Today we will pin two iconic powerful female superheroes of the Marvel Universe against each other, Scarlet Witch, and Captain Marvel. The first one is a mutant whose powers are mostly founded on magic, while the second one gained her powers from the Kree device that could make imagination into reality after she envied Mar-Vell’s powers. Both of these characters are considered the strongest female characters in the Marvel Universe if not all of it. In this article, we will determine, which character is stronger and who would win in a fight – Scarlet Witch or Captain Marvel.
Scarlet Witch will beat Captain Marvel in most fights. Although Carol essentially possesses tremendously strong powers that are on par with Captain Mar-Vell, her predecessor and Protector of the Universe, Scarlet Witch is still more powerful – not necessarily in the strength department but the powerful magic Wanda possesses cannot be matched by anyone in Marvel Universe. Scarlet Witch and her powers are overwhelming to 99 percent of the Marvel Universe, including Captain Marvel.
We will discuss the duel between these characters and analyze their skills and powers in more detail. As usual, we will use the best-of-seven scoring system and the first superhero who scores four points will automatically win this fight. Moreover, we will pin these two characters’ most common skills and powers for easier determination of the ultimate winner. If you are interested in this topic, stay with us until the end of the article.
Psychology
When discussing the psychology of these two characters, we can find vast differences in their mental strength and state. Let’s start with Scarlet Witch. Wanda was born a mutant and has a twin brother Pietro, who was also born with special abilities. Their origin story is quite adventurous and insane – according to the comics, Wanda and Pietro were born and lived in Wundagore Mountain located in Serbia, who were children of a Romani couple named Maximoffs. After peaceful life, Wanda and Pietro were separated from their parents, by locals, and forced to conceal their powers.
When they were teenagers, the Maximoff twins have fallen into the hands of the criminal Magneto, who convinced them to join his group – Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. They eventually joined Avengers, which angered Magneto greatly. Wanda herself went through a lot of things on her own, just because of her powers that grew day by day. Some people wanted to use her as a weapon to kill Avengers, and other groups to support their crimes, and others played with her heart like Magneto.
There are so many people who used Wanda because of her insecurities about her powers and just the bad consequences she experienced after a very traumatized childhood. Agatha Harkness (whose character we also saw in the Wandavision) used and manipulated Wanda to the point of making her go insane and brainwashing her. In that comic book storyline, that we also saw in the Wandavision, Wanda loses her husband and two children, whom she wants to bring back and live with them happily ever after.
To not go to the lengths of her traumatic stories, which are really present in the comics, Scarlet Witch suffered a lot, which automatically makes a lot of fans think she is weak-minded – she is indeed the opposite. Every time she falls under powerful spells or control of other powerful individuals, Wanda always frees herself, and that displays how she is actually a mentally strong individual. In the comics and MCU, we saw Wanda express emotions a lot, however, that does not make her weak-minded but a really strong individual who is full of grief, and just wants to be happy.
Carol Danvers or Captain Marvel also has an interesting origin story. Being a woman in the military was already a tough task, and her peers, mostly male always looked down on her. In the Captain Marvel movie, her childhood was described as tough and full of grief and anger, especially from her drunk father who wanted to have a boy. She was always a confident and capable person whose drive was unmatched by anyone. In the Captain Marvel movie, her best friend Maria Rambeau said multiple times how Carol is a strong and capable individual who is the best at her job but is held back because she was a woman in the men’s world.
In the comics, we see Carol go through multiple different superhero aliases and persona until she finally decided to go with Captain Marvel. Her mental state is really admirable, however, in the movie we did see that Carol was brainwashed by Kree for years, and only after she came to Earth realized something is wrong.
When pitted against each other, I got to give the point to Scarlet Witch, despite her sometimes being depicted in the comics as an unstable person. She is also one of the most powerful telepaths in the Marvel Universe and her drive to be happy and live a normal life with her family, will always be the biggest priority for Wanda, no matter the stakes. Captain Marvel is truly mentally strong, and her background combined with the military life, and the burden of protecting the Universe, only confirms these facts. Despite all of that, Wanda takes the point from this section.
Scarlet Witch (1) : 0 Captain Marvel
Strength
Let’s talk strength. This topic has been discussed a lot among the fans, especially about these two characters. Once again we will start with Scarlet Witch. Even though Wanda is one of the strongest magic wielders and witches in the Marvel Universe, when talking about strength, we need to talk about brute physical strength – basically how much each character can lift or how hard they can punch.
Technically, Scarlet Witch cannot be as strong as Carol since her powers are mostly revolving around magic and telepathy while Carol uses her superhuman Kree strength combined with literal nuclear energy to punch her opponents or lift heavy things.
Recently, Captain Marvel managed to create a Binary form, which did become sentient in the comics, but in the past, her Binary form gave her immense powers that could be matched only by the most powerful cosmic beings in the Marvel Universe. As Binary, Carol could literally control stellar energies, like heat, electromagnetic spectrum, and gravity. Even after the White Hole connection was severed in the comics, Captain Marvel still held onto some powers from Binary, which made her even stronger.
According to comics, Carol can withstand the pressure of a ninety-two-ton weight and strike with similar force.
Wanda is not strong physically, but her magic gives her most of the strength – she literally held Thanos, beat him in the comics, and even beat a being called Lore who consumed thousands of universes. Regardless, for the sake of this section, we need to give the point to Captain Marvel, because when it comes to brute strength, Carol is as strong as an enhanced cosmic being. People will probably argue otherwise and say that Scarlet Witch is stronger, however, her feats will be mentioned and be proper for another section of this article.
Carol Danvers gets this one.
Scarlet Witch 1 : (1) Captain Marvel
Intelligence
As we always say in these “who would win” articles, intelligence is one of the most important parts of any combat or fight. We value this perk a lot, and when it comes to Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel, both of these characters have a lot to say. Once again let’s start with Wanda. She is a really smart individual and in the comics, she uses her powers really efficiently.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wanda is in emotional turmoil, and after losing her brother, friends, and family, she is quite an unstable individual especially, after WandaVision and Multiverse of Madness. However, in the comics, she is a literal God whose powers cannot be matched with anyone, and I really mean no one.
Wanda ate one of the most powerful Elder Gods in the Marvel Universe called Chthon – she ate him and gained his powers! To put it in the perspective, Chthon was able to destroy universes in the blink of an eye. Some would say she managed to do that with pure powers, but she also needed to trick him and make it seem like he is possessing her. Let’s just say she activated a trap card, and possessed Cthon instead.
Personally, this is a no-brainer situation, however, out of respect for Captain Marvel, I will mention her intelligence as well. Carol Danvers, being in the military and a pilot who flew to space, has a vast knowledge about other worlds, and species. She knows a lot about science, physics, and other subjects connected to space.
Moreover, being military trained, Carol is a great strategist, which is also a great perk to have in combat. However, when pinning these two against each other, Scarlet Witch takes the point, because she can warp the reality, and universes, and that makes her a really knowledgable individual – maybe not as Silver Surfer but Wanda Maximoff gained a lot of knowledge during her reality warping and “trying to be happy” escapades.
So for this section, Scarlet Witch gets a point.
Scarlet Witch (2) : 1 Captain Marvel
Durability
Let’s make this interesting, and compare these two characters in the durability section. Let’s get Wanda out of the way. Scarlet Witch has enormous powers that transcend almost every being in the Marvel Universe (Dormammu and Celestials still have something to say). However, Wanda being Wanda, when fighting with her team, she is always shielding her teammates.
Because of her priority to shield and protect her teammates, she does not take into consideration her own safety, and that is why when struck with the powerful brute force as Carol Danvers has, Scarlet Witch can be caught off guard and injured. If she shields herself, that is another story, however, the first point still stands – Scarlet Witch without the shield, can be gravely injured if attacked and struck enough times. She is still an Earthly being, a mutant without thick skin like She-Hulk or Hulk.
Captain Marvel is another story. Without even mentioning her Binary form, Carol can withstand a lot of things thrown at her, and that is reinforced by the fact that she has Kree physiology. We did already mention that Carol can withstand over ninety-ton weight on her, and probably lift as much as well.
In the MCU, her powers were displayed a lot during the Endgame, where she was struck a few times by Infinity Gauntlet Thanos, and she seemed unfazed after a few strikes. This is all without mentioning her healing powers – she can use her energy manipulation to route the healing towards her injuries, which can heal her pretty fast. She is also immune to poison and disease, which Scarlet Witch, as far as I know, and correct me on this, unfortunately, does not have, because she is still essentially a mutant.
All in all, Captain Marvel is gaining a point in this section, with a good reason.
Scarlet Witch 2 : (2) Captain Marvel
Powers and Combat
We will combine these two sections together since they are closely connected. Scarlet Witch has a vast collection of powers in her arsenal for which we would need a whole article for that, however, we will mention the most important one. Her superhuman genes allow her to manipulate energy and reality, which also gives her access to magical energies, most notably chaos magic.
Moreover, she has probability and energy manipulation that she uses in combat efficiently to determine what will happen next. She can fly, which is a huge plus, and is able to sense magic. Wanda is also a spell caster, a Nexus being, and has teleportation powers, the ability to manipulate time and reality. Yeah, she is quite a powerful individual.
Her combat is essentially possessing her opponents with her magic and evading any attack with teleportation. She can also warp reality if she is mad enough and change time if necessary. Moreover, Scarlet Witch, as seen in MCU, uses telepathy to corrupt opponents’ minds – Age of Ultron showed that sequence pretty realistically.
We also did mention that Wanda is currently the most powerful being in the universe after literally eating an Elder God… yeah. On the other hand, Captain Marvel is not too shabby. Carol Danvers possesses superhuman strength, speed, durability, and stamina. She is a really durable superhero who can’t get poisoned and get sick, she can manipulate energy, absorb it, and project it. She punches with the force of a nuclear bomb, and her flight is only a bonus to her already vast arsenal of powers.
Carol can also space travel and her Cosmic Awareness, and a seventh sense that she uses to feel the dangers that are happening in the universe. Her combat revolves around Photon blasts, energy absorption, and manipulation, and her speed is matched by a few beings in the universe. However, even if Captain Marvel can change her fighting style to close hand-to-hand combat, Wanda still has an upper hand – her telepathy skills and mind control are the most powerful in the universe.
That is why Scarlet Witch takes points from this section. She is just too strong.
Scarlet Witch (3) : 2 Captain Marvel
Greatest Feats
Both characters in this one-to-one fight achieved great things, especially in the comics. As we determined during this analysis is that Captain Marvel is truly one of the most powerful superheroes of the Marvel Universe – she got to that point in the comics, and we are still waiting for the MCU version to reach that level.
In the comics, and as we saw from the MCU, Captain Marvel is the Protector of the Universe, just like her predecessor Mar-Vell. She goes around the universe and protects it from the biggest and most dangerous beings. For example, she is the sole protector of the planet Torfa, where refugees from other worlds go there to find shelter. Race from the other planet, Spartax decided to attack Torfa, and Captain Marvel, protected it by herself. She did kill Iron Man in the Civil War II event, which left a lot of fans mad.
In the MCU, Carol did literally pushed back the Kree missile in the Endgame and survived the empowered Power Stone punch by Thanos. In Binary form, Captain Marvel destroyed a whole planet when she unleashed all of her powers. Other feats include surviving an avalanche falling on her, fighting dinosaurs (!), and can be on par with Thanos without Infinity Gauntlet though – Thanos is still a Mad Titan, so he is powerful regardless.
On the other hand, besides eating an Elder God, and gaining his powers, Scarlet Witch warped time and realities to get her family back. She used her powers to create her two sons in the comics, which we did saw in WandaVision. She resurrected Wonder Man from the dead, and even rewritten reality (!) in the famous “House of M” storyline, after killing some Avengers during a massive mental breakdown.
Because of her magical powers, she was considered a Sorcerer Supreme at one point, according to Agamotto. Moreover, Scarlet Witch defeated Phoenix an Omega-level mutant in the Avengers Vs X-Men comic book storyline. Lastly, to confirm her powers for this article, Scarlet Witch brought back the timeline by herself by ending the House of M which dealt huge consequences to the world, even reducing the number of mutants on Earth.
Scarlet Witch takes this match point and wins the fight.
Scarlet Witch (4) : 2 Captain Marvel
Scarlet Witch vs. Captain Marvel: Who Wins?
After a detailed breakdown of these two really powerful characters, we determined that Scarlet Witch takes this fight with both hands. Even though Captain Marvel is essentially stronger when it comes to brute force, agility and durability, she is still vulnerable to magic, which is something she shares with DC’s Superman.
Scarlet Witch’s intelligence and mental strength (instability most of the time) can destroy anything, which we saw in the Multiverse of Madness and “House of M” storyline from 2005. She is much more powerful than Carol for the simple reason – even when she is unstable, her time and reality warping ability, with flight and telepathy, combined with magical powers, is just too overwhelming to the likes of Captain Marvel.
