Thor… and the Internet

Wednesday – 16 July 2014
Yesterday, Marvel made waves on the Internet by announcing that Thor would be a woman.

Thor.

Thor.

Naturally, the Internet went full-blown, bat-shit crazy. One article that I found to be particularly amusing asked “What does this mean for Chris Hemsworth?” Let’s be honest: It doesn’t mean a damn thing. Do people seriously think that Disney/Marvel is going to go that far afield with one of their biggest properties? I think not.

On the issue/non-issue of Thor’s change in status quo, my brother-in-law, John, and I had this conversation:

John: ok, my FB feed is exploding with bitching that the new Thor will be a woman (or something to that effect…). I *think* I saw you either commented or posted a link showing that this was already in the comic/legend storyline. Am I imagining this?
Rob: Nope, you’re not.
Rob: It’s happened before.
Rob: Not so much “Thor as a woman,” but he has been a frog.
Rob: And he has been replaced by at least two other people
Rob: My take on this is people are getting their panties twisted over semantics.
Rob: My thought: Thor Odinson will be deemed no longer worthy to bear Mjolnir.
Rob: Someone else will be given the power of Thor.
Rob: That “someone” will be a woman.
Rob: .eof

John: Feh. I’m amazed at the things over which people freak out

John: HOLY SHIT A FICTIONAL CHARACTER IS DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT FICTIONALLY
Rob: Wait. You’re surprised by geek/nerd responses on the Interwebs!?
John: No, but I am slightly surprised by the vitriol
John: Sometimes the misogyny shocks me a bit
John: I blame Obama.
This is just another in a long list of reasons why I love and appreciate John.
But, as he correctly pointed out: Fictional character. In a fictional story. Based (loosely) on mythology.
On the flip side, some people are seeing this as part of Marvel’s way to bring in more female readers.  “See!? More female characters! Not only that, we made one of our big guns female! Isn’t that awesome?!” I understand wanting to: A) Increase readership and B) appeal to different demographics, but if “simply” making Thor a woman is one of their ways of achieving that, it just comes off as pandering.
Why not point them, instead, to some of their titles with female leads:
  • Captain Marvel (1, 2),
  • Ms. Marvel (1, 2), and
  • She-Hulk (1, 2), for example.

All of these books are early in their runs, which makes it easy for new readers to get in on the ground floor, so to speak. And, to be honest, they are great books. 

This has been a long-winded way of saying: “Don’t believe everything you read” and “Hey, Marvel, if you want more readers – and more female readers, to boot – why not introduce people to some of the great female characters already in your stable and/or create new ones who aren’t caricatures, but are fully-developed characters?”
And that’s my 2¢ worth.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2014 at 1:36 PM and is filed under comics, news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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