Thor is a woman… now what?
A few months ago some major news sources were making a big deal out of the new look for Thor. That’s because they aren’t in the comics scene like the fans, or creators, or creator/fans, like myself.Some said it was a bold new move for Marvel. They were reinventing a core Avengers character at the height of the Marvel movie frenzy. Some said this was scandalous! It was an outrage for Marvel to change such a beloved character.
Being a comics fan and listening to these opinions I quickly came to a realization that most of these people never walked into a drug, grocery, or book store and bought a coke and some comics on a hot summer afternoon in their lives and so they hand no idea what they were talking about. If they had they would have known that Thor has already been a woman before, and not just that, Thor has also been a crippled human male, an alien, and my personal favorite, a frog.
They have no clue that Thor has ever been anything other than Chris Hemsworth, or that other characters of different races have been Captain America from time to time, or that he was once a cat and Spiderman was a pig, and Thor was also a dog as well as a frog, and on and on go the role reversals in Marvel’s seventy five years of making comics.
Thor is a woman…now what?
Now good stories are being told just like they have always been. That’s all. Thor has never been a man, a woman, a frog, or a dog, Thor is a mythical representation of heroic traits and sometimes not so heroic traits. Superheroes are the myths of our time. and myths must be reinvented over and over to stay fresh and speak to the current generation, to sometimes teach lessons, and always tell fantastic tales.
Marvel isn’t going to stop making movies and I’m willing to bet this will happen again. Someone may say Ant Man is the first tiny superhero and they will never have heard of Tom Thumb. Someone may say Black Panther is the first black superhero and completely disregard all of the African Gods and Goddesses from every African country that came before him. This kind of thing will happen over and over because people forget the characters. The characters change from generation to generation and that’s not really important. What is important is the idea. The idea of heroes and being a hero will never die. At least, I hope it doesn’t, because if it does we will be in big trouble then.