Thor vs. Superman: Who Wins the Fight & How?

Thor and Superman are two of the most iconic characters ever created. Marvel’s Thor is the Asgardian God of Thunder, created for war with godlike strength and devastating lightning control, and DC’s Superman is an alien from Krypton and an indestructible and unstoppable force of justice. Since both are pretty powerful, this led us to stage this fictional battle to see, when it comes to a fight between Thor and Superman, who is stronger and who would win. 

Superman is stronger than Thor and would win a fight against him the majority of the time. Superman has physical strength, speed, and durability as his advantage. That isn’t to say that it would be an easy fight, Thor still has access to magic, and this is one of the most notable weaknesses of Superman. In the JLA/ Avengers crossover, Superman and Thor fought, and Superman eventually defeated Thor by using Thor’s own weapon – Mjolnir. Somehow we’re not surprised that Superman is considered worthy. 

Now that we’ve covered who would come out on top, it’s time to analyze the details. We’re going to compare the strength, stamina, durability, powers, and abilities of both characters so you can see how we came to our conclusion. If you’re interested in more, stay with us and keep reading!

Powers and abilities

Superman’s origin story is as iconic as the character itself. We know that Superman belongs to a race of extremely technologically advanced aliens from the planet Krypton. But this is not what gave him powers. His exposure to yellow solar radiation did that. Superman’s powerset changed numerous times, but it has always remained pretty much simple. 

He has his iconic heat vision, capable of melting through almost anything. He has freeze breath, capable of generating powerful wind currents and freezing everything around him solid. All of Superman’s abilities rely heavily on Solar radiation. His cells utilize this type of energy and even store it for later use. 

Most recent versions of Superman gained the ability to eject massive solar flares with incredible destructive potential. The downside is, however, that this drains Superman’s power reserves and leaves him basically human until his solar energy recharges again. 

Superman was also exposed to Warworld’s Genesis-powered “white” sun, and it gave him some additional powers and abilities that rendered weight, distance, temperature, and even spacetime meaningless to him. He gained a moderate ability to create limited energy constructs and mechanokinesis. 

Thor is Odin’s son and the Asgardian god of Thunder. As a godling, Thor has access to some of the most insane abilities in the Marvel Universe. His most notable and most destructive power seems to be lightning strikes, which he generates with and without his enhanced hammer Mjolnir. Thor also creates force fields if needed. He controls other elements as well. He is a skilled weather manipulator, as storms seem to be his domain. 

Thor can manipulate souls to some extent. He can summon various creatures from the nine realms and bands of honorable and powerful warriors if he needs a backup. But just like Superman, Thor has had, over the years, access to some reality-breaking powers such as God-Blast and Thor-Force. With Thor-Force, Thor is easily among the most powerful beings in the universe. He has a range of unique abilities that are able to affect space, time, reality, gravity, and other abstract phenomena. He can also access existence erase.

Thor-Force has the potential to stop entropy from spreading. 

Now it’s clear from everything mentioned above that Thor is vastly more powerful than Superman. He relies on Asgardian magic mostly, which would affect Superman greatly, while Superman’s powers would be that much of a big deal for Thor. Due to his enormous powers and their versatility, this point goes to Thor. 

Points: Thor (1:0) Superman

Strength and Stamina 

Superman’s strength cannot be known, and he has feats to prove it. It’s seemingly uncapped because the more access to solar radiation he has, the more he can lift. Superman’s conventional strength is capped at two billion tons, but it’s obvious that he can lift even more, considering that he often manipulated celestial objects.

Superman’s stamina is also more or less uncapped as long as he is near the yellow sun. Even if he isn’t, he can fight for quite a long time without stopping at his full potential because of the reserves of energy that he has stored in his cell.

The only thing that affects his stamina greatly is the solar flare. If Superman discharges too much energy with his Solar flare, he runs the risk of having himself drained and being at a human level for quite some time. 

Thor has Asgardian physiology that allows him to lift far more than the average human can. He is estimated to lift up to 100 tons, possibly even more, as he frequently showcases such feats. Thor is among the physically strongest Asgardians due to his godlike status and his relation to Odin.

In terms of stamina, naturally, Thor’s godlike physiology produces almost no fatigue toxins, and he can fight almost indefinity without stopping, but just like Superman, the more potent powers he uses, the more drained he is. The most notable example of this would be the use of Thor-Force. After expending too much of Thor-Force, Thor is forced to retreat to Thor-Sleep, in order to replenish his powers.

Both Thor and Superman have insane strength and stamina, but Superman does seem to have a slight edge. The point goes to the Man of Steel. 

Points: Thor (1:1) Superman

Speed

Superman doesn’t have access to Speed Force, but nevertheless, she is considered in the top 3 fastest superheroes in DC comics. Superman moves as fast as 186,000 miles per second and is many times faster than Flash (while flying, of course.) He can teleport as well, although this wouldn’t prove as useful in combat. Superman’s combat speeds aren’t even close to his flight speeds, but he is still significantly faster than your average human or even Justice League member. 

Thor is in a similar position, he can fly much faster than the speed of light, especially when using Mjolnir, but he can’t move as fast as light while in combat. Thor has godlike reflexes and reaction times. He is often invisible by fighting and often catches his enemies off guard, but he was never exactly known as the fastest combatant in the comics.

Just like with strength, Superman seems to be slightly faster than Thor. This point goes to the Man of Steel. 

Points: Thor (1:2) Superman

Durability

Superman is immortal and indestructible due to his utilization of yellow solar energy that transforms his muscles and other bodily tissues into indestructible pieces of rock. There aren’t that many things in the universe that can pierce Superman’s skin, but even if you do manage to make him bleed, it’s likely that his fast-acting healing factor will repair the damage instantly, especially if he is close to the sun. 

He does, however, have some notable weaknesses, like magic, which we’ve already mentioned, and Kryptonite. 

Thor is not immortal but ages much slower than your average human. He is immune to most forms of damage, but it is possible to injure him and make him bleed, even if he ultimately can tank planet-demolishing damage. It again comes down to Asgardian physiology, ultra-durable bodily tissues, and fast-acting healing factor.

Thor can drain himself while using Thor-Force, but such an act requires that multiversal entities attack him. 

There’s no question about it that Superman is more durable than Thor, but on the other hand, Thor has magic that specifically can hurt Superman, and due to that, the point goes to both of them. 

Points: Thor (2:3) Superman

Intelligence

Superman has a unique brain structure that provides him with incredible mental potential. He is allegeldy incredibly smart and has the capacity to process and understand things that humans can’t even start to understand. Yet somehow, Superman lacks feats when it comes to his intelligence and is often overshadowed by Batman. 

Thor is knowledgeable due to his age and due to the fact that he took part in numerous battles and conquests; he is quite a skilled strategist and is quite well versed in mythology, history, and the matters of magic and gods, but he was never known to have intelligence on par with the smartest characters in the comics. 

Technically both Superman and Thor lack intelligence feats, but the point will go to Superman since his brain structure sounds cooler. 

Points: Thor (2:4) Superman

Combat Skills

Superman has received extensive training in various forms of combat, including boxing, Jujitsu, Krav-Maga, wrestling, stick-fighting, and swordsmanship, making him an excellent hand-to-hand fighter. Even though he is not considered to be among the best fighters or martial artists in the DC, he is still, due to his biological advantages, hard to defeat. 

Thor was created for warfare, and he led many wars alongside his father, conquering many different places. Due to his age, he learned a thing or two over the years and mastered nearly all weapons in existence. He is a master of warfare, and few understand it better than he does.

Over the centuries, Thor has honed his abilities to the point where he is just as deadly with traditional Asgardian weapons as he is with his energy-manipulating powers. When it comes to combat expertise, Thor is unmatched, and this makes him an incredibly dangerous opponent in battle.

Now it’s obvious that Thor relies on combat more than Superman, and due to that, the point goes to him. 

Points: Thor (2:4) Superman

Thor vs. Superman: Who wins?

Now it’s obvious from our analysis that Superman wouldn’t be able to beat thor so easily as it was shown in the JLA/Avengers crossover event. Still, the fact remains that Superman does have some biological advantages that make him more likely to win in the fight. However, the biggest elephant in the room is Thor’s usage of magic and the fact that Superman lost fights against characters much weaker than Thor. 

Who do you think would win in this fight? Let us know in the comments!