The long anticipated first trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder dropped yesterday, thereby reigniting the 2014 fury over the appearance of a female Thor in Marvel Comics. Reactions at the time – as they are now – range from “A woman can’t be Thor” to “Feminism is ruing everything” without ever having read the storyline. Basically, the great controversy revolves around whether a woman possessing the powers of the original, well-known Thor can be called Thor. In effect, what’s being asked is whether ‘Thor’ is a name of a particular person or a title. One critic wrote in 2014, “Get your own identity. Thor’s a dude. One of the last manly dudes left.” Many comic book fans were as upset by a female being Thor as they were a black man becoming Captain America.
First, why does this even matter? Why are people so upset over some fictional characters? For one thing, once people are beset by tradition it’s difficult for them to see through any other lens. For the Marvel comic book hero traditionally known as Thor, he has particular characteristics and a particular personality. The traditional Thor possesses the traditional attributes of what is considered masculine, so to buck that trend is bound to make misogynists upset. The other reasons for disliking the idea of a female Thor are non-existent. When Eric Masterson of Earth-616 became Thor no one had a problem with this, though supposedly because Masterson was faking it best he could and himself knew he wasn’t the ‘other’ Thor. But when Dargo of Earth-8710 was called Thor despite not being the ‘real’ Thor, still no one cared. A controversy over Thor’s name only came about when a female became involved.
So, Thor is indeed a name. However, the well-known fictional comic character’s full name is Thor Odinson. Last time I checked there are many people in the real world whose name is Thor and bear absolutely nothing in common with the fictional hero. But, you don’t see anyone complaining about this. It’s not like Jane Foster upon becoming Thor called herself Thor Odinson. She never did that. Keep in mind that during the original storyline in which Jane becomes Thor and worthy of wielding Mjolnir, Thor himself was unworthy of holding Mjolnir. If we take into account that the inscription on Mjolnir says, “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the powers of Thor.” Being that many people have wielded Mjolnir, Squirrel Girl among them, the pronoun ‘he’ doesn’t seem to be of particular importance. What’s important is that they be worthy. Considering Thor Odinson becomes unworthy, regardless of the reason, he fails to be the super-powered Thor, meaning ‘Thor’ must be a title and not referring to a particular person. For the time Thor Odinson was not worthy of Mjolnir, he was not really ‘Thor.’ It appears someone can be called Thor without being Thor Odinson, just like it makes sense that someone can be called Iron Man without being Tony Stark, which is exactly what happened in the comics when Stark’s bodyguard Rhodey stood in as Iron Man when Stark wasn’t capable. And as Jane did not, no one else in the comics ever referred to themselves as Thor Odinson when possessing the powers of Thor. For Pete’s sake, even Thor Odinson calls Jane ‘Thor’ during the original storyline knowing he’s unworthy of the title.
It might be worth noting that, yes, traditionally Thor is a man’s name, but that’s simply tradition and a lot of traditions don’t exactly have objective origins. There’s no reason Thor can’t be either a male or female’s name, as is the case with names like Pat or Sam. In the comics, when Jane tells other characters to call her Thor (not Lady Thor) it shouldn’t be a big deal. She’s referring to the title, not to being Thor Odinson. Of course that would be ridiculous. Or would it? In another Marvel comic universe, if Jane Foster had been more of Donald Blake type figure who didn’t know she was Thor Odinson until becoming worthy of Mjolnir again, would all the fan-boys still be upset? I would like to think not, but it’d be foolish to underestimate misogynists.
And misogyny is the problem here. As comic books have long been the domain of little boys struggling mightily to be ‘men’ (until the last decade when women started reading them) said ‘men’ will fight tooth-and-nail to hold on to what vestiges of culture they think belong to them. So, logic or reason is not going to easily be found among such fanboys. None of them are going to stop and think, “Hmm, can Thor be a title like Captain America, Iron Man, or Batman?” Honestly, so many damn people have been Batman in the comics and some never bothered to correct other characters when called ‘Bruce’ while they were wearing the cowl. But a woman going by the name of Thor, suddenly there’s a problem. GTFOH.
(Some critics even went so far as to simply state turning Thor into a woman was crappy retconning but those same people didn't have shit to say about the reveal that Mjolnir was sentient during the same storyline.)
