Cavill Superman (Zod and Cronies)

The current big screen Superman is, of course, Henry Cavill. He appeared as the Kryptonian superhero in 2013’s Man of Steel, and will be reprising the role (in the month of this article being published, no less) in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Like Christopher Reeve before him, Cavill faced a Kryptonian threat in the form of General Zod – this time played by Michael Shannon – and this version brought along more cronies than Terence Stamp’s version of the character (too many to name, quite frankly).

This meant that Cavill’s Supes was terribly outmatched. He faced a small army of Zod’s followers, all of whom were far more experienced as warriors than he was – especially Zod himself. Superman was able to win by breaking his own rule and killing Zod by snapping his neck before he could hurt any more innocent civilians.

Let’s get back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for this next entry.

Thor (Kurse)

Thor – played by Chris Hemsworth – has now appeared in four Marvel Cinematic Universe movies since making his first appearance in 2011’s Thor.

More often than not, he has faced villains who really aren’t much of a physical threat to him – Loki, the Frost Giants, the Chitauri, Ultron, and Ultron’s drones, for example – but it was very different in 2013’s Thor: The Dark World.

The main villain was Christopher Eccleston’s Malekith, but we’re not even referring to him here. Kurse – played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje – was totally dominant over Thor, tossing the Asgardian around with ease and completely out-powering him. While he might not have had the versatile range of powers that Thor possesses, his vastly superior physicality was more than enough to ensure he would have beaten the hero had Loki not intervened with a sneak attack from behind.

And now for a completely different kind of Marvel hero.

Blade (All of Them)

Changing the tone somewhat, we now come to Blade. Wesley Snipes starred as the vampire hunter, who is half vampire himself, in a trilogy of movies between 1998 and 2004.

The movies were all filled with profanity and gore and featured a trio of vicious villains – all of whom vastly outpowered the titular anti-hero on paper.

Deacon Frost became La Magra – the blood god – and he was faster, stronger, and more durable than Blade (he was essentially impossible to hurt). Jared Nomak was a super-vampire, whose stats dwarfed Blade’s in every sense. And Drake – the movie world’s version of Dracula – was the oldest vampire in the world, whose physical attributes and experience were vastly superior to Blade’s. However, via various plot devices, the vampire hunter defeated all three of them.

Now let’s move on to a less “adult” Marvel hero.