Oh good, I get to bring out my analysis of Issue #4 again. It’s been awhile.

Observe:





I’m not going to post the entire exchange because I’m lazy and it would make this post unnecessarily long, but anyway. These are real, legitimate panels from All-New Thor Issue #4. That, my friend, is terrible writing no matter what way you slice it. There are no real redeeming features of this encounter.

First of all, the villain blames feminists for Thor being a woman. This is perhaps true in real life, but not in the universe this is taking place in. It makes no sense. Why would he blame feminists for Thor now being a woman? Do the in-universe feminists suddenly control who and who is not worthy to pick up Mjolnir? Obviously not.

Since feminism/feminists aren’t actually relevant in the story up until this point (or so I assume), it makes no sense to add in this conversation. And this Thor comic isn’t like Deadpool; breaking the forth wall isn’t a normal occurrence. It’s a comic that’s (apparently) trying to be taken seriously and yet they have this guy over here raging about how feminists ruin everything and talking about Male Thor going to “sensitivity training.” This is, essentially, horrendously terrible writing taking potshots at IRL reactions that have absolutely no significance or relevance in-universe.



Secondly, Female Thor doesn’t actually disprove anything the guy says. She just beats him up and knocks him out. She doesn’t address why she’s worthy of being Thor (which is what SHOULD have happened in this scene; it would have been brilliant for her to just shrug off the criticism and go ‘the hammer chose me, and therefore I am worthy.’), she doesn’t say he’s wrong….she just beats him up and angrily thinks “well that ought to teach you a lesson about talking shit about feminists!” It doesn’t address any of the actual legitimate concerns surrounding the Female Thor controversy, and it doesn’t actually address any of the points brought up by the villain. The message here is “shut up you’re stupid.”There’s no actual social commentary in this scene, which renders the entire point of the scene completely irrelevant. Talking back and beating up sexist guys is not what female empowerment is, and it’s horrendous that it’s being portrayed as such and being praised for it.

Finally, her thoughts in that second panel: she’s literally more irritated and upset that the guy thinks feminists “is a dirty word” than the fact that he physically robbed a bank. I should hope I don’t have to put any more commentary on that and let it speak for itself, but I’ll spell it out for you: if that is her mentality regarding heroing, she is not worthy to hold Mjolnir, and she is not worthy to be called Thor.

And I’ll add two more (unconnected) panels for kicks:

First up: this monstrosity. Again…the point? It’s another stupid potshot at events that have absolutely no relevance on any of the in-universe events. I can’t believe I had to read this with my own two eyes, and I’ll just kind of let the panel speak for itself.





Final panels: so…Female Thor (who we now know is Jane Foster) forcibly kisses Sam, says she did it “because I felt like it”, then flies off, completely unconcerned. So not only is she essentially cheating on Thor (because they are still together, in a way) without any remorse, she kisses a person without their consent because she “felt like it.” That is atrocious, and it is something that Jane Foster would never do.

Look: it would have been infinitely better if Female Thor had been a new character, because at least if it was a new character, they had the opportunity to flesh out her backstory and give her an actual personality rather than simply being a political statement. By saying it’s Jane, they’ve basically utterly destroyed Jane’s previous characterization and personality and left a two-dimensional empty character behind. It’s insulting to me as a female comic reader, and it’s insulting to me as a Jane Foster fan.



Frankly, you have absolutely no ground to stand on to refute my assertion that Female Thor is completely and totally a political gimmick, and I have loads of panels and proof to back it up. It is quite literally impossible to read her comic (and connected comics) and not see the blatant pandering and 13-year-old level bad writing. It’s a disgrace, and female comic fans deserve better.

There are plenty of brilliantly written and complex female-led solo books in this world, and trying to assert that I’m angry being it’s “too feminist” is absolutely laughable. Go pick up Birds of Prey or Cassandra Cain’s Batgirl run. Read Silk or Greg Rucka’s Wonder Woman run. Go pick up Gotham City Sirens or Supergirl or Gotham Academy. But this? This is junk.

The writing is terrible, everyone that’s not new is OOC (I don’t even read Marvel all that much and I know Titania wouldn’t just give up and accept prison just because her foe is a woman and that Malekith has never been writen as a misogynist before), they don’t treat Female Thor as an actual character, but rather a two-dimensional projection, it tries way too hard, and just generally comes off as a stilted, scripted pandering gimmick. Basically the only thing it’s got going for it is the absolutely stunning art (which is a problem I’ve dealt with before in comics, most notably in the case of Red Hood and the Outlaws; gorgeous art, terrible writing). Please explain to me why you think the book is outstanding; maybe you see something I don’t, because I seriously just don’t see it. As far as I’ve read, Female Thor is terribly executed, terribly written, and terribly insulting, and I’m upset that such blatant and objectively terrible writing is being excused just because the main character is ‘feminist’ and that such obvious pandering is being hailed as ‘beautiful’ and ‘outstanding.’

Is that enough argument and analysis for you, or do I need to bring out more panels?