Fans are brimming with anticipation over Avengers: Infinity War; everyone and their brother are excited to see the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe throw-down with Thanos. For years, the MCU has been building up to this dramatic and epic confrontation, but it’s anybody’s guess how it will go and whether all of our favorite heroes will survive the affair. After all, with all the hype built around Thanos, we know he’s not going to go down easily. It also doesn’t help that the Mad Titan will be wielding some (if not all) of the Infinity Stones, boosting his powers to godlike levels and beyond. On account of the power he’ll be boasting, every hero is going to get dragged into the fight.
However, with the hullaballoo involving Thanos and people speculating on who’s going to kick the bucket, we haven’t taken time to consider Marvel’s god-level characters (gods themselves included) and how they would present as a challenge to Thanos. Granted, some of those same characters are going to be in Infinity War, so it’ll be interesting to see how Thanos handles the likes of the Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange. Today at CBR we’re looking at 15 that would definitely be able to challenge, if not defeat, Thanos.
15 BLACK BOLT
Though Black Bolt’s only been a part of the MCU for a short time, there’s a reason he’s King of the Inhumans. Governing his people with a quiet authority, Black Bolt is the mightiest of his race. His Inhuman gift involves discharging incredible bursts of sonic energy whenever he speaks. Yet his ability is so raw and powerful, he dare not even utter a whisper, let alone talk at full volume. Such an act could destroy a city!
We’ve seen that simple grunts can obliterate multiple cars, and the softest of words can destroy nearly anyone who stands before him.
Black Bolt and Thanos have faced off in the comics before. In a battle of epic proportions, the two beat the stuffing out of one another. Black Bolt nearly defeated Thanos on his own, which is a feat few heroes or villains can attest to.
14 EGO
Ego the Living Planet is a Celestial and a being of astronomical and virtually limitless power. He’s so powerful that he became a threat to all life in the universe. The biological father of the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill, Ego possesses all the powers that come with being a cosmic entity; he also just so happened to be an immortal sentient planet that can manipulate matter and energy around him. So he can interact with other lifeforms, Ego can create a human avatar with no trouble
With his avatar, he tried to destroy the universe by putting more of himself into it. He created thousands of offspring he wished to imbue with cosmic powers so he could harness their destructive energy. Though he’s likely dead, thanks to Peter Quill and company, there’s little Thanos could do in the face of the living planet.
13 THOR
The God of Thunder, Thor has always been one of the biggest contenders in the MCU. Thanks to his recent power-up in Thor: Ragnorak, Thor is stronger than ever before. The funny thing is, from what we’ve seen in the trailers (or the movie if you’ve already seen Infinity War), it’s just not enough to take Thanos down.
That said, with a guy like Thor, you can bet he’s not going to get beaten without giving one heck of fight.
After all, the guy can fire off massive lightning bolts, is strong enough to take on the Hulk, and can use his lightning to boost his already impressive strength. While it’s feasible Thanos only takes Thor by surprise, if the thunder god is allowed to get a second wind, then he’ll definitely be up for giving the Mad Titan a run for his money.
12 ODIN
In both Marvel comics and the MCU, there are few entities mightier than Odin. The father of Thor and the king of Asgard, his mastery of the Odinforce, which allows him an almost limitless supply of magical abilities, make him a tremendous cosmic force. In the comic books, Odin is said to have Earth, and that he can destroy entire galaxies at a whim. He’s fought Galactus to a standstill and took on Thanos.
Though the Mad Titan tried his hardest, he still couldn’t defeat Odin by the time the dust had settled. In the MCU, Odin wrested control of Mjolnir from Thor, and stripped the thunder god of his power, banishing him to Earth. Odin uses his abilities to control the Destroyer armor and channels his magic into the spear Gungnir that can be used to overcome just about anyone.
11 THE CELESTIALS
Granted, we’ve only been privy to fleeting glances of the Celestials in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but those flashes have been as intimidating as anything we’ve seen. The Celestials are primordial gods and are responsible for the creation of an untold number of species.
The flipside is they’ve also wiped out many, many species and worlds.
In Guardians of the Galaxy we catch an image of their size; they are the largest beings in the universe, and even one of their heads serve for the base of an entire civilization known as Knowhere. The Celestials once wielded the Infinity Stones to deadly effect, but even without the fearsome gems, their power is unrivaled. Unless he has the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos would be a fool to challenge the Celestials.
10 SURTUR
Thor’s battled plenty of baddies in his day, but few are as omnipotent and all-powerful as Surtur. So long as the fire demon wields his crown, he’s essentially immortal. The Lord of Muspelheim and the King of the Fire Giants, Surtur is a positively colossal figure, and is considered the ultimate threat to Asgard. In fact, he actually did the impossible and drove his massive sword thru Asgard, annihilating the heavenly plane from existence.
Before that, Thor unleashed Surtur so the creature could take on Hela, the Goddess of Death. Forever feeding off Asgard, her power only grew the more time wore on. Though she gave a valiant effort, Surtur seemingly destroyed Hela too. Truly, it’s unlikely there’s any single being in the MCU that can defeat Surtur when he’s at full power; that includes Thanos sans Infinity Gauntlet.
9 DORMAMMU
Out of all the entities and cosmic beings we’ve been introduced to since the Marvel Cinematic Universe began, it’s abundantly clear that the dreaded Dormammu might be the mightiest creature in in existence. The interdimensional entity rules over the Dark Dimension, which is the reality sorcerers use to tap into powerful dark magic spells. In essence, any dark magic comes from Dormammu.
This has allowed the dark being to corrupt many Masters of the Mystic Arts, promising them power in order to get them to do his bidding.
His power is go great that even Doctor Strange, the hero of the movie Dormammu appears in, never defeats him. The only way Strange achieves victory is by tricking Dormammu by using with the power of the Eye of Agamotto to lock the two into an endless time loop until Dormammu finally grows overly aggravated and agrees to not attack Earth.
8 HELA
Thor might be Odin’s son, but even the God of Thunder can’t match his dad’s power. His sister, Hela, the Goddess of Death is another matter. Practically the equal of Odin, she was the Highfather’s former executioner and is the one who helped Odin conquer the Nine Realms. Before Thor was around, Hela wielded Mjolnir, which is part of the reason she was able to destroy it with ease. If the strength to take on Thor wasn’t enough, Hela can manifest powerful weapons out of thin air and has deadly necromancy powers that allow her to bring people back the dead.
With her vast powers, Hela singlehandedly took over Asgard. Even after receiving his awesome power-up, Thor couldn’t take her down. Thor had to unleash Surtur, letting him grow to the size of a mountain, to finish her off. Practically unkillable as Hela is, she could definitely give Thanos trouble.
7 QUAKE
We’re not sure where Phil Coulson and company are, while Thanos attacks the Earth, but rest assured, if the Avengers lose, there’s the Inhuman Daisy Johnson to take up the slack. Thanks to going her Terrigenesis, Daisy, who also goes by her codename Quake is easily one the MCU’s most powerful heroes.
In short, Daisy has the ability to create shockwaves and earthquakes; the power is ridiculous and hosts frightening potential.
In fact, Daisy’s abilities are so intense that she has trouble containing them and must wear specialized gloves to do so. If that weren’t enough, her power is so potentially dangerous, that she was put in a secluded cabin built to contain the Hulk. While earthquakes and shockwaves might not seem impressive to some, in the comics, Daisy can focus her earthquakes to a person’s heart (or body), causing it to explode. Unrestrained, Daisy is a beast.
6 DOCTOR STRANGE
The Master of the Mystic Arts and the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, Doctor Stephen Strange is tasked with defending our dimension (and planet) from otherworldly and incredible threats. Thanos more than qualifies, especially since he’s going to be bringing the Infinity Gauntlet with him. Still, it’ll be interesting to see how the Mad Titan will defend himself against Doctor Strange’s mastery over time and space.
Thanks to possessing the Infinity Stone of Time, Strange can reverse time, freeze time, and use it in ways that make him nearly immortal, like when he kept coming back to life after getting repeatedly destroyed by Dormammu. Strange’s most underrated power is to teleport. We saw Strange teleport Loki into an endless limbo in Thor: Ragnarok; does Thanos have a way to counter that? Just toss him into a black hole, Doctor Strange!
5 GHOST RIDER
While Thanos and Ghost Rider have never met, and by all appearances it looks like they never will, that’s not to say the Spirit of Vengeance couldn’t deliver some serious hurt on the Mad Titan. Appearing over on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Ghost Rider is one of the few heroes in the MCU to utilize raw magic as a lethal weapon.
Rather unforgiving in his nature, Ghost Rider is wrath incarnate to anyone who commits horrible deeds -- Thanos might not know what to make of the supernatural antihero.
Robbie Reyes is as powerful as any Ghost Rider before him, but despite the abilities we’ve seen him unleash, nobody knows if Ghost Rider has any limits. It’s possible his only limits are self-imposed. Robbie possesses super strength, durability, a healing factor, pyrokinesis, the ability to look into a person’s soul with his OP Penance Stare technique, along with teleportation/inter-dimensional travel.
4 ANT-MAN
Due to his stature, heroes and villains tend to overlook Ant-Man. Of course Scott Lang has turned this to his advantage multiple times, as it lets him take opponents completely off guard. Shrinking and controlling an army of ants might not sound like the sort of thing that can bring Thanos to his knees, but rest assured, Ant-Man has just as good chance, if not the best chance, at defeating the Mad Titan as anyone else.
Ant-Man’s suit’s shrinking ability, increases Scott Lang’s density so that he can hit with the force of a bullet. Okay, a bullet isn’t going to stop Thanos, but it’s Scott’s Pym Particle disks that can really alter the course of this fight. At the drop of a hat, they can shrink someone down to the quantum realm, a macroscopic world that destroys the mind after several seconds. Just shrink Thanos, Scott!
3 SCARLET WITCH
There’s no better example of a wild card of a superhero then the Scarlet Witch. Wanda Maximoff, despite having many scenes to shine in, is potentially one of the mightiest heroes on the face of the planet. Though her powers don’t derive from chaos energies like they do in the comics, and she still has yet to fully master her powers and their potential, she’s already demonstrated an incredible range of powers.
These include mind control, force fields, telekinesis, and even levitation.
In Captain America: Civil War, we watched as she beat the Vision by herself, and yet still there’s room for her and her powers to grow. By manipulating objects on a molecular level, Thanos needs to tread carefully when dealing with the Scarlet Witch, as she might have a surprise in story that’ll stop the Mad Titan in his tracks.
2 HULK
Arguably Earth’s physically strongest hero, few mortals can challenge the Hulk. We’ve seen the Hulk’s raw power on full display in the MCU and it’s enough to give anyone pause, be they man or god. Hulk slapped Loki around easily, practically defeated a fully powered Thor, and even took on Surtur, despite the latter being the size of a literal mountain. If you look at the comics, you’ll discover Thanos mention there’s a few beings he tries to avoid fighting and the Hulk is one of them.
If the Hulk is pushed to the upper limits of his rage, there’s really no telling how powerful he can become. Thanos, for all his much-vaunted strength, is still a being with limits, hence his quest for the Infinity Gems. The Hulk could potentially overwhelm those limits, at least for a minute or two, giving our heroes the opportune moment to strike.
1 ADAM WARLOCK
Out of every other character mentioned, Adam Warlock is the only one we haven’t seen in action to some degree or another. It took a while, but Adam Warlock was finally teased in the post-credit scenes of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Unfortunately, it’s been confirmed that Warlock won’t be appearing in Avengers: Infinity War, so that just means he’ll likely show up in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
All things considered, this is probably for the best. Adam Warlock is an insanely powerful being and would likely end Infinity War before anyone knew what was happening.
A principal character in the original Infinity Gauntlet comic, Adam Warlock has only grown more powerful since then. Second only to beings like the One Above All (God), even Thanos realizes that Warlock cannot be bested in physical combat.