Explanation of the Marvel Power Ranking System

So I've been vs debating for a while and years ago the Marvel Power Ranking was used for basically every verse under the sun as a shorthand way of describing how strong the character was. It's still used from time to time depending on the form. This is gonna be a quick guide giving to the best of my knowledge what the marvel power ranking system levels meant back then and mean now. I'll try and give examples for each level.

The most common mistake I see is assuming the marvel power rankings levels can be strictly seperated by what exact levels the character is. However the MPRS's best and worst trait is actually that it's somewhat ambigious approach to power, with each tier being just as much a qualitative description as a quantitative one. This is good because it allows for placement of characters you aren't sure of their exact power, or are smewhere in a range (which comes up a lot when comic characters tend to have lots of feats in a general range). This is bad however because it means that being at a certain level does not guarentee per se that a character is any particular level.

This itself is not a hard rule, as most of the MPRS do have a sort of minimum level to be at the level. It's not a wholyl qualitative system, it's a mixed qualitative/quantitative system. With that said let's get into the levels.

Street Tier:

The idea behind street level (not to be confused with city block level which is a form of attack potency where the character can destroy an average city block) is that these were characters whose power level suggest that would patrol the streets for regular criminals or commit regular street crime as opposed to the more powerful entities who would presumably spend their time saving/trying to conquer or destroy the world. Street tier characters were imagined as characters that were only hypothetically local threats or overtime to a region. However their actions rarely affect more then a city; they are characters that act on their local level.

Low Street Tier: There's a difference between how it's used now and how it was originally used. The original idea of a low steet tier was ... honestly kinda vague. It was used as a sort of lower limit of "normal people". I htink more generally it's used now to mean the character is within most human's range of strength. Normal thugs in the marvel universe would be low street but more often it's ued for characters who powers and abilities aren't really ocmbat oriented. Most human fighters in the Marvel Universe would be here.

Mid Street Tier: Mid Street Tier originally meant humans with really powerful weapons. Now it's more geneally a term for characters around the level of the "comic book peak human" but without highly powerful weapons or abilities. In the Marvel Universe, Moon Knight and The Punisher would both be examples of characters here. The difference between low and mid street tier would equate to the one punch man difference between wolf and tiger level threats, a general unspecified danger, to a danger threatening the lives of many people quickly. Characters here can have powers, for instance Moon Knight has powers and Daredevil is often said to be here despite his radar sense, however these powers are usually more generally helpful then massive game changers in combat.

High Street Tier: High Street Tier due to definition overlaps with the Low Meta tier which I will get into after. Basically High Street Tier meant characters that were above the level of a comic book peak human either because they have a really strong downright broken weapon, or their stats are simply above where a comic peak human could get but are still within the street range.  I think generally High Street Tier is ued for the former but Low Meta is used for the latter. High Street Tiers are one-man armies who could hypothetically kill vast swaths of people if they had too. Examples of High Street Tiers would include characters like Captain America and Black Panther, both of whom have enhanced peak human level stats within marvel as well as downright broken equipment for their tier. Outside of Marvel, Batman would also be here due to having comic book peak human stats as well as broken abilities and equipment for his tier.

Metahuman Tier:

Metahuman Tier obviously derives from the idea of metahumans, of characters that are beyond normal human capabilities. The Metahuman tier runs the gamut of characters just above humans to characters doing major damage to planets. Metahuman tier characters are also expected to go up in versatility.

Low Metahuman Tier: Low Metahuman Tier refers to characters with superhuman stats and abilities but are strong enough to contend evenly with high street tier characters and act like high street tier characters. Characters at this tier usually fight evenly with high or even sometimes mid street tier characters but are outside the human range of feats. High Street Tier and Low Meta are overlapping tiers as both are comic book peak human+ in terms of stats and both have strong abities or equipment. The most commonly cited examples of this in Marvel are Spider-Man and Wolverine. An example of this outside Marvel would be Raiden and Armstrong from Metal Gear who have dramatically superhuman abilities and stats.

Mid Metahuman Tier: Mid Metahuman Tier is used to refer to characters who actually can affect things on a planetary scale, causing massive damage to a region or threaten to conquer the world. If put in the real world, they would be able to withstand anything but  nuclear tier attacks. They usually have several abilities and the ability to travel large portions of the world quickly. It's a general term for characters whose power is above street tier and relevant to the entire world. Examples of this in Marvel include early Iron Man Suits, The Human Torch, and Namor, all of whom can cause widescale regional damage and fight entities who can conquer the world. Examples from outside of Marvel would include the Superman from the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series as well A or S tier Mages from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

High Metahuman Tier: This is another example of overlapping tiers with the next sub-tier, that being Low Herald though these two do have a clearer difference. High Meta Tier characters are characters with planetary or near planetary stats. Back when this system was in widespread use, planet level was seen as a massive achievement due to the tier's tendency to have the top tiers of various verses. As such High Metas referred hypothetically to the strongest metahuman limited to a single planet. Examples of this from Marvel inlcude The Thing and the Invisible Woman from the Fantastic Four and Grey Hulk. Outside Marvel this is the tier of the Heartcatch PreCure, Silver Saints in Saint Seiya and some strong versions of Godzilla.

Herald Tier:

While most actual Heralds in Marvel are at least star level, Herald Level was used as a general moniker for the herald "type" of character, that is to say fly around in space affecting celestial bodies. Herald Tier characters are generally faster then light, can affect whole celestial bodies but are limited to affecting individual celestial bodies at a time usually and are sub galaxy level.

Low Herald Tier: Low Heralds overlap somewhat with High Meta Tier. That said Low Heralds generally have more qualifications that are expected of them including; faster then light speed, flight, the ability to survive in space, some degree of enhanced awareness, some degree of hax (most often matter-energy manipulation but sometimes soul or mind manipulation), and both the power and area of effect to destroy a planet. Whle Heta Meta Tiers can have any of these qualities, Low Heralds not havint these are viewed as weaknesses for characters their tier while they are considered benefits to High Meta Tiers. On reddit these are called S Tiers because they believe Post-Crisis Superman is here and often use him as a point of cpmparison. Examples of these in Marvel would include some stronger suits of Iron Man and Super Skrull. Examples outside Marvel include characters Saiyan Saga Dragon Ball Characters, Alkanphel from Guyver, and Top Tiers from Naruto

-Sub Herald Tier: I've ocassionally seen mention of "Sub-Herald Tier" for characters who act similar to a Herald but on a bit of a lower level like being able to destroy/manipulate large portions of the Earth or on smaller celestial bodies like asteroids or the moon. Examples would include Lapis Lazuli from Steven Universe or King Ghidorah

Mid Herald Tier: Mid Heralds are a versatile tier for characters that act as an intermediate between low heralds and high heralds. From Marvel itself, Nova would be here due to her inexperience and lack of versatility as a Herald. In general Mid Heralds would be characters that are solid herald level bricks but lack versatility or broken abilities such as Starfire and Superboy from DC Comics or have the power level of a High Herald but lack the speed to traverse the universe like most forms of Asura from Asura's wrath or Cell from Dragon Ball or characters with powerful hax and speed but lack the raw power like Samus Aran from Metroid. Generaly Mid Heralds are characters that are vastly above Low Herald level entities and would be able to fight actual inexperienced Heralds of Galactus but lack the consistency to fight stronger heralds.

High Herald Tier: High Heralds are characters that can easily mess around with star systems and become a threat to a galaxy or larger area. They generally possess starbusting power and area of effect, a wide variety of hax abilities, speeds massively faster light to the point of being able to cross the universe in days, as well as often massively anhanced awareness and some degree of spacetime manipulation. Examples from Marvel Comics include Thor and the Silver Surfer and examples outside Marvel Comics include Superman, Wonder Woman and High Tier Lanterns from DC Comics or Most Gold Saints from Saint Seiya. Some High Heralds, referred to as "Transcendents" or "Sub-Skyfathers", usually the strongest, while they can affect a star or star system, via raw power and/or a few abilities can affect even wider areas and compete with skyfathers. Exmaples Silver Sufer amping on the Power Cosmic manipulating the Big Crunch, Thor's Godblast which can affect skyfather+ level beings, Superman stopping Psychic entity Dominus with Psychic Discipline Torquasm Vo, Wonder Woman channeling the Godwave to fight Skyfather level entities, and Gold Saint Aries Mu using his technique Starlight Revolution to fight the sealed titan Iapetos in his own dimension.

Skyfather Tier:

Skyfather Tiers referred to characters that have power relevant on the universal scale, who can affect large collections of celestial bodies and large portions of the universe, and generally possess a greater degree of hax and versatility compared to Heralds. Skyfathers often have some degree of reality-warping and the ability to empower others to Herald Tier or create herald level beings. A general term for cosmics, beings that are narratively meant to refer to the powers controlling the universe.

Low Skyfather Tier: Low Skyfathers are Galactic Scale Cosmics, able to destroy and often manipulate a galaxy. Usuaully possess cosmic scale hax and some level of reality-warping. High Heralds are genearlly upwards of Galaxy Level while Low Skyfathers are generally galaxy level+ being casually galactic or signifigantly above baseline galactic. Examples from Marvel Comics include Ego the Living Planet and a very hungry Galactus. Examples outside Marvel Comics include Individual Guardians of Oa from DC Comics, Dark Schneider from Bastard!!, and Top Tiers from Okami.

Mid Skyfather Tier? : Hypothetically these would be multi-galactic cosmics, but such are very rare in fiction. This level technically exists but there aren't many people here.

High Skyfather Tier: High Skyfathers are Universal Scale Cosmics, able to destroy the universe, sometimes casually. Often possessing abilities like planetary to solar system scale reality-warping, life creation, existence erasure and so forth. Oftne have some ability to manipulate causality and the laws of physics. High Skfafathers are the forces of the universe that control and shape it's nature and destiny. Examples from Marvel Comics include Surtur and Zeus. Odin is the classic example though I hear he's actually above this. Examples from DC include The Monitors and the Collective Guardians of Oa. Outside these examples include Sailor Galaxia from Sailor Moon, Beerus from Dragon Ball Super, and strong Gold Saints from Saint Seiya

Beyond Skyfather Tier:

Cube Being Level: Cube Being Level are characters that are casual universal reality-warpers. The tier somewhat intersects High Skyfather tier are both are often at universe level, and High Skyfathers can even win in standard vs matches due to speedblitz. However Cube Beings are referring more to the idea of a casual universal reality-warper and speed equalized should hypothetically win against a High Skyfather always via warping the laws of reality to be hostile to he skyfather (unless they have resistance to that). Another way of conceptualizing it is that High Skyfather are Universe Level while Cube Beings are Universal+ Reality Warpers who are casually universe and "Cube Level Beings" are beings that don't neccesarily have reality-warping but are in that casual universal range which is slightly different to the above. Cube Beings are generally universal reality-warpers who can casually warp the universe. Some Cube Beings can warp things larger then a single universe but usually without precision and with much effort. Examples of Cube Beings in Marvel include Baby Franklin Richards and Mephisto. Examples outside Marvel include Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, God from Bruce Almighty, Divine Mokona from Clamp, Death and similar tier characters from Discworld and Top Tiers of Supernatural

Celestial Level: Celestial Tier Beings are beings who can maniulate the multiverse ona  faundamental level. They often have a level of power casually in the finite multiversal range and can reach the infinite multiversal with effort. Often possess transcendent, impossible to fight conventionally, powers like abstract nature, manipulate of potentiality and possibility, and manipulation of infinity or things on an infinite scale. Named after the Marvel Celestials. Examples outside Marvel include the Emotional-Electromagnetic Entities from DC Comics, Hades from Saint Seiya, and the Dragon God from Project A-Ko

Abstract Tier: Abstract Tier refert to the infinite living abstract fundamental forces that make up existence. Possesses usually all the aforementioned abilities of the above Celestial Tier as opposed to a few of them. May be impossible to remove from existence without god tier reality warping due to being a fundamental part of existence. Known for creating Cube Being to Celestial Level "aspects" of themselves or beings to serve them. Examples from Marvel include Eternity, Infinity, Abraxas and so on. Examples outside Marvel include True Form Darkseid from DC Comics, Zeedmillenniummon from Digimon, and the Eternals from Doctor Who

After this it gets a little bit confusing with 3 more tiers "Multi-Eterenity Tier" "Living Tribunal Level" and "Supreme Being Tier" whose descriptions get kind of redundant or fallacious to me. I will do my best to describe the original idea behind them.

Multi-Eternity Tier: Multi-Eternity Tier refer to the true forms of abstracts. While abstracts are somewhat comprehensible to the human mind, this tier referred to things beyond human comprehenshion and infinitely beyond even abstract existence? Presumably examples of this tier would be things the Multi-Abstracts like Multi-Eternity and like the Endless and Sixth World entities from DC Comics and the Outer Gods from the Lovecraft Mythos

The Living Tribunal Level: Beings on the level of the the Liivng Tribunal who are "Nigh-omnipotent". Because omnipotent and nigh-omnipotent are mostly out of use in vs debating now, I would try to translate this as Absolute properties with some resrictions like The Living Tribunal who is absolute save for the The One Above All's will or Michael Morningstar from DC who is the same for the Presence.

The One Above All: Supreme Being Tier and "omnpotent". As omnipotent is out of use in vs debating, I would try to translate this as "Absolute" or in other words a power that transcends all others in the verse, without any limitations within the context of their series.



Problems with this system

This system is not used much anymore and while it can be fun to try and check where your favorite characters would be, it's really only for seeing where they'd fit in Marvel rather then how strong they are in a universal sense. The MRPS is fitted for Marvel intra-universal comparisons and has some pretty notable flaws trying to fit other verses to it

-Biggest imo is that the descriptions are inherently vague for what qualfiies as what level. This hypothetically a feature but for instance some people think a marvel peak human is quite literally just a peak human, while other claims they scale to mhs town level. Saying that a character is a High Street Tier might mean entirely differnet things depending on who you talk too. I tried to make it more regular by saying Low Street Tier is Human Tier, Mid Street Tier is like Weapon Tier and High Street Tier is Army Tier but I recognize that's still pretty vague. Punisher, Moon Knight and Daredevil are relative to Captain America in stats and are a tier lower for lacking his shield?

-Some of the tiers overlap. Again this is supposed to be a feature not a bug but it creates some unneccesary redundancy

-Mid Herald and Skyfather, and to a lesser extent Mid Meta seem to be general catch-all tiers used to basically say everything that is intermediate between the lower and the higher of trhe tier even when they don't have much in common

-It doesn't account well for characters with weird power to speed ratios. There are some power/speed combinations that are common. Subsonic wall level, massively hypersonic city level, ftl planet level, quadrillions of times ftl universe level. These are combinations that tend to happen in fiction just so that the character can travel the length of the distance they can destroy mid-combat. But characters with really weird stats are hard to rank in this system, like ftl characters that are otherwise street level, or multiversal characters who are the speed of sound

-Even more troubling is hax. Pharaoh Atem from Yu-Gi-Oh! I would classify as a mid street tier level character physically based on his superhuman stats but his abilities far outrank most of what his tier, or indeed most street levels could deal with due to his intangibility and mind hax among others. Hax doesn't correspond in any way neatly with power and speed.



So yeah, the Marvel Power Ranking System is useful to compare characters to Marvel characters, but not a good universal system.