Scarlet Witch vs. Dark Phoenix: Who Would Win in a Fight?

There are plenty of powerful women in the world of Marvel Comics, two of which come in the form of Scarlet Witch and Dark Phoenix, both prominent in the X-Men storyline. Scarlet Witch is known to have incredible magic powers that could alter reality at her most powerful state. On the other hand, Dark Phoenix is a corrupted Jean Grey that’s empowered by the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force. So, who would win in a battle between Scarlet Witch and Dark Phoenix?

Dark Phoenix is more powerful than Scarlet Witch and would win in a fight against her. Scarlet Witch can alter reality, but this is based on very few limited feats. On the other hand, Dark Phoenix has Phoenix Force which is one of the most powerful entities in general in Marvel Comics. Phoenix Force is considered to be an extinction-level threat and has all it’s stats maxed out, which is not something that we can say for Scarlet Witch.

Scarlet Witch is indeed powerful and has overpowered magical abilities that make her a threat in both the comics and the MCU. But the thing is that Dark Phoenix is a threat to the entire universe as her powers are cosmic-level. In that regard, it is easy to see why Dark Phoenix is the more powerful character. But let’s go over the details to understand why Dark Phoenix would win.

Strength

The thing about Scarlet Witch is that she doesn’t have any enhanced physical capabilities. She might be stronger than your average human female, but she lacks superhuman abilities that allow her to overpower other characters using her strength. In that regard, she was never a threat regarding her physical abilities, as she was always known more for her incredibly potent magical abilities instead.

Whether she is in her regular form or Dark Phoenix form, Jean Grey isn’t really strong. If her powers were negated, her strength wouldn’t be a threat because she is only at a level above that of a regular female human’s strength. Of course, she did undergo strength training as a member of the X-Men, but her strength pales compared to the strength levels of superpowered characters in the Marvel Comics universe.

It is plain and obvious that neither Scarlet Witch nor Dark Phoenix could physically overpower their opponents. Of course, they could both use their powers to enhance their strength, but that’s an entirely different scenario.

Scarlet Witch 0, Dark Phoenix 0

Powers and Abilities

Scarlet Witch has always been known to be a threat because of her incredible magical abilities, as she was born with powers that allow her to alter reality on a whim. She uses chaos magic, which makes her more powerful than most of the other human magical entities in Marvel, as she can bend different forces of magic to her will without even taking a second to do so. In that regard, in ‘House of M,’ it was simply the fact that she said: “no more mutants” that nearly caused the extinction of the entire human population.

Jean Grey was already so powerful in her regular form that she was considered one of the strongest mutants at her peak. That’s because her psychic abilities allow her to do whatever she wants to do, as she can use incredible telekinetic abilities that some of the strongest characters aren’t even capable of resisting.

However, when she is in her Dark Phoenix form, she becomes a lot more powerful because of the fact that the Phoenix Force is one of the most powerful cosmic entities. As such, Dark Phoenix was listed as an omega-level and extinction-level threat to the entire universe, as she is basically a god.

We don’t know how far the Scarlet Witch could go with her reality-altering powers, but we know for a fact that Dark Phoenix is a threat to reality itself. As such, there is no doubt that Dark Phoenix is more powerful because she could threaten entire multiverses.

Scarlet Witch 0, Dark Phoenix 1

Speed

While we know her for her incredible magical powers, Scarlet Witch isn’t a threat without them because she isn’t even strong and doesn’t even move very fast. It is possible that she can move as fast as a well-trained human, but she doesn’t have powers that allow her to move as fast as some of the superpowered characters of Marvel.

However, she could use her powers to levitate and move very fast. But, in terms of her physical speed, she really doesn’t excel in that department at all, even though she could move from one place to another fast enough using teleportation.

In her regular form, Jean Grey can move faster than regular humans due to her ability to augment her speed with telekinesis. However, when she enters her Dark Phoenix form and taps into the power of the Phoenix Force, she gains the ability to teleport instantly from one place to another.

She even has cosmic teleportation, which allows her to move incredibly fast at will. Of course, the Phoenix Force is also capable of augmenting her physical speed well enough that she could move as fast as some of the superpowered characters of Marvel.

Scarlet Witch doesn’t stand a chance against the cosmic powers allowing Dark Phoenix to move incredibly fast.

Scarlet Witch 0, Dark Phoenix 2

Durability

The thing about Scarlet Witch is that her body is still as human as it can get. That means that if she fails to defend herself with her magic, regular attacks that could hurt regular humans could injure or even kill her. It might be true that she has powers that allow her to manipulate her biology and heal her wounds quickly. But the thing is that she can’t heal from attacks that could potentially kill her, especially if she doesn’t have her guard up to defend against such attacks.

While Dark Phoenix isn’t the most durable character in Marvel Comics, the thing is that she can reconstruct herself at will whenever she dies. That means that she is actually immortal, as she could never die as long as her body is the host of the Phoenix Force.

She could always bring herself back to life. This is why it is incredibly difficult to stop or defeat Dark Phoenix, as she is a godlike entity with powers that allow her to become almost immortal.

The fact that Dark Phoenix is capable of actually reconstructing her body and reviving herself gives her a clear advantage over Scarlet Witch, whose best survival ability is her healing magic.

Scarlet Witch 0, Dark Phoenix 3

Fighting Skills

Scarlet Witch is just like any comic book character because she went through martial arts training. That means that she can defend herself if her magic is rendered useless. She is a capable close-combat fighter who could augment her abilities using magic. However, her fighting skills aren’t really that impressive that she could win a hand-to-hand fight against someone like Black Widow.

Jean Grey is actually a well-trained combatant, even without relying on her powers as Dark Phoenix. That’s because all members of the X-Men regularly go through combat training. At one point, Jean defeated a group of ninjas by using only telekinetic weapons. As such, she is a capable fighter that could stand up against other fighters in hand-to-hand combat.

While Dark Phoenix isn’t really the best fighter, she is still a very capable combatant who’s strong enough to defeat ninjas. We haven’t seen Scarlet Witch showcasing the same feats. 

Scarlet Witch 0, Dark Phoenix 4

Scarlet Witch vs. Dark Phoenix: Who Wins?

This is an unfair battle because, while Scarlet Witch is a threat to the entire world due to her reality-altering powers, Dark Phoenix could endanger the entire universe because of the powers of the Phoenix Force, one of the most powerful cosmic entities in existence. There is a reason why Dark Phoenix was always an extinction-level threat, as only a handful of cosmic entities are powerful enough to defeat her. Unfortunately, Scarlet Witch isn’t one of them.