Marvel has a rich cosmology, one that is full of gods- gods from Earth’s mythological past and gods created just for the comics. All-powerful cosmic beings who bestride the cosmos. Other times, heroes and villains of all kinds gain godlike power, with wide-ranging consequences. Some of these gods are superlatively powerful and are grave threats, while others are weaker but still pretty formidable; they are, after all, gods.
However, strong or weak, many of these gods are actually pretty easy to beat. In fact, some of them have proven embarrassingly easy to defeat, even after their threat was built up to epic proportions.
10 Knull Was Beaten By A Teenager
Knull was the most recent evil god to attack the Earth. The lord of the symbiotes’ initial attack against humanity was actually pretty successful, which is pretty weird when one realizes that symbiotes are actually pretty easy to deal with. However, the icing on the easy-to-beat cake was how he was eventually defeated.
Dylan Brock, the son of Venom, was born with some symbiote controlling abilities and he was able to somehow break Knull’s control over the symbiotes, which resulted in his downfall. Even if Dylan hadn’t done that, light a big enough fire and Knull would have been toast.
9 Onslaught Went Down Surprisingly Easy
Onslaught’s attack on the Marvel Universe was pretty devastating at first– he beat the X-Men, released a fleet of reprogrammed Sentinels, and then took over New York City. These blitz attacks made him seem like a huge threat and while he did keep the heroes on the ropes for a while, his final defeat came pretty easily.
To begin with, the Hulk was able to smash through his armor, tapping into reservoirs of power few knew he had at that point. Onslaught became energy but the human heroes were able to take in his energy while the mutants ones, who couldn’t do the same, attacked and destroyed him. While it was a bit complicated, in the end, he was beaten by just being attacked with sufficient power while vulnerable, so not too impressive.
8 Cul Borson Died Of A Stab Wound
Cul Borson was the Asgardian god of fear. Sometimes known as the Serpent, he attacked the Earth, giving out powerful hammers that took control of their bearers, who would be known as the Worthy. Like many gods attacking Earth, he made a good showing of himself at first but his death was anti-climactic at best.
Cul transformed into a giant serpent and battled against Thor, who killed Borson with the Odinsword. Which, sure, is a magic sword but that doesn’t change that he went down to a sword wound.
7 God Emperor Doom Went Out With A Whimper
Doctor Doom has gained godlike power several times and has actually often used that power to save all of creation. One of those times was after the Incursions, when Doom used the power of the Molecule Man to save portions of the Multiverse, melding them together. However, some thought Doom ruling was a bad idea and eventually, it came down to a battle between Reed Richards and Doom.
Molecule Man stripped Doom of his powers and the two men fought, with the fight ending when they both admitted that Reed would have done a better job than Doom. Basically, as usual, Reed would have been able to beat Doom no matter what.
6 Odin Dies Every Few Years
Odin is the head of the Norse gods and is talked up like he’s a big deal. The bearer of the Odinforce and various other formidable weapons and powers with his name in them, Odin is supposedly the most powerful of the Norse gods and yet it seems like the only thing he’s actually good at is dying. A lot.
Odin gets killed and replaced as king of Asgard by Thor (or, on occasion, Balder) every couple of years and then is resurrected, becoming king again. It’s usually in some epic battle, one that he loses but Thor eventually wins. It’s like clockwork.
5 Loki Usually Loses By Getting Punched A Lot
Loki is one of the greatest villains in the Marvel Universe but like most villains, he’s not exactly hard to defeat. Loki’s schemes sometimes take a bit to unravel, his magic is pretty strong, and he’s more of a physical threat than most people imagine. But for someone who likes to play up his godhood, he gets beat on a lot.
In fact, if one were to pinpoint a weakness for Loki, it would be simply fists. It doesn’t take some special weapon to put him down or anything like that. Loki loses because he gets beaten into submission which, as far as gods go, is a pretty pedestrian weakness.
4 Thor’s Loses More Than People Realize
Rounding out the Norse god hall of shame is Thor. Now, yes, Thor is tough; he’s the muscles of the Avengers and has made the difference in many fights but he’s also taken a lot of beatings. Much like his father and brother, those losses are also pretty run of the mill. While it takes a high-caliber opponent to beat him, it not only happens but it happens pretty easily.
Lots of villains have beaten Thor. For that matter, lots of heroes have too. Thor can take a beating but once he gets beat on enough, he goes down. It’s just a matter of applying the right amount of power which has proven pretty easy over the years.
3 Beyonder Talks A Big Game But Goes Down Easily
The Beyonder’s first appearance was all about him telling everyone how he was from beyond and that his power was greater than anything they could imagine. Then, Doctor Doom modified his armor a little and drained his power. This being claims to be from beyond everything, with a power unlike any in the universe but a really smart guy in cool armor can take his power away.
The Beyonder is undoubtedly powerful but his losses are kind of pathetic. It’s doubly mystifying in that he’s called the Beyonder and his power is supposedly so beyond anything else in the universe. He shouldn’t even be phased by anything but that’s not the case at all.
2 Thanos Gains Godhood A Lot And Loses It Really Easily
Thanos isn’t a god all the time but when he is, he actually is easier to beat, which is just bizarre. Sure, he does a lot of damage with his godlike power, like in the classic Infinity Gauntlet, but people forget how easily he was beaten in that story- because of his hubris, he left his body to become the new Eternity and a ravaged Nebula was able to take the Gauntlet from him.
That’s indicative of how easy it is to beat Thanos when he has the power of a god. He always does a lot of damage but then does something dumb, giving his opponents an opening to defeat him.
1 Galactus Isn’t As Formidable As He Seems
Galactus is one of the most powerful cosmic beings in the Marvel Universe and while he doesn’t lose a lot, when he does, it’s not super difficult to beat him. In his first appearance, he lost because the Fantastic Four got their hands on the Ultimate Nullifier. Which he brought with him. He brought the method of his defeat, one of the things he was scared of, with him. What did he expect to happen?
Another time, he came to Earth when he was weak from hunger to eat it, apparently forgetting the many powerful heroes there who would fight back against him. So, yes, Galactus is amazingly powerful but for one of the oldest beings in creation, he makes some pretty basic mistakes.
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