I Need A Hero...But not THAT Hero

NPR.org reported yesterday that Marvel has announced plans to change things up a bit with their popular comic hero, Thor.

"The Might Thor, the Son of Odin, the God of Thunder, the comic book god with the hammer is a woman."

Yep, that's right. Thor is now a (white) woman. Writer Jason Aaron is reported as explaining: "This is not She-Thor. This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is THOR. This is the THOR of the Marvel Universe."

Uh, fellas? What. The. Hell?!

I like the entertainment of a comic hero as much as the next Average Joe, and I think that the time for strong female heroes and role models is long overdue.

But for me, this decision is sending red-flag warnings up all over the place. Thor's gender-shift trick isn't fooling me, boys: you can't just conjure a "daughter of Odin" out of thin air. Of course, if this was a sibling of Thor, a goddess powerful in her own right, maybe I could stomach it a bit better.

But that is not what Marvel is proposing here. Marvel, in what reads like an attempt to blur the boundary between Odin-son and woman, has indicated that we, as a society, are incapable of imagining a strong and heroic woman unless/until she is either a) stepping into a role already defined by a man or b) otherwise controlled/paired up with a man who, conveniently, is always more powerful than she. In this case, Thor's hammer passes to the next-in-line female Thor, who will be fully expected to continue conquering enemies with the same brazen flash-and-bash that her predecessor has trademarked. Because of this, she will never completely be her own person: ever living in the shadow of the God of Thunder, she will be compared and criticized at every turn in relation to him, judged in terms of how well she fulfills his legacy.

And, given what I know about gender inequality in the United States, this is exactly how we want it, isn't it? I mean, we can't just have women in charge of things, despite hundreds of years of proven leadership, courage and sacrifice in the name of God, home and country. And a woman who defines the bounds of her own power? One who is free to offer her strength in the aid of others as herself, instead of through the hands and systems of a pernicious patriarchy? Now that's just crazy talk.

Sarcasm aside, what Marvel has clearly illustrated here is that women, long clamoring for their own heroes, will continue to wait the long, long wait.