Captain Marvel, thanks to her upcoming film in the MCU, has suddenly become a big topic of conversation. In terms of well-known Marvel heroes, she's not exactly on the same level as people like Spider-Man, Captain America, or even Ant-Man. Her powers are not quite common knowledge among more casual fans. However, that does not mean that Carol Danvers, the woman who would become Captain Marvel in 2012, is short on power. In fact, she has a variety of incredibly impressive powers at her disposal. This makes her not just a great hero for Earth, but throughout the universe as well. She has used her powers to defend the populations of other planets, and even though she comes from Earth originally, she seems to consider herself more of a being that is from everywhere.

This might be because of her connection to the Kree, or because of just how much power she possesses, which can really change a person. Either way, there's no denying that when Captain Marvel finally premieres in March, things are going to change in the MCU, and everything is going to get kicked up a notch. Captain Marvel's powers are going to be unlike anything the Avengers have ever seen before, and they might just be the answer to saving the universe from Thanos. Most of these powers are pretty iconic, but there are also some that might end up getting cut from the story just because they are not quite as important to the overall story. That would be just fine, for the most part, considering just how powerful Captain Marvel is, even if some of her powers are ignored. These are ten of her most iconic (and ten of her most useless) powers.

20 ICONIC: SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH

Captain Marvel, like many other heroes in the Marvel Universe, possesses superhuman strength, putting her far above most Earthbound heroes. While she was incredibly strong as Binary, she has maintained a level of strength since her return to a normal state that allows her to lift somewhere near 100 tons.

Of course, in combination with her other powers, including energy absorption, the true range of Captain Marvel's strength can never really be measured. There's no telling how far we might see this power go in the upcoming MCU film, and it might be the key to defeating Thanos once and for all.

19 USELESS: RESISTANCE TO POISONS

Most people would love to be able to say that they are entirely immune to any sort of toxin or poison. Imagine it: you would never have to worry about eating undercooked food or be wary of people close to you slipping some cyanide into your drink. This is actually one of Captain Marvel's more obscure powers, and it might be because it pales in comparison to her other abilities.

Captain Marvel already has a ridiculously high power level, not to mention abilities that give her a big edge in any fight. Why exactly is it important that she has any immunity to poisons or toxins? There's no way anyone could get close enough to her to dose her with anything, and on top of all of her other powers, it just seems extraneous.

18 ICONIC: SUPERHUMAN STAMINA

Captain Marvel carol

Carol Danvers is not the kind of person who is going to give up during a fight or get tired. Her superhuman levels of stamina allow her to keep fighting for as long as she needs to, which makes it one of her more iconic and useful powers. After all, she wouldn't be much of a hero if she had to stop to take a rest when fighting against larger-than-life villains.

That includes facing off against Thanos, which might be what audiences see in the upcoming film. Even the Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Spider-Man all wore themselves out trying to fight against the Mad Titan. Carol will most likely need all of her power to go up against Thanos in the final confrontation.

17 USELESS: SUPERHUMAN AGILITY

There are some superheroes for whom superhuman agility comes in really handy. For example, Spider-Man's ability to be really flexible and dynamic helps him out a lot when he's hiding on ceilings, climbing skyscrapers or just swinging through the city. That added athleticism allows him to thrive as a superhero and use his other abilities as well as he does.

For someone like Captain Marvel, though, superhuman agility is kind of a wash. After all, she has superhuman strength and the capability of flight, meaning that she doesn't exactly need to be overly flexible or athletic. She can basically just fly over something and smash it to pieces with her super strength, so agility is not exactly her most important power.

16 ICONIC: FLIGHT

Of all the superpowers available out there, flight has to be one of the most desirable ones. Imagine being able to get anywhere you needed to go at any time, without having to walk or take a bus or anything? Now that would be handy. So, of course, flight is one of Captain Marvel's most important and iconic powers.

After all, how could she manage to travel through space if she didn't have the ability to fly? Not only can she fly, but it has been estimated that she can fly at six times the speed of sound. That would make her the only character in the MCU who has the natural power of flight, without any assistance from any sort of technology.

15 USELESS: SELF SUSTENANCE

Captain Marvel drawn by Jamie McKelvie

Due to her Kree physiology and the powers she gained from Mar-Vell, Captain Marvel actually has no need to sustain herself with food, water, or sleep. She runs purely on the energy that she absorbed from her surroundings. That would definitely help her in traveling long distances through space, but it seems like a bit of a cop-out.

After all, what's better than eating or sleeping? Okay fine, defeating evil probably has its merits, but still! Captain Marvel shouldn't have to forego the simpler pleasures in life just so that she can always be able to save the universe. This doesn't even seem like that much of a superpower as it is an excuse by writers to have the character be able to do all the things she can without a break.

14 ICONIC: MATTER TRANSMUTATION

Captain Marvel standing in a doorway that opens to a cloudy sky

One of Captain Marvel's most interesting and surprising powers is her matter transmutation ability. That's a really fancy way of saying that she can control and manipulate solid matter and energy into any form that she wants. So basically she could do something like reform any physical matter into a giant projectile.

Will this be a power that we see in the upcoming film, though? It would be hard to say. After all, it might end up making her too overpowered, plus in the grand scheme, having this power on top of her photon blasts would just seem like a bit too much to the casual viewer. Still, it is a pretty great power for Captain Marvel to have in the long run.

13 USELESS: PRECOGNITION

Captain Marvel Brie Larson header

Can Captain Marvel see the future? In many ways, yes she can, but just how useful or interesting is that power? This is actually tied to her power which is known as cosmic awareness (more on that later). That power has more to do with just an awareness of everything happening in the universe, sort of similar to the Force.

Precognition is something else entirely. This suggests that Captain Marvel can see into the future and know everything that is going to happen. That includes choices that characters are going to make and how they will affect everything else. This power just seems like it goes a bit too far in giving the character an extra edge in every situation.

12 ICONIC: ENERGY ABSORPTION

Captain Marvel poster header

When it comes down to it, all of Captain Marvel's powers really rely on this, her most important ability. If it wasn't for her power of energy absorption, then she would not be able to sustain any of the amazing things that she can do. That includes firing photon blasts, flying, surviving in space, and being able to sustain herself for an indefinite period of time.

Carol Danvers is able to use the powers gained from her Kree physiology and her bonding with Mar-Vell to absorb the ambient energy that is all around her. That includes heat, solar, and basically just any kind of energy that surrounds her. She can then store this energy for later use, or she can release it in powerful attacks and abilities.

11 USELESS: GRAVITY MANIPULATION

Another one of Captain Marvel's many powers is her ability to manipulate gravity fields. What exactly does this power do? Well, it basically gives Carol Danvers the ability to alter any sort of gravitational pull that may affect her or other people or objects. This power was really only used in her binary form, but could it show up again? Maybe even in the MCU?

Not likely. This power would be too far-reaching, and might also be a little difficult to explain on-screen. Still, it might get a slight nod due to the fact that this is technically the power that allows Captain Marvel to fly. Still, it doesn't seem like it will be important enough to make it into the MCU canon.

10 ICONIC: NEAR INVULNERABILITY

Captain Marvel is basically going to end up being the Superman-like figure of the MCU, considering just how much power she has at her fingertips. One of the big things about her that is going to be important is that she is nearly invulnerable to almost every kind of attack and environment. This is obvious considering her ability to survive in space and fight all kinds of alien threats.

This power means that she will be hard to beat, especially when she goes up against someone with a similar level of power like, say, Thanos. It was also demonstrated early on in trailers for the film when she survived a fall from a considerable height into a Blockbuster video and walked out practically unscathed.

9 USELESS: MOLECULAR MANIPULATION

Captain Marvel Binary powers

This power is fairly similar to Captain Marvel's matter transmutation ability, but it differs slightly in the way that it works. Carol Danvers can use this power for things like changing her superhero costume into regular clothing if she so pleases. She could also use this power to theoretically turn a solid into a liquid by changing the molecular bonds within it.

She could also, in theory, turn one substance into another by altering the molecular structure of the matter itself. Will this power come into play in the film? Probably not, if we had to guess. This is another power that might just be too obscure to be included in a film that is already going to have to display a lot of unique powers.

8 ICONIC: HEALING FACTOR

Captain Marvel Iron Man Civil War II

Despite the fact that she is incredibly strong and a great fighter, Captain Marvel still gets hurt when she goes up against more formidable foes. However, her power of energy absorption gives her the added ability to be able to heal herself, much like a certain six-clawed mutant from Canada.

Beyond being able to heal herself, though, Captain Marvel is also able to project any of the energy she has absorbed onto other people, giving her the ability to heal other people as well. This might come in handy in the films if any fan-favorite characters happen to get gravely injured along the way.

7 USELESS: SUPERHUMAN REFLEXES

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So Captain Marvel is fast. In fact, she is very fast. She can fly at super speeds, after all. Of course, all of that power she has at her disposal also gives her superhuman reflexes, meaning that she is able to react quickly in a fight and dodge any attacks that might be too much for her.

Of course, what kind of attack would be too much for Captain Marvel? She is one of the most powerful beings in the entire Marvel Universe. She is almost on the same level as someone like Superman. While her reflexes might help her dodge attacks, it's not like she really needs to, considering how strong she is anyway.

6 ICONIC: SPACE TRAVEL

One of Captain Marvel's most important powers might be her ability to travel through space. By using her power of energy absorption, she is able to handle the vacuum of space with no issue. This is also due to her adoption of Mar-Vell's space travel abilities. These were also greatly enhanced when she became the being known as Binary.

In later years, Carol required an oxygen supply to travel through space, but just the fact that she was able to do so without the aid of any other technology is pretty important. It may end up being the most important power when it comes to rescuing a certain tech billionaire who happens to be marooned in space and running out of food, water, and oxygen.

5 USELESS: HEAT CREATION

One of the first things that students learn about in their elementary science classes is that heat is a form of energy. Therefore, any of the energy absorbed by Captain Marvel can, of course, be used to create heat. This is demonstrated partially in her photon blasts, but also in the fact that she is able to generate massive amounts of heat from her body.

Captain Marvel essentially has the ability to get as hot as a nuclear blast if she really wants to, but what good will this do exactly? Obviously, if Carol ever found herself in a situation where she was stranded in the Arctic or something, she could easily keep herself warm for as long as she needed to. Still, this doesn't seem like it will be that important in the upcoming film.

4 ICONIC: PHOTON BLASTS

A power that has been demonstrated in all of the trailers for the Captain Marvel film is her ability to fire photon beams from her hands after absorbing the energy around her. This power is probably one of Captain Marvel's most iconic and well known. Not only that, but this power is basically Captain Marvel's most powerful offensive attack.

The photon blasts in the film will most likely end up being a big part of how Carol defeats the Skrull army. She might even use them in a climactic moment where all of her power is drained by one massive blast. It remains to be seen whether this ability will be the key to Captain Marvel's role in the MCU overall.

3 USELESS: ELECTROMAGNETIC MANIPULATION

Captain Marvel vs Iron Man

Captain Marvel has a variety of different abilities that allow her to manipulate different kinds of energy, but her power of electromagnetic manipulation just seems like it goes a bit too far. After all, she can absorb and manipulate heat energy, which seems like it would cover most bases in terms of fighting powerful enemies.

These powers also give her abilities similar to Magneto. She can control and manipulate metal objects at will as well as control any sort of electrical signals and machinery. Would she ever really need to use this power though? It wouldn't be a problem at all if this happened to be left out of the MCU version of the character entirely.

2 ICONIC: COSMIC AWARENESS

Marvel Generations Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel's most important and iconic power has nothing to do with strength or firing photon blasts from her hands. It is her sense of cosmic awareness, a sort of precognitive power that allows her to be in tune with every part of the universe, right down to every subatomic particle.

If this particular power finds its way into the MCU film, then it would be no surprise that Captain Marvel would know exactly what happened after Thanos snapped his fingers, no matter where she happens to find herself. This might just be her defining power in stories to come, if only because she will be aware of everything that has happened over the last ten years.

1 USELESS: TELEPORTATION

Captain Marvel can fly at almost six times the speed of sound, which in itself is basically like being able to teleport. And yet, she might still actually have the power of teleportation, which just seems like a bit much. This was a power that was exhibited by Mar-vell before he transferred his powers to Carol, so it makes sense that she might still possess it.

There's no way to know for sure if this power will be shown in any way in Captain Marvel, and if it is, it will most likely be demonstrated by Jude Law's character, who is rumored to be Mar-Vell, but has not actually been confirmed as such yet. However, it seems like this might be a power that gets left out of the MCU canon, which would be totally fine.