I’m OK with the idea of female superheroes, really. I even read *Wonder Woman *when I was a boy back in the 1950s and 60s even though everyone thought it was a comic book for girls. And I’m not the biggest Marvel fan; I’ve always been more of a DC fan.
But what the heck is the deal with Marvel lately? I know, the role of Captain Marvel, though originally a man, has been filled by a woman for a while now. But then, a year or so ago, the new *Thor *series now features a female Thor (which somehow seems absurd to me). And then I recently read that a young girl will be donning Iron Man’s suit and going by the name Ironheart.
And then, just today, I see that a new *Hulk *series starting in December, will offer us Jennifer Walters as, no longer She-Hulk, but just the Hulk.
Is this some kind of political correctness in play? I can see changing the characters over time to a degree, but it seems like Marvel is making a concerted effort to establish an all-female cast.
Only 30 percent of heroes are woman. I don’t think making an additional 4 women heroes is going to make an “all female cast.” It won’t even bring it to half way. Seeking to make their superhero universe more inclusive isn’t “political correctness” but simply making their universe more appealing to a huge demographic of people that have previously been relatively ignored.
Whenever a business appears to be doing something because of “political correctness,” odds are they’re actually doing it because of market demographics. Turns out, not just straight white guys are into comics, and that those non-white, non-straight, non-guys will buy more comics if they have more people who look like themselves in them.
Now, there’s some good arguments to be made that they should make new characters for this sort of inclusiveness, not least among them that these sorts of changes tend to be temporary - eventually, these established characters almost always revert to their default state. Sooner or later, dude Thor is going to come back, effectively erasing any gains in representation from lady Thor.
The other side to this is that “legacy” superheroes (where a new character steps into an established superhero identity) have been around for decades. There have been a dozen different people going by “Captain America” over the years. There’s no particular reason that every one of them has to be a white guy.
I don’t think it’s just that. A major factor is probably that a few girls were reading comics in the 80s and early 90s who grew up and decided to get a job in the industry.
Basically, dads encouraged their daughters to read comic books starting in the 80s. And now the ramifications of that are showing up.
You’ve probably also got the effect of Joss Whedon, who is a pretty large force in the comic world and who gained a massive following while creating leading roles for women. Modern men think that kick-ass women are hot. They no longer believe that the most beautiful woman is the one who wants to sit around home all day and mop floors. Whedon wrote women like he liked - powerful, independent, intelligent - and, despite all the media news about sexist nerdrage, most modern people and geeks like that. It attracts a female audience who want to be inspired to go out and kick ass in their daily lives. It attracts a male audience because the characters appeal to our sensibilities.
And while some of this may be piggy-backing on Whedon, I’d venture to guess that he’s been championing the move, and using his own success as a sales point.
That said, I still think that Whedon isn’t very talented (despite the fan base), but I do suspect that he’s been a reasonably key figure on the male side of the spectrum and I do have to give him props for that.
There’s an effort by the industry to not only try to keep women and non-white males engaged by telling stories that might appeal to them but to also have those stories told by women and non-white males.
Same reason the protagonist in the most recent and upcoming movies in the Star Wars franchise are girls. If you can expand your merch buying population to include girls, your profits just went up.
I think that in part it was a reaction to DC’s New52. The Internet, at least the part invested in political correctness, started noticing that the only time a female appeared in a New52 cover was usually Harley dressed like a stripper.
Maybe you white dudes that think the medium is your exclusive domain should give more of your money to the white dudes that are making these changes. I’m certain if their profits and projections were booming they wouldn’t be doing a damn thing.
Comics have been pushing social justice & diversity boundaries for ages. White dudes have, in fact, been financing that. White dudes are buying girl-Thor and Muslim Ms. Marvel. You wouldn’t have them if sales were left up to you. As far as I know, white males are still the main buyers and you wouldn’t have diversity without them.
The woman currently holding the hammer is claiming to be “Thor, God of Thunder.” Previous Thor gave up his name along with the hammer, and is known as the Odinson now.
I don’t know how historical this is, but I’ve read a lot of fiction set in ancient societies where a person’s name could be stripped from them for violating certain taboos. No idea if this was ever a real thing, or if it was ever associaed with Norse cultures, but it feels a bit like that’s the vibe they’re aiming for.
