One of the most fan-pleasing scenes in Avengers: Endgame was the moment Captain America wielded Mjolnir in order to help Thor battle Thanos. This finally confirmed Steve Rogers was worthy after that moment in Avengers: Age of Ultron got everyone talking.
You know the one, where Steve gets a nudge out of the hammer but no one notices except for the God of Thunder. The question this Endgame moment raised, though, was whether Cap had always been worthy or if he had become so since Ultron.
Well, here’s one perspective on the mystery. Yesterday, ComicBook.com hosted a viewing party for Endgame, with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely taking over the outlet’s Twitter account in order to answer fans’ queries about the movie. One person raised the big Ultron question and Markus offered his reply. And according to him, Steve wasn’t “completely worthy yet” in 2015 as he “still ha[d] the secret of Tony’s parents’ death to resolve.”
I'd say he's not completely worthy yet. He still has the secret of Tony's parents' death to resolve. -CM #AvengersAssemble #QuarantineWatchParty https://t.co/xbUI6nbo1f
— ComicBook.com (@ComicBook) April 28, 2020
In Captain America: Civil War, it was revealed that Steve had known all along that Bucky, when controlled by HYDRA as the Winter Soldier, had assassinated Howard and Maria Stark. In his final letter, he comes clean that he believed he was doing it to protect Tony, but he realized that he was just doing it to protect himself. As he was keeping this big secret for selfish reasons, then, you can see how this would prevent him from being classified as worthy by Odin’s metric.
That said, not all Marvel creatives feel this way. Kevin Feige and producer Louis D’Esposito are among those who’ve said they believe that Steve was always worthy and simply chose not to pick up Mjolnir in Ultron so as not to embarrass Thor. This isn’t the first time Markus and McFeely have had a different interpretation of Steve’s Avengers: Endgame storyline than everyone else, either.
But what about you? Was Cap always worthy, or did it take Civil War to do the trick? Share your view on the situation in the comments section below.