marvel’s thundering announcement: the next thor will be female

It was recently announced on The View that Marvel’s God of Thunder, Thor, will be portrayed by a woman in future comic adaptations. As a starter to this I would start by saying that gender bending is not unusual when it comes to Norse Gods in comic books, or even historically. Loki has shape shifted to a women and a horse and Thor has been a frog from a curse cast on him, so it probably wasn’t a big leap for Thor to become a female, and yet there are fans of the Marvel universe that are surprised by the announcement.

Marvel’s senior writer Jason Aaron responded to fanboy outrage saying, ‘This is not She-Thor. This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is THOR.’ And that’s important for audiences to remember. Just because the character is a woman it does not make her weaker, susceptible or less than she is when she is portrayed by a man. She is still the same God of Thunder from the comic books except for the minor fact that she is a woman.

This upsurging of female superheroes follows the recent announcements of Wonder Woman returning on screen, the Power Puff girls returning to TV and a new line of female super heroes to hit stores later this year. Audiences have wanted more female portrayals in the mostly male-dominated areas of comic books for years and now that there is such an interest in feminism and equal portrayals of women in media, why should that not come across in comic books as well. It’s important that this is supported by audiences and that they realise that this decision is something that isn’t to get females ‘into’ comic books but rather to give an equal personification of a character that is loved by comic book fans in general.

What do you think about Marvel’s announcement?