The New Replacement God of Thunder.

As most of you reading this blog know, the news broke that Thor was being replaced by a female character having no longer been found worthy of wielding Mjolnir. Instead, a female character will take over from Thor and, for some reason, actually be called Thor instead of Thor (even though Thor is Thor’s name rather than an identity) Confused much? That’s what Marvel’s latest PR stunt seems to be causing, mass confusion. So I’ll just share some of my thoughts and opinions on this change via several areas of consideration.

1. Why the gender change?

I fail to see why Marvel are making this change in the first place. It’s just change for the sake of change and that is never a good way of introducing something new. To keep things in perspective, Aaron’s other changes in the Thor run have WORKED. Introducing the Past, Present and Future Thor has worked wonders in making for a compelling character overlook at who Thor is and where he’s going. Gorr and The Necro Sword have been awesome additions to Thor’s rogues gallery as has Dario Agger. These are creative changes which have actually fit into Thor’s universe. The decision to make Thor a woman has come straight out of nowhere and seems to fly flat in the face of Aaron’s plans such as introducing new love interest Roz Solomon, making Thor’s world more cosmic and teasing a 9 Realms war. What place does a female Thor have other than Marvel’s attempts to pander to the rising female demographic in the comic book audience?

I'm really gonna miss Aaron writing stories about actual versions of Thor you know...

2. Why make the New Thor a Woman?

When you look at this move critically, exchanging Thor's gender really doesn't make sense. In mythology and in the comics, Thor is iconically recognised as a long blonde haired guy with a hammer in the comics and movies. Not only that, Thor is his literal name. You can’t just pick up the hammer and be Thor. You only have his power, not his name. It isn’t an identity or a mantle like Captain America or Iron Man that can be passed along. Thor is the intrinsic identity of the God of Thunder and this replacement is just as obviously out of place as Eric Masterson was as Thor’s replacement. Not only do Marvel make the mistake to remove Steve Rogers from the position of Captain America just to put a temporary Falcon in place for a token's character sake, they now have the misguided notion to promote the female sex by replacing Thor's brilliantly written series by Jason Aaron with a female lead. So I guess Tony's brother Arno is going to be the new Iron Man because Marvel's reasons are sooo enlightened on these matters. And there’s one ultimate nail in the coffin for Marvel's misguided attempts at promoting gender diversity; that the new female Thor will still be defined by being a female version of Thor. Call me old fashioned if you will but I like Captain America as Steve Rogers, Tony Stark as Iron Man and Thor Odinson as Thor. These shoehorned replacements can never match the appeal or history that the originals have. You can't beat the originals as they say.

The real Marvel 'Trinity' so to speak. No exceptions or replacements can beat The original Source Material.

3. Why pull this PR stunt and try to appeal to gender diversity?

As I mentioned in my first paragraph, this is a blatant PR stunt on Marvel’s part designed to pander to feminist calls for women to have greater roles in comics. The only problem here is that most fans don't want different Thor's or Captain America's, we just want good stories with the same old heroes. Change things up a little, introduce some interesting plot points, bring in some solid characterisation and entertaining action, add in some extra elements and you have the recipe for the right kind of comic. That’s what Aaron was doing before and that’s what has made Thor: God of Thunder one of the best comics Marvel are currently putting out. But editorial interference seems to think that it’s a good idea to promote 'gender equality.' If I was directly addressing the Thor creative team and editors who seem to want gender equality in the Thor line, this is what I'd say. Make a damn effort to promote Thor's female support cast; Jane Foster, Roz Solomon, Lady Sif, Valkyrie, hell even Angela since you're bringing her in (and I have the feeling Angela is going to be the new Thor now.) Believe me when I say female characters need more promotion and treatment in comics but make them new characters or flesh out the old ones you have. Don't shoe horn a female character into a male hero's position as, at the end of the day, she's still defined by the male character, not her own legacy. I know Marvel are going for the “anyone can wield the power of Thor, even women” approach but this is ultimately detrimental to the female hero. Why? Because making a female version of a male hero demeans the male hero and leaves the superheroine being solely defined as a female replacement of the male hero.

At the end of the day, this new Thor will probably end up being defined by her contrast in sex to the male Thor. Not as her own original character separate from Thor.

4. Why make it a new or existing female character?

From the sounds of the press release, Marvel seem to be hinting that this is a Pre existing character, not a new one. And my best bets on who the new female Thor will be stick mainly at either Angela or Thor Girl. Angela is the angel from the Spawn comics created by Neil Gaiman who sold the rights to Marvel. She’s been introduced into the Marvel Universe in Age of Ultron, has interacted with The Guardians of The Galaxy and is now officially Thor’s retconned sister thanks to Original Sin. Although her hair is ginger, it’s entirely possible she could be dying her hair to look more like Thor. And she has the power and potential worthiness criteria to wield the hammer but I have my doubts as to whether it’s Angela. But it could be Thor Girl based on a teaser that this new character “was saved by Thor and made herself look like him.” Both points fit the description of Thor Girl, an alien called Tarene who was once associated with Thor back in the 90s. From what I’ve heard, she’s ascended to a higher plane of existence so her coming back just to be the new Thor seems highly unlikely. That leaves the problem that, if this is a new character, what’s the point of their existence?

Will Angela be the new Thor?

Will Thor Girl make a return to the Marvel Universe and take over from The Odinson?

Or will it be an entirely new character?

Which brings me to:

5. What’s the point of temporary change?

Unlike some people who are literally taking Marvel and Aaron’s statement that this is the new Thor period, I have my doubts that this will last longer than a year. It’s stereotypical, derivative, unoriginal and screams of a PR stunt to try and win over the female demographic of comic readers. But whilst this is temporary change easily reverted, that doesn’t make it any less of a bad idea. Not only is Thor at one of his most popular times with two solid movies (in terms of box office revenue and critical acclaim) he also has a critically praised comic series adored by the fans. Which makes it all the more confusing as to why Marvel are changing Thor for a new female character. The simple answer is shock value and generating a stir for the sake of it all over comic book fandom. That is not good enough for justifying a change in the first place. Change for the sake of change is not the right reason for doing it. This idea isn’t going to be fondly remembered among Jason Aaron’s excellent Thor series prior to this unfortunate announcement.

Does anyone know how long Eric Masterson was Thor? Because I'm pretty sure he wasn't a popular or well loved addition to the footnotes of Thor's comic book history.

Bottom Line

Can we jump to conclusions about the quality of this series? No, a Twitter conversion with Mat Elfring showed that much for certain. The perspective about the quality of this series is, for now, up in the air. Can we justifiably go ape **** about it? Only to an extent. Reasonable criticism and utter disbelief at Marvel’s inane decision making and slapped on PR is at least warranted. Losing one’s mind over this is not permissible however. But for me, it is the straw that broke the camel’s back. So, after Thor: GOT 25, I’m dropping that series and ending any Marvel related purchases on my pull list. Call that extreme if you want but Thor was the only series at Marvel I was willing to buy consistently without delay. Not to mention the only series I was truly interested in. I’ve been perfectly civil in my reasoning and given logical critiques of why I don’t like where this series is going. And that’s what’s needed, not irrational fanboyism. There are fortunately many reasons why this is clearly a bad move from day one of press release and if expressed in the right way, you can demonstrate why this series is a bad idea.

Finally, I hope the feminists and pushers for women to have greater roles in comics don't jump down my throat by proclaiming this a hate speech. It's an impassioned plea to Marvel pointing out the errors of their ways and, whilst it is just one opinion, is probably going to be shared by loads of die hard Thor fans too. If people like this then...good for you I guess, it's your call. But I most certainly do not. And I support a greater diversity in female leads such as Captain Marvel, Ms Marvel, Wonder Woman etc in comics. I just don't see the plausibility or sensibility in this foolish temporary change for the sake of change that is being proclaimed here. Cast this as an angry rant if you must but at least it'll be a rant where I've made some critical and fair points of this ostentatious change. That will be reverted in a year as all other Marvel changes are. And it will be a pointless, empty change all the same.

But this is just my one single opinion. Do you think Marvel have flown the coop making the new Thor a woman? Or is this a much needed change that will freshen Marvel's line and promote women's role in comics? Feel free to discuss, agree, disagree and contrast below in the comments.

This was a well thought out and well written blog good sir .

I agree with you but for me I will give it a shot for at least the first issue .

I didn't read the whole thing, but I get the jist of what you are saying and I agree. Replacing TGOT with just with a new title just called Thor and haveing a new Thor but not haveing it be Thor is confusing to say the least. Even though Aaron is writeing it and we all no he kills it writing Thor I can't help but think that even though marvel has said that she will be and always will be the new thunderer that Thor will be back very soon.

But, but, but Tumblr will love it!

Get over it Lvenger, you've had your cake. "pandering to feminist calls.." how disdainful, reflects poorly on you, we deserve to be "pandered to" as much as you do. You still have Superman to fall back on so there's the silverlining, at least you have the benefit of CHOICE. You should learn something from this as you watch your men-privilege dwindle.

I think the right thing to do would've been to elevate Valkyrie to a new level of awesomeness but I'll get behind this anyway without a second thought. I'll miss Man-Thor though, the current run is one of my favorite comic books right now actually but Lady Thor sounds pretty tempting to me. It's not a bad move entirely since the Finch's are preparing to take over Wonder Woman perhaps Marvel saw an opportunity to recruit some of us in these times of hardship and I'm willing to give them my loyalty. Hopefully the competitiveness will push Wonder Woman towards the top as well and we'll end up with not 1 but 2 badass women.

Hoping this book meets great success

You don't know that this is just "change for the sake of change" since you have no idea how the story is being done yet

They are only doing this because they want more female leads. But in reality replacing a hero with a temporary someone else is clichéd and over done and pointless. Even worse is that its only being done because they want a female, and marvel said Thor won't even be using the name the anymore because this chick is. Wtf. Really marvel? Thor isn't a title its a name. You just let some chick come in and take thors name?? The hell?? At first I was cool with this but as I read more about it it gets worse and worse. Thor has been stripped of his identity and we won't see him as the god of thunder for the foreseeable future. Marvels words not mine.

@archizoom: what you're describing sounds even worse. Throwing away Thor just because they want a woman to have a lead? They could've used any of the hundreds of goddesses but they are too uncreative to do that. So they just make Thor a female. @lvenger: I agree as you can see in my comment above lol

You never know

@jayc1324: No they won't turn Thor into a woman. I think this woman is somebody that Thor (the man) helped at one point, a separate individual to whom Thor will bequeath the Mjolnir. My money's on Frigg.

I have some disagreements. First of all, the reason its called THOR, is because of the hammers enchantment. It states that whoever is worthy will have the power of THOR. So no, she is not the Odinson, but she is the spiritual successor. And its still uses the same setting, its still has Mjolnir, I'm sure Thor Odinson will be involved, so keeping the title as just THOR makes sense to me.

I agree that holding off Aaron's war of the realms and everything he's been building is a bummer. However, based on how amazing Aaron has been doing, i don't believe he is leaving anytime soon. Let this play out and he will continue to build and come back to what he has been building.

Next, I dont think the goal is to establish a new character that will take the spotlight for a bit and then leave. I think this is something much bigger than that. Countless people will pick this up because of the title name THOR. This will grab readers that don't normally read female-led books. Its taking the people who ask for female-led books and dont read them when they come out, and trying to conform them. Trying to expand the audience that reads female -led books. I think that excellent. Not only that but I'm sure it will reel in a few new female readers. Not many, but little by little.

I also think this is an excellent opportunity to explore the Thor Mythos. Jason Aaron has tackles themes like what it means to be a god, exploring the 9 realms, the value of earth to Thor. Now we will explore what it means to be worthy. I think that is absolutely awesome.

And a side note. Those that propose that they use an existing character for a female led book, they have tried. Journey into Mystery was led by Sif. it was good, but no one would buy it so they had to cancel it. They are taking a leap of faith and going after the big audience which is good.

Thats my 2 cents

Shocking how some people come to conclusions about a story before its even seen print. SMH.

@jayc1324: Captain Marvel , Ms Marvel, Elektra , Black Widow and She- Hulk are quite good though.

@lone_wolf_and_cub: some of the things people from marvel are saying is what is making people upset.

@oscars94: Yeah I do like captain marvel very much

@jayc1324: That doesn't excuse people from spouting nonsense before the book is even out. Spiderman is my favorite character of all time and he was seemingly gone due to Doc Ock taking over his body and mind. I never once lost my $hit over it. It's a f@cking comic book. People need to lighten thef@ck up. Seriously. You would think Marvel killed somebody's family member the way people are overreacting. Don't worry people he'll be back as Thor. If only people put as much time and energy into things that actually matter than complaining about a comic book people might actually accomplish something of importance. Lol...

@lone_wolf_and_cub: lol people do tend to take their comic books seriously, just take a look at the battle forums. People just get angry when they grow to like a character and spend all this money and time on him/her and then they're just gone for no reason. Nothing that great or important usually comes out of it, it just seems like a waste of time, especially in the middle of thors current run which is one of the best runs of Thor ever.

There are times when any steps are better than no steps towards change, representation. There are times when things are simply stories.

There are times when it's too soon to tell.

This is one of those times, I suppose you can pick which one of the above I mean.

Yeah people tend to take this stuff more seriously than they should. A lot of overreacting tends to happen on this site.

For all we know, The Odinson bequeaths his status as 'God of Thunder' and in turn the name of 'Thor' (since it's almost synonymous at this point with the former title) because he failed to protect the innocent. Maybe The Fallen God will go by a new alias because he feels unworthy. Think of the possibilities. A former God of Thunder walking the Earth with a new view on Superheroing. Perhaps it is a more suicidal one. More barbaric. Maybe it's more tactical or perhaps cowardly. Meanwhile this new female God of Thunder has all the powers and immortality and is FingSU.

I am for one looking forward to such a new move. It's obviously not going to be permanent, and unlike Slott's Superior Spider-Man, Jason Aaron has actually provided an amazing run with the character of Thor before giving the character a "superior" twist.

I love how first it was Wally West fans freaking out, and now it's Thor fans being butthurt.

I'm stoked about this. I'll be buying the 1st few issues to see how it goes, which will also be my first purchases of any Thor title.

Agreed.

Every single day their is an overreaction on a comic book site.

Marvels "trinity" needs a Wonder Woman, who better than a goddes?

@shadowswordmaster: Thanks man and I can see why you'd want to give it a chance. It's just a drastically made editorial change that is most definitely not my cup of tea.

@z3ro180 I wish you had but thanks for reading what you did. And for seeing my point. Not only does this ruin a perfectly good series from Marvel but the change will only be temporary and be reverted once fans get tired of it or once the new Avengers film comes out. Which, surprise surprise, is when Superior Spider-Man reverted back to the usual Spider-Man.

@smashbrawler Ugh as if Tumblr aren't bad enough, now they have this **** to parade around all the time.

@archizoom I don't have the time, the patience or the desire to reply to your overly chauvanistic, uninformed and pretentious rubbish as I have time and again in the past. I'm tired of your stuck up statements and whiny excuses for posts. Give your opinion to someone else who cares because I'm tired of replying to you and showing you the error of your ways.

@danhimself This is CLEARLY change for the sake of change mate. Editorial comments and the press release reek of executive interference and a higher up Marvel boss probably making Aaron take this stark direction. I have laid out the reasoning for it being change for the sake of change logically and clearly. It goes against Aaron's plans and direction from this run. What sense does it make to go from writing about 3 different Thors to suddenly making Thor lose worthiness of wielding Mjolnir AGAIN and giving it to a woman? It's derivative and meant as a temporary cash grab to the limited female audience. There are obvious reasons why it's change for the sake of change.

@jayc1324 I know they are and I express my support for more female leads in comics. But "don't shoe horn a female character into a male hero's position as, at the end of the day, she's still defined by the male character, not her own legacy." I think that really sums up the erroneous decision making behind Marvel's reasoning at the end of the day. And why, regardless of sales or critical reception, this move is doomed to fail. A bad idea doesn't make for a good long term storyline. Thanks for the comment.

@sagejonathan:

I have some disagreements. First of all, the reason its called THOR, is because of the hammers enchantment. It states that whoever is worthy will have the power of THOR. So no, she is not the Odinson, but she is the spiritual successor. And its still uses the same setting, its still has Mjolnir, I'm sure Thor Odinson will be involved, so keeping the title as just THOR makes sense to me

As I clarify in my blog, there's a difference between possessing the power of Thor and being Thor. This new female character may have the power of Thor but regardless of Marvel's attempts to shoehorn her into the new Marvel Universe, she is most emphatically NOT Thor at the end of the day. Trying to make a female heroine out of a male hero's role, especially when the hero is still alive, is the road to unoriginality.

I agree that holding off Aaron's war of the realms and everything he's been building is a bummer. However, based on how amazing Aaron has been doing, i don't believe he is leaving anytime soon. Let this play out and he will continue to build and come back to what he has been building.

That's exactly why I hate this move. Aaron's 9 Realms war and excellent world building is all going up in smoke thanks to Marvel wanting to jump on the "empowered women" bandwagon. And whilst Aaron has done an amazing job on Thor and may write this new Thor OK, it's not something I want to read. So I'll wait till this change is inevitably reverted.

Next, I dont think the goal is to establish a new character that will take the spotlight for a bit and then leave. I think this is something much bigger than that. Countless people will pick this up because of the title name THOR. This will grab readers that don't normally read female-led books. Its taking the people who ask for female-led books and dont read them when they come out, and trying to conform them. Trying to expand the audience that reads female -led books. I think that excellent. Not only that but I'm sure it will reel in a few new female readers. Not many, but little by little.

Sorry but this clearly isn't the case here. It's a PR stunt designed to draw in a temporary female crowd. And what if it is popular? Do they keep female Thor for good alienating fans of the original and true Thor who want to see him back? Is that a good move? Furthermore, as I emphatically express, if you want more female characters in The Big Two, build up the ones you have! Or make new ones! Don't make a female superhero out of a male role as, at the end of the day, she's solely defined by being a female version of the male hero. Not a heroine with her own legacy. Can you not see how this PR stunt is a bad idea already? Just because it's trying to jump on the female reader bandwagon doesn't justify this marketing ploy in the first place. And I've seen female comic fans already call this a bad idea so it isn't drawing in new female readers as you think it is.

I also think this is an excellent opportunity to explore the Thor Mythos. Jason Aaron has tackles themes like what it means to be a god, exploring the 9 realms, the value of earth to Thor. Now we will explore what it means to be worthy. I think that is absolutely awesome.

I would agree if it were the original Thor we were talking about. But no, we have Ms Thor, Lady Thor and She Thor to do it instead. And yeah I am calling out Aaron's blatant name game facade because, as mentioned above, that's all this new female Thor is. She isn't Thor, she's female Thor and therein lies the path to failure. I do not think this is awesome at all. It's trite, unoriginal and majorly depressing that Marvel seem to be killing off/removing all their good characters for no good reason and only temporarily.

And a side note. Those that propose that they use an existing character for a female led book, they have tried. Journey into Mystery was led by Sif. it was good, but no one would buy it so they had to cancel it. They are taking a leap of faith and going after the big audience which is good.

Disagree, it is not a good move in any shape or form to make a female hero out of a male character. There is no originality to it, no justification that cannot be done with the male character in the first place and no reason why they can't promote more female books instead of making female characters out of male heroes. Thanks for the post though.

Just because Aaron might be able to spin this into a decent story doesn't mean it's not a bad idea. There are already justifiable reasons as to why this is a bad idea and flies in the face of Aaron's consistently awesome Thor run. Now, I have no reason to continue buying it or anything else from Marvel. No prior coming to conclusions or overwhelming negativity, it is just something that is not my cup of tea or something I want to read about. And in that, I'm definitely not alone based on the reception to this news.

@noteworthington Change for the sake of change is not warranted or justified for the most part. If Aaron had continued on the path he'd set out on, he would have had one of the best Thor runs of all time. As it stands, he's shot himself in the foot with this move.

As stated above, Thor losing his worthiness to wield Mjolnir is not only a detrimental move to Thor's character, it's an unoriginal trite move designed to pander to the feminist bandwagon. The possibilities of this move are not where I wanted Aaron to take Thor in. Thor having a new view on being a hero, being suicidal, barbaric, cowardly are TERRIBLE ideas to take Thor's character in. Aaron had nailed his understanding of Thor and is now taking leaps and bounds backwards on his superb run thus far. It's sad and depressing that he's forced to

And I find it laughably contradictory that you of all people are supporting this change. Doesn't this just scream of New 52 levels of stupidity and poor decision making? Doesn't this equate to a lack of understanding of the characters, of the universe and of the character in general? Did you even read my blog post or are you so blighted against the New 52 that anything Marvel does is golden in your book? There's an old pot meets kettle expression I could tell you of but I think you know the tune already. And yeah Aaron has given us a good run before this move which is why I abhorently detest it. We're losing Aaron's golden run just to make a new female character and for Marvel to say "Oh we're so enlightened, we're so appreciative of women in comics and female fans" when all they're doing is slapping a woman in Thor's role, thus defining her as female Thor.

I fail to see the merit in your reasoning or how you seem to have overlooked my points in favour of your own impression of Marvel against DC. For me, I'm doing the exact opposite of you and am now severing purchases of Marvel titles for the foreseeable future. Both these companies are in the ditches now but at least DC has some titles I can actually enjoy reading.

See my point on "changing Thor for a female just means she's female Thor and not her own character."

Thanks mate, much appreciated. Yeah I bet this new character will probably strike out on her own once people get tired of this female character using the name of a male hero to boost her popularity. And for every female fan Marvel gains, it loses male fans. Heck I've heard female comic fans call this move dumb which is contradictory to Marvel's purposes. Not to mention Aaron's amazing run has been halted for this gender bender change. (Sigh) I just got through Superior Spider-Man and now there's this to deal with. On a title I really loved too :(

Nice blog, man. I already replied to you in the actual news article... As much as a stupid decision this is, I don't see this being one with lasting effect. Within an year, things will go back to normal like they always do.

@lvenger: excellent blog! & this is definitely a change for the sake of change. I'm all for women leads in comics go for it but you don't get rid of fan favorite character who's finally getting the justice he deserves. I was raised on Thor , he was my dads favorite character & he was mine. Call it being butt hurt or overreacting or whatever you ppl want. This is not what I was raised on. There are so many other goddesses they could've use to make a lead out of. They could've made it more about Angela & let Thor have his time on earth & bequeath her his duties as heir to the thrown not bequeath his damn name & powers. These last few stunts marvel has pulled is going to bite them in the butt in the long run. I definitely will not be reading this series anymore & probably going to give up on marvel. Thank god my father doesn't know how to work or a computer. Smh this whole band wagon thing is going to destroy Thor's image after he's finally getting the justice he deserves smh

WHAT THE F***

Where is Thor Odinson?

HE'S my favourite character, not this Bull.

I know so many people who joined Marvel or love Marvel for the iconic Comic book characters they've created, like Captain America, Thor, Wolverine. And now all of a sudden Marvel is just totally disregarding all of us fans by Killing Wolverine for good and just REPLACING Thor and Cap, not even letting us fans down easy, just throwing away the characters we love most for trade-ins just because the characters they are being replaced with are what the world currently is. They are defiling the things we loved about these characters just because they think it will bring in more audiences, and while that's nice and all, couldn't they have just expanded on Thor girl and Thor at the same time.

I mean look at DC, they did the same thing to one of my favourite characters, Wally West. After the reboot i was so excited to see Wally, but after about a year i realised he wasn't coming back, they hadn't even thought about how fans would feel about this, they just deleted him. And that hurt, a lot. So when i heard Wally was coming back, i was so happy, only to find out now he's black, like WTF DC, i'm black, but even i know that's going too far, they can't just ruin our favourite characters just to impress the public, i'm really unhappy with comics right now, DC and Marvel better fix this.

I read your blog over my lunch, didn't have time to respond.

Ultimately...unfortunately perhaps, guess what? Marvel's move is working. I was driving home from work this morning and my local radio show was talking about Thor being a girl.

I have never even seen them spend so much as a second on a comic related topic (CBM doesn't count). And they played an audiobite from one of those all-female talk shows with old bitches on it.

So bummer for long time fans, but our money doesn't mean more (not that I am a particular die hard Thor fan though, just in general)

@archizoom: I suggest you read up on some Feminism, this certainly is NOT a true Feminist move.

@lvenger: Keep destroying the pro-female Thor supporters, I like watching this.

@archizoom: People falling for this crap is the reason we can't get actual unique female characters

@theacidskull: You mean after God of Thunder finishes or after Aaron's run finishes?

Exactly, very nice points made here. This is what I was talking about in my blog . If Marvel want to promote female characters, they have many they can do so with. Or they can make new ones. If female characters in the Thor line was the problem, there are plenty Aaron could work into his story to give them more coverage. It's silly to replace the definitively male Thor with a female replacement and call her Thor as that's not who she is at the end of the day. People are still going to call her She Thor, Lady Thor regardless of her being the actual identity of Thor.

@sebast_allen Preaching to the choir man. The Big Two have made loads of mistakes in the past few years and they don't seem to be learning at all. And they don't seem to understand the negative consequences of callously replacing iconic characters with unnecessary and non sensical replacements (with the exception of Bucky) Not to mention that Thor has already been replaced by Tanaurus only a few years ago so Marvel have already repeated their own actions.

Ha yeah I saw, thanks for both posts Caio :) I'll respond to both of them here since they have the same point. I definitely agree that this is an overglorified publicity stunt designed to make Marvel some more gender equal and promoting female roles in comics. But they don't realise that a good female character should not be defined by being a female version of a male hero. That's not how you craft memorable female characters at all. And like I said above, they always had female characters in Thor's world to promote rather than make a new female Thor.

This got on a local radio show? Seriously? Man this is terrible news. A real demonstration that it's a glorified PR stunt from Marvel at the end of the day. Did they run clips from the V show or whatever that program was where the news broke? Well doesn't matter because if it's being talked about at a local level, it must have made an impact.

And yeah, us forum posters don't have the biggest impact on the opinions of the comic reading majority. Dissenters of Superior Spider-Man didn't stop its high sales or misguided critical acclaim. And likewise, critics of this move might be drowned out by those with feminist sensibilities as well as those who have a desire to see more female leads in comics. So I do predict the sales for the first issue are going to be quite good for Marvel. But it's not something I wanted to see in the first place, especially with where Aaron's run was going.

@frozen: Thanks but this particular one has a reputation for it. (S)he does the same on the Wonder Woman forums too despite that being one of DC's best series about a UNIQUE (key word after all) female superhero. One not defined by anyone else regardless of her original creation being based on a female Superman. This is just Marvel trying to do their own version of Wonder Woman without a unique identity. What are your thoughts on this?

Bingo.

I'm not a huge Thor fan, so I might not be as passionate about the character as others, but I have no problems with this, it's not like Thor is becoming a woman, he will still exist, I'm assuming it'll just be someone else wielding the hammer and the role as God of Thunder. I'm no more mad about this than Bucky becoming Cap or Nightwing becoming Batman. Only time will tell if this will be good or not.

@lvenger: Good analysis.

I'm regularly reading comics since the end of the 70s, and for me this is a new low point.

Coming from someone who read AND appreciated all Thunderstrike issues.

The good news: we may have a battle with King-female-Thor with Necro-sword and the power of the Runes.

My kids will love it.

More seriously, the female Thor is scheduled for October 2014. We'll see in October 2015 if Wolverine is still dead and if Odinson-Thor has regained Mjolnir or not.

But isn't what Marvel does now? Short-sighted decisions for a days worth of press :P
Why did they name her Thor though? Why not "God of Thunder", and advertise as a Thor spin off. My only problem is that Thor was at his best currently so bringing in another character will end that good streak Thor had :(

Anyway I am not affected by this since I don't buy any Marvel comics to begin with. Marvel has a business model that I hate.

Do none of the Marvel women with solos just now count?

Yes but they will all start failing when people stop paying attention to the cool unique females so they can start buying stuff like fake Thor.

@lvenger: I understand your opinions but I still disagree. Good points and small debate though.

@bullpr: Oh you liked the Thunderstrike stuff? That's cool, I only had a few issues of Eric Masterson as Thor and whilst they weren't the best, they at least had some semblance of the right idea. Making a new female Thor is just a poor PR strategy to increase the female market. And yeah I doubt this change will last long too.

@squalleon As of this move, I'm done with Marvel too for the forseeable future. Thor was the only title I was interested in and it was a damn good one at that. And I think Marvel were going for the "Hey anyone can be Thor, even a woman!" approach for gender equality. Sadly, it just makes the female Thor's most important quality the fact that she is a female Thor. No hiding behind a thicket of words can hide that truth from Marvel.

This is the lesser of two evils but it's still an evil that's a terrible idea in the first place. And you're blatantly missing the crucial point that Thor is not a mantle or identity to be passed down like Captain America or Batman was to Bucky or Dick. Passing on the mantles to Bucky and Dick made sense as, whilst Steve and Bruce are the iconic representations of the characters, they are legacy related identities.

In contrast, Thor IS who he is. It's his identity, his own person. Just because one wields the power of Thor does not make them Thor. Marvel's attempts to glean over this are evidently a huge mistake since the female Thor is now solely defined as being the opposite gender from what Thor was. You seemed to have missed that major point in the first place which makes your example erroneous. I did make that point crystal clear in my blog so I fail to see how you glossed over it.

@jonny_anonymous: Have people been talking about doing that? That seems like an odd thing to do.

@lvenger: Yeah, I was baffled.

Response from hosts and the audiobite they played was pretty positive too. :/

@jonny_anonymous: There's nothing anti-feminist about a woman taking the place of a man as far as I'm concerned. I rather feast my eyes on a glorious female facsimile of a male predecessor than put up with the rubbish they've done to an independent brand like Wonder Woman. I'm actually more concerned with how they repeatedly reduce the most iconic woman in comics to a Superman supporting character, this is a very female friendly decision by comparison.

@frozen: Why not, Thor Odinson has become unworthy and a Woman will take his place. We're taking baby steps