Marvel’s Bizarre Loophole Around Lifting Thor’s Hammer, Explained

Today, we look at an interesting loophole that can allow someone to lift Thor’s hammer without being “worthy” of doing so.

Knowledge Waits is a feature where I just share some bit of comic book history that interests me.

A while back, I wrote about whether Magneto could use his powers to lift Thor’s hammer. I noted that 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…

My pal Mik B., though, wrote to me that he thinks that there would be another way that Magneto could use his magnetic powers to lift Thor’s hammer, and it is an interesting loophole in the whole “Worthy to lift” restrictions.

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HOW DOCTOR STRANGE LIFTED THOR’S HAMMER

In 1964’s Strange Tales #123 (by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko), Loki decides to trick Doctor Strange into blocking Thor’s access to his famous hammer Mjolnir. Loki showed up at Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum with a plea for him to help him get Thor’s hammer, as that’s the only thing that could free Loki from the entrapment that he claimed that Thor put on him. He even gave Strange a sliver of Thor’s hammer handle to prove that Thor was evil (of course, said sliver was not actually from Thor’s hammer). Strange agreed to help him and came up with some magic to wrest Thor’s hammer from him. Now, naturally, Doctor Strange could theoretically use his magic to counter the enchantment that was placed on Thor’s hammer. After all, in “Thor” #601 (by J. Michael Straczynski, Marko Djurdjevic, Danny Miki and Mark Morales), Thor turned to Strange for help fixing a broken Mjolnir…

So it doesn’t seem unreasonable that perhaps Strange’s magic could work on the hammer and alter its enchantment. However, when it came to fixing Thor’s hammer, it is clear that Strange is dealing with the magic that is already present on the hammer…

And so I think Strange would have to more powerful magic than Odin, and I don’t think that he does. In any event, it doesn’t matter, because Strange came up with a workaround. He used his magic to animate a giant iron glove and that glove then stole Thor’s hammer…

Well, Mik suggested that Magneto could just do the same thing, use his powers to animate, say, a metal gauntlet and use THAT to lift Thor’s hammer, as this seems to open up a loophole when it comes to lifting the hammer. However, I don’t think it is quite that simple.

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THE LOOPHOLE FOR LIFTING THOR’S HAMMER

I think that the loophole when it comes to lifting Thor’s hammer is actually one that directly involves magic. For instance, in Avengers #212 (by Jim Shooter, Alan Kupperberg and Dan Green), we meet the Elfqueen, who was visiting civilization after cutting herself and her lover off from it all thousands of years ago. She then went nuts after her estranged lover is gunned down by the police after she and her lover briefly parted ways after he struck her (one issue later, Hank Pym strikes the Wasp in very much the way that Elqueen’s lover strikes her here, which is fascinating, as it sure seems like it is somehow connected, although I don’t know how). When the Avengers show up, she uses her magical powers to grab a bunch of land and uses it to grasp Thor’s hammer and attack him with it…

Meanwhile, years later, after Thor and the rest of Asgard died in Ragnarok, Mjolnir was sent to Earth and once there, it sat in a crater for six months. Doctor Doom launched an attack on the military camp set around the hammer and blew it up. However, while he blew it up, it is still pretty obvious that the various machines that were present at the site (as seen in Fantastic Four #536 by J. Michael Straczynski, Mike McKone and Andy Lanning) were not able to move the land around the hammer.

We can tell this because the military camp is set AROUND the hammer crater, which makes it clear that they COULDN’T move the hammer, or else they obviously would have done so and not set up camp in the middle of nowhere. In other words, I think that the loophole about using metal or dirt to lift the hammer only works as a loophole if you are using magic to do so, which makes it not really all that helpful of a loophole, but, hey, it gives the magic-using members of the Marvel Universe something to entertain themselves in the future, right?

Thanks for the suggestion, Mik! If anyone has suggestions about interesting pieces of comic book history, feel free to drop me a line at [email protected].

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