(Obvious potential endgame spoilers ahead)

With the end of an era in superhero cinematic history, this blog is the first in series of blogs about to come. This one is about combat skill with or without weapons. Please note that other skills like knowing multiple languages, spying, hacking, engineering, armor-making etc are NOT included, and this is only about fighting skills.

Also, this only includes MCU movie characters, nothing more, nothing less. Feel free to share your thoughts regarding this list, or even your own list.

Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?

I want to make it clear, this is my personal opinion and I do not claim this list or the order to be objective and correct. I can understand someone having a different opinion, and encourage to share your opinions if you want. Infact, I can already see the points before they have even been made.

Honorable Mentions:

Lady Sif and the Warriors Three: The most elite warriors of Asgard, Lady Sif and Warriors Three have accompanied Thor on many missions on and off Asgard in the nine realms. They were killing multiple frost giants at the same time. They also proved to be much more skilled than regular Asgardian soldiers.

Corvus Glave and Proxima Midnight: Part of the supreme team of Thanos - the black order. They have ravaged countless planets and came out unscathered. Corvus was able to dodge multiple sonic blasts in quick succession and did decently against Cap. Proxima was able to handle both Okoye and Black Widow at the same time in a weapons fight. She also proved to be skilled in H2H, being able to pressurize Widow while the latter had reach advantage using weapons.

Gamora and Nebula: They are both supposed to be one of the most skilled characters of the MCU. The only thing that holds them back is concrete showings of combat skill. Gamora and Nebula are comparable to each other skillwise. Gamora has shown to be able to take down multiple prison inmates while unarmed. She also outskilled Star-Lord, and Groot.

Batroc: In universe, he is supposed to be extremely skilled. We see a show of his skill against a brief fight against Cap, where he manages to tag Cap and avoid some hits. But as soon as Cap gets serious, he gets pummelled. Batroc also showed great stealth and presence of battle sense as he was able to sneak up on Cap.

Valkyrie: She was able to keep up with Loki and Hela.

Nick Fury: He is a great marksman, and good in H2H, but he lacks many proper showings.

Hela: She took on a massive Asgardian army by herself and only got tagged once. Although her immense strength and blade spam helped, but her skilled cannot be undersold. She was able to keep up with Thor in Throne Room, and BOTH Thor and Valkryie when Thor was in thunder mode.

Loki: He has matched or outskilled vastly superior Thor in combat, and kept up with Valkyrie, even disarmed her despite his massive stat disadvantage. He is exceptionally skilled with knives, daggers, swords, small daggers etc. He is also skilled with spears and scepters. He did fine against Cap with the scepter.

Rocket Raccoon: He outskilled and made yondu's gang look like a fool, even when he stopped abusing his gear and it came down to pure H2H, jumping from one person to another and all. He is also a good shot.

Sam Wilson: Another skilled "wilson" but he's no slade no wade.

Let's now move on to our list:

10. Thor Odinson

Thor is one of the most skilled characters in the entire MCU. The only character who was depowered and still showed incredible skill. He easily outskilled through a gauntlet of highly trained SHIELD professionals.

Even when he has his powers, he is very good at using his skill. He was outskilling Hulk in the Helicarrier fight and even in the Ragnarok fight where Hulk was more focused and a trained fighter. He also consistently keeps up with Loki who himself is a quite good fighter (he has a stat advantage but he also holds back). He did great against a much stronger Hela who has a blade spam ability.

He showed great skill with different weapons like Odin's spear, random Asgardian swords, stormbreaker and exceptionally excellent skill with Mjolnir - making shields, great control, throwing and swinging, like in the opening battle of Ragarok.

9. Brock Rumlow

One of the most skilled MCU characters in melee combat, he has outskilled characters like Sharon Carter and Sam Wilson with ease. He also tagged Cap multiple times in the elevator fight, being the only one in eleven people to do it. He has been described as most elite fighter in guides etc.

He showed great skill with gun, shooting a merc accurately while landing down from a helicopter on a rope, and with stun batons (in the pic) tagging Cap multiple times with them, and with knives.

He also has great combat awareness and tactical skills. He knows how to improvise without slowing down.

8. Okoye

Extremely skilled warrior, described to be one of the best fighters in all of Wakanda, she leads the most elite fighting group of female warriors - the DoraMilaje. She has shown to be able to fight off multiple thugs at once easily, and she is implied to be the best of Dora's. Other Doramilaje have feats such as taking out 4-5 outriders from different angles. She also took out Corvus, who is a skilled combatant on his own and is much stronger than her.

She is also good at making tactics like against killmonger.

Fighting against Proxima, she showed good skill like Black Widow using a similar weapon. But she does get tagged unlike Widow who manages to disarm Proxima and avoid getting tagged at all.

7. The Winter Soldier

A lethal combatant. He is extremely skilled in careful use of explosives like bombs and grenades, knife combat and has an amazing aim with guns. He is the only person to tag Cap with a gun. He shot cap by hitting 2 different body parts at the same time. He also managed to shoot black widow through multiple cars when she was running away to avoid fire, and

Even in Melee, he has shown exeptional skill, capable of holding his own against Cap, and overwhelm him using his superior strength due to metal arm, or make short work of characters like Widow by abusing his strength. He also matched Black Panther pretty well.

However, Cap, Widow and Black Panther have all shown to have skill superior to Bucky in their fights. Even though the gap isn't large, it is substantial enough to put them above Bucky.

6. Thanos

He is the strongest character on this list. Russos have described him as unbeatable in combat. He has very easily outskilled Hulk in combat and used pressure-points style hits on him while moving fluidly. He was outskilling both Strange and Drax at once while blinded by webbing with them both having reach advantage.

He has also outskilled Thor with relative ease, outskilled a faster opponent who is comparable in strength (Carol), and fought off 2 Thors and a Tony at once, barely getting tagged by anyone except Cap.

4. Killmonger:

Killmonger has shown to be about as skilled as Black Panther, but far more ruthless. He was able to very easily defeat T'Challa in their first fight but T'Challa did not want to kill him and was likely holding back. However, it doesn't take anything away from how impressive that was. Even in the final fight, they were even, until T'Challa pulled out that final move on Killmonger, which killed him and ended the fight.

Him and T'Challa are about even skillwise that's why I am putting them both at 4.

4. Black Panther:

He has been described as master in all fighting styles. He is so skilled that even when depowered to a human state, he could defeat gorilla king M'Baku (who was much stronger than him), in throne battle. He outskilled Winter Soldier. He has shown to be able to easily block all hits from 2 different enemies using his both hands. He was able to avoid hits from Clint with reach advantage for some time.

He is the elite, he is the best of the best warriors. He is the king of Wakanda, he is Black Panther.

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Now moving on to the top three, they are all so good they can be interchanged.

3. Black Widow

Trained in hell from her childhood - to be a part of a group the best assassins-spies in the world, she is extremely skilled in melee, being able to easily defeat 3 people while both her arms and legs are tied to a freaking chair. She has shown to be equal or slightly superior to Hawkeye in melee combat skill. Multiple people? No problem, armed? No problem.

She has shown to improvise even when put in disadvantageous situations, mid combat. Her battle sense is amazing, and she uses her tasers very effectively.

Not only that, but she is also an expert marksman (markswoman? marksperson?) being able to shoot skillfully in the exposed unarmored face of chitauri, and getting a hit on Winter Soldier while in a bad position, and is good at shooting widow bites.

2. Clint Barton

A highly skilled combatant, his unarmed combat skill is equal or slightly below black widow. That alone puts him in the top 5. But that's not even his final form best skillset. He is an archer with beyond exceptional marksmanship. He can shoot fast moving targets without even looking, can shoot multiple arrows at once, can shoot perfectly while jumping off roofs, etc.

In addition, his battle-sense is second to none. After the disaster of mind control happened to him, he is hyper-aware of his surroundings. He was the only one to be able to avoid Wanda's mind control while she was being helped by quicksilver, and instead counters her by smashing an electric arrow on her head.

He is also skilled with a sword, as shown in Endgame. And he is also very skilled in using his bow as a staff-kind of weapon. He was able to momentarily restrain Black Panther with it, although the latter got out easily with his immense physicals and claws. He is also dangerous with a gun, but not as accurate as he is with bow and arrow.

1. Steve Rogers:

Oh isn't it obvious? He has outskilled Rumlow, outskilled Batroc, outskilled the winter soldier, outskilled Loki, Corvus, Ultron, Iron Man, even Black Panther and even freaking Thanos.

According to the Russos "we felt that he would be the absolute best at every style of fighting that he could be".

But it isn't just the melee skill, he is also exceptionally skilled with his shield, making impossible moves with that frisbee, taking down quinjets, and all. He is very adapt at using the shield as an offensive weapon and as defensive weapon, and as projectile.

Endgame took his skill to a greater level when he lifted Mjolnir for the first time ever, and he ends up showing better combat proficiency with the hammer than Thor, and using extremely dangerous combos of shield and hammer.

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What do you think? Did I miss some h'ble mentions? Should someone else be in the top ten? Any feedback or suggestions?