While Hulk might debate the point, it seems pretty clear that Thor is the heaviest hitter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's version of The Avengers. He's got the raw strength and speed of a god, and with the help of his mystical hammer, Mjolnir, he's got control of the very elements themselves.
When we watch Thor kicking Earthly butt in the Avengers movies, it often seems difficult to imagine very many characters tougher than our favorite Asgardian god.
However, in both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the wider world of Marvel comics, there are plenty of gods whose powers eclipse Thor's own abilities. These include fellow Asgardians, demons, and galactic forces that are worshipped (and often feared) as gods by alien beings all over the galaxy.
Thor has already been bested by some of the characters on this list while others have so much raw power that he would most likely die if he tried to stop them. Are you interested in finding out just who these gods are? Fortunately, you don't need the all-seeing eyes of Heimdall to figure it out... just keep scrolling to read our list of 15 Marvel Gods So Much Tougher Than Thor!
Thanos
At the top of our list, we have a very familiar face: Thanos! Obviously, a Thanos who is empowered by even a single Infinity Stone would be able to easily defeat Thor, and a Thanos with an entire powered-up Infinity Gauntlet could defeat Thor with a thought. But how well would this Mad Titan do without his Gauntlet or any Stones?
Pretty well, actually. Physically, he's much tougher than Thor is, and he possesses a vast range of powers (including everything from telepathy and telekinesis to a variety of energy blasts) that put Thor's power set to shame.
Finally, there's the transitive property: Thanos has been able to fight both Galactus and Odin, two other characters who can easily defeat Thor, so we know he can easily take out the God of Thunder.
Is it any wonder Thanos tried to make himself the All-Father, god of an entirely new race?
Dormammu
Thanks to the success of the Doctor Strange movie, even the most casual fans now know who Dormammu is. At any given point, this Dark Dimension-dweller represents a threat to all life on Earth, and on a bad day, all life on the planet. Against his might, Thor is pretty much a pushover!
As it turns out, Dormammu can do a lot more than we saw him do onscreen. His mystical energy allows him to achieve feats such as energy blasts and matter manipulation as well as possession, necromancy, and teleportation. He can create demon lords, empower armies, and is otherwise a galactic threat.
Doctor Strange puts it pretty well: a fully-powered Dormammu is a foe that “no one could stand against” - that definitely includes Thor!
Fortunately for Thor and other heroes, Dormammu is powered by the worship of his followers, and their relative lack of faith is the only reason that the Earth is still in one piece.
Hercules
In some ways, this might be the most controversial entry on this list. The reason for this is that we have seen Thor and the Greek god Hercules spar on multiple occasions, and more often than not, the two seem evenly matched. However, there are two key bits of evidence that Hercules is actually tougher than Thor.
In Thor: Blood Oath, we see Hercules and Thor fight. While Thor gets in some good blows, Hercules gets in even more, and he eventually wins the fight by getting Thor into a grip he cannot escape.
To add insult to injury, Hercules is stinking drunk in this fight, and Thor has to resort to lightning to break free, which Hercules correctly identifies as “cheating.”
That brings us to our next point: as gods go, Thor is a lot like Iron Man. He has a hammer that gives him flight and improves his weather control, a belt that doubles his strength, and so on. Without his mystical tech, Thor will always be weaker than Hercules.
Cyttorak
Casual fans of Marvel may not recognize the nameCyttorak. However, you've almost certainly heard of the most famous Avatar of Cyttorak - Juggernaut!
This being is a god who lives in his own dimension and has the ability to gift mortals some of his incredible powers. Cyttorak himself, though, is much tougher than the Juggernaut, and much, much tougher than Thor!
First, he's a bit of a tinkerer: the things created by Cyttorak embody a portion of his power, and we've seen people wearing these items survive a variety of mystical foes and even being thrown clean into orbit. Others using Cyttorak's powers have been able to redirect attacks back at their enemies and even create life from lifelessness.
Ultimately, Cytorrak can deflect all of Thor's attacks while creating an army to fight him... not a guy you want to throw your hammer or cool lightning powers at anytime soon!
The Chaos King
This character has a real name that is quite the mouthful: Amatsu-Mikaboshi. However, he's better known only as the Chaos King. Over the years, he has served as an antagonist for characters such as Hercules and Thor. He makes a great foe for them because of his wide range of weird powers.
The Chaos King has some of the basic powers you'd expect of a god, including super-strength and super-speed. On top of this, he channels mystical dark energies and is capable of generating energy blasts that even rival the lightning bolts of Zeus. He can also fly, teleport, shapeshift, become invisible, and even create copies of himself.
Worse still, he is able to mentally compel small armies of demons into doing his bidding. This is the guy who has singlehandedly defeated things like the Demogorge, which was a creature that ate the Elder Gods. What hope does Thor have against this kind of threat?
1o. Shuma-Gorath
This is one of the few characters on this list that video gamers might be more likely to recognize than casual Marvel fans. This is because Shuma-Gorath appeared in a series of fighting games, including Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the games which finally let us see who would win in a fight between Wolverine and Chun-Li. Shuma-Gorath is right at home in a fighting game, though, due to his fantastic array of powers.
This guy can project energy, teleport, levitate, shapeshift, and even alter reality when the mood strikes him. Shuma-Gorath also rules like a god over dozens of alternate universes (yet another reason that he keeps popping up in the alternate universe of these Marvel fighting games).
This character has survived universes collapsing and has possessed Doctor Strange, forcing the venerable hero to kill himself. With everything Shuma-Gorath is capable of doing, one lone god with a big hammer is no threat at all.
The Vishanti
Strictly speaking, the Vishanti does not represent a single god. Rather, this is the name given to a special trio of gods in the Marvel universe. Doctor Strange often invokes their names, and for good reason: they help to power Strange and are committed to the protection of Earth. If they wanted to fight Thor, then the Asgardian would have no chance at all.
For most of the characters on this list, it's easy to list all of their powers. The Vishanti, though, can use the forces of magic to do just about anything. Their mystical powers can repel almost any attack, and they can mystically shield themselves to withstand any attack. They can manipulate energy to do whatever they desire, giving them the edge in most fights.
Perhaps the best way to think of the Vishanti is to imagine the powers of Doctor Strange, who himself is capable of giving Thor a run for his money. Strange is still only a flawed mortal accessing their powers - if the Vishanti themselves attacked, they could utterly destroy Thor.
Atum
“Atum” is another name that may not ring a bell for more casual Marvel fans, but he's a pretty huge force within the Marvel universe itself. He is essentially the son of Mother Nature (no, really) and the Demiurge, which is the living, thinking incarnation of the Earth's entire biosphere.
In terms of power, Atum ended up being the real deal, using the powers of the sun to slay the Elder Gods, sucking their powers into himself as he went along. Over the years, he has tangled with a variety of gods, ranging from Set to to the gods of the Skrulls.
All told, Atum can handily defeat Thor. After all, Atum's baseline strength is greater than Thor's, and he rocks similar powers of strength, speed, endurance, and flight. But he can also manipulate energy at a similar scale to Zeus and Odin, and he has access to the powers and abilities of the various gods that he has defeated and absorbed over the course of his life.
Fighting Atum is like fighting countless gods at once, and that's simply too much for Thor.
Mephisto
If you're wondering who else is tougher than Thor, then we can only ask: could it be... Satan? Or at least, someone very much like Satan. That is certainly the role that Mephisto plays in the Marvel universe, serving as a demon tempter who is out to wreck lives and souls. However, he has a lot of raw power, too.
Mephisto possesses a full gamut of god-level powers, including the usual selection of super-strength and speed. He can also alter his size, create convincing illusions, change space and time, and manipulate the minds of countless people. This character has been written as the source of all human evil and has threatened entire galaxies in his wrath.
All told, Mephisto could likely defeat Thor in any realm, and should they fight within Mephisto's own realm, then Mephisto could end the battle with nothing but a thought. Maybe Thor should stick to fighting Asgard's demons rather than taking on Earth's!
Zeus
Yes, in the Marvel comics world, Zeus is real. He is the father of Hercules and part of a full pantheon of Marvel gods that have a variety of staggering powers. And Zeus is the most insanely powerful of all, being considered the equal of characters like Galactus and Odin when it comes to a straight up fight. And he has quite a few powers that make him a major threat to characters such as Thor.
As you might expect, he has super-strength and super-speed. Zeus can also fly and manipulate matter and energy to achieve some pretty wild stuff, including his famous lightning bolts. And Zeus is capable of lasting in a prolonged fight for days upon days, making him able to outright outlast any opponents, including our favorite thunder god.
On top of everything else, Zeus can strip the powers of other Greek gods to power himself and to draw power from the universe itself.
Bor
For many Marvel fans, chances are that the name “Bor” doesn't ring any bells. However, he's a character we have seen on screen very briefly during a flashback: Bor is actually the father of Odin and the previous ruler of Asgard. As you might expect, he has power levels that are off the chart!
At bare minimum, he is as powerful as Odin, who is considered one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel universe, and there's some evidence he may be even more powerful. In terms of powers, he is basically Thor on steroids, possessing super-strength, speed, durability, and stamina. His chosen weapon is actually a scythe that has already withstood blows from Mjolnir, Thor's hammer.
Speaking of Mjolnir, Bor is capable of catching the weapon out of the air and is considered worthy of wielding. When it comes to a fight, this is not looking good for Thor!
Odin
Let's be honest: you should have seen this one coming. In terms of powers and abilities, Thor is outclassed in every way by his father Odin. For one thing, Odin is naturally more powerful than Asgardians, and he possesses amped-up versions of every power that Thor already has. If that's not enough of an edge, he's also got the Odin Force.
While it admittedly has a really goofy and vain name, the Odin Force is Odin's ace in the hole. It's the source of almost all of his powers and it lets him project energy fields, engage in telepathy, hypnotize others, and some other party tricks that include stopping time, taking souls, and destroying galaxies.
Basically, Thor has no way of taking on his father, but there's a silver lining: when Odin dies, the Odin Force will pass on to Thor. This will allow Thor to finally take the throne and rule over Asgard as he was always meant to do.
Hela
Hela is another god (or goddess, in this case) who can do everything that Thor can do and then do a whole lot more. She is an Asgardian goddess of death, and she has most of the same raw powers and abilities that other Asgardians do. On top of that, though, she has a cloak that increases her strength. Finally, she has some mystical tricks at her disposal.
For instance, she can create illusions and fire energy bolts. Perhaps most exciting for anime fans is her “Hand of Glory” ability, which significantly increases her powers and allows her to kill most Asgardians in a single punch, similar to One Punch Man.
Finally, she has a pact with Death (who is an actual person in the Marvel Universe and who has dated both Thanos and Deadpool). This pact allows her to kill with a single touch and steal the souls of her victims right into Hel itself.
As Thor: Ragnarok shows us, she is capable of taking down Thor very quickly when she decides to make her move, and she can even destroy Mjolnir!
Phoenix Force
Many casual fans hear “Phoenix Force” and they think only of Dark Phoenix, the name given to Jean Grey when she is possessed by the Phoenix Force. However, the actual Force is so much bigger than that and contains more powers than you can shake a mutant at.
The Phoenix Force is another one of those beings that is simply on another level entirely. It can absorb any energy thrown at it and destroy planets in the blink of an eye. The Phoenix Force can travel back and forth through time and manipulate any aspect of reality that it so chooses. Hell, this force can even absorb the consciousness of every thinking creature in the entire universe at once.
It's not just that Thor would lose this fight—it's that he would have lost this fight long before it even began.
Galactus
Galactus is one of the gold standards for measuring power within the Marvel universe. There is a reason for that: his Power Cosmic abilities are almost impossible for a single being to stop. In addition to possessing raw strength, Galactus can create life, resurrect the dead, bring dead planets back to life, and so much more. If you can name it, Galactus can do it - likely while eating chunks of your planet as a tasty snack.
The character was modeled after gods by his earliest creators, with Jack Kirby claiming “Galactus in actuality is a sort of god. He is beyond reproach.”
When Galactus is on the warpath, it takes entire armies and coalitions of super-powered beings to merely stay his wrath. Not to kill him, even, but to simply make him look to another planet for his lunch plans.
Galactus is the oldest living thing in the Marvel universe, and to him, even the might of Thor is a silly trifle to be tossed away.
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Did we miss any gods who could take down Thor? Let us know in the comments!