Battle of the Week: Shazam vs Hercules

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Additional callouts

Shazam.

I'm thinking that Shazam wins due to his versatility(mostly flight), but I could be convinced otherwise

Shazam

Shazam.

Shazam due mostly to his speed...

Shazam due to a lot of reasons with one of them being that he's a lot more versatile with equal if not outright superior strenght.

Shazam.

Flight, speed, and the thunderbolt would seem to do it for Captain Marvel.

Although I would assume Herc has a vast skill advantage (at least, Herc is very skilled. I'm kind of assuming Billy is not).

I'd say Hercules. He has better quantifiable feats of his own that don't rely on scaling to other characters and Billy doesn't really use his speed consistently in combat, which would be his biggest advantage in this fight. They're comparable in raw physicals but Herc is a superior fighter and he has his Adamatine Mace, which has been portrayed as Mjolnir's equal in striking power. After a tough fight, I think Herc comes out on top.

Billy almost stomps

Not quiet a mismatch but still a clear victory for Shazam imo.

Shazam ftw

Billy wins comfortably

Billy takes it.

Their strength should be comparable, but speed-wise he has the clear advantage on top of his magical energy projection.

Shazam should win due to speed and versatility.

I think it depends on who gets serious first. Billy would have to judiciously apply his speed in battle so as to avoid getting outskilled. Hercules has the striking advantage but if Billy can stay out of the way through flight while spamming lightning and getting in more blows than he receives then I don't see how he doesn't take this

Billy wins 10/10, he's shown comparable to Superman in physical strength numerous times, despite the skill disadvantage, he has versatility, speed, and arguably striking power on his side.

Shazam isn't comparable to Superman without magical advantages.

But he is anyways too fast for Hercules, so if Shazam don't starts a sluggfest would he take it handily.

@wrathofthebradsaid:

Shazam isn't comparable to Superman without magical advantages.

Which doesn't mean ''exactly the same''. Course Superman has better feats, but by scaling Billy is not too far behind.

By scaling could we also put Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Zod, sometimes even Faora or Supergirl and others who got often compared to Superman on that level. But like Shazam is neither of them consistently and with the necessary feats on Supermans level in raw strength(New 52 Martian Manhunter might be arguably a bit of an exception, but 1 reason for that is very likely his comparably low amount of appearances in New 52).

Not too far behind depends on your own definition of it though.

Billy wins the slight majority, he's comparable to Hercules in physicals, he's faster when he remembers to use his speed in combat and he can use magical lightning to amplify his strikes. Though Hercules won't make it easy due to his superior strength and skill, Billy takes the hard fought majority. Will drop scans for Shazam if needed.

At the end of the day Billy would probably get the win. He is far more versatile in terms of power set. However, due to the greater experience and at times strength, Herc would pose a severe threat to Billy. If Billy remembers to use all of his powers in the best possible way the outcome would be obvious.

Even though I voted for Billy, after re-examining the fight in this post, I think that this battle might be just too close to call.

Hercules.

I will actually side with Herc here. The battle prowess is highly in his favor, and he has feats of reacting to speedy enemies. So, he is not very likely to be utterly blitzed by Shazam. I don't think Shazam's energy projection will truly bother Herc as he has great durability feats, and, with his mace, he has the striking feats that can potentially put Billy down with one hit.

Don't see why people think it's a landslide for Billy. A convincing argument could be made for Hercules.

Sheesh, I was gonna vote too close to call but I felt bad for the Lion of Olympus so I pity voted him lol.

Shazam, mid to high diff.

@chimeroid: What are Hercules' durability feats?

Shazam wins.

I randomly read an issue of Herc's old 80s solo mini a little while ago, and it was pretty hilarious. I made these scans but had posted them anywhere yet. A couple of them somewhat pertain to the fight, and others are just notably out there.

Here, Herc fights Nova (Frankie Raye, as the herald of Galactus). She's not drawn in her modern herald form, but she is a herald here. She blasts Herc with a fire blast, which he pretty much tanks--which suggests that Billy's lightning bolt, at least, might not affect him much. Then he uses an anti-flying-opponent strategy of throwing stuff at her to knock her out. Nova would have something along the lines of the same speed as Captain Marvel, so this ought to translate roughly the same way. On the other hand, he didn't knock out Nova with the rubble, so he's probably not going to knock out Billy either.

Of course, Olympian durability is not infinite. Here Galactus, in a nice feat, effortlessly turns Herc into protoplasm and then reconstitutes him.

More hilariously, Herc tries to get Galactus drunk using a special alcohol introduced earlier in the issue as the strongest intoxicant anywhere. You kind of just have to read it.

Also, since we all know Herc as much of a lover as a fighter, here he seduces Raye and literally makes love to her so passionately that her fire goes out. Yep, that happened.

Anyway, most of this is neither here nor there, but I wanted to share.

@the_badman: Energy or Blunt force? Or in general?

@king-ragnar: In general, mostly blunt.

I'm not too knowledgeable on him but from what i can recall one of his best blunt force durability showings was taking a beating from Green Scar (World War Hulk) and staying conscious.

Gallery

@king-ragnar: Kind of an anti-feat, don't you think? That's clearly not WWH's best punch or intended to KO Herc, and still his face gets broken and bloodied from just three punches.

Actually, I'm already aware of that showing and wanted to know if he has any durability feats outside of that, because the only durability showing I'm aware of has him getting owned by a severely holding back Hulk. That doesn't make him look very good.

@the_badman:

Kind of an anti-feat, don't you think? That's clearly not WWH's best punch or intended to KO Herc

Ehh probably. Even tho it isn't his strongest punch, Green Scar still punches very hard.

and still his face gets broken and bloodied from just three punches.

Well yeah. What's so impressive about is that he stayed conscious after being beaten by someone as strong as Green Scar.

Shazam wrecks him down. Hercules' only chance is his specialized mace but he ain't ever landing a hit with that especially since he can't even control its speed like mjolnir for example.

Herc has literally no legitimate strength feats i mean outside of one high end "lifting the heavens" bs feat he is only as strong as the thing really. I mean he has skill in the sense he is much more skilled than someone like sentry, hulk, or thor, but he still isnt really skilled the way batman or cap are.

billy isnt just leagues faster he is also stronger and tougher. I would wager billy wins every fight even speed equalised.

yea even the hulkbuster, sentry, red hulk, logan, were all able to withstand way more hits than that. i mean even though he slumped wwh there both those guys are glass cannons i mean they have been hurt by almost every character they go up against.

yea he reacted to speedy enemies but which of those speedy enemies did he ever actually hurt? spiderman has almost no sold punches from him before as has sentry. he hurt wwh yet wwh got nearly killed from an unstable sentry and was getting bloodied from everyone he fought in that story.

what striking feats with this mace? when did the mace ever show it can put down someone like billy with just one hit? the mace is weaksauce it is featless

@king-ragnar: I know, but still that doesn't put him above Thing or Colossus level durability. I mean, Wolverine has taken Hulk's punches. If it wasn't his best punch, how is it a feat?

Ehh, once you put it that way idk really.

@king-ragnar: My point is, Hercules has powerhouse level strength, but lacks striking, speed or durability feats compared to other powerhouses. Kinda like Hyperion.

Billy after a good fight.

He has much better feats than that one. Let's start with blunt force durability:

Gallery

His energy durability is even better:

Gallery

And, he has a lot of cool fights in his history. He has fought Thor at least 8 times, and Thor was never capable of bringing Herc down, he has even one-shot Abomination once.

@guccibrick: Striking feats with the mace are actually amazing. Not only has he matched blows with Thor and Mjolnir, but he has used his mace on many powerful opponents.

He one-shot killed Typhon, a skyfather-killer (literally killed Zeus).

@chimeroid: The Iron Man and Namor showings are not impressive at all dude. I don't see why taking one punch from Classic Hulk puts him above Billy in durability. That's Thing level durability.

Energy durability looks better.
I myself have read 3-4 of his Thor fights. I read these specifically looking for his durability feats and found that the ones I read did not have Thor hitting him with Mjolnir or even at full power. The fights didn't seem much serious as well. I don't see how this puts him above Billy. Of course, my knowledge on Herc is lacking and you could convince me otherwise.

@chimeroid: thats a bs feat. and zeus is featless actually so typhon killing him doesnt really mean nor prove much. a skyfather is just a title i mean yea zeus is a skyfather yet he is only like thor/silver surfer level he is weaker than thanos

Let's go step by step. First of all, no-selling Namor is very impressive. I could never imagine Billy no-selling Aquaman the way Herc did Namor. I only pulled a couple of feats from my library at random, naturally,there are better feats.

Regarding his showing vs WWH, you should bear in mind that Herc was just letting Hulk beat on him because they were friends.

When it comes to Mjolnir, he did take a couple of Mjolnir hits straight to the face:

Gallery

And, their fights were indeed serious most of the times as confirmed by narration.

It is not only durability that i believe would give him a chance to win vs Shazam. I believe that he has enough speed feats to avoid getting blitzed, and enough energy resistance to make this fight a brawl. And, if it comes to that, Hercules is one of the best there are.

Zeus is far from featless. He has feats of stomping the likes of Hercules and Hulk. He has caught Mjolnir and hurt Thor with lightning, he has even stalemated Odin once, something Thanos didn't really manage. And, most importantly he fought Galactus in a prolongued manner. So, while he is not Odin level, he is far above Thanos.

Captain Marvel wins after a decent fight.

#

Billy has travel speed, yes, but Hercules' got combat speed. Also, Billy isn't versatile (unless he uses the Wisdom of Solomon to totally avoid the fight); He is but an in-your-face flying brick, who will have no other choice than to close in with Hercules. Well, not only is this Hetrcules as strong and as durable as he is, but he is a renowned fighter who lived for millenias and created his own martial style (Pankration), whereas Billy is only a kid.

Hercules, 7/10.