If the Odin Force determines who is worthy to receive the power of Thor then Loki may have a thing or two to say about that

What makes a person worthy to wield the hammer of Thor? Screen cap
from the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron. The clip aired last night
during the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. scheduled broadcast. 

Last night, during Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s broadcast, they ran a cut scene from the upcoming Avengers movie, Age of Ultron. Gathered around the coffee table in Stark's tower were the Avengers, all taking turns at lifting Thor's hammer Mjolnir. The only one that even came close was Steven Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America. Thor's hammer budged, which made Thor just about spit his beer, but the scene resolved itself in that this is all that happened, leaving Thor self-assured that he alone remains the possessor of the "power of Thor."

But it does make me wonder what makes a person worthy to lift Mjolnir in the first place? Do you have to be a warrior? Do you have to be pure of heart? Do you have to be willing to kill? Do you have to be honorable? Do you have to be humble? Or is it all of the above? The comics have given us over a dozen characters through the years that share all or some of these traits (and yes, Captain America was one of them).

So here's what I think: the enchantment placed on Thor's hammer that reads: "Whosoever holds this hammer, be he worthy, shall posses the power of Thor" has to do with Odin's will (or perhaps his bias). And since Odin wields the "Odin Force," which is the most powerful magic in existence possessed by the king of all Asgard, I am drawing a strange but inevitable conclusion: if my theory is correct about the Odin Force being ultimately responsible for judging the wielder of the hammer "worthy" then at some point Thor's going to be in big trouble.

Thor without Mjolnir from a screen capture of the Avenger's Age of Ultron
trailer. Is Loki responsible because he now wields the Odin Force?

Recall please last year's movie Thor: The Dark World. At the end of The Dark World (weak spoiler warning but you've had a year) Loki deposes Odin to sit on the throne of Asgard. If Loki now wields the "Odin Force" then the magic that serves as the enchantment on Mjolnir will have to start reflecting upon the new ruler's biases. Loki has no honor, so it's quite possible that Mjolnir at some point will find its way into a villain's hands. I think we may have gotten a small hint of this in the Avenger's: Age of Ultron trailer with what looks like a very upset Thor turning his eyes to the heavens and screaming (and he doesn't appear to be holding Mjolnir at all). Now keep in mind that this is purely my speculation. But don't you think it would be interesting if Thor no longer being able to lift Mjolnir was the first clue that all is not right with the Asgardian throne?

A survivor's guide to what you can expect from Marvel's Age of Ultron from a speculator's point of view

With Disney's announcement yesterday of the Avengers 2: Age of Ultron synopsis (you can read it HERE), I thought I'd talk about The Vision because he's one of three newly anticipated characters that we'll be meeting in the new movie next year (you got a taste of Quicksilver from Fox's X-Men: Days of Future Past).

The Vision looks human, but wears a green cap thing that matches his green "skin-tight" one piece (do they call this a onesy?). He has a red face, wears yellow gloves and boots, and sports a yellow cape. He's going to be played by Paul Bettany who's been heard and not seen in the Iron Man movies (as the voice of the computer J.A.R.V.I.S.) as well as being in a number of high profile films (DaVinci Code, Master and Commander). It's going to be puzzling to hear him as J.A.R.V.I.S. in Iron Man's helmet while he's also The Vision (I wonder if there's going to be a connection??). I say this last part in parenthesis because "The Vision" is an android (think Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation).

This poster for the Age of Ultron movie has way too many Ultrons.

The robot Ultron is who creates "The Vision" in the first place (keep in mind that Ultron was created by Dr. Hank Pym who is Ant-Man. The whole reason for "The Vision" was to lead the Avengers into a trap. Of course, the Avengers manage to convince The Vision to turn against their master and join their ranks.

The Vision is described as being every inch a human being except that all of his bodily organs are synthetic. The solar jewel on his forehead absorbs ambient solar energy to power his whole body, he can discharge energy as optic beams that include infrared and microwave radiation, and he can manipulate his density so that he can fly and phase with walls or the earth. This, or to gain superhuman strength, immovability, or the invulnerability of a diamond-hard substance. He could also phase a hand into your chest and then partially re-materialize it to put his hand literally around your heart. Honestly this whole "phasing" thing is as powerful as the writers want to make it. Vision can phase with other universes or other dimensions to pull in mass and essentially become as heavy or as gravity intense as he wants to be).

In the comics, Captain America teaches him unarmed combat. Aside from that, The Vision has the android mind capabilities of information processing. Nice, right? I'll take all the information available on Google for $100, Alex. So yeah, The Vision is really really smart. And from what I understand about the Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Vision may develop a thing for the Scarlet Witch (another new character). In the comics, he reproduced with her, so yeah, there is at least a precedence to my speculation. But I think Marvel loves it when we all speculate on things, hence the "broken shield" prop that was unveiled at San Diego Comic Con. What the hell does this mean?

I'm assuming that Ultron cracks it, but how Vibranium gets cracked is beyond me (it's indestructible). Now, the last time that this happened was also in an Age of Ultron comic book crossover. Here's a panel from it for you to examine: 

And then there's the image of Captain America without hope, sitting in a corner with his head down. This'll be a great scene for Chris Evans to do. I just hope Black Widow or Iron Man gets him to snap out of it. I can totally hear Robert Downey, Jr. picking up where Hudson left off in Aliens proclaiming "We're F*cked!" but meaning it in a fun way meant to drive someone who is obviously in a funk out of that hopeless funk.

What I'm hoping they DON'T do is get the Scarlet Witch to pull a "Twilight" esque vision where the Avengers see a possible future where Ultron rules everything and they see Captain America's shield all broken. That would be cheesy. But then again, stating that something is made of a material that can't be broken only to break it to demonstrate the power of something is the cheese from which all comics are made of. The thing is...we keep buying it in buttloads. Of course, we could get Thanos to pop in and destroy the shield. He's done it before:

Click to EMBIGGEN

However, if Cap's shield does get broken then there's only one place in the Marvel Universe where you can go to get it fixed and that's Wakanda, home of the Black Panther. This means (of course) that we'll finally get a black guy in a major starring role in one of the seriously white-washed Marvel films. Yay for diversity. Anyways, here's a toast to speculation in all of its wonderfulness.