World's Strongest Man: Difference between revisions

''Speed can't beat me.

''You're gonna find out, you, just, can't, beat, me... period!

 

The '''World's Strongest Man''' is a character who is, well -- [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|the strongest man in the world]] or universe, or, at the very least the strongest ''human''. He may be [[Genius Bruiser|brainy]] or [[Dumb Muscle|stupid]], attractive or [[Gonk|ugly]], but one thing is for sure—you don't want to mess with him, as he will most definitely wipe the floor with you. He may be going on [[Hero's Journey]], or he may just be [[Smug Super|full of himself and his power]]. If he's a villain, he's usually the [[Big Bad]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* The [[Tower of God]] was under the supreme rule of Zahard, the first man to climb up and settle down, and his supporters. Then Phantaminum, an existence [[Shrouded in Myth]], came and not only scaled the tower much faster than Zahard, but in the process killed many of his high rankers. These are the 1000 strongest of 100,000 rankers, and even the lowliest ranker can give the main characters a run for their money. After [[Storming the Castle]] of the ruler, Phantaminum disappeared, never to be seen again, however, similar Irregulars followed, shaking the Tower up once more. It shoud be mentioned that [[Storming the Castle]] is the only battle he participated in and even so was immediately declared strongest.

** Nagi Springfield was also one of these, being [[Up to Eleven|even more powerful than Jack]], at least until he mysteriously disappeared.

* In ''[[Hellsing]]'', Alucard is the world's strongest vampire, not only in magical power but physical strength as well.

* ''[[Baki the Grappler]]'''s Yujiro Hanma. His title is the "Strongest Creature in the World."

* Mr. Don from ''[[Eyeshield 21]]''. When a guy can hand [[The Worf Effect|a Worf Effect]] to [[Gentle Giant|Kurita Ryokan]], [[Jack of All Stats|Yamato Takeru]], [[Lightning Bruiser|Shin Seijuro]], AND [[The Berserker|Gaou]] [[The Determinator|Rikaya]], holy crap. Hell, {{spoiler|Gaou, the heaviest hitter on the entire protagonist team, had to [[Up to Eleven|use a Delta Dynamite]] just to knock the guy off balance!}} Good lord.

* Teresa from ''[[Claymore]]'' is known as the strongest Claymore of all generations. This is understating her capability; she's an order of magnitude stronger than anyone else, and when she goes rogue, she's capable of single-handedly [[Curb Stomp Battle|curb-stomping]] an entire team of high-ranked Claymores. (Priscilla is ''possibly'' stronger than Teresa by this point, but being an Awakened Being, she doesn't count.)

* [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse|Nuriko]], the strongest Seishi in ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]''.

 

* ''[[Superman]]'' is generally thought of as the strongest superhero in the DC universe, though there are a number of cosmic and legendary beings who are stronger than him, including Heracles, [[New Gods|Darkseid]], Mongul, Doomsday, Despero, Monarch, [[Green Lantern|Sodam Yat]], Vartox (Pre-Crisis), Superboy Prime, Ariella Kent, and his [[Kingdom Come]] counterpart. Ostensibly Superboy Prime is, at the moment, the strongest character in the main DC universe - just not emotionally.

* [[Wonder Woman]] is generally portrayed as the strongest woman in the DC universe. Depending on who's writing her, she's sometimes described as second only to Superman in terms of strength.

* [[Power Girl]] is another contender for strongest women in the DCU, being, powerwise, a female Superman (with more muscle mass than Supergirl).

* [[Incredible Hulk|The Hulk's]] ''potential'' strength is theoretically unlimited, making him the Marvel Universe's strongest character. Green Scar in particular is the strongest version of the Hulk. [[Word of God]] is that the Green Scar Hulk is "stronger than any mortal and most immortals in the marvel universe." So he is literally the strongest man; anyone stronger than him is at least a [[Physical God]], and he's stronger than most of those.

* ''[[Asterix]] the Gaul'' has Obelix, a dumb-but-super-strong sidekick who fell into a vat of strength potion as a child.

* ''[[Bamse]]'' is the world's strongest bear.

* [[Grant Morrison]]'s ''[[Doom Patrol]]'' has [[Flex Mentallo]]: Man of Muscle Mystery. He is so strong that he can [[Reality Warper|alter the fabric of reality]] with the precisely tuned vibrations of his muscles, at one point turning the Pentagon into a circle. Which may be some kind of record.

* Some older adventure strips from ''[[The Beano]]'' featured characters like this such as Morgyn the Mighty.

* [[Captain Marvel]] is often considered the "World's Mightiest Mortal", with strength slightly greater than Superman's due to his magical nature.

 

== Fan Works ==

* Paul is definitely this in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', and takes great pride in it. It's one of the Blessed parts of being [[Blessed with Suck]].

 

* Fezzik, from ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]''.

* Albrecht in ''[[The Adventures of Baron Munchausen]]'' (1989).

* [[Werner Herzog]]'s film ''[[Film/Invincible|Invincible]]'' tells the story of Zishe Breitbart, a real-life Polish-Jewish blacksmith known in his time as "The World's Strongest Man." Jouko Ahola, two-time winner of the World's Strongest Man competition, plays him.

* ''[[The Adventures of Captain Marvel]]'' film serial of the 1940's stars Captain Marvel, who channels the strength of Hercules, and is the strongest man in the world by virtue of being the only guy with out and out superpowers.

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[The Neverending Story (novel)|The Neverending Story]]'', the knight Hykrion claims to be the strongest in the world. Another knight named Hero Hynreck defeats him one-on-one with superior strength. Then, Hynreck himself is thoroughly outmuscled by the real strongest man in Fantasia, Bastian himself, who had used AURYN to give himself godlike strength.

* The ''[[Belgariad]]'' graces us with a number of phenomenally strong characters- there are so many [[The Big Guy|Big Guys]] that they actually form their own ''[[Five-Man Band]]'' of [[The Big Guy|Big Guys]], but the knight Mandorallen is something of a standout, ''crushing'' a lion to death just by squeezing. Probably one of the most memorable bits, though, is when he was preparing to attack two opposing armies simultaneously, which his companions managed to talk him out of, as they considered it suicidal... although one of them noticed ''both'' armies were visibly relieved that he had been called off.

 

* Spoofed with Artie from ''[[The Adventures of Pete and Pete]]''. Yes, he is pretty strong, but it's by the Pete's standards, and we don't know if he's simply ''crazy'' or not.

** His on-camera feats include hitting a golf ball 300,003 feet, pushing a house to the left an inch (he wanted to knock it over, but he had strained a muscle earlier while lifting a brassiere emporium), rolling a bowling ball from whatever state Wellsville is in into Canada, skipping a stone on ''Neptune'', and leaping across the city in a single jump.

* Nadine from ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' is already pretty strong earlier in the series (she involuntarily mangles a steel rail with her bare hands), but after she comes back in her "perky schoolgirl" persona on recovering from her overdose the gloves really come off. In the school gym, she's seen leg-pressing unfeasible amounts of weight without effort, to the astonishment of the watching jocks, and in a touch-down celebration she gleefully whirls the hunky quarterback round in her arms, before, forgetting her own strength, she flings him what appears to be about a hundred feet through the air.

* [[The Dragon|Damaras]] of ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'' has the [[Red Baron|title]] "The Strongest Man in the ''Universe''". When he finally goes into action against the Gokaigers, it shows us that he ''deserves'' it.

 

== Mythology ==

* [[Older Than Dirt]]: Gilgamesh, the first recorded epic hero, of ''[[The Epic of Gilgamesh]]''.

* Bhima in the ''[[Mahabharata]]''. When he was two, his mother dropped him by accident on a stone and the stone broke. Keep in mind, he was two.

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Mandrake the Magician]],'' Lothar has always been billed as the strongest man in the world.

 

* This is pretty much a stock wrestling character, though [[Mark Henry]] is currently billed as the World's Strongest Man in WWE (And apparently was a winner of several Strongest Man competitions as well as an Olympic weightlifter, which is the source of his gimmick. He is also the current world record holder for the ungeared squat, at 430 kg). Previous World's Strongest Men include Bill Kazmaier (who also won a few Strongest Man competitions, and came to the ring holding a giant inflatable globe to evoke images of Atlas) and Ken Patera (who was an Olympic weightlifter). Let's not forget one of the first with this billing, Ted Arcidi.

* Doug Furnas was so billed during his brief [[WCW]] days.

** And sometimes he was billed as ''Canada's'' Strongest Man. Guess sometimes people just need more realistic goals...

* The first [[Wrestlecrap]] book posited that any wrestler using this moniker [[The Worf Effect|will inevitably fail]], especially if used to promote weightlifters who cannot actually wrestle (which is often the case).

* [[The Iron Sheik]] is legendary in strongman circles thanks to his Persian Clubs challenge. 75 lbs. may not sound much, but swinging that much weight on what is essentially a lever is ''extremely difficult.'' Mark Henry was the only wrestler to beat the challenge.

 

== Video Games ==

** Though she doesn't get many chances to show off, Miyako is a skilled enough archer to be counted as one of the "Five Bows Under Heaven";

** And finally, there's the "Four Sky Kings" that Momoyo belongs to, of which Ageha is also a member. Tsubame, one of the new heroines in the upcoming sequel, makes her cameo early as a member in the anime. {{spoiler|Mayucchi}} also gains this distinction at the end of her path via [[Klingon Promotion]].

 

== Web Comics ==

* In ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'', the title is first held by [[Big Bad|Mobster Kingpin]] and later by [[The Lancer|Ace Dick]].

 

== Web Original ==

* The strongest man in the [[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]] was the aptly named Strength, a supervillain working for Tarot. During the entire run of the game, they never found an object too heavy for him to lift.

* Chuck "[[Memetic Mutation]]" [[Chuck Norris|Norris]].

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Afro Samurai]]'' : The wielder of the Number One Headband.

* ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe|He-Man]]'': '''''THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE UNIVERSE!!!!''''' His powerset is actually defined as being [[Strong as They Need to Be|exactly as strong as he needs to be for any given task]]. Meaning that he'll always be at least slightly stronger than anyone he fights, no matter how strong they are.

* [[Popeye]] has reached this level when spinached up; even without it, he's pretty strong.

* Bam-Bam from ''[[The Flintstones]]'' is billed as the strongest baby in the world, and in later cartoons the strongest teen in the world.

* Marshal Bravestarr from ''[[Bravestarr]]''.

* ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]''. While a moose rather than a man, Bullwinkle J Moose every so often performs feats of incredible strength, which he attributes to his "mighty moose muscle", or sometimes just "moose-le".

 

== Real Life ==

* The World's Strongest Man, an annual competition taking place around Christmas time, pits strongmen from all over the shop in a very broad range of events designed to test all-round strength. Events vary from from traditional weight lifting to dragging, flipping, carrying, pushing, pulling, holding, throwing and otherwise manipulating incredibly heavy items such as tractor tyres, anvils, tractors, trains, cars, beer kegs, giant stone pillars, and the iconic Atlas Stones. Pictured above is one such winner, [[Awesome McCoolname|Magnus ver Magnusson]], whose name means "Big Guy Son of Big Guy who was the son of another Big Guy").

* American Olympian Paul Anderson, allegedly back lifted 6,279 pounds in the Summer Olympics of 1956.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Always Male]]

[[Category:Archetypal Character]]

[[Category:Professional Wrestling]]