With Thor: The Dark World, we see the return of everyone’s favorite thunder god. And, of course, his trusty hammer, Mjolnir. But few, if any, can lift Mjolnir… right? We-ellll….
In theory, not just any shmuck can run around with Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer. In fact, it’s right there, on the hammer: “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.” But in actuality, Mjolnir’s standards are… somewhat lax, according to the rich and storied history of Marvel Comics.
In truth, as we’ll see, Mjolnir’s liftability is less dictated by the supernatural forces of dwarves and more about whether or not it would be cool for that to happen in the plot. Or if Loki happens to be around, and forging fake Mjolnirs to annoy Thor.
So, without further ado, here’s everybody who’s ever gotten Thor’s hammer, or a convincing knock-off.
Beta Ray Bill may be a horse alien with a silly name, but it is hard to overstate just how delighted fans were when he was introduced; essentially, Beta Ray Bill was introduced as a monster, but turned out to be a noble hero who, quite literally, could rival Thor in the worthiness stakes. He was supposed to be a one-off, but was so popular that he got his own hammer, Stormbreaker, and he’s been a part of the 616 ever since.
Well… yeah. Come on. It’s Cap. You don’t get more “worthy” by any yardstick than Cap. It’s to Cap’s credit that he doesn’t just run around with the thing all the time.
Superman got to run around with Thor’s hammer and Cap’s shield for essentially a minute, but it’s still a geekgasm inducing moment. Especially since George Perez drew it.
In DC Vs. Marvel, Wondy lifts the hammer of Thor before deciding she doesn’t need it to kick Storm’s ass, and having Mjolnir would be an unfair advantage. Keep in mind the entire DC Multiverse is at stake here.
In reality, everybody knew Wondy was going to job to Storm because the fans were allowed to vote, and the X-Men were pretty much the most popular characters on the page. That was already best defined as “a stretch” since Wondy can cold-cock Superman and Storm can be defeated by locking her in a closet, so she needed to dump the hammer. But it remains one of the most tantalizing, unrealized plotlines. It also more or less marks the last person on this list that makes a lick of sense.
Seriously: Odin’s carried Mjolnir. So has Borr, Thor’s grandpa. And Buri, Thor’s great-grandpa. Already, you kind of have to wonder what, precisely, Mjolnir thinks is “worthy”, because all three of those guys have some moments of truly epic jackassery, Odin in particular. Baldur hasn’t taken a crack at it, but come on, he can probably juggle three of the things at this rate.
Who, you might ask, was Eric Masterson? Basically, some architect Thor knew and was used as a can by Odin to seal Thor in so that lives could be saved and a new series could be launched. Did we mention the guy was a single father forced to give up his son thanks to Odin doing this? Like we said, Odin is a jackass.
Apparently being an architect and having Thor in his skull for a little while made him worthy enough to get his own hammer, Thunderstrike, and as a total coincidence, Thunderstrike the book was launched in 1993, then canceled after two years and Eric promptly killed off. Keeping with the theme of “Mjolnir don’t care”, Thunderstrike has let Eric’s son Kevin run around with superpowers, because “teenager with an Uru hammer” aren’t words that chill the spine.
Mjolnir, as an inanimate object, seems to have a weakness for animate objects running around with it: It let the Awesome Android pick it up, and it was just imitating Thor’s worthiness, the Air-Walker got a crack, and even Zarrko The Tomorrow Man was able to make a robot that could pick it up. Either they make robots tough in the 616 or those dwarves are serious rules lawyers. After all, it doesn’t say “If it be worthy” on the side of the hammer.
Yeah, that one page up there, for better or worse, pretty much sums up Marvel in the late ’80s and early ’90s, bad sound effects and all. Better known as “Thorm”, fans don’t talk about this comic for a reason. Loki once gave Storm a copy of Mjolnir in an attempt to manipulate her. One guess how that turned out, for Loki!
Really, Loki can pretty much fart out a copy of Mjolnir whenever he feels like it, and he often does it just to troll his brother. As you might guess, that was the plan in Deadpool #37.
Yes, really.
Walt Simonson’s hilarious story of Thor turned into a frog is a classic of a great run on the book. Essentially, Loki turns Thor into a frog… but Thor, it turns out, is still Thor, even when he’s an amphibian, and he can still lift the hammer, leading into one of the funniest stories Simonson ever wrote.
Throg, on the other hand, is some dude who was turned into a frog by a gypsy curse, and used a piece of Thor’s hammer to make his own Mjolnir. Dude, you could have just asked Loki for one. He probably would have given it to you.
This isn’t even getting into all the evil hammers that are running around that you can lift if, apparently, you’re a popular enough character. In short, if you live in the Marvel Universe, and you want an Uru hammer, befriend Thor for a few issues, or if that’s too much trouble, send Loki a tweet. Or just check Amazon; Loki’s probably selling the things by the crate.