12 Superheroes Ranked By Science (From Lame To Awesome)

3. Thor

Aside from his magnificent nostril flaring abilities, one of Thor's major powers comes in the form of his trusty hammer, Mjolnir.

In the name of not-being-too-much-of-a-d*ck, the scientists take it as read that the hammer has a magical "worthiness" enchantment on it, and concern themselves more with just how much it would sting if he threw it at you.

In the paper, after establishing the Mjolnir is probably made out of iron from the heart of a red dwarf, they calculate the amount of kinetic energy that Thor would be able to draw from lightning storms. The numbers they end up with are colossal.

They calculate that, if Thor were able to redirect a continuous flow of lightning strikes from the thunderstorm he could attack with a power output reaching 2 x 1012 W. To put that into some context, that is about 100 time more power than is produced in the largest nuclear reactor currently in operation.

He is a god after all.

Read more:

Vol 13, No 1 (2014), PST, The Power of Mjolnir