Darth Vader vs Magneto: who wins, and is it close?

Darth Vader against Magneto is the Dark Lord of the Sith against the Master of Magnetism. They're two great villains in every sense. In an all-out fight, I think Magneto wins this one, and it won't even be close.

Before I explain why, it's worth giving Vader his full due. He's one of the most powerful Sith Lords ever, and he has some real advantages here.

Which version of Darth Vader is at his peak

If we want Vader at his absolute peak, there's a case for using Anakin Skywalker. Anakin was the most powerful Jedi in over a thousand years, with unprecedented strength in the Force. In Revenge of the Sith he was stronger than anyone on the Jedi Council, even Master Yoda. Darth Sidious himself had to admit that Anakin could have become more powerful than him. During the duel on Mustafar, this was probably Vader at his peak. He's the Chosen One.

Then Obi-Wan defeated him. He was set on fire, nearly half his body was cut away, and he was put inside a mechanical suit to keep him alive. According to George Lucas, he lost much of his power and potential in the process. Being half man and half machine, he lost Force ability because there was less of the human part left. Where he once had the potential to be twice as powerful as the Emperor, he now operates at around 80 percent of the Emperor's power, closer to the level of Darth Maul and Count Dooku. It hurt his lightsaber combat too. He had to relearn many skills he had as Anakin, and he certainly lost the confidence he once had.

Other evidence points the opposite way: that Vader became stronger after putting on the suit, and that his real peak was during Return of the Jedi. He lost his first fight against Obi-Wan Kenobi, his first few in fact. By A New Hope, though, Vader was strong enough to beat him. That wasn't only because Obi-Wan was older and less effective with a lightsaber. For one thing, Obi-Wan had killed Darth Maul in that same condition. For another, the two were fighting a battle in the Force at the same time as the duel. We couldn't see it unfold, but old Ben was being worn down and losing before the fight even started. Simply being near Vader's presence in the Force was enough to exhaust him.

Vader was growing stronger and stronger in the dark side, drawing on a whole new current of power he hadn't known before. He even came to believe his injuries had only made him stronger and deepened his connection to the Force. His pain fed his hatred and anger, and that hatred became power, which suggests he kept getting stronger as Vader. So there's definitely a debate here. But since it lets us get to more of the cool stuff, I'm going to say his peak was Return of the Jedi.

Darth Vader's Force power and telekinesis

Vader has long been described as one of the deadliest Sith in history, one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy, and someone with the ability to rival or even overthrow the Emperor. That more or less came true. He did kill the Emperor, even if that death wasn't permanent.

His abundance of Force power shows up in different ways, from telepathy to creating energy barriers to empowering himself through Force rage. His core ability, though, is telekinesis. He can tear apart AT-AT walkers, bring down trees the size of buildings, or even topple huge buildings themselves. His raw power is wild in every sense of the word.

He isn't just brute force smashing everything around him either. Vader has great finesse in controlling everything around him. He can even choke someone with the Force from a great distance across the galaxy.

Vader's strength, speed and durability in combat

Beyond his enormous connection to the Force, Vader is an incredibly gifted and lethal fighter. He's impossibly strong and can put that to use in combat, overpowering Jedi and other lightsaber fighters. He's surprisingly fast. Even in his robotic armor he can block most attacks aimed at him, and he has even been said to be faster than the Emperor.

What stands out most about Vader is his durability, which makes sense. He has already lost half his body and replaced it with metal, and even before that he was very good at enduring pain. Vader can walk through blaster fire and explosions, and most of the time it barely affects him. He was even able to take Palpatine's Force lightning. That attack was strong enough to leave Maul crying on the ground and begging for mercy. This is Maul, someone who feeds on pain to grow stronger in the Force and who survived being cut in half. Palpatine's lightning made him scream.

Yet when Sidious hit Vader with enough lightning that his skeleton showed through the armor, and I don't even know how that was possible, Vader kept going, determined to kill him.

Darth Vader as the best duelist in the Empire

Then there's his pure fighting skill. He's the best swordsman in the Empire and fights with a unique, unpredictable style that draws elements from every combat technique.

His skill grew between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, and again between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, to the point where he was said to be unmatched in pure skill. That places him above the likes of Obi-Wan and Luke, and maybe even the Emperor himself.

Magneto, the Omega-level Master of Magnetism

Erik Lehnsherr is the Omega-level mutant known as Magneto, the Master of Magnetism. As a young man he was forced to endure the horrors of the Nazis, and after escaping he discovered he had a mutant ability to manipulate every form of magnetism. While his close friend Charles Xavier believes humans and mutants can coexist, Magneto's past made him see a darker side of reality. His goal is to protect mutantkind at any cost and make sure they become the dominant species on Earth.

Magneto has been confirmed as an Omega-level mutant, which means his power has no real upper limit. Jean Grey went so far as to call him the most powerful mutant on the planet. Professor X said Magneto doesn't truly realize his own potential, but that magnetism is one of the four fundamental forces of the universe, with the Phoenix Force as another. When you're spoken about that way, you know you're extremely powerful.

How precisely and how hugely Magneto controls metal

Magneto can do a great deal with his powers, but his most common attack is controlling metal and hurling it everywhere. At one end, he has extremely precise control: firing shrapnel, turning other people's weapons against them, or even manipulating the iron flowing through a human body. He can use that to control people or destroy them completely, as when he took out Vision or ripped all the adamantium out of Wolverine's body.

At the other end of the spectrum, he has truly immense raw power. He has hurled asteroids and satellites the size of planets. He can shatter mountains and trigger earthquakes. He had no trouble overpowering Iron Man or even Red Hulk. Then there was the time he pulled in the Breakworld bullet, a city-sized bullet floating far outside the solar system, and sent it hurtling toward Earth at the speed of light.

Magneto's command of the whole electromagnetic spectrum

It isn't only metal. As the Master of Magnetism, Magneto can manipulate and control everything within the electromagnetic spectrum. With that power he has created magnetic shields able to block attacks from Hulk, Thor, Hercules, Doctor Doom, Ghost Rider, and even Cosmic Spider-Man and the Phoenix Force. When Magneto doesn't want to be hurt, he most likely won't be.

He can control and manipulate electricity, even the nerve signals in the human body, to the point that he can shut people down with an electromagnetic pulse or even take control of a celestial being's nervous system. He can fire blasts powerful enough to send heavy hitters flying, or pin down and push back the entire X-Men team at once. He has even halted an Incursion for a moment, meaning either two planets or two entire universes colliding, depending on how you read it.

Simply put, Magneto at his best is definitely among the most powerful characters in Marvel. He isn't just one of the strongest mutants, he's one of the strongest heroes, period.

Why Vader shouldn't be underestimated against Magneto

At first glance this looks like an extremely easy fight for Magneto. The master of metal against a man in a metal suit seems decided already. Before handing Magneto an easy win, though, I think it's better not to underestimate the power of the dark side.

Vader is one of the most powerful Sith Lords ever, feared across the entire galaxy, to the point where his appearance on a battlefield is enough to settle some fights. He's the Chosen One and he grew steadily stronger in the Force, to the point that Palpatine feared him and began to believe Vader matched him in power.

That matters because Darth Sidious has enormous strength in the Force. He's described as a dark sun blazing in the Force, a black hole, an event horizon. He became so powerful that he didn't just leave dark side nexuses wherever he went; he became a dark side nexus himself, threatening to tear the fabric of space apart. His telekinesis is strong enough not only to throw starships but to bring down a building 12 miles long and two miles tall, big enough to house Star Destroyers. He can also create and control Force storms, wormholes that can rip through time and space and destroy entire worlds, and make them appear across the galaxy. Vader isn't quite Sidious, but if Palpatine feared how strong Vader was in the Force, it's safe to say Vader is very, very powerful. He's strong enough to shake an entire planet with his rage.

Vader is also surprisingly fast. He has always been able to deflect blaster fire traveling at the speed of light, and he can swing his lightsaber at light speed too. So it's entirely possible he lands the first blow on Magneto and wins.

Why Magneto still wins against Darth Vader

In the end, though, I don't think Vader stands much of a chance. We come back again to the fact that the Master of Magnetism is fighting someone wearing a metal suit and carrying a metal sword. Sometimes things are simply that clear. However strong Vader is in the Force, Magneto is just as strong when it comes to magnetism. His abilities range from disrupting a planet's magnetic field and stopping Incursions to control fine enough to pull the iron out of someone's bloodstream.

Realistically, there's no way Magneto loses this fight. He controls the suit, so he controls Vader's body and every movement. He controls the lightsaber, stripping Vader of his deadliest weapon. Magneto has a helmet capable of blocking Professor X, and it can no doubt block Vader's telepathic attacks as well.

Even if Vader could still use the Force to attack Magneto without control of the saber and suit, that might be true, but it wouldn't be enough. If Vader tried to Force choke Magneto where he stands, Magneto has previously kept fighting with aneurysms in his brain. He can keep going through the choke, and it's far easier for Magneto to crush Vader with a thought than the other way around. Magneto definitely wins this fight, and it won't even be close.