It is often debated between Captain America fans and comic book readers just what classification he falls into. Marvel officially lists him as a Peak Human, with many Captain America fans insisting he must belong to a higher classification because of his feats.

We can see here from the most recent Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry for Captain America, from 2011 that he is considered peak, which means he can press 800lbs.

It has to be noted however, that 800lbs is not the overall limit of what he character can lift, nor is this what is being applied. When the entry mentions Steve can lift 800lbs, this means Steve can lift 800lbs according to the Marvel Strength Scale.

Quoting how the Marvel Strength Scale is defined:

The purpose of this Strength Scale is to, eventually, put all the characters of the Marvel Universe in order, by raw physical strength.

This includes the amount of weight each listed character can lift over his/her head with arms fully extended based upon information taken out of the various printings of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and other encyclopedic comic books styled after the OHOTMU.

The reason this is noteworthy, is because many Captain America fans will argue that the character is Enhanced or even Super Human when it comes to strength, because there are feats (albeit not numerous or consistent) that show him lifting far more than 800lbs.

Well, that just makes sense. The type of exercise described in the quoted passage above used for the Marvel Strength Scale is called a military or overhead press. Generally, people training equally across the board will be able to lift 2/3rds of what they can bench press and less than half of what they can deadlift.

This site illustrates this principle nicely: http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/StrengthStandards.htm

It shows for example that a male weighing 320lbs can press 285lbs, bench press 420lbs and deadlift 615lbs.

This means that if Captain America lifts 800lbs in an overhead press, he should be able to bench around 1200lbs and deadlift around 1700lbs.

Whenever you see pictures like the one to the left, it is actually helping to support the point that Captain America is in the peak classification for strength.

For Captain America to be considered anything other than Peak, at least when it comes to strength, he would need to be shown lifting around the 2000 pound mark. To my knowledge, there is nothing even close to that.

So, can we please stop insisting that Captain America is more than peak when it comes to strength, since there is absolutely nothing to back it up?

I don't think he's peak human I think the correct tearm would be enhanced human due to the Super Solider Serum in his body.

@tg1982: Thanks, hoping this can be a reference of sorts,

As a life-long comics reader and weightlifter, I agree.

Nice write-up.

@powerherc: Thanks :)

@muyjingo: You're welcome.

I enjoyed reading what you wrote. It was accurate and well written.

Sir would you like to be educated on something?

In the movies, he can curl a helicopter. So basing it off on this: https://www.t-nation.com/training/how-much-can-you-lift-wimp

He can deadlift 10k pounds. That's how much an elephant seal weighs.

So imagine a guy who is build like a 190lb guy with muscles and Central Nervous System so strong he can deadlift 10k pounds (estimated) and can move and react better than any Olympic athlete, boxer.. and fight better than an MMA fighter (athletically) and is a good a hand to hand combatant as Israeli Commandos...

He's defo holding back when fighting people lol. If he's pissed, he could punch an elephant and KILL IT! Dude is holding back in the movies for real... Or those guys he's kicking are REALLY dead. His kicks and punches are worse than grenades and rocket launchers. The whole impact and force... Wow. Means that he also has great control over his strength.

Still super-human

@muyjingo: Wrong, Cap is enhanced beyond peak human strength , it is very obvious that he is, that picture you showed shows Cap bench pressing 2200 lbs , remember its the same weight on each side and a peak human can only lift about 800lbs to 1000lbs , Peak humans are guys like Batman, Daredevil , Nightwing , Punisher, Jason Todd , Iron fist. Batman even fucked up his shoulder trying to lift 600lbs one time , if Cap tried doing that nothing would happen to him. Also Cap always and I mean ALWAYS holds back, he has 100% control over his strength, doesn't mean he's peak, the proper term for Cap is enhanced. In his profile in the Earth 616 page it doesn't say '' Peak Human Strength '' , it clearly saids '' Enhanced strength ''.

http://s498.photobucket.com/user/darthgoober/media/SecretDefenders07-03.jpg.html < - That pictures shows Cap lifting a giant tree over his head , regular tree can weigh from 2,000 to 5,000 lbs.

http://s1204.photobucket.com/user/raykongs/media/Cappullsdownhelicopter_zpsa193ea57.png.html <- Cap pulling a small helicopter down with two people in the inside.

http://comicsmedia.ign.com/comics/image/article/810/810592/captain-america-the-chosen-20070803070713618.jpg <- Cap grabbing a huge piece of concrete and throws it at a sniper at far distance.

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/10/101999/3700288-3696589-cap%2Bfeat%2Bstrength%2Bvs%2Brubble.png <- Cap holding up a car attached to a huge piece of concrete.

https://www.google.com/search?q=captain+america+holds+motorcycle+over+his+head+comics&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=662&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiYmI641qvSAhWCv1QKHTgkCtwQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=captain+america+strength+feats+comics&*&imgrc=h9fpgPNNTQ7RFM: <- Cap has enough strength to hurt a Superhuman Kree alien who is obviously stronger then he is.

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/10/101999/3031680-captainamerica_vol3_10_03.jpg <- Cap using his shield and overall brute strength to support a collapsing sky scraper and the only hope he had was his shield and strength.

The fact of the matter is Cap has more than enough feats to put his strength in the 5-10 ton range and the fact that Cap can keep working out and keep gaining muscle will just make him stronger, Im not being a conspiracist here but I feel this was made to try and make a case that Batman has equal strength to Cap which is not true , Bat fans will try to make a case for Batman beating Cap but it won't happen. Cap isn't only stronger then him but he's faster then him , Cap can run 30 Mph like he's jogging regularly , he pushes himself and his speeds increase to 60-80 Mph and his reflexes are so augmented that he can literally see bullets coming out of multiple shooters guns and can dodged them easily. Cap has basically superhuman durability and endurance, Cap regularly survies falls from 200+ feet , has shrugged off bullets and knife wounds , has taken hits from Superhumans like Namor, Thor and Hulk , has survived explosions before with no injury and it should be noted that a lot of these feats we're without his shield but a shield can really only do so much , Cap has even taken a blast from Air Walker who is a Herald of Galactus , Thor and Iron man even took the hits and it was 3 hits and in the end it was Cap who was helping them walk.

Cap can also heal faster then he can.

Caps mind works faster , you think Batmans has a photo graphic memory? Cap will smirk at that.

Cap also has his form of longevity , he can live without visibly aging.

Cap can't get affected by gasses or telepathic attacks.

Cap is one of the only humans worthy enough to wield Mjonir , as a matter of fact Thor said that he wants Cap to the new Thor if something happens to the new one.

Cap is the greatest tactian in Marvel.

Your not about to try and nerf Captain America because there's no way you can't , people know too much about him. He's the superior.

@theenhanced:

I'm pretty sure @muyjingo 's intent wasn't to "nerf" Captain America. I don't necessarily agree with his conclusion, but it's pretty clear he was simply trying to give an assessment based on what he found in that bio.

@heroup2112: His assessment is obviously wrong, I mean the information picture he posted doesn't even say anything about Steve's overall strength, In the earth 616 wiki pages it clearly saids that Captain America is '' Enhanced'' , it doesn't say '' Peak human strength '' it saids '' Enhanced Strength '' . Also there are countless of feats that put Caps strength beyond Peak human , like I don't even know why the hell this is being discussed like its debatable. the only reason I can find its him trying to nerf Caps strength to make Batmans strength Equal or at least close to equal to Cap which IT ISN'T . Cap has shown plenty of times that he has superior strength to Batman , on the level of Deathstroke.

As I've said, I don't AGREE with his assessment. Unless this use has a history of comparing Cap to Batman, I don't understand the correlation as he doesn't mention Batman in his post. If he DOES have such a history, consider me uninformed :).

@heroup2112: You are misinformed bro, I saw him in another forum and its very Pro-Batman , check it for yourself. One guy in a forum even said Batman can press 2000 which is again a lie, his max is 1,000lbs , while Cap is in the 5-10 ton range.

@theenhanced: this thread is old, no worries. It's already been disproven also.

@slimj87d: Good , how does one start a forum here ? Im new to this, I want to make a forum that proves that Daredevil has equal physicals to Batman when it comes to strength, and is faster then Batman.

And knowing is half the battle. Thanks :)

Actually, Cap is superhuman in every physical way.

@theenhanced: search for Daredevil, click his forum and then make a new thread in the DD forum.

Or go here

http://comicvine.gamespot.com/daredevil/4005-24694/forums/

It will still be shown in the "ALL FORUMS" section for everyone also.

Stop with the Cap being peak human bulls*it

Captain America is high end peak human military pressing 800 labs overhead. A peak human is someone that can lift double their bodyweight it range from 400 to 800 pounds characters such has Daredevil, Nick fury and Punisher or low level peak human.

Different lifting movement requires different strength.

https://imgur.com/a/oeIOC Seems like he's stronger than that

@juliustakalua: But that's based off the movies, not the comic books. And the stuff coming off from the MCU is not the exact same as the comics.

No. He’s not peak human. Stop with your lies

Cap is superhuman strength in the comics and can go at least 2 tons. He's even more powerful in MCU

@dangannopoopoo: Dude..

@danii79: Dude........

@geekylord13: That image was canon on earth 616 bud.

Captain America is Superhuman but in the past he was written as Peak Human Potential

SUPER soldier serum

Cap Superhuman who perform Superhuman feats

Batman Peak Human who perform Superhuman feats