The View played host to a major announcement from Marvel Comics today: starting with Thor #1 in October, Thor, the hammer-wielding Norse God and Avenger, will be a woman. The current Thor, it turns out, will no longer be worthy to possess the hammer of Thor.

After The View aired this big news, Marvel released a statement letting folks know that this is indeed happening, and that it is not a temporary hold over for the male Thor to return:

The inscription on Thor’s hammer reads ‘Whosoever holds this hammer, if HE be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.’ Well it’s time to update that inscription. The new Thor continues Marvel’s proud tradition of strong female characters like Captain Marvel, Storm, Black Widow and more. And this new Thor isn’t a temporary female substitute – she’s now the one and only Thor, and she is worthy!”

Because this announcement came in the form of human communication, it was immediately followed by an ridiculous outpouring of social media activity. Some of it was positive, some negative, some ridiculously misogynistic.

My initial response, as a long-time lover of Thor the character (Thor was my absolute fave growing up Scandinavian in the Midwest), was that I hope this character would be named and referred to simply as Thor. Not Lady Thor, or something else altogether. Just Thor.

So I was glad to see the following tweet from Marvel Editor Ryan Penagos:

Once that worry was calmed my second thought was, Thor looks pretty stunning so far, if a bit restrictive in her steel-bustier armor. Regarding full Mjolnir rotation she might wanna change some things.

Other than that, we just don’t know much about the woman that picks up the hammer. In an interview at Time, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso said this about her: “There are a number of women in Thor’s life, and we’re going to tease out for quite awhile the identity of who this woman is. But one of the women in Thor’s life picks up the hammer. She is in fact worthy. And she becomes Thor.”

That’s a quality teaser, I’d say. Also, far as story elements go, I am interested to see what happens to the old Thor, who will remain in the story as a man who once was and is no longer Thor.

None of this is to say that the new Thor will be a success, worth reading let alone celebrating. It all sounds good so far, but such is the reality of PR campaigns: they sound good. For a sense of whether this is sincere and results in quality comic-books, well, we’ll have to wait until October. But don’t kid yourself about “it’s just for P.R.” or some such nonsense.

It is no small commitment to alter the gender of one of the pillars of the modern Marvel Universe. Such a moves tells us a great deal about comic-book culture’s evolution, and Marvel’s desire to be at the forefront of that evolution. Now we’ll see if that evolution translates to the big-screen in the Marvel Universe, as well.