The Marvel Cinematic Universe has come a long way since the spring of 2008 when the first Iron Man movie was released. Viewers of that movie had no clue the absolute amount of amazing and superpowered content that would come their way in the next 14 years. The Cinematic Universe is currently in its fourth phase bringing in a new addition to viewers: TV shows. There have been five shows released since last year with Moonknight coming out next month. Fans have been given WandaVision, Loki, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, What if, and Loki.

With all of this content and new amazing characters with every release, there is an old question that becomes harder and harder to answer. Who is the most powerful Avenger? This debate was hard enough with the original six: Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Black Widow. 

Since the original Avengers in Phase One, the MCU has gained Captain Marvel, Valkyrie, Spiderman, the Winter Soldier, Shang-Chi, Loki, and the Scarlet Witch. With all of these additions, there has definitely been controversy over who is the most powerful. The answer? Scarlet Witch. 

The Scarlet Witch, also known as Wanda Maximoff, was first introduced in the end credits of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Before WandaVision, Wanda was a side character with impressive powers and a lot of unrealized potential. No one really knew the full extent of her power… until January 2021. 

WandaVision came out just over a year ago and fans are still talking about it. The show had 23 nominations at the Emmys and even won three of them: Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Program, Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes, and Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics.

Allison Onstott believed that Wanda is the most powerful Avenger. She said, “I think the show WandaVision proves she’s the most powerful avenger, because of the amount of power she has and she can manipulate other people and get them to do whatever she wants.”

Wanda was given her superhero name by fellow witch Agatha. That name is the iconic Scarlet Witch. Marvel classifies Wanda’s powers as chaos magic and that she has the ability to manipulate reality. She also can read minds and brainwash people. How can people think that someone with such stacked powers isn’t the most powerful? 

Junior Marvel fan Danielle Thelen commented on Scarlett, “I think she’s definitely up there. She has literal creation powers and she can control people’s minds. And out of the other Avengers, it seems like she is the only one with a power that can build on itself. She has room to grow. It’s not like hulk where he just has super strength and that’s it. Plus she has Doctor Strange to teach her.”  Wanda showed major feats of power in her show and it was shown that she still has a lot more to learn.

Some people disagree with Wanda being the most powerful. Alex Hardy commented, “I feel like people are stronger than her, like maybe Doctor Strange, he has more knowledge.” While Doctor Strange may know more, it is canon that Wanda is more powerful. Agatha confirmed in the show that the Scarlet Witch, with her chaos magic, is more powerful than the sorcerer supreme. 

Freshman Austin Parker believes that Thor is the most powerful. He said, “She [Wanda] has powers but so do the other avengers. And Thor is from a different planet. He can control lighting and Wanda can move things with her mind. They’re different.” It’s hard to keep up with all of the new content that Marvel has been coming out with. Austin has never seen WandaVision and therefore doesn’t know that Wanda has the power of creation and could literally create lighting if she wanted to. Also, if Wanda and Thor went up against each other, then Wanda could manipulate his brain to stop him.

Whether or not you believe that Scarlett Witch is the most powerful Avenger, you cannot deny that Marvel has been coming out with some high-quality content. You can catch Wanda, Doctor Strange, and Loki in the upcoming movie Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, premiering on May 6, 2022.