Dang, I'm tempted to start buying at least one Marvel comic again.

[seawasp]

Marvel announces that Thor will be female in the forthcoming comic. And it's apparently not a one-off stunt but an ongoing thing that will last for a while and that fits with many prior story arcs.

It's not the concept as such that gets my interest, but the way in which Marvel's people responded to the questions about it: "If we can accept Thor as a frog and Thor as a horse-faced alien, why can't we accept Thor as a woman?", and dismissing people's attempts to ask about the "real Thor": "She IS Thor." And not via sexchange, but via someone else, who is worthy, picking up the Hammer, when the original Thor cannot do so.

Comments

this could prove to be a very interesting story

[ancientone.livejournal.com]

I often wondered why all the super hero's were male. hawk women, and that other character, whose name I can't remember right now, are about the only two I remember. Maybe your right, time to buy another comic book.

[seawasp]

While they have been predominantly male, and certainly targeted AT a male audience, "all" is an overstatement. Off the top of my head:

Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, The Invisible Girl/Woman, Dazzler, Marvel Girl/Phoenix, Kitty Pryde (too many aliases to name), The Wasp, Batwoman and Batgirl, Supergirl, Power Girl, Ms. Marvel/Binary, Mary Marvel (no relation), Moonstone, Black Widow, She-Hulk, Spider-Woman, Starfire (two of them at least), and there's a lot more in the X-stable alone.

[seawasp]

And of course today we have webcomics to address that need, too, most prominently Grrrlpower.

[mariness.livejournal.com]

The first season of Arrow , a superhero show, wasn't great on this level (although the show did have China White, a kickass villain) but the second season had two women superheroes: Black Canary and Shado, and is adding a third one, Katana, for the upcoming season. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is pretty gender equitable, and for what it's worth in my opinion the hands down best and coolest character on that show is the 50 year old Melinda May. (That's the actress's age - I think the character is supposed to be somewhere in her 40s or even late 30s. At some point we are all going to figure out how Ming Ma looks 20 years younger than her real age - but wow, does she look hot on this show.) I'm hoping the upcoming Flash show follows this trend.

[terry austin (from livejournal.com)]

It's amazing what an experienced makeup artist can do with a bucket of spackle and a trowel, isn't it?

[mariness.livejournal.com]

Heh. Touche. Still, she looks AMAZING. And is the only reason I bother to watch to the show.

[jessica burde (from livejournal.com)]

There are hundreds of female superheros. But they almost never get top billing.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

It's not like "Thor as a woman" hasn't been done before by Marvel, either; I have the What If? collection in which Jane Foster finds the hammer and takes up the mantle of Thor. And I've already had the "worthy of the power of Thor" argument with at least one person ...

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Also Wonder Woman, in a company crossover.

The worthiness event that surprised me, because I'd forgotten it until reminded, was the Awesome Android picking up the hammer. For those who've forgotten, it was a robot built to copy the powers of heroes. As a machine, it could pick up the hammer. As an adaptive machine, it was smart enough to read the inscription. It realized it had copied the powers of Thor, it had picked up the hammer, therefore...it must be worthy of them! Cue a villain face-turn and the Awesome Android's estrangement from its mad creator.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

But... I say short-lived PR stunt. Marvel has to replace the Chris Hemsworth incarnation in order for me to change my opinion. Then again, this could all be because Hemsworth's contracts don't come cheap and he's not keen on the diet and workout regimen necessary to be Thor on screen.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

Its a franchise, like the Dred Pyrate Roberts...

but, now I want to go to my comix store and sign up for it..

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

who is worthy, picking up the Hammer, when the original Thor cannot do so.

Are you aware of Thunderstruck?

[seawasp]

Not until now.

[seawasp]

And now I let out a BIG NOOOOOO! having reached the end of the archives and realizing it's a ONE MONTH update time.

[xander-opal.livejournal.com]

Just finished catching up.

Whoa.

Thank you for sharing the link!

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

Thor as a frog was really just a one-shot joke. Fun and funny, but not terribly serious.

I remember reading Walt Simonson's run on Thor when Beta-Ray Bill (the "horse-faced alien") became Thor, and that was entirely different. When Bill picked up Mjolnir, he transformed into a horse-faced alien version of Thor because, per Odin's enchantment on the hammer, He Was Worthy.

And later on, when Thor was ready to reclaim Mjolnir, Odin had the dwarves forge Beta Ray Bill his OWN Mjolnir to carry.

Walt Simonson's Thor was the best Thor.

[seawasp]

Oh, I agree about Simonson. Though he was also responsible for Thor, Frog of Thunder, which wasn't so much a one-shot joke as you imply; he was a frog for three issues.

[pedanther]

There is another Frog Thor, who is an actual frog who got judged worthy to wield his own tiny Mjolnir. He's been a featured character in at least three miniseries, and is still active in the Marvel Universe last I heard.

(I think he's related to the frog community who appeared in the Thor-gets-turned-into-a-frog arc, but don't quote me on that. I only own some of his later appearances, and I've never managed to track down his origin issue.)

[seawasp]

I don't recall this, but it looks strangely awesome.

[jessica burde (from livejournal.com)]

I haven't really followed comics in years and never got into Thor (though I may be picking up the new Shield being written by Chuck Wendig). I was under the impression that somewhere along the way they stopped doing the "whoever finds Mjolnir takes on the power of Thor" and just had the Asgardian flying around like they did in the movies.

As a fan of Norse myth the idea that Thor can't pick up his Hammer just doesn't frigging sit right. I can't think of anyway they can do that and have it work for me. If they are still doing "pick up the hammer and become Thor" then this sounds pretty cool--though since they've had women pick up the hammer and become Thor before (granted calling themselves She-Thor of all stupid things) but this isn't the huge departure so many (on both sides of the reaction aisle) are making it out to be.

[seawasp]

I haven't read this sequence, but the inscription on the Marvel Thor's hammer is "Whosoever Holds this Hammer, if He be Worthy, Shall Possess the Power of Thor.".

In effect, this means that those who can hold the hammer BECOME Thor, although their specific ... interpretations, so to speak, of being the God of Thunder vary; Red Norvell became much more the classic red-bearded brawler, for instance.

From what they've said, I'd guess that the "original" Thor did something that made him Unworthy, so he can no longer pick up the Hammer. It's been explicitly shown in canon that **NOTHING** can pick up the Hammer if they have somehow become unworthy; even the raging Incredible Hulk, who is as far as can be determined the physically strongest being in the Marvel Universe, cannot even BUDGE Mjolnir because he is not worthy to wield it; on the other hand, Storm, who's basically a very strong normal human, can and has lifted Mjolnir (and gained, temporarily, the Power of Thor.

As in the Movieverse, you can EARN your way back to worthiness, so I would presume that *eventually* Thor-the-original will regain the right to wield it, but from what they're saying I'd guess it'll be six months to a year, at least, possibly two or three years, before that happens; and to judge from prior events, the female who's taken the burden of Thor will end up with her own Hammer, just as have Beta-Ray Bill and Puddlegulp.