Fight scenes are a huge part of theMarvel Cinematic Universe’s draw, but some of them are so absurd that it’s hard to believe the series ever greenlit them in the first place. There’s no doubt that thebest action scenes of the MCUuse the full extent of Marvel Studios' resources in terms of choreography, editing, and special effects. But sometimes, the very concept of a given battle can seem utterly unbelievable.
There are several ways the MCU’s various battles can turn out to be utterly ridiculous. The sheer spectacle of some fights are simply arresting in their very concept, with bold exchanges of unique or strange weaponry and power that couldn’t exist anywhere other than a superhero story. The arena the battle takes place in can also have a huge impact on a given fight scene’s absurdity. Some of the best battles inthe MCU’s massive film libraryare also easily their most extreme, but other times, their strangeness can be a detractor from the overall quality.
10Cassandra Nova Vs The Human Torch
Deadpool & Wolverine
Admittedly, Cassandra Nova’s brief face-off against the Human Torch is more of an execution than a standard trial-by-combat. However, the bombastic and bloody end of the confrontation still easily qualifies it for a ranking among the MCU’s most rediculous battles. The stand-off begins when Deadpool snitches on The Human Torch, telling Cassandra Nova every nasty detail of Johnny Storm’s lengthy, colorful rant regarding the supervillain in private.
In retaliation, before Johnny Storm can even say “Flame On!”, Cassandra Nova instantly flays him alive, leaving an agonizing skinless mass of muscles straight out of an anatomy and physiology textbook.Thus creates one of themost R-rated moments inDeadpool & Wolverine,the MCU’s first R-rated film,getting plenty of mileage out of the series' new capacity for gore. Calling the scene a fight may be a bit generous, but it’s simply too spectacular to ignore.
9Doctor Strange Vs Dormammu
Doctor Strange
Sometimes, it isn’t overwhelming power that wins a fight in the MCU, but raw perseverance. No scene better justifies this theory than Doctor Strange’s eventual confrontation with the lord of the Dark Dimension, Dormammu, in the Sorcerer Supreme’s self-titled debut film. A blatant mismatch in power,there’s little the rookie magician can do against Dormammu’s unfathomable power, being instantly killed by the dark lord’s overwhelming eldritch might.
Doctor Strange simply repeats the famous line “Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain”
However, Strange has one trick up his sleeve – The trusty Eye of Agomotto, containing the Time Stone. With the powerful artifact, Strange is able to lock himself and Dormammu in a never-ending time loop, causing the frustrated outer god to murder him over and over again in increasingly creative ways. Doctor Strange simply repeats the famous line “Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain”, eventually striking up a deal with the being in order to free him from the chronological prison.
8Captain Carter & Kahhori Vs Supreme Strange
What If…? Season 3, Episode 9
One of theworse episodes ofWhat If…?season 2, episode 9, titledWhat If…Strange Supreme Intervened?, could’ve used just a little more time in the proverbial oven before releasing in its current state. The entry of the anthology series, which depicts an evil version of Doctor Strange endangering innocent lives in an effort to revive his love interest, struggles to make sense of a convoluted premise. With that being said,the episode at least gave MCU fans one ofWhat If…?’s epic fight scenes.
Unfortunately, the final battle in question winds up being the victim of poor pacing, introducing and killing off a coterie of iconic Marvel characters one after the other at a breakneck pace. While the animation his easy on the eyes, the throw everything at the wall and see what sticks mentality of the crossover battle quickly becomes confusing and overwhelming. The sheer number of moving parts and power-ups in play, from Mjolnir to the Ten Rings to the Infinity Stones themselves, makes Supreme Strange’s last stand a ludirous thing to watch.
7Deadpool Vs TVA Agents
It seems fitting that the loose logic of a Deadpool movie would give the MCU not one, but two of its most unbelievable fight scenes of all time.Deadpool & Wolverineproves nothing is safe from its sarcastic purview within the opening minutes, as Deadpool digs up the adamantium skeleton ofLogan’s heroically-sacrificed Wolverine. When a horde of TVA agents approach him in an attempt to prevent his timeline meddling, the Merc with a Mouth gets creative in his choice of weaponry.
Deadpool proceeds to absolutely slaughter scores of the hapless TVA agents using Wolverine’s rock-hard adamantium bones, taking out his targets in increasingly hysterical and creative ways. From using Logan’s ribs as throwing knives, his limbs as nunchaku, or strapping on his iconic claws, Deadpool eviscerates every last agent, all to the tune of NYSNC’sBye Bye Bye.As if all that wasn’t absurd enough, the battle is intercut with choreography showing off Deadpool’s impressive dancing skills.
6Scarlet Witch Vs The Illuminati
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
If there’s one area in whichDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessimproved upon its predecessor, it’s the increased magical potential of the spells at play, especially when it comes to Scarlet Witch’s reality-warping powers. In her quest to re-unite with her lost children, Wanda Maximoff faces down every member of an alternate Earth’s major superhero team, the Illuminati, including the likes of the then recently-acquired Fox characters Professor X and Mister Fantastic. The fight that ensues makes the most of Scarlet Witch’s overwhelming magical potential.
Scarlet Witch doesn’t just killeach member of the Illuminati– She mercilessly executes them in increasingly elaborate manners befitting of their powers. From removing Black Bolt’s mouth to shredding Mister Fantastic into ribbons, there’s little Scarlet Witch can’t do with her full evil potential realized, making for an eccentric and jaw-dropping action sequence.Nowhere else in the MCU are death scenes more creative, making for a singularly ridiculous battle.
5Iron Man Vs Whiplash
Iron Man 2
Sometimes, it’s the very premise of an MCU fight scene that can drench it in nonsensical preposterousness, even if the actual combat itself isn’t particularly noteworthy. This is certainly the case for Whiplash and Iron Man’s first confrontation in the oft-malignedIron Man 2,making for a pulpy action scene that feels more at home in a Michael Bay movie than an MCU entry. Making an attempt on Tony Stark’s life, Whiplash strides onto the Tarmac of the F1 race the billionaire is participating in, drawing him out by destroying cars.
As if this premise for a fight wasn’t unbelievable enough, with Tony able to somehow expertly pilot a Formula One car with no training, the way Iron Man manages to suit up with the aid of a mobile briefcase suit makes it even more disconnected from even the MCU’s version of reality. The suitcase armor is a dramatic step up in the fantastical nature of Iron Man’s tech, a precursor to the straight-up science fiction of his nanite suit. Meanwhile,Whiplash is shirtless, wielding two incredibly impractical weapons, making him hard to take seriously even as a comic book villain.
4Ant-Man Vs Yellowjacket
Ant-Man
With some of the most profound technology of any MCU character, it’s no wonder that Ant-Man gets some of the series' most oddball fight scenes. One of the most noteworthy for its silliness is his final confrontation with Darren Cross' Yellowjacket, wearing a similar size-changing suit that’s better equipped with deadly laser weaponry. As both combatants utilize their ability to shrink, a simpleThomas the Tank Engineplayset in Cassie’s room becomes a deadly arena.
As funny as it is to watch a menacing Thomas the Tank Engine barrel along a wooden track to hit Yellowjacket, only for a zoomed-out shot to comically lessen the actual impact, this battle fundamentally ignoreshow Pym Particles were explained to work. Hank described earlier how shrunken objects retain their mass, meaning that the wooden toy train shouldn’t be any more threatening as a weapon even to a insect-sized Ant-Man. For bothits surreal copyright-heavy visuals and its loose relationship with pre-established rules,this fight leaves a puzzling impression.
3Thor And The Asgardian Kids Vs Gorr
Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor temporarily imbues his power into various objects held by the children
Thor: Love and Thunderwas critically-panned for its heightened reliance on comedy, often refusing to take itself seriously for the sake of cheap jokes. It’s hard not to feel this sentiment in one of the final battles of the film, in which Thor and a legion of kidnapped Asgardian children take on an army of shadow monsters generated by Gorr the God Butcher. Using his godly magic, Thor temporarily imbues his power into various objects held by the children, making Mjolnirs out of stuffed animals, toys, and pieces of debris.
Admittedly, this is quite a creative solution to Gorr’s army, although it’s hard not to imagine thatThor could simply take out the creatures in one blast of lightning with the same power.The sight of the children effortless fighting off Gorr’s minions overplays its comedy at times, making for a singularly far-fetched action scene. Add inThor: Love and Thunder’s uneven special effects, and the Asgardian children’s rampage makes for one of the strangest battles in MCU history.
2Ant-Man Vs The Hulk
What If…? Season 1, Episode 3
The third season wasn’t the only timeWhat If…?got absurd with its fight sequences, touching similar limits as early as the third episode of the series ever released,What If… The Earth Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?The episode takes place along the crowded timeline of MCU Phase One movies such asThor, Iron Man 2,andThe Incredible Hulk.Here, the Avengers are picked off one-by-one by a vengeful Hank Pym Ant-Man, just as Nick Fury begins forming the Avengers initiative.
The most brutal of his kills is easily The Hulk, who he manages to overpower by shrinking down to sub-cellular size and embedding a growth disc in his heart, increasing his the pressure of his green bloodstream until he explodes in a brutal column of viscera.Easily one of the most brutal, if brief, battles ofWhat If…?,this confrontation might not have been much of a fight, but shows off just how evil Ant-Man’s technology can be in the wrong hands. It’s also the closest the MCU has gotten to acknowledging thegrotesque Ant-Man killing Thanos theory.
1Yondu, Rocket And Groot Vs The Ravagers
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Being absurd or far-fetched isn’t always necessarily a bad thing for the MCU’s fight scenes. Nowhere is this more evident than in Yondu, Rocket, and Baby Groot’s escape from Ravager internment inGuardians of the Galaxy 2.After being betrayed by his old man, Yondu manages to get ahold of his signature flying arrow. As Rocket plays a song in Star-Lord’s collection,Come A Little BitCloserby Jay and the Americans, Yondu shows off just how he became so feared with his whistling weapon of choice.
It’s hard to believe Yondu could so remorselessly murder his former comrades, but after their betrayal, all bets are clearly off. His arrow strikes true again and again, slaughtering scores of the Ravagers with little effort on Yondu’s behalf; Rocket and Groot also contribute in their own ways, with the overhead shot of Rocket and Yondu sniping Ravagers from the safety of the ship’s camera room being one of the film’s most impressive. Not only is this fight scene one of the most flashy and ostentatious of theMCU, but it’s also simply one of the best.
