Were you hoping to make it to Wednesday without learning the identity of Marvel’s new female Thor?
Well that was never in the cards. TeamHellions broke the story last night, but Marvel apparently planned to make its own reveal today via The New York Times Art Beat. There are full spoilers ahead, so stop reading now if you don’t want to know the name of the woman who now commands the power of Thor.
So who is the new Thor? Jason Aaron’s Thor series has tried to implicate S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Roz Solomon (Thor’s current girlfriend), Freyja (Thor’s adoptive mother), and Lady Sif as potential candidates who were worthy of Thor’s hammer. But the new Thor is actually Dr. Jane Foster, Thor’s ex-lover who is currently dying from breast cancer.
As Bleeding Cool points out, this isn’t the first time that Marvel has teased the idea of Jane Foster becoming empowered through Thor’s hammer. But it is the first time that the story took place in Marvel’s continuity. As an unexpected side bonus, the new female Thor series has been a best selling comic.
While speaking to The New York Times, Aaron said “Jane Foster has been part of the Thor comics and the Thor mythology from almost the very beginning. The very act of picking up this hammer, of becoming Thor, is killing her. Where we go from here is the real story.”
Of course, there is still the mystery of how Jane Foster managed to retrieve Thor’s hammer from the moon after he dropped it during Original Sin. But presumably that reveal will come after Marvel’s Secret Wars. Marvel has already demonstrated that the female Thor will be a part of the All-New, All-Different Avengers later this year.
Thor # 8 will be released tomorrow, Wednesday, May 13.