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.
15. 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 shotto death by Ultron, and completely failing to stop The Vision.
14. 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 hisappearance 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.
13. Black Widow
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 Like Hawkeye, she's a super-spy, but unlike him, she knows better than to use an outdated weapon that mankind has been developing counter measures against for literally thousands of years.
12. 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. 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 by product 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.
11. 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 counter part'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.
10. 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 bereckoned 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 metalarm 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.
9. War Machine
They say it's good to have friends in highplaces, 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.
8. Spider-Man
Smart, superpowered, and fitted out with Starktech, Spider-Man's a late, but powerful, addition to the MCU. In his first appearance in the MCU in CivilWar, 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.
7. 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. Onscreen, he's handily beaten nearly every character on this list, whether in fist fights with Spider-Man or foot races against the Falcon.
6. 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 stand still, even with a barely functioning suit, so he's more than earned his spot.
5. 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.
4. 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 hercomics 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 tastein robot men, but being the only possible magic user so far on the Avengers puts herover the top.
3. 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 Mac Guffins 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 god like.
2. Thor
Unfortunately for Vision, god-like isn't godly, and Thor is an actual God. 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.
1. The 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 tarout 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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