Silver Age characters

[spydermann93]

Hello,

I'd like to ask everybody how strong is the Silver Age Hulk and Thor?

I know that Thor was created to be more powerful than the Hulk and stronger than the entire Fantastic Four, but compared to their Bronze Age and even Modern-day cousins, how strong are these two?

What I get from my research is that the Silver Age Thor was actually stronger, in comparison to Silver Age Hulk, than Modern-day Thor is to Hulk, nowadays.

For a specific year range, I am looking at these two from 1956-1969 for their feats and accomplishments, but nearly everything I find on them is based on their modern entities.

[BentonGrey]

That's an interesting question Spyder.  There was a fight between those two back in the Silver Age, and I seem to remember Thor getting the worst of it.  I definitely remember the Hulk beating the pants off of the Thing, though he put up and incredible fight, but I don't remember the Thor fight as well.  I think that Thor is stronger to start with, but Hulk can get stronger as the fight goes on.  Thor has an upper limit, after all.

Ahh!  Going to my books, it seems Thor and Hulk tangled one on one in Journey into Mystery 112.  Thor gets the worst of it, and Hulk appears stronger.  Thor fights smarter, though, and the match ends in a stalemate, as those type of contests generally did.

[spydermann93]

Would you say that Thor's "peak" was during the Silver (perhaps even the Bronze) Age of comics? I have no idea if Silver Age Thor is stronger than his later incarnations (aside from God-Thor and stuff like that), much like how Silver Age Superman was far stronger than the New 52 or even All-Star Superman.

The same with the Hulk. I don't know if he has just been getting stronger as time goes on (his base, I mean); if he's been getting weaker (though in comparison to other Marvel characters, he's still "the strongest"); or if he's been the same, and everybody else just fluctuates.

[BentonGrey]

No, actually, Thor, and the entire Marvel U, as a matter of fact, saw pretty significant power creep over the 60's, 70's, and 80's.  It slowed in the 90's, but you still saw it.  I remember very vividly early issues of the Fantastic Four and Thor where the heroes did things that would be utter child's play to the characters in modern comics, and yet these actions were hugely impressive at the time.  A lot of this has to do with what the audiences were familiar with and what they expected.  Over time, writers wanted to top themselves, and power levels crept up. 

Hulk has definitely increased MASSIVELY over the last forty years.  He was strong, but by the 2000s he was practically Silver Age Superman strong, at least in certain situations.

[spydermann93]

Thanks for your insight, Benton!

It is very much helpful

[daglob]

Most comics characters seem to be as strong as the writer thinks they need to be for the purposes of the story. And the writer of The JLA might have other ideas than the writer of Superman (I seem to remember Supes and Wonder Woman having some difficulty in tying the barrel of an atomic cannon in a knot once).

I think in the Avengers/Defenders War Thor and The Hulk fought LITERALLY  to a standstill.

But The Hulk wasn't all that angry at the time...

And remember that the Silver Age Superman could move planets...

[Helix]

The thing that has always bothered me is that if Thor's punch is nearly as strong as or equal to a punch from the Hulk...then a hammer strike/throw from Thor should be exponentially more powerful. Otherwise, what's the point of the hammer, right? There's no way that a hammer strike is only equal to a punch.

[BentonGrey]

That's true, Helix, and it's usually portrayed as Thor's blows with Mjolnir being much more powerful.

[Helix]

To put it in perspective, even if my punch barely fazed somebody, hitting them with an unspectacular, cheap, household hammer is exponentially more powerful and could easily kill them...regardless of how big and strong they are. So by comparison, especially given the comparable strength of the two, a hammer strike from Thor ought to cave Hulk's face in.

[BentonGrey]

Haha, I suppose there are probably diminishing returns after a while, but I see the point.  However, Hulk is a pretty unique case, as he's spectacularly hard to defeat just by beating on him.  If you hit him super hard, he gets super mad, etc.  As far as the Thor/Hulk thing goes, I think most of the time they've rumbled Thor has used his hammer, and when he hasn't, he had specifically been granted the hammer's power for that fight by Odin.  So, it's likely that his regular punches don't do nearly as much damage to Hulk as his hammer does.  I think the Avengers movie actually portrayed this pretty well.

[Jimaras8]

Thor is more powerful than hulk and not only in terms of physical prowess. Thor is a combination of and Elder God and Asgardian combining supreme durability and Life-Force  also known as the God-Force. The godly energies that fuel all of Thor's godlike powers. Thor's immortal life-force is more powerful than the mystical properties of Mjolnir.[32] Thor's Life-force is so strong that the Destroyer using all of its powers could not destroy it.[35] His Life-force allows him to be the most powerful being on the planet[36] and one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Unlike many other deities, Thor's unique Life-force allows him to have full access to all of his powers regardless of what realm he enters. This is taken form Marvel wikia. So i guess Hulk is stronger because he can get unlimited rage so unlimited strength but eventually he would be defeated by fatigue something Thor doesnt experience. Oh, dont forget that Thor can access Odin-force maiking him even more powerful.

[Helix]

That's interesting. Thanks for sharing that, Jimaras.

Aside from that, there is no infinite source of rage. I dare say that rage escalates, but has to plateau somewhere. So the Hulk does have a limit.

In my opinion, Thor would have an advantage in terms of fatigue as well. I would be hard pressed to believe that gods get tired. I understand that trying to imagine a tired Hulk would be difficult as well, but after a certain amount of time, the Hulk would eventually get tired.

And now that I think about it - what role the dehydration factor play? Do gods sweat? Do Hulks sweat? <shrug>

At any rate, I still say that after ten or twelve whacks to the head with that hammer, I think Hulk would be a little wobbly in the noggin.