Scarlet Witch vs Captain Marvel: Why Wanda Comes Out on Top in This MCU Battle Arena Matchup

Scarlet Witch beats Captain Marvel. In this Battle Arena I put the two most powerful heroines in the MCU head to head, two heroines empowered by two different Infinity Stones, and when I break down their strength, durability, speed, skill and power against each other, Wanda Maximoff is the one I'm taking.

Carol Danvers has a real case, and Wanda has one major weakness that could hand Carol the win. But two things settle it for me: how each of them did against Thanos, and what Kevin Feige said about who is the strongest hero in the MCU.

Wanda Maximoff gained her powers from the Mind Stone in Loki's scepter

Wanda Maximoff is a native of Sokovia who, along with her twin brother Pietro, acquired superpowers when she volunteered to undergo experiments that exposed her to the power of Loki's scepter, the Mind Stone. The twins joined forces with Ultron to take vengeance against Tony Stark for creating the weapons that killed their parents, and Wanda used her powers of telekinesis and mental manipulation to dismantle the Avengers and create chaos among them.

Once they discovered Ultron's true intentions, though, Wanda and Pietro switched sides and fought with the Avengers against Ultron during the Battle of Sokovia. Wanda went on to become a key member of the team as the Scarlet Witch. Her main power revolves around manipulating and unleashing energy she gained through exposure to the cosmic forces of an Infinity Stone.

Her telekinesis has let her throw dozens of cars at Iron Man, break through Ultron's vibranium chest, push back a Leviathan, throw back an oncoming wave of giant threshers, block a downward strike from Thanos, and then restrain the Titan and lift him into the air. It's not just raw power either. She has great technical control over it: she's used it to fly, and she even used it to mend Vision's vibranium body.

She also has telepathy, reading the thoughts of both Iron Man and Vision, and she can mentally manipulate people, commanding a large number of Sokovians to flee the city and taking down every Avenger except Hawkeye and Iron Man by messing with their heads. Finally, she can conjure psionic energy in physical form and shape it however she wants. She used it to dismantle Ultron bots, kill Outriders and other members of Thanos's army, and even destroy the Mind Stone while holding back a Thanos who had five Infinity Stones.

Carol Danvers absorbed the Space Stone's energy and became a human Kree hybrid

In the other corner is Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel, a former United States Air Force pilot who gained cosmic powers when she was exposed to the energy of the Tesseract through the destruction of the light speed engine. Her powers come from absorbing the energy of the Space Stone, which gave her almost unlimited cosmic power, and she is essentially a human Kree hybrid after being given a Kree blood transfusion.

Because of that hybrid nature, Carol is strong enough to bend metal and send people flying backwards, durable enough to take attacks from Skrulls, and fast enough to keep up with a speeding train. After gaining full control over her cosmic powers, she can tap into her Binary mode, which vastly increases her physical abilities. To do it she first produces a massive amount of cosmic energy to envelop herself in, becoming essentially invulnerable and incalculably strong.

In that state she's pushed back and overpowered a gigantic Kree ballistic missile, destroyed both the Kree warship and Thanos's warship by flying straight through them, and physically overpowered Thanos. She can fly around and dodge projectiles, fly all around Titan in under a minute, and even reach light speed. She can also siphon her cosmic energy into dense photon blasts, and she's an expert fighter who defeated two dozen armed Skrulls, dominated Commander Talos and fought Thanos in Binary mode.

Captain Marvel's strength feats make her one of the strongest heroes in the MCU

First things first, I want to take a closer look at what Captain Marvel is truly capable of. She's destroyed fighter ships either by flying through them or by landing just one punch. She stopped and overpowered an absolutely massive ballistic warhead and sent it flying backwards. She destroyed both the Kree warship and Thanos's warship, and she was able to keep Thanos from using the Infinity Gauntlet by overpowering his hand.

All of these are insanely impressive, and Carol did them essentially with ease. She never really showed signs of struggling, and all of this clearly makes her one of the strongest heroes in the MCU.

Captain Marvel shrugged off a Thanos headbutt, but a Power Stone blast took her out

So then what about durability? Captain Marvel fell from outer space when she was still without her powers, landed on top of a building, and wasn't damaged. The heat of reentry is nothing for Carol. She's taken blasts from Kree fighter ships with no problem, and she flew through a massive Kree warship while withstanding the explosions caused by its destruction.

She's taken a multitude of blasts from the Sanctuary II cannons, the same cannons that easily destroyed Leviathans and blew up Avengers headquarters. She's flown through a massive explosion caused by those gigantic missiles, and she took a headbutt from Thanos and didn't even flinch. She literally didn't even move.

However, Carol was sent flying backwards and taken out of the fight by a blast from the Power Stone, while Thor and even Iron Man took prolonged blasts from the stone and didn't go down. That's definitely a knock against her.

Carol has flown at light speed, but speed matters differently in a fight

Carol has flown at the speed of light while helping Talos locate a new planet for the Skrulls. When the Avengers went to confront Thanos on Titan, she was able to perform a recon of the planet in just a few seconds. That said, it's just as likely that the Avengers had already singled out Thanos's spot on the planet and Carol just scouted a small area, as opposed to flying all over the planet in a few seconds.

Either way, this isn't a race, it's a fight, and in a fight speed is a different matter. Carol has never shown remarkable speed while fighting. Thanos is nowhere near as fast as Captain Marvel, yet he was still able to easily trade blows with her.

Captain Marvel is a skilled fighter, but her photon blasts only dazed Thanos

I think we get so wrapped up in her physical power that we kind of overlook the fact that she's a really skilled fighter too. She sparred and trained with Yon-Rogg, and she was able to plow through Skrull warriors on her own, beating nine of them while she was still handcuffed.

Carol was also able to fight and hold her own against Thanos, and Thanos is a warlord with centuries of experience and some of the greatest skills in the whole MCU, skilled enough to fight the Avengers all at once.

Then there are her photon blasts. She's sent people literally flying backwards and blown apart spaceships with them. But in her fight with Thanos, I think the best you can say is that she dazed him with those blasts.

Scarlet Witch's telekinesis ripped apart vibranium and held back Thanos one handed

Then there's Scarlet Witch, and just looking at her telekinesis, the stuff she's doing is kind of insane. There are just two people in the MCU who have ripped apart vibranium: Thanos and Scarlet Witch. She's held up a falling air traffic control tower and casually thrown rubble and large pieces of debris at Thanos.

She was even able to block a downward strike from Thanos and his sword, a strike where he was putting all of his weight and power behind it. Remember, it was this same kind of strike that was powerful enough to break apart Captain America's shield, yet Wanda was able to hold it back, even with just one hand.

She's managed to hold and push back against a Leviathan, which is something Hulk had to exert a considerable amount of effort to do. She stopped an oncoming wave of threshers, held them up in the air and then sent them crashing to the ground. And she lifted Thanos into the air and squeezed down on him, forcing him to order an airstrike at the expense of his own troops just to escape her.

Wanda's energy blasts destroyed the Mind Stone while she held Thanos back

And that's just one of her powers. She can also fire powerful energy blasts, one shotting Ultron bots and members of Thanos's army. She blasted Thanos's sword out of his arms, cracked the sword, and staggered Thanos with an energy blast.

According to Vision, she was the only one capable of breaking the Mind Stone, and the thing is, he was kind of right. She did destroy the Mind Stone, and she did it while simultaneously holding back Thanos with another blast. She can also create energy barriers, which is the only thing that saved her from the massive cannons on Thanos's ship.

Wanda is even a powerful telepath. Even though we haven't really seen it since Age of Ultron, she did manage to take out every Avenger but Hawkeye and Iron Man by playing mind games with them, so that's not nothing.

Scarlet Witch is the most powerful glass cannon in the MCU

The only catch is that Scarlet Witch really doesn't have great durability. She might arguably be the most powerful hero in the MCU, but she's just as durable as a normal human, so she's really the most powerful glass cannon in the MCU.

Hawkeye put her down with a taser to the head. War Machine put her down with a sonic cannon. Thanos knocked her out with a backhanded slap. Carol can probably knock out Wanda just as easily as Thanos did, and I'm not going to lie, that's a pretty big problem if Scarlet Witch wants to win this fight.

Kevin Feige's view and the Thanos showings tip the fight to Scarlet Witch

But honestly, everything I'm saying doesn't really matter. It's just my opinion on who wins, and it's not my opinion that matters, it's Kevin Feige's. Basically, he is the MCU. "When he speaks, when he breathes, it becomes canon." And according to him, at the time I made this ranking, Captain Marvel was no longer the most powerful hero in the MCU: post Endgame, Scarlet Witch was the strongest hero in the MCU.

That really makes me think she takes this one. Based on their showings against Thanos, where Captain Marvel held her own and overpowered him but was ultimately beaten, while Scarlet Witch had him utterly helpless, and based on the fact that Kevin Feige of all people believes Scarlet Witch is more powerful, I'm going to take Scarlet Witch. Wanda comes out on top here. Scarlet Witch wins.

Who do you think wins this fight, Scarlet Witch or Captain Marvel?