Changes in Store for Thor

    Fandom's collective head exploded this week (as it does from time to time) with the news that, next fall, Thor will "become" a female!

   There were cries out outrage, expressions of disgust, and a few isolated comments of support.

   The announcement was very successful in one way - it gathered huge headlines from every major news source, and it was announced on the afternoon talk show "The View."

   My own reaction was of pained acceptance - it's become standard procedure to make these kinds of changes / modifications to a beloved character for the sole reason of making a splash.

   Is there a major character who has not either been killed or replaced at some point in his or her career? I'm looking at you, Spider-Man, Captain America, the Human Torch, Bucky, Superman, Batman, etc. etc. etc.

   Sometimes it's a copyright issue - so to protect against opposite-gender imitators, we get She-Hulk, Spider-Girl, Spider-Woman, American Dream (a female version of Captain America), and others I've probably forgotten.

   And this won't even be the first time we've had a female Thor! There was a What If story with Jane Foster finding Thor's hammer instead of Dr. Don Blake, at one point Storm wielded Thor's hammer, and in more recent years an alien admired the Thunder God so much that she modeled herself after him and called herself Thor Girl. Honest!

   Perhaps there are others I've forgotten?

   Anyway, the moral of our story is: be patient, and rest assured that the son of Odin will be hoisting Mjolnir again in time for his next film appearance in Avengers 2: Age of Ultron - not to mention Thor 3. (Unless Marvel has lost its collective mind.)

   In the meantime, I'm going to work at keeping an open mind about Angela as Thor (which I assume is the plan).

   Now, I wonder what they're about to do to Captain America?