Thanos

It’s fair to say that the Mad Titan known as Thanos would stomp a mud-hole in Superman with consummate ease.

The villain could quite easily prepare a plot to defeat the Man of Steel effortlessly, or he could wield an item of power like the Infinity Gauntlet to blink him out of existence, but the fact is he doesn’t need either of those scenarios – his baseline power is more than enough to destroy the Kryptonian hero.

 

The only area in which Thanos is inferior to Superman is travel speed. That being said, his reflexes are such that he can block and dodge attacks from a speeding Silver Surfer – and we’ve already discussed how fast he is – so he would have no problem anticipating and reacting to an attack from Superman.

But the fact is Superman couldn’t hurt Thanos anyway – his durability is far too impressive. The Mad Titan has completely shrugged off an all-out assault from the Silver Surfer (on the rare occasion that the Herald of Galactus did manage to land a hit on him) and essentially laughed it off. Bearing in mind the Silver Surfer has destroyed planets, Superman wouldn’t scratch Thanos with his best shot.

In terms of physical strength, Thanos’ dwarfs Superman’s. He is able to casually take on Hulk, Thing, Hercules and the Thor at the same time and manhandle them – cockily remarking on their lack of collective strength.

Even with all of that in mind, it is his esoteric abilities that truly put him out of Superman’s league. For starters, he has telepathy at a level that allows him to hold off mind attacks from the likes of Moondragon, he can teleport, he can fire powerful energy blasts, he has the ability to manipulate various types of energy and he can transmute matter – meaning he could turn Superman into a teapot if he wanted.

 

What do you think? Are you satisfied that Superman isn’t unbeatable? Which other characters from Marvel could beat him? Have your say below.