Is Marvel's "Minority"/PC Month trying too hard?

[Tiamatty]

It's not Thorra. It's Thor.

I like to call her Lady Thor, to differentiate her from Thor Odinson, and 'cause it sounds classy. I don't mean Lady in the general sense, I mean it as akin to Lady Sif.

[whiterabbit]

It's not Thorra. It's Thor.

I call her Lady Thor to distingush the characters. Thor's name is his NAME. This isn't like Green Lantern who can have a million Green Lanterns because readers always use their real names to set them apart. If a new character showed up and his name was Peter Parker, and he decided to NOT use web shooters but still called himself Spider-Man while normal Peter Parker was around: how do you dictate which character you're using in context? Odinson?? There's more than one Odinson. We don't even know Lady Thor's real name or who she is and we're automatically supposed to support her as a character for what reason?

[Emma's Midriff]

I call her Thor because she's Thor.

[scottsummer]

There are soooo many Asian male superheroes with non-stereotype power in Marvel at the moment, I mean look at Shang Chi or collective man..

[SickAlice]

Thor is a Thor. Or so I heard. I dunno, Herman is a professional. He probably knows his stuff. And Herman says:

Thors.jpg

[Mighty Roman]

There's been a lot of controversy about how the Avengers Prime (Cap,Tony and Thor) have all been replaced (2 have been replaced by minority characters). People say that this is pandering...I think that this is a misunderstanding. Sam becoming Cap is perfectly understandable-He's Cap's best friend, and former partner, and values the same things Steve does.
Tony becoming Superior is understandable-it shows how much he's changed, and how his technology changes the world. Its a bug change for Tony who's remained mostly the same since Civil War.
Thor becoming unworthy is an interesting story. Understandable.
Now normally these changes are just your average title revamp. But because they all happened at the same time, Marvel is being accused of pandering. Its just bad timing on Marvels part-if anything, I imagine that some of these changes may have happened later if Secret Wars wasn't coming up.

Personally, when creating new minority characters, the new characters shouldn't be treated differently. When a new female character is created, she shouldn't be promoted because she's female-she should be promoted because she's a cool, interesting character, who just happens to be female. Being a minority shouldn't be a title's defining characteristic.
Personally, I think that the big 3 changes could be interesting. New Thor isn't trying to be old Thor, she's trying to be the godless of thunder. Sam isn't trying to be Steve, he's trying to be captain America. They're new directions under existing titles (plus godless of thunder wouldn't sell as well as something called Thor. Red Hulk lasted for over 50 issues, yet it was always called Hulk, so that it would sell more. The current Hulk series has Doc Green as the main character, not Hulk).
The only character replacement which I thought was poorly done was Nick Fury Jr-they tried to make him become Nick Sr, not his own character who happened to be Director of Shield. Yes, I know that Marvel wanted Fury's most famous appearance to be in the comics, but I think it would have been better if Marcus Johnson was just the New Director of Shield who looked like Sam Jackson, instead of trying to be Fury.

[JudicatorPrime]

It's not Thorra. It's Thor.

The actress Thora Birch came to mind as I was typing that. I like the name.

[EuphemismForSex]

Thor naming thing was so silly... That's just not how names work.

As for the diversification.... The more the merrier, even at this rate it'll take like 10 years to have the world's, or even America's population realistically represented in the MU.

[rdman]

I dont think Marvel is trying to hard on minority/black history month. we would be having lots of storm, black panther, Miles morales, war machine, captain America, and Blue marvel spotlights.
it more like marvel T&A month as usual every month.

[whiterabbit]

What upsets me is how they're not creating new interesting characters to fill the minority quota, but ditching preexisting ones just to use their "title" as a gimmick. Wally West becomes black.. for what purpose? What was wrong with him being a white red head in the first place?? Nick Fury Jr is now the only Nick Fury, Falcon is Captain America and some unknown woman is running around using Thor's NAME.

If anyone with half a brain in the Marvel Universe picked up Thor's hammer, why would they call themselves Thor?? Beta Ray Bill and Steve Rogers didn't. If I say the word "Captain America" do you think of Falcon, Bucky, Isiah Bradley, John Walker, or Steve Rogers? I do use the term gimmick because they go on the Colbert Report to announce Falcon as Cap and the View for Thor when we all know the original status quo will return sooner or later.

[Andy]

I had a long, well thought out post explaining how Marvel took the cheap and easy way out instead of bothering to take a risk on creating and developing new characters. Doesn't speak well for their integrity nor does it suggest that they really have a strong measure of conviction for that cause. The crappy mobile version of this site erased it all away though when I tried to post.

I will also say this: the timing of all this is bad on more than one front-in 15 years people are going to want to go back and read one of the biggest moments in Marvel's history and they're going to be real disappointed that some D-list character named Roz Solomon is running around with Thor's hammer. That extends to Cap and Tony as well. Hickman has done an excellent job working around it so far, but I'm not sure it'll stand the test of time when people aren't up to date on everything that's happening in the MU.

[Andy]

What upsets me is how they're not creating new interesting characters to fill the minority quota, but ditching preexisting ones just to use their "title" as a gimmick. Wally West becomes black.. for what purpose? What was wrong with him being a white red head in the first place?? Nick Fury Jr is now the only Nick Fury, Falcon is Captain America and some unknown woman is running around using Thor's NAME.

If anyone with half a brain in the Marvel Universe picked up Thor's hammer, why would they call themselves Thor?? Beta Ray Bill and Steve Rogers didn't. If I say the word "Captain America" do you think of Falcon, Bucky, Isiah Bradley, John Walker, or Steve Rogers? I do use the term gimmick because they go on the Colbert Report to announce Falcon as Cap and the View for Thor when we all know the original status quo will return sooner or later.

I addressed this as well. Just because somebody wears my underwear or plays my Xbox, it doesn't make them Andy. It makes them, at worse, an impostor, and at best, a replacement.


It was a cheap trick that served to help minimize the risk of bringing new characters into the fold, and was executed horribly in the sense that the writers took a big ole steamer on characters we all like, as well as their established history. Not to mention the ridiculousness that came with it...(Why in the world would Cap age rapidly? Why in the world are we no longer allowed to call Thor by his name?)

[Michael P]

If anyone with half a brain in the Marvel Universe picked up Thor's hammer, why would they call themselves Thor??

Eric Masterson did.

[whiterabbit]

Eric Masterson did.

Yeah, and you know how that gimmick ended? He became an entirely different superhero with his OWN persona and hammer and let the REAL Thor come back. Marvel tries to sale us on these things by announcing them in interviews like they're entirely original ideas that are permanent status quo changes to characters. And Thor was still Thor, too. He didn't lose his identity or anything, he just let some guy POSE as himself. Even Eric Masterson would say he's not the real Thor.

[VJ.]

Thor has been a Frog - yet a Woman is somehow too much?