6 MCU Villains Who Could’ve Defeated Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War & Endgame

Even though the Marvel Cinematic Universe has introduced a slew of new super villains into the equation since Avengers: Endgame, the mad titan Thanos remains the most beloved antagonist across the decades of movies and shows produced by Marvel studios. Part of what has made Thanos stick around so much is the performance by actor Josh Brolin, who brought a gravitas to the villain that isn’t always found on the big screen. Furthermore, the writing around Thanos is among the best in the entire MCU, rivaled only by the longevity of Loki and the backstory of Killmonger as Marvel’s best. That writing gave Thanos something few other Marvel villains have been able to develop: a discussion on how right they might be.

Across his many appearances in the MCU, but especially Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, we saw a slew of heroes take a swing at Thanos with more than one actually make a dent on the villain. The MCU has answered the question more than once about which heroes are powerful enough to face him, but the flipside has rarely been interrogated: what MCU villains could stop Thanos? It’s a thought experiment that produces few answers, but the ones we found are sure things.

6) Ebony Maw

Marvel fans have been consumed lately with the idea that Ebony Maw could have defeated Thanos if he wasn’t so fiercly loyal. It’s not a bad idea, as Maw is shown to have immense psyonic abilities, including telepathy strong enough to subdue Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Thor. Furthermore, he’s able to overpower Doctor Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme, and nearly steals the Time Stone from him, revealing the only thing capable of defeating him at the time: the clock of levitation. In short? Could Ebony Maw defeat Thanos on his own? Yeah, probably.

This talking point by fans begs the question, though: Why didn’t he? Like every other member of The Black Order (plus Nebula and Gamora), Ebony Maw was raised by Thanos as one of his children. As a result, he had it beaten into his mind that the Mad Titan was the great redeemer of the universe, and his will was undefeatable. It’s a level of brainwashing that circumvents any kind of personal confidence.

5) Purple Man

In Avengers: Infinity War, a plan is formulated to attack Thanos by surprise on Titan, with the likes of Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Drax, working together to hold him down, while Mantis then uses her empath abilities to subdue him and allow them to remove the Infinity Gauntlet from his hand. Were Thanos to cross paths with Kilgrave, the mind-controlling super villain would almost certainly be able to overpower him without even lifting a finger. Kilgrave wouldn’t need to hold Thanos down to make him take off the Infinity Gauntlet; he’d just command him to hand it over. With all due respect to Mantis, Kilgrave is certainly more powerful.

Even if Kilgrave wasn’t powerful enough to fully influence Thanos himself (he almost certainly was), all it would take is the villain commanding an army of people around him to take him down. What’s scarier than Thanos with all six Infinity Stones? Kilgrave, for sure.

4) Xu Wenwu

The original bearer of the Ten Rings, Wenwu is granted unfathomable power by the artifacts that also made him immortal and able to command armies for generations. Combined with his own martial arts prowess, Wenwu may have been the most dangerous character in the entire MCU for thousands of years at one point (even if his exsitence was a retcon).

There are a slew of unanswered questions about how the Ten Rings even work in the MCU, as no proper sequel to Shang-Chi has been released yet, but it seems unlikely that Thanos would be able to wield the same level of influence over them like he did the stones, making a surprise steal by the Mad Titan in any battle with Wenwu unlikely. As a result, the villain clearly has the upperhand even if Thanos has some of the Infinity Stones.

3) Ultron

Marvel has even confirmed this themselves already, with an episode of What If…? pondering the question and revealing Ultron could quite easily defeat Thanos, slicing him in half with the power of the Mind Stone and not even lifting a finger. The episode takes it a step fruther showing that with the power of the entire Infinity Gauntlet, Ultron would be nearly unstoppable, with his threat level rising to a multiversal crisis rather than just being contained to his own world. That said, even without the Vibranium body of The Vision as his final form, Ultron would still be able to largely handle Thanos on his own. In fact, the only reason The Avengers are even able to defeat Ultron is through the chaos magic in the fingertips of Wanda Maximoff, something that Thanos himself had a hard time with anyway.

2) Scarlet Witch

You may be thinking, No, Wanda was IN Avengers: Infinity War and couldn’t defeat Thanos, but the truth is that the Wanda who confronts the mad titan in the film is one ravaged by guilt and grief, having just killed her lover only to watch Thanos bring him back to life and kill him again. Even with all that emotion, she posed a major threat to him, nearly able to hold him off with the magic in just one hand.

That said, if the version of Wanda seen in Infinity War wasn’t enough, Avengers: Endgame reveals that the only way Thanos could stop her from completely tearing him apart is by having his ships in orbit rain shots down on the ground. All that in mind, if the Wanda Maximoff seen in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness were to cross paths with Thanos, it would truly be the end for the mad titan. This version of Wanda not only annihilates entire heroes without batting an eye, but also possesses a grim creativity when it comes to killing her foes.

1) Cassandra Nova

The primary antagonist of Deadpool & Wolverine has such extreme psionic abilities that she can rip the skin from a person’s body when they’re standing more than ten feet away from her (as she does with Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm). Furthermore, she’s able to push and throw the title characters around like they’re made of tissue paper, manipulating their bodies to harm themselves, too. All of that is even without touching them, and as revealed in the movie, Cassandra Nova requires physical contact in order to enter the mind of her prey. Getting close enough to Thanos proves to be no problem for a slew of characters in the Avengers movies. The mad titan would truly be toast if he crossed paths with Cassandra Nova.

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