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Thor is an Asgardian. Are Asgardians powerful enough to hold an Infinity Stone? Similarly, being gods, will Odin, Loki or Heimdall be able to wield any of the Infinity Stones?

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  • Isn't Thor a god as well (as his father)?
    – algiogia
    Jun 15, 2015 at 14:43
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    @algiogia In the MCU, none of them are really gods - they are simply an incredibly advanced alien race with technology so advanced it looks like magic to us.
    – Dr R Dizzle
    Jun 15, 2015 at 14:44
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    @DrRDizzle Also they are super strong.
    – TylerH
    Jun 15, 2015 at 15:44
  • I have posted on this subject before. scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/64884/… The infinity gems have been held by the likes of Nebula (The Infinity Gauntlet), Gamorra and Moondragon (Adam Warlock & The Infinity Watch), none of whom are as remotely powerful as Odin, Thor, Loki, Hiemdall or Marvel's other main Asgardian Gods e.g. Hela, Tyr etc, etc and yes they are Gods in the comic universe. As usual there is a big difference between the comic universe and the movie universe, the cinematic universe is a pale imitation.
    – Nullbreaker
    Jul 5, 2015 at 16:51

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It depends on which media continuity you're discussing. In the comics, he did use an Infinity Gem. In the movies who can use them seems to vary widely but he does seem reluctant to even consider using one, even when one falls directly into his hands (the Mind Stone from Avengers: Age of Ultron)

  • In the Marvel Comics Universe, Earth-616, the answer is yes. He has and did use an Infinity Gem. He, for a time carried the Infinity Gem of Power and confronted the Mad Titan, Thanos in hand to hand combat. Thanos cheats, which meant he was impressed.

  • During the Blood and Thunder storyline, Thor Odinson gets the Infinity Gem of Power and goes on a rampage across the Marvel Universe. Thanos and Thor mix it up in Silver Surfer Vol. 3, Issue 88. Thor, who is significantly more powerful than Ronan with the Universal Weapon, was now enhanced further with the Power gem. Thanos was unimpressed.

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Thor plus Power Gem should equal oblivion for anyone on the receiving end of Mjolnir. Thanos has a bloody nose and smiles. Scary.

  • In Marvel Cinematic Universe, their use criteria varies from stone to stone and user to user.

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  • Of the Infinity Stones we've seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, thus far, none seem particularly user-friendly. The least dangerous of the group so far has been the Mind Stone, which was housed in the Chitauri Scepter.

  • The Power Stone (currently on Xandar) destroyed most beings who dared to maintain contact with it for too long.

  • The Aether seems to consume the host foolish enough to want to stay in contact with it. Judging with the speed the Asgardians got it our of Asgard, it is something to be avoided at all costs.

  • The Tesseract seemed pretty tame and it seemed to take a bit of Tech to get it work just right. Except when it appeared to disintegrate the Red Skull. Now we know he was probably teleported across time or some other ridiculous trope but that's it looked like.

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    +1 for "Thanos cheats, which meant he was impressed." That definitely does seem to sum up his character.
    – Omegacron
    Jun 15, 2015 at 21:28
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    Your final bullet point makes it seem like the Red Skull could re-appear in a future movie (eg the Tesseract's endpoint happens during one of the Infinity War movies).
    – Derek
    Jun 15, 2015 at 22:26
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    @Derek correct - it's left ambiguous what exactly happened to him. Hugo Weaving doesn't seem interested in playing the part again, but they still have the option of bringing the character back.
    – Omegacron
    Jun 17, 2015 at 16:50
  • Time gem is in the Doctor Strange movie, should add that to your answer to keep it up to date :)
    – Vahx
    Apr 27, 2017 at 18:35
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In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, probably not - at least, not with his bare hands.

We don't know for sure as we haven't seen an Asgardian attempt to pick up an Infinity Stone with their bare hands - but the fact is whenever we have seen an Asgardian move an Infinity Stone, the stone is in a container so that they do not have to touch it.

We have seen this twice - when Thor and Loki return to Asgard at the end of The Avengers/Avengers Assemble with the Tesseract, and when Lady Sif and Volstagg deliver the Aether to The Collector at the end of Thor: The Dark World.

Thor and Loki with the Tesseract at the end of *The Avengers/Avengers Assemble*

The container that holds The Aether in *Thor: The Dark World*

Additionally, in the Agents of SHIELD season 2 episode "Who You Really Are", we see that Lady Sif is roughly as strong as the Kree warrior that she is fighting. In Guardians of the Galaxy, we see that another Kree (Ronan the Accuser) is not able to hold the Power Stone for very long before having to embed it in his warhammer. If Kree and Asgardians are roughly as powerful as one another, we can assume that Asgardians can hold the Infinity Stones for about as long as them - which isn't very long at all.

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In a slight counter argument, I'd like to think that Thor definitely can, as in the last Avengers film we are shown the Vision using the infinity stone within Loki's Sceptre to power himself, and he seems to be in control of it. So its far more than plausible they can, they are gods after all, and if the Vision can wield Thor's hammer, Thor in theory would be able to withhold the power of an infinity stone?

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  • They are not gods, and Thor's hammer has an enchantment on it that enables Thor to wield it, irrespective of his innate "power" level.
    – TylerH
    Jun 15, 2015 at 15:46
  • I just edited to try and clear up what you're saying. That said, I disagree. While we're not sure how it is that the Vision can use the infinity stone in him, or even that he is directly using it, I think it's a fallacy to equate using Mjolnir and using an infinity stone. The two simply have different criteria for being able to use them. The weakest creature in the galaxy could use Mjolnir if they were worthy, but would be destroyed instantly by touching an infinity stone
    – childcat15
    Jun 15, 2015 at 15:46
  • "they are gods after all" -- Asgardians are not 'true' gods. They are a highly advanced alien race. The people of Earth consider them gods just because they are superior to us in most aspects. "if the Vision can wield Thor's hammer" -- the ability to wield Thor's hammer is decided by whether the person is worthy to hold it. You do not need to be a god to wield the hammer (though it wouldn't hurt!).
    – Eckert
    Jun 15, 2015 at 18:58
  • The Vision was made out of Vibranium as his primary element, not carbon (which one can assume that Thor and other Asgardians are made out of), so it stands to reason that his physical ability to withstand the negative forces of an Infinity Gem/Stone are greater than that of a carbon-based lifeform.
    – Derek
    Jun 15, 2015 at 22:32
  • @Derek can we assume Asgardians are carbon-based though? We've already seen they're resistant to bullets, and they don't age like we do, although I'm not sure if aging is related to being carbon-based. Are there any canon references to them being carbon-based?
    – childcat15
    Jun 17, 2015 at 16:05
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On MCU, where seems to be a certain degree of discussion we should keep in mind two things:

  • Thor isn't "an asgaardian", he is a super "aasgardian". He is stronger than the majority of their fellows, and he is imbued with the power of Mjolnir which allows him to fly, control lightning, etc...
  • We've seen Thor fight single handedly against Hulk at least twice, and both times their power level seems to be more or less even. Even if there is a doubt about Mjolnir being the source of Thor's power, on Thor 3 he fights Hulk without Mjolnir.

We know by Avengers Endgame that Hulk is able not to manage just one of the gems, but the whole pack with the Infinity gauntlet. So if we can supose from their confrontations that both entities have a similar power level, it's fair to think that Thor would be able to manage at least one gem.

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    "he is imbued with the power of Mjolnir which allows him to fly, control lightning, etc..." - No, those are Thor's natural powers, Mjolnir lets others have the power of Thor.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Apr 14, 2020 at 13:06
  • On your second point fighting strength and strength to hold an Infinity Stone are also not necessarily the same.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Apr 14, 2020 at 13:17
  • @TheLethalCarrot they are not necessarily the same, but the fighting power of a character gives us a measure of its total true power, and my answer is based on this measure.
    – Bardo
    Apr 16, 2020 at 5:45

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