By Odin’s beard! Marvel Comics has finally revealed the secret identity of the latest incarnation of Thor. Much hubbub was sparked last summer when the comics conglomerate announced that this new Thor would be a woman. Now the cat’s out of the bag, eight issues deep, as to who this mystery Thor is. And the shocking discovery may make a lot of sense when you read what writer Jason Aaron had to say about character. Keep reading to after the jump to find out.
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This is your last chance to get out if you don’t want the secret identity spoiler…
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Why else would you read this far if you didn’t want to know?
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It’s Jane Foster! Occasional love interest and medical physician in the Marvel universe. Natalie Portman portrays her in the cinematic universe.
Was there any really question as to who else it could be? Writer Jason Aaron weighs in on this decision in a recent interview with Vulture:
“No, I think we only ever really talked about Jane. It grew out of the idea of the previous Thor becoming unworthy, which was something I was always building toward. I liked the idea of dealing with his worthiness and the idea of what it means for a god to be worthy in the Marvel universe. You know, the god of thunder waking up every morning and looking at the hammer and not knowing if he’s gonna be worthy to lift it. Then, of course, one day he should wake up and not be able to lift it. That opened the door for someone else to pick up the hammer and carry it around in his place. Really, the only character that was discussed was Jane.”
Was there ever really any consideration for it to be anyone else?
“Nah. I mean, it was never just about the surprise or the mystery. Clearly I’ve had fun playing with that part of it over the course of these eight issues [since we introduced the new Thor]. But that’s really all just setup for the real story. And Jane was the one I had a story with, whose story I wanted to tell.”
As we’ve seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s a pretty big deal if someone is able to wield Mjolnir. Only few in the history of the comics have, such as Beta Ray Bill, Captain America, Loki, Odin (of couse), and a handful of others. So this is definitely a strong thematic choice in choosing Jane:
“Jane’s been a part of Thor’s universe going back almost to the very beginning. She was the initial love interest for Donald Blake, who was Thor’s alter-ego [in early Thor stories]. She was the nurse to his doctor. She’s grown and changed and evolved a lot over the years, become a doctor in her own right. So this to me is not just the next step for her character, but really the next evolution of the core promise that has always been at the heart of Thor’s mythology.
“You go back to those very first issues [from the 1960s], and they’re about this disabled doctor, Donald Blake, finding a strange hammer, and when he picks it up, it transforms him into the mighty Thor. That promise of transformation has always been a part of that hammer. Even though we’ve changed the person who’s holding the hammer, it’s very much a Thor story, a story that begins the next step for that promise of transformation.”
So there you have it. Check out the cover art for issue #8, created by Russell Dauterman, courtesy of Marvel.com:
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Source: Vulture
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