Thor 7-12 & 600[*]

I really want to like J. Michael Straczynski's current Thor series. There are some fantastic reworkings of Norse legend in these issues, really made to shine by Olivier Coipel's and Marko Djurdjevic's art, and great contrast and comic relief as the operatic Asgardians get to know their new neighbors in small-town Broxton, OK. Unfortunately, the book is hamstrung by two fatal flaws: wildly unbalanced characterization and rampant misogyny.

To his credit, JMS has come up with a genius twist on Thor's half-brother Loki. And I'm not talking about the boobs here. Yes, Loki now has the body of a woman, but that's just packaging to help the God of Lies sell his** newest scam: the trickster now speaks only truth. He's just as deceitful and manipulative as the Loki of old (however he may claim to have seen the error of his ways), but now accomplishes his ends by deploying the sharpest facts at the worst possible times.

Unfortunately, it quickly becomes apparent that the writer finds Loki far more interesting than his actual protagonist. Thor spends way too much time (in the comic that bears his name) standing around, looking stoic, and failing to react as Loki schemes Asgard out from under him. Loki's truth-as-weapon schtick is clever, sure, but the execution is hardly so clever that Thor and his fellow Asgardians shouldn't see through it. They've endured how many of Loki's plots and betrayals by this point in their immortal lives? It's one thing to set your hero up for a thrilling comeback; it's something else again to make him look like a bland chump.

Far more disturbing, however, is the portrayal of women in the book. There's not a single female character here that gets to be anything more than an object of desire for the men.*** Thor's warrior-beloved Sif is trapped and helpless, imprisoned by Loki in a dying woman's body while he himself wears her form. Nurse Jane Foster, one-time flame of Thor's alter ego Dr. Donald Blake, announces she filed for divorce "for no good reason" on the day Thor returned from the dead, and expects to lose custody of her son over this. Clearly JMS sees Foster's marriage and child as mistakes to be corrected; he probably sees this as a perfectly old-fashioned and romantic way of going about that. It's not. It's ridiculous.

The Asgardian Lady Kelda carries on what should be an adorable courtship with a Broxton mortal, but when she invites the lad up to her city, does they share in the wonders of an ancient city? No. She takes him back to her room, lounges in scant clothing, and hurls provocative entendre. And don't even get me started on the two page spread of Prince Balder on his throne, surrounded by bikini-clad Asgardian women who apparently have nothing better to do with their time than pose around the latest royal endowment.

I know some comic fans still have a soft spot for the Conan tales of old: when men were men and women were gorgeous, undressed, and wanting to be with men. The artistic merits of Robert E. Howard and his illustrators is a whole other debate, but I for one don't feel this kind of wholesale belittlement of women deserves a place in the modern Marvel pantheon. And I must admit, I'm rather astounded that it's Straczynski who is failing so spectacularly in this way. A man who wrote Mary Jane Watson and Aunt May so well; the man who created Babylon 5 and gave the world Susan Ivanova****. This is the same guy, really?

But then I remember, he is also the man who gave Gwen Stacy her "Sins of the Past." Oy.

- JC


[*JC proposed the subtitle "More Merry Marvel Misogyny," but then changed his mind. I think it's well earned. - RD]

** Yes, I'm continuing to refer to him as a him, because a) consistancy makes my head less hurty and b) gender and biology are not necessarily the same thing. Loki may have changed the latter, but I'd argue the former remains the same. So he's still a he.

*** And no, Boob-Loki does not count.

**** Ivanova is God.