The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a vast and ever-expanding landscape of heroes, villains, with powers that range from super-strength to mystic arts. As new characters are introduced as the mutliverse unfolds and existing ones evolve, a common question comes up among fans: who would win in a fight? This debate goes to new heights when two incredibly powerful heroes (or villains) are pitted against each other, especially those with vastly different power sets that are on par with one another. Enter the Sentry— recently introduced in Thunderbolts*— who essentially has the power of a million exploding suns and cannot be defeat, either by his teammates, the military, or his own inner-self. Then there’s the Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff, who is a force of nature with chaos magic that has reshaped realities, created human life, and destroyed an Infinity Stone.
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While the Sentry’s raw physical might is undeniable, Scarlet Witch, with her reality-altering chaos magic, would ultimately take the crown in an MCU showdown.
Wanda’s Chaos Magic Can Quite Literally Overwhelm Anything
The Sentry, the super-powered alter-ego of lovable yet emotionally damaged Bob (Lewis Pullman), gains his abilities human experimentations overseen by power-hungry and morally corrupt politician, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Bob was the only survivor of the experiments, which ended up granting him superhuman strength, durability, flight, energy projection, and molecular manipulation. Throughout his storied history in Marvel Comics, Sentry has described as Marvel’s answer to Superman— a being of near-unlimited power, capable of tearing apart planets and shrugging off attacks that would obliterate lesser heroes. His dark alter-ego (yes, Bob’s second alter-ego), the Void, is a being of pure mental destruction, trapping his victims in rooms that replay their most traumatic memories, adding fear manipulation into the mix. In a straightforward slugfest, few could stand against him.
However, Wanda Maximoff’s powers operate on an entirely different plane that defies the laws of physics or brute force. Her abilities stem from chaos magic, a mystical force connected to primeval creation and destruction. Wanda’s power has evolve dramatically throughout the MCU, starting with her first introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Experimented on by HYDRA alongside her twin brother, Pietro (Quicksilver), the Mind Stone granted her telekinetic and mind-manipulating abilities. By WandaVision, she had matured from the young girl who volunteered for experimentations to protect her home to someone capable of creating and sustaining an entire alternate reality, a tangible and very real version of the deceased Vision, and her two twin sons, Billy and Tommy— human beings who were not souls transplanted into other bodies, but completely new life created by her magic alone. This wasn’t merely illusion; she rewrote the very fabric of existence within Westview and was able to control every living being within the town (“the Hex”).
It was in WandaVision that finally—after years of skirting around her true comic-accurate identity—directly named her as the Scarlet Witch and revealing that Wanda had been a witch since birth; the Mind Stone simply unlocked her latent powers. In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, her power reached terrifying new heights as she studied the Darkhold, allowing her to travel between universes as a dreamwalker, single-handedly defeat those universes’ greatest heroes, and even overwhelm a fully powered Doctor Strange. The only reason Wanda was defeated in Multiverse of Madness was because she chose to be her own undoing.
Sentry vs. the Scarlet Witch: How Do Their Powers Compare?
The key difference in this hypothetical showdown is the nature of their powers. The Sentry’s abilities, while undoubtedly in a league of its own, are primarily physical and energy-based. He can punch hard, fly fast, and unleash energy blasts. Wanda’s chaos magic, however, directly manipulates reality itself. She doesn’t just apply force to an object; she can change the object’s properties, or even make it cease to exist. This isn’t about brute strength versus brute strength; it’s about brute strength versus the ability to rewrite the rules of reality.
Throughout the MCU, Wanda has disassembled matter with just her thoughts, as seen when she effortlessly tore apart Ultron’s vibranium body or shredded Thanos’ armor. Against the Sentry, she could simply deprive him of his powers by altering his molecular structure, or even nullify the effects of the serum that grants him his abilities. His powers might take down any other opponent, what good is that power if the reality around him can be bent to another’s will?
Wanda’s also has the unique ability to affect consciousness and mental states with mind control and nightmare creation. While the Sentry himself has mental vulnerabilities due to Bob’s fragmented psyche and the Void, Wanda could easily exploit these to her advantage. She could delve into his mind, making his inner demons even worse, or even simply overwhelm his senses with illusions, creating openings for more direct magical assaults. The Void, while powerful, is also a manifestation of Bob’s mental instability; Wanda’s magic could turn this against him, empowering the Void to consume Bob, or isolating the Void to attack it separately.
The Sentry’s raw power is undeniable, but it’s the equivilent of bringing a knife to a gun fight. Wanda’s chaos magic is not just destructive; it’s transformative. She doesn’t need to match the Sentry’s blows when she can simply alter the reality where those blows take place. She could turn his energy blasts into flowers or even subtly warp the very space around him, making his attacks miss or redirecting them back at him.
In an MCU context, where we’ve seen Wanda rip through the multiverse with ease and create entire pocket realities, a physical battle with the Sentry would likely be brought to a swift end with her chaos magic, leaving him utterly outmatched by the Scarlet Witch.
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image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
