Marvel Fever is running wild right now. With the recent success of Captain Marvel and with Avengers: Endgame just around the corner, I had the completely original idea to rank every MCU superhero. Before we get into this, a few things:
-Each hero will be judged on a 100-point scale based on the following categories: Superhero Ability (25 points), Personality (25 points), Signature Moment (25 points), Style Points (15 points), and Looks/Uniform (10 points).
-I’m considering the Guardians of the Galaxy to be one large superhero rather than try to judge each individual Guardian. My reasoning is that A.) Trying to figure out each Guardian’s signature moment would be tough because they do mostly everything as a team and B.) I’m lazy.
-I’m not counting the Marvel TV shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, etc. because while the TV shows and the movies clearly exist in the same universe, the shows have little to no bearing on the movies.
-I understand that heroes that don’t have their own movies will be at a bit of a disadvantage. With that said, I feel like each hero has had their moments and chances to prove themselves, so I’m not too worried about it.
-Finally, a reminder that I am absolutely correct in these rankings, these are not at all opinion-based, and I will not be engaging with anyone who “disagrees” with the facts I’m about to set forth.
Let’s do this thing.
18. Hawkeye/Ronin
Appears In: Thor, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War
Ability (13/25): I’m not totally sure why Hawkeye’s ability to accurately shoot an arrow landed him a spot in the Avengers. He might show off some cool skills as Ronin in Endgame, but as of now his superhero ability leaves something to be desired for me.
Personality (17/25): Clint Barton throws around some good one-liners, but for the most part he’s a background character. They tried to give him some depth with the farm scene in Age of Ultron, but it turned into a real snoozefest.
Signature Moment (18/25): Clint has some underrated moments, like when he gives Scarlet Witch a pep talk that inspires her to kick some ass in Age of Ultron. Right after this, we see her show off her true power for the first time.
Style Points (12/15): Hawkeye makes a lot of cool moves with his bow and arrow, and some of his arrows have awesome, useful features. However, I’m still taking points off because he’s utilizing a weapon from the colonial era.
Looks/Uniform (6.5/10): Hawkeye’s uniform is basically a sleeveless jumpsuit. It’s very forgettable, but hey, it works for him.
17. Falcon
Appears In: Captain America: The Winter Solider, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (16/25): Sam Wilson flies around using a pair of bulletproof wings that he used during his time in the military. He loses points because he’s been incapacitated while using the wings on multiple occasions (Bucky rips a wing off in Winter Soldier, Scott pulls wires out in Ant-Man, etc.) and he’s basically useless without them.
Personality (20/25): Sam is essential in bringing Steve Rogers up to speed after being frozen in Arctic ice for 70 years. He does so with humor and just the right amount of attitude. CUT THE CHECK!
Signature Moment (11/25): Falcon is possibly the most secondary of secondary characters in the MCU, so it’s hard to give him a signature moment. He was pretty cool in the first scene of Captain America: Civil War, so I’ll give that to him.
Style Points (12.5/15): Sam pulls off some nifty moves while flying through the air with his wings. Falcon reminds me of a slightly less-cool Iron Man as far as moves through the air go.
Looks/Uniform (8.5/10): Falcon’s wings are what make him a superhero, and for good reason: they’re bulletproof and have a ton of gadgets. He loses points here because I think his red goggles make him look ridiculous, and his sidekick Redwing is apparently a real falcon in the comics, which would be so much cooler than a drone.
16. Quicksilver
Appears In: Avengers: Age of Ultron
Ability (22/25): Quicksilver is super fast. In Age of Ultron, he has a pretty important role in making sure the people of Sokovia are safe during Ultron’s attack.
Personality (14/25): We don’t really get to know Quicksilver all that well in Age of Ultron. I do like that he uses his last moments to sass Hawkeye with his own line, though.
Signature Moment (19/25): Speaking of the scene where he sasses Hawkeye (and also saves a few lives in the process)…(also this kid is most definitely scarred for life after making eye contact with Quicksilver’s dead body here)
Style Points (13/15): The Quicksilver slow-motion sequences in Age of Ultron are pretty well-done. However, as much as it makes sense, I don’t like that Quicksilver runs out of breath so quickly when he uses his superpower.
Looks/Uniform (3/10): Aaron Taylor-Johnson has a pretty good face, I’ll give him that. But hooo boy, does his superhero uniform stink. A general rule of thumb for superheroes: if I can buy your uniform for like $40 at Dick’s, it’s actually bad.
15. The Wasp
Appears In: Ant-Man, Ant-Man and The Wasp
Ability (21.5/25): Hope van Dyne is even better with her father Hank Pym’s shrinking technology than Scott Lang. She’s like an MMA fighter mixed with a ballerina during fight sequences, a testament to her years of training using the technology.
Personality (17/25): The Wasp was the first female superhero with movie named after herself in the MCU, but she still feels like a secondary character in the movie. Hope is an uptight foil to Scott, and her personality (and character as a whole) can be forgettable.
Signature Moment (14/25): Hope doesn’t have a ton of moments where she’s really saving the day, which is why it feels like she’s a secondary character in Ant-Man and The Wasp. But this clip of her showing off her moves as The Wasp is really well-done.
Style Points (13/15): There are a lot of really cool visual effects in Ant-Man and The Wasp that show off Hope’s moves and how skillfully she can operate when she’s changing size, including the one above.
Looks/Uniform (9/10): I think the shrinking Ant-Man and Wasp suits are going to play a key part in the MCU moving forward. Hope loses a point here for whatever was going on with her hair in Ant-Man.
14. Black Widow
Appears In: Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (15/25): Natasha Romanoff is a skilled assassin who’s held her own fighting against all sorts of threats and villains in the MCU. However, since she doesn’t have any real superpowers, she’s one of the biggest liabilities in the Avengers.
Personality (20/25): Nat is an expert negotiator, as evidenced by the fact S.H.I.E.L.D. sent her to negotiate with Loki in The Avengers. She also gets some good quips in and has become one of the key strategists for the team.
Signature Moment (17/25): Romanoff comes up big for Tony Stark at the end of Iron Man 2. After taking down basically every henchman in Justin Hammer’s facility, she hacks into the computer system to give Rhodey control of the War Machine suit again.
Style Points (15/15): Nat is the queen of finesse. She’s quick, she’s flexible, and she’s creative as hell with her moves in hand-to-hand combat. All of the style points.
Looks/Uniform (9/10): It must be somewhat uncomfortable to move as much as Black Widow does while wearing tight leather, but I’m not judging practicality. It looks good, and her wrist zapper thing has come in handy in just about every fight we’ve seen her in.
13. Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier/The White Wolf
Appears In: Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther (post-credit scene), Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (22.5/25): Bucky Barnes post-Hydra brainwashing is essentially as strong as Captain America. I’d really like to see what a fight between the two of them would look like without Cap pulling his punches to try to get through to Bucky.
Personality (18.5/25): Bucky is basically a human MacGuffin in The First Avenger and Civil War, a robot in The Winter Soldier, and a tertiary character in Infinity War. He seems cool in the few moments we get to know him, but I feel like we don’t know him well at all. Maybe that character development will be something we see post-Endgame.
Signature Moment (17/25): When the Winter Soldier saves Cap by pulling him from the Potomac River, we learn that Bucky is still in there somewhere deep down. This becomes key in Civil War and allows him to help the team in Infinity War.
Style Points (12.5/15): We see a few really cool scenes showing off Bucky’s skills, like the escape scene in Civil War. I also loved the move where he picked up Rocket Raccoon and created a gun helicopter in Infinity War. I’ll get that arm.
Looks/Uniform (7/10): The Winter Soldier mouth bandanna/long hair look was pretty cool, but for the most part Bucky is just dressed like a regular dude. Overall, it’s pretty meh.
12. Scarlet Witch
Appears In: Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (25/25): Powered by the Mind Stone, Wanda Maximoff can do extraordinary things with her mind. She can make objects move through one another and cause hallucinations, and she destroyed the Mind Stone before Thanos could get to it (before he turned back time and yanked it out of Vision’s head).
Personality (15/25): I feel like we never really get to know Scarlet Witch all that well. She’s usually a background character who stays quiet and does some powerful stuff to help out the team.
Signature Moment (21/25): After Hawkeye gives her a rousing pep talk in the middle of the Age of Ultron Sokovia battle, Wanda goes off, taking out Ultron’s minions left and right. She deals Ultron one of the final blows of the battle (which The Avengers probably would have lost without her).
Style Points (14/15): We’ve seen Wanda get really creative with her powers, and she does it in a really cool, flashy way. You can sense the attitude in the way she throws her hands around while using her powers.
Looks/Uniform (8/10): Scarlet Witch loses points for being the least witch-looking witch I’ve ever seen. She’s dressed like any woman in her mid-20s walking down the street, but she has powers beyond our wildest dreams.
11. The Incredible Hulk
Appears In: The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers, Iron Man 3 (Kind of), Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (23/25): The Hulk is a born smasher. We’ve seen him ruin entire cities, spend time as a champion gladiator, and Bruce Banner says he tried to kill himself by putting a gun in his mouth and the Hulk spit the bullet out. The only time we’ve seen him definitively lose a fight is when Thanos tossed him over his head like a pizza chef with some fresh dough and threw him into the ground. Also, I should mention that Bruce is a super-genius who’s done valuable work for the Avengers as a scientist.
Personality (18/25): We don’t see much of Hulk’s personality until Ragnarok, but that movie gives us some laugh-out-loud moments because of his dynamic with Thor. Also, Banner’s confusion when he comes out of Hulk mode always gets me pretty good.
Signature Moment (21/25): This is a lot of people’s favorite moment of The Avengers. Hulk’s “Puny god” and Loki’s whimper are both hilarious, plus this is really how Loki himself is defeated in this movie.
Style Points (12/15): Hulk is like a drunk guy in a barroom brawl, except with super-strength. The aforementioned fight with Thanos is what happens when someone matches his physical strength but has superior fighting skills.
Looks/Uniform (9/10): The giant green muscle freak with no clothes on other than tattered pants is an iconic look.
10. Vision
Appears In: Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (25/25): Vision is a super-advanced robot made up from a combination of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, JARVIS, Ultron, and the Mind Stone. He’s super strong, super smart, he can fly, and the Mind Stone shoots a laser out of his forehead. In terms of raw power, he’s one of the strongest Avengers.
Personality (17/25): Vision’s personality is like if you took a 100-level philosophy class, put it into a humanoid robot, and made that humanoid robot incredibly strong.
Signature Moment (22/25): Vision makes an immediate impact in Age of Ultron. He’s born (created?), picks up Thor’s hammer, shows up to Sokovia, and kills Ultron.
Style Points (12/15): Like you might expect from a being that’s half AI, Vision’s not flashy at all, which hurts him here. Also, the first time he misfires with his Mind Stone laser, he breaks Rhodey’s back, so I’m taking a point off.
Looks/Uniform (8/10): Capes are very impractical, and I would think a hyper-intelligent robot would get that. Also, I have a lot of questions about how much influence Vision has on what he looks like in his human form. Like, did he choose that hairline? Do Tony and Bruce’s genetics play a factor in his looks at all? Also, not to be crude but can he choose how long his penis is? Someone get me Kevin Feige’s contact information.
9. Ant-Man
Appears In: Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Ant-Man and The Wasp
Ability (21/25): Scott Lang has the remarkable ability to make himself whatever size he wants and have his strength grow exponentially as he does so. I think he’s going to be a key cog in defeating Thanos.
Personality (23/25): I would watch Paul Rudd in literally any role. He’s perfect for this part, playing the talented goofball to Hope and Hank’s super-serious characters.
Signature Moment (20/25): At the end of Ant-Man, Scott sends himself to the Quantum Realm to defeat the Yellow Jacket. He’s also the first person to figure out a way out of the realm, and the more they explore it, the better chance the Avengers will have to beat Thanos.
Style Points (11.5/15): Scott is nowhere near as smooth using Hank Pym’s technology as Hope is, but he has some really cool moments with the suit (especially when he becomes giant in Civil War and Ant-Man and the Wasp).
Looks/Uniform (9/10): Scott’s suit can make him really huge or really tiny, depending on what the situation requires. It’ll be interesting to watch him shrink down, crawl into Thanos’ ass, and expand to defeat him.
8. Spider-Man
Appears In: Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (20/25): Spider-Man is super smart, strong, and has Spidey Senses to boot. He loses points here because he sometimes doesn’t know how exactly to use his powers and he gets bailed out by Tony Stark’s training wheels protocol a little too often.
Personality (21.5/25): As far as Peter Parker goes, the third time is the charm. Tom Holland walks the line of awkward, nerdy Peter and confident, quippy Spider-Man better than Toby Maguire or Andrew Garfield. He loses points because he can be immature and annoying at times (as you might expect from a teenager with superpowers).
Signature Moment (21/25): The “Come on, Spider-Man!” scene at the end of Homecoming is great. It’s Holland’s best acting work in the MCU, and it really demonstrates how far Peter has come as a hero.
Style Points (14/15): I mean, come on. It’s Spider-Man. Of course he racks up the style points. DO A FLIP!
Looks/Uniform (8.5/10): I like the look of Holland’s Spider-Man suit, but like many people, I don’t love that Peter has so much technology at his fingertips. I’m very interested to see the different suits Peter dons in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
7. Doctor Strange
Appears In: Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (23/25): Doctor Strange can do some wild magical stuff, including creating weapons and portals to different places out of thin air and having control of time when he’s in possession of the time stone. He has one of the most unique skill sets of the MCU’s heroes.
Personality (21/25): Strange is a genius with a photographic memory. He also gets a few good quips in at the expense of other characters (“Protecting your reality, douchebag”). He loses points here for me because he can be super arrogant and I think he could have done a lot more to help defeat Thanos in Infinity War.
Signature Moment (21/25): Strange beats Dormamu by trapping him in a time loop with the time stone. It’s a departure from the action-packed battles that are usually in Marvel movies, and it works really well.
Style Points (12/15): Strange stumbles out of the gate a little in his solo film, as any novice wizard would. But by the time Infinity War rolls around, he’s a full-blown master of the mystic arts, doing all kinds of wild and creative things with his magical abilities.
Looks/Uniform (8.5/10): Strange has the wizard look down pat, and the Cloak of Levitation is pretty sweet (and, as Tony Stark puts it, “One seriously loyal piece of outerwear”).
6. Black Panther
Appears In: Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (23/25): T’Challa is as fast and strong as Captain America, which we see when they fight in Civil War and when they run into battle together in Infinity War. (Side note: Did Captain America’s Super Soldier Serum contain the heart-shaped herb? NEW THEORY ALERT!)
Personality (20/25): T’Challa is a good man, always seeking the right thing for the people of Wakanda. However, he takes a backseat to his foil, Killmonger, in Black Panther, and the most memorable part of his Infinity War appearance was getting dusted.
Signature Moment (21/25): Black Panther’s signature moment is his defeat of Killmonger. It loses points because the CGI in this scene looks like it’s from the early 2000s. Also, I kinda wish the final battle had been a superpowered Killmonger against a powerless T’Challa, which would have made it more compelling in my eyes.
Style Points (15/15): The heart-shaped herb heightens your instincts, which allows you to do cool stuff like this during the Black Panther car chase scene.
Looks/Uniform (10/10): The Black Panther suit is awesome, especially after Shuri makes improvements so that it automatically goes on or off whoever’s wearing it. Also, it makes T’Challa’s bulge look huge.
5. Captain America
Appears In: Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (23/25): We’ve seen Cap do some wildly strong stuff, including holding Thanos’ fingers open so he couldn’t use the Infinity Gauntlet while Wanda was trying to destroy the Mind Stone. Dr. Abraham Erskine really knew what he was doing when he made that Super Soldier Serum.
Personality (22/25): Cap is the leader and moral compass of the Avengers. The night before Cap was injected with the serum, Dr. Erskine told him that it made good people better and bad people worse. It seems like Cap has only gotten stronger since then, which is a testament to his personality and moral fortitude.
Signature Moment (21/25): Steve Rogers is such a fixture in the MCU, it’s hard to choose a signature moment for him. I’m going to go with the moment at the end of The First Avenger when he crashed his plane into an iceberg to save the world. It’s a truly selfless moment and sums up Steve very well.
Style Points (14/15): Captain America is incredibly fast and strong, and he’s not afraid to show it off. We see him make some wild jumps and displays of strength, and he makes it look easy every time.
Looks/Uniform (9/10): Chris Evans is easy on the eyes, and his beard/longer hair look in Infinity War was great. For the most part, his uniforms have been great. However, I’m taking a point off for his suit in The Avengers, because hoooooo boy was that thing trash.
4. Thor
Appears In: Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (25/25): Thor can kick some serious ass. He’s the only person strong enough to wield his hammer, Mjolnir, or his axe, Stormbreaker. He can also summon lightning whenever he wants and he came within inches of killing Thanos, something none of the other Avengers could do.
Personality (18/25): Although his character has been redeemed in Ragnarok and Infinity War, Thor loses points because he starts off as a pretty weak character in the MCU. He’s arrogant and talks like it’s a Shakespeare play.
Signature Moment (23/25): I was going to put Thor’s arrival on Wakanda/his near-defeat of Thanos here, but I decided to choose a moment from a movie where he won the fight. The use of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song is perfect, and it’s so cool to see Thor kill a bunch of enemies without the use of his hammer.
Style Points (15/15): See above clip.
Looks/Uniform (9/10): His uniform isn’t my favorite, but Chris Hemsworth can make any look work. Marvel took a solid minute out of its most important movie ever to show a scene of the Guardians of the Galaxy ogling a passed-out Thor. Speaking of the Guardians…
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
Appears In: Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (23/25): When they worked together, the Guardians were able to hold an Infinity Stone, something we’ve only seen Thanos do in the MCU. They also showed they could hold their own with the Avengers during the scene in Infinity War where both groups arrive on Titan at the same time.
Personality (24/25): The Guardians have such a great dynamic. There’s Peter Quill (swaggering manchild), Rocket Raccoon (genetically engineered streetwise Macgyver-ish raccoon), Gamora (deadly serious assassin/Thanos’ daughter), Drax (hilariously gullible strong guy), and Groot (selfless talking tree-person). Oh, and Mantis (bug-person who can sense people’s emotions). All of them play off of each other incredibly well, which is a testament to writer/director James Gunn.
Signature Moment (22/25): The Guardians holding the Power stone to defeat Ronan was the cherry on top of what might be the best MCU movie. Shoutout to Quill for coming up with the perfect distraction to make that moment possible.
Style Points (14/15): The Guardians are all very creative individually. When they put their heads together (like we see a lot in Guardians Vol. 2), they’re nearly unstoppable (unless you’re Thanos, then they’re pretty stoppable).
Looks/Uniform (8/10): Looks-wise, the Guardians don’t stand out that much in the MCU. Drax is blue, Gamora is green, and Quill has a cool long coat. Besides that, I feel like the color palate of their movies does a lot of the heavy lifting for the team.
2. Captain Marvel
Appears In: Captain Marvel
Ability (25/25): Captain Marvel gets her powers from the Tesseract. She can fly, she’s super strong, and she has photon blasters for hands. She’s the most powerful Avenger, and she’s likely to end up being the key to beating Thanos in Endgame.
Personality (20/25): One of my main complaints about Captain Marvel was that even though we find out things about Carol Danvers, it felt like we never really got to know her all that well. She has a few good one-liners and Brie Larson turns in a solid acting performance, but as of now I can’t put her with the rest of the Avengers personality-wise.
*I couldn’t find a good clip of this on YouTube because the movie is still in theaters*
Signature Moment (23/25): Captain Marvel discovered the extent of her powers at the end of Captain Marvel. Ronan the Accuser tried to send ballistic alien missiles down to Earth in an attempt to steal the Tesseract, but Carol destroyed them all and sent Ronan into retirement until Thanos hired him in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Style Points (15/15): In Captain Marvel, Carol flew through space like a gymnast, doing flips and twirls and destroying spaceships with ease. She gets every style point possible.
Looks/Uniform (9/10): Captain Marvel’s space mohawk hairstyle thing is awesome. I like that her uniform can change colors as she sees fit, and Brie Larson has maybe the best scowl of any superhero I’ve seen.
1. Iron Man
Appears In: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War
Ability (19/25): Tony Stark’s superhero ability is his genius. It’s obviously impressive, but as far as the MCU goes, it’s not enough on its own to give him a ton of points for superhero ability.
Personality (24/25): Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist. Stark does it all. He loses a point for occasionally saying dumb things like “I have a plan. Attack.” and his unexplained triumph over PTSD in Iron Man 3.
Signature Moment (24/25): Stark saved New York at the end of The Avengers, flying a nuclear bomb into a wormhole to defeat the Chitauri army. It was the high point to an iconic movie, and it pushed the MCU all the way into its second phase.
Style Points (15/15): Stark is nothing if not a showman. From the creative ways he puts the suit on to his crazy maneuvers while he’s flying through the air, Iron Man gets all of the style points.
Looks/Uniform (10/10): The Iron Man suit has become iconic because of the MCU’s iteration of the character. It always seems to have what it takes to save Tony, and I love all the different things we’ve seen the suit do through the years.
…
And that’s that! Very excited to see what’s in store for Avengers: Endgame. If you liked this, then good, because I’m planning on doing some other Avengers-related blogs before the release of Endgame. Catch ya on the flippity flip.
ReJoyce 