Super Strength / Marvel Cinematic Universe

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Films

• Tony Stark's Iron Man suits have the power to lift around 3 tons, according to a promotional image◊ in the second movie, which generally matches what we see in the films. His first suit Mark I in Iron Man can smash open steel doors, and his later suit could catch a 2-ton SUV near the end of the movie, though doing so enormously strained the suit's capabilities, caused him to keel over, and was marked by an immediate decrease in available power (which might be where the official figure came from). The Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary repeats the three tons number for his regular suits while also noting that the much bigger Iron Monger suit used by the first film's Big Bad can lift 15,000 pounds with each arm (about 6.8 tons). In Iron Man 2, with his portable suit-case suit, he kicks his own car (with Pepper and Happy inside it) a few meters to get them out of the way (the wheels help here), then in the climax, Tony is literally punching Hammer Drones apart◊ with the Mark 6. In general, his punches also cause humans to go flying several meters, and with the mechanical aid of a barbell with weights on it he's able to do the same to Rhodey's War Machine suit despite it massing several times as much as a person. In The Avengers the Mark 6 has the power to knock Thor around◊ through trees and come out with only a few dents (though Thor was explicitly holding back - and shows in the same scene that he can crumple the armor with his fingers). Black Widow even suggests to Captain America (who unlike Tony is superhuman) that he best stay the hell out of the fight. In the same movie we see Tony's most impressive strength feat in his "normal armor" i.e jump-starting the Helicarrier's turbine by pushing it.^note This is actually a lot less impressive than it looks - rotors are designed to resume motion after being pushed (hence why regular people can turn plane rotors by hand), and his own contribution was only what was required to start the rotors, which then proceeded to move under their own power. In Iron Man 3, we get another explicit figure for the weaker 'portable' Mark 42 suit, which can lift 900 pounds◊ (check the 'Max Weight Load' stat in the plane rescue scene). In Avengers: Age of Ultron we see by far Tony's strongest suit the Hulkbuster - made as strong as it was by just scaling up his regular suits into a Mini-Mecha dozens of times their mass - which speaks◊ for◊ itself, though it's important to note the Hulk was still stronger and probably would've ripped the Hulkbuster apart if Tony hadn't smartly used F.R.I.D.A.Y to send replacement armor-pieces to keep himself intact. When Hulk came back to senses and was distracted Tony was able to knock him out with a sneak attack. The Mark 46 in Captain America: Civil War seems to be in a similar boat to his earlier ones (2-3 ton range) given that it's only slightly stronger than Captain America. The Mark 50 in Avengers: Infinity War is much stronger than his prior normal-sized suits, able to use a building-sized-pillar to smash Thanos◊ and it even managed to bypass the Mad Titan's Nigh-Invulnerability and draw blood from his cheek (yes like Thanos says that ain't much but considering Thor needs a super starforged-axe just to injure the Titan, Tony being to hurt Thanos with tech alone is amazing).
  • Aside from his regular suits, Tony also built specialized ones for specific tasks. One, the Mark 39 AKA "Igor", is said to be able to lift four times its weight. Considering its size compared to regular suits◊, which themselves are 600-800 pounds, this should put Igor's strength well beyond the regular suits' 2-3 tons figure. The problem is that it can't do much else, being slow and unarmed.
• The title character of The Incredible Hulk gives us the page quote. In his own movie, he wrecks the army, tosses Humvees around, owned Super-Soldier Blonksy with one kick◊, uses cars as bludgeoning tools◊ and even overpowered fellow gamma-beast Abomination when enraged enough. In The Avengers, Hulk rips apart the Helicarrier from the inside out, beats Thor and Loki (demigods) around like ragdolls and in the climax, kills a Chitauri Leviathan (which likely weighs over 500-675 tons) with one punch... without a doubt Hulk is the strongest human alive. In Avengers: Age of Ultron Hulk not only wrecks a whole city but Hulk is able to rip up Tony's supertough Hulkbuster suit and in the Sokivia battle he makes short work of the Ultron-bot army even chewing one up as well effortlessly defeating Ultron who gave Cap, Thor, Vision and Iron Man a hard time. Hulk's strength is one of the reasons why Hulk was not in Captain America: Civil War (aside from being on a different planet) because according to the Russo Brothers, any side Hulk picked would automatically become the winning side... the same can be probably said for Thor below. In the same movie, Ross likens Hulk and Thor to "30 megaton nukes" which is telling of how The Government sees their destructive strength. In Thor: Ragnarok it’s reaffirmed Hulk's strength is so great that Thor without Mjölnir or any other big weapon won't last long against a sufficiently angry. Hulk was even strong enough to stagger Surtur◊ the massive reawakened fire demon in the climax. However in the same movie Thor does briefly overpowers Hulk with his fully realized Shock and Awe powers (the Grandmaster weakened Thor with a Shock Collar before we got a definitive winner), also while Hulk does overpower the giant undead wolf Fenris he still gets bitten showing the limits to his Nigh-Invulnerability. In Avengers: Infinity War Hulk had required strength to knock Thanos around and force him up against a wall, subverted again though as Thanos was just humoring Hulk and swiftly turned the tables on the jolly green giant with some well placed blows and outright defeated him. The Russo brothers weighed on this stating while Hulk is absurdly strong his fighting style is mindless thanks to his child-like intelligence which is unfavorable odds against Thanos who is Strong and Skilled.
• Among the Avengers, Thor is the only one to rival the Hulk in terms of physical strength. In his first movie, he flips an entire golden banquet table over, takes on the entire Jotunn (Ice Giant) race with no trouble, and flies into a Jotunn ice beast so hard he rips a hole clean through it. In The Avengers, he crushes Iron Man’s Armour with his fingers◊ and is the only person capable of trading blows with the Hulk. In the New York battle, he helps Hulk brings down multiple Leviathans. (And this is after he was stabbed in the chest by Loki, yet he even asks an exhausted Captain America if he can keep going). In Thor: The Dark World he fights the Aether-powered Malekith without Mjölnir and throws teleport spears with enough velocity to impale the Dark Elf. In Age of Ultron, he (enhanced by his hammer) flips a light tank by hitting it. In Thor: Ragnarok he's able to knock Surtur around, hit Hulk (with Hulk's own weapon) so hard Hulk goes flying into a wall as well as hurt Hulk with unarmed blows. Thor's lightning mode drastically increases in his strength to point where he can knock down Hela (who was able to completely destroy Mjölnir) and even overpower the aforementioned Hulk. In Avengers: Infinity War Thor swings Rocket‘s spaceship around, holds open the massive forge of a Nidavellir star◊, and then throw his new axe Stormbreaker so hard into Thanos's sternum that he mortally wounds him. Even without his divine powers, Thor somehow still stays superhuman, as brings down over a dozen elite SHIELD Agents with brute force alone.
  Agent Coulson: You made some of my best men, some of the most highly trained professionals in the world, look like a bunch of minimum wage mall cops... that's hurtful.
• While he might be significantly weaker than the previous examples, Steve Rogers aka Captain America also has this thanks to the Super-Soldier serum. In his first movie, he manages to break through a glass window (much harder to do than it sounds) accidentally, and lifts a motorcycle (with three women sitting on it) above his head without any apparent effort. In The Avengers, Steve using his shield manages to reflect a strike from Mjölnir without getting turned into a pancake by the blowback (this becomes confusing later when a mere grenade launcher, blows Cap off his feet when he tries to reflect it) and at the start of the movie Cap throws a haymaker so hard it causes the punching bag he's practicing on to go flying◊ (snapping the chain it was attached to), and in the Battle for New York, he fights dozens upon dozens of Chitauri despite not being as powerful as Iron Man, Thor or Hulk. In The Winter Soldier he jumps off his bike and brings down a Quinjet with just his shield. In the climax, he lifts a massive girder off Bucky to save him. But most impressively, in Civil War he stops a small helicopter (Eurocopter AS-350 specifically) from taking off with one arm. However this also gets subverted heavily with Cap as well with his limits being frequently shown, like the time Loki effortlessly overpowered him in their fight in The Avengers and while Cap does technically beat Iron Man in Civil War it's only because he got help from Bucky, he targeted the arc reactor and Tony himself was holding back so he wouldn't kill Steve. There's also the time Cap caught Thanos's hand◊ in Infinity War and hold him back, while undoubtedly an amazing Determinator moment Steve nevertheless wasn't strong enough to withstand a single punch◊ from the Hero Killer. However in Avengers: Endgame Steve wields Mjolnir and even Stormbreaker and both weapons increase Cap's strength immensely to the point where he briefly overpowered Thanos.
• Bucky Barnes, the titular soldier in Winter Soldier, has strength comparable to Captain America, due to implied experiments done by the Soviets and HYDRA. This is further enhanced by his cybernetic arm which can break concrete◊ and even choke out Cap◊. However the arm proved to be no match for Spider-Man.
• Scott Lang aka Ant-Man gets enhanced strength when he turns into Giant-Man, as with the expanded mass he's able to rip off an airplane's wing and knock buses around. In Avengers: Endgame Giant Man can punch down the Chitauri Leviathans as easily as the Hulk could◊ and he even crushed The Brute Obsidian Cull under his foot without even noticing.
• Vision, thanks to the power of the Mind Stone, is massively strong and basically the Avenger's second Flying Brick. In his introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron he crushes Ultron-bots like they're made of cardboard◊. In Civil War, Vision effortlessly overpowers Hawkeye; and when the latter swings a baton at him it shatters like an icicle. Later Vison rams◊ Giant Man so hard that he loses balance and falls back into the plane behind him, and that was after splitting a bus in half with his forearm◊. Vision's strength is one of the reasons why Corvus Glaive wisely weakened Vision with a special spear Back Stab before even trying to get the Mind Stone from his head. Played for Laughs in WandaVision as while pretending to be a Stage Magician, Vis lifts piano one handed to the shock of the audience forcing Wanda to have use her powers to turn the piano into a flat board, to fool the audience into thinking it's a trick and subsequently calm them down. In the Final Battle Vision grinds his Evil Counterpart White Vision through the road by the face DBZ-style and later they smash each other into the ground so hard they make a crater.
• T'Challa aka Black Panther while clearly not as strong as characters such as Hulk, Thor, Vision or even Spider-Man is still far beyond any normal human thanks to Heart Shaped Herb, in fact T'challa can casually slice a humvee door off with his claws and throw it a goon behind him◊ hard to enough to take him out. In Civil War Black Panther overpowers Bucky twice (worth noting the latter time Bucky was in full Winter Soldier mode). Also in his solo movie, T'challa brings down a charging Rhino (30km/h) with his strength alone just like the comics. Even when Brought Down to Normal T'challa can tank a spear to the shoulder and overpower the massive M'baku with his Charles Atlas Super Power.
  • Peter Parker aka Spider-Man, though small, is the third physically strongest human being behind Carol Danvers and The Hulk. In Spider-Man's debut movie Civil War, Tony Stark measures that Peter Parker can stop a 1.4-ton speeding car on a YouTube. In the airport battle, Spidey casually overpowers Falcon and Bucky - two highly experienced veterans - and also catches Bucky's previously-unbeaten cybernetic arm with ease, leading to an Oh, Crap! moment for Bucky. Spidey also knocks over a truck and sends Cap and Falcon flying with just his kicks. Later in the same fight Spidey holds up an entire jet bridge◊ (typically 27 tons, though he was only holding up between a third and half of it so it would be acting as a lever) that Cap drops on him, causing him to ultimately lose the fight, though Cap still gives him high praise. The reason why Spider-Man lost despite his superior strength to Cap, is most likely because of Steve's greater experience compared to Spidey's rookie status is simply a bad matchup (also the movie has “Captain America” in the title). Spider-Man: Homecoming shows Spidey strength in greater detail as he stops an elevator full of people from falling◊, briefly halted two halves of ferry from falling apart◊ and in his most epic Heroic Spirit moment lifts tons of concrete and metal rubble off him in the climax. In Infinity War Spidey is shown to have the sheer strength to stop Obsidian Cull's hammer attack and even smashes The Brute with a taxi. On Titan Spidey's blows are enough to stagger◊ Thanos to the point of genuinely pissing him off, though as to be expected once Thanos got his hands on the "insect" their clash ended quickly. While he was clearly outclassed in terms of might Spidey was still strong enough to play tug of war with the Mad Titan even pull the goddamn infinity gauntlet off Thanos's hand. Also in Spiderman Far From Home just like the comics, Peter knocks out Flash Thompson with a single lovetap.
  • There's also some Fridge Horror as Tom Holland reveals that the reason Spidey was an Extremity Extremist in Civil War was out not wanting to actually hurt anyone and given a punch from Spidey can hurt someone like Thanos... slugging characters like Bucky or Falcon likely would've led to messy results.
• Non-Avenger examples come from the Guardians of the Galaxy in particular Drax, Gamora and Groot. Drax (played by WWE Dave Bautista) has incredible brute strength being able to lift great weights, break through solid stone, rip metal apart and able to send dudes flying with simple strikes, at one point in the Prison Riot Drax even crushes a flying turret with his bare hands. However Drax's might is overshadowed quite a bit, he was soundly beaten by Ronan in Knowhere and effortlessly swept aside by Thanos in the Titan Battle (though he did manage to force Thanos down to his knee with a sliding kick when he had him off-guard and could physically restrain Thanos's leg briefly). Gamora thanks to her alien biology + cybernetic upgrades can Neck Lift Mantis, hack off Groot's arms, cut open the Abilisk with her sword and even wield◊ a broken ship's cannon as a◊ BFG. Subverted though as Gamora is clearly overpowered by the aforementioned Drax, as well her father Thanos who's even stronger than him. Groot though a Gentle Giant nevertheless has great physical prowess too e.g like the time he lifted an alien bruiser by the nostrils till his nose came off or better yet his "Groot smash scene" in the Final Battle. Size also doesn't diminish Groot's might as Baby Groot overpowered a full grown man.
  • Peter Quill aka Starlord also got super strength when he tapped into his half-celestial powers essentially making him a Physical God allowing him to match his father Ego.
• Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel due to absorbing the energy from the light speed engine aka the Tesseract aka the Space Stone has greatly enhanced abilities, even before she fully utilizes her Super Mode Carol overpower dozens of Skrulls with brute strength and she's shown to able to send her foes flying with just kicks and punches. Once Carol unleashes her full power and becomes a Flying Brick she has strength comparable to Vision, Thor and even the Hulk given she was able to stop a Kree missile with just her hands. In Avengers: Endgame not only does Carol physically carry Benatar back to earth but also destroys Thanos's warship all by herself and even grapples with Thanos making him struggle , though she is beaten when he harnesses the Power Stone.
• Speaking of which Thanos is the most prominent villain example and puts most of the previous examples to shame. Remember Cap's Shield, made of stuff that even the aforementioned Thor couldn't dent? Thanos managed to casually break through that same material with his fingers◊ when he killed Vision. Even before that the Mad Titan soundly beat the Hulk (even hoisting him above his head) as well as overpowering Thor, Loki, Gamora, Drax, Mantis, Spider-man, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Black Panther, Captain America (both of whom he defeated in one punch) and Vision. If that weren't enough the Power Stone in particular increases his might seen when he throws a goddamn moon at the heroes. In Endgame we see even without the Gauntlet Thanos can still battle Thor, Iron Man and Captain America◊ and overpower them with just his raw un-augmented strength, Thanos even breaks Cap's previously unmatched shield in the fight. Yes the aforementioned Captain Marvel does give him some trouble but it's worth noting once Thanos got a good grip on Carol he could toss her around like a ragdoll, signifying that Thanos is one of the few whose physical might can be considered comparable to hers, although she does later on No-Sell a headbutt from him.
• Although she's still inexperienced with her powers, America Chavez manages some impressive feats of strength in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. She kicks a thick chunk of rock from a balcony at Gargantos. Later, she manages to punch a huge dent in a polycarbonate glass wall that was tough enough to take several hits from a metal cannister without any damage. Given that all of her impact craters are star-shaped like her dimensional portals and she doesn't seem stronger than normal in most circumstances, her super strength is likely an extension of her portal-punching and needs some focus or stress to use.

Live-Action TV

• Luke Cage is the most blatant thanks to the original experiment. He can lazily send goons flying with simple strikes, punch through solid brick walls, break guns in his hands with ease, knock a person unconscious with a slap to the head, kick down almost any door, bend metal bars and lift massive concrete blocks and heavy machinery, such as washing machines and refrigerators. While Luke doesn’t perform the crazy strength feats of his comic counterpart he still stands out among the more grounded characters.
• Jessica Jones in spite of her size and mass has enhanced strength due to illegal experiments by IGH. Jess has the shown the ability to smash alarm clocks in her hands, effortlessly overpower men twice her size, break metal chains, locks and hinges, bend metal bars and panels, smash through glass and marble with her fist and lift the back of a car off the ground. As a little girl, she accidentally broke her bathroom sink off the wall and held above her head. Most impressively Jessica can match Luke in strength and even carry him around like a baby◊.
• Danny Rand aka Iron Fist when he uses his eponymous Iron Fist can smash the ground hard enough to send everything and everyone around him flying. With the Iron Fist, he can also destroy trucks and even injure Luke who has Super-Toughness.
• In WandaVision as already detailed in the film page, Vision has formidable strength. Played for Laughs in Episode 2 “Don’t Touch that Dial” when while pretending to be a Stage Magician he easily lifts a piano one handed shocking the audience, this forces Wanda cover it up with her powers by turning the piano into a 2D board to make it look like a trick. In the climax when Vision fights his white counterpart their strength is properly showcased as Vision drags White Vision through the street by his face, they punch each other through buildings and smash the ground so hard they make Earthquake-sized craters. White Vision nearly crushes Wanda’s skull with his hands before being stopped by his Good Counterpart.
• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
  • The Flag Smashers have this due to a Super Serum developed by Wilfred Nagel. In the first episode one of them could send a normal man flying with a kick and overpower Badass Normal Torres with one arm, before slamming him to the ground and cracking his orbital bone with a stomp. Throughout the series we see the Flag Smashers send Sam and Bucky flying, crush Red Wing, lift heavy equipment and stone barricades, smash through highway signs, use girders as clubs and in Big Bad Karli Morgenthau‘s case accidentally killing a grown man Lemar Hoskins when he got Punched Across the Room by her. Though despite the Flag Smashers’s strength, they’re Strong, but Unskilled and often resort to ganging up on foes.
  • John Walker after a few embarrassing defeats, takes the serum out of desperation in order to fight the Flag Smashers and succeeds in doing so. With the serum, Walker can bend metal pipes, punch around Bucky, rip off Sam’s wings and even pull an armoured van full of civilians off an edge before the van’s weight made the I-Beams beneath the vehicle collapse.
  • The Flag Smashers’s super serum was created using blood cells taken from Isaiah Bradley a black Supersoldier from the Korean Wars who was strong enough to fight Bucky in the past and even rip his cybernetic arm off. Even as a old man, he’s still inhumanly strong as while yelling at Sam and Bucky he throws a metal can into wall so hard it imbeds deep in the wood.
  • Played for Laughs when Sam wonders aloud to his Fishermen mates how they are going to get the heavy machinery off a truck and onto to his parents' boat. Right on que, Bucky appears, lifting the machinery like its light furniture and plonks it down on the boat.
• Loki: The titular Trickster God himself has this, while obviously not as crazy strong as his brother, Loki still proves his demigod nature effortlessly smashing a few of attackers in the third episode, including kicking one right out a window. Considering in the films we saw Loki overpower Cap and chuck Tony by the neck off his own skyscraper, it’s to be expected.
• Moon Knight: Super-strength is one of the abilities granted by the Moon Knight armor. Marc grabs a jackal monster and beats it to death with his hands at the end of the first episode. Steven, who is very inexperienced, accidentally crushes a bumper while gripping it to stand up and manages to land a right hook on another jackal that sends it flying.
• Ms. Marvel:
  • Played With by the title character. The second episode makes a specific point to show that Kamala does not have super strength when she tries making a gigantic fist and it becomes too heavy for her to hold up. Later on, she struggles to do push-ups and reaffirms to herself that she's not any physically stronger. However, her Hard Light constructs do have super strength, and can easily lift heavy objects and send people flying. When she "embiggens" in the finale, she's strong enough to crush and catch armoured vehicles.
  • The Clandestines have enhanced strength and durability as their main powers, aside from being The Ageless.

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