[RPG Theory] "Who'd Win?" Abilities

One thing I’ve noticed about certain fictional settings, especially comic books, is they are often self-defining. That is, you often hear discussion about characters in the setting (even by characters in the setting) in terms of other characters: “He’s almost as strong as Superman!” “Wow, and I thought Batman was scary...” and so forth.

It’s something that could become the basis for an ability scale, Amber Diceless Roleplaying style: where does a character rank on the list of Strongest, Fastest, Smartest, and so forth, or is the character merely “Average” (or whatever the default may be) in an ability? Given how often comic book characters are touted as “The Worlds Greatest _______ “ it makes sense to calibrate a scale to that standard. You’d have to decide if ties were possible and, if so, what that means for the game mechanics, and if there is essentially an infinite amount of space between ranks. Are the ranks based on the heroes (player characters) as the yardstick or something else?

Obviously, there’s a lot to consider in terms of the application, but the ability “Strongest in the World” does have a certain appeal.