MCU CaV [ENDGAME SPOILERS]: Base Thanos (SupremeG) vs Captain Marvel (RS2099) - Battles - Comic Vine (2024)

The Mad Titan, Thanos

Because I'm lazy and we all know who this badass is, I shall shamelessly copy and paste his MCU Wiki intro (massive Endgame spoilers, of course):

Now the thing about (base) Thanos in the MCU is that he is entirely devoid of versatility. The phrase "Hulk on steroids but uber skilled" is often used, and it's true. He's quite literally a brick - but a powerful one. He tanks hits like nobody's business, and he can deal the damage too. He's also got armor and a sword (the latter not being used here) on top of that, making him a truly dangerous foe to anyone he may cross paths with (on his level, of course...).

Let's go over exactly what makes the Mad Titan such a dangerous foe now.

The Genghis Khan of the MCU: Physicals & Skill

In order to quickly set the tone for just how physically imposing the Mad Titan is, I'll present an all too well-known fight, that is the opening smackdown that Thanos gave the Incredible Hulk and my personal favorite scene of Infinity War. It's all I'll show in terms of general physicals for this opener, as I believe it sets the tone incredibly well for just how hard Thanos is going to be put down as well as just how hard the Mad Titan can hit.

First let's discuss what this fight was meant to establish:

But enough of that on-paper crap that no one should actually care about. Let's talk about this in terms of raw feats.

Time-stamped at the legendary "We have a Hulk" at 0:25, Thanos takes a surprise bullrush from the Hulk followed by three absolutely brutal punches straight to the head, followed by two double-slams onto his shoulders, and then he gets slammed hard into the ship, twice.

Needless to say that this absolute onslaught is something not even other powerful beings on Hulk's level are bound to take easily, yet Thanos not only seemingly no-sells this, he proceeds to grab Hulk's arms and completely overpower the green behemoth. Given the Hulk's mere backhands can one-shot Hulkbuster replacement parts and send them flying fast and hard enough to one-shot the satellite dispersing them, and that his punches can completely bend Chitauri metal and stop the insanely massive Chitauri Leviathans in their tracks, Thanos taking this kind of insane beatdown is enough to say that the Mad Titan is not going down easily. The Hulk is also strong enough to catch and toss a tank, making overpowering him so casually insanely impressing.

Then, in a single hit, he causes Hulk so much pain that he screams out and holds the area where he was hit. This is something no other being in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has accomplished, to the best of my memory. However, what follows is a true display of Thanos's strength and skill. He takes precisely a >dozen< hits to knock out the physical powerhouse of the Avengers. This includes the first hit and the throw onto the ground. Given the fact that the Hulk got up mere seconds after a direct head to the head from Mjolnir, I'd call this insanely impressive. How about three back to back hits from Thor's warhammer, as well as another one to his body that sends him flying? Completely and utterly tanked. Recall that Thor himself is an insanely powerful physical powerhouse, yet that last hit only served to get Hulk mad enough to catch Thor's next attack.

Putting the Hulk down as casually as Thanos did, not to mention tanking that many hits from a being of the Hulk's power, is insane, and not something I can see Carol replicating as casually as the Hulk did. This level of physicals is near unheard of, and I'd argue that this isn't even the limit of what we've seen Thanos do in terms of overall tankiness and damage output.

Throughout all of this, Thanos also blocks three punches from the Hulk, and for the first two punches he blocked, he landed two of his own. That is to say, Hulk attempted a punch and got hit twice, twice. The third time around, Thanos landed the final brutal combo that put the Hulk down for good. Thanos also dodged a punch, hitting the Hulk before he could turn around. While the Hulk isn't exactly the most skilled guy in the world, he's got a few accolades and feats. He was the champion of the Sakaarian arena for two years, going undefeated in his entire time on Sakaar. He also seemingly trained often with Valkyrie. Featswise he's been able to land some decent combos on Thor, as well as beat Thor to the punch on a hit. While Thor is ultimately holding back, it's not like he wants to get hit. Thor himself is incredibly skilled, being capable of taking on various Asgardian Soldiers with a reach advantage on him (1)(2). And sure, the Odinson proceeds to dominate the Hulk in a straight up fight a while later, but I still thought these were worth mentioning.

It pains me so much to admit that Carol could beat the Hulk down like this based on raw feats, I just don't see her doing it as convincingly as Thanos did.

Thanos & Carol's Fights: Analysis & Counters

My opponent made a handful of statements throughout his post, and I want to point out one in particular that I have a disagreement with.

... Carol, from a pure feats perspective, has a advantage in strength, durability, and overall power level. You could maybe prove he's on this power level through scaling but obviously that's not nearly as concrete as

Most people would think that I'm getting ready to contest what my opponent calls Carol's " advantage[s]", but no, I want to focus on his latter statement. My opponent asserts that "obviously", scaling isn't as concrete a raw feats. If this were any other medium, I'd agree. However, both of these characters have only two appearances and have actual fights with one another. We know where they stand in comparison, and this utterly nullifies whatever feats you might bring forth. They had two different fights that I've broken into a couple different encounters. I will now break down all of these.

The objective chain of events is as follows: Thanos looks up, reacts to Carol's blast, gets bullrushed by Carol, recovers, get put in a headlock, and begins overpowering her leg force on his arm with his burned, weakened arm. This is objectively what happened before the Hulkbuster arrived. From this we can draw that even in a weakened state he can take her blasts, outright tank her built-up attacks (bullrushes), and gradually overpower her.

During the final battle of Avengers: Endgame, after Carol has brutally taken down the Sanctuary, Thanos is about to put on the Infinity Gems once more... for the first time. Time travel, whatever. Anyways, she lands a sneak attack directly on his knee which pushes him down a bit, she punches him in the face, reacts to a punch of his, blasts him square on the chest, punches him again, lunges for the gauntlet, and gets thrown away.

They have no contest of strength this time around, but again we see that Thanos can outright tank the best of what Carol has to dish out energy-wise and physicals wise. She couldn't so much as put a scratch on him. I won't claim that he directly hurt her because she wasn't focused on him, but his throws clearly pack a punch on her as she was out for a few seconds.

Because I know I have to show all of them, here's the next one... Carol comes out of nowhere a mere moment before Thanos can snap his fingers on Stark's glove. I do want to note a couple of things. For starters, she does in fact overpower his one arm. However, she did so extremely gradually and it took her a full 10 seconds to do so. Second of all, yes, she no-sells Thanos's headbutt. However, this doesn't mean that his punches will be unable to put her down either.

We've already seen Carol going all out on Thanos (the literal fate of the universe is at stake, try to tell me she's not pulling her punches, I dare you) and fail to hurt him significantly. While the same can be said for Thanos, he tried all of two attacks (with base stats) on her. She no-sold his headbutt and was seemingly out for just a little bit from the throw. The likelihood of him putting the hurt on Carol is far more plausible than vice versa.

As you can see, I start the gif from before Carol flies upwards. Anyways the bit I want to specifically point out here is Thanos's position relative to Carol. He's on the ground with an arm on the floor holding him up. Carol's putting the entire force of her body downwards, meaning she has the advantage. However, even after Thanos lifts his left arm off the ground in order to take out the power stone, that's about 4 seconds (give or take; they don't show the arm coming off the ground so I added an extra second but three is still a ton for Carol's supposed "massive" advantage to overtake Thanos) that he .

Ultimately, I believe these two powerhouses are comparable, but the notion that Carol come off as decisively superior is one embedded in either forgetfulness or disingenuity. A Thanos with a burnt, weakened arm was blatantly overpowering Carol and had the rest of the Avengers not showed up, he would have finished doing so. From there, the fight is anyone's guess.

Their final encounters display them as comparable as well. Thanos literally tanked EVERYTHING that Carol had to dish out, and he still wasn't anywhere close to being done. Given the dire situation, any notion of her holding back should be dismissed completely out of mind. Where Thanos might struggle to put Carol down, we know that Carol will struggle to put Thanos down.

So, I posit that their fights, while ultimately inconclusive due to context (interrupted or special gear used) showcase them as comparable. Thanos might struggle to hurt Carol, but Carol WILL struggle to hurt Thanos. The Mad Titan took some absolutely insane beatings that Thanos throughout the events of the final battle in Avengers: Endgame, and still proceeded to tank everything Carol dished out. While Thanos, with a headbutt, did appear to fail to hurt Carol, I do believe his striking in punches can eventually overcome her durability.

There's nothing wrong with scaling so long as it's consistent. Via scaling, Thanos is consistently at or above Carol's level. This fight is close, but I find that ultimately there will be one victor, and it's the Mad Titan. You stated things like:

Carol has the power to hurt and eventually put down Thanos, especially with bullrushes which tore through Thanos' ship with utmost ease.

And I submit the gif posted above, of him in a weakened state utterly tanking her bullrush (keeping in mind that at that point, and to be fair any point, in the movie, no one would be holding back as it is the only chance they have at saving the universe). She could repeat bullrushing, but Thanos could just as easily keep getting back up. He literally tanked her bullrush in the same movie where she got one of her most impressive feats to date - if not the most impressive feat of hers.

The notion that scaling is somehow inapplicable is incorrect in every sense. I'd agree if Carol and Thanos had never fought each other, but they did, twice, and she failed to so much as leave a mark on Thanos. Now sure, he failed too, but I also want to show that there's been an opponent who he's headbutt and punched, with the difference showing quite largely:

Here, Thanos utterly no-sells a surprise bullrush from Iron Man, deflects his nanotech sword off his gauntlet, and headbutts him a decent distance away. Not a lot, but a noticeable amount.

Contrast Thanos's above headbutt to the distance that he sent Stark skidding; not only is it noticeably larger as seen at the end of the gif, but it's also worth noting that Tony blocked the punch with both of his hands. This means that at full force without impediment, Thanos's punches pack a lot more force than his headbutts.

Now of course, he's still going to struggle massively to hurt Carol, I'll be the first to admit this, but that doesn't make her infallible. At the very least she won't be no-selling his punches as she did his headbutt. It's worth mentioning that while she didn't flinch from the heabutt, she was seemingly moved a millimeter. Furthermore, she only no-sold his headbutt after seemingly amping herself to some really high levels. I have yet to see her movie, but the more she glows, the more powered up she is.

Conclusion

My opponent is correct, and I'll be the first to admit it. In terms of raw, quantifiable feats, Carol outclasses Thanos. However, he is incorrect where it pertains to scaling. Just because scaling is involved, this doesn't mean the feats can be thrown out the window. When Carol has blatantly and on-screen failed to do anything noteworthy to Thanos, her striking feats don't really matter. Her bullrushes don't either, as again, Thanos has blatantly on-screen received no damage from Carol's bullrush.

The only issue here is whether or not Thanos can eventually put Carol down, and I obviously wouldn't be doing this CaV if I didn't believe as such. I'll get more into how Thanos can hurt, react to, and continue tanking more blows from Carol in my next post, because I believe he has all the tools needed to take an absolute beating from Carol and keep fighting.