“Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.”

We've had the discussion of who has wielded Mjolnir in Marvel(ish) comics... Thor, Zeus, Beta Ray Bill, Thunderstrike, Captain America, Wonder Woman, Superman, Conan*, Crom*, Jane Foster**, the Vision***, probably a couple others that I've missed.

What makes one worthy, though? I don't know if it's ever been spelled out in any Thor book. It doesn't seem to be just super strength - Hercules, the Hulk, Mr. Hyde have all tried to lift it and failed (unless there's a change I've missed... always possible.)

Is it someone who stands up for the helpless, uses great power to aid those without power, one who chooses to defy evil? I don't know that this entirely applies to what might be the Norse ideal.

The Norsemen were barbarians, certainly, and were a warlike race. Conquest and combat seemed to be their code (as we'll note that Valhalla was designated for the greatest warriors... not healers, sorcerers, teachers, etc.)

They were also known for their berserker furies... shucks, maybe Wolverine is worthy to lift the hammer! (Um... let's think not, though.) But it's not impossible that Conan really would be able to wield it.

So, two questions for you folks.

1) What actually makes whosoever worthy to lift Mjolnir?

2) By your standard - or even just the comics status quo if you like - who should be able to lift Mjolnir?

Personally, I'm ruling out any villains or anti-heroes, although you can pick one if you prefer. Who would I have able to lift it? Certainly Cap, Superman, and Wonder Woman. I'll add Captain Marvel and Aquaman to that list. In Marvel... I guess Ororo. Kitty Pryde. The Vision. The Invisible Woman. T'Challa. 

Okay, what do you think?

*If "What If-" #39 is to be believed. DEFINITELY one of the worse forays from that book.

**If "What If-" #10 is to be believed.

***If Age of Ultron is to be believed. But I will note that I never recall the Vision trying to lift Mjolnir in any Avengers or Thor book. This could open up a whole new category of possibilities... Machine Man, Jocasta, Ultron, etc. might be able to wield it. Of course, I could imagine Ultron lifting Mjolnir, putting it down... and 60 seconds later, turning into a Campbell's Cream of Ultron soup. :)

Odin

Beta Ray Bill

maybe Captain America if the circumstances are right

That’s about it. 

1. Just, honorable, altruistic, brave

2.Odin, Thor,  Balder, Captain America, Snowbird

Odin is a war god and therefore would deem only a warrior worthy of holding Mjolnir. This is where I part company with a great many. Captain America is a soldier, without question, and capable of sustained involvement in battle, no doubt. But he is looking forward to the end of the war. He is fighting, ultimately, to preserve life and praying for an end to the ongoing conflict. In the end, he wants Odin out of business. 

Odin would have no truck with such philosophies. He would not disrespect them entirely, but he would see little value in handing a weapon of war to a man whose first and lasting impulse is to put it back down. I do not think Cap is someone "worthy" from an Odin-esque point of view of wielding the hammer. Mjolnir is made for war and must be held by a warrior.

By this standard, I'm fairly surprised that Claremont didn't have Storm grasp Thor's actual hammer for her time in Asgard rather than a simulacrum fashioned for her by Loki. The entire point of that saga seemed to be how at home Claremont's X-Men were in a land of constant conflict and endless war. Asgard is forever either under siege or at risk of being so from the various lands and peoples surrounding it. Claremont's coterie of "warriors born" loved it there and would have fought in Asgard's defense all night and every day. Well, except for those who didn't (usually the guys who lacked that spring-steel spine of his women.) By and large, the X-Men were fit to lives in Asgard, and Storm, as their leader, by courage and by right, would have been seen, by Claremont, at least, as a capable steward of Odin's greatest weapon. (Unless you want that to be the Odinsword and that's a separate plotline.) Perhaps it was the fact that she was under Loki's enchantment* that kept Mjolnir proper out of her hands. Who knows? 

In any case, a willingness to fight, endlessly and without hope of lasting peace, in Asgard's defense or the defense of the helpless is, I believe, a key component of the spell. Beta Ray Bill had that. He gave up his humanity (or the alien equivalent thereof) and accepted his transformation into a war-creature to battle the demons that plagued his people, and would have fought in their defense forever, at least as his character was established in that first story. Where he found the time to dawdle about on Asgard and Earth, wandering through gardens with Sif, I don't know. Did he really dispose of the demons so completely in Simonson's story? Perhaps. In any case, Beta Ray Bill is a warrior who will fight for what is right and never stop. 

He is almost Rom, but Rom was still a poet deep inside who longed for peace. Offered a role in another unending war against a new opponent of limitless numbers, he would assume it reluctantly at best. Like Cap, war is an impediment in his life and not the reason for it, as it is with the warriors of Asgard or Beta Ray Bill, who had known nothing else. 

So, what about Jane Foster then? Isn't it kind of... coincidental that two of the very few who could pick up Mjolnir worked side-by-side in a downtown medical office without really having any idea about the warrior spirit that dwelt within them? And what about that story where Odin turned her briefly into a goddess, locked her in a room with scary stuff, and then bellowed that she was unfit for Asgardian citizenship never mind worthy of holding its greatest weapon? How does she get to grasp the hammer and employ it in the battle for the safety of the Nine Worlds?

Well, by Roy Thomas's reckoning in What If #10, apparently, just being a really, really good person is enough, which opens up the possibilities of "worthiness" considerably. There is also the suggestion that since Odin set up Blake's vacation and the circumstances surrounding the restoration of his son, he really expected that to be Blake picking up that wooden staff and so the story played out more or less as if it had been him. It isn't the enchantment on the hammer turning her into Thordis. It's Odin's story writ sideways that creates this unexpected turn of events, and yet, true to Odin's wisdom and the correctness of his being the one in charge of such things, everything works out just as it should have all along, in a truly Weisingerian fashion, with him getting a new wife in the bargain. One whose mettle is better tested now and presumably will be able to deal with scary, locked rooms.

By the time we get to Jason Aaron's take on Jane as Thor, the enchantment upon the hammer is more clearly defined as the means by which "the power of Thor" transfers from one individual to another. So Jane had better be worthy by Odin's definition for this story to work... And it does. She has contracted cancer and has been fighting an ongoing war in her own defense for some time. It is not a war she can win, but it is one she will fight regardless. She is not desperate. She is driven. Her spirit is equal to this task, even if her body will eventually fail her. She has been changed and is imbued with a courage and willingness to fight that was there only in potential before. 

So when she lifts Mjolnir, she is worthy of its possession. Would any cancer survivor be similarly gifted? Perhaps a great many would, but the catch in Jane's case, as it would be in theirs, is that the transformation locks her into the frail, weakened form she was in when she first became Thor and returns her to it after each change. She can grow stronger after treatments, see her cancer regress and begin to retreat, and then lose all of that the next time she changes. The enchantment puts her back at square one, time after time after time after time... And still she fights on, in defense of others. She accepts that as a condition of her being able to help and allows her role as Thor to erase her medical progress over and over again. 

I've read very little of this run of the book, but I have enjoyed what I've seen of it. Another Thor stand-in I've only read in a handful of stories is Thunderstrike. I don't know what his deal is except that Tom DeFalco apparently deemed him worthy and the hammer decided to go along with that. What it is about him, aside being a good-natured brawler, willing to put himself out there for others, in common super-hero fashion, that makes him one of the few, I couldn't tell you. 

I also don't know why his son is able to wield Mjolnir in the MC2 universe or why Dargo can do so in the future, except that every now and again, someone worthy does come along. It becomes something of a given in the story that someone will carry the hammer into battles that must be fought, and here is the one who will do so in today's installment...

So what about the Vision then? I saw a fun episode of Justice League Action in which Superman, Batman, and Big Barda fought Steppenwulf, parademons, and various Apokoliptic forces, keeping score as they did. Steppenwulf boom-tubes Superman away to a world with a red sun. With his powers fading fast, Superman is able to hold his own, taking down the villain and two of his parademons. Trying to track his location, Batman and Barda invade Steppenwulf's stronghold on Apokolips, and take down a large, two-headed dog, a couple of parademons, and Vermin Vundabarr. Batman claims the victory over the dog, one demon, and Vundabarr. Barda gets one demon and negates Batman's claim on Vundabarr, taking it for herself, saying she did all the heavy lifting on his plan. They're tied at two apiece when they go to rescue Superman, who now has a broken leg and his pursuers neatly wrapped up for them. When they appear, he's glad to see them. "Good, I was wondering how I was going to get home," he smiles. When they compare scores, Superman has three to their two, and he did it without super-powers. 

What is so very cool about the way that story shakes out, aside from, yeah, c'mon, Superman IS just that damned good at what he does, is that, if you're a Batman fan, you can still argue that he and Batman tied. Barda took that point away from Batman, but you can still contend that she did so unfairly, so Batman didn't lose. He got three and Superman got three. If you're a Superman fan, no, the story clearly shows that Batman didn't get that extra point and so can't claim it at the end. And around and around the argument can go forever. It's a really classy way to address the whole Superman vs. Batman debate and you can have a good time defending either side. 

How does this tie in with the Vision? Well, AGE OF ULTRON pulls the same trick. In their argument over how the mechanics of the spell surrounding Mjolnir works, Steve and Tony raise the oft-cited points concerning what would happen if Thor set the hammer down in an elevator or on an escalator, would the machine be able to "lift" it? Cue the Vision, easily raising the hammer and handing it to Thor prior to battle. Thor sees this and deems him a warrior worthy of the enchantment. If you don't want to look at it from that point of view, the film has already raised the question of whether mechanical devices can lift it. And around and around you can go on that. The film doesn't say. I prefer the idea that Thor knows what he's talking about and that, in this universe, in the MCU, the Vision is a man worthy of Mjolnir's favor. 

I would think that he is not in the MU proper, having been shown to have very distinct character flaws regarding his love for the Scarlet Witch and the lengths he's willing to go in assuming power. I would think that, mechanistic nature aside, he is a good man, but not on the epic scale that Odin would require of a wielder of Mjolnir. He is like most of the Avengers, worthy of battling alongside Thor, but not worthy of assuming his role in battle. 

But I almost want to give it to him anyway, if only because he does possess another facet that seems necessary in taking on the power of Thor. He broods. He is deeply set in his inner turmoils, constantly at war with himself, in a manner similar to Thor himself, who would often as a youth go out into the wilderness simply to be on his own and deal with his own inner demons and questions of power. Thor can be exceedingly jovial, albeit not perhaps so much so as Hercules, but still quite the humorous fellow. But he has a dark humor in him as well, and is capable of tremendous melancholy... 

Which is where Conan comes in. Crom can wield the hammer for the same reason Zeus can, which is that one sky-king's will is not binding upon another's. They are gods and above the requirements of Odin's enchantment. It simply doesn't work on them. Conan, however, a man of, and I'm paraphrasing here, great mirth and great melancholies, is a warrior born, no Claremont padding required. He is made for battle and will fight in defense of others when he deems it worth his while to do so. He is passionate and brooding, with emotions that span the gamut. If anyone is similar to a young brawling, arrogant Thor in nature, it is Conan. He's not a nice guy. He's indefensible by many standards. But Thor was young in a time much like the age of Conan and loved battle in a way that Conan finds cathartic as well. 

It is this young Thor that found favor in the All-Father's eye. It is this Thor who showed such promise to become a ruler that Odin could see in his place on the throne one day, if not for his reckless confidence. Young Thor is the standard by which Odin determined the enchantment, because it was for him the hammer was made. That free-spirited, troubled, brooding, hard-partying guy is the man who is the definition of being "worthy of the power of Thor," if he can temper it with just a bit of humility. He's sent to Earth to learn it and does. 

Conan has known defeat and desolation often enough that humility is not a problem for him. It's not his strong suit, but it is present in him. Otherwise, he is young king, on his way up, cutting down everything in his path to get there. Fortunately, it's mostly bad guys and evil witches standing in his way, so the outcome isn't simply a blood trail of innocents. I actually think that Odin would see something of value in this rude barbarian, and that the hammer might as well. I'm willing to let that one go, if only for the number of questions it raises as to "worthiness" in the modern discussion.

In the story itself in What If #39, I'm not certain those questions are as pertinent. Again, this predates the Simonson interpretation, which has defined the issue since its introduction. Back when that issue of What If was written, picking up the hammer wasn't the same thing it is today. Witness Red Norvell's ability to hold the hammer. As interpreted by Roy Thomas, (him again!) all he really needed was Thor's belt of strength, the iron gloves Thor originally wore when training with the hammer, and the magical assistance of Loki. "Worthiness" of the power was not in question. 

He was deemed suitable because of his closer resemblance in many respects to the Thor of legend rather than the Kirby/Lee version of same. That was enough for Roy and enough, somehow, for this lustful, somewhat shiftless camera guy to gain the power of Thor. 

The rules were simply different then. I would imagine this has changed in the Lost Gods story when he came back in the role. Some accounting for the enchantment must have been made at that time, but I didn't read that series and so can't say. If it came down to, "No, really, he was worthy all along. He just, y'know, didn't seem like it..." well, what are you going to do? 

I think that covers everyone I could think of off-hand to carry the hammer. Nope. Wait. Superman. And yes, he can. Because he's Superman. I think Wonder Woman's been shown with it as well. I would vote for her worthiness as well, but if you want to dispute that, the idea that she is gifted by her gods with their direct power could be a fallback argument. The power of Zeus within her simply counteracts the enchantment upon the hammer. Really, though, she's a warrior born and all the rest of it as well. Her soul is not as troubled for the most part but that's simply because she's had her head on right from the start, with little angst required to get to a place where she is at her best. 

Okay... I may have forgotten someone, but I can't think who at the moment, so I'll leave this for now. This has been fun and I look forward to reading everyone else's take on the issue as well. 

* Another reliable Claremont trope.

Being Thor.

---

I could have sworn that I read that he wanted to have Storm do just that, but Simonson (and Shooter?) intervened. 

Vinny, that wouldn't surprise me. It seemed like it must have been an editorial edict since everything otherwise pointed in the direction of Claremont using the story to further underscore Storm's innate honor and battle-worthiness. There was no bigger fan of Storm and her oft-proclaimed status as a "warrior born", I think, than Claremont himself.

I imagine that Lee-Kirby simply couldn't resist using the universe of Norse mythology as a source for stories and decided that it would be too weird and clumsy to constantly remind the reader that these other gods are the real gods... except for "Thor" (or is it Thorr!?).