5 Fights Scarlet Witch Would've Won If The MCU Didn't Underpower Her

Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch is an incredibly powerful Avenger, but the MCU has underpowered her several times for narrative purposes. Owing her chaos magic to the Elder God Chthon, Wanda Maximoff is one of the biggest threats to the Marvel multiverse in the comics. Some of her biggest feats include getting rid of the Phoenix Force, depowering the entire mutant race, and rewriting reality at will. However, her live-action counterpart is nowhere near as powerful in the MCU.

Scarlet Witch has only begun to shape reality and travel through the MCU multiverse during Phase 4. Before that, Wanda had only used telekinesis, telepathy, mental manipulation, and energy blasts — and even then, she didn't exploit their full potential. While this limited amount of power makes Scarlet Witch look weaker compared to her comic book counterpart, it was necessary in order to make the MCU more balanced, as giving her more power would render her almost invincible. But if Scarlet Witch had used the full extent of her abilities from the beginning, many MCU fight sequences would have been quite different.

5 The Airport Battle - Civil War

Scarlet Witch in Captain America Civil War

It makes sense for Scarlet Witch to struggle against Ultron, and it makes sense for her to hold back in the tragic Avengers' Lagos mission that gave birth to the MCU's Sokovia Accords and kicked off the events of Captain America: Civil War, but Wanda Maximoff's performance in Civil War's airport battle doesn't reflect the amount of power she's able to use against her fellow Avengers. Logically, none of the Avengers in Team Iron Man or Team Captain America wants to cause fatal injuries to their opponents, but all of them are shown using the right amount of force necessary to neutralize the other team — except Wanda.

Scarlet Witch limits herself to either throwing cars or grabbing people by their extremities. She's the Avenger with the lowest screen time in this battle, just behind Vision, but unlike her boyfriend's pacifist nature, her motivation to escape the Avengers headquarters does warrant a bigger effort. By this point in the MCU timeline, Scarlet Witch is powerful enough to dominate various Avengers at once, which she could achieve by holding them down until she has a chance to run. Just a flick of her hand could destroy Iron Man and War Machine's suits or armor, but it seems that these kinds of creative attacks don't cross her mind.

4 Scarlet Witch and Vision vs The Black Order - Infinity War

Scarlet Witch vs Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight

In Infinity War, Scarlet Witch showcases more power, especially in hand-to-hand combat. Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive catch Wanda and Vision with their guard down, which explains why such a powerful pair of Avengers gets defeated so easily. Even with Vision down and Scarlet Witch fully focused on protecting him, Wanda could have used her powers in more effective ways. Scarlet Witch's chaos magic allows her to twist Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight's bones, bury them underground (like she did with Vision in Captain America: Civil War), or throw them miles into the air while she gets a chance to escape. But again, she doesn't try these alternatives.

3 The Avengers vs Thanos' Army - Infinity War

Scarlet Witch vs Thanos Army in Avengers Infinity War

Scarlet Witch shines in Avengers: Infinity War's final battle when she kills Proxima Midnight and holds off Thanos with one hand while she destroys Vision's Mind Stone with the other. However, Wanda once again suffers from limited screen time. Instead of showing Wanda slicing through Thanos' army of Outriders all by herself, Avengers: Infinity War makes it seem like she waited on the sidelines until it was already too late to save Vision.

Considering the abilities Scarlet Witch had displayed up to this point, it's clear that she could have entered the battlefield earlier, targeted the entire Black Order, and then joined forces with Thor as soon as he arrived. If Scarlet Witch was powerful enough to take down Thanos' giant chainsaw machines on her own, it's safe to say she could have landed a lethal hit with Thor's help when Thanos was vulnerable. Granted, the Avengers' defeat in Avengers: Infinity War happened due to their division and lack of planning, and Scarlet Witch's poor timing is just a symptom of the heroes' improvised approach to the battle.

2 Scarlet Witch vs Thanos - Endgame

Scarlet Witch vs Thanos in Avengers Endgame's Final Battle

Scarlet Witch's biggest feat of power in the Infinity Saga is her one-on-one fight against Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. In seconds, Wanda lifts Thanos and slowly tears him apart. This is precisely the sort of technique that Wanda could have attempted in previous battles. But since Thanos' death at the hands of the Scarlet Witch would get in the way of Iron Man's ultimate sacrifice, she's unable to kill Thanos singlehandedly when Thanos' ship "rains fire." Still, Wanda could have tried to finish the process more quickly. After breaking Thanos' sword, Scarlet Witch could have put all the pressure on his head or contorted his body while she crushed it.

1 Scarlet Witch vs Doctor Strange and America Chavez - Multiverse of Madness

Scarlet Witch vs America Chavez and Doctor Strange in the Mutiverse of Madness

After Wanda Maximoff's official transformation into the Scarlet Witch in WandaVision gave her a massive power upgrade, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness avoided depicting her as an invincible villain by creating a cat-and-mouse conflict between her and the newly introduced America Chavez. Scarlet Witch annihilated the entire Illuminati and their legion of Ultron Bots effortlessly, but she couldn't do the same to America Chavez only because she needed her to travel through the multiverse to find her family. As is usual with Scarlet Witch's cruel MCU treatment, Wanda Maximoff's fate simply isn't to win.

Scarlet Witch's spells could have stopped Doctor Strange and America Chavez the few times she was in the same room with them, but she chased them on foot and attacked them with standard energy blasts. Her constrained power is most evident in the final battle, where she spares Doctor Strange's Dreamwalking corpse and leaves America Chavez without any spell to tie her down. Scarlet Witch could have defeated Doctor Strange easily by using runes to nullify his magic, but she seems to have forgotten about them. These mistakes can be attributed to Scarlet Witch's declining rationality, but her massacre of the Illuminati suggests she's no longer one to take half-measures.

Next: All 8 Upcoming MCU Movies & Shows Scarlet Witch Could Return In