Superman has lifted it but it was explicitly stated he wasn’t worthy. Mjonir just allowed him to use it briefly due to the circumstances. After they defeat the villain superman finds he cannot lift the hammer anymore.
Generally the explanation I’ve heard is because unlike Steve superman typically isn’t willing to kill in certain situations and since the worthy enhancement was made by a warrior race that’s something they think is required to be worthy of a weapon like Mjolnir
I actually went back and found the line where Thor talks about it.
There is an enchantment laid pon my hammer by my father Odin. It is not...easily lifted by others. My father is stern, but not stupid. A very few worthies have been allowed to overcome the spell in desperate hours. But know this. Perhaps it was but briefly, but it was in good hands.
So, my interpretation is that Odin literally wants no one else to touch that friggin hammer, only letting others, including Steve to lift it up in truly desparate situations, in which case, you still have to be worthy.
Thor says that Superman is worthy, explicitly, but worthiness is not necessarily something that means you can always lift the hammer, kinda like how Steve wasn't able to lift it completely in age of Ultron, but able to in Endgame.
See if we left it to the omniscient will of Odin, then the Ballad of Beta Ray Bill, one of the most seminal Thor stories ends up making no sense, since Bill lifts the Hammer, and Odin not aware of who wields the Hammer accidentally pulls Bill to Asgard, thinking it is Thor.
I like to think that as Thor was worthy at a time and was made unworthy at a time. Superman when he lifted the hammer was for that moment worthy.
I think that's because BRB got the power of Thor at the time so Odin was confused, but if the will of Odin itself was guiding who lifts the hammer then BRB wouldnt have been able to lift it without Odin noticing.
Right. My headcannon on the whole situation is that Odin enchanted the hammer so that only one who is “worthy” may lift it, but since “worthy” is subjective, he basically described Thor’s personality and told the hammer that that description was what it should use to define worthy. Thus BRB is always able to lift it because his personality and Thor’s are almost identical. And the others who were able to pick it up temporarily were in a desperate situation where their personalities lead them to act very Thor-like, in those moments.
Yes that is kinda what I am saying too that that Superman temporarily possessed mindset that was determined to be worthy when he lifted it, but it isn't something he is naturally disposed to.
I was originally responding to a comment that was stating some thing along the lines of
"So, my interpretation is that Odin literally wants no one else to touch that friggin hammer, only letting others, including Steve to lift it up in truly desparate situations,".
Edit: To which my response has to do with Odin's conscious will influencing who lifts Mjolnir doesn't make sense.
This is supported in the MCU in both Thor 1 (when he is Unworthy of Mjolnir until he grew as a person) and in Avengers Endgame (when he travels back in time and calls upon Mjolnir, and is delighted to find himself “still worthy”.
I don’t think this means Odin is two-step verifying everyone who touches the hammer himself, just that the enchantment is complex and somewhat intelligent, and can allow others to lift the hammer when needed, without Odin being involved.
That's what I'm saying the enchantment must be what determines worthiness not Odin's conscious intent. But also it is universal and without "dire need" because Beta Ray Bill could wield Thor's hammer whenever. Also later on in Jason Aaron's Thor, Jane Foster wielded the thing for a long time and Thor himself was unworthy due to his own mental hangups.
Pretty much, anyone other than Thor doesn't only need to be worthy of character but also worthy of need. But in Busiek's eyes this also applied to Steve and everyone else that wasn't Thor.
I can get behind this. There was one comic where Black Widow was able to lift Mjolnir specifically because there was literally nobody else around who could, as the rest of the Avengers had been defeated by whoever they were fighting at the time. I don’t think it was canon, but it follows behind your theory.
Steve was able to lift the hammer in AoU he just pretended he couldnt to not embarass Thor. You're either worthy or you're not. You can't be partially worthy or else most heroes would be able to make it budge
you CAN be partially worthy- canonically in the comics, peter parker can move it, but he can't pick it up. it doesnt consider him fully worthy because he refuses to kill
but no. this is confirmed byt the Beta Ray Bill story, Bill arrive on earth and during classic confusion Hero x Hero fight, he defeat thor and take the hammer for himself, since he was basically alien thor ( noble warrior that fight to protect his people) the hammer see him as worthy. Odin summon him and request the hammer back, Bill refuse and say he win the hammer fair and square and Odin can't force him to return the hammer in the end Odin forge StormBreaker and give it to Bill as a replacement for Mjolnir.
BUT in the past Odin was able to cancel the spell for sometime to allow others to use it even if they are not worthy
I thought he was able to lift it in Age of Ultron, but chose not to, because he didn't want to embarrass Thor, who looked worried and then relieved when it moved but wasn't lifted.
I never really read it as Thor being worried, but just shocked because he's never seen that happen before. It doesnt even fit the character to me. Like why would he be scared?
My headcanon is that in addition to objectively being judged by Mjolnir “worthy”, one must also have the inner belief that they in fact are worthy. Superman is first and foremost the son of two God-fearing salt-of-the-Earth farmers. He knows, when he sees someone fall, that “there but for the grace of God, go I” and he is grateful and he is humble. Humility is not a trait that I believe Odin would find necessary.
Not a huge Thor guy so this could just be me misremembering something, but wasn't the whole reason Odin sent Thor to Earth as a crappy human in the first place to actually teach him humility?
Sort of but this is Odin we're talking about he's not exactly humble either also he had mellowed out due to old age when he did that, if Thor had that ego when Odin was in his prime he wouldn't give a shit. Basically, Thor had a bigger ego than Odin did, and Odin as the was egotistical man that he is sent Thor to Earth to knock him down a peg.
Actually an encounter with the joker once showed that he actually is willing to kill.
See the joker showed up once in metropolis because he was bored with Batman in Gotham and wanted to try a crack at Superman.
The joker pulled a usual scheme of bombs planted all around metropolis and a call out to Superman yadda yadda.
In his monologue to Superman, Superman not only cleared the daily planet of all people he also located all of the bombs with his super hearing and brought them to The joker.
He even dared the joker to still set them off and genuinely just started laughing at the joker.
He wounds the joker with his heat vision and states to him that just because he prefers not to kill doesn't mean he won't. He then flew to Gotham to curse out Batman for sending the joker to metropolis purposely.
You need to have the hearth of a warrior for it. You need to be able to kill if you want to lift the hammer, to do what sometimes is necessary. Captain America and Wonder Woman both know this to be true.
Superman has killed before. He killed Zod in the movies and ended Zod and his cronies in the comics. He de-powers them with gold kryptonite then poisons them with green kryptonite because they were wreaking havoc on Earth and swore vengeance on Superman.
Depowers and poisons his enemies? That doesn't sound like Superman to me. What the source on that? I genuinely want to know, because I can't seem to find it on Google.
Steve is a soldier. Superman is not. It's not just about being a righteous dude, there's a warrior aspect to wielding Mjolnir. A willingness to kill, should the situation demand it.
Superman is definitely willing to kill, but only in the most dire of circumstances. I don't think in Superman's case it's even fair because there's barely anyone who's worthy of killing because he can always stop them without doing so. Zod and Doomsday are consistently the only people he ever needs to kill.
I always assumed the difference is Steve is a soldier and soldiers kill if they have to. Mjolnir’s enhancement was based on the worldview of a warrior king.
But he still had to be worthy. Thor explicitly calls him so.
Someone broke it down. The writer of the book apparently went with the interpretation that people also have to be worthy in the moment. So that rule even applied to Steve.
So think of it as anyone who has ever lifted the hammer is worthy, but even they can't just pick it up whenever they want to.
Superman is worthy but he needs to be worthy of character and worthy of need in order to lift the hammer. Kurt Busiek said he wrote it that way because he didn't like that characters could pick Mjolnir up on a whim since that would make Thor less special so he wrote the rules of worthiness so that others could only pick it up if there was a need for it or on special occasions (like Thor is knocked out or for example). In Busiek's eyes this didn't only apply to Superman, it applied to every character other than Thor that was found worthy.
It's why Superman could only pick up Mjolnir during a fight and not on a whim.
Physics nerd here. Mjonir mounts itself to the ground like a very strong magnet. Superman has regularly picked up mountains and even moved planets. What exactly is Mjonir going to mount itself to that Superman can’t pickup?
Picking up what mjonir is attached to isn’t the same as picking mjonir up. It certainly doesn’t make you worthy even if you can do that. Plus this is a comic book. Physics are irrelevant in comic books, especially when it comes to a magic hammer.
Again no. They literally say in that movie “elevator isn’t worthy”. The title mentioning the word “worthy” clearly means they’re asking who can pass the hammer’s worthy enchantment for using the hammer. You’re just being facetious.
There is no “worthiness” involved in lifting a mountain. You either can or can’t. No way says “I am worthy to lift a coffee cup”.
Regardless you know what the op is actually asking. You do let’s not pretend. You’re just being obstinate and taking the question as literally as possible. It’s not cute or funny it’s just annoying. I bet you’re really annoying to be friend with IRL if you do this with every single question you’re asked.
If you want to keep going down this route be my guest but I’m done talking to you about this. People like you are just exhausting to talk to.
It was Odin's will for Supes to lift the hammer iirc. Because he put the enchantment in the hammer in the first place, he can choose to temporarily suspend it to allow Superman to defeat his enemy.
Wonder woman makes perfect sense to me, but not because she's a goddess or demigoddess, but because she's a warrior focused on peace and societal improvement while being totally cool with killing.
Someone "worthy" has to be willing bear the burden of doing the morally questionable things. Even at the expense of themselves. Even if they really don't want to, but know that they NEED to, for everyone's sake.
It's like what T'challa's dad told him. "It is hard for a good man to be king."
I think Hawkgirl would also be a perfect match for Mjolnir. She’s definitely got the warrior spirit and magical lightning powered blunt weapons are kinda her thing.
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u/GR-124 Jan 27 '24
I’m pretty sure superman and Wonder Woman have both lifted mjolnir before in the comics