Who Can Beat Thanos? Fifteen Avengers Who Could Kill The Mad Titan

The Avengers have always been Earth’s last line of defense, the super-powered wall that stands firm against the forces of darkness.

From the moment they appeared from the fevered imagination of Stan Lee and the furiously frantic pencils of Jack Kirby when Avengers # 1 hit newsstands in September 1963 through to the closing moments of Avengers: Endgame, the one thing that Tony Stark and Nick Fury’s heroic ensemble have ever refused to do is give up, no matter who the enemy they were facing was, and is. 

With that in mind, we’ve assembled the Avengers, in descending order, who would stand the best chance of stopping Thanos on their own.

And like any fantasy league and list, some of our choices will make perfect sense to you, while others might leave you perplexed, and make you mutter “What were they thinking?”.

But in the Marvel Universe, anything is possible and anyone can step into the breach, save the day and stop the omnipresent threat of annihilation. Even if it means that they have to face the Mad Titan himself. 

Hawkeye

Good with a bow, good with a sword, and cool and calm under pressure, Clint Barton might not have superpowers like the rest of his teammates do, but he’d happily step in front of a bullet for any of them. 

Given the right weapons and a couple of nuclear warhead-tipped arrows, Clint could fire off a payload of bow-driven atomic missiles and bring the fight to a finish before Thanos could even begin to monologue about the righteousness of his mission. 

Black Widow

Taught to be the best of the best and to blend in, bide her time, and succeed no matter what the cost by the faceless bureaucracy of the state machine and the Red Room, Natasha would infiltrate Thanos crew and slowly learn what she’d need to know in order to kill him, and would the dispatch him before he even entered Earth orbit. 

Falcon / Captain America

Sam Wilson could literally fly rings around Thanos, and with a little help from Redwing and the shield, and critical thinking and strategic planning could probably formulate a battle plan on the fly that would stop the Titan dead in his tracks. 

James “Bucky” Barnes / The Winter Soldier

With a body full of Russian super-soldier serum, decades of extensive combat training, years of successful missions under his ammunition-packed belt, and an arm forged from Wakandan vibranium, the Winter Soldier is one of the deadliest battlefield weapons the world has ever “manufactured”. 

Under the right conditions, the man who came back from the dead twice (in Captain America; Winter Soldier and Endgame), could happily introduce Thanos to Lady Death in person. 

Ant-Man

Ant-Man may be small, but he packs an almighty punch, and we can’t help wondering what might have happened if the fan theory about him bringing down Thanos by going where no Avenger had gone before and hitting the button that’d turn him from bite-size into Giant-Man in the wink of an eye had actually panned out.

The Wasp 

While she’d undoubtedly follow a similar plan to her super-powered partner, the Wasp would approach things a little more cerebrally and fly into one of Thanos’ ears and take a straight-line course through his head, and his brain, before flying out of the other.

It would be messy, but she’d get the job done. 

Captain America

Steve Rogers, the original super-soldier doesn’t know how to quit, and he’d just keep coming and keep on swinging Mjolnir (just like he did in Endgame) and slinging the shield “all day”.

Thanos would either have to give up, beat Captain America, or lie down and die before Steve would even think about stopping.  

Spider-Man

Who nearly cost Thanos the Infinity Gauntlet in Endgame? Why, that would be your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, who would be all over the Mad Titan like an unwanted rash that he couldn’t scratch.

With some Stark Tech and some Peter know-how, he could bring the Titan to his knees and turn the Eternal’s light’s out faster than J. Jonah Jameson loses his temper. 

Scarlet Witch 

With the ability to shape and transform reality at her fingertips (if she can remake a whole town in her one image as she did in WandaVision then we’re pretty sure she’s got the sorcerous chops to deal with one Eternal) thanks to her Hex magic, the Scarlet Witch could do whatever she wanted to Thanos and there wouldn’t be a whole lot that he could do to stop her or prevent it from happening.

And knowing Wanda, she’d make Thanos’ demise slow and incredibly painful. 

Doctor Strange

Anything Wanda can do, Stephen can do too, although given Strange’s ability with portals and his proclivity for sending people to places that they really don’t want to go (poor old Loki was falling for half an hour in Thor: Ragnarok), he’d probably send Thanos to the far ends of the Universe, and by the time the Titan made it back to Earth, humanity would be long and faded to dust. 

Vision

We’ve always wondered how Thanos was able to rid the world of Vision so easily in Endgame, and why the android who dreams of being human, didn’t just alter his body mass, fly inside Thanos and become solid again.

It would have put an end to the Endgame before it even began. 

Hulk

The strongest there is might have been taken by surprise in Infinity War, but once bitten means twice shy, and if he managed to overcome his fear of being defeated again, the Hulk could stand toe to toe with the Titan, and it would be the superhero fight of the ages.  

And he would, of course, be the last giant standing, as he’s the only being apart from Thanos who’s been able to wear the Infinity Gauntlet and survive a snap

Captain Marvel

With almost universal power at her disposal, and able to tear through starships and bring entire fleets of war cruisers to a dead halt, Captain Marvel could, given the time, channel enough energy to punch a hole straight through Thanos and stop his invasion before he even made of off the ramp of his ship.  

Thor 

We don’t even have to wonder how he would do it as we’ve already seen Thor kill Thanos at the beginning of Infinity War by chopping off his head.

A god driven mad by grief and loss and a star forged axe is a terrifying prospect as Thanos discovered when the Odinson came calling 

Iron-Man

The only other Avenger to kill Thanos, Iron Man did what no one else could. He gave his life to save the Universe, and stop Thanos once and for all in Infinity War.

And that’s why he’ll always be the most powerful, and the strongest Avenger.