Today, we look at whether Magneto could lift Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, without being "worthy" of doing so.

In Comic Book Questions Answered, I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com).

Reader Jerry K. wanted to know if Magneto's magnetic powers would allow him to lift Thor's hammer without actually being "worthy" of doing so.

WHAT DOES IT EVEN MEAN TO BE "WORTHY" OF LIFTING THOR'S HAMMER? WHO DETERMINES IF YOU ARE WORTHY?

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One of the more interesting (and fairly unanswerable) questions in Marvel Comics history is what does it mean to be "worthy" enough to lift Thor's hammer? All we really know about the hammer's enchantment is that simply phrase that appeared on the hammer in its first appearance in Journey Into Mystery #83 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Joe Sinnott)...

It was altered years later when Jane Foster used it, with the "he" being changed to "she," but in general, the idea of what makes a wielder of the hammer "worthy" has never truly been explained and in fact, over time, Mjolnir has taken on a life of its own and in 2014's Thor #1 (by Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman and Matthew Wilson), Odin himself, who put the enchantment on the hammer in the first place, was no longer able to lift the hammer, as Mjolnir had taken things over and was not in a good place in its relationship with Odin at the time...

So right off the bat, we have an interesting question of what, exactly, does a character have to do to be "worthy" enough to lift it. The handful of people who have lifted it have been, in general, brave and heroic folks, but when you think of how much of a jerk Odin is, what do you really think Odin determines as "worthy" behavior, truly?

HAVE NON-WORTHY PEOPLE LIFTED THOR'S HAMMER?

The question of "worthy" aside, clearly there have been cases of people who have lifted it without proving their worth, but those instances tend to be unique ones under distinct circumstances. For instance, before Odin lost control of the enchantment behind the hammer, Odin was free to remove and change the enchantment whenever he felt like it. Heck, at one point, he decided that Thor wasn't even worthy of using the hammer (during Fear Itself) and famously, during JLA/Avengers, Kurt Busiek and George Perez cleverly skirted whether Superman would be worthy of wielding the hammer by having Thor ask Odin to remove the enchantment so that Superman could use it. We didn't get to see Superman try WITHOUT the enchantment being removed, so it is a mystery as to whether he would have been deemed worthy (Wonder Woman was, but perhaps Odin likes warriors like Wonder Woman more so than purer souls like Superman)...

During the Secret Empire crossover, people were shocked in the Secret Empire Free Comic Book Day Special by Nick Spencer and Andrea Sorrentino when an altered version of Captain America who had secretly been loyal to Hydra for all of these years was able to wield Mjolnir...

We later learned that that was due to the Cosmic Cube constantly altering reality around this Captain America so that he could use the hammer. Later, it was clear that he was UNworthy of lifting it.

WOULD MAGNETO BE WORTHY OF LIFTING THOR'S HAMMER?

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Now, what about Magneto? Would he be worthy of lifting the hammer? As I said before, I really don't know. Off the top of my head, even if you wish to argue that Magneto has served his penance for a number of the messed up things that he has done over the years and proven himself as a hero, then it seems hard to believe that he has balanced the books well enough for him to be termed "worthy," but, again, this is Odin we're talking about, so who knows what his stance is on Magneto? Odin was prepared to let Earth get razed to the ground during Fear Itself, so perhaps he agrees with Magneto's philosophies on humanity.

On balance, though, I think the odds are that Magneto would not be deemed "worthy" of wielding the hammer.

DO MAGNETO'S POWERS ALLOW HIM TO LIFT THOR'S HAMMER?

Okay, so can he use his POWERS to do so? Here is where I think he has a good case where he could do so. In Journey Into Mystery #109 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Chic Stone), Thor and Magneto fought for the first time and Magneto plainly was able to use his magnetic powers on Thor's hammer...

However, it is a bit unclear whether that was a temporary thing or whether Magneto would have been able to maintain that control over the hammer to the point where we would reasonable deem it as him wielding/lifting it. Also, it is notable to note that later in the issue, when Thor regained his hammer (after a minute, it turned back into its disguise of a wooden cane and Magneto tossed it aside), he attacked Magneto and Magneto was so dazed that he was not able to take control of the hammer again and, in fact, Thor was able to use his hammer to instead take away Magneto's control of magnetism, which sure feels like a one-off power we haven't seen again...

In Super-Villain Team-Up #14 (by Bill Mantlo, Bob Hall, Don Perlin and Duffy Vohland), Magneto tears through the Avengers and it sure seems like this time that his control over Thor's hammer was a lot better than just a minor control...

This isn't even getting into the fact that, as we saw in Avengers #111 (by Steve Englehart, Don Heck and Mike Esposito), Magneto can control people's minds with his powers, so he could "wield" Mjolnir, in a way, by "wielding" Thor himself...

(And yes, it is creepy that he has his daughter dancing for him).

All told, I think it is fair to say that Magneto COULD lift Thor's hammer with his powers.

Thanks for the question, Jerry! If anyone else has a comic book question, feel free to drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com.

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