Top 20 Strongest Characters of All Time

“But Kratos killed, like, most of the Greek gods!” you say, “How can he be this low on the list?” In the “God of War” games, there’s no doubt that Kratos is superhumanly strong. Just look at this shot of him heroically not being squished between a Titan’s fingers. In fairness, that is JUST the fingertips. When Kratos gets around to actually killing a Titan, his go-to tactic is climbing around and stabbing them in the squishy parts. That says less “direct match for a god” and more “very ambitious mosquito.” Still, there aren’t a lot of mosquitos that can toss giant logs, punch a dude through a forest or do THIS to the Hydra. There’s no question that Kratos has earned his spot in the super strength hall of fame.

If this was a durability list, Luke Cage would be much closer to the top. His famously impenetrable skin can turn away knives, bullets, and even hits from Iron Man or Thor. It also gives him a level of strength that puts your average bodybuilder to shame. He may not be the strongest person on this list, but Luke occupies a spot on the scale where you get to do all the cool stuff like wreck construction equipment and rip through steel chains with your bare hands. Not enough? How about this? He once carried a semi truck seven blocks on his shoulders because it wouldn’t start.

#18: Mr. Incredible

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When Mr. Incredible needs a training montage, regular weights just won’t cut it. Apparently, he heads down to the local railyard and starts bench pressing train cars. That’s a lot of weight to lift just to make a pun on “training.” And for Mister Incredible, that’s just a warm up. In “The Incredibles,” we see him wrestle giant robots, change the course of battleship-sized vehicles and wreck tons of household objects just by being absent-minded. His maximum strength isn’t quite enough to get out of Syndrome’s traps without help, and he’s not quite as unstoppable as other heroes on our list, but Mister Incredible is still a solid contender for strongest man in his world.

#17: Spider-Man

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After being bitten by a radioactive spider, scrawny teenager Peter Parker transforms into an absolute tank overnight. Sure, he continues to be plagued by teenage problems, but now he can lift a car! Actually, he can lift a lot more. We’ve seen Spider-Man catch falling cable cars, stop runaway trains — even lift the weight of entire collapsing buildings! According to his files, he supposedly has the proportional strength of a spider. But when he’s under pressure and lives are on the line, Spider-Man has proven himself capable of much, much more. Whether it's his adrenal glands working overtime or just great power coming with all that responsibility, Spider-Man stacks up somewhere in the middleweights even in a universe full of superhumans.

#16: Mario

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So what’s the big deal? Mario can punch through a brick block. Real life martial artists can do that. But can they do it once every few seconds for as long as it takes to beat the game? Now THAT’s special. Then again, we’re not ranking characters on endurance. What else you got, Mario? Oh… you can also lift a castle and dropkick it like it’s nothing? And swing a truck-sized turtle around by the tail? You can also launch asteroids like cannon balls?! Okay, point taken. Mario is the ultimate example of how looks can be deceiving. He might look like an out-of-shape plumber, but you should never underestimate someone who can drive stakes into the ground with nothing but a well-placed butt-stomp.

Okay, seriously did someone mix a bunch of prank entries into this list? First Mario, now this literal child? What, does he just say a magic word and then suddenly he can lift a bus? Okay, yes, apparently that is exactly what happens. Originally called Captain Marvel, these days he goes by Shazam to avoid confusion with certain other heroes. Billy Batson’s superhero identity can punch through mountains, rip through steel and -- maybe most impressive of all -- fight Superman to a standstill. To be fair, Superman is vulnerable to magic, so that might be what gives Shazam the edge. But anyone who can take on the Man of Steel is a force to be reckoned with.

#14: All Might

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By the time we first meet All Might on “My Hero Academia,” he’s getting old. Injured and infirm, he can’t use his powers for very long stretches of time without making things even worse. So how strong can he possibly be? Well, there’s the time he punched a monster into space despite its shock-absorption powers. Or the time he hit a guy so hard it changed the air pressure and made it rain. But that’s not even the half of it. All Might is so jacked he can use his muscular strength as a ranged weapon. The sheer wind from his punches and kicks can topple enemies, level buildings and even cause tornadoes. If he wasn’t such a good guy, All Might would be a one-man natural disaster.

#13: The Thing

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If All Might is a human hurricane, then Ben Grimm must be a landslide. No, that’s not just a pun on his craggy countenance, he’s got all the power to back it up and more. Consistently shown as just below the Hulk in raw physical force, “Fantastic Four”’s The Thing has managed to clobber the Jade Giant on one or two occasions - but just barely. Even so, he’s lifted skyscrapers, oil rigs and even replaced the cables of suspension bridges all by his lonesome. And whether it’s all that weight training or the ongoing effects of his cosmic-ray-induced mutation, he seems to be getting stronger over time. Who knows, maybe the Hulk has some competition.

#12: Godzilla

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Godzilla earns a spot on this list based on size alone. He’s big enough to topple skyscrapers like jenga towers. When he gets into a fist fight, cities are left in ruin. When he lifts and throws another Kaiju his size, or you know… simply takes a 90,000 ton step, he’s pulling off a feat to equal any of the Thing’s major achievements. So why is Godzilla on the list and not some other kaiju? Why not the much larger King Ghidora? First, Godzilla gets stronger and stronger the more radiation he soaks up, meaning he’s got a higher cap on his power. But more importantly, Godzilla has fought King Ghidora. Over and over. And every single time, he kicks Ghidora’s gold-scaled butt.

#11: The Prince of All Cosmos

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Okay, seriously. Enough with the joke entries. That’s clearly just a big ball of stuff rolling around by itself. Wait, what? You’re kidding! That little guy is the muscle behind this ever growing ball of objects? Well, despite often being depicted as only a few inches tall, “Katamari”’s Prince of All Cosmos clearly has some serious power. He starts small, rolling up matchsticks and pencils into his Katamari. But once he gets going, he’ll pick up people, buildings or even kaiju. He’s been known to incorporate small landmasses into his katamari. Before long, he’s pushing around a sphere that’s hundreds of feet in diameter. It’s truly a sight to behold! Not bad for a little guy.

You can probably tell from the title “Asura’s Wrath” that the title character is not what you’d call a “chill” guy. In fact, as the game goes on, he just gets madder and madder. And as he does, he gets stronger. As Asura cycles through various power-up forms, he goes from strong enough to break mountains, to punching asteroid-sized monsters in half... to punching a being roughly the size of the earth so hard it literally explodes. And that’s not even his final form. The only reason he’s not higher up this list is that his more powerful forms might be violating the “no omnipotence” rule.

Hold on. Wasn’t there a rule about mythological characters? Well, yes. But there’s a loophole. It’s not mythology when it’s the comic book version of the character. Besides, the Greek myth version of Hercules arguably never came close to the feats of the Marvel version. This god and hero has towed the island of Manhattan across New York Bay and broken the Silver Surfer’s supposedly unbreakable board. Maybe most impressively, he’s held up the heavens themselves to give Atlas a break. How heavy is the sky? We’re not sure if there’s an appropriate unit of measurement, but it’s safe to say it’s pretty impressive.

#8: Wonder Woman

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Wonder Woman’s strength hasn’t exactly been consistent. Since the ‘40s she’s been depicted as moving islands with ease… or having trouble lifting a tank. But when she’s strong, boy is she ever strong. She has overpowered the whole Justice League (admittedly minus Superman), pulled Martian Manhunter out of a black hole and stood her ground against Doomsday, the monster that killed Superman. Wonder Woman even single-handedly towed the moon out of orbit without even breaking a sweat. The only consistent answer to how strong she is seems to be “almost as strong as Superman.” Like Shazam, she’s beaten him in more than one fight, making up for the difference in raw power with her magic weapons and superior training.

You might think having Thanos on this list is cheating. His most impressive feats are done with the help of the Infinity Gauntlet, which clearly lets him manipulate the fabric of reality. But even without the Gauntlet, Thanos gives Marvel’s mightiest heroes a run for their money. Case in point, he’s consistently able to go toe-to-toe with the Hulk, which is sort of the gold standard for being considered one of Marvel’s top tier in strength. He’s by no means stronger than Marvel’s mighty rage-beast, but he can hold his own. Of course, he has the advantage of fighting intelligently against Hulk’s berserker style, which does sometimes translate to a win. Either way, Thanos has more than earned his place.

The Mighty Thor. They couldn’t call him that if it wasn’t true. And there’s more to Thor than a fancy hammer and a bunch of lightning. His official ranking in the Marvel Universe puts him just below the Hulk in pure lifting power. And while he might disagree about who’s the strongest Avenger, number 2 is nothing to sneeze at. Even without the help of Mjolnir, he’s held shattered moons together, thrown around a serpent the size of the Earth and resisted the gravity of a neutron star. When he arm-wrestled his rival, Hercules, the sheer force of their struggle was enough to tear apart a mountain plateau. Honestly, at this point, “mighty” may be underselling it.

Unicron is a planet in the “Transformers” universe. Also, he’s a robot. What does he eat? Other planets. And he does it by dragging them into his orbit and shredding them up with his terrifying giant robo-teeth. Much like Godzilla, Unicron would’ve made this list even if he did little else. Everytime he lifts a hand to scratch his nose, he’s moving more strength than Kratos and Spider-Man put together. Ripping chunks out of a planet is his equivalent of eating a sandwich. With Unicron, we’ve entered a part of the list full of characters who are so strong it’s hard for us mere mortals to even comprehend the amount of power they can put out.

#4: The Incredible Hulk

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There’s a reason we keep comparing the other characters on this list to the Hulk. He sets a bar for strength that few heroes can ever hope to live up to. She-Hulk, the Thing, Abomination. They all wish they could get on Banner’s level. So how does he do it? Simple. The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets. And he gets… PRETTY mad. We’ve seen the Hulk throw temper tantrums that single-handedly beat down every other marvel hero -- sometimes all at once. He’s beaten up everyone from Thor to Fin Fang Foom to Galactus himself. At his peak, “Worldbreaker Hulk” causes earthquakes when he walks and shatters planets with the sheer force of his fists.

Now some people are going to be mad that Saitama’s not number one on this list. Because as the name “One-Punch Man” says, he defeats any opponent he faces with one punch. How can that not shoot him straight to the top? But in terms of raw strength, Saitama hasn’t technically proven himself the equal of even the Hulk. No, it’s not Saitama’s feats of strength that get him this high on the list. It’s the way he does them. So casually. Like he’s not even trying that hard as he stops an asteroid or beats up a seemingly unstoppable monster. Makes you wonder. If this is him when he’s bored… what would putting in actual effort look like?

The “Dragon Ball Z” universe is full of overpowered characters like Zeno (zenno) and Beerus (BEER-iss), but as actual gods, their powers violate the omnipotence rule. Goku, on the other hand, is to anime what the Hulk is to superheroes. He’s the yardstick by which all other examples of strength are compared. Sure, sometimes he meets an enemy stronger than him - but only until he screams enough to multiply his power with the next Super Saiyan level. It’s hard to say exactly how strong that makes him since he’s usually fighting enemies strong enough to balance it out. But based on the sheer number of unfathomably powerful characters he’s beaten — not to mention the planets they’ve blown up along the way — it’s safe to say he belongs near the top.

#1: Superman

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This is going to be controversial. The argument over whether Superman is stronger than Goku has been raging for years. To be fair, Superman as we know him today probably isn’t. He can still move continents and push planets, sure. But before DC Comics nerfed him and his cousin, Supergirl, with the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman was in a totally different league. Here he is towing a dozen earth-sized planets on a chain as a teenager. That alone matches any character on this list, but there’s more. In Action Comics #273, he destroyed an entire solar system in seconds — by sneezing. Good thing he picked an empty corner of space! Pulling off a feat like that by accident is exactly how you become the strongest character of all time.