So seeing as how this is all over the blogosphere right now and a couple people have asked me my opinion on it, I guess I might as well rant on it. “What do I think about Marvel’s decision to make the new Thor a woman?” Well, I think it’s ridiculously fucking dumb. But maybe not for the reasons people think I do.
Its disingenuous. On several levels. It’s a ridiculous marketing ploy. If you’re a comic book fan, then guess what. They’re not doing this for you.
Have you ever noticed that you never see commercials for comic books on TV? You never hear one on the radio. There are no billboards. You don’t even see print ads for comics in non-comics magazines. In fact, I can’t even think of the last time I saw a banner ad for a comic on a non-comic related website. The only place you ever see comic book advertisements is in other comic books. This means that the only people comics ever advertise to, are the people already buying them. We are currently nine days away from San Diego Comic Con, the biggest assemblage of geeks on the planet. If Marvel actually had an announcement that they wanted comic book fans to care about don’t you think they would have waited a week and done it there? But instead they did it on The View. Why, because this is a targeted attempt to say “Women should read comics, because Thor is a chick now!” and “Chicks watch The View, right?”
Now, don’t get me wrong. The story could be great. Who knows. Here’s hoping. I always hope comics will be great. But this isn’t really about Thor. This is about using “feminism” as a marketing demographic. It’s pretending to do something “big” so that you can peak the interest of the media. It’s like killing off Spider-man (newsflash, for the non-comics readers, he’s alive again) or Captain America (also alive) or Superman (yeah, guess what… alive). When either of the big two decide to make a press release to mainstream media about a big shakeup it is ALWAYS just a marketing stunt.
And this one I find kind of offensive. First of all, the initial announcement on The View, by Whoopi Goldberg (who clearly had it prepared for her and doesn’t know anything about the comic):
“Thor, the God of Thunder, he messed up. He is no longer worthy to hold that damn hammer of his. And for the first time in history that hammer is being held by a woman.”
And then the press release from Marvel continues:
“The inscription on Thor’s hammer reads ‘Whosoever holds this hammer, if HE be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.’ Well it’s time to update that inscription,” says Marvel editor Wil Moss. “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!”
Only this is NOT the first time in history the hammer has been held by a woman. Obviously, the audience of the View can’t possibly know that, so it sounds good in a press release. But Marvel knows that. And they know that their fans know it, so they never would have said that if it was announced at Comic Con. There was an out of continuity story where Rogue became the new wielder of the hammer. Mjolnir was wielded by Wonder Woman in the Marvel/DC crossover event from 2003— which ok, maybe you can argue it was out of continuity —or the couple times IN continuity where Storm WHO IS MENTIONED IN THE FUCKING PRESS RELEASE has held it, most recently in a comic they published a whole THREE YEARS AGO.
Press releases are about advertising. Comics aren’t unique in that respect. And if this can get a few new readers in the door to comic shops wonderful. But don’t promise them something you can’t deliver on. The press release continues:
Series writer Jason Aaron emphasizes, “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.”
THOR is the latest in the ever-growing and long list of female-centric titles that continues to invite new readers into the Marvel Universe. This female THOR is the 8th title to feature a lead female protagonist and aims to speak directly to an audience that long was not the target for Super Hero comic books in America: women and girls.
No it’s not! Do you know why? Do you know who Thor really is? Thor is Chris Hemsworth. The first Thor movie grossed $450M. The second one hit $645M. The Avengers movie pulled in $1.5billion. Right now, Thor sells 36,000 copies every month. You can probably expect the first female Thor comic to double to 70K, and if they’re REALLY lucky, they’ll triple to 100K or so. After that, they’ll settle back in to the regular pattern. 40K for a few months, and then dwindle back down to the current level. The second Avengers movie is set to debut on May 1st of next year, and if you don’t think Marvel will be looking for the sales bump that comes with having a character in a book that looks like Chris Hemsworth when the new movie comes out then I have a bridge to sell you (By the way, Spiderman and Captain America’s “deaths” were reversed just in time for their movies too). This means, at best she’s got a good eight to nine months of viability “being Thor” which, is probably about how long the concept is marketable, so this is pretty good timing actually.
And Marvel even knows this because what they didn’t put in the press release is that all the while Girl Thor is running around, Boy Thor will be too. They released images of what Thor the disgraced Thor is going to look like while he fights to find his honor while the female Thor is “leading” the book. Which means that they’re basically acknowledging that female Thor is temporary. But that wouldn’t make a nice sound bite on The View.
But what really bugs me is the quote from Jason Aaron justifying this. This is not the “real” Thor. The real Thor will still be in the book. This is essentially Lady Thor. Honestly, but for the fact that she gets to carry the “official” hammer (whoop-de-doo) she is basically “Thor Girl.” From what we know, (basically from what Goldberg said on The View this morning) she even has the same basic origin as Thor Girl did.
The thing is, Thor is not a title. It makes sense to be rooting for a woman to be the next president. It make sense to root for a woman to be a five star general. It even makes sense to root for Kacy Catanzaro on American Ninja Warrior. Those are situations where you’re looking for a woman to make her own way and become something as impressive as men have become. This on the other hand is just pretending to be that. It is saying that a successful female character should be a replacement (and obvious pretender) to a male character. If Marvel really wants to have female characters for a female audience to look up to, then FUCKING INVENT SOME. The new Ms. Marvel book is really good. At least Elektra, Storm and Black Widow are original characters. If you really want to have a tie-in to the Thor mythos, then why not give Valkyrie (currently very popular in Defenders) or Sif (very popular from the movie series) a book?
Why not? Because that would involve producing another title, with mediocre sales, and if you want it to get better actually having to write a good story. And writing is hard!!! It’s way easier to just do a sales ploy and ask people to buy it by saying “this is good for women! You’re a feminist right? Then you better buy this or you hate women!”
This wasn’t done to be innovative. It wasn’t done to empower women. It wasn’t done to give young girls someone to look up to. It was done to drum up interest and get TheMarySue.com to write about and advertise the book for free. Which they did. Mission accomplished.
Yeah, more or less my thoughts when I heard it. My initial thought was “Unless they have a really good story around it, all they’re really doing is putting boobs on a guy, calling him a woman, and being exploitative about it”.
I can tell you from my experience, girls are very interested in Thor as long as he’s played by Chris Hemsworth
At least they didn’t turn him into an Alien or Odin forbid a frog. Nobody would read that!
Andy: Frog Thor rules!
I was tempted and then I remembered: comics cost money. I cannot afford to have 11+ subscriptions right now.
Chris yes it does. It probably the most loved story from Walt Simonson’s run. And he had the best run since Kirby. And it sounds like a ridiculous premise but was amazing. It all depends on the creators. Thunder strike was pure shit. Beta Ray Bill pure genius.
Incoming Thunder Thighs jokes, calling it now
No one gave this much crap when they turned Loki into a female. I don’t get the outrage. Wolverine will never stay dead and Thor won’t stay Thorette forever either.
Chris: Depends on who you’re talking about. For most people, it’s because they didn’t announce they were turning Loki female in the press. They just did it as part of a storyline. So honesty, most people never even noticed. It happened in 2008, and the movie didn’t come out til 2011, so outside of the really small comic book reading public, most people never actually knew or cared. Bendis once pointed out that when he killed Hawkeye off in Avengers #502 (1998) he didn’t even ask the editor. He just did it. If he tried to do it in the post-movie world he’d never be able to get approval.
On the other hand, there were plenty of comic fans who did care when they changed Loki into a woman. Because people, geeks especially, fear change.
But no, it wasn’t as big of a deal because even amongst the geeks, Loki (at the time) was a minor character in the Marvel Universe, and a villain. There’s far more leeway than when you change something with a hero that people are attached to.
But my problems with it, as I said in the blog aren’t storyline related so much as business and philosophy related.
I figured people didn’t care about Loki because that’s what Loki did, turn into other things to fuck with people. Granted, I don’t know the Lady Loki storyline, so.
http://textsfromsuperheroes.com/image/91902045306
Yeah, they had a horse Thor already, why not a female Thor? It does complicate the movies a bit though.
Bryon: Let me be clear. I’m not against there being a woman with the power of Thor in the comics, as I said, they’ve done it before at least 3 times (arguably more, since there’s also Thor Girl, who I mentioned here already and others in a crossover called “Fear Itself” where they gave people hammers and Thor like powers). I’m opposed to the way its being marketed and the disingenuous representation.
http://textsfromsuperheroes.com/image/91910466261
Mike: eh, the Iron Man one was a lot funnier than the Odin one.
If you can’t trust the funny picture book guys who can you trust?
My favorite Thor one was http://textsfromsuperheroes.com/image/58965278460 but it’s not really relevant…
Christy: I’m actually pretty surprised that the costume they designed doesn’t look like that.
I’m more surprised that I posted the same thing and got accosted with sexist and chauvinism while Christy can get away with it ;/ .. mind you the only one calling me that were guys, the ladies responded with lols.
I love her post!
Arthur: I’m actually quite ok with sexy costume designs on superheroes (male or female). There’s totally a place for them depending on the context and intended audience of the story.
I don’t disagree. I just thought that was hysterical!
Her costume is great. I happened to be scrolling and saw it & of course thought of this post. It’s funny
Christy: And for that I thank you! 🙂
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=54083
The Enchantress should now be male and named the Enchanter.
Also, this is funny: http://www.geekxgirls.com/article.php?ID=2752
Reading Jason’s link, it sounds like it might be a cool story. As for the disingenuous marketing ploy…I don’t think you often get to be head of a marketing department based on your integrity and enduring dedication to truth, so what else would you expect? But what’s really bothering me is all the references in the article to “Asgardia.” Is Asgardia a different place, or did they just throw an “ia” at the end of Asgard to make it…cooler? I guess?
But Max, PR people, like scientists, are usually honest and righteous!
Don’t try to bait me into scientist bashing! I do have a whole can of whupass I wanna unleash on Stephen Hawking but it would be so much work…
I figure things like these are for the Cosplay crowd. That said, why do they never make female characters male?
How many originally-male comic characters are there? How many originally-female characters are there? Now, *subtract* all the female characters who weren’t already created as distaff counterparts to existing male characters (supergirl, batgirl, she-hulk…). If they did pick characters at random to gender swap, statistically, there just wouldn’t be many female-to-male characters.
Also, wonderman is a thing, so not never.
While it’s true that there are fewer original female characters, there’s still a decent #, and there’s ALMOST NO male counterparts to any of them. Wonderman is an oblique Wonder Woman reference if a reference at all, one is Marvel, the other DC. Really I think it’s sexism. It’s one thing to have a female “copy” of a male character, but I think a male “copy” of a female character is perceived as nigh unthinkable. The only one I can think of is tenuous – Quentin Quire copying the look of Dark Phoenix. ( I think really the subliminal hurdle is : What male would copy the look of a woman?) Until the gender switches go the other direction (female characters becoming male), I think the comics medium is still profoundly sexist in ways it doesn’t even understand or acknowledge.
John: What Dale said. There are occasions when it has happened, but they are more rare purely because of statistical randomness. I wouldn’t count Simon Williams/Wonderman because he’s a distinct character from a different continuity who is similar in name only. But I’m pretty sure there have been stories in DC where Wonder Woman has been changed into a man. And there have probably been short, one off, stories in Marvel where it has happened as well.
The character of Xavin, in Runaways “initially” appeared as a male, but that was only for storyline convenience, s/he was always intended to be fluidly gender swappable as that was sort of the point of the character.
Oh, Cloud, from Defenders… Hey H. Jameel Al Khafiz, can you remember if Cloud started out as male or female? I *feel* like it was a she at first, but I know it has been depicted both ways. But again, like Xavin, that was sort of the point.
Also, Mystiq (Raphael-Raven Darkholme) in Exiles comic book.
She started female.
But isn’t Xavin a copy of a male character – the Super Skrull? (I don’t know – I don’t follow it)
There’s an entire group of Super-Skrulls. K’lrt was just the first.
Eh… i mean, I guess… but not in the way this Thor is a copy of Boy Thor or even like She-hulk is a copy of Hulk. Xavin is a Skrull, as in that is his/her species. They all have those powers. So she’s a copy in the same way that most characters are a copy of Adam and Eve.
Female Thor is a female version of Thor. There is no male version of Black Widow. No male version of Scarlet Witch. No male version of Firestar. No male version of Storm. No male version of Wonder Woman. No male version of Black Canary. I could go on and on – every major original/unique female character has no male version, unless it’s in some one-off or obscure story. I guess technically there is a male version of Zatanna (her father, but I’m not sure he counts.)
John: Well, it counts in that it underscores your point. Zatanna is actually a female version of Zatara. Zatara predates her by decades. She just has gone on to become far more relevant a character. Arguably, because of cartoon appearances, Hawkgirl has out shown Hawkman in recent years too.
Oh, and btw: There is a male version of Scarlet Witch. Wiccan her “son” (quotes used for reasons that aren’t worth explaining in this thread, but only because I don’t want a comic book purist to say “he’s not quite her son”)
There’s also a male version of Mystique currently (Raze) who is a villain terrorizing the X-men in the most recent issue (he’s also part Wolverine, but he’s more just Boy Mystique with claws). I feel like there’s been male versions of Storm before. And there have certainly been male replacements for Phoenix as previously mentioned (Quentin in current comics, and the avatar of the Phoenix in the 1990s version of Guardians of the Galaxy was male).
But yes, John’s point still holds. It is far more common to have the reverse.
I’m not sure how true this is, but I have read that a lot of the female-versions-of-male-heroes were created as a preemptive copyright defense. (Like, there was a case, it went in a way that surprised the industry, and they reacted almost in a panic to create spider-woman and a bunch of others before someone else did.) And that this occurred at a time when female heroes were basically non existent, which is why the reverse doesn’t seem to exist… so again, it’s the numbers.
Oh wait, I found the Stan Lee quote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Woman
Good thing an alien was never worthy of the powers of Thor, that’s all I gotta say… 😉
Dale: yep. That’s exactly why it was done in many cases.
And moreover, certain titles continue to come back. Most notably “captain marvel”
The quote is from 1978 and the comic book that is shown in thumbnail is from after 2000? Someone didn’t do their homework.
Edit: Okay, I understand now why the thumbnail doesn’t match the quote, but still odd.
It occurs to me, nobody has ever created the male version of Kitty Pryde yet. Quickly, Chris, make that comic book before Marvel does!
No. The point is spider woman continues to come back every few years. There must be a publication every once in a while to show active use of the trademark so that it isn’t up for grabs and DC or someone takes it.
Failure to do this is how Marvel got the trademark in “Captain Marvel” in the first place (and the only reason that character ever existed. It was hastily thrown together to snag the name from the character now commonly called “Shazam”)
I don’t know, man… so much of this just seems like “internet comic book rage of the day” over, really, nothing.
Spider-Woman has NOTHING to do with Peter parker’s origins. She IS her own character. To me, that’s like saying any and all characters that have “Spider” in their name are derivatives of Peter – whether they are Marvel, DC, Image or any other company’s characters.
Heck, you don’t even need to put part of the same name in a character’s name to be a derivative…
Dark Sied and Thanos are just one example. Thanos was even based off of Dark Sied. This happens all the time in comic book land.
Heck, Walt Simonson did this TWICE in his run on Thor. Obviously with Thor Frog but with the Beta Ray Bill story line (for those that remember), when BRB picked up the hammer, he BECAME Thor – which had never happened before even though other characters had briefly been found worthy of the power of Thor. They still never actually BECAME Thor like Beta Ray Bill did. And, to solve the problem, Odin decided BRB and Thor would fight to see who was truly worthy.
Thus far, I have seen some female outrage over the fact that supposedly this new female Thor had to be rescued by Thor… well, excuse me for being dismayed here but BRB and Thor’s fight was a really great one until a volcanic eruption hit and Thor nearly fell into a lava pit. In fact, Beta Ray Bill even has a thought bubble that he could easily let Thor fall and claim the mantle all for himself and have the power to save his people.
But, being heroic, he SAVES Thor even though that meant sacrificing his newfound Thor power and, in effect, killing his people since he no longer has sufficient power to save them.
It was that act that Odin decided to change his mind and grant BOTH BRB and Thor the power of, well, Thor.
Yeah… I can remember all THIS crap but I couldn’t memorize a geometry rule to save my life. 🙂
@Michael, there is… Vision… Even though he is an android, he ‘phases’. 😉 Just sayin’.
Vic Sage eventually passed off the mantle of The Question to Renee Montoya, she wasn’t She-Question… It was organic. But I guess Nu52 undid that and made the derma skin Sage’s actual face now… Hrrm.
Asgardia is something different than Asgard…I couldn’t tell you why, but I think it involves Oklahoma.
There is a Zatara who’s I guess named after Zatanna, her nephew who showed up a few times.
RE: Asgardia – Yes, it involves Oklahoma and the storyline reason is too stupid to get into. But basically, Asgard fell down to earth and now floats over Oklahoma and they renamed it. The real reason though, “Asgard” is public domain and can’t be trademarked by Marvel. Asgardia totally can be.
RE: Zatara: Yes, the Zatara that currently appears is Zatanna’s cousin, and the original Zatara’s nephew. But they’re both based on the original Zatara (Zatanna’s father). Zatanna debuted in 1964, but Zatara debuted in 1938 in a comic called Action Comics #1 that was more or less unmemorable otherwise… well…. except for this one guy…
All right then, I think “Asgardia” is stupid and I will now crusade across the internet to shame Marvel into changing it. Well, not *right* now. Maybe later. After I’ve had a few drinks.
Zatara was also married to Charity (Madam Xanadu) in Starman… to further complicate things… LOL.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=54125
John: yep… I actually just posted a follow up on the Cap switch this morning (http://www.chrismaverick.com/wp/2014/07/17/on-thorcaptain-american-and-feminismmulticulturalism-for-fun-and-profit/) but what’s really interesting is that that article, which is about all the so-called “innovative” changes (Cap is Black, Thor is Female…) the only one they mention in the headline is that the white guy has a new suit.
Wasn’t this the exact same criticism that was raised when Kamala Khan (who I love too, by the way) was announced as the new Ms Marvel? That Marvel was just introducing a muslim Ms Marvel as a cheap marketing stunt? That if they were really serious about it, they’d make a new muslim superhero instead of piggybacking on Ms Marvel’s name? That she’d never be the real Ms Marvel? That she wouldn’t last long? I’m just talking about the reactions to the initial announcement here, not the actual comic.
Mark: some of the criticism was the same, at least in what you’re hearing from the “comic book” media, but I don’t think it was the same situation. For the differences, you have to start at the original Ms. Marvel (hereafter referred to as Danvers to avoid confusion). I actually DIDN’T like changing Danvers into Captain Marvel. I was perfectly ok with her being Ms. Marvel or Binary or Warbird. Even though Ms. Marvel pas patterned after the original (Mar-vell) Captain Marvel, the Danvers character had, against all odds, honestly, evolved into a far richer character than the trademark placeholder she was created to be. (this is alluded to elsewhere in this comment thread). So, while officially the intent of Marvel (and I do believe it was genuine in that case) was that Danvers is *CAPTAIN* Marvel because she deserves to be, much like I said in my most recent post about Sam Wilson as the new Captain America, imposing the new identity on her weakens the identity that the writers had forged for her outside of it.
That said, when that change was made, it was only announced to the comic book reading public, which is actually very small. There was no press release on The View or the Colbert Report, mostly because Marvel knows that no one in the real world gives a damn who Captain Marvel or Ms. Marvel is. So it felt like less of a PR stunt.
Moving on to the new Ms. Marvel (hereafter referred to as Khan), I was always less resistant. I did have some reservations that it might be a stunt, because there was a press release, but it was still a much smaller deal than the Captain America or Thor releases, again, because no one knows who Captain Marvel is anyway. From a business point of view, I understand that it is important for Marvel to publish *some* character with the name “Ms. Marvel” to enforce the trademark. And since the name wasn’t being used, why not. Khan has as much reason to be Ms. Marvel as Sharon Ventura. So I went into “wait and see” mode and was pleasantly surprised.
The problem is, realistically, for business reasons, Wilson and LadyThor CAN’T stay as the Cap and Thor forever, just like Bucky and Thunderstrike couldn’t. Just like Dick Grayson couldn’t stay Batman and Artemis couldn’t stay Wonder Woman. In a different time, you could replace the Flash or the Green Lantern indefinitely, but in today’s world, ruled more by the much more lucrative box office than the comics, that isn’t viable for certain properties. Cap and Thor are among those properties. Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel aren’t.
So while I optimistically *hope* for good stories, the nature of the business shows me that that isn’t necessarily the number one priority.
Finally it comes down to storytelling. But for the character aspect that she’s a geeky fangirl, Khan’s usage of the name Ms. Marvel *in-story* has nothing to do with the storyline. The book would be just as good if she were an original character called “MorphGirl.” The name is only in use to defend the trademark. Granting that we have not seen a single page of storyline yet, but in both the Thor and Cap cases, this isn’t true (and it wasn’t true for Thrunderstrike or Bucky). The story lines appear to depend upon the idea that these two newcomer minorities must now live up to the legendary status of the real heroes they are emulating, which is especially insulting in Sam Wilson’s case as he is a character with 45 years of history in his own right.
So now you see why I didn’t want to say it all on Twitter. Thank you for taking the time to ask directly on the blog. It was a good question.
I don’t even care anymore, I am just not reading corporate books anymore. Hulk is pretty much it. Even Image makes me think cash grab lately. I am sticking with indie books and Frankenstein Alive Alive (when Bernie gets better).
How about a compromise for the movies. Like Pixar and DreamWorks does shorts for their popular films. Could we get a short where Kat Dennings picks up the hammer and has an all shenanigans adventure, that’s just a dream or something in the end. Cause I would totally watch Kat Dennings in nipple plate armor