Yes.Always. Good lord. I never understand why people can turn this into a big serious discussion. Yes, One Punch Man would beat Thanos. He would beat Luke Skywalker, Superman, every single character from Dragon Ball Z, and every ninja from Naruto. He would beat Thor and Wolverine and the Hulk in a tag team match.
Because he plays by different rules. One Punch Man is a PARODY character. His skill set is defined by comedy, not power levels or physical strength. One Punch Man not Superman facing off against an ever-more powerful lineup of villains. He’s the Roadrunner against Wil E. Coyote’s ever more convoluted plans. Deadpool is the only other super hero type character who comes close to living in the same realm of parody, but frankly, Deadpool repeatedly getting the crap beat out of him would be funnier than Deadpool winning, so One Punch Man would win that fight too, even if he can’t actually kill Deadpool in one punch. Because parody.
If I see another Youtube video recommended to me like “Could One Punch Man beat-” really, truly, I do not care.
I saw somebody also make this point once in another great post, I’m paraphrasing from what I remember; how strong is Saitama? However strong he needs to be in order for it to be funny.
Theonlypossible matchups that Saitama might lose are ones where:
1) it’s conceivable that, due to the rules the other character is operating on (as in, whatever rules of comedygovern the other character’s universe), he might not be able to get in one punch.
AND
2) A compelling argument could be made as to whether it would be funnier for Saitama to lose that fight.
Canon example where both came into play: he lost the fight against that one mosquito, because it was tiny, fast, and flying, and because it was hilarious. Rule #1 alone isn’t enough, because if it isn’t funny for him to lose, he’ll find a way to punch through whatever restrictions are preventing him from punching the target.
So “could One Punch Man beat Superman/Thanos/Unicron/the Death Star?” will alwaysgo to OPM.
But you could have a compelling debate over “could One Punch Man beat the Animaniacs?”
Could Saitama beat Roger Rabbit
Saitama could beat Roger Rabbit similar to the way he could defeat Deadpool, but he could never beat Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny is at the top of the food chain.
No no no, but ROGER RABBIT OPERATES ON THE SAME PRINCIPALS.
Remember when Roger slides out of his handcuff for a joke, then slides it back on and suddenly can’t escape because it wouldn’t be funny?
That sort of implies that it’s less a question of, “is saitama MORE POWERFUL than roger rabbit?” than it is, “Could saitama’s victory be FUNNIER than roger’s?”
At that point, the power is in the hands of whichever character would be the FUNNIEST to come out on top.
And in order to decide that, we would in turn have to decide:
“Which is funnier: a totally jacked man whose single dream in life is to find an opponent who could stand a chance against him finally, finally finding a worthy adversary in a goofy rabbit in a bowtie…
…or a goofy cartoon rabbit getting his absolute ASS handed to him in a gloriously-animated anime smackdown, complete with a killer soundtrack?”
What about the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl?
Ooh, that’s a good one. Saitama can beat anyone in one punch if it’s funny… but Squirrel Girl can defeat any opponent she wants if it’s also funny. I think Squirrel Girl has the edge here primarily because of the ridiculousness of the character.
I second the vote for Squirrel Girl. It would be utterly hilarious if she beat him, but him beating her would just be kind of sad.
Saitama would finally think he has a worthy adversary in Bugs before a single punch knocks Bugs into a suit and a coffin that lands in the ground, instantly buried with a tomb stone and everything. Realizing he’s killed the only true equal he’ll ever have, Saitama would openly weep over the grave while Bugs comes up in a widower outfit to grieve with him.
The inherent homoeroticism of killing your enemy and immediately regretting it
It’s about rage, it’s about obsession, it’s about making that two-person war your entire raison d’être. It’s about loving and mistaking it for hatred and loving and loving and loving to the point of destruction. His or yours, it doesn’t matter. And you think seeing him dead at your feet will make you feel better, but all you feel is a whole lot of nothing.
