Since 2008's Iron Man, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought over 30 superhero characters to life on the big screen. Some of them have gotten their own movies and some are just part of the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, or are trusty sidekicks.
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00:00The Marvel Cinematic Universe showed audiences that a man could fly in Iron Man, and since
00:05then, the slow threading of various superheroes into a cohesive universe has been pretty amazing.
00:10But of all the mighty and astonishing superheroes that make up Marvel's premiere superteam,
00:15who is the most incredible?
00:16To settle the question, we're ranking the most powerful members of the Avengers, starting
00:20from the bottom and ending with the strongest one there is.
00:23Access denied.
00:24God of Thunder.
00:25Access denied.
00:26Strongest Avenger.
00:27Access denied.
00:28Strongest Avenger.
00:29Access denied.
00:30Hawkeye
00:31We'll start with the obvious loser on the team, the Avengers' arrogant archer Clint Barton,
00:40a.k.a. Hawkeye.
00:41He's supposedly a super-spy on the level of Black Widow, but his defining moments in the
00:45movies involve him decidedly not stopping Thor from getting to his magic hammer, getting
00:50mind-controlled by Loki, almost being shot to death by Ultron, and completely failing
00:55to stop the Vision.
00:56I'm Clint.
00:58I don't care.
01:00Quicksilver
01:02Believe it or not, there was a time when Quicksilver, the white-haired, on-again-off-again son of
01:06Magneto, was in two movies just a year apart from one another, X-Men Days of Future Past
01:10and Avengers Age of Ultron.
01:12It's certainly hard to believe, since his appearance in Ultron is so bad that it's rocketed
01:16him down to the sad, lonely Hawkeye tier of our list.
01:19His power is super-speed, which seems like it would keep him a bit higher on a list of
01:23most powerful superheroes in the MCU.
01:25Though he may have sacrificed himself to save Hawkeye and a child, dying because of regular
01:29bullets when you have super-speed is just embarrassing.
01:32You didn't see that coming.
01:38Black Widow
01:39Who do you want me to be?
01:42There's no shame in Black Widow's placement this far down the list.
01:45In a world with gods, robots, magic, and aliens, Black Widow earning a spot on the
01:49Avengers roster due to sheer competence is nothing to be ashamed of.
01:53Like Hawkeye, she's a super-spy, but unlike him, she knows better than to use an outdated
01:57weapon that mankind has been developing countermeasures against for literally thousands of years.
02:03We're still friends, right?
02:07Ant-Man
02:08If this list were graded on charm and the strength of the supporting cast, Paul Rudd's
02:12Scott Lang would easily vault near the top.
02:14What?
02:15I want to know about that tip.
02:17Oh, baby, it's on!
02:19It's so on right now!
02:20Unfortunately for the diminutive dynamo, we're grading on sheer power, and Ant-Man's skills
02:25don't quite stack up.
02:27To be fair to the reformed con man, he did test out growing to a massive size in Civil
02:31War, but no one ever grows to a massive size to win a fight.
02:34Call it a byproduct of our obsession with David and Goliath stories, but generally the
02:38only time a character gets bigger is to be satisfyingly knocked over like an at-at on
02:42Hoth.
02:43Oh, man.
02:44It's nice.
02:45Yeah, right?
02:47Falcon
02:48Sam Wilson has both military training and the coolest flying technology that doesn't
02:53come with stark branding.
02:54In fact, the only downside to the MCU Falcon is that they decided to go with a robotic
02:59drone version of his comic's counterpart's faithful Redwing.
03:01Sure, talking to birds like some sort of high-flying Aquaman isn't the greatest power, but we're
03:06getting to the super-powered side of the rankings, so he'd need something more to rank a bit
03:10higher.
03:11Don't say it!
03:12Don't you say it!
03:13Left!
03:14Come on!
03:15Winter Soldier
03:16He might look like a teen exploring his identity at Hot Topic, but Buchanan Bucky Barnes, a.k.a.
03:26the Winter Soldier, is a force to be reckoned with.
03:29Tortured and mind-controlled by HYDRA, he's been on so many secret assassination missions
03:33that his name is a legend in super-spy circles.
03:36Add in a super-strong and super-flexible metal arm that can punch a hole through concrete,
03:41along with a version of the super-soldier serum that powers Captain America, and the
03:44Winter Soldier is a formidable threat.
03:55War Machine
03:56They say it's good to have friends in high places, but generally, the most those high-powered
04:00friends can do is get you a job or maybe loan you a few bucks.
04:04For James Rody Rhodes, being best friends with Tony Stark means that he gets a personalized
04:08version of Tony's high-tech armor with enough guns and missiles to start — and finish
04:12— a small war.
04:21Spider-Man
04:22Smart, super-powered, and fitted out with Stark tech, Spider-Man's a late but powerful
04:27addition to the MCU.
04:28In his first appearance in the MCU in Civil War, he's able to disable Winter Soldier and
04:33Falcon, bring down a giant man, and even keep up with Captain America.
04:37That's a pretty strong opening for the young superhero.
04:49Captain America
04:51Captain America's the full package, and we're not just talking about actor Chris Evans.
04:55Steve Rogers has superpowers, fighting prowess, and an indestructible vibranium shield that's
05:00the closest thing to unbreakable that the MCU has — at least until Adamantium shows
05:04up.
05:06Plus, if we're counting raw charisma as a superpower, that's one more advantage for
05:10the star-spangled Avenger.
05:11"...Captain America.
05:12It's an honor.
05:13I'm shaking your hand too long.
05:14Wow, this is awesome.
05:15Captain America."
05:19On-screen, he's handily beaten nearly every character on this list, whether in fistfights
05:24with Spider-Man or footraces against the Falcon.
05:26"...On your left."
05:28"...Uh-huh, on my left."
05:31"...Got it."
05:32Iron Man
05:33Iron Man is everyone's favorite genius billionaire playboy philanthropist — and that's even
05:38before you get to the laser-blasting, high-tech weaponry all wrapped up in a suit powered
05:42by tech more powerful than a nuclear reactor.
05:45And that's only in one suit.
05:46There are the dozens that he can control remotely, or the giant suit he built specifically to
05:51beat down the strongest thing in the world.
05:53While his lack of close-combat experience might seem to drop him a bit lower, the ending
05:57of Civil War shows him fighting Captain America and the Winter Soldier to a standstill.
06:02Even with a barely-functioning suit, so he's more than earned his spot.
06:05"...Yeah, big man in a suit of armor.
06:10Take that off, what are you?"
06:11"...Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist."
06:15Black Panther
06:16Tony Stark might be an eccentric, rich genius in America who gets treated like a king, but
06:21he's not an actual king like the Black Panther, the ruler of Wakanda.
06:25Like Iron Man, he's got a technologically advanced suit, though in Black Panther's case,
06:29it's made of nigh-indestructible vibranium.
06:31Plus, he has brilliant kid sister Shuri to help build any gadgets he needs.
06:35But Black Panther's also got the fight training that Stark lacks, along with highly-trained
06:40bodyguards, and the backing of an entire country so technologically advanced it makes New York
06:45City look like 15th-century Europe.
06:47Plus, the magic of the heart-shaped herb.
06:49Pretty hard to beat.
06:50Scarlet Witch
07:02This is a bit of a tough one, since the Scarlet Witch of the MCU might be significantly less
07:06powerful than the comics version.
07:08In the comics, the Scarlet Witch is a ridiculously powerful mutant who was able to completely
07:12erase the mutant genome from the planet with her chaos magic.
07:16But the comics' No More Mutants has nothing on Disney's No Mutants Until We Buy the Right
07:20Knights to the X-Men back.
07:22As a result, the Scarlet Witch of the MCU uses abilities that run closer to telekinesis
07:26and telepathy than the chaos magic of her comics counterpart.
07:30Even without magic, though, she's a powerful superheroine, able to take down half the team
07:34under Ultron's orders.
07:35She might be young and have questionable taste in robot men, but being the only possible
07:39magic user so far on the Avengers puts her over the top.
07:50The Vision
07:52In the comics, the Infinity Gems are the most powerful items in the universe, used in conjunction
07:56with the Infinity Gauntlet to wield complete control over basically everything.
08:01While there's not full confirmation that the MCU will follow suit until the release of
08:05Avengers Infinity War, it's not a far stretch to say that the magical MacGuffins are incredibly
08:10powerful.
08:11The Vision, the android based on Tony Stark's Jarvis AI, has the Mind Stone embedded in
08:16its forehead, giving him the powers of density manipulation, intangibility, and laser blasts.
08:21Altogether, the combination of a brilliant AI, laser blasts, and energy derived from
08:26a fundamental power source of the entire Marvel Universe makes the Vision almost godlike.
08:37Thor
08:38Unfortunately for Vision, godlike isn't godly, and Thor is an actual god.
08:44You know this, uh, this, uh, you call yourself Lord of Thunder?
08:47God of Thunder.
08:49Even if you discount his magic hammer, or his control of storms, or even his super strength,
08:54he's the Prince of Asgard, a popular scion of a supremely powerful king who commands
08:58a whole army of gods.
09:00Each one of Thor's many friends and family members are nearly as strong as he is, living
09:04in a god-filled utopia in space.
09:06But there is one greater.
09:12This drink, I like it.
09:13I know, it's great, right?
09:14Another!
09:17The Hulk
09:18They'll come for you.
09:20I have an army.
09:22We have a Hulk.
09:23Bruce Banner's green alter ego has beaten basically everyone in the entire Marvel Universe
09:27a few different times, often in literally earth-shattering ways.
09:31And that's just in the comics.
09:33In the MCU, Hulk's personally beaten the tar out of Thor, Iron Man, Loki, the Abomination,
09:39and the entire U.S. Army.
09:41And those are just the characters who've actually bothered to fight him instead of just running
09:45away.
09:46Out of the MCU's Avengers so far, the Hulk's powers are truly incredible.