Warning: Spoilers for Avengers Assemble #5Thor’s best friend and most challenging rival. The two gods have spent centuries testing their might against the other. Despite Hercules’s demi-god origins, he has never refused to challenge Thor to a competition of strength and power. The Asgardian god has often jested that his Olympian nephew could never wield his magnificent thunder. However, Hercules just proved Thor wrong.

In Avengers Assemble #5 by Steve Orlando and José Luís, the Avengers Emergency Response Squad wages an assault against the Serpent Society in hopes of liberating Captain America from his scaly new reptile form. As the heroes take on their serpentine enemies, the enemy forces quickly stand against the heroes.

No longer interested in playing mortals’ games, Hercules requests that the electrified hero Lightning pump him with as much electricity as Lightning can create. In the face of Lightning’s doubt, Hercules bravely absorbs all the wild energy, unleashing a furious wave of electricity as if Thor himself.

Hercules Wields the Power of One Thousand Lightning Strikes

Avengers Assemble #5 by Steve Orlando, José Luís, Oren Junior, Sonia Oback, and Cory Petit

Born into the world of mortals with the blood of gods running in his veins, Hercules endured an uphill battle to prove that he was just as much a god as his father. While he long ago achieved full godhood, there is still a clear gap between Hercules and his father Zeus, let alone Thor. Fortunately, the rivalry between Thor and Hercules is one of equals. As the child of the God of Weather, Hercules playfully jaunts that he could exceed Thor’s mantle and replace him as the next God of Thunder.

However, joke as he might, Hercules is still a god playing at mortal life. While his fellow Avengers are knocking their way through enemies, all Hercules needs is a single strike to level the battlefield. Despite Hercules’s strength, Lightning is concerned that the Greek god could not withstand his full electrical current. Lightning warns Hercules that he’ll be absorbing three hundred billion volts of electricity, one thousand times more powerful than the average lightning bolt. Hercules scoffs at the challenge, thinking of nothing more than their mission.

Hercules Is the God of Strength, Enduring Any Challenge Thrown at Him

Thor and Hercules Are Rivals for Good Reason

The electricity nearly tears Hercules apart as the might of a thousand lightning strikes pierce through his body. While the Serpent Society believes Hercules to have made a cheap Hail Mary play, the god knows his might. All it takes is one hit. Rising above his allies in a show of a god’s true might, Hercules releases all of Lightning’s electricity, unleashing a ground-shattering explosion of power. As his serpentine foes lay defeated on the ground, Hercules remains standing, still crackling with lightning as he recalls the first snakes he ever killed.

No matter the challenge, it is in Hercules’s godly nature to rise up to it and exceed expectations.

Hercules may not be the God of Thunder, but he is the God of Strength. Herc is defined by his endurance, rising to the level of power needed to defeat an enemy. His lack of fantastical powers makes him look weak as a god, but his true might is hidden within the mountains of muscle that make up his body. No matter the challenge, it is in Hercules’s godly nature to rise up to it and exceed expectations. Pantheons and powers may divide them, but there’s a reason Thor considers Hercules his greatest rival.

Avengers Assemble #5 is available now from Marvel Comics.