Marvel’s New “Politically Correct” THOR is a Chick

From Now On Thor will Wear a Bra and a G-String

No matter how deep you dig in the fantasy world of cartoons and superheroes, it’s hard to imagine a more masculine character than Thor, who is based on the god of thunder of Norse myth: he’s the strapping, hammer-wielding son of Odin who, more often than not, sports a beard and likes nothing better than smacking frost giants. [8] However, Marvel says that a new series written by Jason Aaron with art by Russell Dauterman will re-cast Thor as a female character. [8] That’s right folks, Marvel Comics is introducing an all-new, female God of Thunder, it was announced Tuesday July 15 2014. [1] Marvel shocked the comic book world when the distaff Thor was unveiled on Tuesday’s ABC daytime series The View, with the co-hosts debuting artwork of a blond woman with a silver outfit carrying the superhero’s signature hammer. [1] [12] Thor, who debuted in the Journey Into Mystery title in 1962, has also been the star of two movies in the latest Marvel big-screen series; plus he played a pivotal role in the Avengers cinematic adaptation.  [8] The female Thor will be the star of her own eponymous comic book series beginning in October. The new Thor books will be written by Jason Aaron, with art from Russell Dauterman. [2] [14] Thor is the eighth Marvel title to feature a lead female protagonist. [2] The new hero’s identity when she’s not Thor is being kept under wraps. [1] In the stories Aaron has written over the past two years in “Thor: God of Thunder,” a preceding series, Thor’s father, Odin, has been AWOL from Asgard, home of the Norse gods, leaving his wife, Freyja, in charge. “Most of Thor’s supporting cast is female now,” Aaron said. In fact, Asgard itself has been renamed Asgardia. The renewed “feminized” home of the gods in Marvel continuity, is now ruled by goddesses collectively known as the All-Mothers. He has a newfound sister in Angela, a powerful lost Asgardian from the Tenth Realm who is strong enough to defeat him at his best.  [13] And in the future, Thor has three super-powerful granddaughters, Frigg, Ellisiv, and Atli, who are known as the Girls of Thunder and are warriors of the same stripe as the Odinson himself. [13] While details are scarce, we now know that this new Thor was saved by her predecessor, the former male Thor, who is no longer worthy to wield Mjolnir. [9] Unable to lift it, Thor began calling himself by his family name, Odinson, and Mjolnir sat where he left it, on the moon—until a mysterious woman picked it up. [10] “The plan was always to get to the point where the Thor that we knew had become unworthy,” he said. [13] “But at some point I got to the story of somebody new carrying the hammer. I didn’t know who initially, but once I started thinking about it, I knew that I wanted it to be a woman. Thor has been in publication since ’62, and in all those years we’ve rarely seen a woman pick up the hammer. And if you look at Thor’s supporting cast — especially with the stuff I’ve been doing — Thor’s surrounded by a lot of female characters. So when you start to look around in this world and say, ‘Well, if he can’t pick up the hammer, who can?’ it seemed natural that it’d be one of these women.” [13]

The new Thor’s thought bubbles aren’t in that dignified fantasy-speak she (involuntarily) uses when she speaks as Thor,  but in normal, conversational English. She doesn’t quite know why she’s Thor, but she knows what she should be as Thor. [10] The female Thor will “be able to do things the other guy couldn’t do; she’ll have a different relationship with Mjolnir,” Aaron promised. “I’m not going to say it’s gonna start talking, but it will definitely be a presence in the book.” [2]

When asked if having a female Thor was an effort by Marvel to diversify its characters — and then, hopefully, its fanbase — the writer of the serie, Jason Aaron, said that while Marvel was “behind [the plan] from the get-go,” but the initial idea to make the switch was his. [12] “That said, you can say that Marvel is more conscious of diversifying the lead characters in their books by way of diversifying its audience, then in turn diversifying the creators who work on that book,” Aaron added. “It’s generally something everybody is more aware of, it’s something that’s in the zeitgeist these days. But it’s not like the changes that we’re doing to Thor were motivated purely by that, that’s more the reason that Marvel got behind it in such a big way . . . it’s certainly more than just a press release or a sales gimmick.” [12] He admits that at some point, “you can’t ignore the type of zeitgeist these days.” [13]  The truth is that those developments in the fantasy world of Thor reflect real-life demographic shifts in the traditionally male-dominated comics business. Brett Schenker, who blogs about politics, technology and comics, recently reported on comicsbeat.com that 46.7 percent of self-identified comics fans on Facebook — a population that grew in February to a new high of 24 million fans in the U.S. — are female. [2] [16] “Women are an already significant but still growing segment of comic fandom and readership,” Schenker told TODAY.com.  [2] “Female comics fandom has been on the rise for many years now,” Gladston agreed. “Nowadays lots of young women read many different types of comics and graphic novels.”  [2]  “Marvel has recognized this and made a concerted effort to build that segment of their readership,” Schenker said. “From every stat I see, they’re succeeding.” [2]  Marvel says that this, their eighth title to feature a lead female character, “aims to speak directly to an audience that long was not the target for superhero comic books in America – women and girls“. [8]

The Backlash: Feminists and Political Correctness are Ruining Everything!

This astounding news of a female Thor came up the same week the Disney-owned comics publisher announced a black Captain America: Thor, formerly the brawny, bearded god of thunder, would now be a woman. [2] The news has been met with zealous yet mixed reactions.  [7] The change has left many thunderstruck since the new character was unveiled on “The View.” [2] Many welcomed the news as a sign of a largely male-dominated culture making moves to appeal to female fans, but others saw it as either a cheap play in that direction — or seemingly couldn’t handle the idea of the most macho of Marvel’s muscled men becoming a woman (even though a female Thor makes total sense). [12] In fact, it’s even worst than it looks, Thor isn’t just a lady, but she’s also a feminist. [4] “Thor is a chick,” Tucker Carlson declared disapprovingly Sept. 21 on “Fox News Sunday.” [3] Similar dismay echoed on Twitter:

In this segment, which is a pretty amuzing TV moment, Fox & Friends did a report that started off with what they called the “wussification” of Popeye and lead to complaints about Thor being a woman and Wonder Woman not being in short shorts and a halter top in the new movie. [3]

The writer of the new serie, Jason Aaron, said that he was a bit disapointed with the nature of the negative reaction. “There has been some grumbling that seems to mostly revolve around the fact that it’s a female character we’re replacing Thor with. I think if we just said somebody else is going to pick up the hammer of Thor — it’s just this other dude — I don’t think we would’ve gotten quite the same response,” he told Time Magazine. [12]

Gender identity theorists and feminists scholars would say that “the burgeoning Thor controversy is part of a network of problems to do with representation in comics.” [7]  According to the received view on the subject, one aspect in particular weighs heaviest in this context and its the so-called “fact” that, as a western culture, we still struggle with “androcentrism” – the belief that male experience is the norm and that everything else is, at best, a derivation of the norm and, at worst, abnormal. [7] According to this point of view, which is the conventional leftist position in academia, “the negative reactions to Thor [or any similar gender swapping superhero] indicate discontent with a change in the status quo; it is a violation of what some fans consider to be “true”, to be “normal”. [7] Even worst than that they say, “it’s not just change that is being rejected, but the possibility that the (male) norm is being revised.” [7]  They don’t understand the adverse reaction from the male “geek crowd.”  They say it’s a sexist reaction, stating that “Thor has undergone previous changes – he was even a frog, but a male frog. In this way, maleness is continually seen as the centre of Thor’s universe, as the norm, and femaleness as an aberration.” [7]

But the most ridiculous comments on the subject came from the feminists themselves, more precisely from Raw Story‘s writer Amanda Marcotte who sees this Thor chick bullshit as a big victory for feminism and a big defeat for mens rights advocates and the “Absorbing Man”.  According to her, “there’s a loud and shameless sexist corps in the geek world,” and following this Thor gender swap she detected that “there was a major and irritating hue and cry from some corners.” [4] She wrote that “it appears that “men’s rights” goons and Gamergate and other assorted online efforts to organize misogyny may see their efforts to squelch feminism backfiring.” [4]  According to her,  “anti-feminists are assholes. Every goddamn last one of them. […] The effect is particularly notable in geek circles. [4]

Marvel Stands it’s Ground: The Stupid THOR Chick Superhero is Here to Stay!

Jason Aaron

The writer, Jason Aaron, made it clear that this woman is not going to be like a She-Hulk or Spider-Woman, both of which are entirely separate characters who co-exist with their male counterparts, but an actual replacement for Thor. [4]  “”This is not She-Thor. This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is THOR,” he wrote in the Marvel press release. [4] [6] “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,” Marvel editor Wil Moss said in a statement. [1] “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!” [1] In the wake of the “right wing” backlash about this gender swapping, “Thor” writer Jason Aaron says the new thunder goddess, who makes her debut in “Thor” No. 1 this Wednesday, Oct. 1, is not about political correctness. “I don’t write any sort of story with any sort of agenda,” Aaron told TODAY.com. [2] “It’s not a good way to tell a story. That said, I’ve never shied away from feminism. It’s not a dirty word in my house.” [2] “I believe that the only agenda Marvel has is to excite their fans and sell more comics,” said Gerry Gladston, co-owner of Midtown Comics, the largest comics retailer in New York City. “The charge of political correctness run amok sounds like pure fantasy on the part of commentators.” [2]

The Marvel Comics superhero Thor, newly reincarnated as a woman, has given a definitive answer to those critics who attacked her new identity, breaking the jaw of the villain who tells her that “damn feminists are ruining everything”.  Marvel caused waves last summer when it announced that the hammer-wielding Norse god would be recast as a woman. Now writer Jason Aaron has addressed charges of “political correctness” head on in the latest issue of the comic, as his character faces off against the villain – the Absorbing Man.  [5] “Thor? Are you kidding me? I’m supposed to call you Thor? Damn feminists are ruining everything,” he says. “You wanna be a chick superhero? Fine. Who the hell cares? But get your own identity. Thor’s a dude. One of the last manly dudes still left. What’d you do, send him to sensitivity training so he’d stop calling Earth girls ‘wenches’?”  He goes on to ask: “What the hell kind of Thor are you?”, before the goddess breaks his jaw. “That’s for saying ‘feminist’ like it’s a four-letter word, creep,” she thinks to herself.  [5] “It’s a pretty great moment, one that’s cartoonishly on the nose when taken out of context, but hilarious when you’re aware of the criticism the Thor creative team has been getting over the story,” wrote Joshua Rivera in Entertainment Weekly of the new issue.  [5] [10]