebody's name and give it to somebody else and call it a legacy character.

Or She-Hulk? Damn, do I want to see a movie about her.

I'm on board, especially if we get the John Byrne version that doesn't believe in the 4th wall.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

I imagine the conversation to be as follows:

"Thor, you have been found unworthy" *Takes mjolnir*
"Thor, you have been found worthy" *Gives mjolnir to female thor.*

the inscription reads "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." so maybe it doesn't matter what her name is as she only has the power of Thor... also did everyone forget Throg

and Beta Ray Bill

And Thunderstrike, he actually went the distance for a while.

It's a little annoying because they're so heavily pushing it when we all now it'll flip back in a few months. Like how Peter Parker died and was replaced by Doc Ock. Everyone remember that? How that absolutely DID NOT stick.

Bonus side, now the Avengers are pretty much perfect analogues for the Justice League. Cap is Superman, Ironman's Bats and Thor is now Wonder Woman but blonde! Yeaaaaaaaaay

 

[Scarim Coral]

Am I missing something? There was already a woman who had Thor powers-

Spoiler: Thor Girl!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Girl

Granted she is a alien (who happened to look like a human) who had been given Asgardian powers.

Yeah this news doesn't really do it for me althought I thought it was Thor but rule 63 (if Loki had it during Dark Reign, so does Thor!)

 

[gamegod25]

As long as she isn't constantly posing like a supermodel and is wearing functional battle attire I'll call it a win.

 

[ExtraDebit]

I just wished they let peter parker stay dead and continue the superior spiderman series.

 

[Lightknight]

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.

It's more that it's a male character with breasts slapped on. She isn't her own character, she's the female version of a previously male hero.

It isn't progressive or equality to feminize a male character. Progressiveness and equality is promoting the female characters appropriately. A man getting fired to hire a woman is just as sexist as not hiring a woman because she's not a man. In both situations a person is being impacted negatively because of the sex they were born as.

Making Thor female or catwoman male would both be wrong in my book. I'm even a little iffy on changing haircolor for heroes that have had one hair color for the past several decades.

However, if this is just a female being given Thor's powers then I couldn't care less. But actually turning Thor, an established male character, into a woman, would be lipservice at best.

 

[The Material Sheep]

This looks bitchen... I always been ambivalent towards thor and if they go with a really cool valkyrie motiff this could end up looking quite awesome.

 

[Seracen]

Uhm...no...this is NOT how you create a compelling character, regardless of male/female/replacement/whatever...

You don't simply say that Thor was "unworthy" and get a replacement with breasts...that comes off as pandering and disingenuous. Unless you decide to turn the original Thor into an evil character, or retire him...she will always be living in his shadow.

A much more interesting method would have been utilizing a female character they already established...like Valkyrie (specifically the modern rendition of her, Barbara Norris IIRC, the sword-wielding mortal who received the spirit of Brunnhilde).

Have Thor be tired of being the main guy, and hand the hammer over to someone he trusts to wield the mantle. Then he takes on another, lesser mantle (like one of the swords or axes of note that Hercules used...or even one of the weapons that Thor earned as a younger man). Hell...have him hand Mjolnir over to Sif, then support her as a member of HER huntsmen!

Anything less just lacks the air of legitimacy...and is an insult to the character (both old and new).

This is like saying that Batman was deemed irrevocably insane...and was replaced by some character we've never heard of...despite the presence of capable women who could have taken over (Barbara Gordon, Selina Kyle, hell even Amanda Waller)!

 

[BrotherRool]

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.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

Jason Arron is still writing Thor? Count me in. His current run is nothing if not amazing and Wolverine and The X-men run was really good as well. I'd put him up there in Marvel's top five writers easily.

 

[DEAD34345]

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snip

It's more that it's a male character with breasts slapped on. She isn't her own character, she's the female version of a previously male hero.

It isn't progressive or equality to feminize a male character. Progressiveness and equality is promoting the female characters appropriately. A man getting fired to hire a woman is just as sexist as not hiring a woman because she's not a man. In both situations a person is being impacted negatively because of the sex they were born as.

Making Thor female or catwoman male would both be wrong in my book. I'm even a little iffy on changing haircolor for heroes that have had one hair color for the past several decades.

However, if this is just a female being given Thor's powers then I couldn't care less. But actually turning Thor, an established male character, into a woman, would be lipservice at best.

I see what you mean. It's more that they're changing a character to bring in a female, and not about the female being illegitimate because they act the same way a male. That's fair enough then, I apologise, I was arguing against a point you weren't really making. I have seen other people complain when a female character is used that they aren't "female enough", and that's basically what I read your comment to mean.

As for your actual complaint, it does seem to be a bit odd that they're firing him and replacing him as part of the story, and it does seem a little wrong if they're only doing it to fulfil some imaginary quota of required female heroes. I wonder if, though, it might be more like a retooling of the original Thor character. What I mean is, is the original Thor still going to be a character with his own adventures and such, except he no longer has his old position? Or are they really just sweeping him under the rug to get some positive PR with a female lead? (which seems a little scummy and misguided)

I don't really know the subject well enough to be able to tell.

 

[skullberry]

One of my favorite parts of Jason Aaron's current run are Thor's 3 daughters, super badasses each of them. I hope this means one of them is stepping up to the plate, or even better, all three of them time-sharing on Mjolnir

 

[BloodSquirrel]

And not a dick for having an opinion, everyone has an opinion but a dick for being a whiny man-child pissing and moaning about funny books doing something different not because it's unusual or you have issue with the story or writing...

Except that people *DO* have problems with the story and writing, but asshole creators and their defenders ignore it and strawman it into being racist/sexist/homophobic/ablist/triggering/whatever-the-hell-you-call-people-who-don't-take-otherkin-seriously.

You know what other creative medium makes announcements like this? None of them. TV show runners don't announce their big plot twists ahead of time. Movie directors don't spoil their endings on fansites. Harry Potter's publisher didn't hang a giant "Snape kills Dumbledore!" sign on bookstores the day of the book's release. Comics, on the other hand, are so mired in this insipid pit of stunt writing that it's more important to them to push big announcements of stupid, poorly thought out events in their books than it is to let the story have any actual artistic merit. And now they've found out that they can get the most attention by doing stuff like this and then calling people bigots when they point out how transparently desperate for attention it is.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why people don't take comics seriously as a medium for adults.

 

[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.

 

[the December King]

Well, thankfully, I was never really interested in Thor anyways.

I mean, I like the actual old legends, but the Marvel stuff has always seemed a bit off to me- probably on purpose, mind you, so they could create their own stories, and I get that. But if someone did like Thor before this, I can see how they might not like it/appreciate it after. After all, it's now a different person.

 

[Phil the Nervous]

On the other hand, none of this matters because Marvel already made their greatest series ever with the Superior Foes of Spider-man and the fact that this is not an announcement of that being available in hardcover is practically criminal (mostly joking here, but seriously, those book need something more permanent than softcover).

A bit late, but I agree 110%. Superior Foes is the best thing to come out of Marvel since Nextwave and it's an absolute crime that it hasn't gotten better recognition.

 

[dharmaBum0]

Is it Kelda?

Lost track of her during/after Siege, and vaguely remember some misfortune concerning her.

But if it is her, hopefully we get to see the return of Bill, son of Bills. I liked Bill.