The recent release of Thor: Love and Thunder delivered on its humor, emotional moments, and great action, but a pleasant surprise for fans came the reveal of Brett Goldstein as Hercules, one of Thor’s most iconic rivals from comics.

As he is the Olympian god of strength, Hercules is commonly shown to be at least on par with characters such as Hulk and Thor, and although Thor: Love and Thunder teased a potential fight between the two, Hercules and Thor’s comic book history as partners may lead to a future team-up between the two in the MCU.

UPDATE: 2022/09/27 21:05 EST BY SHAWN S. LEALOS

With Hercules showing up in the post-credits of Thor: Love and Thunder, most MCU fans are excitedly wondering if the God of Thunder and Prince of Power will one day face off in battle. This has happened in the comics way too many times, but Thor and Hercules usually finally stop brawling and work together to fight a greater evil. Luckily, while Thor is one of the most powerful Marvel heroes, Hercules is no slouch as well. As a matter of fact, in the recent Maestro comic book series, Hercules put up an incredible fight against an overpowered Hulk, and only lost because Hulk found help and tricked Hercules.

Invulnerability

Hercules is a powerful warrior who can stand up to any fight. He is very durable, and doesn't take much damage, and he is immortal, and it takes a little too much to kill him. However, he is also invulnerable. This came about thanks to drinking Hera's breast milk when he was a baby,

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This makes him almost completely resistant to any physical injury. Regular swords and blades can't break his skin. The only Greek gods who match up to Hercules' resistance is Zeus, Neptune, and Pluto. Hercules really can't die unless he is incinerated or his molecules dispersed.

Skyfather Physiology

While this is not a power he currently has, Hercules once had a power known as Skyfather Physiology. This happened during Chaos War, when Hercules became the King of Olympus. This means he gained the powers that normally only Zeus has, which surpassed all other Greek gods outside Zeus.

These powers included a near-omnipotent level of power, which means he could do almost anything he wanted. He could also manipulate energy and create destructive sources. He could also shape-shift, fly, and possessed electrokinesis.

Allspeak

Hercules possesses the All-Speak, which is a power Thor shares. This is also a power that all Olympians share as well. The power allows Hercules to understand and communicate in all languages. This includes Earth's dialects and various alien languages.

This is mostly a plot device. How can gods and aliens communicate with beings from other worlds? Giving these beings the All-Speak helps explain how they can do so, no matter what planet or even universe they travel to.

Vast Fortune

In Justice League, when Flash met Batman, he asked him what his powers were. Batman simply said, "I'm rich." This is also true of Hercules, although he has a lot more basic powers than Batman. Hercules has been alive for a very long time, and as a result, he has built up a vast fortune.

Hercules has used his money to buy his own bars using gold he was carrying around with him. He was also one of the original investors in Stark Industries, with an investment of $100,000. Considering how much the company is worth now, he is extremely wealthy. This means he never has to worry about mortal needs.

Master With The Mace

In the way Thor is shown to be a mighty combatant with his dwarf-star hammer Mjolnir or Captain America with his iconic vibranium shield, Hercules’ mighty weapon of choice is his golden mace made out of adamantium.

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Hercules is shown throughout comics using his golden mace to go blow-for-blow with Thor's Mjolnir many times in comics. As Thor's mighty hammer is commonly agreed upon by Marvel fans as being one of the strongest weapons in the Marvel Universe, the fact that Hercules is able to use his mace to trade blows with the God of Thunder (and many other Marvel characters for that matter) is really impressive.

Stamina

Hercules is without a doubt one of the toughest gods out there, but one of his abilities that is sometimes underrated by fans is essentially limitless amount of energy and stamina.

His Olympian physiology causes Hercules' body to feature none of the fatigue toxins and allows him to constantly be at 100%. If the fact that he wasn't an absolute beast didn't already make him powerful enough, the addition of stamina to Hercules' power set allows him to outlast his opponents.

Reflexes

Hercules is shown to be a master hand-to-hand combatant, and one of the many abilities that enable this is Hercules’ superfast reflexes. Showing this ability by effortlessly dodging arrows, lightning-fast punches, and even laser beams from other opponents, Hercules is able to act on instinct as a way of defense as well.

His reflexes have proven to be one of Hercules' greatest powers as it is used for both attack and defense and allows the Prince of Power to be prepared for anything that comes his way.

Speed & Agility

By no means does Hercules have the incredible super speed of Marvel heroes such as Quicksilver or Makkari, but the God of Strength is shown to move at extraordinarily fast speeds and is very nimble for his massive size.

Considering his near limitless supply of strength, it makes sense that Hercules is able to run so fast as he can propel himself with huge amounts of force, and this is one of his most utilized powers as it allows him to keep up with other fast opponents.

Power Jumping

A common power among most superheroes is the ability to fly, but despite not having this ability, Hercules is able to keep up against flying foes with his ability to power jump.

Jumping well over 100 feet at times, Hercules’ power jumping has made him a formidable foe as he is quite literally able to get the jump on opponents. This also allows him to perform many jump-based attacks comparable to the same level seen from Marvel characters such as Hulk.

Immortality

After being made a God by Zeus after completing many feats of strength known as the Twelve Labors of Hercules, the Prince of Power was granted immortality by his father and became immune to aging.

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As he has now lived for centuries, Hercules still has the appearance of an adult male in his physical prime, which allows him to consistently fight against to toughest opponents and allow Hercules to be a hero for generations to come.

Durability

Many MCU characters such as Thor and Hulk are shown to endure huge blasts, punches, or falls that would certainly lead to the demise of the other strongest Marvel characters. Hercules has shown incredible displays of his durability in comics and has even taken a full blast from powerful weapons Zeus’ Thunderbolt and Thor’s hammer Mjolnir.

As he has no armor or typical method of protection, Hercules’ durability is one of the main ways he’s able to fight against such strong opponents, and it serves as a way to endure the power of gods and cosmic-level opponents.

Archery

When considering a being of such extraordinary strength as Hercules, it’s hard to believe that he would ever need to utilize any other skills or abilities, but the main way he dominates long-range combat is through his mastery of archery.

Although Hercules was trained by the mortal Amphitryon instead of the godly company he typically keeps, Hercules is shown to have archery skills that rival the goddess of the hunt, Artemis. This skill, combined with Hercules’ incredible strength, makes his arrows just as deadly as any other blast or projectile.

Regeneration

While Hercules’ durability is something that makes it nigh-impossible to injure him, what makes him an even more formidable hero is the fact that he is capable of quickly recovering from any type of injury that may temporarily take him out of a fight.

This has allowed him to take blows from characters such as the Eternals, other Gods of Olympus, and of course Thor, and is one of the many abilities that allow him to go up against Marvel's strongest foes.

Unparalleled Strength

In Marvel Comics, the strength of characters is usually rated on a class scale based on how many tons the character can lift, and Hercules’ greatest power is his Class 100 strength which is nearly off the charts by Marvel standards.

As the baseline for this level of strength means Hercules can lift at least 100 tons, if not more. He has many times broken this limit and has even lifted the entire island of Manhattan for a brief period of time. With such an unquantifiable amount of strength at his disposal, this is without a doubt his best and most notable power and allows Hercules to live up to the title God of Strength.

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