Posted on 07/19/2014 2:52:13 PM PDT by Steelfish
JULY 19, 2014 A Thor Subject The comics industry grapples with attracting women readers. By Jim Geraghty
The surprises came in a trio: First, Marvel Comics announced that the character of Thor, based upon the Norse God of Thunder, would become a woman. The second surprise was the venue in which the switch was announced — ABC’s feminine-minded daytime talk show The View — but perhaps that was predictable, considering that Marvel and ABC Television are both owned by Disney.
But the third, and biggest, surprise is that anyone thought this was a good idea.
“This is not She-Thor,” senior writer Jason Aaron said in a Marvel release. “This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is THOR. This is the THOR of the Marvel Universe. But it’s unlike any Thor we’ve ever seen before.”
The “She-Thor” reference is meant to address the complaint that some of comics’ most high-profile heroines are just female versions of previously existing male heroes — Supergirl, Batgirl, Spider-Woman, She-Hulk, Namorita . . . characters that seem derivative and superfluous in the hands of the wrong creative team.
Comic-book characters go through all kinds of seemingly permanent changes — broken backs, retirements, deaths — only to return to “normal” within a few months or years — which is often a sign that a new editor or writer has taken the helm, or that the dramatic change flopped with readers. For what it’s worth, Marvel insists Thor’s new womanhood isn’t a brief experiment.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Yes,
I think these days Marvel is winning the pub wars, especially with their movies.
Music festivals routinely sell out to audiences before a single band has been announced to people who’ve largely only ever heard a few of the bigger names on the bill.
The herd mentality pays off in numbers. It’s “trending”.
The comic book artists (like Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, and writer/editors/fans like Roy Thomas) are ignored by 90% of the “fan” attendees. They plain don’t know who these people are.
At the Stan Lee “panels” the talk is 95% about the casting choices of the latest Marvel movie/tv show (which Stan is not even the deciding vote on).
He'd re-wire it!
Only established music festivals people know will draw in big acts sell out before artists are announced. And that’s because they have a known history, we know right now that Reading Festival 2015 will having amazing acts because it’s the Reading Festival and it ALWAYS has amazing acts.
Herd mentality is what makes popular culture profitable.
These folks aren’t fans of the comic books. Which doesn’t mean they aren’t fans. They’re just fans of a different section. If I went to a big convention I’d avoid all the Dr Who stuff because I don’t like Dr Who. I don’t go to the big conventions because I prefer the smaller more intimate old style. But I have lots of friends that head up for PCC, and a few that go to SDCC, they have fun, they’re fans, most of them even read.
Genre is a big world, it always was a big world but it is MUCH bigger than it was just 10 years ago. Nobody is a fan of all of it, and the geek cred arguments have frankly always been moronic. They’re fans, just not of the stuff you’re a fan of.
Most important word in your quote there: MOST. It means not all, so thus there will be others outside the group, like Wonder Woman.
Hmmm. So the actors in the Marvel movies are slowly beginning to back out of future movies. Strangely, at the same time, Marvel is making changes to the gender and race of characters... which will probably require recasting them. I wonder...
The changes are happening in the comics which other than title have really nothing to do with the movies. Comic Thor is going to be a woman for a while, probably not even long enough for them to make another Thor movie, and it will have no impact on the movies.
People complained about ACL, Coachella, and others that seem to be resting on their laurels now (or shifting to the trend of electronic dance music DJs instead of actual musicians).
They don’t have to be 20 year fests to sell out before the acts are named.
They’ve burned their reputations, happens.
They don’t have to be 20 year fest, but they do have to be 4 or 5 year fests so that they have a reputation. Or have a solid hook. Ozzfest always sold out because of Ozzy, when people still gave a crap about Perry Farrell Lollapalooza always sold out.
They also listed Supergirl and Bat-girl, both also DC.
I think that all that comic book crap only affects the “adult children” in the 18 - 55 age group.
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Agree. We kids read and traded comic books among ourselves until about 12 y/o in the ‘40s to early ‘50s. Superman, Captain Marvel, The Blackhawks, Aquaman, Donald Duck, etc.
By age 7-8, I was amassing a large collection of Classic Comics (Google if you don’t know what they were), which put many great books into a form that was appealing and suitable for children. I still read regular comics, but stories in Classic Comics really opened the mind to other things. ....At the same time, I began reading science fiction paper backs and books like “Wings” and “All Quiet on the Western Front”, “Tom Sawyer”, HUckleberry Finn”, White Fang”, etc.
I can’t understand at all why so many adults are so facinated with the so-called comic books that are now being published. They no longer promote what is funny or right in America, but instead push and push the liberal, gay and PC mantra; further brainwashing the readers of their crap.
Back in the day I remember one female comic book character that had no male counterpart and was very successful—The Old Witch horror comic character.
Seems like much ado about nothing. Who cares what comics teen boys read or teen girls don’t read.
I’m much more interested in the change in the characters in novel fiction for adults in the thriller, spy, mystery and action genres. It seems as though the growing trend in hero protagonists as written today by authors are female. Hard boiled, dead shots, martial artists and all around tough ladies who can also use their feminine wiles and instincts to outwit the baddies. (I wonder why there isn’t a similar interest in female villains and criminal masterminds) Sometimes these ladies are assisted by a male sidekick. Really? How realistic is this?
I’m told this is deliberately designed to widen the market for these genres to include more women readers—but the last I heard, the overwhelming market for these genres is still men. Are books sales in these genres falling because people don’t read any more or because people don’t want to read gender driven drivel?
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