The Marvel Cinematic Universe showed audiences
that a man could fly in Iron Man, and since
then, the slow threading of various superheroes
into a cohesive universe has been pretty amazing.
But of all the mighty and astonishing superheroes
that make up Marvel's premiere super-team,
who is the most incredible?
To settle the question, we're ranking the
most powerful members of the Avengers, starting
from the bottom and ending with the strongest
one there is.
"Access denied."
"God of Thunder."
"Access denied."
"Strongest Avenger."
"Access denied."
"STRONGEST AVENGER."
"Access denied."
Hawkeye
We'll start with the obvious loser on the
team, the Avengers' arrogant archer Clint
Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye.
He's supposedly a super-spy on the level of
Black Widow, but his defining moments in the
movies involve him decidedly not stopping
Thor from getting to his magic hammer, getting
mind controlled by Loki, almost being shot
to death by Ultron, and completely failing
to stop The Vision.
"I'm Clint."
"I don't care."
Quicksilver
Believe it or not, there was a time when Quicksilver,
the white-haired on-again/off-again son of
Magneto, was in two movies just a year apart
from one another—X-Men: Days of Future Past
and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
It's certainly hard to believe, since his
appearance in Ultron is so bad that it's rocketed
him down to the sad, lonely Hawkeye tier of
our list.
His power is superspeed, which seems like
it would keep him a bit higher on a list of
most powerful superheroes in the MCU, but
he was also shot to death by Ultron's machine
guns.
Though he may have sacrificed himself to save
Hawkeye and a child, dying because of regular
bullets when you have superspeed is just embarrassing.
"You didn't see that coming?"
Black Widow
"Who do you want me to be?"
There's no shame in Black Widow's placement
this far down the list.
In a world with gods, robots, magic, and aliens,
Black Widow earning a spot on the Avengers'
roster due to sheer competence is nothing
to be ashamed of.
Like Hawkeye, she's a super-spy, but unlike
him, she knows better than to use an outdated
weapon that mankind has been developing countermeasures
against for literally thousands of years.
"We're still friends, right?"
Ant-Man
If this list were graded on charm and the
strength of the supporting cast, Paul Rudd's
Scott Lang would easily vault near the top.
"What?"
"I wanna know about that tip."
"Oh baby it's on!
It's so on right now."
Unfortunately for the diminutive dynamo, we're
grading on sheer power, and Ant-Man's skills
don't quite stack up.
To be fair to the reformed con man, he did
test out growing to a massive size in Civil
War, but no one ever grows to a massive size
to win a fight.
Call it a byproduct of our obsession with
David and Goliath stories, but generally the
only time a character gets bigger is to be
satisfyingly knocked over like an AT-AT on
Hoth.
"But I got the van."
"It's nice."
"Yeah, right?"
Falcon
Sam Wilson has both military training and
the coolest flying technology that doesn't
come with Stark branding.
In fact, the only downside to the MCU Falcon
is that they decided to go with a robotic
drone version of his comics counterpart's
faithful Redwing.
Sure, talking to birds like some sort of high-flying
Aquaman isn't the greatest power, but we're
getting to the superpowered side of the rankings,
so he'd need something more to rank a bit
higher.
"Don't say it!
"On your left!"
"Oh, come on."
Winter Soldier
He might look like a teen exploring his identity
at Hot Topic, but Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes,
a.k.a. the Winter Soldier, is a force to be
reckoned with.
Tortured and mind-controlled by HYDRA, he's
been on so many secret assassination missions
that his name is a legend in super-spy circles.
Add in a super-strong and super-flexible metal
arm that can punch a hole through concrete,
along with a version of the Super Soldier
Serum that powers Captain America, and the
Winter Soldier's a formidable threat.
War Machine
They say it's good to have friends in high
places, but generally, the most those high-powered
friends can do is get you a job or maybe loan
you a few bucks.
For James "Rhodey" Rhodes, being best friends
with Tony Stark means that he gets a personalized
version of Tony's high-tech armor with enough
guns and missiles to start, and finish, a
small war.
Spider-Man
Smart, superpowered, and fitted out with Stark
tech, Spider-Man's a late, but powerful, addition
to the MCU.
In his first appearance in the MCU in Civil
War, he's able to disable Winter Soldier and
Falcon, bring down a Giant Man, and even keep
up with Captain America.
That's a pretty strong opening for the young
superhero.
"It's that Spider-Guy on YouTube right?"
"Call me Spider-Man!"
"Okay, Spider-Man.
Do a flip!
...Yeah!!!!"
Captain America
Captain America's the full package, and we're
not just talking about actor Chris Evans.
Steve Rogers has superpowers, fighting prowess,
and an indestructible vibranium shield that's
the closest thing to unbreakable that the
MCU has—at least until adamantium shows
up.
(SNIKT)
Plus, if we're counting raw charisma as a
superpower, that's one more advantage for
the star-spangled Avenger.
"Captain America!"
"Mr. Lang."
"It's an honor.
I'm shaking your hand too long.
Wow, this is awesome!
Captain America!"
Onscreen, he's handily beaten nearly every
character on this list, whether in fistfights
with Spider-Man or footraces against the Falcon.
"On your left."
"Uh, huh.
On my left, got it."
Iron Man
Iron Man is everyone's favorite genius billionaire
playboy philanthropist, and that's even before
you get to the laser-blasting, high-tech weaponry
all wrapped up in a suit powered by tech more
powerful than a nuclear reactor.
And that's only in one suit.
There are the dozens that he can control remotely,
or the giant suit he built specifically to
beat down the strongest thing in the world.
While his lack of close combat experience
might seem to drop him a bit lower, the ending
of Civil War shows him fighting Captain America
and the Winter Soldier to a standstill, even
with a barely functioning suit, so he's more
than earned his spot.
"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor.
Take that off, what are you?"
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."
Black Panther
Tony Stark might be an eccentric rich genius
in America who gets treated like a king, but
he's not an actual king like the Black Panther,
the ruler of Wakanda.
Like Iron Man, he's got a technologically
advanced suit—though in Black Panther's
case, it's made of nigh-indestructible vibranium.
Plus, he has brilliant kid sister Shuri to
build any gadget he needs.
But Black Panther's also got the fight training
that Stark lacks, along with highly trained
bodyguards, and the backing of an entire country
so technologically advanced it makes New York
City look like fifteenth-century Europe.
Plus, the magic of the heart-shaped herb.
Pretty hard to beat.
Scarlet Witch
This is a bit of a tough one, since the Scarlet
Witch of the MCU might be significantly less
powerful than the comics version.
In the comics, the Scarlet Witch is a ridiculously
powerful mutant who was able to completely
erase the mutant genome from the planet with
her chaos magic, but the comics' "No more
mutants" has nothing on Disney's "No mutants
until we buy the rights to the X-Men back."
As a result, the Scarlet Witch of the MCU
uses abilities that run closer to telekinesis
and telepathy than the Chaos Magic of her
comics counterpart.
Even without magic, though, she's a powerful
superheroine, able to take down half the team
under Ultron's orders.
She might be young and have questionable taste
in robot men, but being the only possible
magic user so far on the Avengers puts her
over the top.
The Vision
In the comics, the Infinity Gems are the most
powerful items in the universe, used in conjunction
with the Infinity Gauntlet to wield complete
control over basically everything.
While there's not full confirmation that the
MCU will follow suit until the release of
Avengers: Infinity War, it's not a far stretch
to say that the magical MacGuffins are incredibly
powerful.
The Vision, the android based on Tony Stark's
JARVIS AI, has the Mind Stone embedded in
his forehead, giving him the powers of density
manipulation, intangibility, and laser blasts.
Altogether, the combination of a brilliant
AI, laser blasts, and energy derived from
a fundamental power source of the entire Marvel
universe makes The Vision almost godlike.
Thor
Unfortunately for Vision, god-like isn't godly,
and Thor is an actual God.
"You call yourself Lord of Thunder…"
"God of Thunder."
Even if you discount his magic hammer, or
his control of storms, or even his super-strength,
he's the prince of Asgard, a popular scion
of a supremely powerful king who commands
a whole army of gods.
Each one of Thor's many friends and family
members are nearly as strong as he is, living
in a god-filled utopia in space.
But there is one greater.
The Hulk
"We'll come for you."
"I have an army."
"We have a Hulk."
Bruce Banner's green alter ego has beaten
basically everyone in the entire Marvel Universe
a few different times, often in literally
earth-shattering ways, and that's just in
the comics.
In the MCU, Hulk's personally beaten the tar
out of Thor, Iron Man, Loki, The Abomination,
and the entire U.S. Army—and those are just
the characters who've actually bothered to
fight him instead of just running away.
Out of the MCU's Avengers so far, the Hulk's
powers are truly incredible.
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