Avengers: Endgame - Why Captain America Was Able To Lift Thor's Hammer
2. The Enchantment Was Lifted
Marvel Comics
Although Thor: Ragnarok established that Thor's powers stemmed from within and not Mjolnir, the hammer still enabled the God of Thunder to amplify his power.
The original enchantment also still stands, but just as All Father lifted the inscription on the hammer in the comics for Superman, could Odin have introduced a caveat that enabled anyone to wield the hammer when its rightful owner was in peril?
Think about it. When Cap picks up Mjolnir, Thor is being decimated by Thanos. The Mad Titan is pushing Stormbreaker right into the God of Thunder's chest, and while it's not the present day Thor's Mjolnir, it's still fundamentally linked to his being. Sensing that the Odinson is in danger, and hearing Rogers' call, it's possible that Mjolnir would've deemed Rogers a suitable owner to help Thor in his hour of need.
It's a longshot, but again, it's not without precedent. The only alternative in that scenario would've been for Cap to charge at Thanos with his broken shield, which would've resulted in the deaths of both himself and the Odinson; Mjolnir had to come to Steve to safeguard reality.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
