CBR TV: Aaron Talks Female "Thor," "Star Wars" at Marvel & Creator-Owned Success

[CBR News]

Writer Jason Aaron tells CBR TV about the joys of writing Marvel's new "Star Wars" ongoing, making Thor a woman, "Southern Bastards" and more.


Full article here.

[DocSpin]

Not at all a fan of Aaron's themes: torture, death, dismemberment, disfigurement, corruption, shootings, black ops, wetworks, etc. Nor of the fact that he's mostly ignored Thor's outstanding cast of characters such as Hercules, the Recorder, the Warriors Three and others. Jane Foster has cancer. And now we have Roz, an "environmentalist" superspy. Dear god! Thor used to inspire me -- this is just depressing.

[DarkBeast]

Clearly what I'm doing with this new character is different than Beta Ray Bill, it's different than Frog Thor, it's different than Don Blake and all this kind of stuff. But to me it's all part of that same evolution. If we can accept a horse face alien guy as Thor or a frog as Thor, surely we can accept a woman at this point, right? [Laughs]

[Having the character be a woman] was kind of the only idea I ever had. I knew from pretty early on that things were building to Thor becoming unworthy, I mean if you look at all the stuff I've done so far, 24 issues at this point, that thread is sort of running through that, and Thor questioning his worthiness. You get the idea that this is a Thor who wakes up every morning and looks at the hammer and he doesn't know if he's gonna be able to pick it up every day. Which I like. I like that he's always doubting himself because he realizes there's a bunch of really awful gods out there and they've done terrible things, and "Am I a good god? And what does that mean?" So that's clearly been a theme running through everything in "God of Thunder" and that was all leading toward Thor not being able to pick up the hammer. I knew once we got to that point, well, I want somebody else to pick it up, right?

Yeah, in my opinion, clearly Jason Aaron is doing damage control now and trying to pretend that he had this new female Thor idea in mind the whole time and that it's flowing out of what he's been doing for the last year and a half.

It isn't. It's totally shoe-horned in. He didn't seed this at all. Not the faintest hint of Thor being "unworthy" or "questioning himself", not to any extent outside the normal realm of Marvel heroes having feet of clay or whatever. Aaron's acting like he built up this "god being unsure of himself" like what he's given us is like Sandman's The Kindly Ones for 25 issues. Not even close.

I like his writing for the most part and I'm definitely looking forward to the new Thor #1. I fully expect it to be a good comic with a good storyline. I'm totally cool with what's happening. But don't try and tell me that it's been this organic process that you've planned and led up to. You haven't. At all. Maybe someone can look back at the run and make mountains out of molehills, skew and read a lot into things, but the overall thrust of the run has NOT been toward someone else taking over and Thor being unworthy. It's been a good run, but it hasn't been that.

As far as "If we can accept a horse face alien guy as Thor or a frog as Thor, surely we can accept a woman at this point, right?" Well, err, we never accepted Beta Ray Bill as "Thor". We accepted him as the God of Thunder. And Thor himself was changed into a frog for one issue. That's not the same thing as having a "female Thor". A "female Thor" makes no sense. Why would she steal the male character's MALE NAME? It's a female Goddess of Thunder. Fine. Cool. But stop playing these ridiculous games by calling this being "Thor". It makes no sense.

[ThunderingHammer]

Yeah, in my opinion, clearly Jason Aaron is doing damage control now and trying to pretend that he had this new female Thor idea in mind the whole time and that it's flowing out of what he's been doing for the last year and a half.

It isn't. It's totally shoe-horned in. He didn't seed this at all. Not the faintest hint of Thor being "unworthy" or "questioning himself", not to any extent outside the normal realm of Marvel heroes having feet of clay or whatever. Aaron's acting like he built up this "god being unsure of himself" like what he's given us is like Sandman's The Kindly Ones for 25 issues. Not even close.

I like his writing for the most part and I'm definitely looking forward to the new Thor #1. I fully expect it to be a good comic with a good storyline. I'm totally cool with what's happening. But don't try and tell me that it's been this organic process that you've planned and led up to. You haven't. At all. Maybe someone can look back at the run and make mountains out of molehills, skew and read a lot into things, but the overall thrust of the run has NOT been toward someone else taking over and Thor being unworthy. It's been a good run, but it hasn't been that.

As far as "If we can accept a horse face alien guy as Thor or a frog as Thor, surely we can accept a woman at this point, right?" Well, err, we never accepted Beta Ray Bill as "Thor". We accepted him as the God of Thunder. And Thor himself was changed into a frog for one issue. That's not the same thing as having a "female Thor". A "female Thor" makes no sense. Why would she steal the male character's MALE NAME? It's a female Goddess of Thunder. Fine. Cool. But stop playing these ridiculous games by calling this being "Thor". It makes no sense.

Agree with all your post EXCEPT on looking forward to this travesty of a "female Thor". I hope it fails miserably. Yeah, initial orders may be good but they won't last. Whatever. Just cancelled my pull list at my local comic shop. Kept Elektra and some Avengers books. But Thor, Cap, IM, and the others.....bye bye. When the status quo is back to the "same old thing" i'll be back. Til then, i'll be getting my monthly Thor fix from back issue hunting.

[Raye]

Man, you people will just look for any way to spin this negatively, won't you? He is right, if you read God of thunder, it's blatantly obvious this is where he was going, if you can't see it, you're blind. I am looking forward to this story, his God of Thunder has been great for the most part, and I can't see any reason for it to start sucking now. I suspect a lot of the whiners will end up changing their tune, too, just like happened with Superior Spider-Man.

[stingnewell]

Yeah, in my opinion, clearly Jason Aaron is doing damage control now and trying to pretend that he had this new female Thor idea in mind the whole time and that it's flowing out of what he's been doing for the last year and a half.

It isn't. It's totally shoe-horned in. He didn't seed this at all. Not the faintest hint of Thor being "unworthy" or "questioning himself", not to any extent outside the normal realm of Marvel heroes having feet of clay or whatever. Aaron's acting like he built up this "god being unsure of himself" like what he's given us is like Sandman's The Kindly Ones for 25 issues. Not even close.

I like his writing for the most part and I'm definitely looking forward to the new Thor #1. I fully expect it to be a good comic with a good storyline. I'm totally cool with what's happening. But don't try and tell me that it's been this organic process that you've planned and led up to. You haven't. At all. Maybe someone can look back at the run and make mountains out of molehills, skew and read a lot into things, but the overall thrust of the run has NOT been toward someone else taking over and Thor being unworthy. It's been a good run, but it hasn't been that.

As far as "If we can accept a horse face alien guy as Thor or a frog as Thor, surely we can accept a woman at this point, right?" Well, err, we never accepted Beta Ray Bill as "Thor". We accepted him as the God of Thunder. And Thor himself was changed into a frog for one issue. That's not the same thing as having a "female Thor". A "female Thor" makes no sense. Why would she steal the male character's MALE NAME? It's a female Goddess of Thunder. Fine. Cool. But stop playing these ridiculous games by calling this being "Thor". It makes no sense.

Didn't Thunderstrike at one time take the name of Thor while keeping his personality intact.

As to Fem Thor I'll pass no sense calling her Thor if the Real Thor is still around carrying his axe. Shame too I was really enjoying Jason's run but I guess like Slott they need a pointless controversial moment to get people talking. Such a shame.

[Ravin' Ray]

I hope it fails miserably. Yeah, initial orders may be good but they won't last.

Disliking the newest developments is fine and well, but actively wishing a project that many people have worked on to fail, especially when we don't know how it will go? That's in poor form.

[KingsLeadHat]

Not at all a fan of Aaron's themes: torture, death, dismemberment, disfigurement, corruption, shootings, black ops, wetworks, etc. Nor of the fact that he's mostly ignored Thor's outstanding cast of characters such as Hercules, the Recorder, the Warriors Three and others. Jane Foster has cancer. And now we have Roz, an "environmentalist" superspy. Dear god! Thor used to inspire me -- this is just depressing.

It's an interesting dynamic that so many white suburban creators, who more or less live peaceful lives of relative luxury, feel the need to obsess over the themes you mention, while guys like Jack Kirby and Tolkien, who actually experienced war and death, are the ones that seem to inspire us the most.

[jackolover]

If it turns out Thor is the Black Widow, then I know Peter Parker Marries Betty Brant next.