Marvel’s new Thor and why she’s important
Unless you were blatantly ignoring the internet yesterday, you probably caught that Marvel has revealed Thor’s new look, coming this October, and he’s now a she.
As you can see by the header for this post (yes, that’s a picture of me dressed as Thor, taken in 2013, next to the newly unveiled Thor from Marvel), I’m more than a little bit excited about this. In fact my reaction was essentially:
So basically, I’m excited and so happy, and you should be too! I feel like shouldn’t have to explain WHY I think you should feel this is a positive change, buuuuuuuuuut, just in case, let me spell it out.
For starters, the fact that Marvel is willing to gender flip one of its BIG THREE characters to a woman is HUGE and goes against the myth that “women superheroes don’t sell comics.” Because clearly that’s not true, as evidenced by both the wildly successful Captain Marvel (Marvel’s previous gender flip) and Ms. Marvel series (and I feel it’s worth noting that not only are they both women, but Kamala Kahn (Ms Marvel) is a Pakistani-American).
This is, of course, hot on the heels of the Star Wars casting uproar, and the subsequent announcement of two more women cast in the new films (Lupita had been rumored for a while, but I’d bet my next paycheck that Gwendoline’s character was gender-flipped after the outcry). I think it’s also worth noting that BOTH Star Wars and Marvel are owned by Disney.
So why do I even bother bringing this us up? Because not only does REPRESENTATION MATTER, but I firmly believe that WE (everyone who supported female led comic lines, and spoke out when they saw misogyny) made this happen. Women are powerful in so many different ways AND it seems that both Marvel and Star Wars are starting to realize this (hey DC, WHERE ARE YOU IN ALL THIS??? You have WONDER WOMAN and people are literally screaming for her movie! How much more gift wrapped can you get things???).
Now, of course, there are plenty of people out there complaining. To them I say: get over yourselves.
Not only should NONE of this come as a surprise, because basically Mjölnir is wielded by whoever is worthy, and that person, while wielding Mjölnir, essentially takes on the mantel of Thor. Think of it as a bit like Green Lantern’s ring. All Marvel is doing is removing both a sexist and racist bias that basically ensured that only WHITE MEN (Beta Ray Bill being the notable exception) got to wield Mjölnir (remember this is a SUPERHERO FANTASY WORLD, not actual Nordic Mythology). So yes, while we do have a caucasian woman as Thor now, who knows? Perhaps, we’ll get a person of color next??? So many possibilities here, y’all, and I couldn’t be more excited!
For the dude-bros who are inevitably complaining because their paragon of “manhood” is gone (though he’s not really – you will ALWAYS have your giant blonde beefcake of a man Thor in some way or another) and “who will they look up to now” or “fantasize about being”, I say LOOK AT NEARLY EVERY SINGLE OTHER COMIC LINE OUT THERE. TAKE YOUR PICK. And quite honestly, if you CAN’T look at a superhero who also happens to be a female, and imagine yourself being as kick butt as her (like WOMEN have done with male superheroes for pretty much always), then I feel sorry for you.
These guys lo
ok pretty flippin awesome to me!
Honestly, I think Marvel has been really smart about all this. Rather than launching a new superhero comic line (which is always risky, no matter what the gender or race of the protagonist is), they took an already existing and popular line and flipped the gender (having a new person be Thor, is NOT without precedent, BTW), and already have a strong and loyal readership built in. Are they going to lose some misogynist readers? Probably (though I don’t consider that a loss). And I noticed a lot of women saying they’re so upset by this (because they want a brand new female superhero, which is great! I want that too – but can’t why we have BOTH???), and that they never bought the Thor comics before, and now they definitely won’t. Sooooo basically what they’re saying is Marvel didn’t have their business before… and they still don’t their your business. *eyeroll*
Well guess what Marvel? You have mine.
Here’s my big confession: I don’t buy any of your comics (I mostly stick to Star Wars comics). Or rather, I DIDN’T buy any of your comics until yesterday. I’ve been meaning to pick up Captain Marvel (I’ve read the graphic novels and they are brilliant) and Ms. Marvel for ages, but never got around to it. And I was debating reading Thor, since I’ve grown to love him (thank you movies!). After yesterday’s announcement I immediately picked up my iPad, opened a digital Marvel account and bought all the back issues of Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel – I also signed up for the subscription service for both, and you’d better believe I’m all signed up for Thor as well! I AM SO EXCITED! Well done, Marvel, well done.
So, here’s to all the tiny princess Thors out there.
The Wonder Women
(oh man, when did my daughter grow up???)
And every little girl out there who dreams of flight (like my adorable nieces below).
Because, as Captain Marvel says… EVERY LITTLE GIRL FLIES! (thank you Kelly Sue!)
p.s.
Marvel: As happy as all this makes me, this doesn’t let you off the hook… WHERE IS MY BLACK WIDOW MOVIE???
Lastly, need a copy of my books? As it happens you can buy them here.