Marvel: 15 Superheroes Who Could Defeat Thanos

In all of Marvel, who is more powerful than Thanos? Who can kill Thanos? The Mad Titan is arguably one of the best villains in the MCU, with some memorable quotes from the character that have been etched in the memories of moviegoers and fans alike. He is also extremely powerful, with and without the Infinity Gauntlet, a device that truly makes him ‘inevitable’. However, despite this, there are many Marvel characters who can beat Thanos.

While Avengers Endgame makes the task of foiling the Mad Titan’s plans seem insurmountable for obvious dramatic and storytelling purposes, Thanos is vulnerable. There are numerous Marvel superheroes (and other supervillains) who are more powerful than Thanos. Some of them are obvious to comic book fans, while others may come as more of a surprise.

Updated on May 28th, 2021 by Darby Harn: Thanos remains near the top of the supervillain hierarchy in the Marvel Universe, but with The Eternals trailer hinting at an even bigger threat than Thanos in the MCU, fans are discovering more characters from the comics who can defeat Thanos. It’s not just some of the most powerful Marvel cosmic characters who can give the Mad Titan a run for his money. Powerful mutants and magicians far exceed Thanos in terms of power and will, in some cases even when he is armed with the power of the Infinity Gauntlet.

15 Thena

Thena is among the most powerful members of the Eternals, created by the legendary writer and artist Jack Kirby in 1976. Like all of the Eternals, she has superhuman strength, speed, and stamina. That puts her on par with Thanos in a fair fight. Beyond that, she is able to manipulate and harness cosmic energy. She does this to supplement her life force, which is already incredibly strong given her Celestial-augmented genetics. She can also alter and manipulate matter, making her virtually a living Infinity Gauntlet.

14 Ka-Zar

Thanos battling a mere human might seem like a joke but fans would find it surprising to know that Kevin Plunder, aka Ka-Zar did manage to best Thanos in Ka-zar 1998 Issue 11. Granted, Thanos was not wielding the Infinity Gauntlet at the time, the duel was hand-to-hand combat, and the Thanos Ka-Zar defeated was a low-level duplicate of the original; still, defeating any version of the Mad Titan is not a meager task.

In this battle of wits, Thanos visited the Savage Lands and confronted Ka-Zar who made use of his agility, and superior knowledge of his homeland to defeat Thanos. Ka-Zar achieved the task by luring Thanos into a volcano as well as a Terraformer and blasting the device to kingdom-come.

13 Adam Warlock

Adam Warlock and Thanos have a long and arduous history of duels between themselves. Warlock first faced the Mad Titan in the original Infinity Gauntlet storyline where he manipulated Thanos to think that the Titan did not need the gauntlet long enough for Adam to take hold of it.

They meet again in the iconic Two In One Annual that released in 1977, where Thanos managed to trap Adam Warlock into the Soul Stone, only to be freed by Spiderman. Upon release, Warlock used all of his remaining powers to convert Thanos into stone and stop him for the next 23 years. Considering the fact that Warlock’s existence has been alluded to at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, having the golden hero in the cinematic universe could have meant Tony Stark not having to sacrifice himself.

12 Star-Lord

Unlike the movies, Peter Quill actually managed to defeat Thanos on one occasion. During the events of Guardian of the Galaxy 2008 #25, Star-Lord with a little assistance from the Cosmic Cube managed to defeat Thanos and put the Mad Titan in a comatose state for quite some time.

This feat should be considered to be even more impressive, given the fact that the Quill in the movies is part-celestial, while the one in the comics is slightly more powerful than a human when at the zenith of his abilities.

11 Squirrel Girl

Aptly named ‘Unbeatable’, Doreen Allene Green, aka Squirrel Girl has faced some of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Universe and even defeated them. Her impressive repertoire of wins includes defeating Doctor Doom, Terrax, Modok, and she even convinced Galactus to spare Earth from being swallowed.

Therefore, while it is strange, it’s also quite conceivable that she was able to defeat Thanos. While the events take place off-panel in the Great Lakes Christmas Special of 2005, Squirrel Girl, in the words of Uatu, The Watcher is said to have defeated the real Thanos, armed with nothing more than a single squirrel. Seems like Thanos should hand the baton of being the big-baddie of the Marvel Universe to Kang or some other alternative after all.

10 Hyperion

Hyperion is the leader and one of the most powerful members of the Squadron Supreme, an obvious and intentional homage to the Justice League of America. As a pastiche of Superman, he has all of Superman’s basic powers, including strength, flight, and X-Ray vision. This alone makes him a formidable threat to Thanos.

Like Thena, he can also augment his life force by absorbing cosmic energy. This makes him extremely difficult to deal with and would be more than a challenge for Thanos even with the Infinity Gauntlet.

9 Mar-Vell

Published in the year 1974, during the events of Captain Marvel Volume 1 #33, the original Captain Marvel, also known as Mar-Vell to many, defeated the Mad Titan in a confrontation. Previously defeated by Thanos, Mar-Vell took on the purple behemoth once again.

Thanos was powered by the Cosmic Cube during this duel and in order to defeat him, Mar-Vell destroyed the Cosmic Cube itself to stop him from gaining more power. In fact, the defeat was so brutal that even Thanos’ lover Death became ashamed of the Mad Titan and called him unworthy of her love.

8 Thor

Although Thor and Thanos have faced off against one another on numerous occasions, the end results of these duels usually meant a humiliating defeat for the God of Thunder. However, on one occasion, during the events of Thor Volume 2 #25, which was published in the year 1998, Fire Lord presented Thor with a set of Asgardian armor and weaponry that Odin had forged himself.

Armed with the Instruments of War, Belt of Power, and Odin Force, Thor managed to defeat Thanos by crashing Mjolnir on his head. After all, in the movies, Thor did realize that he ‘should have gone for the head’.

7 Wolverine

While there are many things about Thanos that people never understood, there are many things about the Marvel universe that seem to confound as well. Wolverine battling the Mad Titan seems like a ludicrous idea at first, but many strange things have happened in the Marvel comic’s universe. During a What-If edition, a new team of Fantastic Four is formed, which comprises Hulk, Spiderman, Iron Man, and Wolverine.

The quartet sets out to space and Logan manages to defeat Thanos by convincing him that he’s an ally. This allows Wolverine the chance to get close enough to Thanos to slice off the arm that wields the Infinity Gauntlet, thereby ridding Thanos of his greatest weapon.

6 Franklin Richards

As a child, Franklin Richards was able to build a pocket-sized universe in the Heroes Reborn event from 1996. Years later, he even helped Mr. Fantastic restore the Marvel Universe with the assistance of Molecule Man after 2015’s Secret Wars took place. His ability to create and manipulate universes makes a clear threat to Thanos.

His cosmic powers and capabilities of altering reality made the Celestials deem him as a mutant that exceeded Omega levels. This makes him powerful than Thanos by several factors.

5 Drax The Destroyer

While there are many Marvel villains that love and adore Thanos, there are some heroes in the universe that simply despise him. One such hero, who very much hates Thanos and seems to survive for the sole purpose of being able to kill him, is Drax, the Destroyer.

During the events of 2007’s Annihilation #4, Thanos teamed up with Annihilus. However, this didn’t stop Drax from destroying most of Thanos’ army and punching through his back to rip out his still-beating heart. After all, Thanos did kill Drax’s entire family, and however bad a villain Thanos might be, messing with someone’s family is never cool.

4 Deadpool

A man of many words, Wade Wilson actually managed to defeat Thanos simply by talking. Of course, he also inherited the powers of the Uni-Force, which found him worthy and allowed him to gain the abilities of Captain Universe; but it was mostly through talking that Deadpool managed to best the Mad Titan.

During the events of the four-part miniseries Deadpool vs Thanos, which released in 2015, Deadpool managed to convince Death that Thanos was lying and that by killing half the world’s population, he was not actually honoring Death. This convinced Death enough to make her leave Thanos, following which Deadpool easily defeated the grieving Titan.

3 Storm

Storm is an Omega-Level mutant and one of the most powerful mutants alive. With near-complete control of the elements, she is very much a character who beat Thanos. She has been shown to generate enormous lightning blasts, freezing winds, and hurricane-force pressure against her enemies.

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She has also been able, in recent years, to manipulate weather in places she shouldn’t be able to, such as in space. A battle between Storm at this point in her development and Thanos would be quick. Either he would snap his fingers quick enough, or she would freeze the Infinity Gauntlet to the point it wouldn’t move.

2 Rachel Summers

Rachel Summers is one of the most powerful telepaths, and telekinetics, in the world and that alone makes her a character who could beat Thanos. Her psionic power is so considerable that she can ever chronoskim. This allows her to send the consciousness of other people, as well as herself, back in time.

This makes her especially dangerous to Thanos and any ambition he has. When Rachel Summers was the host of the Phoenix Force, she was so vast in cosmic power that she was able to defeat Galactus in a one-on-one battle.

1 Scarlet Witch

The Scarlet Witch is one of the most powerful and dangerous beings in the Marvel Universe, thanks to her mastery of chaos magic. Her power is so vast that she erased nearly every mutant from existence with one simple phrase in the House Of M storyline from the early 2000s.

As Thanos discovered in Avengers: Endgame, Wanda is powerful enough on her own to defeat him. At the true height of her powers in the MCU or in the comic books, he would simply be no match for her. Her ability to alter reality would undo him in an instant.

About The Author

Arnab Rakshit
(79 Articles Published)

Arnab Rakshit is an avid reader, writer, movie-buff, and comics fanatic residing in Kolkata, India. He is a graduate of Asutosh College, Calcutta University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. Having worked in the field of content development for myriad clients since 2016, he is confident about creating meticulous and informative content for ScreenRant readers. He also enjoys a competitive game of Table Tennis once in a while.

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