Casting Tessa Thompson in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ is a delicious way to troll white supremacy

As Dorothy Parker might say: Pardon my glee.

I’m sure there are a lot of things more satisfying than sticking it to white supremacists. But given the re-emergence of their public profile, let’s relish the opportunity to jam a thumb in their collective eye. This time, said thumb comes courtesy of Marvel and its latest movie, Thor: Ragnarok.

Some white supremacists have adopted Odinism, an ancient Norse religion they thought would provide shelter from the brown people they’ve decided are sullying Christianity. So you can imagine their discomfort once they learn that Tessa Thompson, who is very much a black person, with credits in blackity-black movies such as Creed and Dear White People, plays Valkyrie, a Norse goddess, fighter and defender of Asgard. In Marvel comics, Valkyrie is white, blond, busty and scantily clad.

In Thompson’s hands, Valkyrie is an enormously strong wisenheimer who drinks too much. She’s got a cape and her own cool-looking leather getup that’s both practical and attractive and avoids turning into dominatrix cosplay. Oh, and she’s bisexual. As Thompson herself described the character, “she cares very little about what men think of her.” So not only is a black woman co-opting Valkyrie, but heads can now explode over her identification as a feminist.

Here are some of the fantastic things Thompson does as Valkyrie:

• Her spaceship doubles as a fighting machine that she can activate and control with her wrists.
• She rescues Thor, the golden-haired son of Odin with bulging muscles and a giant boomerang hammer, after she drunkenly stumbles out of her ship on the planet of Sakaar. Then she drags him by his cape to her ship, where she inserts an electric shock device in his neck that allows her to make him do her bidding.
• She’s friends with Hulk. Not Bruce Banner, but straight-up Hulk. Somehow, Valkyrie’s managed to be his minder for two years without getting smashed; instead, she has enchanted him — that is, when she’s not taking generous swigs from enormous bottles of liquor.
• She knows her way around guns. Like giant, loud, phallus-substituting guns. Also swords.

I can’t tell you any more without spoiling the movie. Suffice it to say, Valkyrie is a certified badass.

I’ll be right back, I’m going to find myself a Valkyrie costume so I can go moon a statue of Robert E. Lee before it gets torn down.