Both the Eternals and Thor are incredibly powerful beings in the Marvel universe, equipped with superhuman strength, durability, and energy manipulation abilities. But which cosmic group reigns supreme when it comes to raw power? Let’s take a deep dive into their origins, key abilities, and greatest feats to determine if the Eternals or Thor possess greater might.
The Origins of the Eternals
The Eternals are an evolutionary offshoot of humanity living on Earth who were created over a million years ago by the cosmic beings known as the Celestials. The Celestials arrived on Earth and performed genetic experiments on early proto-humans, magically accelerating their evolution. This resulted in two divergent races – the superpowered and near-immortal Eternals, and the hideous Deviants.
The Eternals were gifted with incredible strength, the ability to manipulate cosmic energy, flight, telepathy, illusion casting, transmutation, teleportation, and partial invulnerability. They based themselves out of the city of Olympia in Greece and helped to steer humanity’s development throughout history. Prominent Eternals include Ikaris, Sersi, Thena, Kingo, Phastos, Makkari, Druig, and Ajak.
The Origins of Thor
In Norse mythology, Thor is the god of thunder, strength, and fertility. This carried over to his origins in Marvel comics. Thor is the son of Odin, ruler of Asgard. He was given a mystical uru hammer called Mjolnir, through which he could focus his divine powers over lightning and the weather. He uses these powers to protect Asgard, Earth, and the other Nine Realms.
Unlike the Eternals who developed naturally over millennia, Thor’s immense strength and powers were bestowed upon him by his father Odin. Some of these abilities include weather manipulation, dimensional travel through Mjolnir, flight, super breath, and the ability to replenish his strength by entering a ‘Warrior’s Madness’ berserker rage.
Physical Abilities
One key factor in determining who is stronger is comparing the physical abilities and limitations of the Eternals and Thor. This includes their strength, speed, durability, and recovery capabilities.
Strength
The average Eternal can lift about 10 tons under normal conditions and up to 30 tons if they focus their cosmic energy. However, beings like Ikaris can lift over 60 tons due to specialized training. Thor’s base strength level allows him to lift over 100 tons. But if he taps into his godly essence or Warrior’s Madness state, his strength is effectively incalculable.
Speed
Eternals can run at peak human speeds. However, they can fly at over 850 mph. Thor can fly at over 3000 mph in Earth’s atmosphere and faster in space via his hammer. He can also use Mjolnir to teleport across dimensions instantly.
Durability
Eternals can withstand high caliber bullets, powerful explosions, and extreme impacts with little injury due to their regenerative abilities. They are not truly invulnerable though. In contrast, Thor’s divine Asgardian physiology provides tremendous resilience against injury. He has withstood direct blows from opponents like the Hulk and multiple blasts from Mjolnir with only moderate damage.
Recovery
Eternals can rapidly heal and regenerate damaged tissue, allowing them to recover from nearly any non-fatal wound. However, they cannot regrow severed limbs. Thor’s healing factor allows him to recover from wounds in hours or minutes. If injured enough, he can enter the Sleep of Life for rapid healing, or the Warrior’s Madness state to fight on despite grievous injuries.
Cosmic Energy Manipulation
A key power shared by both Eternals and Thor is the ability to project and manipulate vast amounts of cosmic energy for a variety of effects.
The Eternals can channel cosmic energy internally to grant themselves superhuman strength or project it from their eyes and hands as concussive force beams. They can shape this energy into defensive force fields and constructs like battering rams. Eternals can also manipulate cosmic energy to transmutate objects, teleport, generate illusions, and perform limited telepathy.
As the God of Thunder, Thor can summon immense amounts of cosmic energy from Asgard in the form of lightning. He can channel this down his uru hammer Mjolnir to generate electrical blasts, barriers, vortices, and teleportation. Thor’s greatest weapon is his divine thunderbolts, which he can summon from the heavens to strike his opponents with their full mythic power.
In terms of raw power, Thor’s lightning bolts and hammer blasts exceed similar cosmic energy projections from any single Eternal. However, a group of Eternals working in concert might equal some of Thor’s more destructive attacks.
Greatest Feats of Strength
To fully demonstrate the upper limits of the Eternals and Thor’s might, examining their greatest displays of power is useful:
Eternals
- Ikaris once focused his abilities to generate a column of cosmic energy that could be seen from space and was said to equal multiple atomic bombs.
- Ikaris and Thena once contained a separated Kronos,Each utilizing energy beams that shifted tectonic plates on Earth.
- Makkari has moved faster than the speed of light on multiple occasions.
- Sersi transmutated Watcher Uatu into crystal with a thought against his will.
Thor
- Thor’s battle with Gorr the God Butcher shattered planets.
- He has matched blows with opponents like the Phoenix Force, Galactus, and Celestials.
- Thor shattered a dimensional barrier with his lightning despite it weakening him.
- He has used Mjolnir to move the impossibly heavy weight of the Midgard Serpent.
Based on these incredible feats, Thor appears to edge out the Eternals in terms of his highest showings of power and divine capabilities.
Weaknesses
While extremely powerful, both Eternals and Thor have weaknesses that can be exploited or limit their abilities.
Eternals
- Their cosmic energy reserves are finite and can be exhausted over time.
- They are vulnerable to molecular rearrangement and transmutation.
- Eternals have general human vulnerabilities to toxins, lack of oxygen, etc.
- Powerful psionic attacks can overwhelm their mental defenses.
Thor
- Separation from Mjolnir for over 60 seconds leaves him severely weakened.
- Beings with greater mastery of magic like Doctor Strange can overpower his spells.
- His Warrior’s Madness, while boosting strength, reduces his tactical thinking.
- He is vulnerable to incredibly powerful energy and psionic attacks if caught off guard.
Both have clear vulnerabilities an opponent could take advantage of in order to gain an edge or defeat them in battle under the right circumstances.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while the Eternals are an extremely powerful and ancient race, Thor edges them out overall in terms of physical strength, damage output, divine cosmic abilities, and greatest feats. However, the Eternals have demonstrated enough comparable power that a group of them in concert may be able to go toe-to-toe with the God of Thunder, although likely not defeat him. Critical factors that give Thor the overall advantage include:
- Greater base level superhuman strength and durability.
- Faster flight and reflex speeds.
- Divine thunderbolts more destructive than Eternal cosmic beams.
- Mjolnir provides teleportation and greater versatility.
- Thor’s feats include victories over cosmic entities beyond any single Eternal.
In a direct clash between Thor and the most powerful Eternals like Ikaris, Sersi, or Thena, he would most likely emerge victorious after an intense battle. But the Eternals have proven themselves to be one of the mightiest cosmic races in the Marvel Universe capable of astonishing feats, despite Thor’s even greater power as an Asgardian God.