Marvel Confirms Its Power Ratings No Longer Make Any Sense
Warning: Contains spoilers for Iron Man #18
The Marvel Comics Universe used to have precise power ratings that put even its strongest beings into a measurable, coherent scale, but that seems to no longer be the case. In Iron Man #18, by Christopher Cantwell, Lan Medina, and Frank D'Armata, the villain Korvac proved it by boasting of easily taking out two of the most powerful Marvel comics beings.
In the 1980s and 1990s, power ratings used to be important among fans. The Marvel Super Heroes trading cards were incredibly popular in the 1990s, and each character had his own stats with a numerical value. The various editions of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe also had powers and abilities rated (ranging from «normal» to «immeasurable»), and even someone like the Beyonder, a creature that is almost omnipotent, had his stats measured. This tendency faded away in the following decade, but rankings remained important in one Marvel niche: the cosmic beings. The supreme creatures that regulate the Marvel Universe always operated in a clear ladder, with powerful but yet mortal beings such as Galactus and the Watcher at the bottom, and the personification of abstract concepts, such as Eternity, at the top. Above them all stood the Living Tribunal, the supreme judge of all realities, but Marvel just got rid of that too.
Related: Galactus is an Ant Compared to One Classic Marvel Character
In recent Iron Man stories, Tony Stark struggled to stop the nefarious plans of Korvac, the android from a future timeline. Korvac was able to infiltrate Galactus' mothership and tapped into the source of the Power Cosmic, becoming a god. To stop him, Iron Man followed him, acquired the same power, turned into the Iron God, and engaged
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