Because Abraham Lincoln was a zombie killer...

This is a modern comic inspired by Norse mythology, not a retelling. The old Thor was a stout red head, the next was a blonde pretty boy, the new will be a buff woman. Big deal. Time changes things. It's not like this is the strangest story arc to take place in comics.

If they created a female character based on Freya or another goddess, it wouldn't get as much publicity. They probably wouldn't print as many, and it would fade into obscurity. By doing this, they're drawing attention to the rare lead female hero. It's weird, but it's just a stepping stone to get people to notice the female heroes that I believe/hope they're planning on introducing in the future. Also, he's not turning into a she. A new character is wielding the hammer. But, by saying that there are better options than a cross dresser, you run the risk of sounding a bit transphobic. So what if Thor did decide he was a female? That's ridiculous in some way?

Strange as it may be, I'm hoping that it does well. If it doesn't, the comic industry will add this to the heap of female characters they tried out that failed. The fact is, they're just not going to make the leap into creating a top billing female hero until secondary characters and attempts like this do well.

Shallow pandering would be making her a little waif wearing tiny outfits. Giving her a decent build and outfit equivalent to the males...that's respect. Go home, coward.

Personally, I think one of the biggest reasons that they haven't sold as well is that female characters don't get as much publicity. It's actually not the easy to find female leads that aren't somewhat sexually objectified. They're often spin offs of the original male characters. Or, they are just not as many printed because they're doing a test run. That's not saying that swapping Thor characters is a better idea than creating a new female hero with her own unique story arc, making her strong and non-sexualized, and promoting the series. But, I doubt they'll do that until they've tiptoed into a successful female character.

It may be a bit sexist to give her big boobs, but the badass outfit and top billing is much better than the underwear clad background characters that have been the norm for women. Yeah, it may be a weird choice to swap out Thor characters, but I think it's working as planned. Everyone's outrage is just more publicity.

Thor doesn't become a woman. Thor's hammer is now in the possession of THOR, who happens to be a woman.

The article has the art work. Decent sized boobage, but more importantly she actually has muscle and dons respectable and much more practical armor.

Yes, but consent can be a difficult thing to prove or disprove. This gives people an additional angle to ensure that their right to privacy is respected.

And, yes, I realize that it may seem counter-intuitive to call it privacy, but the media was private to the relationship.

Victim blaming at it's finest.

If you get in a car, you deserve to die in a terrible, fiery crash because, well, what did you expect?

Girls can't always control if someone takes a picture of them. Pictures can be taken with hidden cameras or while they are sleeping or drunk. They could be taken in a long term relationship or marriage where splitting up seemed unlikely. The fact is that if the pictures were agreed to be kept private, that's an oral contract that was breached which lead to an invasion of her privacy and other potentially negative affects such as the loss of a job. Telling women not to take/give pictures to an SO in case the person turns out to be a d-bag is like telling musicians to not to make songs if they don't want them pirated. If you want your girl to send you pictures, then respect her equal rights to them unless you don't want nudie pictures of your girl...

Good advice, but the uploader could be an ex-spouse or other long term relationship where a break up wasn't expected.

I think that a major indicator would be where it was posted. Yougotposted vs a P2P porn upload. One shows malintent, where the other could be an honest mistake uploading a folder. I'm sure a lot has to do with whether or not they are willing to take the image down as well.

Not if it was agreed to be kept private (oral contract...go ahead and snicker). Also, I don't think that many people on here are considering the fact many women have pictures taken of them that they are unaware of (drunk, sleeping, hidden cam, etc.), and the type of person that would take those kinds of pictures is the exact type of person that would post them.