Can You Hold Back Your Durability?

Okay so know heavy hitters like Thor & Supes hold back their strength a lot of the time which explains why they don't kill half the low tiers they fight with one punch . But what I don't get is why two high tier beings like these two can tank massive explosions & attacks that would destroy earth , but they show damage for like Thor getting hit with Caps shield or Supes getting punched by Batman (with no krpytonite) . Like a character can hold back their strength can they hold back their durability as well ?

I don't think that makes sense.

@jayc1324: it doesn't but that's what someone tried to get me to believe

Cap's shield is nigh-indestructible.

And Batman is omnipotent

@jayc1324: For example... During Siege when Thor Sentry they said it was only possible because Sentry let Thor do it . So Sentry can control his durability ?

@fallschirmjager: Cap shield is made of vibranium & steel on the outer edges correct ? If that's the case when he thrust it forward it shouldn't cause any damage because the kinetic energy is cycled thru the vibranium . Now when it comes to the steel outer area that shouldn't hurt Thor , cap doesn't have the strength to swing it hard enough to hurt Thor . & lol , but can Batman beat Alfred ? Lol

No. Its made of vibanriun, adamantium and another 3rd alloy that is unknown.

@uugieboogie: maybe they meant sentry let Thor beat him, but I don't see how someone could control their durability. Maybe if they don't brace themselves for the hit or something like that

@fallschirmjager: Either way cap doesn't have the strength to swing that with enough to hurt Thor . & depending on which part of the shield is vibranium it shouldn't cause any damage & it CANNOT be any vibranium on the edges or that whole ricochet effect is impossible .

Its not about which parts of the shield are which, its metal. They are all blended together during the forging process.

Wolverine doesn't have any strength either and has no problem cutting people. There's no reason a blunt object with equal or superior quality could do something to Thor. ITs not like Cap 1 shotted him.

@fallschirmjager: it says his shield is made of vibranium , steel & a unknown 3rd metal . Is says Dr McClain tried to recreate making the shield without vibranium & the unknown source & the result was adamantium .

No Sentry just didn't fight back and after he "died" he didn't reform himself.

@jonny_anonymous: Exactly , but him not fighting didn't lower is durability correct ?

I think characters that can survive plant destroying attacks but can get hurt by a punch from somebody way weaker than them is probably just an inconstancy that the writers over looked or just didn't notice or think about at the time, unless of course it was directly explained why said punch hurt the other character.

Bump since I'm interested on this topic and I've seen people debating about it.

I think it actually can be done, imagine a Fight

A vs B, if A gets hit by B and he is prepared for the punch normally people endure their body on the spot being hit as a reaction/reflex to do not get much damage as he would if he was distracted or didn't care about being hit.

I think something like that, don't know if Writers adress this.