14 DAY TRIAL // Goodbye God of Thunder, welcome Goddess of Thunder! Marvel has announced that, in October, a new series of the comics Thor will premiere, introducing the female Thor. The announcement caused a lot of controversy, with countless angry fans lashing out against Marvel on Facebook.
As they see it, Marvel should be creating new characters, not ruin old ones by changing them from male to female. If you scroll down on Marvel’s Facebook, you will see that few actually say that the idea of introducing a new leading female superhero to attract the female demographic is a bad one: but most agree that changing Thor from male to female is.
The new series will be written by Jason Aaron with art from Russell Dauterman. You can see the new female Thor in the photo above: she looks just like the male God of Thunder except that, you know, she’s a woman.
The idea came from Marvel’s realization that they needed to do more to attract girls and women to comic books, Marvel says in the official statement. So they decided to shake things up a bit by taking Thor into a completely unexpected direction, one that, they hope, will pay off in the end.
“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 says.
“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!” Moss adds.
So goodbye God of Thunder, once and for all.
Series writer Jason Aaron stresses the same point: from now, Thor will be female. This isn’t just a short-lived gimmick they came up with to boost sales, the change is permanent.
“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,” Aaron says.
It’s precisely this permanence that’s bugging fans: they simply can’t understand why the need to change Thor from male to female, when Marvel could have simply created a different female character for the same purpose of boosting sales by targeting women.
Some of the messages they’re still leaving on Marvel’s Facebook as we speak are none too flattering, so we won’t reproduce any of them here. Suffice it to say that they’re not happy; and we all know it’s never a good idea to anger fans.
So, how do you feel about it? Is this a good idea or not? Let us know in the comments section below.