Thor As A Trope

Stop me if you think you've heard this one before. The damsel in distress is being held by a dastardly villain, only for her dashing knight to come in and save her. It seems silly when said aloud, but this basic summary ends up covering much of our fiction in today's society. And while things have certainly changed over the last hundred years, this plot line is still seen often enough for it to be classified as a trope for the fiction genre. And while this damsel in distress trope was first referenced in 1755 with the parody Don Quixote, it was never quite as well known as it is in the world of comic books.

While many of the so called "Golden and Silver Age" comics found themselves following this trope, it was first seen in the world with

She was also a damsel in distress like Lois Lane, and also became a love interest, but her character has always felt more real than her counterpart due to the dialogue in stories. However, what truly pushed her above and beyond Lois Lane was when she received cancer in 2013's Thor: God of Thunder. Cancer has always been a serious issue portrayed in comics, something that most writers don't joke about since it's real for many, regardless of readership or not. With this reveal, we got to see actual development in Thor and Jane, which is why the Thor storylines of that year were some of Marvel's bestsellers. That said, Thor's storylines in 2014 were some of Marvel's worst sellers. The reason for this is because Marvel orchestrated Original Sin, causing Thor to lose the ability to wield his hammer while Jane Foster took up the mantle. While female Thor has risen in 2017, especially now with the Unworthy Thor storyline bringing Odinson (the original) back into relevance, many felt alienated with this change when it first happened. And while misogynists argued that Thor should've stayed a male like he always had been and feminists argued to keep Thor a female for younger women, many of the actual comic book readers just felt betrayed that Marvel would do something like this out of the blue. Usually, there would be time for readers to adjust and realize the status quo would be altered, such as with 2014's Ultimate Spider-Man killing off Peter Parker and replacing him with Miles Morales, where Brian Michael Bendis waited a couple issues to actually replace Peter. However, comic book fans wouldn't have been as adverse to the change if it hadn't been for the horrible writing and terrible storylines to plague Jane Foster's run. As a matter of fact, one issue has Thor argue with a villain as to why Thor is suddenly female, and another has her punching a thief for "saying feminist like it's a four letter word".