Marvel’s Most Dangerous Hero Isn’t Hulk — It’s Scarlet Witch

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Marvel comics is famous for characters who can be both heroes and villains. While many fear Bruce Banner, who transforms into the incredibly powerful Hulk, as a major threat, the real danger might be someone else entirely. Though the world prepares for the Hulk to lose control, they’ve overlooked Wanda Maximoff, also known as the Scarlet Witch, who has recently become the Sorcerer Supreme and poses a potentially greater risk.

The Hulk and Scarlet Witch appear quite similar when you compare them on paper. Both are heroes who sometimes act as villains, largely due to their internal struggles. They also both gain their powers from incredibly strong, but dangerous, sources connected to powerful, almost god-like beings. The Hulk’s strength comes from gamma radiation, linked to a destructive entity called the One Below All, who wants to use him to destroy everything. Scarlet Witch, meanwhile, uses Chaos Magic given to her by the ancient god Cthon, who planned to control her. Despite these similarities, Scarlet Witch is demonstrably the bigger danger to the Marvel Universe, considering her powers, personality, and history.

The Infinite Marvel Multiverse is at Scarlet Witch’s Mercy

While the Hulk is famous for being incredibly strong, Scarlet Witch is arguably even more powerful, possessing abilities close to those of a god. The Hulk, even at his strongest, relies on sheer physical force – he can destroy planets and defeat powerful beings, and even return from death – but Scarlet Witch’s magic lets her alter reality itself, instantly and with just a thought. This gives her a level of power that surpasses even the Hulk’s incredible strength.

Scarlet Witch started out with limited magical abilities, but as she learned more about Chaos Magic, she’s become incredibly powerful – essentially a god. She’s known as the Nexus Being, meaning she’s the center of all magic in the Marvel Universe and can change everything around her. Her Chaos Magic is as powerful as the Phoenix Force, which controls order and destruction across the multiverse. At her strongest, Scarlet Witch can control anything – elements, weather, thoughts, even time and space – as easily as molding clay. There’s almost nothing she can’t do, but her unstable mental state makes her power unpredictable.

Scarlet Witch is incredibly powerful, having feats like temporarily defeating the Phoenix Force, creating life from nothing, and even rewriting reality itself. During a mental breakdown caused by trauma and overusing her magic, she nearly destroyed the entire Marvel universe as an unintended consequence. Famously, her words, “no more mutants,” almost wiped out the mutant population, stripping 90% of them of their powers. Now, as the new Sorcerer Supreme, she’s gaining access to even more powerful spells and mystical items like the Eye of Agamotto, though she hardly needs the extra boost.

Scarlet Witch Frequently Abuses Her Powers and has Caused Countless Atrocities

Scarlet Witch is undeniably one of Marvel’s most powerful characters, but her immense power has repeatedly led to devastating consequences and widespread loss of life. Even when the Hulk has acted destructively – like during the alien invasion in World War Hulk – her actions have been far more harmful and frequent. She’s misused her reality-altering abilities in ways that would shock even the most ruthless villains.

Scarlet Witch’s struggles with mental health have been at the center of some of Marvel’s biggest disasters. After magically creating children who weren’t truly real and then losing them, her sanity fractured. She held the Avengers responsible for her memory loss and, during the Avengers: Disassembled storyline, unleashed terrible attacks on her former teammates. She caused Iron Man to relapse, transformed She-Hulk into a savage creature who killed Vision, and murdered Ant-Man and Hawkeye. However, even these shocking actions pale in comparison to what she did in House of M.

During the “House of M” storyline, Scarlet Witch altered reality with the goal of bringing back her children and establishing mutants as the world’s dominant species. While her brother, Quicksilver, supported her, the decision and execution were entirely her own. She intended to create a happier world, but her actions instead resulted in a cruel, oppressive society where humans were subjugated by mutants. Driven by personal desires, Scarlet Witch also fundamentally changed the memories and identities of everyone on Earth. Despite her good intentions, this reckless and selfish reshaping of people’s lives was deeply damaging.

As the reality of House of M crumbled and the multiverse began to fall apart, Scarlet Witch was consumed by self-loathing due to her mutant abilities. In a desperate and frantic state, she decided to punish all mutants for what she had done. When she cast her spell to eliminate mutants, the consequences were horrifying. Instantly, countless mutants perished – some fell from the sky while flying, others were trapped in life-threatening situations without their powers. Hundreds of thousands of mutants were killed that day, all because of Scarlet Witch. This immense power – the ability to threaten all of existence and kill so many at once – makes Scarlet Witch a force even the Hulk would fear.

There’s Far Less Holding Scarlet Witch Back

Both Hulk and Scarlet Witch have worked hard to manage their mental health and improve control over their abilities. They both deeply regret past mistakes and strive to be better. However, Scarlet Witch is significantly more prone to losing control than the Hulk.

Ultimately, the Hulk is more stable than the Scarlet Witch. Bruce Banner consistently works to manage his transformation, using methods like meditation, therapy, and even talking to the Hulk directly. Despite their frequent arguments, Bruce and the Hulk can put aside their differences when facing a shared enemy. Because Bruce’s mind is inside the Hulk’s body, he has a better chance of controlling the Hulk’s rage before it gets out of hand. Furthermore, Bruce has created fail-safes to stop himself if he loses control completely, like the arrow Hawkeye used to kill him in Civil War 2.

Unlike some heroes, Scarlet Witch doesn’t have a built-in safeguard or a consistent voice of reason to keep her in check. Though she has friends and allies like the Avengers and her brother, past events like Avengers: Disassembled and House of M demonstrate that they can just as easily push her into destructive, reality-altering outbursts. There’s no reliable way to consistently ground her, making her susceptible to outside influence or her own mental instability. And when she becomes dangerous, Earth’s heroes have limited options for containing her, beyond the magical abilities of Doctor Strange.

Everyone worries about the Hulk being a huge threat, but it’s strange how often people forget how much more dangerous Scarlet Witch actually is. She has incredibly powerful abilities that affect entire universes, and she’s also emotionally unstable. It doesn’t make sense that the Avengers spend so much time trying to control the Hulk, especially after seeing what Scarlet Witch can do with her limitless power. Now that she’s the Sorcerer Supreme, she’s even more of a risk. If no one stops her, she could become the biggest villain the Marvel Universe has ever faced – again.

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2025-12-24 00:20