Today, we look at the interesting use of continuity to tie Moon Knight into Thor's hammer, Mjonir, via a modern classic story from Jason Aaron's iconic run on Thor.

This is "I've Been Here Before," a feature that deals with a term that I coined called "nepotistic continuity," which refers to the way that comic book writers sometimes bring back minor characters that they themselves created in the past as characters in their later work (we're talking after a break of at least two years or so). This is not an insult, it's just interesting to note it when it occurs.

As an aside, it's funny how hard it is sometimes to think of which feature to use for which topic. I hadn't done a "Just Like the Time Before" feature in nearly two years, so I totally forgot what the name of this feature was. Anyhow, moving on!

You likely have noticed from the series of articles that I've been writing the last couple of months about Thor's hammer is that the one thing that is consistent about Thor's hammer's depiction in comic book stories is that there is no consistency with the depiction of Thor's hammer in comic book stories. For instance, I did a piece recently about how having to be worthy to lift Thor's hammer wasn't even a thing until the late 1970s (as the longest status quo before that point was that an enchantment made sure that only Thor could lift it and no one else, so nothing about worthiness, just a simple "Only Thor can lift it" (as I write this, I've never done anything specifically about the iconic Thor #337 because I guess I felt it was too famous of a story, but I probably should just do a bit about it).

In any event, this all leads to a 2016 issue in Jason Aaron's long and acclaimed run on the Thor comic book series and how it introduced some new ideas to the world of Thor's hammer.

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THE URU THAT MADE UP THOR'S HAMMER CAME FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE

The Mighty Thor #12 (by Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, Frazer Irving and Matthew Wilson) dealt with the origins of Thor's hammer (I'll get into the major retcon later), with us learning that the piece of uru metal that was eventually used to create Mjolnir was presented to Odin by the dwarves of Nidavellir after Odin successfully drove the trolls off of the world and gave it back to its original dwarf owners...

It is important to note that Nidavellir, in the Norse language, translates roughly to "new moon" and/or "the wane of the moon." That will be important later!

Okay, so on the next page (these pages, by the way, were all by guest artist Frazer Irving), we see the very important piece of caption writing that I don't think that anyone understood would be so important as it turned out to be. Uru was described as being one of the oldest metals in the universe and specifically "rubble from the rock of creation itself."

Let's put a pin in that and come back to it later, much as how Jason Aaron did precisely that himself (or, in the alternative, he just came up with a new idea years later that just so happened to work as a tie-in to the concept he introduced in that line in Mighty Thor #12. I'm betting on the former).

MOON KNIGHT'S EARLY INTERACTION WITH THOR'S HAMMER, MJOLNIR

A couple of years later, in Doctor Strange: Damnation #3 (by Donny Cates, Nick Spencer, Szymon Kudranski, Dan Brown and VC's Travis Lanham), we see the Avengers are basically turned into demons possessed by Mephisto as Wong and a team of disparate heroes (including Moon Knight) try to save Doctor Strange from Mephisto, who has set up shop in Las Vegas (which had been destroyed during the Secret Empire storyline, something we'll discuss in the future).

Well, before that point, Moon Knight was trying to lift Thor's hammer (this was back when Jane Foster was Thor) and it seemed to move, making him think that he was worthy....

But in reality, Thor was calling her hammer to her...

And so this was just like that time that Ghost Rider seemed to be wielding Thor's hammer but was actually just holding on to it as it naturally lifted by the magic that sends it back to Thor at all times (this is a common shtick that writers use in comics with people thinking that they can lift the hammer but actually can't).

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THAT CHANGE TO THE HAMMER'S ORIGINS MADE MOON KNIGHT ABLE TO WIELD THOR'S HAMMER

In 2020's Avengers #33 (by Jason Aaron, Javier Garrón, Jason Keith, and VC's Cory Petit), Moon Knight begins attacking superheroes and stealing their special gifts (like taking Iron Fist's, well, you know, "iron fist"). Thor confronts him on the moon and throws Mjolnir at Moon Knight, but is stunned by what happens next...

Moon Knight goes back to that Mighty Thor #12 line and reveals that uru was made out of rock from a moon from the universe before this one and thus, Moon Knight can control it, since it is moon rock...

Moon Knight then calls upon a group of other moons and uses them to crush Thor, taking him out of the fight...

The issue ends with Khonshu showing up, revealing that it is he who gave Moon Knight these extra moon-controlling powers (and the ability to steal other people's powers)....

Khonshu plans on confronting Mephisto and felt that he needed all of the firepower that he could use, which included, in the next issue, Khonshu lifting Mjolnir himself (Moon Knight just controlled its powers, he didn't actually literally lift it)...

That whole thing didn't work out well in the end, but that's a story for another day. Suffice it to say that when he was empowered by Khonshu, Moon Knight could not only control Thor's hammer, he could control whole MOONS!

I was already planning on doing this story, but my pal Tom A. DID write to me to suggest that I write about it, so thanks, Tom! If anyone else has a suggestion for a future I've Been Here Before, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!

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