39,327
edits
m (Mass update links) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:SuperStrength.jpg|link=Superman
Likely the most primal [[Superhero|super-power]]. [[Super Strength]] [[Exactly What It Says
Very common power from [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]]. Usually does not [[I Know Karate|know Kung Fu]]. Usually, this is the linchpin power of a [[Flying Brick]]. Characters with [[Combo-Platter Powers|a wide variety of Superpowers]] will very frequently include this as a baseline ability. Characters with super strength may demonstrate it with a [[Neck Lift]]. A must for [[The Big Guy]]. This is also the most common [[Charles Atlas Superpower]].
Line 11:
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Ranma ½
* In ''[[
** First and foremost is [[Lady of War|Tsu]][[Combat Medic|nade]], whose trademark ability is her monstrous super strength. She can shatter an entire city block and the walls around it with a single kick, or by just slamming her finger into the ground she could create an entire chasm which she used to trip up Naruto. [[Complete Monster|Orochimaru]] acknowledged that her strength was one of the few things that could actually ''kill'' him if she was at full strength. Her best feat is wielding [[Attack of the
*** {{spoiler|She's even stronger than A, and can smash Susano'o on her own!}}
** The second example is Tsunade's student, Sakura Haruno. She can now shatter boulders, launch Naruto over 300 meters (over 1000 feet) away with a single punch, and break the highly defensive Hiruko puppet's defense with ease.
Line 22:
** Similarly his student, Lee can smash the earth by running and could uproot casually uproot trees as a 13 year old boy.
* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', Teana made the mistake of telling Subaru to put more strength into boosting her up during a wall climbing exercise in the Ground Forces Military Academy. Subaru did... and accidentally threw Teana all the way up to the sky in the process. {{spoiler|This was our first clue on Subaru's [[Hollywood Cyborg|cyborg nature]]}}.
** In ''[[Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force
* Apparently a standard ability of the vampires in ''[[
** This one is demonstrated more brutally on other occasions. During a flashback sequence in Volume 3, Integra's father tells her during a lecture that vampires can rip humans apart, "like wet rags." [[Sociopathic Hero|Alucard]], naturally, does exactly that in the same chapter to a SWAT team, including one instance of apparently bitch-slapping a man in half.
* ''[[
* ''[[The Tower of Druaga (
** Some time in Season 2, she was able to pull up the (big and presumably heavy) metal cage she was trapped in, ''while injured''. And at the end of the season, she was able to pull up the ''entire'' band of [[True Companions]] from a dangling cliff.
* ''[[
** The Z Senshi's strength is so great they can rip mountains up with their bare hands without even trying, for example. Even young Goten could throw rocks clean through a mountain without even going Super Saiyan.
* Eclair from ''[[
* In ''Fullmetal Alchemist'' (manga and Brotherhood, at least), during Scar's first fight with Major Armstrong, he comments that shiny man's strength is "almost superhuman". Granted, it's not exactly super strength, but with muscles like those, along with his alchemy, it could count.
** Let's not forget that Armstrong and Sieg use pretty much [[Good Old Fisticuffs]] {{spoiler|to kill Sloth.}}
* ''[[
* In ''[[
** Also, during the 2010 Bloodbath, someone (Finland, I think) calls America and Russia 'superhuman.'
** Plus, one anime episode has China punching through a wall with eleven chops, kicking through another one with just one kick and even visibly cracking a third one with just his head before America stops him.
** Greece is also implied to have this "power". One picture shows him wrestling down Germany seemly without trouble, in a strip he knocks out and carries around France's body like it's nothing, and in the Gakuen Hetalia PSP game he manages to move around several life-size stone statues and not even pant afterwards.
* Most of the characters in ''[[
** Luffy is able to push two buildings apart, Zoro is able to lift a house over his head and throw it at his opponent and Sanji is able to send [[Elite Mook]] Kuroobi crashing into a building through several walls with great ease. This isn't even the biggest showing of their strength.
** Fishmen have super strength as a species-wide ability; the average fishman is ten times stronger than the average human, and when in the water they get even stronger.
* Ku Fei in ''[[
** Quite a few of the girls in 3-A can enhance their strength with either ''ki'' or [[Yin-Yang Bomb|ki and magic combined]], Asuna, Kaede, and Setsuna, for three. And if Ku Fei wasn't doing it in the early books, she certainly advanced to it by the Mahora War arc.
* In ''[[
* While most of the cast seem to be Made of Iron with regards to being physically injured, a few in ''[[Soul Eater]]'' demonstrate extreme strength. Outside of gods like Shinigami and Kid putting craters in the scenery when not using their Weapons, Black Star has been known to punch holes in walls thanks to his soul wavelength.
* Standard feature of ''[[Youkai]]'' in ''[[
* [[Unstoppable Rage|Heiwajima]] [[Hair-Trigger Temper|Shizuo]] in ''[[
* Makoto/Lita, AKA [[Shock and Awe|Sailor Jupiter]] from ''[[
* Ryoko in the ''[[Tenchi Muyo!
* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
* [[Cute Bruiser|Kagura]] from ''[[
* In ''[[
* A-ko in ''[[
* The title character from ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Tadakuni's little sister Mei:in ''High School Boys and Tower'' she can lift two guys both older and bigger than her on her shoulders, and in ''High School Boys and UFO Catchers'' she can ''shake a UFO Catcher'' at the arcade which the main trio ''together'' couldn't even move.
{{quote| '''Tadakuni, Hidenori and Yoshitake, [[Speak in Unison|in unison]]''': "[[Lampshade Hanging|Just what IS she?]]"}}
Line 65:
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[
* The [[Incredible Hulk (Comic Book)|Incredible Hulk]] is the standard to which other Super Strength wielders are compared in the [[Marvel Universe]], and he only gets stronger as he gets angrier. However, he's only the strongest ''in theory''. In practice, because his strength is never the same at any given moment, there are tons of people whose physical strength can far exceed Hulk's own at the time, as Zeus [http://www.turboimagehost.com/p/5863170/Incredible_Hulks_622_013.jpg.html will now demonstrate], while at other times, Hulk can easily overcome people who are explicitly stronger than those who previously handed him his ass, like Juggernaut, Thor or Zeus' own son, Hercules.
** Unlike her cousin, [[She Hulk]] doesn't get stronger when she's angry. However, her strength when she's "hulked out" is exponentially proportional to her strength as a normal human. A month of exercise and an extra pound or two of muscle mass can make her as strong as the Hulk at baseline; too bad for her she never goes to the gym except to show off when she's already big and green.
* The [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] have had many examples, with Beast being the earliest and Colossus probably being the best-known.
* [[
** Note that Spider-Man's "proportional strength of a spider" line crosses with [[Square-Cube Law|another trope]] as well.
* Usually a default benefit of [[Powered Armor]], especially if in comics, such as [[Iron Man (Comic Book)|Iron Man]], [[Doctor Doom]], etc.
* The ''[[Asterix]]'' comic books are about a village of Gauls who fend off the Roman empire with the aid of a [[Super Serum|magic potion]] that grants them the power to [[Megaton Punch|send Roman legionaries flying with their punches]]. Asterix's friend Obelix doesn't get a dose of the potion when all the other villagers are lining up for it, since he fell into the cauldron as a baby, an event which increased his strength permanently.
** On one occasion only Obelix was given a tiny dose... so that he could punch his way out of a ''pyramid''.
* [[Popeye (
* There is one [[Donald Duck]] cartoon where he gets [[Super Strength]] and [[Flying Brick|flight]] but not the [[Required Secondary Powers]] to go with it. A rocky island he lifts up crumbles in his hands, and a ship he salvages from the ocean floor snaps in half, comically squashing him.
* Old characters in both ''[[The Beano]]'' and ''[[The Dandy (
* ''[[The Tick]]'' has the proportional strength of a tick his size who engages in routine exercise.
* ''[[Savage Dragon]]'' and thus, many of his villains, have super strength as well.
Line 82:
== Fan Works ==
* Paul in ''[[
* Sarah Squall, aka Stratogale, from ''[[
* In ''[[Renegade (
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Ghost Rider (
* Mr. Incredible from ''[[The Incredibles]]'' has Super-strength and (apart from [[Required Secondary Powers|some degree of implied invulnerability]]) that's pretty much it. It's actually quite a hassle, because if he doesn't concentrate on keeping it in check he can accidentally saw a plate in half when cutting his steak or indent his fingerprints into his car, and the only way he can believably work out is to rig up an exercise machine with entire locomotives used as weights.
* The recent CG-film version of ''[[Beowulf (
** In each arm.
* Mr. Hyde, in -- among other things -- ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (
* While not Superman level, David in ''[[Unbreakable]]'' can rip car doors off and lift over five hundred pounds.
** In his case, [[Super Strength]] may be a direct side-effect of his immunity to injury. Normal humans probably ''would'' be able to lift that much weight, if not for self-defense reflexes in our muscles, which stop us from exerting ''too much'' force. With no fear of sprains or muscle tears, David can use 100% of his muscles' potential, where most of us poop out at a fraction of maximum contractile power.
* Fezzik in ''[[The Princess Bride (
* ''[[The Adventures of Captain Marvel]]'' film serial of 1941 showcases one of the earliest film examples (which makes sense, given its the first superhero film of all time) with the titular [[Shazam|Captain Marvel]]. Throughout the 12 episode serial, the Captain lifts enormous stone columns, large fallen trees, elevator cars, and other feats of strength, to the point where he ends some of his fist fights with criminals by ''casually slapping them''.
* The [[Golem]] in the silent movie classic ''[[
== [[Literature]] ==
* Golden Boy in the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' franchise had super strength that the authors tried to portray realistically. If a speeding car or tank slammed into him, for instance, his super strength did nothing to anchor him to the ground and he'd get tossed around like a ragdoll -- he had to drop down to the ground and let the tank run part of the way over him, then lift it up and hurl it aside.
* [[Dishing Out Dirt|Earthcrafters]] in ''[[
* Fezzik in ''[[The Princess Bride (
* Eponymous character in ''Aatomik'' has super strength as his main power.
* Most nonhuman creatures in ''[[
** Magic practitioners can also use [[Whatevermancy|Kinetomancy]], which results in this and limited [[Super Speed]].
* Wrestling Matt in ''[[
== [[Live Action Television]] ==
* One of the basic abilities of a Slayer in ''[[
** Vampires also have super strength, though it's unclear whether they have it to the same degree.
*** Most of them don't. Angel, one of the stronger vampires in the franchise, admits that Buffy is stronger than him.
*** Vampire strength varies greatly, with older vampires tending to be stronger. "Bloodline" seems to matter too; those turned by truly ancient vampires like the Master seem to be unusually strong even by vampire standards, from the moment they're turned. The most commonly seen vampires in the [[Buffy Verse]], Angel and Spike, benefit on both counts.
* Elliot Reid from ''[[
** She also has powerful legs, demonstrated when she snapped a food tray in half and served as the bottom third of the World's Most ''Most'' Giant Doctor for about 15 seconds; Lonnie isn't as sturdy as she is.
* Jim Powell on ''[[No Ordinary Family]]'' is super-strong.
* Niki on ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has super-strength. Too bad it [[Blessed
** Volume 3 introduces Knox, a villain who's [[Super Strength]] is powered by fear. It's [[Better Than It Sounds]] because while Niki has run-of-the-mill super strength, as long as Knox is surrounded by fear he can get stronger and stronger, kinda like [[The Hulk]] is with anger. On the other hand, he's powerless if nobody around is afraid.
*** And later in the third season we're introduced to ''another'' [[Super Strength]] character, a [[Super Soldier|Pinehearst Marine]] named Scott. All set up to be the new super strong hero, until Knox [[Dropped a Bridge
** There was also Mohinder, after he injected himself with a formula for super people. It started to kill him, but he got an improved formula that allows him to use without fear.
*** The writers seem to really hate this power, which is strange considering it's one of the cheapest effects to do. Volume four Mohinder is the first character with this power that wasn't either killed off in one episode, permanently insane from his power, or required some gimmick to make it work (such as fear).
Line 128:
== [[Mythology]] ==
* [[Classical Mythology|Hercules]], [[The Bible
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[
* Third Edition just uses Enhanced Strength (Limited to lifting), due to the greatly accelerated progression of carrying capacity.
* ''[[
* Represented in the old ''Marvel Super Heroes'' RPG with a good roll for your Strength stat...if you were playing a character type with access to the upper echelons, that is. (Incredible is about Spider-Man strength. Monstrous or...whatever the level after that was...lets you hit people with ''oil tankers''.)
* The Potence discipline in ''[[
** Ghouls get the first level of Potence from the very beginning.
** In ''[[
Line 147:
== [[Video Games]] ==
* [[Super Mario Bros
** Mario and Luigi are capable of [[Super Mario World (
** Wario can [[Wario Land Shake It|cause earthquakes with his punch]].
** Bowser has many feats of strength in ''[[Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story
** Donkey Kong [[Donkey Kong Country Returns
* In the ''[[
* [[I Call It Vera|"Sasha"]], the [[Gatling Good|minigun]] of the Heavy Weapons Guy from ''[[
* While a number of characters in ''[[
** [[Final Fantasy VI
** And for suplexing a friggin' train.
* Super Strength is a powerup in ''[[Backyard Sports
* Alex Mercer in ''[[Prototype (
* Kratos from ''[[God of War (
* Dante from ''[[
* Lara Croft from ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' is able to push around blocks of solid rock measuring roughly 2 metres per side, which puts them at a weight of about 20 metric tonnes.
* [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] is capable of sending cars flying like footballs. Shadow the Hedgehog is stronger still and Knuckles is even stronger than that. When in their Super Forms, their strength is unimaginable
** Tails is quite capable of punching through solid rock.
* From ''[[Halo (
* Done subtly in ''[[
* Zig-zagged in ''[[
* In ''[[
** In the factory level in 2300 AD, Robo holds a steel security door that must weigh several tonnes open.
** Ayla can easily toss enemies larger than herself several meters up into the air.
** In a combination technique, Ayla and Robo bat enemies larger than themselves back and forth like a baseball.
** In another combination technique with [[An Ice Person|Marle]], Ayla hits the enemy with a chunk of ice that is at least five times her own size.
* Byakuren Hijiri from [[Touhou
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* A standard trait of [[Frankenstein's Monster|Constructs]] in ''[[
** It also seems to be a power of any sufficiently powerful [[Mad Scientist|Spark]] when they're in [[The Madness Place]]. Then there's the Baron.
* Subverted in ''[[Van Von Hunter]]''. The magic gauntlets acquired by Van's sidekick let her lift very heavy things, but not throw them, push them, or manipulate them in any other way.
* Mr. Mighty from ''[[Everyday Heroes]]'' [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/eddurd/everydayheroes/series.php?view=single&ID=78476 has this power], as does [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/eddurd/everydayheroes/series.php?view=single&ID=72909 his daughter].
* In the [[Walkyverse]], the majority of abductees have superhuman strength and durability as standard powers.
* [[Cute Bruiser|Nova]] from ''[[
* A few characters in ''[[
* Demon Lord Horribus from ''[[
Line 190:
** An example of the first would be [[Badass Normal|Audrey Cohen]], a seven year old girl featured in a People Magazine cover story in 1995. In front of a dozen witnesses, Ms. Cohen lifted nearly two hundred pounds over her head. She was retested in 2010 at age 21, where it was shown that her maximum lift capacity was about 320 pounds.
** An example of the second would be the supervillain [[Unstoppable Rage|Rampage]], for whose strength no upper limit has ever been found.
* Pretty common in the [[
* Let us all not forget that [[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series
* Also common in the [[Less Than Three Comics]]-Verse. Mr Perfect, The Richards Brothers and The Freak all have super strength, as do a number of background characters.
* A fair amount of characters from ''[[Darwin's Soldiers
** Aimee also has some degree of this (demonstrated when she crushes the barrel of a pistol) with her cybernetic arms.
** It is mentioned that bovids in general have some degree of this.
Line 199:
** Subject 18 from ''New Divide'' has this and it is further augmented by a set of experimental gloves he stole.
** Gustave Chiumbo, a [[Funny Animal]] Nile crocodile, has some degree of this. Whether he is stronger than Alfred remains to be seen.
* ''[[
* This is one of the side effects of becoming [[Demonic Possession|in]][[Everyman HYBRID|HABIT]][[Fan Nickname|ed]], although you probably won't enjoy [[People Puppets|the front row seats to what he makes your body do with it]].
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* One of [[
* Hego from Team Go in ''[[
* Lisa Simpson had this power in a ''[[Halloween Episode|Treehouse of Horror]]'' episode of ''[[The Simpsons (
* From ''[[Teen Titans (
* Ed from ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy
** Rolf and Sarah are also shown to be incredibly strong.
*** It's justified differently in-universe for each of them: Ed is too dumb to know he can't be that strong, Sarah's a product of her extreme temper, and Rolf gets it from backbreaking farm work.
* Brock Samson of ''[[
** Whilst shedding [[Manly Tears]] (the car in question being {{spoiler|his own beloved Charger}})
* On ''[[
* The Gnormans on ''[[Jimmy Two
* Implied in ''[[
** Even more implied with Flounder. How the heck was he even able to get a giant statue of a Prince into Ariel's Grotto. (Assuming the only people who knew about the Grotto were Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian)
* The power of the Ox Talisman in ''[[
* Raseem in ''The Arabian Knights''.
* The eponymous gargoyles from ''[[
* Comet Guy, a frequent <s>friend</s> annoyance to ''[[Darkwing Duck (
* In ''[[
* Jenny frequently used hers on ''[[My Life
* [[I Love Nuclear Power|Radioactive waste]] in ''[[
* [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
|