So Jane Foster is becoming Thor in the MCU and people are up in arms about it.
Okay look, if your beef about her as Thor in general is that it’s a “cynical cash
grab neoliberal social brownie points.”
I know that you don’t really care about what I have to say.
So just call me an SJW libtard snowflake cuck in the comments like you were going to and
don’t waste your time.
Those of you that are still with me, let’s talk comics.
There was a lot of outrage over Jane Foster becoming Thor in 2014 and I'll be the first
one to admit that the timing was probably one of the biggest reasons why she was so
hated by people who didn’t actually read her comic.
Ever since the near collapse of the superhero comic industry in the 90s because of non-stop
events, the popping of the speculator bubble, and so much other nonsense that we don’t
have time to get into today, the medium has struggled to gain new readers even though
most of the characters are more popular than ever.
Enter Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel who burst onto the scene and sold a LOT of comics, mostly
by resonating with people who weren’t comic fans prior.
Marvel clearly wanted to make lightning strike twice, pun mildly intended.
Following the success of Kamala, Marvel introduced some new shakeups to the status quo such as
Falcon becoming Captain America and Jane Foster becoming Thor.
Despite all of the obvious backlash from the anti-diversity folks, these books sold pretty
well which led to Marvel leaning into diversity even harder and well… if you’ve been anywhere
near the comic fandom over the past few years then you know just how divisive that turned
out to be.
Jane started wielding the hammer in Thor Vol 4 which was a direct follow up to writer Jason
Aaron’s Thor: God of Thunder series which viewers of my channel are well aware is my
favorite Thor book of all time, bar none.
This was because during an event called Original Sin, Thor was rendered unworthy of using his
hammer, Mjolnir, after Nick Fury whispered something so emotionally powerful to Thor
that it wounded his very identity.
When this happened, we didn’t know what was said, but don’t worry we are going to
get to that later.
Now Thor: God of Thunder is considered to be one of if not THE definitive Thor book.
Even if you think that the reason for Thor becoming unworthy is lame and even if you
think that the idea of a female Thor is unnecessary, switching the focus of the Thor books to a
female character doesn’t just suddenly make Jason Aaron a bad writer.
There were also plenty of folks who claimed that Foster as Thor was insulting because
it changed the Norse mythology… as if Marvel had never done that prior.
It’s just a weaksauce argument to me.
Of course, a lot of people got upset that Jane was going BY Thor.
It’s not a title that can be simply passed down.
It is literally the name of Thor Odinson.
The first time that we saw the possibility of Jane getting the Thor name was shown was
in this page of issue two and she straight up said that she never claimed to be Thor.
I want to make it very clear that she never goes by or intended to go by Thor until one
very important scene.
You see, Thor was initially PISSED and rightly so.
He had just lost his hammer and then someone else was instantly deemed worthy.
Yet, it wasn’t until Thor actually saw Jane in action that he accepted his position as
unworthy.
This scene of Thor reaching out and Mjolnir zooming past before landing in Jane’s hand
speaks volumes about what it did to his ego.
Two of the big throughlines for Jason’s seven year tenure on the Thor series has been
what it means to be worthy and what it means to be a god.
Being able to wield Mjolnir was one of the fundamental aspects of Thor’s entire personal
identity.
Not being able to do so was emotionally devastating.
Remember in Endgame when Thor got all fat and depressed?
It’s very similar to that.
Without his hammer, Thor was having an identity crisis and he felt like he couldn’t even
be himself until he became worthy once more.
The whisper in Thor’s ear that made him unworthy in the first place was simply “Gorr
was right.”
Gorr being the god butcher from God of Thunder, a character that went on a multi-timeline
slaughter fest of the gods, imprisoning any god he that didn’t butcher as slaves to
work on a bomb that was so powerful that it could kill every remaining god throughout
all of space and time.
If you want to know more, I have a complete history video all about him.
Gorr started this crusade because of his belief that the gods had failed not only him, but
that they also neglected the mortals whom they claim to serve.
This idea was introduced to Thor when he fought the God Butcher and it’s been growing inside
of him ever since, slowly cracking away at his belief.
That extra push from Nick Fury was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back, breaking
his confidence enough to push him towards unworthiness.
“Gods… are vain and vengeful creatures.
Always have been.
The mortals who’ve worshipped us for centuries… would all be better off without us.
We gods do not deserve their love.
No matter how much we fight to fool ourselves.
We are ALL unworthy.”
When Beta Ray Bill challenged Thor’s belief, he simply replied that if he didn’t truly
believe it then he would still be holding his hammer.
This is why Thor decided to renounce his name and go on a journey of self discovery.
There’s a lot more at play than just a whisper and a dumb as hell expression.
Lots of scenes in media look pretty damn stupid without context and investment in the characters
and story can lead to a different perspective rather than just looking in from the outside.
If you want your comics to strictly focus on fights and not worry about feelings, I
understand.
I don’t agree with that, but I’m not here to shame people for having different tastes
than me.
I am willing to concede that Thor IS a name and not a title.
That detail doesn’t matter much to me because Thor temporarily passing it onto Jane until
he found himself was merely symbolic.
No more, no less.
But let’s not pretend like our OG Thor was out of the game though.
I mean sure, he had his drunken stupor at first, but the character exploration during
his time of unworthiness was great development.
Not to mention that the Unworthy Thor mini-series was phenomenal!
This scene of Beta Ray Bill offering his hammer and then Thor rejecting it because of his
ongoing mission to find himself is a moment that I’ve come back to multiple times.
Not to mention the awesome quest of Thor going after the Mjolnir from the Ultimate universe
which crash landed in his reality.
You want some great action?
Oh man, there was so much literal blood, sweat, and tears that went into getting this hammer,
but Thor ultimately decided to never lift it because it wasn’t his.
Using its power wasn’t going to make him feel any more whole.
And also, this book is where we got Thori the Hel-Hound brought into the main cast and
that alone is worth a read.
Now as for Jane, I still stand by her books being quality.
Here’s just a few of the things that I really liked in it in no particular order.
Before getting the hammer, Jane was dealing with cancer.
Whenever she transforms, all of the chemotherapy she underwent is purged from her body.
While we’ve had many people take the hammer from Thor in the past (which I did a big video
about years ago) regressing Jane back to her weakened state after each outing took a physical
toll on her and that made it clear that this was just temporary as she would have to eventually
quit or die as a result.
I thought that was a great emotional throughline.
I’m not much of an art guy, but in my opinion, this is some of the best art to come to comics.
The coloring especially is fantastic.
The interactions and fights between Jane Foster and Darrio Agger, the CEO of Roxxon and occasional
minotaur are great.
I also just love Agger as a character.
He’s the kind of villain that I love to hate.
Jane being a wanted criminal of Asgard for having the hammer was a lot of fun.
Even though Thor explained to Odin that he was fine with it, the All-Father being his
usual extra self made it his life’s mission to destroy Jane and was even willing to let
his mass murdering brother become the Minister of Justice was a great touch.
The additional lore of Mjolnir containing a sentient cosmic storm was awesome and Odin’s
inability to control the storm even after sealing it inside of the hammer is a good
explanation for why he stopped using it as his weapon.
The Challenge of the Gods between Jane and the Shi’ar gods was a VERY fun storyline
and the resulting conflict was The Phoenix was as well.
Jane’s final outing as Thor even though she knew it would kill her was a great way
to end her time.
Plus, the destruction of Mjolnir by detonating it inside of the sun was an awesome moment
and one of the strongest events in Marvel history.
It also paved the way for that scene at the end of War of the Realms when Thor reforges
Mjolnir with the power of the sun by channeling the cosmic storm and with a branch from the
tree of life.
That reforging is easily one of the hypest moments from the past twenty years of comics.
I understand the frustration about having characters getting replaced even though that’s
been a staple of superhero comics for decades, but even in the climate of “SJW Marvel”,
I wholeheartedly think that Jane was the best of it given Jason Aaron’s incredible writing
ability.
If you’re still skeptical and haven’t read the books for yourself then try giving
them a read.
Start with Thor: God of Thunder and work your way through War of the Realms.
It might look like a daunting task, but I think you might be delightfully surprised
if you give them a fair chance and go into the books with an open mind.
At the end of the day, I just really hate how divisive this fandom has gotten over the
past few years.
The industry has been dying for decades and life is WAY too short to focus on the shit
that we hate, even if negativity gets more clicks on YouTube than positivity.
Let’s talk about the comics that we love and make this a space that newcomers would
actually want to be a part of.
Like and subscribe.
Patreon.
Bye.