YMMV / Thor (2014)

• Broken Base: The idea of Thor being a Legacy Character. Some feel that since "Thor" is Thor Odinson's birth name rather than a Code Name, someone other than him shouldn’t be calling themselves by his name. Others point out that since Jane Foster explicitly wields the Power of Thor and is now officially the God of Thunder, she might as well be Thor. The fact that other characters have taken up the name before (specifically Eric Masterson before becoming Thunderstrike) further muddies the waters.
• Contested Sequel: Either a case of Sequelitis or Even Better Sequel, as Jason Aaron's Thor: God of Thunder was pretty well-liked by readers.
• Fandom Nod: More of a "Controversy Nod", but, in issue 5 of the female Thor series, Absorbing Man goes on a multi-panel rant about female Thor's status as an Affirmative-Action Legacy character, with a particular focus on how she could have given herself a "derivative" or "homaging" name instead of directly taking the name of the original. She then knocks him out with a blow to the jaw.
• Fan Nickname: Not a good one, but sections of 4chan and reddit have taken to calling her Whor (from Woman Thor, but you know...) while more neutral places have used Thordis (as reference to the "What if..."), Jane Thor and Lady Thor (which was eventually used in-comic as well). Jane Fos-Thor is also pretty common.
• Growing the Beard: Her title relaunch as Mighty Thor has had more positive feedback especially after she got away from Marvel’s crossovers and was finally allowed to begin her own story arc.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In 1978 there was a What If? story in which Jane Foster wielded Thor's hammer...except now it's canon.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • A minority of people, who liked the more Guile Hero approach to Thor in recent years, feel this series is a step back to the Action Hero Thor of yore, who is impulsive, lacks humility, wants to solve every problem by hitting it, and also for whom Odin was a constant stumbling block. They're generally more accepting of Jane though, if this had to happen, a Legacy Character is less rage inducing than destroying Thor Odinson's character development.
  • The War Thor, for being yet another hammer wielder with a played up secret identity.
• Older Than They Think:
  • This is not the first time that a female Thor graced the Marvel Comics. In 1978, Marvel produced an issue of What If? in which Jane Foster temporarily became Thor.
  • This is also not the first time another person has co-opted Thor's name while in possession of Mjolnir. Eric Masterson was briefly merged with Thor and used the name, but continued using it after the two were separated into different people.
  • Some criticized the use of Absorbing Man as a Straw Misogynist for, among other things, being out of character and unjustified as Creel had never been depicted as misogynistic. He actually did appear in a much more misogynistic manner in KSD's Captain Marvel, and earlier in Secret Warriors it was revealed he had raped an ex-girlfriend and fathered the future superhero Stonewall.
  • Mjolnir having New Powers as the Plot Demands is nothing new, as the Marvel wiki can attest, it's been given multiple powers that have nothing to do with stormbringing, such as time travel and matter transmutation. Compared to them, controlled flight and a one-off ability to empathically shapeshift into Jane and tap into her medical expertise are downright reasonable, although matter transmutation at least has some precedent, as it at least relates to the elements.
  • More than a few fans balked at Jane Foster becoming Thor since it's considered rare and weird for a civilian female Love Interest (former one in this case) to become Legacy Character for their male hero boyfriends. It is indeed rare but it isn't unprecedented by any means. In the case of Shiera Hall, the Golden Age Hawkgirl, it's often forgotten that in her first appearances she started out as simply the civilian girlfriend of Carter Hall. Only after they started dating for a bit that very early on, writer Gardner Fox decided to make her Hawkwoman and Hall's confidant and superhero partner in equal measure. Thanks to her appearance in Justice League, Shayera Hol (as she was styled there) has actually displaced and overshadowed the character for whom she was fashioned as a Satellite Love Interest, so Jane Foster is in worthy company.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The new Thor, at least to some, became this when they revealed she was Jane Foster, fighting cancer, due largely because it added a lot of depth to the character and because it finally put one serious source of Arc Fatigue to rest. It also helps that, in the Thors miniseries afterwards, Jason Aaron clearly sets up a Chekhov's Gun that could very easily result in Odinson becoming worthy once again.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some of the reactions to the new female Thor.

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