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Topic: How Strong is OMAC? Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Bill Dowling
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Posted: 14 July 2019 at 8:37pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

How powerful is OMAC? If he were to fight Superman (or better yet, for the visuals, Gladiator) could he hold his own?

I don’t have a good sense of his power level.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 15 July 2019 at 4:12am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

As with so many attempts to quantify characters, I think the best answer to this question is “very”.
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Greg McPhee
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Posted: 15 July 2019 at 4:15am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

I've never been a fan of quantifying characters levels as specifically as The Marvel Handbook does.

I think (and I'll check) OMAC's Who's Who entry circa 1985 / 1986 said he possessed superior strength.

In the interests of a great story, I'd put such things out the window, and opt for the entertainment value of a fight between characters.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 15 July 2019 at 5:17am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Jim Shooter used to (probably still does) hate what he called the "Marvel adrenalin surge", That ability characters sometimes demonstrated under duress to summon greater strength/power than were normally associated with them. He insisted on the quantifications in OHOTMU precisely to counter this. We would no longer be able to say Spider-Man could lift XXX amount if the HANDBOOK said his maximum was XX.

Now, It's true some writers abused the "adrenalin surge", using it almost as an additional super power, and making it less and less "special". But in cases like the the solution is closer editorial oversight, not blanket rules.

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Greg McPhee
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Posted: 15 July 2019 at 6:40am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

That was one area where I preferred "Who's Who" to "OHOTMU" they kept things pretty open to interpretation.

Superman was described as having tremendous strength, Batman is an incomparable athlete, and Wonder Woman has superhuman strength. Gives the creative teams more mileage than Thor can lift 100 tonnes, Spider-Man 10 tonnes, and so on.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 15 July 2019 at 6:49am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Wasn't sure where the ten tons measure came from for Spider-Man. Sloppy writing, I think. Stan had established him as having the "strength of ten men". Don't know any men who can lift a ton!

(Even there, stan was mixing up the huge proportional strength of the spider's web with that of the spider itself. Spiders are NOT strong.)

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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 15 July 2019 at 8:17am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Mr. Dowling, the upshot is - how strong do you need him to be?

I suspect he can lift an automobile. I don't believe he could pull the moon out of orbit.

Could he outfight the Penguin? Yeah. Could he outfight Bizarro? Probably not, although it depends on the circumstances. Could he outfight Wonder Girl (Donna) or Cyborg? Who knows?

I guess a corollary question to yours is - and no insult is intended - but for what purpose do you wish to know? If you narrowed it down to a specific question, you might get a bit more accurate answer.
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Doug Centers
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Posted: 15 July 2019 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

From the letters page of Marvel Two-In-One #32 1977.
Another case where Stan didn't listen to his own advice, and gave 'em what they wanted.

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Michael Penn
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Posted: 15 July 2019 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

I wonder how old this fellow, Stephen Hammond, was in 1966 when he began reading Marvel. Six years later he "began to notice" the "lack of credibility." Maybe he'd just outgrown the hobby?

As to his apparent point, editorial consistency in power level -- as in all other respects too -- is generally good practice. But that's hardly the same as a Procrustean micromanaging of every story by every creative team.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 15 July 2019 at 6:31pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

OHOTMU was created—at the suggestion of Rascally Roger Stern—as a go-to reference where writers, new and old, could check on the powers and abilities of the characters. Two main reasons for this: to maintain continuity in the handling of those characters, and to diminish duplication of powers.

Pity it didn’t really work.

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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 15 July 2019 at 7:05pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Of course, there is a considerable difference between listing a character with "super strength" and with "super strength able to lift 10 tons".
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Greg McPhee
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Posted: 16 July 2019 at 4:47am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Yeah. As I've said before, Who's Who maybe had 2 short paragraphs (four maximum) for most characters powers/ abilities OHOTMU would sometimes take up 2 pages.
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