Thor Won’t Be Sashaying Anywhere Soon

New Female Thor Concept Art

Marvel Comics has certainly been the rage this week. Two large announcements shook up Marvel fans everywhere. The news was so popular that I even had to hear about the change on the E! Network, which made me stop and ponder life and where it was heading for a minute. Marvel announced this week that Thor would be a woman in an upcoming series, and Sam Wilson would become the first black Captain America. The announcements unfortunately had a flip side, there have been a lot of angry and upset people making ludicrous statements. Do you want to know something else that’s crazy about these announcement. Most comic book fans didn’t really bat an eye at it. They were more confused by the manner in which the announcements were given and spent some time schooling people throughout the internet hoping to calm the masses down.

Beta Ray Bill

So is Thor becoming a woman? Yes. Is that woman Thor? No. That doesn’t make sense, huh? Here is what is actually happening. Marvel is giving a woman Thor’s powers and abilities and she will probably be called Thor unless something has to change during the period of her existence. She is not Thor himself, just someone worthy of his power and some form of his abilities. This has happened already with the alien named Beta Ray Bill. Yes, that was typed correctly. He is a, for lack of better description, a horse faced alien that was worthy enough to pick up and use Mjolnir. Of course Thor eventually needed it back, so a new powerful hammer was forged by the dwarves so that this worthy being could continue his destiny as a hero in space. There is also a Thor Girl, but she never really went over well with the masses.  Beta Ray Bill has been around forever and has been romantically tied to Lady Sif in some books. Don't ask me about how that works, but love is love right? Looks like homegirl found a solution to not having Thor for herself and went and found the next best thing.

Thor Gil

Loki as a woman.

Thor as a woman.

Thor himself has been a woman before just as his brother, Loki, was. Unfortunately for readers, they were never at the same time. That might have allowed us to avoid the awkward flirtations by Loki. I know that Loki has spent his existence proving how he is not related to Thor, but that's your brother, man, woman....frost giant. Thor has also been a frog, but we rolled with it. The woman thing was actually supposed punishment by Odin in both cases. It is hard being a woman, but I don't remember Odin calling them out for objectifying.  Female Loki actually spent a lot of time in main comic world, but female Thor did not. Thor was a woman during an interesting comic storyline that was developed between two books called Earth X and Universe X. The whole series really took the Marvel world and did whatever they wanted. It was meant to be its own universe that didn’t affect mainstream Marvel comics.

The second announcement from Marvel stated that Sam Wilson, best known as the Falcon and one of Captain America’s sidekicks, would be taking up the mantle of the shielded warrior with the blessing of Steve Rogers himself. Sam Wilson is considered one of Steve Rogers most loyal and best friends, right up there with Bucky Barnes. Him taking over, isn’t a shock. This isn't the first time that Rogers has stepped away from the role. Bucky Barnes actually took up the star spangled uniform a few years back in the wake of Steve Rogers supposed death at the end of the Civil War storyline. Once it was revealed that Rogers was still kicking, he actually encourage Bucky to stay in his place, so he could go do some incognito work to uncover all of Norman Osborn’s grand and terrible plans during the Dark Reign arc.

Concept art for Sam Wilson as Captain America

To those who were so shocked and angered by these announcements that they took to the web to state explicitly their outrage, please, calm the hell down. The world isn’t going to end. Everything will be okay. Marvel has several universes in its comic world. They are usually called Earth and some number. We have the main universe that is the most common and universes where writers and artists are allowed freedom for a bit. They also create these storylines to breathe new and modern air into the characters. This allows the characters to never age by giving them a new background that is not only relatable to new readers but believable. These changes can be a gamble. If the entire story bombs they will just create a new universe for it and act like it never happened. If say a character works out, but the rest of the storyline may not be strong enough to take over the mainstream universe, they may pull the character only into the mainstream universe. This kind of happened with Nick Fury. Nick Fury actually became a black man in the Ultimate universe books for Marvel. This character was so popular that he has practically replaced the original version while the rest of the Ultimate didn’t quite make the cut, although it had a pretty decent following. They have explained away current Nick Fury's race as him actually being one of his seemingly large mass of illegitimate children. Seems like a stretch, but when you factor in how old the original Nick Fury is, his R&R activities were bound to lead down that road.

Two things. Yes, Thor really was a frog once. Second, whether or not Disney owns ABC and Marvel, why the hell they felt the need to have the Thor announcement come from The View,  beats the hell out of me.

Frog Thor

Basically Marvel isn’t going to do something crazy just to piss you off. They still have to make money, therefore your opinion is important. Just give these changes a chance, and if you don’t like them, then simply say that. Marvel’s ear is already on the ground waiting for your reaction. The anger and slander is unnecessary. Marvel will change it back if enough people don’t like it. All they are asking is for a chance. The world didn't fall apart over Nick Fury. True the change didn't win everybody. If you feel passionate and head strong about your loathing with that change, I invite you to make that statement directly to Samuel L. Jackson's face. If you survive that, then your opinion will be considered valid....maybe.