In news seemingly designed to one up David Cameron's female focused cabinet reshuffle Marvel today announced thatThor is to become a woman. From October Thor's comic will restart from issue 1 and feature a new female lead who has inherited the magical hammer Mjolnir and the associated powers that come with it. This has brought the same tired old troglodytes out of the woodwork who protested when the amazing Idris Elba was cast as Heimdall and they got upset that it was unrealistic for a black man to play the role of a magical space god (extremely) loosely based on a Norse myth.
Personally I'm in favour of it - it allows new storytelling opportunities and character development. Gender-swapping can be a very successfully way of breathing new life into a character, for instanceSpider-Girl, the daughter of Peter Parker in the M2 comic line, told some of the best Spider-Man stories of the '90s, and was the best selling of the entire M2 line by a long way.
The female Starbuck from the Battlestar Galactica reboot was a far better character, Fionna from Adventure Time has resulted in some of the best stories they've ever told, and the female Doctor played by Joanna Lumley was amazing (yes, yes, I know it was only a Comic Relief sketch but it was written by Steven Moffat so I'm treating it as canon).
There's also in-universe precedence for it - Loki was a woman from 2008-2009 and Wonder Woman briefly possessed his powers during the first Marvel vs DC crossover. And besides - they've got nothing to worry about. Much like the "permanent" deaths of Captain America, The Human Torch and most recently Spider-Man it'll probably be undone within a year.
The female Starbuck from the Battlestar Galactica reboot was a far better character, Fionna from Adventure Time has resulted in some of the best stories they've ever told, and the female Doctor played by Joanna Lumley was amazing (yes, yes, I know it was only a Comic Relief sketch but it was written by Steven Moffat so I'm treating it as canon).
There's also in-universe precedence for it - Loki was a woman from 2008-2009 and Wonder Woman briefly possessed his powers during the first Marvel vs DC crossover. And besides - they've got nothing to worry about. Much like the "permanent" deaths of Captain America, The Human Torch and most recently Spider-Man it'll probably be undone within a year.
| However, I must admit that this entire story had passed me by until Squeamish Kate told me about it. I'm a massive comic book geek, but these days (like millions of others) I get my Marvel fix from the cinema. And there's no signs of any major female superheroes there. | Underworld managed to string a 4 film franchise...imagine what could be done if you had decent characters and scriptwriters! |
Frankly this disappoints me. Marvel has a fantastic line-up of female heroes. Some of the best in the entire comic book business and they aren't utilising them. As excited as I am by The Guardians of the Universe movie (and I am; it looks hilarious) it is so strange to me that such an obscure comic line got greenlit ahead of some of their A-List female superheroes.
I'd love to see a Carol Danvers Captain Marvel movie, or a Spider-Woman movie (because we all know Sony are never gonna give up on the rights to Spider-Man and the Marvel Universe deserves a spider based superhero) - both of who are key members of the Avengers.
Admittedly they are improving - Black Widow got very nearly as much screen time as Captain America in Captain America:The Winter Soldier - but sadly no sign of her name in the title or a solo movie. There is Scarlet Witch who's at least going to appear in Avengers 2 (hopefully in a major role), but there's still no sign ofWasp and she was a founding member of the Team. DC isn't proving any better - Wonder Woman will appear in Superman vs Batman, but they deemed her unworthy of title billing
The world is ready for a female led superhero movie. Underworld managed to string a 4 film franchise out of Kate Beckinsale kicking monsters while in tight leather, imagine what could be done if you had decent characters and scriptwriters!
Hopefully the studios will release one during Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, based purely on comic sales Carol Danvers deserved to get onscreen before Ant-Man!
The comics are filled with amazing female characters and they deserve to be seen by a wider audience - re-imagining major characters as female (especially if it's done properly and this just isn't an excuse to give Thor Power Girl stylecleavage) is an interesting development but, sadly, comics are a dying industry and the cinema is the future. In order to truly engage female fans they need to focus on increasing the number of women playing major roles in the cinematic universe.
Gareth
I'd love to see a Carol Danvers Captain Marvel movie, or a Spider-Woman movie (because we all know Sony are never gonna give up on the rights to Spider-Man and the Marvel Universe deserves a spider based superhero) - both of who are key members of the Avengers.
Admittedly they are improving - Black Widow got very nearly as much screen time as Captain America in Captain America:The Winter Soldier - but sadly no sign of her name in the title or a solo movie. There is Scarlet Witch who's at least going to appear in Avengers 2 (hopefully in a major role), but there's still no sign ofWasp and she was a founding member of the Team. DC isn't proving any better - Wonder Woman will appear in Superman vs Batman, but they deemed her unworthy of title billing
The world is ready for a female led superhero movie. Underworld managed to string a 4 film franchise out of Kate Beckinsale kicking monsters while in tight leather, imagine what could be done if you had decent characters and scriptwriters!
Hopefully the studios will release one during Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, based purely on comic sales Carol Danvers deserved to get onscreen before Ant-Man!
The comics are filled with amazing female characters and they deserve to be seen by a wider audience - re-imagining major characters as female (especially if it's done properly and this just isn't an excuse to give Thor Power Girl stylecleavage) is an interesting development but, sadly, comics are a dying industry and the cinema is the future. In order to truly engage female fans they need to focus on increasing the number of women playing major roles in the cinematic universe.
Gareth
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