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Marvel's New Thor Will Be a Woman 590

An anonymous reader writes: Marvel Comics has announced that Thor, the thunder god whose story has been told in comic books, movies, and TV shows since the 1960s, will fall from grace, and no longer be able to wield his hammer Mjolnir. A brand new female character will take up the name Thor and continue the series. Jason Aaron, the series writer, said, "This is not She-Thor. This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is THOR. This is the THOR of the Marvel Universe. But it's unlike any Thor we've ever seen before." Marvel's Wil Moss added, "The new Thor continues Marvel's proud tradition of strong female characters like Captain Marvel, Storm, Black Widow and more. And this new Thor isn't a temporary female substitute — she's now the one and only Thor, and she is worthy!"
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Marvel's New Thor Will Be a Woman

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  • I am Woman! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:10PM (#47460439)

    I am Woman, hear me Thor!

    That is all.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @04:08PM (#47461235)

      I am Woman, hear me Thor!

      That is all.

      You dirty Thor!

    • by rwa2 ( 4391 ) * on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @05:37PM (#47462079) Homepage Journal

      The God of Thunder is at a particularly successful orgy and sees a good-looking woman wandering around in her toga. He puffs up his chest and proclaims to her, "Hi, I am Thor!"

      The woman looks back and says, "Ugh, yeth, I'm thor too, I'm thor all over."

  • But this summary and article both kinda sorta imply 616(i.e. main) universe.

  • Ridiculous! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xfizik ( 3491039 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:11PM (#47460455)
    This is beyond ridiculous.
    • Care to explain why you think so?
      • Re:Ridiculous! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:19PM (#47460583)

        This is just lazy pandering. Do they have such little creativity that they best they can do is make a female Thor? This is as pathetic as the Hollywood remake movie spree of the last few decades.

        • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:27PM (#47460733)

          Hollywood is so lazy they will remake the movie "Junior" with a female character.

        • Re:Ridiculous! (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Noah Haders ( 3621429 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:38PM (#47460885)
          keeping with tradition I assume she'll be a sexy thor with big b00bs that are popping through her skimpy outfit. positive role models ftw!
        • Re:Ridiculous! (Score:5, Interesting)

          by optimus2861 ( 760680 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @06:27PM (#47462479)

          Do they have such little creativity that they best they can do is make a female Thor?

          Yes.

          Marvel Comics lost its creativity many years ago, probably no later than the time that the first Spider-Man movie debuted in the theaters (though I'd say a good 5-7 years prior). Ever since then, they 'shuffle the deck chairs' around, but nothing ever sticks. The characters always eventually revert to status quo. They make much, much more money from their licensing than they ever will on the comics, and they really don't want to kill that golden goose. Thor will be back as his usual self by the time Avengers 2 hits theaters. Bank on it.

      • Re:Ridiculous! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sexconker ( 1179573 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:22PM (#47460631)

        Thor is a male god.
        Thor is an established character, based on the mythical Thor.
        Making Thor female is just a publicity stunt.
        Marvel can't create compelling original female characters, but that doesn't mean they should slap tits and a vagina onto existing male characters and hope they stick. What Marvel needs to do is realize that they can't create ANY compelling characters anymore, male or female, and fix that problem first.
        Everyone knows that the real Thor will be back once this "arc" finishes - saying something is permanent in comics is an insult to anyone who reads them.

        Alternatively, Han shot second.

        • re: not relevant anymore. I think all of the new comics/fantasy/sci fi IP is going to start coming from video games. that's the only place that's consistently making new ideas. looking forward to the assassin's creed movie, GTA movie, etc etc. Some of them will el floppo like the ones we've seen to date, but others will stick. movies, as usual, will defer to other media to create new ideas.
        • by myrdos2 ( 989497 )
          I'm still waiting for the female Hulk. Also, the fat Jesus kind of offsets the two skinny ones.
          • I'm still waiting for the female Hulk.

            You've been unnecessarily waiting. She's been around for the last 34 years. She-Hulk [wikipedia.org]

        • Re:Ridiculous! (Score:4, Insightful)

          by mvdwege ( 243851 ) <mvdwege@mail.com> on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:56PM (#47461089) Homepage Journal

          Right. So an alien being posing as an Asgardian God? No problem.

          The power of said alien being manifesting in ordinary mortals? No problem.

          Said being a member of a team with among others a Forties soldier who survived decades of being frozen and a man turning into a monster? No problem.

          Incarnating as a woman? HERESY!

        • Re:Ridiculous! (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Culture20 ( 968837 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @04:14PM (#47461321)

          Marvel can't create compelling original female characters

          I disagree. Aunt May has a mysterious side [wordpress.com] that is only hinted at in the comics. On a more serious note: Rogue, Moonstone, Songbird (screaming mimi), Emma Frost, Mystique, AoA Blink, She-Hulk, and plenty of other women have compelling stories (and no, She-Hulk isn't just tits on a Hulk). Granted, Ororo, Jean Grey, Sue (Storm) Richards, and Alyson Blaire are all pretty boring, but there are equally boring male super heroes (actually, their respective significant others: T'Challa, Scott Summers, Reed Richards, Longshot).
          Actually, now that I think about it, the current time-displaced Jean and Scott from the past are interesting.

          that doesn't mean they should slap tits and a vagina onto existing male characters and hope they stick.

          I agree with this 100%. They can get away with it when it's not an established character (Spider-Woman [all three of them] isn't Spider-Man. She-Hulk isn't Hulk, Lady Bullseye isn't Bullseye, Namorina isn't the Sub-Mariner), but altering an established character arbitrarily (and badly; Thor just recently went through a long disgraced period and regained his honor. Leave the poor godling alone for a while). Maybe give Lady Octopus a chance to be Peter Parker for a while? That should sit well with the fans.

        • Re: Ridiculous! (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Dixie_Flatline ( 5077 ) <vincent@jan@goh.gmail@com> on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @08:10PM (#47463121) Homepage

          Nice to see the fake nerds are out in force today.

          Apparently none of you whiny children has ever heard of Beta Ray Bill, an orange skinned alien that was considered worthy of wielding Mjolnir (though he eventually ended up with his own hammer, Stormbreaker). He was Thor. He's a goddamn dude from another planet, and you're complaining that Thor can't be a woman?

          Thor in Norse mythology never fought the fucking Hulk or ate shawarma at a local restaurant either. Or lived in the USA. The story is MADE UP. The Marvel version is twice as made up. Try to get a grip. The story goes wherever it needs to.

          http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki... [wikipedia.org]

          Beta. Ray. Bill. Get with the cannon, fakers. Or shut the hell up. Both are good.

      • Re:Ridiculous! (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:22PM (#47460635)

        Thor is a character in Norse mythology. Those stories are part of our cultural heritage. And in those stories, Thor is male.

        This change isn't done because it makes more sense. The Norse Thor didn't have any gender identity issues. This doesn't make the story more interesting or engaging. This is done exclusively as a gimmick to attract audiences of feminists and the obsessively politically correct.

        I think these are bad reasons for making this change to the story. I think there are plenty of opportunities to borrow female heroes from history (Joan of Arc? The goddess Athena?) to create brand new stories of feminine heroism. There is no compelling reason to give Thor a gender change. Its just a (destructive and stupid) attention grab.

      • Re:Ridiculous! (Score:4, Informative)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:27PM (#47460727)

        Not the original poster, but I agree. I think it's great to have strong female main characters, on an equal footing with strong male main characters. But this ain't it. They're taking a character who is male, both in mythology and in their own storyline, and changing him into a woman. Why? Because they can't write female leads so they'll just take a male one and give him boobs? Because a female main character can't be successful without all the momentum gathered by that character being male for a thousand years?

        Ridiculous seems like a reasonable summary.

      • Re:Ridiculous! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by kruach aum ( 1934852 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:34PM (#47460825)

        Making Thor a woman is like making Jesus a woman, Mjolnir a screwdriver, or Huginn and Muninn storks. It's like saying "I carpooled to work today" when you came by yourself on your bike, because you want to reclaim the word "carpooling" to refer to biking to work. You can do it, but that doesn't make what you say true. Thor's gender is such a significant feature of his established identity that to change his gender is to change his identity from Thor into Something-that-is-not-Thor. You can say that this new character is both Thor and a woman, but that doesn't make it true.

    • Consider the advice of the great philosophers Nelson and Mr. T.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:12PM (#47460477)

    Congratulations to a comic book company for changing a male character from very old mythology into a woman.

    Perhaps they can next make a comic book with Jesus as a woman?

    • by i kan reed ( 749298 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:16PM (#47460525) Homepage Journal

      They also made Thor come from space, speak English, made Asgard not an afterlife, and changed all sorts of other details.

      What makes this change particularly galling to you?

      • They cut off his balls and dick and gave him breasts.And it's a near certainty that we will all want to bed this transsexual. Yeah, I think it's that last one that's the kicker.

      • Asgard wasn't an afterlife, it was a different "realm", like Midgard (Earth), Miflheim, Jotunheim and the others. If they wanted some badass female warriors, they could have just used the Valkyries! If they really needed some genderbending, there's plenty of that from Loki. This is just silly.
    • by jimmifett ( 2434568 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:18PM (#47460567)

      Don't be a fool, Jesus is obviously a velociraptor!

      Look forward to the Velocirapture!

    • by Falos ( 2905315 )
      Troof.

      But I guess it's okay; "this Thor isn't that Thor" or maybe even "No relation, never heard of him." if that's the case.

      More than historical accuracy, what gets me is the parading. It's not even self-righteous parading, it's more like astroturf. If I was one of those social justice zealots, I'd have to ask myself whether I was being pandered to and exploited.

      I don't agree with refuting OR supporting a product or media or art because of the creator or other unrelated details. I don't check if m
  • Still, this is stupid. Incredibly stupid.

  • by seven of five ( 578993 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:16PM (#47460529)
    In related news, Odin will become a transgender drag queen with a flair for theatrics. Loki, however, will remain low-key.
  • by C0R1D4N ( 970153 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:16PM (#47460533)
    Just another comic book gimmick like female Robin, and gay minority Spiderman. Comic books can't go more than a few months without having to completely change everything around and "spice things up". Just try following a single title for more than two years.
  • by jonr ( 1130 )

    So, her name will be Thora (óra is legit Icelandic name, just like ór)

  • It makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)

    by plopez ( 54068 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:18PM (#47460563) Journal

    One more opportunity for a character with big bazoombas and skimpy clothes to pander to their core reader base.

  • Thordis! (Score:4, Informative)

    by just_another_sean ( 919159 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:21PM (#47460615) Journal

    One of the early What If? comics Marvel put out was about Jane Foster finding Thor's Hammer instead of Don Blake. There is a hilarious summary of it here [tumblr.com]. Not sure if it's the earliest example of Thor as a woman but's its gotta be close!

  • by Overzeetop ( 214511 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:24PM (#47460661) Journal

    Wait, no...that's a different show.

  • by david.emery ( 127135 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:25PM (#47460683)

    The renaming of its famous comic book and TV character, "Wonder Person."

    Chris Hemsworth and Lynda Carter are reportedly in talks to assume the other's iconic role. No word yet if they're planning to share costumes.

  • Imagination? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by infogulch ( 1838658 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:27PM (#47460725)
    Are we so unimaginative now that it's not possible to come up with and build new characters? Existing characters have to be completely substituted, just to piggyback on the established lore and history?

    And for what? To satisfy some new gender-equality metric? Seriously, I know it would take time and effort, but surely you can come up with a compelling unique story for a woman without them having to be propped up by a different character's previous popularity.
  • A brand new female character will take up the name Thor and continue the series. Jason Aaron, the series writer, said, "This is not She-Thor. This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is THOR.

    Uh, yeah. Like when that other guy was Batman? But then he wasn't Bruce Wayne, was he?

  • Outfit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tekrat ( 242117 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:39PM (#47460899) Homepage Journal

    Let me guess... This new female Thor will wear a skimpy outfit, and much less armor than the previous, male Thor. But this is objectification is somehow empowering to women...

  • More T&A for the male readers and unreal body expectations for the females. Win-win. :)

    [John]

  • Weird (Score:5, Interesting)

    by The Grim Reefer ( 1162755 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @03:47PM (#47460997)

    I'm all for strong women. Hell, I have an 11 year old daughter. So I like the idea of her having strong role models. But this is a little weird considering the comic book character is based off of the male god of Norse legend by the same name. And why is this a "fall from grace" as TFS states? And why can't (s)he wield Mjolnir?

    While I'm asking, why is it that most of these comic book "strong women" have a pair of double D boobs (at minimum) falling out of their outfits? I don't care how skilled a women is, she ain't gonna be fighting worth a damn in 5 inch 'fuck-me-heels' with her ass and boobs falling out of her costume.

  • They usually do so good using established works and expanding upon them. At least call her a Goddess if you're going to do it right.

  • The comic book industry has started to realize that sexism is bad for business. There's still plenty of remnants left (especially at DC - see the New 52 Starfire kerfluffle), but it's changing. The comics press has been talking about it for years, indie comics have been doing it for longer, and now Marvel is riding the trend. If you can even call it a trend - I really doubt "treating both genders as equals" is something that will go out of style, barring another dark age or something.

    Yes, it's a bit gimmick

  • by Gramie2 ( 411713 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @04:02PM (#47461155)
    Does no one else remember Beta Ray Bill from Walt Simonson's run in the '80s (the golden age for Thor and large swathes of Marvel, in my opinion). Beta Ray Bill was able to wield Mjolnir and Thor's power even though he was a vaguely-humanoid alien.
  • by netsavior ( 627338 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @04:19PM (#47461377)
    We already did this... Even a racist clock is right twice a day [penny-arcade.com]

    In Marvel Lore, anyone who is worthy may wield the hammer and gain the power of thor... this has included

    A horsefaced dude (beta ray bill [wikia.com] who now wields a dupe of the hammer, sorta)
    A frog named Throg [wikia.com]
    it has also been wielded by Storm (who is a woman) and Captain America. [wikipedia.org]

    This is a non-story, and not the first time a woman has wielded Mjolnir.
  • by Tanuki64 ( 989726 ) on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @04:51PM (#47461699)

    Easy solution: Don't buy the books. I would guess, the overwhelming majority of comic book buyers are men. Let's see if the male readers can make a sufficiently large bump in the profit Marvel makes with the Thor books, so it cannot be compensated by the three additional female readers Marvel might get through this move. If not... you deserve not better.

  • After Wonder Woman is killed, a brave young man takes up the bracers, lasso and breastplate, becoming.....
  • Proud tradition (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jandersen ( 462034 ) on Wednesday July 16, 2014 @02:31AM (#47464537)

    The new Thor continues Marvel's proud tradition of ...

    ... completely ignoring things like historical background, common knowledge and elementary logic.

    Being Danish, it has always irked me, that this cartoon 'Thor' is portrayed as a tall, sledge-hammer wielding body builder with lanky, blond hair, full body wax and a placid temperament; the traditional thunder-god, son of Odin and married to Sif, was red-haired and -bearded (and generally hairy as a man would be), foul-tempered and wielded a hammer, mjolnir, that was famously short-shafted. I suppose a busty, female 'Thoretta' isn't really all that much further from the original. It just another American, plasticky product, like 'He-Man' and 'Power Rangers'.

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