Several heroes can be argued to be the “Strongest Avenger” in Marvel Comics, and one of the top contenders is definitely Thor. As one can imagine from a literal God of Thunder, Thor is an immortal being capable of feats of mythical proportions. He acts as the protector not just of Asgard, but of all the Nine Realms. His mighty hammer, Mjolnir, grants him mastery over the weather on a global and even universal scale. Thor is also strong enough to reduce planets to smithereens and fast enough to traverse the universe in seconds. With all this power, Thor has performed some truly outlandish feats that definitely prove his godly status.
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For thousands of years, Thor has been one of the Marvel Universe’s mightiest heroes and has defeated legions of monsters, supervillains, and dark gods. As the strongest of the Asgardians, Thor is capable of shaking all the Nine Realms with his raw power.
10) Threw a Planet Out of Orbit in an Arm-Wrestling Match
Thor and Hercules are among the strongest heroes in world mythology, and their head to head competitiveness often leads to catastrophic results. The two legendary heroes have engaged in countless contests of strength, but this was their most climactic. In a short story featured in Thor #400, the God of Thunder and the Prince of Power decide to have an arm-wrestling match on a far-off planet to determine which of them is mightier. Once they lock arms and their contest begins, the power that they generate makes planet itself begin to shake. Even as the massive storms emerge and the plateau the pair is standing on crumbles, neither relinquishes his grasp. The conflicting forces soon proved so great that they knocked the entire planet out of its orbit. While we never see the victor of this competition, the fact that Thor aided in moving a celestial body out of orbit is no small feat.
9) Lifted the Midgard Serpent
Jormungand, aka the Midgard Serpent, is the son of Loki and one of Thor’s biggest and strongest enemies. In Thor #327, the war god Tyr unleashes the Midgard Serpent upon the Earth. As his name suggests, the Midgard Serpent is so incredibly massive that he can coil his body around the Earth no less than two times, making him tens of thousands of miles long and hundreds of miles wide. At such a size, this snake would have to weigh at least several trillion tons. Once it envelops the Earth, the Midgard Serpent begins to constrict and crush the planet, threatening to destroy it. Like a mighty fisherman, Thor uses a boat in space and a gigantic fishing line to catch the Midgard Serpent and save the Earth. When the Serpent snatches onto the fishing line’s bait, Thor pulls with all his strength and manages to drag the beast off the Earth.
8) Destroyed a Planet
Thor is one of the last heroes you want to see lose his control because of the destruction he can cause. In Thor: Blood and Thunder #1, the God of Thunder succumbs to Warriors Madness, where he gains a tenfold power boost but at the expense of his sanity. In this manic state, Thor finds himself under the manipulation of the Dark Valkyrie, who urges him to destroy Asgard and the universe. When Lady Sif tries and fails to bring Thor back to his senses, Beta Ray Bill charges in and attacks his brainwashed friend. With the extra strength that Warrior Madness gives him, Thor effortlessly defeats the horse-faced alien. Thor finishes the battle by striking Beta Ray Bill so hard with his hammer that it causes the planet that they’re fighting on to explode into a million pieces. Thor then flies off to continue his universal rampage, leaving his friend clinging by a thread to his life.
7) Overpowered the Weight of a Neutron Star
Like any mythological hero, Thor has gone on his fair share of quests where he must perform seemingly impossible feats of strength. One such quest occurred in Thor #281. When using Mjolnir to travel back in time, he accidentally ends up in Limbo and loses his hammer. There, Thor meets the Space Phantom, who tells the god that his hammer could be found on the latter’s homeworld. Thor quickly finds that getting Mjolnir back will be harder than he thought, as the populace of the Space Phantom’s homeworld attacks the God of Thunder with all their firepower. As Thor fights legions of alien soldiers, he finds himself at the center of an exploding Graviton Bomb. The bomb causes Thor to be enveloped by the gravity of a neutron star, whose gravity field is comparable to that of over 200 billion Earths. Even as the gravity weighs him down and debris piles on top of him, it only takes mere moments for Thor to break free and resume his search for Mjolnir.
6) Absorbs a Universe-Killing Weapon
In Thor #407, the God of Thunder travels to the Black Galaxy, a living universe, to rescue Hercules and High Evolutionary, who have become one with this cosmic entity. As Thor tries to unweave the pair from the living universe, the alien race known as the Rigellians deem the Black Galaxy to be too dangerous to exist. To kill the Black Galaxy and all who reside within it, the Rigellians fire a Null Bomb. When Thor catches wind of their scheme, he works quickly to prevent the bomb from destroying the Black Galaxy and his friends. After traversing the Black Galaxy, Thor uses Mjolnir to absorb the full power of the Null Bomb, rendering it harmless. Thor then releases this universe-destroying energy into the far reaches of space as a God Blast. After traveling countless light-years, the energy reaches a dying star, which it immediately reignites. Only Thor could use the energy of a doomsday weapon to bring new life to the universe.
5) Cracked a Celestial’s Skull
The Asgardians are far from the only deities in the Marvel Universe. One of the other big cosmic races is the Celestials, who crafted the entire multiverse. In Thor #387, the God of Thunder finds himself protecting an alien planet, Panjoria, from the judgment of the Celestials. When Panjoria fails the trial laid out by Arishem the Judge, the Celestial Exitar the Exterminator arrives to purge the planet of the wicked. Exitar is among the most powerful of all Celestials, as he’s capable of effortlessly reducing planets to rubble. Nonetheless, Thor refuses to back down against this near omnipotent foe. Summoning all of his godly strength, Thor strikes the top of Exitar’s head with Mjolnir. The planet-shaking impact reduces surrounding mountains and cities to dust and leaves a giant crack in Exitar’s skull. Thor enters the crack. He then ties his strength-enhancing Belt of Power around Mjolnir and he unleashes a God Blast directly at Elixir’s brain. This immense force staggers him and causes the Celestial unimaginable pain.
4) Shattered a Root of Yggdrasil
The World Tree Yggdrasil is among the most important elements in the Marvel Multiverse. It serves as a cosmic pillar that governs destiny, with its branches and roots reaching into infinite universes. And in the one-shot story Thor: Man of War,the God of Thunder manages to damage this incomprehensible tree. Thousands of years ago, before he learned his lesson of humility by being banished to Earth, Thor would have routine temper tantrums of mythic proportions that would leave nothing but destruction in his wake. After a huge disagreement with Odin, Thor went on his most devastating rampage. To make Odin face him in combat, Thor caused destruction throughout the Nine Realms for an entire month. He fought countless armies, flooded parts of Earth, laid waste to Jotenheim, and battled the forces of Hel. However, Thor’s most devastating act occurred when he destroyed one of the roots of Yggdrasil. A single root is directly tied to a universe, making Thor’s feat catastrophic. Luckily, Thor eventually calmed down.
3) Knocked Out the Phoenix Force
There are few beings in the multiverse more powerful than the Phoenix Force. As the omnipotent personification of life, death, and rebirth, the Phoenix can eradicate and create entire universes with ease. In the storyline Avengers vs X-Men, the Phoenix Force once again starts heading towards Earth. While the X-Men want this multiversal being to arrive on Earth, the Avengers understandably didn’t fancy a doomsday-level threat to the planet. Meeting the Phoenix Force in space in Avengers vs X-Men #4, the Avengers are all defeated except for Thor. In a last-ditch effort, Thor throws Mjolnir with all his might at the entity. The impact is so devastating that it knocks the Phoenix unconscious. Temporarily fleeing, the Phoenix Force destroys and absorbs a nearby planet to heal itself from Thor’s strike. Although the Phoenix Force immediately comes back and defeats the God of Thunder, the fact that this multiversal entity needed a power boost to recover from one of Thor’s strikes speaks to the hero’s immense strength.
2) Defeated Mephisto in His Own Realm
Mephisto is the strongest demon in Marvel Comics. In fact, he has the power to engage in battles against cosmic entities like Galactus that can threaten the infinite multiverse. And when Mephisto is at his base in Hell, he’s practically unstoppable. That didn’t stop the God of Thunder from challenging Mephisto in Thor #205 after the demon lord attacked him and his friends. Thor fights his way through Mephisto’s seemingly endless hordes of the worst of humanity. Even when Mephisto causes Thor to endure more pain than he had ever felt in his thousands of years of existence, the God of Thunder perseveres. Thor eventually manages to overpower Mephisto and tosses the demon into a pool of lava. Before Mephisto could escape, Thor used his hammer to cause a cave-in and bury the Lord of Hell under piles of rock. Few beings in all of Marvel have managed to defeat Mephisto in his domain in a straightforward brawl, and Thor is among the mighty few.
1) Overpowered the Worldengine
If you thought Thor destroying a root of Yggdrasil was impressive, in Thor #494, the God of Thunder proves himself to be mightier than the entirety of the multiversal World Tree. In the storyline, the villain Price constructs the Worldengine, a colossal machine that latched onto and controlled Yggdrasil’s power. Although Price sought to manipulate fate and disrupt the cycle of Ragnarok, a malfunction of the Worldengine will force the World Tree to enact the Asgardian apocalypse right then and there. Despite being in a severely weakened state, Thor pushed against the Worldengine with all his might to halt the titanic machine and undo its tampering with fate. Ultimately, Thor manages to overpower the Worldengine, even as it was drawing from the World Tree its infinite weight and cosmic power. By pushing the World Tree back into place, Thor ensures that the preemptive Ragnarok is canceled. As noted previously, Yggdrasil controls all of time and fate, and has its roots and branches connected to an infinite number of universes. Thor literally managed to overpower both the multiverse and fate.
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