strength levels!

[herodad1]

hey i wanted to start a thread about some characters new strength levels or what strength level would you give them if you could change them.given i'm a marvel fan from back in the late very late 60's.(my first comic was a spider-man comic where he teamed up with the torch to fight the lizard).too me i like hulk,thor,herc,silver surfer all being 100 ton range.that hasnt changed.now i think thing,luke cage,she-hulk,and colossus have all jumped up somehow?i'm sure its the writers but whats your thoughts on strength levels?i always thought 10 tons was too much for spider-man.cap should be able to press at least 1000 lbs.i liked thing at 85 tons,luke should be more like 10 tons(not 3),i like colossus around 70-75 tons,and she-hulk should stay at 70 tons.

[steamteck]

I'm with you. I always preferred Spider-Man with ( gasp) the proportional strength of a spider. Not 3x the proportional strength of a ant. Luke cage didn't really start out that strong either but kept creeping up.I really hate power level creep
However the heavy hitters never really had those strength levels given in the Marvel universe guide. They way underestimated their feats of strength already published when they wrote it up. That said, consistency would be nice and some actual honest assessment of their power related to published feats and stay consistent with their abilities. I don't ever expect that though especially from modern writers.
The power levels in the guide would actually make a pretty good guide for a re imagined version of the Marvel universe. That sort of lower level power and consistency would add to the feeling of plausibility and "realism" ( not modern naturalism thank you).

[captmorgan72]

Yep, I'm with you guys too. Isn't it irritating when their strength levels keep jumping up for no real reason other than enhancing a story? Although I hear that Spidey is back to his old power level thanks to the deal MJ made with Mephisto.

[stumpy]

It does seem like strength levels tend to creep up as time goes on. However, I wouldn't have put Silver Surfer in the same class as the Hulk or even the Thing. Maybe I've missed some of his feats...

Anyway, this earlier thread may be useful.

[GrizzlyBearTalon]

It does seem like strength levels tend to creep up as time goes on. However, I wouldn't have put Silver Surfer in the same class as the Hulk or even the Thing. Maybe I've missed some of his feats...

Anyway, this earlier thread may be useful.

Are you saying Silver Surfer is above or below them? Just curious.

The thing about strength levels is that for some they do naturally get stronger, after all they do work out and if they never got any results from it why would they be bothering with it? Now for some like the mentions of Spider-man & Luke Cage they have progressed far far beyond what would seem plausible in their strength advancement. Others though are even more hard to discern because some characters merely need to think about being stronger and they become so, such as Silver Surfer empowering his muscles with even more cosmic power or Gladiator whose strength is apparently psionically reinforced, making it hard to really set a standard for them.

This also takes into account a perfect world where you never have the characters change or evolve from time to time, though that is pretty much true for most comics really. Few changes ever stick and everything almost inevitably heads back to the status quo, some things may have impact for years but the character itself rarely is completely changed or reshaped. So would you be constantly updating you strength charts to reflect changes that may last only a few issues so they stay accurate? Or would you just make one chart as you have mentioned since everything will revert to it eventually anyways?

[tommyboy]

Aren't there two sides to working out?
One where up to a certain point you can become stronger, and another whereby if muscle and bone aren't used and stressed they atrophy and become weaker (albeit slowly, but it still happens)?
So the point of working out if you aren't constantly getting stronger is that you aren't constantly getting weaker.
Unless I've misunderstood several things.

[herodad1]

yeah,silver surfer empowers himself to 100 class strength or beyond.the only characters i ever see working out is the thing and colossus but colossus trains in the danger room and only sometimes with hydraulic presses. mostly the things been shown with many different workout equipment.to me spider-man should be around 2-4 tons at the most.how about ironman?as close to his body as his armor is i'd put him at 10-12 tons.with all his diff. capabilities he doesnt need to be crazy superstrong.i know he can boost his strength but with that armor i dont see him jumping into the 100 class range.i can see it with his hulk-buster suit.i can see wonderman at 95 ton class.as far as working out they might not train to get stronger but lift/train to maintain their strength levels.stay in shape and be healthy.

[JeyNyce]

It looks like they staying with the old strength levels from the old guide to the Marvel Universe

http://www.marveldirectory.com/strengthlevels/index.htm

[zuludelta]

Only a tad related to the topic, but speaking of superheroes working out, I thought it was particularly neat when it was revealed that She-Hulk's strength increased exponentially due to her working out in "human" form, which allowed her to take on the Champion of the Universe in a one-on-one bout (the comic book logic being that it's a lot easier for human-form Jennifer Walters to put on muscle than it is for She-Hulk Jennifer Walters).

[GrizzlyBearTalon]

Only a tad related to the topic, but speaking of superheroes working out, I thought it was particularly neat when it was revealed that She-Hulk's strength increased exponentially due to her working out in "human" form, which allowed her to take on the Champion of the Universe in a one-on-one bout (the comic book logic being that it's a lot easier for human-form Jennifer Walters to put on muscle than it is for She-Hulk Jennifer Walters).

I got a big kick out of that actually as well! Gosh I loved Dan Slott's work on that series.