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Luke Cage Vs. Marvel Characters: A Strength Comparison

Where exactly does Luke Cage stand on the power scale?

By now everyone has probably watched Marvel’s Luke Cage on Netflix. If you haven’t yet (and you totally should), you should know Luke Cage is a superhero with unbelievable strength and unbreakable skin. The show, unfortunately, has only shown off his power set by matching him up against ordinary thugs. We can’t help but wonder how his strength would compare to the rest of the Marvel roster, just in case he shows up in the next Avengers movie. Luckily for us, Marvel has a handy guide on how each character compares with each other in their own comic universe.

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe uses a scale of 1 to 7 to rate a character’s Intelligence, Durability, Speed and so on. For this comparison, we’re looking at the Strength Rating.

Level 1: Weak

In the Marvel Universe a weak character is one who cannot lift his or her own bodyweight. The ones in this category are usually senior citizens or children. Not many Marvel characters are in this category.

Level 2: Normal

A character of Normal Strength in Marvel is someone who can lift around his or her own bodyweight and sometimes slightly higher. Most average everyday people like us fit under this category. Marvel characters who are in this category are people outside of hero mode, like Iron Man without his armor and Bruce Banner not in his Hulk form.

Level 3: Peak Human

Peak Human describes strength at the level of athletes and weightlifters. They can usually lift twice their own bodyweight and beyond, up to around 700 lbs. The people in this group are people like Daredevil and Punisher, who are at peak human condition, but still within the limits of normal human beings.

Level 4: Base-level Superhuman

A person with superhuman strength is someone who can lift 800 pounds to 25 tons. This is the first level of truly superhuman strength. They can lift cars, bend iron bars and punch through concrete on a good day. Luke Cage fits in this category comfortably, along with Captain America and Jessica Jones.

Level 5: Pretty Powerful

The next level of Superhuman is for those with the strength to lift around 25 to 75 tons. To put it into perspective, an 18-wheeler truck weighs around a maximum of 40 tons. In this level we have the likes of Drax the Destroyer and Ant-Man when he’s in his gigantic form.

Level 6: Among the Strongest

The third stage of superhuman features heavyweights even among superheroes who can lift 75 to 100 tons. In this level we have Iron Man and War Machine, along with the villainous Ultron.

Level 7: Incalculable

This level is reserved for characters whose Strength cannot be measured. Characters in this category usually draw their power from cosmic or otherwise larger-than-life sources of power. Out of the big names we’ve seen in action in the Marvel movie and Netflix universe, this level is for the likes of Thor using the full power of Mjolinir and a really angry Hulk.

Missed out? You can still Marvel's Luke Cage on Netflix.

Words Donnel