The Big Picture

  • Hulk's power has diminished in the changing landscape of the MCU, but he remains a dangerous being with his genius intellect and scientific abilities.
  • Shang-Chi's access to the Ten Rings and his martial arts skills make him one of the mightiest heroes on Earth.
  • Scarlet Witch, despite her recent villainous turn, is confirmed to be the most powerful of Earth's heroes, surpassing even the Sorcerer Supreme.

Ever since the original six stood side-by-side in midtown Manhattan to protect the planet against Loki and Thanos' Chitauri forces, the Avengers have been at the center of the pop culture zeitgeist, not only redefining what a blockbuster movie is but informing what the next decade-plus of the landscape it occupies would look like: everyone in Hollywood has since been chasing the golden goose that is their own successful cinematic universe, from the Warner Bros' DCEU to Universal's ill-fated, one-movie-long, now infamous "Dark Universe."

But while the Avengers themselves have remained a mainstay, what it means to be an Avenger and the various heroes that comprise the team has ebbed and flowed, changing and rearranging with every passing movie. Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) was a loyal government agent his entire adult life before joining up, yet Peter Parker (Tom Holland) was "knighted" into the team after going on an accidental outer space field trip with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) was their most powerful weapon until Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Thanos (Josh Brolin) showed up, both of whom rendered him useless (or worse) without much effort. And as a result, the list of the seven most powerful Avengers looks far different from what it would have looked like a decade ago, or how it might look a couple of years from now.

With that in mind, now in the depths of Phase Five, these are the seven most powerful Avengers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ranked.

7 Hulk

Last Appearance: 'She-Hulk: Attorney at Law'

Professor Hulk eating at a dinner in Avengers: Endgame
Image via Marvel Studios

With Thor watching over his newfound daughter, Hawkeye and Hulk could very well be the last men standing in terms of the original group of Avengers that defended Earth against Loki by this time next year. And a lot, including Hulk's standing within the MCU's power scale, has changed since then.

Back in 2012's The Avengers, Hulk is positioned as the ace-in-the-hole against Loki's cosmic army. Now, given the arrival of various ancient, mystical, or outer space-hailing beings and technologies into the MCU, Hulk's brand of smash 'em up offensive is nothing more than a hammer in a world that now requires the superhero equivalent of a crane: the entire scale of the war the Avengers are waging has changed, and as a result, Hulk's status as one of the most powerful has slipped. Wanda Maximoff was able to not only nullify Hulk but weaponize him in Avengers: Age of Ultron and she had barely even begun to scratch the surface of her witchcraft ways.

Nevertheless, despite his diminished reputation within the context of his peers, Hulk still remains one of the most dangerous beings in the MCU, as evidenced by his ability to fight with the likes of Thor while also think with the likes of Tony Stark. And, of course, on top of all of that he is a genius scientist and his inventions and brain power add to the assets that he has in his arsenal. Hopefully this will allow him to help his cousin, Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), when she becomes a Hulk herself in She-Hulk.

6 Shang-Chi

Last Appearance: 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'

Simu Liu wielding the ten rings that are now yellow in color in Shang-Chi
Image via Marvel Studios

One of the newest additions to the ranks of the MCU's strongest Avengers, Shang-Chi's (Simu Liu) inclusion on this list is contingent upon him having access to the Ten Rings, an ancient (and possibly alien) telepathically controlled weapon that allowed The Mandarin (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) to stay in power for centuries; a weapon that is sending a beacon to an unknown and likely equally powerful receiver. Combine that weapon with a man considered to be the world's greatest martial artist, and you have a concoction of ground-level skill and otherworldly power that immediately makes Shang-Chi one of Earth's mightiest mighty heroes.

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5 Thor

Last Appearance: 'Thor: Love and Thunder'

Hulk, Thor, Valkyrie, and Loki prepare to battle Hela in Thor: Ragnarok
Image via Marvel Studios

Truly unlocking his potential in Thor: Ragnarok, the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) only went on to further establish himself as one of the most powerful Avengers when he was presented as the ultimate game-changer in the final Avengers: Infinity War battle, a game-changer that *would've* killed Thanos had he simply gone for the head. Those Top 5 strongest Avengers powers were on display in What If...? Season 1 as he goes toe-to-toe with Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) despite his inebriated state. As Thor himself has stated, he's 1,500 years old and has killed twice as many enemies as that. As we saw in Thor: Love and Thunder, not only does this power belong to Thor, but he can grant others with the same ability, like the children who were captured by Gorr (Christian Bale). Being able to temporarily gift or deputize others with the god of thunder's ability is definitely impressive.

4 Captain Marvel

Last Appearance: 'The Marvels'

Captain Marvel is so powerful that her origin story film was strategically positioned in between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame as to not disrupt the logic of the films. Had Captain Marvel been a part of the crew who went toe-to-toe with Thanos on Titan, they would've been able to defeat him regardless of Peter Quill's (Chris Pratt) shortsighted antics, as evidenced by her borderline domination of a fully-loaded Infinity Gauntlet-wielding Thanos. No wonder Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) looks up to her!

3 Ant-Man

Last Appearance: 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'

Ant-Man with his helmet off smiling in Ant-Man in Ant-Man and the Wasp
Image via Marvel Studios

On its surface, the ability to shrink and expand isn't all that threatening, especially when compared to the abilities of ancient gods and otherworldly aliens. But when taking into account the quantum abilities that come with the Ant-Man suit, the stronger Scott Lang's (Paul Rudd) case becomes. Similar to Doctor Strange (don't worry, we'll get to him later), Ant-Man's powers simply exist in a different realm than that of Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man, and even the likes of Thor and Captain Marvel, and also within fan culture (subconsciously or otherwise), as a common joke in the lead-up to Avengers: Infinity War was "Why doesn't Ant-Man just crawl inside Thanos and, well, expand?"

What this indicates is that, despite his significant physical strength, there are certain realms and power sets that the more combat-based beings simply can't compete with. It's the reason why they aren't sending Bruce Banner to deal with a newly rogue Wanda Maximoff. That is the core nature of the argument for Ant-Man: whether it's being too big or too small, messing with quantum physics or the quantum realm, the scientific dynamic of Ant-Man's skills is far too complex of a problem for most Avengers to solve. This technology, after all, was the key component in the Avengers being able to undo Thanos' snap: if that same technology was applied in a weaponized manner instead of a scientific one, there's no telling what the limits of Ant-Man's time-traveling abilities are. In the same way that Doctor Strange is the key to combating the mystical and multiversal threats set to reign down upon the MCU, Ant-Man will likely be key in their stand against the next MCU big bad.

2 Doctor Strange

Last Appearance: 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'

Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange holding up his magic sigils
Image via Marvel STudios

While ranking the Sorcerer Supreme above both Captain Marvel and Thor may cause some to double-take, the Marvel Cinematic Universe itself has already given an example of how helpless the brute of Thor's strength is when leveled against the more magical, mental elements of Doctor Strange's skill set when the pair briefly cross paths in Thor: Ragnarok. Granted, while Thor isn't engaged in combat whatsoever, Doctor Strange is in such utter control of the situation (and Loki, for that matter, as he sent him to the purgatory of endless freefall) that you wonder what Thor would even be able to do about it if he did decide to take Strange on. No amount of lightning bolts or hammer swings could defeat a being like Dormammu, let alone the man who outsmarted it.

After Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we clearly learned that Strange is not only powerful but a threat to multiple universes, making him more powerful than even Thanos, with the ability to destroy universes, dreamwalk, and even inhabit dead bodies.

1 The Scarlet Witch

Last Appearance: 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'

Here's perhaps the best summation of Scarlet Witch's current standing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: while whether she's still an Avenger is currently up for debate given her villainous turn in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (and let's be real, she's not really gone forever), her status as the most powerful of Earth's Mightiest Heroes is not. The only thing more dangerous than an all-powerful, multiverse-capable being like Doctor Strange is one with nothing to lose and that's what Wanda amounts to in the wake of losing both the love of her life and their children.

Regardless of the characters' personal arcs, though, Wanda Maximoff's superiority is laid out explicitly in the WandaVision season finale, with Kathyrn Hahn's Agatha Harkness confirming that the Scarlet Witch's powers are greater than that of the Sorcerer Supreme.

"Did you know there's an entire chapter devoted to you in the Darkhold? That's the book of the damned," Harkness tells Wanda. "The Scarlet Witch is not born, she is forged. She has no coven, no need for incantation. Your power succeeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme. It's your destiny to destroy the world."

The fact is that, without the help of America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), Doctor Strange would not have been able to defeat Wanda, and it stands to reason that any future rendition we meet of Wanda will be equally as strong.

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