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In Avengers: Infinity War, when Thor is rescued by the Guardians of the Galaxy and explains his plan to get a weapon (Stormbreaker) to kill Thanos, Quill​ asks if they could get such a weapon too, but Thor answers that

You simply lack the strength to wield them. Your bodies would crumble as your minds collapse into madness.

In a short scene during the final battle of Avengers: Endgame, we saw Thor wielding Mjölnir and Captain America wielding Stormbreaker and then they interchange the two weapons.

According to what Thor said, how could Captain America wield Stormbreaker without being affected by it?

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In my opinion, Captain America was strong enough to wield Stormbreaker because he was wielding Mjolnir. Odin's enchantment on Mjolnir stated, "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." Captain America is worthy, and gains Thor's power.

Captain America is the strongest human in existence, but still only human. As a human, he wouldn't even be able to hold a finger up against a being like Thanos. After using Mjolnir, he gains Thor's thunder/lightning powers and likely some asgardian (odinson?/magical?) strength, and he's able to fight against Thanos on (relatively) equal ground. So, when he holds Stormbreaker, he's no longer simply human.

Presumably, if he tried to wield Stormbreaker before receiving Thor's powers from Mjolnir, he wouldn't have been able to. Maybe "[his body] would crumble as [his mind] collapse[ed] into madness" if he had tried, but we can't know for sure.

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I think Stormbreaker reacts very similar to Mjolnir's enchantments but possibly to a greater extent. They are both Asgardian weapons forged by the same smith. So for them to react similar would not be far fetched. When Captain America caught Stormbreaker, he had been deemed worthy by Mjolnir. Apart from that no one has attempted to wield the weapon in the movies. So for all we know he may not be lying about there minds crumbling.

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    Well, we know that Mjolnir was enchanted by Odin to have it's characteristic "may only be wielded by one worthy of the power of Thor". Stormbreaker came around after Odin.
    – Baldrickk
    May 7, 2019 at 16:21
  • @Baldrickk is correct and Mjolnir's enchantment was (in the MCU) a recent thing, Odin only did it in the first Thor movie when he banished Thor
    – GordonBennett
    May 8, 2019 at 6:46
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I think this is a very simple answer. We see Thanos wield Stormbreaker and almost kill Thor. So Odin's enchantment on Mjölnir has nothing to do with what it takes to use Stormbreaker. You truly just have to be a powerful being to wield Stormbreaker.

Also if you noticed the past 10 years Thor has always always respected Captain America in a way that he's more than just a man, like in Ultron they drink alcohol only worthy of the gods (I can't think of any more specific ones ATM but I know theres one in the first Avengers). Cap is champion of men like Thor is champion of the Asgardians, and clearly powerful enough to wield Stormbreaker regardless of being worthy of Mjölnir.

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