A plea to Marvel

[mizkit]

Those of you who pay attention to this sort of thing will know that this fall, Thor’s hammer Mjolner will be taken up by a woman, who will also take on the name of Thor. Moreover, Steve Rogers is putting down the shield and Sam Wilson, recently introduced to the world at large as Falcon in the 2nd Captain America movie, will be taking it up. Wilson

Comments

[anthony_lion]

Frankly, I have no idea of why Marvel thinks that female Thor is such a good idea.

Thor is the quintessential macho man. Has always been.
He may have dressed as a woman now and then to trick his way past Ice giants or whatever, but yeah. Macho...
(The old sagas are full of stories where the Gods aren't always 'at their best' )

For some reason, people at Marvel thinks that Mjolnir is 'the mantle and essence of the God of Thunder'...
It's not. It's Thor's weapon(and for some, it's a symbol of faith. One of many), that's all.

If I was to hazard a guess as to why Marvel is doing this, it's probably because of lagging sales...
They need to do 'something' every few years to attract new readers.

[gows]

Unsurprisingly, I had not heard either of these things, but I love the ideas! And yeah, I'm sure everything will turn back into the Standard White Dude, but it's nice to know that someone was thinking a little bit differently.

20 years down the memory hole

[amberley]

Didn't Peter Parker and Mary Jane's marriage get erased because of some absurd plot involving Mephisto? So not divorce, but never-was-ification. At least she didn't wind up in a refrigerator. Or I may be mistaken.

I try to read as little Marvel as I can (I have a weakness for Gillen & McKelvie, I freely admit), and so all these changes mean much less to me now than it would have in my Marvel fanboy days. But the status quo in superhero comics always reverts, because it is inherently a deeply conservative approach to the medium, and all the more so when run by corporations.

Meanwhile, lots of other exciting things are happening in comics: Bryan Lee O'Malley's Seconds just came out (so good!), and Gillen & Mckelvie's The Wicked + The Divine.

[la_marquise_de_]

I have this completely unrealistic hope that Mjolnir has taken up with Mockingbird, who is currently awol and has had some serious liberties taken with her backstory in the last run of Secret Avengers. It won't be,. of course: she isn't important enough to Marvel and they want her out, for this nonsensical Spiderwoman-Hawkeye thing.
Sam as Captain America though is awesome and I will be trying to read it. Falcon is a great character.
I grew up with single Peter too, and yet am unhappy with that divorce (as I am with Hawkeye and Mockingbird).

[mizkit]

I have several unrealistic hopes as to who Mjolnir is going to choose, myself. Let's hope one of us gets what we want! :)

[pgwfolc]

Last time Steve died, Bucky took up the shield for a while. And proved to be unworthy of it, with his head so messed up and all. But I think that may qualify as Steve having picked his successor

[mizkit]

The Rogue-Thor story is one of my favourites, actually. I really loved that one. :)

They've made it clear it's not a new character, but I'm kind of hoping it'll be someone who is kind of going to use being Thor as a test for herself and then, yeah, move into being a character of her own. Since I don't think they're going to take the hammer away from him forever. :) Fingers crossed!