Marvel Announces Female Thor

The new Thor.

Ah, Loki, you sexy minx.

Marvel announced that Thor is undergoing a sex change. Well, not exactly. However, there will be a new Thor and she is...well, a she. Throughout Thor's long comic book history, there have been other wielders of Mjolnir, Thor's magic hammer. And, the Norse gods have had sex changes before. Remember hot female Loki (which has led to some great cosplay)? Changing who wields the hammer and who bears the title 'Thor' can work. The biggest danger is that this is just a stunt. The current Thor is still going to be around, using some other magic beat-down stick. Will this just be an excuse for Marvel to "shake things up" only to back off later and Dude Thor take back his hammer?

Current Thor writer Jason Aaron had this to say about the new character, “This is not She-Thor. This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is THOR. This is the Thor of the Marvel Universe.” Okay, that seems pretty clear. However, Marvel did something like this recently with Spider-Man, when they had the mind of Doctor Octopus take over Peter Parker's body, becoming the Superior Spider-Man. It was a bad idea to begin with, one that was recently reversed. And we all know what happens when superheroes "die" only to be resurrected later (Jena Grey, Superman, Captain America, etc.). However, as long as the change leads to interesting stories, then I'm all for it.

That's the real trick, isn't it; to write compelling stories. To create characters who you can get invested in. to not just make a change for the sake of change. When Steve Rogers (Captain America) was killed at the end of the 'Civil War' no one thought it would be permanent. And, amazingly enough...it wasn't. Characters can be reintroduced successfully; Ed Brubaker's "Resurrection" off Bucky Barnes is a great example of this. However, a storyline that lead to a major character death or some other significant change (like a new, female Thor...or just a new permanent Thor, period) have the odor of a gimmick about them.

My fave Lady Loki cosplay.

On a side note, could this have repercussions in Marvel's cinematic universe? Eventually, the current crop of actors will move on to other things. We may be seeing a new Iron Man soon, if Robert Downing decides to eventually reject the dump trucks of money that Marvel/Disney is backing up to his lawn. Could we eventually see a chick Thor on the big screen? And if so, who'd make a good Thorette? Maybe Jaimie Alexander could trade her sword for a hammer. Check back later for a few heavily Photoshopped ideas!

Marvel Movie Concept Art

Hulkbuster! There, got that out of my system. Wait...motherf**kin' Hulkbuster!!!!! Okay, now I'm better.

Marvel dropped some concept art for Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy yesterday, as well as photos from Ant-Man. And it all looks awesome. I was actually at the Comic-con where Edgar Wright showed his ant Man footage, but missed it. I think I was stalking some hot cosplay chicks or something. Did I say stalking? I meant, getting to know from afar.

Anyway, here are the images, with my all-important comments, of course.

First, up, we have the Hulk fighting Stark...or, at least someone wearing the Hulkbuster armor. When the Hulkbuster was featured in IM3, geeks like me in the audience got a little wood (or the female equivalent) knowing that we would get an epic Hulk vs Stark fight at some point in the future. Well, it looks like we'll get it in Avengers 2...although whether this will be Stark or, perhaps, Ultron, controlling the suit we'll have to see.

Next up, two pieces from the Guardians movie. This film looks like it will be a ton of fun. I've enjoyed the recent run of Guardians comics and the movie looks like it has the same sense of quirky fun and over-the-top action. I assume this scene is on Knowhere. In the comics, Knowhere is a space station made out of the head of a giant alien. We'll see if they keep that bit of awesome weirdness in the film.

Here we have Rocket Raccoon and Groot getting ready to kick some butt.

This image and the two following are from Ant-Man. The suit looks as good as it could and Edgar Wright is one of my favorite directors. The cast announced so far - Paul Rudd as Scott Lang and Michael Douglas as Hank Pym - is pretty exciting. I had hoped they would go for an Eric O'Grady story...but I guess we don't need a superhero who uses his shrinking powers to spy on showering women.

Quicksilver ashowing off some super speed. Hey, nobody gets between Pietro Maximoff and his morning latte. I really liked Aaron-Taylor Johnson in Kick-Ass and Savages (yes, I'm one of the three people who liked Savages...wait, it's 51% on Rotten Tomatoes...I'm with the majority! Yay!) and am looking forward to his take on one of the biggest a-holes in Marvel Comics.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the inclusion of the casting of Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch. She just isn't sexy; she's not unattractive, but Scarlet Witch is supposed to be stunning. When I look at Olsen, I am not stunned; mildly dazed maybe. But not stunned.

I like this. I have a feeling the dialogue that goes with this scene goes something like this. Black Widow: "Hulk, you broke the building." Hulk: "Hulk sorry." Black Widow: "Well, next time just ask me if a building needs breaking before you do it."

Finally, I leave you with this: Yaya Han showing us what the Scarlet Witch should look like. "Hey, you got your stripper in my superhero!" "No, you got your superhero in my stripper!."

31 Days of Halloween (Day 21) - Marvel Zombies 3

The first Marvel Zombies series started out as spin-off of a story arc in Ultimate Fantastic Four. The premise is pretty neat: what would happen if traditional Marvel super-heroes became flesh eating zombies due to a trans-dimensional virus? Set on Earth 2149 - one of the many alternate Marvel universes (the mainstream Marvel Universe is Earth 616) - the original MZ series dealt with some of the big names in the Marvel pantheon. Spider-Man, wolverine, Colonel America (hey, it is an alternate universe), Hulk...all turned into zombies. The population of the planet is wiped out in a matter of days. The zombies explore various means of satiating their hunger, including attempts to travel to other dimensions, spurred on by the virus, which wants to spread across the multiverse.

Or something like that. Really, this is more about super-powered carnage than anything else.

Aaron and Jocasta looking all Army of Darkness

Of the spin-off series, MZ3 is the best. It features one of my favorite second-tier characters, Aaron Stack aka Machine Man, a misanthropic robot who does heroic things morality for beer and as an excuse to engage in excessive amounts of violence, all while taunting humans (or "fleshies" as he not so affectionately calls them) for being inferior to him. Great stuff.

MZ3 opens with Zombie Deadpool crossing over into Earth 616 through a dimensional nexus in Florida. The Command, a US government sponsored team of superheroes, responds and is almost wiped out, but the zombie outbreak seems to be contained. For the moment. ARMOR, A division of SHIELD charged with stopping extra-dimensional threats recruits Stack to travel to Earth 2149 and acquire a sample of the zombie virus in order to create a vaccine. Of course, not all is as it seems with the head of the vaccine program, Dr Michael Morbius aka the Living Vampire. He's been replaced by his zombie counter-part from the alternate universe.

Accompanied by Jocasta, another robot that Stack has a "thing" for and ARMOR director Little Sky, a dimensional teleporter, Aaron heads to the zombie universe. His motivation? To save the human race...naw, just kidding, he wants to impress Jocasta enough so that she'll hook up with him. Yes, we're talking hot robot-on-robot action here, True Believers.

Feeding time in the clone center. Zombies have terrible table manners.

Aaron and Jocasta find that zombie Kingpin has set up a human cloning center in the ruins of New York City. He is using the clones to control what is left of the super-zombies by allowing them to feed on the replicated humans. He is also working with the Inhumans to spread the "Hunger Gospel" (what the zombies call the virus) to Earth 616. Mayhem ensues as Aaron, overcome by the need to do something either heroic and/or explosively violent, attacks the zombie hordes in the clone center.

After killing (or, actually, re-killing) numerous zombies, Aaron confronts Kingpin who then monologues his whole plan (something that Aaron jokes about; self-referential humor and satire are staples of the MZ series) which basically involves Zombie Morbius using the pretext of an inoculation to infect the super-heroes of Earth 616 with the virus.

Back on Earth, the ARMOR headquarters has been overrun by zombies. Luckily, it is buried deep underground and can only be accessed by teleporters. Jocasta and the ARMOR director mount a last stand against the undead, aided at the last moment by the non-zombie Living Vampire and Aaron, who finds a way to transport himself from the zombie dimension to the his own using Zombie Lockjaw. The day is saved thanks to vast amounts of violence - In the words of Aaron "I have been programmed to eviscerate your repulsive squishy organic bits and chew gum...and I hate gum" - and Morbius is tasked with putting together a team to find what appears to be one zombie who manged to teleport out of ARMOR headquarters tot he surface. Which leads to MZ4.

Written by Fred Van Lente, the dialogue is clever and the story in general makes sense. There are a couple of plot holes; for example, it is never explained how Zombie Morbius gets through the Nexus of Realities undetected since ARMOR seems to be monitoring it at all times. And there is a bit of a deus ex machina at the end with Lockjaw able to somehow teleport Aaron back to his own dimension. These don't detract from the overall enjoyment of the story, however. As a Machine Man fan, it is nice to see him in the hands of a writer who can balance the snarkiness, annoyance with humans, but overall heroic nature. And the art by Kev Walker is fantastic, reminding me of something you'd find in a '70s Eerie comic. The gore is pretty intense, but this is called Marvel Zombies; you wouldn't expect a non-splattery zombie story, would you? Oh, right, World War Z...okay, I guess you might. If you like the idea of a zombie/superhero mashup, check out any of the MZ line. It's a lot of gruesomely fun undead action.