Scarlet Witch Being MCU’s Strongest Hero Makes More Sense Than Captain Marvel

Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) has replaced Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s strongest hero, and this actually makes a lot more sense. In late December, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige confirmed that the MCU’s strongest character is Scarlet Witch following Avengers: Endgame.

Marvel Studios keeps changing its strongest hero, and for the longest time, it was Carol Danvers. This was said before she even made her big-screen debut. Feige and others at Marvel consistently described her this way, and Feige has called her power “off the charts“. She lived up to this reputation in Captain Marvel, and did impressively well against Thanos in Endgame. However, the character who was the most impressive in battle with Thanos was without a doubt Scarlet Witch, who, because of Vision’s death, had a score to settle with the Mad Titan.

Some could argue that Marvel is referring to Scarlet Witch as its strongest hero in order to hype her up for her new Disney+ series, WandaVision, and her role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Regardless of the reason, Scarlet Witch having this title makes sense, and a lot of that has to do with comic book precedence. Before the MCU, Carol Danvers was always considerably weaker than Thor, Hulk, Hercules, Namor, the Thing, and quite a few more, when it came to physical strength. As strong as Captain Marvel was, she still wasn’t on the level of Marvel’s top-tier powerhouses.

Scarlet Witch, on the other hand, is a totally different story. In the comics, Scarlet Witch has long been recognized as one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe. It shouldn’t be overlooked that Wanda, with her mutant powers and Chaos Magic, is capable of nearly limitless destruction. After losing control, she single-handedly brought the Avengers to their knees in “Avengers Disassembled”, rewrote reality, and became the one character whose power stood a chance at defeating the full might of the Phoenix Force in “Avengers vs. X-Men”.

Years and years of comics have allowed Scarlet Witch to build the reputation she currently holds in the Marvel Universe. Because there’s mountains of evidence to support Scarlet Witch being this powerful, fans find it easier to accept her as the MCU’s powerful hero than they do Captain Marvel. What she can do in the comics makes it easy to believe that Scarlet Witch can beat Thanos one-on-one. Wanda Maximoff being the strongest hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe just feels natural.