"Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor."
For years and years that has been the phrase found inscribed on the side of Mjolnir, the great and powerful Uru-carved weapon possessed by the mentioned God of Thunder. Unfortunately, that line is a bit too gender specific for these modern times, and with a major change coming in the world of the great Marvel Comics character known as Thor, so must the phrase be changed as well.
As we first reported back in July, Marvel Comics will now be moving forward with the role of Thor now being a female character, and now we have some panels from the upcoming Thor #1 from Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman that show that Mjolnir is undergoing an interesting change (thanks to ComicBook.com for the images)
What's kind of funny about this reveal is the way that it echos quotes we heard back when the character change was first being announced this summer. Talking about the significance of the change, Marvel editor Wil Moss said,
"The inscription on Thor's hammer reads ‘Whosoever holds this hammer, if HE be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.’ Well it's time to update that inscription"
Clearly the image that you see above has been circling through the creative minds at Marvel for quite some time now. If I'm going to be nit-picky, though, why not make it "if they be worthy" in the inscription instead? Not only does it eliminate the aforementioned problem of gender specificity, meaning that you wouldn't ever need to change the inscription again, but it would also prepare the future and pave the road for an eventual genderless Thor (before you flame me in the comments, this is just a joke).
Looking back at the history of comics, it's worth noting that the inscription on Mjolnir didn't change the first time it was held by a woman. In the Marvel vs. DC Comics, Wonder Woman was considered worthy enough to possess the hammer - but the "he" didn't change:
The new female Thor will be making her on-page debut with Thor #1, which will be in stores on October 1st. This big change in the world of Marvel comics will be followed by an equally big shift, as it will be revealed in All-New Captain America #1 that Sam Wilson a.k.a. Falcon is becoming the new Captain America. We don't expect either of these changes to have any kind of impact on the present Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans both continue to do their respective jobs quite well, but who is to say that the changes won't be on the big screen some day? Only time will tell.
