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Jane Foster is well known as one of the longest-running and most powerful heroes to wield Mjolnir (and one of a very few who can claim the name ‘Thor’), and now we’ve got our first glimpse of Natalie Portman as Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor in the new Thor: Love and Thunder trailer.
Who else has the hammer deemed ‘worthy’ enough to lift it and wield its power?
The answers may surprise you.
Now ignoring the times that the hammer was manipulated in spite of its enchantment, like when Magneto took control of its Uru metal, or when Red Hulk manipulated it in Thor’s hands without actually lifting it, the list is pretty exclusive.
And apologies as well to Storm and Rogue, but while we allowed inter-company crossovers, we tried to leave What if? and variant covers out of the equation.
Without further ado, here are the top characters worthy of the power of Thor!
Miguel O’Hara AKA Spider-Man 2099
In the far-flung future year of 2099, the legacies of many of Marvel’s most iconic heroes are taken up by new characters, often with little in common but a codename. Chief among these was Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099.
After a bizarre string of events leads Dr. Doom’s heir to become President of the USA in 2099, Spider-Man is given Thor’s hammer by a once again unfrozen Steve Rogers as a symbolic passing of the torch of his era’s greatest heroes to O’Hara.
Though O’Hara could wield Mjolnir, he elected not to access its power, deciding that the world’s problems could only be fixed by its true denizens.
Puddlegulp AKA Throg
Walter Simonson is a pretty funny guy. He had a long run writing and drawing Thor’s adventures, and from time to time, he found some pretty outrageous ways to expand Thor’s cast. Like the time the Enchantress turned him into a frog, for example.
As a frog, Thor met another amphibian by the name of Puddlegulp, who, as luck would have it, was also formerly a human named Simon Walterson (that part was revealed years later, to pay homage to Walt Simonson).
After seeing Thor, in his frog form, call upon the power of Mjolnir, Puddlegulp found a sliver of Mjolnir that turned into the mighty hammer ‘Frogjolnir’ when he lifted it, and he become the mighty Throg.
You can’t make this stuff up, folks. Well, I guess you can if you’re Walt Simonson.
Ragnarok
Unlike the others who have wielded facsimiles and copies of Mjolnir – such as Storm and Deadpool – Ragnarok, Reed Richards’s uncontrolled clone of Thor, eventually proved himself worthy of Mjolnir’s true power. Granted, it was from an alternate timeline, but it was still the Mjolnir of Earth-616.
Ragnarok originally wielded a technological copy of Thor’s iconic hammer, but when it was destroyed, he managed to find the true Mjolnir from another point in time, keeping it even after that timeline was sealed off.
Eric Masterson AKA Thunderstrike
One of the mortals granted the power of Thor – and the responsibility of tethering him to Earth – Eric Masterson was an architect that Odin chose to possess Thor’s essence for a while. While this had dire consequences for Masterson’s life – like the loss of custody of his son – it also provided him with incredible power.
Masterson was Thor’s alter-ego for a period in the late ’80s and early ’90s before Thor was once more separated from his mortal form.
At this point, Masterson was granted his own Uru weapon, Thunderstrike, which also became his codename when he continued fighting crime until his death, after which his then-teenage son briefly took up his hammer.
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman managed to get ahold of Mjolnir the first time the Marvel and DC universes collided with the fate of both worlds at stake. However it ended up, Marvel vs. DC started out as a way to finally settle the age-old score of which heroes could beat up which, with major showdowns having their outcomes voted on by fans.
Wonder Woman wound up going toe-to-toe with Storm, Marvel’s mutant mistress of weather, and though she came into possession of the storm-wielding hammer just before their conflict, she decided it would be unfair – and unnecessary – to use it against Storm.
Pretty cool, especially considering that Wonder Woman is probably the closest analog DC has to Marvel’s Thor.
Captain America
There are few people whom Thor himself deems worthy to boss him around – so it makes sense that someone like Steve Rogers, who Thor has often trusted as his leader, should be able to wield Mjolnir as well.
And it’s not like it only happened once; over the years, Captain America has found it necessary to swing Thor’s hammer numerous times.
And that’s even before that awesome movie moment in the Avengers: Endgame film.
Donald Blake
There have been several mortals tasked with being Thor’s mortal link to Midgard – we mentioned Eric Masterson a moment ago.
But the first was Donald Blake, a doctor who discovered an ancient walking stick in a Norse tomb. Using the stick to prop up his lame leg, Blake was dumbfounded to discover that, in times of need, the stick became Mjolnir, and Blake himself traded places with Thor, Asgardian god of Thunder.
Donald Blake was later revealed as a construct of Odin’s Asgardian magic, though he’s since become a very different character in his own right.
Superman
Even though the ins-and-outs of continuity have rendered it impossible to know if this story really ‘counts,’ was there any better fan service moment in Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s Avengers vs. JLA than Superman wielding not just Thor’s hammer, but Captain America’s shield to take on a threat greater than any of them could even imagine?
It seems like a given that Mjolnir would deem DC’s greatest hero worthy of its power, given Superman’s reputation, but some fans felt Superman lacked the ‘warrior’s spirit’ of someone like Thor.
Still, for a brief moment, Superman was the most powerful being in two universes.
Beta Ray Bill
Another of Walt Simonson’s substitute Thors, fan-favorite Beta Ray Bill is a monstrous Korbinite alien who was the first non-Asgardian to be deemed worthy of wielding Mjolnir.
And wield it he did, after battling Thor to an utter standstill. After defeating Thor once, Odin determined that Bill should fight Thor for the right to wield Mjolnir from then on.
Bill also won this fight – barely – but refused to allow Thor to perish. After rescinding his claim to Mjolnir despite needing it to save his dying people, Odin gave Bill Stormbreaker, a hammer with power equivalent to Mjolnir, solidifying the bond between Bill and Thor as brothers-in-arms.
Jane Foster
When Thor became unworthy during Original Sin (opens in new tab), mighty Mjolnir lay unclaimed on the moon until a mysterious woman came along and claimed the hammer.
After fighting alongside this mysterious new Thor, Odinson (as he has come to be known) bequeathed not only his power but his name and responsibility as God of Thunder to her.
This new Thor, secretly Thor’s former paramour Jane Foster, wielded the hammer for years before passing it back to Odinson. Jane has gone on to take up the mantle of Valkyrie, reforming the Asgardian warrior group.
She’ll get another turn wielding Mjolnir in a new comic coming just in time for Thor: Love and Thunder’s July theatrical release.
