If Marvel Comics gave the hammer of Thor to a woman as a gimmick intended to boost sales, it seems to have worked. The new Thor debuted last October and the first four issues of that comic book have outsold the last four issues of the previous title (Thor: God of Thunder) featuring the familiar, male version of the character by nearly 20,000 copies.
Sales data from Comichron shows that the first new issue of Thor sold 150,862, compared to God of Thunder‘s 110,443, which debuted in 2012. Interestingly, Thor also boasted the third-highest sales to North American comic book shops in October 2014.
Surely, readers were intrigued by the new character and were curious to check out the new story. But continuing sales seem to indicate that fans like what writer Jason Aaron and artist Russell Dauterman are doing on the book so far. The mystery of the female Thor’s identity, which has yet to be revealed, could also be keeping readers intrigued.
Considering the large and increasing contingent of female comic book readers, this sort of development has to be encouraging. But Marvel seems to have been acknowledging that trend for quite a while. Along with Thor, its current line of titles include Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, Star Wars: Princess Leia, Silk and Spider-Gwen.
[io9]
