The horned W, nice touch.

Comics have gone PC mad.

PC mad.

When I was a kid almost half a century ago, my favorite comic was Mad magazine.

I have to say that Spy vs Spy is the most racist cartoon ever.

Whut? Where do you see the racism in Spy vs Spy? Just because one's wearing a white coat on the other a black coat? Of all people, it was a Cuban exile, Antonio Prohías, who created the strip.

J/k but I wouldn't be surprised if someone has had that as a serious thought.

Another snarky Mad strip then is Al Jaffee's Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions.

So now Thor is Lady Thor?

Any idea how the writers pull this off? Does Thor just wake up one day and announce that he has discovered something new about himself? Or maybe he goes to the men's room to take a leak and return with a puzzled look on his/her face?

Was he having trouble getting laid as a guy and decided to try a different approach?

Or does he cut "it" off and jump off a roof top and re-proclaim himself "God"?

I suppose that steel breast plate could have been concealing flattened breasts all this time.

The key is the inscription on the hammer. In a very real sense, Thor isn't totally a personal identity: it's a cross between a role and an office. Technically, the power can be possessed by anyone -- if the hammer feels they're up to its standards. If you're not, you can't lift it. At all. (This also applies to machines: a twelve-ton crane will majestically strain itself into oblivion trying to shift the thing.) A number of the MU's heroes fall short -- a large number, while an ambulance worker once casually handed the thing back and walked away, possibly never giving it another thought. Generally, when the hammer gets dropped, you wait for Thor to get it back and hope it's not causing a traffic hazard.

But if the hammer judges you worthy...

All you have to do is lift it. Ram the base of the handle against the ground. And if the office was vacant... then you are now Thor.

So two things have to happen. The first is that the current Thor
is no longer considered worthy: some level of fall from Norse grace. After that, the right woman comes along...

One final note: Mjolnir (and we're going cross-company here) is not any kind of Lantern ring. If the current Thor dies or falls from worthiness, the hammer does not fly around the world homing in on the best candidate to Got Next. This may be all about the right place at the right time. And since a significant percentage of the MU is aware of how the hammer works, they won't question a new Thor too much, because they know the bearer is worthy.

They will, however, be rather curious about what happened to the last one.

But if the hammer judges you worthy...

Mjölnir (meaning "That Which Smashes" or "The Crusher" or "The Grinder") is enchanted. Technically it does not judge worthiness, it simply responds only to those who satisfy the terms of the enchantment (which is phrased as worthiness, whatever those terms may otherwise be). In the original storyline in the Marvel comics Odin gave Thor amnesia and put him on Earth as Dr. Don Blake, when he gained humility he was able to transform the walking stick into the hammer and regain his memories and godlike powers.

So, he was given a Doctorate in order to give him a sense of humility?

Well, it is fantasy.

LAST EDITED ON 07-18-14 AT 11:15 AM (EST)

He was made mortal for the purpose of gaining humility, in the original story in the Marvel comics. But in point, the hammer itself is enchanted, it only responds to the terms of its enchantment.

The terms of the enchantment were originally established by Odin for a certain purpose of teaching Thor humility. That purpose was achieved way way back.

The enchantment retained and can be, has been, altered over time.

The hammer itself is a nondescript AI which responds only to those who satisfy how it is programmed.

That programming, however, can be altered.

Them Danes be crazy.

I assume Asian Spiderman and transgender Hulk will be out shortly. This really is very pandering and PC.

Tribe!

OBAMA!!!!!

(Beating everyone else to it.)

Crap, you beat me to it.

Is that Ann Coulter?