Zatanna vs. Scarlet Witch: Who Would Win the Fight of Witches?

Both DC and Marvel Universe are home to some extremely powerful magic users. Those magic users can often manipulate various elements and utilize both dark and light sorcery to go as far as to alter reality itself. One of DC’s most notable magicians is Zatanna, famous for speaking her spells backward, and on the other side, Marvel Universe has Scarlet Witch, famous for altering reality and probability. Since both of them are extremely powerful and capable of dishing out unimaginable destruction, we’ve decided to stage a hypothetical battle between the two to see who would come out on top. If it ever comes to a battle between Scarlet Witch and Zatanna, who is more powerful, and who would win? 

Scarlet Witch is more powerful than Zatanna and would win in a fight against her. No matter the amount of Zatanna’s fancy spellwork would keep her protected from Wanda’s reality-decimating skills. Wanda doesn’t have that great control over her powers, and she would certainly lose the temper battle, but she can cast spells much faster and much longer than Zatanna giving her quite an advantage in a direct fight against DC’s magician.

Now that we’ve covered that Scarlet Witch would, with difficulties, win this fight, it’s time to analyze why. We’re going to compare the powers, abilities, durability, and speed of both characters so you can see how we came to our conclusion. If you’re interested in more, stay with us and keep reading!

Powers and abilities

Zatanna Zatara is a Homo Magi, meaning that she is a human being naturally talented with the ability to manipulate magical forces. She was aware of her powers from the moment she was born and grew up mastering them. Zatanna is the so-called Logomancer, meaning that she focuses her spells by saying them backward. With her magic, Zatanna has ultimate control over all known elements, including photokinesis and umbrakinesis. 

She can utilize telekinesis and telepathy. In fact, some of her most devastating attacks are mental in nature and include things like antipathy, where she can inflict mental trauma upon an individual. Zatanna can manipulate weather and utilize eldritch energy to produce powerful and destructive blasts. She can imbue inanimate objects with her magic, create force fields, and alter her own size as well as reality. She is also quite capable of performing magical transformation, which mostly includes transforming powerful enemies into something less threatening.

Overall, Zatanna can do almost anything with her magic, but the most powerful aspect of her abilities is the “altering reality” angle. She managed to turn hyenas back into humans, turn an entire ogre into stone, turn a group of girls into doves, turn someone into a block of gold, and turn a vampire into a pool of blood. Obviously, Zatanna will rarely have enough juice to transform Trigon into a bunny, but for characters with less power, the sky is the limit when it comes to Zatanna’s powers. 

Scarlet Witch is among the most powerful, if not the most powerful magic users in Marvel Universe. She was originally considered to be a mutant, and since then, her origin story and parentage were changed a lot of times. Scarlet Witch mostly draws her powers from Chaos Magic and the fact that she is a Nexus Being. Those two things are not necessarily connected, but the fact that she is Nexus Being means that she serves as a focal point for various magical energies inside her own Universe. 

The Chaos magic that Wanda has at her disposal comes from demonic Chthon. It’s an incredibly powerful and taboo form of magic capable of erasing realities. Wanda’s status as a Nexus Being also allows her to alter probability, meaning that reality shifts according to Wanda’s own will. And this is why her most notable feats include changing reality, rebuilding reality, and erasing it. 

Most fans love referencing the ‘House of M’ storyline where Wanda decimated the mutant population by uttering a single short sentence, “No more mutants.” I don’t like mentioning this feat because she was never able to recreate it again, but it is what it is, and you cannot deny that Wanda, at some point, did have that much juice. Besides altering reality, Wanda can also utilize Eldritch blasts and elemental magic. She can manipulate biological and intimate things. She can create constructs out of pure energy. She can manipulate gravity and illusions and turn invisible at will. 

She also has access to powerful force fields that she uses for protection. Those barriers are strong enough that she manages to block Thor’s lightning with them. 

As you can see, both Zatanna and Scarlet Witch are extremely dangerous, and both of them can manipulate reality to an extent. It just so happens that Scarlet Witch has better feats regarding reality manipulation, and she is considered a far greater threat than Zatanna. Wanda is not just a magically gifted human being, she is something else entirely, so this point goes to Scarlet Witch. 

Points: Scarlet Witch (1:0) Zatanna 

Strength and Stamina 

Strength is not an important factor in this fight, considering that neither Scarlet Witch nor Zatanna will engage each other with fists, but stamina is incredibly important. At least when it comes to their magical reserves, both Zatanna and Scarlet Witch often run out of their “magical stamina” and cannot functionally cast their spells for a time. It just so happens that Zatanna loses her mojo faster than Scarlet Witch, and this is why the point goes to Wanda, as she has more magical reserves and can cast spells longer. 

Points: Scarlet Witch (2:0) Zatanna 

Speed

Both Zatanna and Scarlet Witch can teleport and open dimensional portals, so there is no sense in comparing the speeds of characters that have opened themselves up for instantaneous travel. However, we can compare the speed at which they cast spells. 

Zatanna doesn’t necessarily have to speak spells backward in order for her magic to work. She can also read her spells and think them inside her head. Speaking them out loud backward merely focuses her magic and actually makes her magic stronger. 

Wanda doesn’t have such prerequisites, although she is frequently shown that she needs to use hand gestures in order to cast magic. Scarlet Witch can cripple Zatanna easily by removing her mouth as she did on one occasion to Magneto, this won’t stop Zatanna completely, but it will make her weaker.

When it comes to the speed of spellcasting itself, due to lack of limitations, Scarlet Witch is able to cast magic at the speed of thought, and this is why the point goes to her. 

Points: Scarlet Witch (3:0) Zatanna 

Durability

Even though Zatanna is human, she can cast powerful magic to enhance herself and her durability. She can heal others as well as herself. She can cast force fields that deflect damage, but most importantly, she can phase, meaning that if she finds herself in a fight against an especially dangerous opponent, Zatanna can turn completely imaginable and thus invulnerable to almost all forms of physical damage. Zatanna once famously managed to tank Wonder Woman’s attacks. 

Scarlet Witch, like Zatanna, is in a similar situation, she doesn’t have access to superhuman durability, but she does have access to healing and special barriers that deflect magical and sometimes physical attacks. With her access to biological manipulation, Wanda is capable of healing even the most severe injuries in herself and others. She famously healed Professor X’s paraplegia with her abilities and allowed him to walk. Scarlet Witch is quite a skilled necromancer meaning that there is always an option to return to life. 

Both Zatanna and Scarlet Witch are durable if they are fighting without the benefit of their spells, protection magic, barriers, and durability enhancements, so the point goes to both of them since they have plenty of magic at their disposal to give themselves superhuman durability. 

Points: Scarlet Witch (4:1) Zatanna 

Intelligence & Control 

Zatanna is extremely intelligent, she is quite well-versed when it comes to magical affairs and occultism, and due to her natural ability in terms of casting her magic, she knows many languages. Her survival depends on it. Zatanna’s additional advantage is that she was born with her magic and trained ever since she was a young girl. She has impressive mastery over her magic and is completely mentally stable and cool-headed, even in the most dangerous situations. 

Scarlet Witch is not a genius, but she is highly informed and educated on matters related to the occult and magic. She also has vast experience and is a skilled strategist. Scarlet Witch spent many years perfecting her hexes and exploring the exact nature of her powers, and if you have any questions regarding sorcery or the divine, your best bet is to ask Wanda. But there’s a huge catch to this, Wanda is mentally unstable, and even the fact that Agatha Harkness trained her cannot erase the fact that she is rarely in total control of her powers. 

Zatanna has an advantage because she trained from a young age. She is also a lot more mentally stable and has better control over her magic in general. The point goes to her. 

Points: Scarlet Witch (4:2) Zatanna 

Combat Skills 

If the two sorceresses need to approach combat without the benefit of their magical powers, you should know that Zatanna is quite a skilled combatant that trained extensively during her teenage years. She was also trained in hand-to-hand combat and various other types of combat by the best fighters of the Justice League. 

Wanda received formal combat training from some of the best fighters in the Marvel Universe, such as Captain America and Hawkeye. She is far from being a master combatant, but she can hold her ground decently if it comes to it. She rarely enters combat without relying on her magic, however.

Zatanna has quite an obvious advantage here since she has way more experience in terms of physical combat. The point goes to her. 

Points: Scarlet Witch (4:3) Zatanna 

Scarlet Witch vs. Zatanna: Who wins & why? 

Scarlet Witch has more raw power than Zatanna and would win the fight most of the time. She also has bigger magical reserves and casts her spells faster. However, Zatanna has much greater control over her magic and can produce quite deadly elemental effects, so Zatanna has a chance of winning this, only not most of the time. She needs to get lucky. This has been an extremely interesting duel to analyze because Zatanna is superior in some aspects where Wanda is lacking and vice versa, but overall, Scarlet Witch wins. 

Who do you think would win in this fight? Let us know in the comments!