Hercules (Marvel Comics)

## Background

**Alcaeus / Herakles / Hercules Panhellenios**

## Powers & Abilities

* **Olympian/Human Hybrid Physiology:** Hercules was inherently born a half-Olympian god from his biological father, Zeus, king of the Olympian gods and half-human from his biological mother, Alcmena. As an infant, he was breastfed by his stepmother, Hera, queen of the Olympian gods, who nurtured him with her divine breast milk which vastly increased his already demigod physiology to godlike levels. Hercules possesses the conventional superhuman physical attributes of an Olympian god; however, some of his powers are superior to the vast majority of his race, such as godlike strength, invulnerability, and godlike stamina.
	+ **Godlike Strength:** Hercules' principal power is his godlike strength, and he is physically the strongest of all the existing Olympians. As the Olympian god of raw strength, Hercules' strength is incalculable, making him one of the strongest heroes in the Marvel Universe. However, Hercules' strength is not infinite as he was substantially inferior to the Chaos King and needed additional power to face him. Hence we can presume his upper limits are unknown, as it was never officially stipulated that he has limitless potential growing gradually from a base level. Combined with Thor's help, he has generated enough force to demolish worlds, and to knock the planet out of orbit while his raw strength was established to rival Thor's, who was able to overpower the gravity of a neutron star. Hercules also stated he once exerted enough strength to, in place of Atlas, lift the planet. Banner has even stated that Hercules could possibly overpower the restrained Green Scar persona (not the Worldbreaker Hulk),  and his immeasurable strength allowed him to defeat the Abomination with a single blow.
		- **Superhuman Leaping:** Hercules' great strength extends to his powerful leg muscles, allowing him to jump great distances and heights, although they do not match those of the Hulk. However, while the exact limit is unknown, he is capable of leaping a height of at least 100 feet in Earth's gravity.
		- **Superhuman Strength Utilizations:** As part of Hercules' immense strength, he can produce powerful shockwaves by either clapping his hands or stomping his foot.
	+ **Superhuman Speed:** Hercules is capable of running and moving at speeds beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete.
	+ **Superhuman Reflexes:** Hercules' reflexes are in levels beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete.
	+ **Superhuman Agility:** Despite his extreme muscular size, Hercules has the ability to move his body with flexibility and coordination that are significantly beyond the natural limits of the human body.
	+ **Superhuman Stamina:** Hercules' highly advanced musculature produces no fatigue toxins, enabling him to sustain almost indefinitely.
	+ **Invulnerability:** Having sipped of Hera's breast milk as an infant, Hercules gained mystical invulnerability, making him extremely resistant to all forms of physical injury. Conventional bladed weaponry has been shown to be unable to pierce or even break his skin. Hercules has a greater resistance to physical injury than any other Olympian god except for Zeus and possibly Neptune and Pluto. It has been said the only thing that could truly kill Hercules is if his body was incinerated or his molecules dispersed enough.
	+ **Superhumanly Dense Tissue:** Due to the side-effect of his half Olympian physiology, like all Olympians, Hercules' skin, muscles, and bones tissue are about three times denser than similar human tissue, contributing to his superhuman strength and weight.
	+ **Regeneration:** Despite his great resilience, it is possible to injure Hercules. However, like all members of his race, he is capable of recovering from injuries with superhuman speed and efficiency. However, he is unable to regenerate missing limbs or organs unless he used magical assistance to do so. Hercules is also immune to all known Earthly diseases and infections. He is highly resistant to most drugs and toxins but can be affected if exposed to great quantities.
	+ **True Immortality:** Like all Olympians, Hercules is true immortal. He is immune to the effects of aging and has not aged since reaching adulthood. Hercules is also immune to all known Earthly terrestrial diseases and resistant to conventional injury. Although he can be wounded in battle Hercules cannot die by any conventional means. Despite being thousands of years old Hercules possesses the appearance and vitality of a man in his physical prime. Interestingly, this seems to have made him resistant to temporal tampering as his age is highly unknown. When Kang eradicated a recent team of Avengers by murdering their infant selves Hercules was left alone. It is left ambiguous if this is a case of Kang not *knowing* the date or Kang not *caring* about Hercules.
* \***Skyfather Physiology:** During Chaos War, Hercules become king of the Olympian gods and possesses the powers of skyfather. As the skyfather, his vast powers surpassing to all of the Olympians except for his father, Zeus, whose powers are equal with skyfather Hercules. He was powerful enough to defeat Chaos King with a full mighty blow. While angry, Hercules knocked down the Council of Godheads one-by-one with a single blow.
	+ **Nigh-Omnipotence:** As skyfather, Hercules possesses near-omnipotent level of power, meaning he could do almost anything he desires. He used all of his nigh-omnipotence powers to restore everything the way it was before Chaos King destroyed it.
	+ **Vast Energy Manipulation:** Hercules can generate and manipulate vast forms of energy. He is capable of creating powerful destructive energy such as when he accidentally take the next step of his foot and splitting the ground like an earthquake.
	+ **Appearance Alteration:** Hercules can change his size and shape into that of other humanoid beings.
	+ **Size Increase:** He was able to change his size to be larger than earth during his fight with Chaos King.
	+ **Electricity Generation:** Hercules can generate tremendous amount of electrical energy to project it from his hands in the form of lighting bolts.
	+ **Flight:** Hercules can fly at near limitless speed, and is capable of moving faster than the speed of light.
* **Master Combatant:** As Olympus' greatest warrior, Hercules is an excellent hand to hand combatant particularly skilled in Greek boxing and Greek wrestling (which he learned from Autolycus), and even invented the art of pankration, which is the combination of both. Hercules was able to rival his skills with Thor's combat skills in numerous of battles. He was able to rival the Hulk in both strength and unarmed combat. He has overpowered both the Sentry and Ares in strength combat.
* **Expert Archer:** Hercules is an expert archer. However, since the suicide of his wife Deianira in connection with Hercules' arrows having been tainted by the blood of the Lernean Hydra, he does not often use his bow anymore.
* **Allspeak:** Like all Olympians of his race, Hercules can understand and communicate in all languages, Earth's dialects, and various alien languages.

## Equipment

* **Vast Fortune:** Hercules has gained vast wealth over his long lifetime. He was able to purchase entire bars with gold he had in his pocket. His diverse portfolio required two superheroes a full week to even gather, let alone settle, in the wake of his demise. He was an initial investor in Stark Industries. The original investment was $100,000, but in modern day when the size of the investment was calculated, a second line of zeroes was required.
* **Shield of Perseus:**
* **Helm of Hades:**
* **Nemean Lion Skin:** The skin of the Nemean Lion acts as an indestructible armor and shields Hercules from virtually any injury with the possible exception of blunt force attacks, grappling (Arm-twists, joint-locks, etc), and strangulation; the latter being how Hercules was forced to kill the Nemean Lion. As he revealed to Sentry, he stopped wearing it because it gives his opponents something to grab onto.
* **Sword of Peleus:**
* **Golden Mace:**
* **Wooden Club:**
* **Bow & Arrows of Heracles:** A bow with arrows dipped in Hydra blood, which is very poisonous, even gods fear it. Hercules has refused to use his bow after the incident with Nessus.

## Feats

### Strength

* Briefly bore Atlas’ celestial burden, holding up the weight of the universe, which is described as having infinite mass
* Claims to have enough power to shake the universe

## Weaknesses

* **Hydra Blood:** The Blood of the Hydra is deadly and was used by one of Hercules' wives, Deianira, to kill him in the days of Ancient Greece, though she was unaware of this fact. Ares later used hollow point bullets filled with Hydra blood while trying to take Hercules down as he knew they could harm, though not kill him, and also drove him into a rage due to the pain.
* **Alcoholism:** Hercules has been shown to be a heavy drinker and to also rely on alcohol to help him deal with grief and guilt. When he does not possess his immortality, and thus his tolerance for alcohol is lowered, this can devolve into a problem and dependence.
* **Rage:** When Hercules enters into a true rage whether it be through his own anger, a manipulation or pain he becomes unable to fully control himself and unable to tell his past from his present and his friends from enemies; this can include vivid and manipulatable hallucinations. While raging, Hercules has harmed, killed and endangered his loved ones.