Who Wins In A Fight: Superman Or Thor? Looper Readers Decide
How would the Last Son of Krypton fare against the Asgardian God of Thunder? Our readers tackled one of the most complicated Marvel vs. DC debates in comic book history and came to a predictable majority conclusion.
As a passionate discussion in the comments section of a recent post on Looper's official Facebook page reveals, our readers overwhelmingly believe Superman would demolish Thor if the two ever cross paths. "Superman wins easily, especially the original Superman before his powers got nerfed," read one of the hundreds of comments supporting the Man of Steel. "Not a doubt Superman ... is the strongest superhero." Another echoed, "Superman wins; heroic brutality!!"
Some tried to distinguish the characters' various comic book iterations and their on-screen counterparts, played by Chris Hemsworth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Henry Cavill in Zack Snyder's DC Extended Universe. "MCU Thor vs Snyderverse Superman wouldn't be much of a fight," opined a user, who lamented the former's film portrayal and characterized him as a "frat boy." They continued, "Comic Thor ... that's a different story ... He has the speed to compare. And the strength. Plus he respawns. And has magical enchanted clothing and weapons to buff his already incredible strength." This user brings up an interesting point about how Thor's magic could potentially alter this matchup's outcome.
Could Thor exploit one of Superman's few weaknesses?
"I would argue this would be an easily matched fight physically," acknowledged one user. "It would be [the] mentality that determined the winner. So with that I'd go with Thor. Not to mention Superman is vulnerable to magic and magic wielded relics. So [Thor's] hammer is his greatest asset against [Superman]."
As a number of other users from the minority view smartly pointed out, almost every iteration of Thor has something in common: their powers and weapons are magic. Though Superman may at first appear to be the stronger hero, the origin of Thor's gifts makes him a potentially lethal threat to the Last Son of Krypton, who in the comics is extremely vulnerable to magic. "Thor wins," said another user. "[A]lthough [Cavill's] Superman has not shown it in live action, I think he may have a weakness in magic and Thor is a 'god of thunder' [who] wields a magic [hammer-slash-axe]."
However, at least in the comics, Thor's magic doesn't do much to help him overcome Superman's might. When the two came to blows in the 2003 limited crossover series "JLA/Avengers" (a series James Gunn has teased turning into a film), Superman stopped Mjolnir with one hand before swiftly dispatching Thor with little trouble. Later in the comic, he even briefly wields Mjlonir himself (though he wasn't technically worthy, as an undeservedly smug Thor later points out). Regardless, though the above commenters posit an intriguing theory, the Man of Steel still wins the day.