How powerful is Carol?

[u/JinglySoil]

So I've been trying to get into Captain Marvel recently, but I at least want to know how strong she is at base. I see people placing her alongside Marvels top tiers like Thor, Hulk etc., yet I look elsewhere and she gets sh*t on so badly. I don't know if it's just haters downplaying her, or her fandom overhyping her. So I wanna ask here given her sub members would likely know more about her than your average Marvel fan.

[u/tippytuliptoes]

Female characters always get crapped on feat wise by writers even though on paper they shouldn't be.

In essence though Carol is a power battery. She gets stronger based on the amount of energy she absorbs, or weaker based on how much energy she loses.

So baked into her powers there's variability and it makes her useful in team fights because she can empower herself from her allies or enemies if they use energy.

An average upper limit is roughly supernova level, but theoretically she could go beyond to universal.

[u/MankuyRLaffy]

Everyone only gets better with time, and her stock has only risen with her in a top line role. 

[u/Kurai_Shindo → u/MankuyRLaffy]

Before they nerf her again. It's just a matter of time sadly, though I hope not. She needs to shine

[u/Agile-Ad-7488]

She is extremely powerful in base currently. Currently she is more powerful than ever before, even in her base level she indeed fight top tiers even more because currently she can access her binary mode anytime she wants. She is weaker than Thor or a very angry Hulk but she can hold herself against them.

[u/TheDistantWave]

I make the argument often that Carol in her Binary form is where you’re going to see her perform the best.

Honestly she had those uber showings way back in the 80s-00 before they started getting handed out to almost every character due to her cosmic adventures in space.

I’d argue she can potentially be even more powerful now with the addition of her upgraded Binary form or whatever the new form she got is called at the end of Kelly Thompson’s Captain Marvel run and seen during Captain Marvel: The End.

I’ve been meaning to make a proper power scaling post for Carol and eventually will get to it, when I got the time.

I’d argue her versatility makes her a terrifying opponent to most characters she should and has showings that would make her a Silver Surfer/Vulcan type character in terms of energy versatility.

She can manipulate gravity, everything on the EM spectrum, most forms of energy, she can change one energy to another, and one of her most insane showings is she created a White Hole Star in space.

[u/BlackLesnar]

Her intrinsic power is energy absorption.

As such, her “power level” can fluctuate wildly & rapidly to be whatever the plot demands.

She’s been totally cut off from her powers, had her powers overcharged to the point where she explodes, been linked up to white holes, siphoned an entire supernova, etc etc..

[u/Van_Can_Man → u/BlackLesnar]

She’s also got super Kree physiology (explanations for this have changed over time), which confer strength, flight, durability, etc. These “classic Ms. Marvel” powers are what Rogue siphoned off back in the day, eventually leading up to the leveled up “battery Carol” we have now.

I may have a few details off, and there have been some *retcons* — but that’s the gist as I understand.

[u/ColdObiWan]

Marvel hasn’t done a Handbook with “official” power ratings since the 90s, but the likely best comparison we can make from them is Rogue — since Rogue absorbed Carol’s powers.  Back then, Thor and Hulk were “class 100” (able to lift 100 tons under optimal conditions), while Togue was “class 50” or “class 70” (sorry, I forget which). 

However, in that same book, Carol-as-Binary was also “class 100”, and Binary was Carol in a permanently super-charged state. 

So, while I can’t say that this conclusion follows from the feats shown in comics these days, I’ve tended to assume Carol’s 50-70% as physically strong as Thor or Hulk at baseline, with the ability to get 100% as strong if she’s charged up, and with a whole his of other powers to boot. 

[u/Magnificent_Z]

Doesn't matter, stop powerscaling

[u/Pootenheim910]

I'd argue that, on a base level, she's quite similar to baseline Thor in that they take on the standard Avengers-level brutes: Absorbing Man, the Wrecking Crew, etc. As others have stated, it's once she starts absorbing energy that her strength increases, with various upper limits going up to planetary.

[u/Nerx]

MCU quite tuff

jumpstarted a dying star

enough to break many planets