Feats that Make a Class 100?

[Harbinger19]

Say I'm creating a character and I want him to be clearly recognizable as a class 100. Aside from slugging it out with an established class 100, (like Classic Thor or Superman) what sort of feats would make that status obvious? Mainly I'm looking at striking/breaking type feats rather than lifting feats, but lifting is also acceptable.

I know there's a lot of variation between class 100s (planet busters are obviously above lower end class 100s by a significant margin) but I'm trying to get a better handle on what the lower-end types can do.

For instance, say that a character can shatter Mt Everest into pebble-sized fragments with a single punch. Would that confer class 100 status? What about 5 Mt Everests at the same time?

How about if a character can punch another character so that they smash through the Earth and break through on the other side of the planet?

[Nik Hasta]

To be Class 100, in the true Rumbles sense of the word, you need to be on the "mess around with mountains with ease," level.

Shattering Mt Everest with one punch is Class 100.

[Beadle]

1 mountain would definitely do it.

Ask yourself this - Could Ben Grimm do it? If yes, it's not Class 100.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

1 mountain would definitely do it.

Ask yourself this - Could Ben Grimm do it? If yes, it's not Class 100.

Ben Grimm can't wear normal pants.

Must mean I'm Class 100.

[Beadle]

Ben Grimm can't wear normal pants.

Must mean I'm Class 100.

We don't use the same Class system for levels of eedjit.

The only class you have is low.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

We don't use the same Class system for levels of eedjit.

The only class you have is low.

Laughed harder than I should have. Thank you for that.

[MichaelC]

Frankly a lot of villains don't have many non-combat feats. What's the heaviest thing Abomination has lifted? How about Juggernaut? Does even Thanos have many strength-feats? Villains mostly show their strength by being able to match or exceed the hero in a straight fight.

[Sharkerbob]

Ben Grimm can't wear normal pants.

Must mean I'm Class 100.

Grimm just takes my lessons to heart. Except when he doesn't. But that's just so he can make it more challenging.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Thanos have many strength-feats? Villains mostly show their strength by being able to match or exceed the hero in a straight fight.

Punching a guy in the face and the planet blowing up underneath him as a result?

[Cody]

What about swinging around something that weighs roughly a thousand tons at high-hypersonic speeds?

[Beadle]

What about swinging around something that weighs roughly a thousand tons at high-hypersonic speeds?

That's more a case of "decent strength and superspeed" but not Class 100. Class 80-90 guys can handle a thousand tons without much sweat (see Ben Grimm using a skyscraper as a sword).

[HulkSmash666]

Being able to physically move a small landmass such as an island, mountain or cause earthquakes via sheer strength from punches/blows/impacts the ground that result in significant collateral damage is usually a good indicator that person is operating at around Class 100 or better. For example, Hercules dragging Manhattan Island or physically holding it together as it begins to crumble apart during the World War Hulk storyline is a fine example of something a legit Class 100 should be capable of achieving (or at least in that ballpark of strength, as Hercules is comfortably in the Class 100+ without even exerting himself, really.

Guys like Colossus and Thing have certain special occasions where Class 100 status could be strongly argued for them, as they have, albeit rarely, displayed feats of strength under certain circumstances (not including power ups like Colossonaut or Pineapple Thing) where they've pulled shit off that's typically presented as being slightly above their pay grade, like Colossus lasting for ANY length of time fighting Juggernaut one on one, literally going toe to toe in a quasi-strength display/game of uncle thing the bricks love to do cause it looks cooler than it is practical for two people to face off in a contest of strength, yet Colossus has hung in there (always lost, but hey...) with guys he really has no business fighting upon first comparison of his opponents strength levels vs his own. Skill DOES help him, as does PIS to certain applicable extents, but in terms of strength alone, IMO, Class 100 territory begins JUST slightly beyond what Peter or Ben can usually achieve on any given day.

If I was forced to put them in a Class bracket, they'd be at Class 95 nowadays, with just not enough high-end consistent feats to tip them over fully into Class 100 land. However who's to say one day they don't get even stronger than they are now? For example both characters over the past couple of decades have gradually gotten stronger, Ben originally starting as low as Class 5 in his first couple of appearances, where Pete was Class 70 when he first joined the X-Men. Who's to know if getting stronger as they age isn't a snappy little side effect of being a superstrong brick, like natural toughness and durability usually are when super strong bricks are involved? 50 year old Ben and Peter could be hitting Hulk-level strength at the same time they go through their mid-life crisis.

Old Man Grimm. Stronger than Hulk, twice as surly. I'd read it.


Also another good indicator of a Class 100 is just how much collateral damage they inflict on a rampage or during a fight. How easily do they flatten or destroy a skyscraper, for example? A city block? An entire neighborhood/city disctrict? An entire CITY? A state? A continent?

Well those last few are obviously WELL beyond base line Class 100 level, but the ability to level a decently sized skyscraper tends to mean the person doing said smashing is in the Class 100 ballpark.

Someone mentioned Abomination not having many strength feats, but I remember a particular storyline a good 10-15 years back when Abomination went on a rampage and in almost no time at all had flattened a medium sized town in Middle America somewhere. Like the town had been utterly destroyed by F-5 tornado levels of destruction. It wasn't so much the size or weight of the things he was tossing around or lifting above his head which showed his strength. It was the force-of-nature ease of which he completely annihilated that town from existence. I loved the whole scene, cause it showed us what a Hulk-level being was capable of when let off the chain with no interference in such a short amount of time. It also made me want to see more of Abomination as the true scary villain he can be if treated with more respect then just another punching bag for Hulk. The guy is wasted on fighting only one recurring hero all the time. Let him loose to mess shit up around the MU and make a name for himself. He deserves it.

I start running into problems when it comes to guys like Wonderman, who IIRC, has very few actual strength feats outside of fights with other Class 100's, holding his own for a while to show that he's a challenge for the top-end bricks, but he's not much more than a mild workout for the big boys when it really comes down to it. He's ballparked at around Namor levels (a fully hydrated Namor) but you'd only ever know that Simon is Class 100 because of him lasting as long as he has in one on one fights with other bricks, usually guys stronger than him. He's the guy who tries hard and impresses people with his heart, but he will ultimately be the guy who is always gonna be the one who's SLIGHTLY weaker than the top guys on his team. Think of a baseballer who just cracked the majors from the minors, but can't really get a lot of game time cause there is always that one or two guys who are slightly better than him, keeping him from breaking through that next tier.

Funnily enough, I've found Thor to be shockingly lacking in number of truly impressive strength feats, apart from a few notable exceptions that make it clear he is as strong as he's apparently regarded. Thor tends to just smack things with his hammer or fry it with lightning in a lot of scenarios where him flexing his muscle and showing his Hulk-rivalling strength would have been much cooler. Hey, Thor! Next time a plane is falling out of the sky can you perhaps catch it with your bare hands and not a friggin magic tornado? That'd be far cooler and add more street cred to the claim of Thor being the strongest one there is when he's seen using his strength on that kind of level more often, rather than the ol' green dude, who has, understandably, the far more numerous and obvious feats of strength that consistently keep him at the top of most peoples "Strongest Lists". Lets see Thor level a mountain with his strength alone. No hammer assist. I wanna see more punching things with fists and throwing heavy, gigantic objects at distances far and wide and in all manner of velocities that tell us Thor is a guy who can ditch his hammer and still do things like toss aircraft carriers around or support the weight of a collapsing skyscraper on his back. Something visually impressive as well as straight up impressive in terms of it being a tremendous feat of strength.

Lifting the Midgard Serpent is one of his most famous, if not impressive feats people like to mention when they talk about Thor's strength, but to me that feat goes into the realms of "too out-there" and hard to take seriously as a legit strength feat, kind of on the lines of that time Lobo physically crushed an entire city in the size of a cube not much bigger than a sugar cube and then ate it. It's meant to sound impressive but in reality it's just a nonsense feat that I can't take as a serious feat, for example in Lobo's case the feat is just too absurd and "Toon-Forcy" to really fit into the "reality" and "plausibility" aspects of DC's Post-Crisis universe. It was a Lobo story, after all, and if anyone's read his solo series, the shit gets downright silly after a few issues, which was the point, I know, but I liked my Lobo to be quantifiable and measurable for me so I can form my own opinion of his place in certain pecking orders in the DCU. And most of Lobo's "legit" or in other words "not ridiculously stupid or silly shit Bugs Bunny would do" feats actually appear in OTHER titles, not his own. So from Superman issues where Lobo shows up to throw down, everyone knows Lobo is in Superman's league and he's more plausible when not used as comedic toon-force clown rather than the "badass bounty hunter space biker that can't be killed" he's preferred as. As with Thor's Midgard Serpent feat, lifting the Serpent, which is large enough to coil around the world 3 times (or some such shit, which would in fact kill the planet anyway with it just laying there being all snakey and such on account of it's enormous weight. However, comics, so moving on. Going from Class 100+ (but still in the measurable realms of science to quantitfy) to Cosmic Space God level strength without any fathomable or acceptable explanation outside his Belt of Strength, which doubles his strength. So basically he's as strong as two Thor's with that belt, but that still doesn't make him even close to approaching that next level of immeasurable Cosmic level power that dwarfs even the Gods.

But hey, comics.

[The Dork Knight]

Thor has , off the top of my head -
1) had a conversation inside a sun
2) had a fight inside a sun
3) one shotted people like Namor / stalemated Hulk physically for an hour among other consistent class 100 displays
4) had a fight where his blows are so hard that the planet's surface shatters and a nearby moon's too
5) the Midgard serpent feat
6) shook the planet as a side effect of smashing the Celestials

Etc. to say Thor doesn't have many class 100 feats is fallacious in the extreme

[HulkSmash666]

Thor has , off the top of my head -
1) had a conversation inside a sun
2) had a fight inside a sun
3) one shotted people like Namor / stalemated Hulk physically for an hour among other consistent class 100 displays
4) had a fight where his blows are so hard that the planet's surface shatters and a nearby moon's too
5) the Midgard serpent feat
6) shook the planet as a side effect of smashing the Celestials

Etc. to say Thor doesn't have many class 100 feats is fallacious in the extreme

1) That's not so much a strength feat than it is a durability feat.

2) Again, not really a strength feat. More durability and toughness than actual physical strength. Unless we get into the whole "moving around in the enormous pressures and gravity inside the star, blah blah science-stuff" realms of debating that feat. If we're doing that, and in that particular feat it's maybe mentioned in either narration, dialogue or visually depicted that he's using his strength to power through those crushing forces of gravity, extreme pressures etc etc, then I'll completely agree that it's more of a strength feat than a durability feat.

3) KO'ing other bonafide Class 100 brick with purely punching power or some form of strike, without a weapon to boost his natural striking power, would be considered a legit Class 100 feat, absolutely. I don't wanna open up the Hulk/Thor debate just yet, so I'll strategically retreat from this particular subject for now, cause it has potential to get into a loooong arguement with no end. Haha

4) That's a good one. Definitely a Class 100 feat if he's shaking the entire planet with punches. It's a different story if he's using Mjolnir to strike the planet though. The hammer strikes land with multiple times the force of Thor's punches. It's not an accurate gauge on Thor's punching power if the hammer is doing the striking. Was it hammer or fists Thor used to shatters the planet's surface? But are you sure you're not confusing that with an Odin-powered Thor feat? Or am I mistaken? I seem to recall a moon breaking-then moon-repairing feat that I could be confusing it with from the Odin-Thor days. It's been a looooong time since I read it, so I could be wrong.

5) Doesn't sit right with me, this one. But that's my opinion. As far as I know it's not really disputed to be anything other than one of, if not THE best of Thor's strength feats. But, as I mentioned in my last post, it's just too Toon-Force-esque for me. Or Pre-Crisis Superman levels of craziness (towing entire planets behind him as he flies in space like giant balloons, or flying around the Earth in the opposite way of the Earth's rotation to turn back time etc etc). Shit that is just nonsensical when you look back on the characters previous or more current strength feats. He went from being pushed to his limits going toe to toe with the Hulk for many years prior to the Serpent feat, to suddenly being on a level you don't even really see Space Gods like the Celestials or Galactus really performing (for example lifting and throwing a snake that is physically large enough to wrap around a planet 3 times, which is mindblowingly enormous when you consider the size of Thor, and he's lifting, carrying and throwing the snake into space. It's hard to swallow, even if there is the argument that Thor, whilst on Earth, always holds back his true strength to a small fraction of what he is truly capable of.

Which is a total cop out, if you ask me. In my slightly biased Hulk-fanboy opinion, that's just giving Thor the same "unlimited" strength ability that was Hulk's best weapon in a fight against Thor. Same as the Warrior Madness rage that amps Thor's strength and durability to some extent. It's a way to keep the Thor fans happy and competitive in the age old debate that is "Who is Stronger? Hulk or Thor?". If they both have unlimited strength under certain circumstances during battle (Warrior Madness, Not holding back true strength or just being REALLY angry) then that unlocks that whole Thor speed thing and......noooooooo!!! I'm not going down that awful, madness inducing, inconceivably and unnecessary complicated headfu*k that subject brings with it. It's an ugly thing, man.

6) Was that a Mjolnir feat or a punching feat? Cause IIRC I don't think Thor took on the Celestials barehanded, unless they took Mjolnir away from him leaving him unarmed at that particular moment when he struck the Celestial? Cause if he's creating shockwaves strong enough to shake an entire planet from striking a Celestial with his fists only, then that's a legit Class 100 feat, absolutely. But if that was a Mjolnir strike or the shockwave had anything to do with Celestial energy fields/dispersals/manipulation or other such question raising elements, then it can't be truly seen as a feat for Thor's true physical strength, as could be other elements clouding the feat(s) being presented. I'd love to see it if you have a scan handy?

[Beadle]

Wonder Man having held aloft Hydrobase, which is a small island with various buildings and stuff on it, is plenty to grant him Class 100 status.

He's got others too, just none that spring to mind immediately.

And he's actually more durable than he is strong.

Also, since when is being as strong as "a fully-hydrated Namor" a bad thing? No, he's not Thor or Hercules, but he's definitely got the full membership pack of the Class 100 Club, complete with t-shirt, badge, baseball cap, mug, membership card and Hulk-hand gloves.