felneymike wrote:I think whoever has the hammer (and who is 'pure' enough to be able to pick it up) is Thor. At least in the original origin story, which is the only Thor comic I have read!
This is true, kind of. When Beta Ray Bill was found worthy he didn't turn into Thor, he turned into an alien version of Thor. And the enchantment that allowed anyone else to become Thor was subsequently erased. I wasn't reading the series when Eric Masterson took up the hammer, so I don't know how that worked.
The change does smell a bit of publicity stunt, though. Feminism is "in" at the moment, so anything that will be reported on those sort of websites will get a lot of attention.
Of course it's a publicity stunt. So was making Ms. Marvel a Muslim and making Ultimate Spider-Man black. Those two also happen to have been some of the best written comics in the last decade. "Publicity stunt" doesn't automatically mean bad or shallow.
The only growth audience for comics in America is women in the 17 - 25 age group, and they haven't been buying from Marvel or DC, so the big two are scrambling to get something out that might interest them. These include a Batgirl revamp and the new Gotham Academy from DC, and Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, Storm, X-Men, Thor, and She-Hulk from Marvel.
Just like some videogame company announcing a limited-edition version of the game with a statutte of a dismembered female zombie in a bikini. After a huge controversy they issued a "heartfelt apology" and cancelled it. But perhaps they never intened to make it in the first place!
Yes, producing something grossly offensive is exactly the same as introducing a female character in a comic. Anyone would think that no superhero identity had ever been taken over by a different character (been happening since 1961 at least) or that the new character was a different gender to the previous one (probably before 1986, but that's the earliest I can recall off the top of my head).
And you can tell the "normal" one will be back in time for the next Avengers film, anyway. Though anybody who liked the film and who picks up that month's re-numbered "Avengers issue 1" will still have no clue what's going on.
Duh. See also upcoming changes in Iron Man and Captain America, and the just finished Superior Spider-Man. But I'm betting they will spin the new character off into her own title when the storyline is completed.
Which is probably a problem that no amount of "eqwowwity and diverthity" will solve!
Yes, it's easy to mock anyone who has less representation than you. But it doesn't stop you looking like an arse for doing it.