The cameos of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness have fans looking back at the franchise. Since 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe introduced several live-action versions of popular comic book characters. It started its venture by introducing Tony Stark in Iron Man, but since then it has introduced dozens of MCU heroes and villains. Some are known outside the comic book world, while others are more unusual characters that many people haven’t heard of.
With over 20 movies currently making up the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are too many characters to count, but some heroes are stronger than others. Sometimes the movies make the heroes weaker than they appear in the comics, but this list ranks MCU heroes based on their skills in the movies and TV shows. Some of these characters are simply humans with fancy gadgets, others have actual superpowers, while others have powers equivalent to the gods.
Updated on May 8th, 2022, by Shawn S. Lealos: The MCU released an entire universe of characters by the time Thanos snapped his finger in Avengers: Endgame. However, since that time, things have grown even bigger. While some heroes have left the MCU, including Iron Man dying and Captain America retiring, many more have debuted in the movies and on the new Disney+ streaming shows.
The world will keep getting bigger, with MCU heroes like Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and many more coming in the near future. The MCU has introduced new heroes, saw a villain go to the side of good, and brought in yet another major team consisting of brand-new heroes protecting Earth for centuries. As time goes on, the MCU power rankings continue to change.
Mantis
Mantis, played by Pom Klementieff, first appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. She was Ego’s servant but became a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy after Ego’s downfall. Unfortunately, Mantis just isn’t that strong of a player.
She has the ability to sense people’s feelings by touching them, but this is basically just a parlor trick as compared to other MCU heroes. She can sometimes alter people’s emotions and kept Thanos docile for a short period of time, but Mantis just doesn’t stack up compared to other heroes.
Sprite
Eternals introduced a new group of heroes that turned out to be the oldest heroes on Earth. Centuries before The Avengers began protecting Earth from aliens, a group of aliens landed on Earth and set up to help lead the planet into the future. However, they remained hidden and only revealed themselves when evil aliens known as Deviants showed up.
Of The Eternals, Sprite was the weakest member of the team and remains one of the weakest MCU heroes ranked. She was an adult trapped forever in a child's body and her primary power was like Loki, as she could cast illusions. By the end of the movie, she gave up her powers to live out her life as a human.
Kate Bishop
Kate Bishop is one of Marvel's newest heroes. She is the start of the young teenage MCU heroes that seem to be preparing to enter the universe at around the same time. Kate has the training, but not as a combat fighter. She has no superpowers, but she is skilled at martial arts and is almost as good of a shot as Hawkeye with the bow and arrow.
Kate also received a boost when she gained Hawkeye as a mentor, and this included him supplying her with her own trick arrows. She beat Kingpin by herself in Hawkeye and that is enough to list her as a viable threat.
Phastos
Phastos is another member of The Eternals, and he remains one of the smartest people on Earth. However, that is where his powers sit, and until he shows more, he is just an alien version of Tony Stark without the armor.
He had the ability to create any sort of technology he wants, but he is also a pacifist who doesn't want to do anything to hurt others. He is a skilled fighter, but outside of his inventions, he doesn't offer much more concerning powers.
Quicksilver
In the comic books, and even in Fox’s X-Men series, Quicksilver is an incredibly powerful hero, but in the MCU, he just isn’t all that great. Brother to the incredibly powerful Scarlet Witch, Pietro Maximoff made his one and only appearance in the MCU during Avengers: Age of Ultron (not including the mid-credits scene for Captain America: The Winter Soldier).
Like all versions of Quicksilver, the MCU version of the character has superhuman speed and reflexes. However, he never develops his powers. Quicksilver sacrifices himself to save Hawkeye in Age of Ultron and meets his demise when Ultron riddles him with bullets.
Ajak
It's hard to measure how powerful Ajak really is. She was the leader of the Eternals and she was powerful enough for the Celestials to trust her with this group of heroes on Earth. She was also the only one who knew the truth about their existence when they arrived on Earth.
Her power is regeneration and healing, and that is something that helps her teammates, and humans, more than anything. However, she never shows her skills as a warrior and she dies at the hands of one of her own teammates before she could show any powers she might have.
Star-Lord
Star-Lord, played by Chris Pratt, might be the most comedic member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but he can still pack a punch. Not only is Peter Quill talented in close-quarters combat, but he is also half-Celestial.
His powers were developed a lot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 when he met Ego, but unfortunately, after he destroyed his father, his powers faded. Since then, Star-Lord is still an expert thief, marksman, and pilot, but he often lets his emotions cloud his judgments.
Makkari
Makkari is very similar to Quicksilver. However, while Pietro is one of the fastest mortals on Earth, Makkari is far faster than Quicksilver and is one of the fastest beings in the entire Marvel Universe. After the Emergence in The Eternals, she ran across the entire Earth trying to find its location.
Not even Quicksilver can do something like that. However, while she is super fast, and that is likely enough to win a battle with most villains, she never showed her fighting skills to their full extent in the movie, and her full powers levels remain questionable.
Drax
Drax is no doubt a powerful fighter, but he, unfortunately, is the least powerful member of the original Guardians of the Galaxy team. Each member of the team is powerful for their own reasons, but Drax mainly relies on his brute strength to get jobs done.
Even though he is used for comedic relief in the movies, Drax is often seen as oblivious. With that in mind, he has superhuman strength and durability, while also being skilled at hand-to-hand combat, so that counts for something.
Rocket
If this list were based upon sheer strength, Rocket would no doubt be below Drax, but Rocket has more to offer than just pure strength. Rocket might just be an experiment that went wrong, but his genetic enhancements made him the smartest member of the Guardians team.
While Rocket can hold his own in a fight, he is also a skilled marksman, engineer, and pilot. Not to mention Rocket is a master manipulator, so he convinces people to do things for him and to get himself out of sticky situations by using his head.
War Machine
James Rhodes has been a part of the MCU since the very beginning of the franchise, although Don Cheadle replaced Terrence Howard after the first Iron Man. Rhodes may have not been an incredibly powerful character early in the series, but by Iron Man 2, the character had become War Machine.
Rhodey is lucky enough to battle alongside his best friend in one of his Iron Man suits, but Rhodey just isn’t as skilled with a suit as Tony is. He also dropped somewhat thanks to breaking his back in Civil War, but he can show his true power on his own in Armor Wars.
Kingo
Kingo is another Eternals member. Much like Makkari and Phastos, he doesn't seem to care much about fighting. There are times when he gets excited and shows off his powers, but those are usually just energy blasts, and they never seemed that impressive in action.
Kingo's blasts seemed to slow down Deviants, but he seemed more like a front-line soldier who just set up bad guys for his more powerful teammates to take down. Kingo looks even worse when Captain Marvel uses similar powers on a much grander scale.
Hawkeye
Everybody always jokes that Hawkeye is the weakest member of the original Avengers team, and that is probably true. The MCU has since introduced weaker heroes, but Hawkeye is still just a human with a bow and arrow. That being said, Hawkeye has an array of specialty arrows at his disposal, and he is likely the greatest marksman in the fictional world of the MCU.
Hawkeye and Black Widow are pretty evenly tied in a fight, but Clint, unfortunately, has a soft spot for Natasha and even pulled his punches during his fight against her in Captain America: Civil War. Hawkeye could have dropped in the MCU power rankings when he lost his hearing, but in reality, it removed a distraction and he still held his own against a master assassin in Yelena Belova.
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is an Eternal, but he is mostly just like Drax, but with much more in the way of intelligence. In the movie, he stood by Thena's side, always there to protect her. Thena was one of the most powerful members of the team, but Gilgamesh stood up to her and stopped her when needed.
His confidence made his powers stronger. What holds him down is that, despite his immense strength, it was his emotional connection to Thena that ended up as his downfall, and he ended up as one of the only Eternals to die in the big final battle.
Falcon/Captain America
Played by Anthony Mackie, Falcon has been in a handful of the MCU movies. First appearing in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Samuel Thomas Wilson quickly became a trusted ally of Captain America.
He formally served in the United States Air Force and the Air National Guard, but his military training doesn’t add much when being compared to other MCU heroes ranked. Falcon got a massive upgrade in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. He got Captain America's shield and even has his own tech guy who could become the new Falcon.
Yelena Belova
Yelena Belova is the new Black Widow in the MCU. She made her debut in the solo Black Widow movie as Natasha's little "sister," although that was just a cover, as they were Russian sleeper agents in the United States. As a young adult, she was a top assassin for the Red Room program.
She proved her power when she took Black Widow to the limit in that movie. She also backed it up when she battled both Hawkeye and Kate Bishop and neither of them could beat her decisively. Yelena has big shoes to step into but has proven more than capable of taking on the role.
Black Widow
Many people debate over who is more powerful between Hawkeye and Black Widow, and they truly are pretty evenly matched. That being said, Natasha Romanoff was trained as a lethal assassin and talented spy from a very young age.
When introduced in Iron Man 2, the movie joked she was simply eye candy for characters like Tony Stark and Happy Hogan, but she quickly proved herself as an incredibly brutal fighter. Black Widow fights with no remorse and full force. While she died in Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow proved she was more than a regular human, fighting just as well as her genetically enhanced teammates.
Ant-Man
Scott Lang may just be a regular human without his Ant-Man suit, but his most powerful ability with the suit is size manipulation. Using tech developed by Hank Pym, Scott can alter his size, which allows him to compress force and energy, redistributing it at his enemy. Lang can shrink down to the size of an ant, which allows him to sneak past guards and through small cracks, but can also grow up to 65 feet.
After being trained by Hope van Dyne, Scott became a formidable fighter, and can also control insects by using an EMP Communication Device. Ant-Man is no doubt powerful, but he can also be clumsy at times.
The Winter Soldier
Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, is a childhood friend of Steve Rogers. Barnes became a prisoner of war during World War II, and as a result, was experimented on by Arnim Zola to recreate Cap’s super-soldier serum. This allowed Bucky to survive into the present day, where he continues to develop his skills.
In Captain America: Civil War, Bucky helped Captain America defeat Iron Man, and even battled Tony without the help of Cap. Bucky is an incredible fighter but became even more powerful when he received a Vibranium arm while recovering on Wakanda, proving his full potential in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
The Wasp
When comparing The Wasp to Ant-Man, their skills are pretty evenly matched, but Wasp has a slight advantage over her partner. One of the biggest advantages she has over Ant-Man is the fact that she is incredibly intelligent since Hank Pym raised her.
In combat, Wasp is also incredibly versatile since her Wasp suit has a set of wings. Her suit also has built-in blasters, while still having the same abilities as Ant-Man, such as size manipulation that improves her density and strength.