Franklin Richard is potentially (if not currently) the most powerful mutant in existence. Basically, he can alter reality with very little effort. He did, in fact, create an entire universe within the span of seconds in order to save the heroes sacrificing themselves to stop Onslaught.
A while back, Reed Richards (smart man that he is) realized that that was too much power for a 5 year old child to wield properly so he imposed mental blocks on Franklin. His powers have since manifested in a few ways including projecting a “dream self”, seeing the future, and limited reality altering (if you consider creating a universe “limited”.)
Those mental blocks may have come down a while back, but I don’t follow Fantastic Four like I used to, so someone else may be able to answer that better.
I’m not so sure about thast - at full power, Apocalypse barely can barely take out some of the better mutants. Magneto has killed him dead in a one-on-one fight in AoA, Cable did it in the ordinary Universe. In the past future that will not longer be, Stryfe took him apart, and later [earlier] beat him to pieces. Apoc is tough, sure, but his offensive abilities leave much to be desired. The Surfer is way too fast and powerful for Apoc to hurt at all.
While I agree that Silver Surfer in insanely powerful, even he can have a bad day. I seem to remember him barely beating the Carnage symbiote in Amazing Spider-Man. The detached symbiote got the drop on him and basically took him over. Anyone remember
The Carnage Cosmic?
Yeah that’s what I thought. It wasn’t a very good issue but it was an instance of the Surfer looking like a total pansy.
It’s the same logic that dictates Batman could take the JLA, in a fight.
The more popular you are a characther, the more likely you’ll always win against those insurmountable odds, especially if it’s your book the fight’s taking place in. Chances are, Spiderman will be much more popular than any of Galactus’s heralds or IM 2020 10 years down the road, which makes it unlikely they’d get as big as a push of beating up Spiderman.
In real life Spidey wouldn’t stand a chance against most of the people listed here. It’s just that the writers -well, I don’t want to say they lie but- they kind of “twist the truth” a little bit when a character is that popular. See Batman for further evidence of this.
White Lightning
I agree that if Doc. Strange were to fight aginst phoenix with no prepration time for him(he might be able to whip up some powerful spells that could do a great bit of damage if he had a few hours), he’d be obliterated.
However, what I was saying was that Doctor Strange is the greatest magic power user on earth, not that in a fight he would likely kick Phoenix’s ass,
As far as ingenuity and brainpower goes, I’d pick Doom over Richards any day. Reason? Doom’s studied magic (Reed hasn’t that I know of) and he’s nastier. He’d be quicker on the draw to whip up some weapon than Reed, and so would be better in a fight.
For one-time only power boost, how about the Absorbing Man when he touched Thor’s hammer? Or Quasar’s armbands? Wouldn’t that put him right up there in terms of power?
And I second Taskmaster in terms of being the best Earth based guy. Not in terms of power, but smarts and survival. Power is no good if you’re dead (except in the Marvel universe, where few really are dead).
Excellent post. My understanding of the Marvel Universe (which is fairly detailed up to, and including, 1996) suggests that the Living Tribunal is indeed the ultimate Marvel Power. The Beyonder has been emasculated as one half of a cosmic cube (resulting in all of his actions in the Secret Wars being viewed as one grand illusion).
As for the Silver Surfer…Thor beat him and beat him very badly in the early 90’s when Thor went on a rampage. SS used all of his powers and Thor basically annhilated him and would have killed him but for Adam Warlock (whom Thor then defeated).
Thor, imho, is consistently the most powerful mainstream Marvel hero. He has incredible strength (doubled by his belt when needed). An infinitely powerful hammer (he once stuned the most powerful Celestial with it) along with numerous other abilities (including the power of magnetism and resistence to energy and magic). Indeed, as he is several thousand years old he has a tremendous amount of experience in battle. Moreover, as he is supposed to inherit Odin’s throne (Ragnarok aside) he is progressively getting more powerful. He has fought every major Marvel hero and villian and either won or held his own. When he finally went berserk (an excellent run of issues) he defeated all of the Infinity watch, the Silver Surfer, Beta Ray Thor, the Destroyer, Gladiator, Fantastic Four, Excalibur and most of the Avengers. If it came to a sheer knock-down, drag-out fight to the death, Thor wins.
Check out Fantastic Four #55, which is reprinted in The Origins of Marvel Comics. The Silver Surfer reconstructs the Thing’s skycycle, which had just been destroyed in a battle with the SS. He also creates, apparently from air molecules, a bouquet of flowers for Alicia Masters. Therefore, he did have, at least in the early days, some ability to alter reality.
Also, Cisco, SS went hand to hand with the Thing in that issue, and remarked something like “Though your natural strength is almost beyond my comprehension…” At the battle’s end, Reed Richards tells the Surfer he looks tired, and SS admits the fight took a bit out of him.
What titles did these take place in? Do you have issue numbers. Not that I don’t believe you, I’m just surprised that this slipped past me somehow, I’d like to check all of this out. I’m rather surprised to hear that he “annihilated” the Surfer and equally dumbfounded that he had his way with the Destroyer. I know that the Destroyer killed him (quite literally) as recently as the late 90’s, maybe even '00.
FWIW, I have an issue of SS (Either 2nd or 3rd series) where SS beats Thor, and I believe he beat him once in the 1st series as well. Also, in the ‘What If…The Marvel Heroes Would Have Lost Atlantis Attacks’ I believe SS and Thor are the last men standing and Thor goes down first (could be wrong on that though. I would check if I had my stash with me but sadly, I don’t.)
