Our Superheroes Are Changing For The Better

By Camilo Echeverri Bernal on July 28, 2014

Just recently, it was announced by Marvel that the Thor we have always known will be a woman, which is beyond fantastic.

This doesn’t mean that Thor is replaced by a woman–no, it means that Thor will be the only Thor. The writer of this new series, Jason Aaron, clearly stated that “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. But it’s unlike any Thor we’ve ever seen before.”

Our heroes are changing for the better. It’s one of the more recent moves in which Marvel is diversifying mainstream superheroes.

image via http://www.usatoday.com

So, why is it important that traditionally male heroes are now females? Because inclusion matters. Because in such a male-driven industry, powerful and strong female characters can make a difference. They can be just as strong and as competitive as their male counterparts.

This, as a Marvel fan, makes me extremely excited, but there are things we should consider. Are fans going to treat her differently now that Thor is a female–now that she has breasts? Laura Glenn from Bucks County Courier Times believes this is a possibility.

I personally want to see her team up with other female characters and put men like Stark in their place, and kick some behinds. I also wonder if Marvel will leave her love interest as the well-known human scientist Jane Foster? That would make me like Marvel even more, to include a lesbian hero of such magnitude into the universe–one that would be canonically lesbian, or even bisexual, or pansexual.

Though, she would not be the first queer character. Marvel has several canonically queer characters throughout different storylines. But I feel that one character the people really know will make a big impact.

In a move that I also found pretty interesting and cool is that the new Captain America will not be the pasty-white Steve Rogers. Don’t get me wrong, he’s hot and buff and hot, but I need to see some color.

Nope, he’s going to be Sam Wilson, a black man. In this instance, the shield will be passed on to him. He’s added to the list of POC characters, including the new Spiderman, whom you might know as Miles Morales.

image via http://kastorskorner.com

I feel, as a queer latino man, that it’s important to see oneself in media–to see heroes that look like oneself. I am sure that it is also the same for black youths in America and wherever they are growing up without seeing black faces on TV and in films. It’s way too often that we see very limited depictions and roles for non-white actors and characters. Maybe comic-books is the first frontier in which such diversity might be possible.

image via http://www.thenerdsignal.net

But whenever there is change, there are naysayers amongst fans. In the case of the new Thor, there are those who believe that a more traditionally male Thor is better and it is what we should stick with. In their mind, because it has been done that way, then we ought to continue doing things that way.

So, changing canon characters, from male to female or from white to non-white is simply too atrocious a change. It is taken as pandering to minorities and to feminists, and not just a decent move that self-respecting writers and artists should make.

Why do fanboys continue to discredit such moves? When the actor Donald Glover, also known as Childish Gambino could have become the new Spiderman in place of Andrew Garfield, there were mixed reactions.

There is just this mentality from the fandom that change is bad, or that it will somehow demean the characters. Heroes are the ideals of human strength and people who overcome their limitations and work to save humanity from evil, whatever form it might take.

Now, Marvel is trying to get rid of the evils of sexism, racism and homophobia. It’s important that we continue to help them. It’s important that we tell them that we want POC superheroes. Queer superheroes.

And many individuals get a chance to express it by dressing up for comic conventions. We need every chance we can get to tell others that it might save youths to see themselves represented. To think that they, too, can be superheroes.

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