Gender has probably never played such a role in the public discourse about comics as it does in the present day.  As the medium (and especially the mainstream portion of it) moves to become more inclusive of the entire spectrum of society, it requires a different approach in order to appeal to those fans.  There are many developments elsewhere recently at the big two which have shown that this is the case.  The alternate cover for Spider-Woman #1 was a pretty big deal for a while, and so too was the new creative team behind Wonder Woman proclaiming her to not be a feminist.  These controversies have come and gone, but the one major gender controversy has remained, and that is of the gender swap for Thor.  In true comic book style, it is not a real gender swap, as one character has not awakened to find themselves in the body of the opposite gender, but rather the mantle of Thor has been passed from its originator to a female replacement, who seems equally adept at handling the power of the magical hammer.  For some loyal to the original character, they can’t let go of the fact that their favorite character had to give up his name.  Others still have welcomed it as a great story in the making, and probably the most important of all, a bunch of new readers that never read Thor before have found a superhero to relate to.

After having established that the new Thor is indeed worthy, the remainder of the plot has focused on discovering just who this new Thor is.  The story has featured the original Thor as the meta-version of the readers’ curiosity, trying to discover the identity of the new goddess.  He has mostly been unable to figure this out, but at least touched on a few points of who it was likely not.  After six issue of guessing this issue kind of lays out a pretty clear message of who it could be.  Or does it?  After all how does one person be in two places at the same time?  Outside of the external forces at play in this story, this particular issue is rather ordinary, featuring Thor against the Destroyer, with others pulling the strings behind the scenes.

The story does use some of what is familiar to the character, perhaps even too familiar in the case of the previous Thor, but the presence of the familiar is necessary at the same time.  After all, this series seems as though it has many great stories left to tell, but first it must deal with the story of who is the new Thor (the conclusion of which is promised for the following issue.)  That some familiar ground has been covered does not make this stale, rather it acts as a convenience for a character that needs to have some of what came before in order to establish herself for the future.  As it stands, this issue continues the standout work on this series to date, and promises more to come.

Story:  Jason Aaron Art:  Russell Dauterman  
Story: 8.8 Art:  8.8 Overall: 8.8  Recommendation:  Buy