The All-Father, Odin, debuted in Marvel’s Journey Into Mystery #86 back in November 1962. The character is inspired by the Norse deity of the same name, but its comic book counterpart was created by Marvel legend Stan Lee and comic book legend Jack Kirby. Odin is best known as Thor’s father in the Marvel Universe, but he is quite an epic badass in his own right, even more than Thor in a certain way. That is why I have decided to dedicate today’s article to Odin and his powers, as the guy certainly deserves a text of his own.
Knowing that Odin is one of the most powerful characters in Marvel’s universe, we can deduce that he can, indeed, wield the Infinity Gauntlet. Given that Thanos was able to do it and Odin has proven himself to be much more powerful than Thanos in their base forms, we can be pretty confident in the assertion.
In today’s article, I am primarily going to focus on the Asgardian All-Father Odin and his powers. That analysis will help to answer the main question of this article, i.e., to see whether Odin can indeed lift and use the powerful Infinity Gauntlet with all the Infinity Gems at his side. Enjoy!
How powerful is Odin?
Well, there are several ways one can approach this question, but I think that the best way to do it would be to give you an overview of his powers and abilities, which is exactly what I am going to do in this section. Then, I can move on to the main question of this article.
As the ruler of Asgard, Odin represents the peak of the powers common to the whole race, such as superhuman strength, agility, speed, reflexes and stamina; due to the fact that Asgardian skin and bones are roughly three times denser than those of a common human being, Odin is invulnerable to regular attacks.
His longevity is almost unlimited and he cannot die unless he is killed; unlike most Asgardians, whose aging stops when they reach maturity, Odin, as well as Frigga, presents himself as an elderly but still energetic man, which is befitting his role of the All-Father.
Strengthened by millennia of battles, Odin is, together with his son Thor, the best warrior of Asgard, as well as an excellent leader and a very fine strategist. Odin is able to generate the so-called “Power of Odin” (Odin Force), an immense energy force generated by the fusion of the souls of his brothers, Vili and Ve, in him.
This process has made Odin so powerful that he can shake the foundations of the Universe itself, also giving him a sort of partial omnipotence: he can control, transform and merge the elements together, stop time, teleport people (even the entire human race or the realm of Asgard) into another dimension with a single thought, create illusions or hypnotize and even generate an entire solar system.
Odin’s powers are of such nature that, by colliding with the Egyptian god Seth, he has destroyed entire galaxies, made every plane of reality tremble and risked destroying the Multiverse. Odin is able both to generate life and to resurrect the dead or to heal the wounds of others; moreover, he can absorb energy from the very soil of Asgard, confer part of his powers on other people without depriving himself of them and even break pacts signed with Mephisto himself, but only with regard to his people and not with mortals.
In battle Odin, rides Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse, and wields Gungnir, an Uru-forged spear that never misses its mark; the spear is as tough as Mjolnir and can be used as a conductor for the “Odin Force”. He is also usually accompanied by two wolves, Geri and Freki, and uses the ravens Huginn and Muninn as messengers.
The only weak point the All-Father has is that, once a year, in order to recharge himself, he is forced to enter a deep lethargy called Odinsleep; during this period, lasting 24 hours, he is completely vulnerable.
Can Odin wield the Infinity Gauntlet?
Now that the analysis of Odin’s powers and abilities is done, I can finally answer the main question of this text – can Odin wield the Infinity Gauntlet?
As we all know, the Infinity Gauntlet is a pretty powerful and useful tool that serves as a container for the six Infinity Gems. It also enables the holder to control the power of the Infinity Gems, although it takes a lot of power to be utilized in full capacity.
The best point of reference for this is Thanos. The Mad Titan has made it his goal to collect the Infinity Gems and use their powers to control the universe. Now, Thanos was able to both gather the Infinity Gems and use them, showing us that he was able to use this powerful weapon.
Based on what we have established about Odin, we can be sure that Odin would be able to defeat Thanos; in fact, he has done it in the comic books. From that, it is inferred that Odin is more powerful than Thanos and the previous section has given us enough information to affirm that.
Seeing how Odin is indeed more powerful than Thanos, there really is no mystery surrounding this question, is there? Odin can, of course, use the Infinity Gauntlet and there is absolutely no doubt that he would be equally effective in using it as Thanos and every other character that has had the opportunity to use that powerful weapon.
Odin never used the Infinity Gauntlet as far as we know from the comics, but since he is one of the good guys, it wouldn’t be something he’d really do, right? Well, be that as it may, the future of comic books is always uncertain, so we might really see Odin use the Gauntlet at one point, but that doesn’t really concern us that much. What is important here, and that has been established, is that Odin is powerful enough to use the Infinity Gauntlet.
