When Marvel fans picture Thor, they picture him with his trusty hammer Mjolnir at his side. Thor’s ability to wield Mjolnir is the truest indicator of his worthiness as a hero, and the legendary weapon takes an already mighty god and makes him a being of galactic significance. However, despite being enchanted by Odin himself, even Mjolnir isn’t unbreakable.
In all of Marvel lore, only a handful of beings have shattered Mjolnir, including Asgard’s deadliest enemies and, surprisingly, many of its greatest heroes. Here, then, are the 10 beings who have destroyed Mjolnir in Marvel lore, ranked by their individual power – beginning with literal gods, and rising in might to something even more powerful.
10 Loki
With a tense sibling relationship to rival any other, Loki and Thor have long had their issues, made crystal clear in the MCU as well as the comics. Loki has been envious of Thor and has consequently always wanted whatever Thor had, including Mjolnir. It’s this jealousy that inspires the events of Thor Vol. 2 #80, from Michael Avon Oeming, Daniel Berman, and Andrea Divito.
Knowing that he could never hold the true Mjolnir due to its worthiness enchantment, Loki steals the mold used to make the weapon and forges his own version – as well as creating others for many of his dark allies. Determined, he rounds up Hyrm the giant, Ulik the troll, and Fenris the wolf-beast to battle Thor. As it tends to go when it comes to Loki, things get out of hand and Loki’s friends kill Amora the Enchantress, which causes Thor to barrel into the antagonists with weapons blazing. When they crash into each other, their weapons create an explosion that destroys Mjolnir as well as the surrounding area. Loki is a god in the truest sense and so far more powerful than a mortal, but tends to work through trickery and subterfuge rather than outright might.
9 Jane Foster
After replacing the temporarily unworthy Thor, Jane Foster took part in a contest of the gods, with her opponents ultimately setting the monstrous Mangog against her. Unfortunately, Mangog is literally impossible to destroy, and so Jane is faced with a shocking sacrifice. In Jason Aaron and Russel Dauterman’s Mighty Thor #705, Jane wraps Mjolnir in Mangog’s chains and uses the hammer to hurl him into the sun. Tragically, the hammer explodes after successfully trapping Mangog where he can’t hurt anyone.
Unlike the other heroes on this list, Jane didn’t shatter Mjolnir through sheer strength, but she did possess the godly might to hurl it into the heart of a star, where it could no longer survive. Ultimately, Mjolnir did return in a new form – shockingly fused with Mangog’s soul as the new God of Hammers.
8 Silver Surfer
In Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips’ Marvel Zombies #2, a virus infects the world, including its superhero denizens, turning people into zombies. Taking advantage of Earth’s crisis, Galactus sends the Silver Surfer to announce that he will consume their planet next. Instead of taking the threat seriously, all the superpowered zombies can think of is killing the Silver Surfer for his brains. At first, the Silver Surfer is able to be unaffected by the undead brigade thanks to his Power Cosmic, however the zombified Thor has other ideas. Thor strikes Silver Surfer as hard as possible, and the blow disintegrates the hammer while also felling Galactus’ herald. Silver Surfer only deserves partial credit for beating Mjolnir here, since zombie Thor actually swung the hammer.
7 The Destroyer
Thor’s hammer was destroyed for the first time in 1952’s Journey Into Mystery #118, from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In the comic, Odin enchants a suit of unbreakable armor to come alive and defend Asgard against the Celestials when the time comes, naming it the Destroyer. It seems like a foolproof plan… that is until Loki gets his mischievous hands on it.
Loki awakens the Destroyer, which was waiting comatose in storage, and causes destruction against the very people that it was created to protect. Thor, being the valiant hero that he is, tries to stop the giant suit of armor but instead sees his precious hammer get sliced in two by its powerful optic beams. Thankfully, Odin comes to the rescue and disables the Destroyer himself. As Mjolnir itself proves, when Odin makes something he makes it well, and the Destroyer is so powerful, even gods have cause to fear its wrath – though it does now have the one weakness of needing a soul to operate it, leaving the wielder’s own body vulnerable to attack.
6 Perrikus
The leader of the Dark Gods – the opposite-equivalent to the Asgardians – Perrikus promises vengeance against Asgard when one of their kind kills his wife. After forming an airtight plan, Perrikus invades Asgard with ease and imprisons Odin while he goes on a tour of devastation of the realm. Thor tries to stop the rampage, and attempts to hit Perrikus with trusty Mjolnir. However, the attack does not have the intended effect and does no damage to Perrikus whatsoever. Not only does Mjolnir not hurt him, but Perrikus takes the opportunity to split the hammer in two with his scythe. As if losing Mjolnir was not bad enough, the Dark God leader then hits Thor so hard that he reverts to his human persona, forcing a hasty retreat.
Perrikus is a truly powerful god on par with the most powerful Asgardians, and claimed to be the god of “power unlimited.” However, he’s still a Marvel deity, and some beings exist above even that ceiling. The battle took place in Thor #10, by Dan Jurgens and John Romita Jr.
5 Exitar the Executioner
The Celestials are powerful beings who oversee life in the universe, but they’re not all made equal. While Odin has been able to best individual Celestials in the past, Exitar is among their most mighty, and acts as the species’ executioner, razing planets which don’t live up to the Celestials’ expectation. It is when Exitar is about to destroy another planet to add to his long list that Thor intervenes, determined to stop this gigantic foe. In Thor #388 (from by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz), Thor finds that Exitar is more of a challenge than he had originally thought.
After much fighting and strategizing, Thor comes up with a way to make Exitar vulnerable enough to defeat. He uses Mjolnir to deliver a destructive blow through a potent energy called the God Blast to Exitar’s head. Thor breaks through to Exitar’s interior at the cost of shattering Mjolnir, but the Celestial is ultimately too powerful to defeat. It carries out its intended purge – which is revealed to be more limited than Thor assumed – and then banishes Thor from the planet, fixing Mjolnir in the name of maintaining cosmic order.
4 Molecule Man
Arguably Marvel’s most powerful villain, the Molecule Man is nearly omnipotent and has been gifted with the ability to manipulate matter on the molecular level, making him capable of almost anything. Later stories revealed that Molecule Man is one individual duplicated across every reality, intended to act as a multiverse-killing bomb if the all-powerful Beyonders ever tire of their creation (which they did in 2015’s Secret Wars.)
It was this villainous individual that made quick work of Thor’s hammer.in Jim Shooter and Alan Weiss’ Avengers #215, decimating the supposedly indestructible weapon with a single gesture, along with Captain America’s shield, Silver Surfer’s board, and Iron Man’s armor. Ultimately, however, Molecule Man can be reasoned with, and Thor got his hammer back after the Avengers were able to negotiate a ceasefire.
3 Bor
Thor’s grandfather was the All-Father before Odin, and is a primordial creator god capable of obliterating planets on a whim. In Thor #600, Loki manages to turn his adopted grandfather loose, hoping that he will destroy Asgard in his rage. Of course, Thor challenges Bor, hoping to protect his people. After an intense battle, Thor pushes himself harder than ever before, and shatters Mjolnir in a staggering blow against his grandfather. The issues comes from J. Michael Straczynski, Olivier Coipel, and Marko Djurdjevic.
2 All-Father Thor
While Thor deserves partial credit for destroying Mjolnir in many of the above cases – wielding it with his maximum strength against unbreakable enemies – he has also shattered Mjolnir all by himself. In Donny Cates and Nic Klein’s Thor #23 – after the hammer bonds with the creature Mangog – Thor understands that he must destroy Mjolnir in order to defeat the newly crowned God of Hammers. Having succeeded Odin as All-Father and seized the Power Cosmic from Galactus, All-Father Thor traps the God of Hammers and takes the weapon itself to Nidavellir, where the heat of a billion suns mixed with the God of Thunder’s power enables him to destroy the hammer, smashing it to bits.
1 The Mangog
Originally the embodiment of an entire race slaughtered by Odin, Mangog later evolved into the universe’s balance against unjust gods, and can be unleashed against them when they break specific celestial rules. In Jason Aaron and James Harren’s Mighty Thor #701, Mangog yet again goes toe to toe with a Thor, however it’s not the Odinson. Having picked up the Mjolnir of Earth-1610, Thor’s ally Volstagg becomes the War Thor – a berserker god with all Thor’s power and strength.
Sadly, even the War Thor is no match for Mangog, who throws him around like a ragdoll, smashes the Ultimate Universe’s Mjolnir, and leaves Volstagg for dead. This was the beginning of the battle that saw Jane sacrifice the original Mjolnir to trap Mangog in the sun, meaning this particular rampage made history by costing the universe two versions of Thor’s hammer.
While not accurate to the comics, Thor: Ragnarok saw Hela – portrayed by Cate Blanchett – shatter Mjolnir, using magic which essentially made her infinitely powerful as long as she could draw on Asgard’s power. The movie Hela seemingly combines the comic book goddess of death (actually Loki‘s daughter, not Odin’s) with Thor’s long-lost sister Angela. This may suggest that in the comics, Angela is capable of drawing on enough power to shatter Mjolnir, having boasted in the past that she knows she could beat Thor in a one-on-one battle.
While Thor’s hammer may have been destroyed more times than fans would guess, it’s always by a staggeringly powerful villain, whether they be fellow god, impassive Celestial, or the unholy Mangog. Of course, Mjolnir is only willing to be wielded by the greatest warriors in the galaxy, so it’s no surprise that despite breaking the hammer so many times, Thor continues to be its chosen partner.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
