Thor #8
… someone I was pretty much suspecting anyway, given her earlier interactions with original!Thor/Odinson in a previous issue.
I got inadvertently spoiled on this after looking at Dear Author this morning, so just in case you’re interested and you don’t already know and want to keep it that way until you read the new issue, let’s just put this behind a fold, shall we?
(ETA: Whoops, the Dear Author link was wrong. Fixed.)
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So yeah. New!Thor is Jane Foster.
I was suspecting this was coming, just because she did snog Odinson in a previous issue, which, even though I have very little background with the Thor comics, pretty much set up Jane as the number one suspect. I wasn’t entirely sure, given that they’d also set up Jane as a breast cancer patient…
But apparently, that was totally a red herring. She’s Thor, and apparently, it’s killing her. Yipes.
I’m coming in cold on Jane’s cancer as a plotline, so I don’t know how serious it’s supposed to be. But given that she looked pretty wretched in her previous scene in the story, and given that Wikipedia says she’s had to undergo chemo and is in a pretty weakened state, one presumes she’s got a serious case. And I’m conflicted about it.
On the one hand, speaking as a breast cancer survivor, part of me is all FUCK YES LET THE CANCER PATIENT HURL THE LIGHTNING.
On the other hand, given what I know how how comic book universes usually handle illness plotlines, coupled with how I also know Marvel’s about to reset everything anyway with the new Secret Wars, I’m dubious that this is ultimately going to mean much. As reported by the Mary Sue, Thor IS one of the titles that’ll be ending with Secret Wars, and I think we just read the 616 finale for this storyline. I think it’s a safe bet Thor will be coming back, but how they’ll follow up on this Jane reveal–and whether she’ll even still be a cancer patient–who knows?
If she does come back in the same state we’re seeing her in as of the end of issue #8, my money will be on her eventually being discovered, and having to accept some form of supernatural/magical healing to get the cancer out of her before it, plus the physical stresses of being Thor, actually kills her.
Alternately, it does actually kill her in some suitably noble fashion–which, given that we’re dealing with the Marvel universe’s form of Norse mythos, suggests she should earn a place in Valhalla–and then they’d have to figure out how to resurrect her. ‘Cause y’know, comic book universe. Killing a character off is very seldom permanent.
Ultimately, I just hope they’ll treat Jane’s condition with the gravitas it deserves, but also avoid making it too grim and serious. It should inform her character development–but not be the ONLY thing about her.
Don’t fuck this up, Marvel. And don’t let it fall by the wayside either after you finish rebooting everything! I’ll be watching.
