Thursday, October 16, 2014

Call Her Thor—But Don’t Stop There

 Is She Enough, Or Will Marvel Continue to Market Diversity?

The mighty Thor, thunder-God, symbol of aggression, war, and masculinity is now a woman. To which I say: it’s about time!

As of October 1, 2014, Marvel has updated its iconic character’s DNA to include two X chromosomes. All one has to do is take to Twitter or Facebook to see varying degrees of encouragement and backlash regarding this character change.


When I saw the image trending of the new female Thor, I was instantly excited. She’s strong, striking, AND feminine.

But I felt a twinge of lingering skepticism.
Her image transported me back to my childhood when I would sit with my older cousin and read comic books with him. I loved the intricate story lines, characters’ inner turmoil, and stunning imagery.

But it wasn’t long before I noticed there were no faces like mine in the pages of comics, and I began to drift toward books with a strong central heroine.

I’ve since peeked my head into the super hero world—mostly, I’ve watched a few blockbuster movies, studied mythology, and fell in love with Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which is a multi-generational epic that follows two cousins as they create their own comic book empire.

The book is a fantastic literary achievement, but what irks me is the only female character starts out as a strong, interesting creator of comics, then gets tangled up in love, sells out, and scrapes by writing romance books.

Ugh. But let’s be honest, the media doesn’t exactly tell us we’re all perfect just the way we are.

This is something that I’ve seen communicated time and time again in books, movies, and media: these painfully obvious, missed opportunities for intellectual, diverse characters.

Don’t get me wrong; I commend Marvel for this seemingly huge step toward changing how we as media consumers, readers, and humans think about gender.   

But I worry that Marvel will smile and wave, take a pretty bow, and grow lazy in all this media-generated praise. “Look—We’ve diversified! Yes, Thor is still blonde and white and able-bodied….but she’s a woman!”

And while Thor is the most recent, she’s definitely not the only notable woman in comics. We can’t forget Elektra, Wonder Woman, and Storm.

While these characters have made huge advances for gender inclusion in the genre, the comic universe—and the media— still has a long way to go in communicating and marketing gender for what it is: a spectrum that is both diverse AND equal.
I don’t know what roads Marvel will take this new Thor down. I do find consolation in Marvel’s female employees speaking publicly about character changes like Thor’s; these are voices we need to hear more of. I do think social media is a great platform for Marvel to communicate with us as readers and consumers. Social media can be a two-way street where Marvel can ask questions and fans can offer feedback. I do know I want to see more changes like this.

Changes where people, and super heroes, are marketed for what they really are: powerful enough, despite gender or color, to change the planet.


Written by Casey Nichols of Rebecca Adele PR & Events

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