Thanks to the massive success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor Odinson has gone from being a C-list hero to one of Marvel's most popular. Although Thor and Thor: The Dark World were moderate successes at best, the recently-released Thor: Ragnarok looks to be one of the MCU's most critically-acclaimed and financially successful films yet!
The series has given us two memorable characters in actor Chris Hemsworth's charismatic portrayal Thor and Marvel's most sympathetic and best-developed villain, Tom Hiddleston's Loki.
Even before his sudden rise in popularity, Thor was ranked near the top of Marvel's heavy-hitters chart. In the films he is still the only character to be shown holding his own in a one-on-one fight against the Incredible Hulk, and only Captain America's vibranium shield stood between him and and a total defeat of Iron Man. The son of Odin is known for his cocky attitude and fiery temper; he's been known to let his temper get the best of him and thrown down against other superheroes every now and again.
In some cases, the God of Thunder's power is too much, and the fight is terribly one-sided. Here are 15 Times Thor DESTROYED Other Superheroes!
15. Wolverine
Comic book crossovers are the bread and butter of Marvel comics. At least once a year the company has a large-scale event that brings together all the character from their different titles and puts them against a powerful foe. Every now and again the publisher will throw two individual characters together for a short period to boost sales for the two issues. In 2009, Marvel released a three-issue series of Wolverine vs. Thor, pitting the God of Thunder against the X-Men's meanest mutant.
In issue #2, Logan comes across Thor. Suffering from a delusion, he instead sees Sabretooth and attacks. The interaction plays out much like the titular fight in Batman v Superman, in which the more powerful party (Thor here doesn't really want to fight but the weaker party refuses to yield until they strike a major blow. Wolverine is able to get a couple of strikes in before Thor finally states, "enough" and unleashes his full force on the mutant. Once this happens, Logan doesn't even stand a chance and gets completely crushed by a combination of lightning, brute strength, and Mjolnir.
14. Iron Man
This is it, guys: Marvel's current fan-favorite vs one that has been on the rise in recent years. In one storyline, the clone of Thor (dubbed Ragnarok) ran rampant, killing fellow heroes and tainting the God of Thunder's name in the eyes of the public. Believe it or not, these guys were both B or C-listers at best when Civil War hit the stands back in the mid-2000s. But that didn't make this fight any less epic.
When Thor finally returned to Midgard after the events of Civil War, he came back to a world he didn't know. Superheroes were now fugitives, Captain America was dead, and a clone of himself (created by his own friends) had ruined his reputation. When he finally confronted Iron Man about the clone, it was one of the most epic beatdowns in comic book history!
It wasn't even a contest; Thor just clobbered Tony with his hammer, tossed him through buildings, and struck him over and over with lightning. Worst of all, he lets Stark know that the only reason he's still alive is because he has "more pressing matters" to attend to.
13. The Hulk
This entry is definitely going to raise some controversy. The Incredible Hulk is the strongest thing in the entire Marvel Universe. Whenever people debate who would win a battle, it's usually between Hulk and Superman, not Hulk and Thor.
Nothing can kill him; whenever Bruce Banner is put in a situation where he should die, he instead turns into the Hulk and is unaffected by whatever was supposed to kill him. Guns do nothing. Missiles do nothing. Even blasts from atomic bombs generally do nothing against Hulk!
Yet, somehow, Thor has been able to hold his own (and sometimes defeat) the Hulk on multiple occasions. The fight in Thor: Ragnarok is the latest in a long line of Hulk vs. Thor battles, including the epic one in the first Avengers flick. Whenever these two go against each other, it's a totally brutal, knock down drag-out fight. Sometimes the Hulk wins, sometimes Thor wins. Either way, the two always end up looking like they went through a gauntlet of the most powerful beings in existence.
12. The Thing
The Thing is easily one of the Marvel Universe's strongest characters. After a tragic accident transformed Ben Grimm into a hulking rock beast, he and his friends decided to use their powers to form a super team and fight crime.
The Thing is the gruffest member of the Fantastic Four, with a sarcastic and grumpy attitude to go along with his incredible strength and invulnerability. The Fantastic Four and the Avengers are two of the most beloved super-teams ever assembled, so the times that the two forces have actually come to blows can be counted on your fingers.
Fights between Thor and the Thing (just like his fights with the Hulk) are always slugfest. However, most of the time one of the two is pulling their punches. This was not the case in a "What If?" story that saw Thor and Loki team up to conquer Midgard; Thor single-handedly takes out Ben Grimm in a single blow by smashing his jaw to bits with his hammer.
11. Vision
Vision is arguably the most powerful Avenger on the whole team. He may not have the strength of Hulk or the raw energy of Iron Man, but the hero has the ability to turn his body into any density, meaning he can float through walls but can also make his blows as heavy as a ship's anchor. Not to mention, he can fly and shoot beams of pure energy out of his body.
Thor and Vision briefly throw down in Avengers: Age of Ultron, with the fight ending before either one can do any real damage. In the comic books, there is a much different story.
In Avengers Annual #8, the Mighty Thor is briefly possessed by an alien Power Prism and is forced to fight his teammates. Vision thinks that he can end the fight quicker than anyone else on the team by phasing into Thor and briefly stopping his heart and rendering him unconscious. It does not go well, as the God of Thunder quickly dispatches Vision by thrusting his hammer into his friend's body right as he starts to phase and unleashing his thunder powers while inside. In one blow, Vision is dispatched by the Thunderer.
10. Gladiator
Gladiator was part of Marvel's homage to DC's Legion of Superheroes, with this character acting as the counterpart to Superboy. Kallark is a law enforcer of the Shi'ar Empire with abilities similar to a Kryptonian (super strength, super speed, X-ray vision, heat vision, etc.); he often acts as an anti-hero foil to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Eventually he moves through the ranks to become the Emperor of the Shi'ar.
On one occasion, Thor is traveling through the galaxy with a group of other heroes when they come across a Shi'ar vessel. The Gladiator jumps into action, fighting and defeating Wonder Man before Thor swoops in to save the day.
Much like the Thor vs Wolverine fight, Thor keeps holding back, not realizing how powerful his foe is. As soon as he realizes Gladiator is a high-powered adversary, he unleashes his full power, throttling him repeatedly with Mjolnir until he is knocked unconscious.
9. Beta Ray Bill
Though there is a possibility that he may already be in the MCU, fans are still eagerly awaiting Beta Ray Bill's first appearance on the big screen. In the '80s, the Korbinite alien was introduced to be one of those "brutes with a heart of gold" tropes. He completely shocked fans when it was revealed that he was worthy of Thor's hammer. For a period of time, Bill and Thor were competitors for the hammer's worthiness until Beta Ray Bill was finally granted his own warhammer, Stormbreaker.
Because Beta Ray Bill is so similar to the God of Thunder, the two have been pitted against each other time and time again. But for as much heart as Bill shows in his spars against Thor, there really isn't much of a contest when he doesn't have Mjolnir in his grasp. Sure, his strength, speed, and stamina is superior to most humans, and Stormbreaker has the same properties of Thor's hammer, but whenever the two fight there is no question as to who is superior.
8. The Silver Surfer
As far as cosmic heroes go, the Silver Surfer is one of Marvel's best. When he was first introduced he acted purely as the herald of Galactus, but he eventually turned to the light and devoted himself to fighting evil.
As Wielder of the Power Cosmic, the Surfer has the ability to manipulate the universe's ambient energy as well as superhuman strength, endurance, and the power to travel through hyperspace. Due to his cosmic nature, the Silver Surfer and the God of Thunder have crossed paths many times.
These fights usually end with Thor handing the Surfer his metallic butt. The most crushing defeat comes from a short story which saw the God of Thunder go mad. Many of the cosmic heroes try to stop him, but the evil Thor is still able to thrash the Surfer and send him plummeting through space.
Sure, you can argue that some of the many fights end in a draw or with a narrow victory for Odinson, but the sheer number of times the Surfer has been defeated by Thor earns him a spot on this list.
7. Hercules
Honestly, we're more surprised that there aren't more Marvel characters based on old mythology. Obviously you have Thor and his supporting cast, and then you've got the Olympians, a cast of characters based on Greek/Roman mythology. Of course, you can't do Greek mythology without the great hero, Hercules. The version that appeared in the pages of Thor is just about the spitting image of his mythological counterpart, with super strength and agility that has been shown to rival the Hulk.
Because the hero got his start in the Thor comics before going on into the wider universe, Hercules and the Thunderer have brawled more times than you can count. Many times the characters are evenly matched, but in a few cases Thor has completely dominated the fight. In Blood Oath, he was able to down the son of Zeus with a single bolt of lightning, and on multiple occasions Thor has ended the fight by completely knocking Hercules out.
6. Storm
In Thor: Ragnarok, the God of Thunder and the Hulk face off after he is captured and forced into competing in the Grandmaster's Contest of Champions. Though it didn't happen exactly as it does in the current film, the Contest of Champions is nothing new to the world of Marvel. In 1982, the publisher's greatest heroes were forced to fight each other in a limited comic series of the same name.
In 1999, a second Contest of Champions was held as a ruse by the Brood Queen to absorb all the powers of the universe's strongest heroes. One of the marquee match-ups of the second contest was Thor vs. the mutant and future Queen of Wakanda, Storm. It was about as one-sided as you could possibly get; Storm is able to dodge a single attack by Thor's hammer before trying to engage him in hand-to-hand combat.
Instead of an epic struggle, Thor kisses Storm, literally taking her breath away in the process and rendering her unconscious. X-Men fans definitely weren't too happy about that one!
5. Himself
In the epic comic book arc Civil War heroes are pitted against one another after a terrible incident forces the Government to start registering all super-powered vigilantes. However, Thor Odinson is nowhere to be found during the course of the story. In an act of uncharacteristic evil brilliance, Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and Reed Richards use a lock of Thor's hair to create a cybernetic clone. The clone later goes out of control, killing Team Cap's Black Goliath and going rogue.
In Seige, the clone defeats the Warriors Three and kills Bill Foster before coming face to face with the God of Thunder himself. The clone goes on and on about how powerful he is and how he is the last "true" son of Asgard. He then calls the real Thor a "pretender," which goes over about as well as you'd think. Thor summons all the power he can muster and uses it to smash the cyborg into smithereens without breaking so much as a sweat.
4. Union Jack
If the MCU ever wanted to make another cool period piece film, The Invaders would be the perfect way to go. The title saw the likes of Captain America, Bucky Barnes, the original Human Torch, his sidekick Toro, and Namor the Submariner as they fought against the Axis Powers in World War II. Occasionally the British hero Union Jack would join forces with the team in their plight against evil.
In The Invaders #33, the superhero team discovered that the Thor had allied himself Adolf Hitler and had been sent by the Nazi leader to kill Joseph Stalin. Thor handily defeats the other heroes in their first encounter while they get the Russian leader to safety. In their second encounter, Thor summons a giant bold of lightning right down onto Stalin's head, seemingly killing him. However, the Invaders inspect the body and find that the God of Thunder had really just completely beat down Union Jack.
3. Wonder Man
Wonder Man is a classic Avengers character who often gets overlooked when people talk about the team nowadays. He was never as ingrained into the team as Cap or Hawkeye, but he appeared in some of the greatest Avengers tales ever told.
Simon Williams was a business man whose company was constantly living under the shadow of Stark Industries. He was recruited by Baron Zemo to undergo an experiment with an ionic ray so that he could get great powers and get revenge on Tony Stark. However, after his initial encounter with the Avengers, Wonder Man was turned to the side of good.
One of Wonder Man's claims to fame was that his fists were "stronger than Thor's hammer," and the character didn't fail to deliver in his bouts with the God of Thunder; Wonder Man vs Thor is one of those fights that was an instant classic when it happened back in 1964. A decade or two later, the two had another memorable fight where Thor was able to spin his hammer, collecting Wonder Man's energy blasts, and then threw all of his foe's raw power back at him.
2. Namor
The chances of Namor the Submariner ever appearing in the MCU are fairly slim. Although he is one of Marvel's oldest characters, his movie rights have been caught up at other studios for the last two decades. Right now his rights are in limbo, with Marvel technically owning the rights but parts of the old contracts preventing them from including him in the MCU. Even if they wanted to, Namor is so interconnected with the Fantastic Four that it may just be wise to hold out for FOX to release their rights as well!
Namor is the king of the ocean, but against Thor even the sea doesn't give him much of an advantage. In the aforementioned issue of The Invaders, Thor takes out the Submariner with a single blow from his fist. In fact, on multiple occasions Thor is able to take out this guy with just a punch or two! Even under the water, where Namor seems like he should have an advantage, Thor is able to defeat Namor thanks to Mjolnir.
1. Captain Marvel (aka Shazam!)
In 1996, the comic book industry was in trouble. The Death of Superman story arc made fans jaded with comic books in general, and the "edgy" redesigns of beloved characters to make them more appealing was met with eye rolls and a diminishing audience. In an effort to revitalize sales, the two publishers set aside their differences to publish DC vs. Marvel, a mini-series that saw both company's icons going up against each other.
In the story, the Mighty Thor came to blows with the power of Shazam itself, Captain Marvel. The fight was fairly evenly matched in the beginning, but Thor was able to gain the upper hand and beat up on Marvel enough that he was forced to tun back into Billy Batson.
The young boy is able to recharge his powers to high enough levels to go for round two, but Mjolnir is able to intercept the power-carrying lightning bolt before it reaches him. The resulting shockwave from the impact knocks Batson down, putting Captain Marvel down for the count.
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What do you think of our list? Is there any other hero you've seen Thor completely beat down? Let us know in the comments!
