Marvel's heroes are an incredibly potent bunch. It's a good thing, too, as the villains of the Marvel Universe provide them with constant challenges. Over the years, the villains have often gotten stronger, meaning the heroes have to up their game as well. There are many Marvel heroes who have gained more and more power as time has passed.
If readers call it 'power creep,' so be it. Whether they are mastering their powers, gaining new ones, or simply getting better, these heroes have kept up with the Super-Joneses. Their greater strength has often made them better at their jobs, and a greater force for their foes to fear.
10 Captain America's Strength Has Grown Over The Years
Captain America's powers make for an interesting case study. For years, it was established that the Super Soldier serum didn't give him superhuman strength and speed but peak human strength and speed. Cap's body became a perfect human specimen. So, while many of his feats seemed superhuman, they were not.
However, as the years have gone by Cap has pulled off some feats of strength that would be rather improbable for someone without super strength. Some of this is just writers and artists taking license and some of this is because of his portrayal in the MCU, where he's definitely a superhuman.
9 Spider-Man Has Been Pushing His Limits Almost Since The Beginning
Spider-Man's strength has definitely benefited from the passage of time. It was once established that Spider-Man's limit was lifting about ten tons. While this is a massive amount, there have been times when he went way over that, stopping speeding subway trains, and lifting up massive amounts of debris that he was trapped under.
Spider-Man is basically as powerful as he needs to be for a story to work, and that's often meant that he gets stronger. On top of that, his feats of speed and agility have grown as well, making him an all-around better hero.
8 Hank Pym Has Come A Long Way
Hank Pym started his superhero career as Ant-Man. While he would get smaller, his muscle mass would stay the same, something that made shrinking more useful than it seemed. Eventually, he'd create Pym Particles that allowed him to grow in size and strength, finally making him a titan on the battlefield. Later, he'd incorporate his best technology into the Yellowjacket suit, his most powerful incarnation.
As Yellowjacket, Hank could shrink, grow, fire energy blasts like the Wasp, and fly. It's his most potent mix of powers and foes know he's serious when he busts out that suit. Regardless, even as Giant-Man or Goliath, Pym's power is about growing in strength, literally.
7 Scarlet Witch Went From Useful To Godlike
Scarlet Witch is one of Marvel's most powerful heroes, but it wasn't always that way. When she first appeared, her powers were probability-based. She would manifest hex spheres that would influence the probability of events happening around her. After joining the Avengers, she began studying magic and her powers started to change.
Now, her abilities have been revealed to be about altering reality, which makes sense. She can pretty much do anything she puts her mind to, which has been both a help and hindrance to her friends in the Avengers.
6 Jubilee Has Spent Years Mastering Her Powers
Jubilee has been with the X-Men for a long time. In that period, she's gotten a lot better with her powers. At first, they were merely pretty lights that packed the same punch as a firecracker but as the years went by and she gained more mastery with them, they became a potent offensive weapon. On M-Day, she lost her powers but later became a vampire.
She'd lose her vampiric abilities and regain her mutant powers, becoming a bigger deal in the Krakoa era mutant scene. Jubilee's entire life has been about getting stronger and stronger, becoming a more formidable mutant hero.
5 Captain Marvel's Powers Have Grown Exponentially Over The Years
Carol Danvers is one of the most powerful people to take up the Captain Marvel mantle. Danvers' powers have been changing since the beginning. As Ms. Marvel, she was powerful but nowhere near where she is now. After Rogue drained her powers, she gained even more potent energy powers, becoming Binary. Eventually, she'd return to her older baseline but her powers were in flux for a long time.
They'd eventually stabilize and begin to grow, becoming greater and greater. As Captain Marvel, she's at her most powerful, combining the best of her Binary powers with even greater strength, durability, and speed.
4 Elizabeth Braddock Went From Psylocke To Captain Britain
Elizabeth Braddock's time as a hero has been confusing at best, but one thing that's clear is that she's at the height of her powers right now. Braddock started her heroic life as Psylocke, her powerful psionic powers making her a potent force. She switched bodies with Hand assassin Kwannon, gaining ninja skills and taking on powerful telekinetic abilities while losing her telepathic ones. Braddock later regained her telepathy and her original body and has recently, and not for the first time, become Captain Britain.
As Captain Britain, she has all of her mental powers and the super strength, speed, durability, and flight that comes with the job. She's always been tough, but as Captain Britain, she's become greater than she ever would have otherwise.
3 Wolverine Keeps Getting Better
Wolverine is the best there is at what he does and that makes him one of the most dangerous mutants on Earth. Wolverine's healing factor has grown much stronger as the years have gone by, which has made his fights a lot easier. Most wounds heal within seconds and he can regenerate his entire body in a day or two if need be.
On top of that, he's gotten physically stronger. Wolverine's original strength was enhanced but it wasn't exactly superhuman and that seems to have changed. All in all, Wolverine is a much stronger hero than he ever was before.
2 Iron Man's Power Growth Is Built In- Literally
Tony Stark is a notorious tinkerer. The Iron Man armor has always been a work in progress, as Stark incorporates more and more bleeding-edge technology into it. Each successive suit is stronger than the one that came before it and that's not counting his specialty armors, which are designed to do things the standard suits can't.
This has allowed Iron Man to keep up with some of the most powerful Avengers and their foes. Iron Man may be one of the shadier heroes in the Marvel Universe but he's tough enough that people will keep him around regardless of his wrongdoings.
1 The Hulk Is The Strongest One There Is
There have been many versions of the Hulk, each with differences from the other. One thing that stays the same is their strength. The Hulk is the strongest being on Earth and even villains who have been around the block, like Thanos, fear the Hulk. The reason for that is simple: the Hulk's strength is potentially infinite.
Hulk's powers basically revolve around him getting stronger and stronger. The madder he gets, the stronger he gets and there's no upper limit to his rage. Anyone who can't beat the Hulk quickly can't beat him at all because, eventually, he's going to become too strong for them to deal with.