One of the most fun things in superhero comics is getting a glimpse at the future. Since the primary timeline is always on a sliding timescale, these brief (and sometimes not so brief) looks into the world of tomorrow is sometimes the best chance fans are going to get at seeing how certain characters’ lives eventually turn out. Will they have found a way to cheat the end through magic or technology? Have they been replaced by someone else taking on their mantle? Did they fall in battle as a hero, or snap and decide to reign over a ruined tomorrow without anyone being capable of stopping them? Without being restrained by the current continuity, futuristic stories can go anywhere and do anything.
Along those same lines, since these characters aren’t constrained by having to tell stories with them every month, creative teams can go all out with their abilities, making futuristic versions of heroes drastically more powerful than their predecessors or past selves and allowing them to really cut loose. Or they can show how even without the same incredible powers of the heroes of old, characters in the future have that same, unbreakable heroic spirit against the same incredible odds. For this list, we’re looking at 20 different heroes -- all from futuristic timelines -- and evaluating how they stack up to the versions we’re the most used to. So get ready for all the grizzled old people, heroes turned into supervillains, and children picking up their parents’ mantles you can handle.
20 STRONGER: KING THOR
A version of Thor from the far-flung future, long after Earth has become a smoking ruin and many of the gods have passed away. King Thor possesses all the power of his younger self and then some, taking on his father Odin's role and ruling over Asgard.
He regularly accomplishes the impossible even compared to his time in the Avengers, defeating threats like Galactus and Gorr the God-Butcher like they're simply one more adventure in the book of his life story. He even eventually brings life back to the destroyed Midgard alongside his three daughters, truly embracing his role as not just a god, but the All-Father.
19 WEAKER: OLD MAN LOGAN
In the far future, Wolverine's greatest villain actually turns out to be... Mysterio. It sounds a little crazy, but Mysterio somehow managed to come up with a way to trick all of Wolverine's senses, convincing him he was surrounded by his enemies when he was actually around fellow X-Men.
Wolverine took down all of his friends without realizing it, and afterwards gave up on his life as the Wolverine for years until forced to return thanks to the actions of the Hulk Gang. Having said that, with an extra few decades on him this absolutely isn't the Logan of old. His healing factor isn't what it once was, and while he's still an impressive fighter, it's dulled by so many years of inaction.
18 STRONGER: MAESTRO
Why do heroes always seem to be the most powerful whenever they go bad? Introduced in Peter David and George Perez's The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect #1, Maestro is the Hulk from a timeline where nuclear war wiped out most of the humans on Earth. The excess radiation drove the Hulk mad and he took over the planet, restoring some semblance of society.
Having absorbed a hundred years worth of radiation, this version of the Hulk is vastly more powerful than most other versions of the character from the past, and even keeps his exact same intelligence, making him nearly unstoppable.
17 WEAKER: KEVIN MASTERSON (THUNDERSTRIKE)
Though the original Thunderstrike was arguably Thor's equal -- especially since for a time he was actually merged with Thor and had mystical mace made of Uru even afterwards -- it's a bit harder to make that argument for his son. In the MC2 alternate future, Kevin eventually takes over the role of Thunderstrike after his father, gaining a measure of super-strength and the ability to generate seismic blasts.
But this is only a fraction of the true power his father was capable of wielding, largely because Eric's mace was enchanted to only be used by his father, making him nowhere near as strong as his dad, much less the god of Thunder.
16 STRONGER: IRON MAN, SORCERER SUPREME
There's something oddly appealing in the idea of the man most devoted to science one day turning to the thing he understands the least and deciding to master that as well. That's why in several timelines we've seen a version of Tony Stark that becomes the Sorcerer Supreme.
In the most recent one, during Brian Bendis and Andrea Sorrentino's All-New X-Men Annual #1, Tony manages to convince the governments of the world to stop spending money on military, and with the help of a few other people humanity finally reaches world peace. But Tony doesn't seem satisfied with merely surpassing himself as Iron Man, but decides to surpass Stephen Strange as well, becoming Sorcerer Supreme of the entire galaxy.
15 WEAKER: MAINFRAME
In the future, the Avengers eventually disband and Tony Stark stops wearing the Iron Man armor. But believing the world still needed an Iron Man, he came up with a solution: create an android with his brain patterns and stick it in a permanent Iron Man suit. Called Mainframe, this version of Iron Man would go on to lead the Avengers of Spider-Girl's timeline.
Now while Mainframe is from the future, it lacks the same versatility its creator has in being able to create new suits that adapt to any task. Instead, he briefly has the ability to download his brain into identical versions of armor if one gets destroyed... and eventually they even take that ability away from him.
14 STRONGER: DANIELLE CAGE
First appearing in Avengers: Ultron Forever, Danielle Cage is from an unspecified number of years in the future. The child of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, she makes clear she's inherited both of her parents' powersets, meaning she has every bit the unbreakable skin and super-strength of the original Power Man.
Though her shield is fake -- a voice operated drone that's merely modeled after the original Cap's shield, when you're already invulnerable having a shield that does the same isn't as important. Having hopped through time and fought everything from All-Father Ultron to a rip-off of the Red Skull with a time pirate gimmick, Danielle seems about as well-suited to the hero life as both of her parents.
13 WEAKER: IRON LAD
Iron Lad is Nathaniel Richards, a young boy from the future who's meant to grow up to become Kang the Conqueror. Kang saves his past self from an attack by some bullies, only to show off his successes to his younger self and unwittingly convince him to never want to become Kang.
Technically this means he doesn't count since Kang's the future version of him, but Iron Lad's still from the future, right? Anyway, though Iron Lad's futuristic armor makes him into a fairly impressive hero, he's still light-years behind the tech of Kang, also lacking the villain's mastery over time.
12 STRONGER: DARKDEVIL
Darkdevil is weirdly connected to both Spider-Man and Daredevil, due to being the son of Peter Parker clone Ben Reilly and having the soul of Matt Murdock trapped inside of him thanks to a weird ritual to stop the cellular degeneration he was experiencing as the child of a clone.
The result is that he's an improved version of both -- he has many of the same spider-powers you'd expect like agility and super-strength, but he also has Matt Murdock's battle abilities. But even better? Because he has part of a demon (don't ask) inside him, he can also teleport and set random parts of his body on fire. A little over the top, but he was made in the '90s.
11 WEAKER: THOR 2099
Cecil McAdam is a member of the Church of Thor, a group of people who believe the missing thunder god would one day return. Unbeknownst to them all though, Thor is a product of the corporation Alchemax, engineering people capable of resembling the gods themselves.
While this version of Thor is absolutely powerful, boasting many of the same abilities as the original hero, the fact remains that his hammer is a fake. Diet Thor here is a close approximation of the real thing, but he still can't quite measure up. Fortunately they eventually find the actual Mjolnir and pass it to someone useful.
10 STRONGER: MC2 JAMES RHODES
In Spider-Girl's MC2 future, James Rhodes gets a major power increase. In the future, Tony Stark gains access to some powerful nanites that he initially intends to test on himself before using them to help with a problem. Ever the good friend, Rhodey decides to test them first -- they make him invulnerable to nearly all injury, and grant him the ability to fire energy beams.
Unfortunately, the nanites also wind up doing quite the number on his brain, turning him into a humanoid robot after several years, leaving him to serve only as Tony's bodyguard. Though he's vastly stronger than he was as War Machine, his powers come at a high price.
9 WEAKER: COAL TIGER
With a name inspired by the original name Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had for Black Panther, the MC2 timeline takes his name much more literally. The son of T'Challa, Prince T'Chaka II, is capable of transforming into a werecat. Coal Tiger possesses some of the same abilities as his father, including enhanced agility and strength, along with some his father doesn't have without his costume -- like his powerful razor claws.
But he does seem to lack some of the training of his father, and moreover certainly lacks T'Challa's vibranium armor and the other advanced technology he carries with him. Still, he becomes a valuable member of the A-Next group after helping to rescue them all from a group of villains known as the Revengers.
8 STRONGER: DEMIURGE
Whether you look at it from the angle of Wiccan being better as he gets older or him simply being a better version of his mom, Billy Kaplan absolutely deserves a spot on this list. While Scarlet Witch could merely alter the probability of certain things happening with her mutant power, Billy can downright reshape reality itself with his magic powers.
Even as a teen he's already acknowledged as one of the most powerful mages in the Marvel Universe, and that's without acknowledging his future. Eventually, Wiccan becomes the Demiurge, a being able to change the very laws of magic themselves on a whim, and examine and alter all of spacetime on a whim.
7 WEAKER: SPIDER-MAN 2099
Miguel O'Hara was a geneticist who had his DNA partially altered to resemble that of a spider against his will. Afterwards, he gained powers remarkably similar to Peter Parker, powers that could be described as the usual "proportionate strength and speed" of a spider.
In theory that should make him roughly equal to his predecessor from the other end of the century, but Miguel's lacking the all-important Spider-Sense that Pete has, meaning he has to deal with everything through pure reaction time, to say nothing of not having the same years of experience that come from being Spider-Man from a teenager well into your late 20s.
6 STRONGER: AZARI (BLACK PANTHER)
If you don't recognize Azari that's understandable -- he was one of the Avengers who popped up during Bendis' Next Avengers at the dawn of the Heroic Age back in 2010, alongside a handful of other kids who were the last line of defense against Ultron after he'd basically taken over and laid waste to most of the hero population.
As the son of Black Panther and Storm, Azari got all the benefits of T'Challa's exposure to the heart-shaped herb, and if that wasn't enough he also picked up the ability to control and generate electricity. It’s not complete weather control, but it’s still enough to put him over dear old dad.
5 WEAKER: SPIDER-GIRL
As the daughter of Peter Parker, Mayday inherited many of her father's abilities, and in some ways she will eventually surpass her dad since she has his experience and guidance to rely on as well as what she's survived herself.
And for sure, her Spider-Sense is actually drastically superior to Peter's, helping her not only to discern danger, but to differentiate between different types of harm, root out whether or not someone's lying to her, and more. What holds her back from being on the other end of this list is that her strength isn't quite at the level of her father's. Well, at least she's better liked than her dad.
4 STRONGER: SPEED
Finding out you've got a twin brother is hard enough. Finding that out plus learning you've got superpowers because you're one of the reincarnated sons of the Scarlet Witch and Vision seems like it'd be harder, so all things considered Tommy Shepherd's been handling that pretty well.
He's become a founding member of the Young Avengers, standing alongside them through everything from the Civil War to Dark Reign and beyond. While his brother seems to have inherited their mother's magical abilities, Tommy seems to be more like Pietro -- not quite as fast (yet), but he's also got super-strength, making him all around more powerful than his quick-footed uncle.
3 WEAKER: SPIDER-MAN: REIGN
This feels like cheating a little bit since Spider-Man: Reign is set 30 years into the future with a Spider-Man that's in his late 60s or early 70s. The story features a Peter Parker who has given up on being Spider-Man, but is gradually dragged back into life as a superhero in order to fight against a corrupt government and its controlling police force known as "The Reign".
For sure, this version of Pete is a little slower, and probably not nearly as strong, but he still manages to take down a version of the Sinister Six and restore some semblance of order to the city.
2 STRONGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA 2099
In the one-shot comic 2099: Manifest Destiny by Len Kaminski and Mike McKone, the Spider-Man of a hundred years into the future managed to find the original Captain America. Intending to find the answer to what lead to a prior societal collapse in order to avoid a new one, eventually Miguel would ask this Cap to pick up the walking stick of Donald Blake, using it's power to transform him into the next Thor.
In this form, Cap managed to retain the power of the Super Soldier Serum but also channeled the power of the god of Thunder himself, right down to the absurd chain metal armor and floofy cape.
1 WEAKER: AMERICAN DREAM
In the MC2 timeline it's not exactly as if heroes are hard to come by -- that's kind of the point, it's one of the few futures where heroes are as plentiful there as they are in the present. But what is a little more difficult to manage is finding heroes with the same level of powers as their predecessors.
Take Shannon Carter, for instance -- the cousin of Sharon, she was invited to join the Avengers and did tons of training, created her own costume taking after Cap, and eventually even attained the original shield. But while she's got all of the traits that made the original Cap such an inspiration, unfortunately she's lacking the Super Soldier Serum that elevated Steve into the superhuman he was.