'Avengers' Adoption Gag Outrage Fizzles

Thor may be the God of Thunder, but he’s a mere mortal to some adoption advocates.

The blockbuster “Avengers” film, which made more than $100 million this weekend, is being attacked for a single comic line uttered by Thor.

The joke is at the expense of Loki, the film’s villain and adopted son of the god, Odin. Loki’s brother Thor defends him to fellow Avenger Black Widow, who then points out that Loki’s “killed 80 people in two days.” Thor then replies, “he’s adopted.”

That was enough to spark two protests over at Change.org. Adoption advocates say the gag “is a slap in the face to every adopted person. It implies there is something wrong with us simply because we are adopted.”

So far the outrage has been … mild, to say the least.

The aforementioned petition has drawn only 107 signatures, while a similar petition (which demands an apology from the film studio) hosted at the same site has gathered 243 cyber-names.

For comparison’s sake, a change.org petition to make Girl Scouts cookies “rainforest safe” has gained more than 70,000 signatures. And a petition to make a toy of Agent Coulson, a supporting character in “The Avengers,” already has drawn more than 300 signatures.