This RT focuses specifically on Tim Hunter in the original Books of Magic miniseries, the Arcana annual, the first Books of Magic ongoing series, the Books of Magic annuals, the Vertigo Rave one-shot, the Hellblazer/The Books of Magic miniseries, and the Vertigo: Winter’s Edge anthology. The three Books of Faerie minis (Books of Faerie, Auberon’s Tale, Molly’s Story) and the Children’s Crusade mini are from this time period but don’t have any feats, and the Tim in the Mister E mini is to the best of my knowledge from a parallel timeline. So in other words, this RT covers all of Tim’s appearances from his first appearance up through the end of the first ongoing, or, basically, classic Tim.

This RT does NOT include Names of Magic, Hunter: The Age of Magic, Books of Magick: Life During Wartime, his Justice League Dark appearances, or the 2018 Books of Magic, which either are in my opinion not great (the first two) or are different versions of the character.

I will largely present Tim’s feats in chronological order, with a list of restrictions and gear at the end. I’d optimally like to show the feats thematically, but because of those restrictions and because he grew in skill over time, with a few temporary teachers, it’s easier to understand the context behind his abilities if they’re shown chronologically. Plus, his magic effects are all over the place, as you’ll see. This is almost every incidence of Tim using magic during this period, from big to small, to give a better sense of the range of his abilities.

Tim Hunter is a magician of extraordinary power, of a particular kind called an Opener. There is only one Opener at a time. He has a direct channel to the pure magic of the universe. As an Opener, he is capable of creating numerous entire dimensions without even conscious effort.

He can also do any number of things that are more classically “magic tricks’” or “spells,” which is most of what you’ll see here. He actually gave up his Opening magic for a huge portion of the main series, issues 44-75, although he did still some magic here and there in that period. (Although he gave up his abilities as an Opener, he could still do magic in the same way anyone who learned magic through study and practice could do magic.) Eventually he got it all back.

There are many alternate versions of Tim, mostly due to the fact that as an Opener, he unknowingly created many other worlds as a child, each of which also had a Tim, the most powerful of whom was called the Other. The Other eventually absorbed all the other worlds and Tims and tried to supplant the real Tim. There is also another character known as Sir Timothy or Mister Wrong, who is (sort of) the original Tim, but from the future. I will show some of the Other’s feats at the end for context, but generally the other Tims’ powers don’t scale well with the original Tim because of their different levels of experience and technical learning. (Often they are more experienced and with more technical expertise, but less pure power.)

*If you have to ask, Tim, the skinny brown-haired English boy with glasses who is destined to be the greatest magician of all time and has a pet owl, came before that upstart Harry what's-his-name.

The Books of Magic miniseries: BOMM

The Books of Magic ongoing: BOMO

The Books of Magic annuals: BAMA

Arcana annual: AA

Hellblazer/The Books of Magic miniseries: BOMH

Vertigo Rave one-shot: VR

Vertigo: Winter’s Edge anthology: WE

The Phantom Stranger states that “he has the potential to be the most powerful human adept of this age.” [BOMM-1]

At various points Tim has seen prophecies of how he will become corrupt in the future. In so far as our RT goes, the key piece of information is that he is the leader of the forces of evil, fighting against the combined superheroic forces of the Earth. Given that beings like Eclipso are on his team, that shows how powerful he could become. This is the first example of this. [BOMM-4] Presumably, this is the Sir Timothy version of Tim, or something like him. Tim’s potential future corruption is a regular feature in the other continuities/reboots of his story as well.

Tim’s only example of using magic from the original limited series is when he turns a toy yo-yo into his living owl familiar Yo-Yo. [BOMM-4]

He walks home from another dimension, seemingly by his own magical power. [AA]

In one of his first intentional uses of magic, Tim stops it from snowing in his immediate location. [BOMO-1]

When his dad catches on fire (due to a sorcerer’s spell), Tim intuitively creates a sort of secondary energy body or protective field to help him lift his dad and protect himself from the fire. [BOMO-7]

Tim gains control over a golem that was previously created and controlled by another sorcerer (a fairly experienced magician from the Cold Flame named Martyn), a feat which the succubus Leah, who has thousands of years of experience with human magicians, says is “impossible.” [BOMO-8] From this point onward, he controls Happy the Golem. [BOMO-16]

Tim freezes time, then restarts it. It’s not clear exactly how widespread the extent of this freeze is, but clearly it’s at least the neighborhood and potentially the world (especially since an alternate Tim freezes time for the entire world for years in the third annual). Either way, an impressive feat for a very early use of magic on his part. Note that he froze time by accident and had to figure out how to intentionally unfreeze it. [BOMO-9/10]

When Daniel, who has magic flame and soot powers, attacks Tim and Molly, Tim protects them from the attack. [BOMO-11]

Tim tries to save Daniel from evil. First he successfully studies the make-up of Daniel’s soul, but he is unable to clean it because the evil is so innate to his soul. [BOMO-11]

In one of his early uses of his power as an Opener, Tim, as a child, created a world that could be entered through a seemingly empty lot, and created a number of sentient creatures that live there. As a teen, he revisited the lot and realized that they were real, and not his childhood imagination. [VR, BOMO-15] The beings he created ended up playing recurring roles in the ongoing series. [For instance, in BOMO-56, but also many others.]

Enchants a coin to find and see where Molly is (in Hell). [BOMO-16]

In one of his earliest real offensive uses of magic, he destroys a bridge controlled by a demon/troll named Toll, and creates a magical new one that leads him towards Molly. [BOMO-18]

Turns a magical little variant of his personality into a turtle. [BOMO-18]

Tim and Molly’s love, which is embodied in their first kiss, starts to Open Hell, creating life and beauty and vitality across wide swaths. [BOMO-18] In addition to covering everything with roses and beauty, it turned the demon Vuall into a young woman and created a widespread panic among demons through various other areas. This would probably happen in part with anyone’s love, but as Tanger says, Openers’ love can end an ice age, so Tim’s Opening powers made the effects of love in Hell vastly more extensive than it normally would have been. [BOMO-19]

Turns himself into a cat (and later grows wings on it). [BOMO-21] Circe, the goddess and expert in shape-shifting magic, first thinks he just “borrowed” a cat body, which itself took her a very long time to learn how to do. Then she realizes he actually “shaped” the body, and is clearly shocked that he was capable of doing this. As she later says, “you shouldn’t be able to do things like that.” The enormity of this feat is enough to frighten her into almost want to kill him. [BOMO-22]

Tim reshapes a wooden fence into a wooden bridge for a cat to walk on. [BOMO-22]

Tim makes a hole in the ground for a car that is about to hit him. By this point, he is becoming more natural and intentional in his use of magic, but still hasn't had any actual teachers. [BOMO-23]

He uses a search spell to find John Constantine’s address. [BOMH]

After casting a search spell, it points to Hell. [BOMH]

He takes himself and John Constantine to Hell and then back. [BOMH]

He bans a demon using a blast of magic that Constantine likens to the Tunguska explosion. [BOMH]

He seemingly creates a permanent physical connection between himself and a reasonably powerful demon, a spell which the demon clearly thinks is fairly advanced. Later he teases that he might have been bluffing. [BOMH]

He enchants a magical box so the soul that is in there (which is John Constantine’s boyhood soul) can play with the nearby guards. [BOMH]

Tim wraps the god Cupid up in a box. [BOMO-28]

Tim creates a giant cloud of butterflies to distract the goddess Psyche and revert her to her natural form. [BOMO-28]

Similar to his kiss with Molly in Hell, Tim’s kiss with Leah Opens the desert, creating rain and the blooming of weird flowers. Previously a lack of magical balance had created a drought. [BOMO-30]

Tim takes away the guns from a group of ghost cowboys in a telekinetic-style move. [BOMO-33]

After Tim is stuck on a magical island on the outskirts of Faerie, he continually tries to escape. Each time he gets shipwrecked, he undoes time so he can try again. At this point he is clearly using magic with pretty significant effects on an intentional basis. Note the similarity of “Undoing” to “Opening”; a lot of Tim’s magic works on a fairly metaphorical basis. [BOMO-36]

A knife was used in literal and metaphoric violence. Tim puts the blood on the knife back where it belonged (on the hands of the originator of the violence). [BOMO-40]

There is a colony of gargoyles on an island off California. They are tasked with collecting secrets and knowledge. They are known for the accuracy of their knowledge. They imply that Tim could sink their island, or all of California (or both) into the ocean. A past Opener is also said to have sunk Atlantis. [BOMO-41]

Tim now apprentices with Zatanna for about a month, gaining new technical magical knowledge. [BOMO-41]

He magically takes the bullets away from Judith without her knowing it. [BOMA-2]

He levitates a guy. [BOMA-2]

While walking through the Minotaur’s enchanted lair, he can tell that it is actually a labyrinth and not a strip club like everyone else sees. [BOMA-2]

Tim releases a girl from a spell cast by the embodiment of Winter. [WE-1]

Tim creates an alternate reality everywhere around him, based on a mix of San Francisco and Brighton Beach. In this reality, he erases a woman’s girlfriend, and everything associated with her—and he knows exactly what that stuff is; for instance he can describe the photograph that disappeared along with her. Then he makes the girlfriend reappear. [BOMO-42]

He magically knocks the girl off the bridge in a TK-like move. [BOMO-42]

Tim views what’s going on back home in London using clairvoyance. [BOMO-42]

Tim then wrecks the fake reality with an earthquake, killing all the fake people inside it. [BOMO-42]

Tim teleports himself and Araquel the angel to the Dark Tower, home of evil mystics. [BOMO-44]

“The world’s magic is almost exhausted…I’m a door to the source of magic. To the place where it all comes from. I’m the only person in the world who can touch magic that's still alive and fresh and strong. Everyone else is waiting for miracles. But I am one. I can do anything I want. [BOMO-44]

This definition is slightly adjusted over time; for instance the later miniseries, Names of Magic, gives the source of his magic a name: Myrddn (also the source of Merlin’s power). When Peter Gross took over the series, he adjusted the concept slightly, defining Openers again:

“Openers create worlds, and they do so in ignorance and terror and pain. Into each era an Opener is born…a being of great magical potential and near infinite possibility. But each Opener is born ignorant of his abilities and un-schooled in how to use them. Until the Opener becomes aware, that power is uncontrollable—wielded by instinct rather than knowledge. Each Opener is a danger to himself and to others, and to reality itself—for, knowing, he spawns other worlds—sometimes only a heartbeat away from our own, and sometimes as different as your wildest imaginings. But to the Opener, there comes a price. Something is lost in each making of a world. A piece of the Opener’s self goes missing—a bit of the feeling that drove the creation of that world dies in the Opener, but lives on in the new world.”

It goes on to explain that these lost parts become an Other, which the Opener must reclaim to become whole. It should be noted that in addition to a slightly different definition of Opener, this also redefines the Other, which in the first half of the series was implied to be an Opener’s great love or partner—Molly, in Tim’s case. [BOMO-51]

This all explains a bit more how he, as a child, created a world in an empty lot with all the beings who lived there. However, most of the worlds he creates are entirely separate dimensions and don’t have an access point in Tim’s main reality. Tim made about a thousand of these worlds, as described in the third annual and elsewhere.

Tim, deciding that past Openers were greedy with their magic, Opens himself and gets rid of all his magic, returning it to the world and refreshing the world’s magic with it. [BOMO-44] From this point until the end of issue 75, he theoretically has no more Opener magic. However, he can still learn and use magic the way anyone else can, and it also often seems like he is intuitively using Opener magic anyway; much later he learns that the magic is slowly seeping back into him, and that he can’t really give it away, so perhaps it's more accurate to say that during most of this time he has no conscious control over his Opener magic. [BOMO-58]

What Tim created, he can destroy: he wipes out some of the magic beings (in the shape of toy army soldiers) that he created as a child. [BOMO-52]

A new magical teacher, Thomas Currie (who is secretly one of his creations from another world), teaches Tim to use the Sight, which allows him to see the magical things in the real world. Despite the fact that he gave up his Opener magic, Tim is able to use the Sight with more intensity than Thomas himself has ever seen. [BOMO-53] He later uses it to see through Currie’s Glamour Stone. [BOMO-55]

When Tim writes in his journal, he puts the notes in bottles, then throws them in the air and they disappear—even though he doesn’t have his Opener magic. [BOMO-54]

Tim magically marks Cyril’s shoes, then uses the Sight to follow his footsteps. Note that although he has given up his Opener magic, he still finds the Sight easy to use, saying “I don’t need your way—I practiced my own. It was easy once you showed me how.”

After his step-mother Holly dies some distance away and without his knowledge, Tim automatically writes “Holly is dead.” Again, this happens after he gave up his magic. [BOMO-57]

Thomas and Tim pull all of his free-floating magic back to a machine, and then put all of it in a bottle. He has now basically given up his magic a second time. [BOMO-60]

After putting his magic in the bottle, he is still able to easily open an interdimensional gateway that another novice magician can’t. [BOMO-63]

While his magic is in the bottle, he still uses the Sight, which he describes as the only magic he has left, to track the magic of the Glamour Stone and thus find the Wild Hunt (since a member of the Hunt took the Stone) [BOMO-71] and to see a magical path. [BOMO-64]

The Other had earlier Opened all the gates between all the mystic realms, and all the magical beings in those realms (such as the Lords of the Compact, including gods, fairies, demons, and angels) had been unable to close them. [BOMO-68]. Tim, having now taken back the magic that the Other had absorbed from all the other Tims and worlds that the real Tim had created as a child, as well as Tim’s own magic which he had put in the bottle, closes the gates between all the realms. He also fixes all the damage the Other caused. [BOMO-74]

Once he has all his magic back and has defeated the Other, he owes the demon Barbatos a memory due to a complicated deal. He puts his soul in that memory, and simultaneously secretly creates a new universe for Barbatos and another alternate version of himself known as Sir Timothy to live in. Barbatos and Sir Timothy, both powerful magic-users, live in this alternate universe for decades without realizing it, thinking it’s the real universe. Then, decades after Barbatos absorbed Tim's memory, Tim uses his soul to take over Barbatos’s mind and body, reshaping his body to look like Tim’s normal body. [BOMO-75; the text in the comic linked to above may be a little hard to understand because it’s describing a really complicated plot that’s been running for about 70 issues, and decades in-universe, so you may just want to go with my summary :) ]

Tim now has all his power back (it’s a little unclear how, since presumably his magic would have stayed in his original body, which eventually became Sir Timothy, and which is alive at the same time as the new real Tim); the Other, Sir Timothy, and Barbatos have all been defeated; and his soul is no longer in danger. [BOMO-75]

Early on, Circe gives Tim two tattoos (with his permission) to keep him from hurting Molly. [BOMO-22] However, she doesn’t tell him exactly what they do. Kenny the magical gnome calls them maps. [BOMO-26] The first is a scorpion. It stings him whenever he has a negative emotion while using magic. [BOMO-22, 23] However, he soon has a living dream where the scorpion is killed, and it disappears from his arm. [BOMO-26]

The second tattoo is a moth. It keeps him from getting close to anyone, and he begins to lose his empathy with humanity, causing Molly to leave him—which is the opposite of what Tim wants, but does protect Molly like he wanted. Khara explains that he can remove this one with his Stone of Opening, which he does. [BOMO-42]

As an Opener, Tim used to split off parts of himself, and parts of his magic, when he was exposed to negative emotional experiences and intuitively created alternate worlds as a child. [BOMO-51] Since this left him less than whole both emotionally and magically, he was by definition at less than full power, and at less than full capability of controlling that power, for his entire life up through the end of the first ongoing series, when he merged with his Other and regained his missing emotions and power.

Stone of Opening

Tim gains a Stone of Opening from his mystic father Tamlin, which allows him to access his own Opening powers much more easily. [AA] Tim soon loses it to Khara, a woman knowledgeable about magic. [BOMO-10] She describes it as being useful in opening doors or traveling, but that Tim has more potential with it than others because of his innate abilities. Sir Timothy later takes it and uses it to Open himself, releasing himself from Barbatos’s control. He also releases Khara and her daughter Nikki from their magical confinement. [BOMO-16]

Somehow Khara gets the Stone back, and she eventually gives it back to Tim. Tim then uses it to Open himself and gain some self-knowledge, leading him to remove his final tattoo. [BOMO-42]

Tim then Opens himself again with the Stone, and almost loses his mental coherence. He can see people’s stories from all over the world before he comes back to himself. He leaves the Stone in the ocean. [BOMO-44]

Key to Worlds

Titania gives him a Key to Worlds that allows him to teleport from one dimension to another. [BOMM-3] He first uses the Key and the Stone of Opening to travel to the Manticore’s lair in Faerie. [BOMO-2] He travels to Skept’s island in Faerie by touching it by accident once. [BOMA-1] Presumably he also uses the key for various other extra-dimensional excursions, such as when he goes to Hell to rescue Molly. [BOMO-17] It is last seen in issue 36. As noted elsewhere above, he is also able to travel interdimensionally using his own power alone.

Mundane Egg

He gains and then gives away a Mundane Egg. Mundane Eggs are capable of creating universes. [BOMM-3]

Much later, Titania tries to give him his Mundane Egg back, but Tim breaks it. Note that its ability to create worlds is similar to Tim’s ability to do so as an Opener. [BOMO-51]

Glamour Stone

Tim’s mother’s grave is broken open. Inside, he finds a necklace. [BOMO-51] It later turns out that this is a Glamour Stone which can make him look like his mom. [BOMO-54] It is implied that his mother was not human, but was instead a faerie, and wore the Glamour Stone to look human. Later, he uses it to look like a female version of himself [BOMO-64], and then later to look like Molly [BOMO-74]. His step-brother Cyril learns to use a similar Glamour Stone to look like various other beings [BOMO-71, 75] instead of the troll that its original owner, Thomas, used it for [BOMO-52], so the Stone’s specific illusion can be controlled by the wearer.

Helmet of the Lord of the Wild Hunt

Tim was temporarily the Lord of the Wild Hunt, and wore the traditional helmet of that role, which increased his senses and tracking abilities. [BOMO-72]

The Other is a version of Tim that the real Tim created. The Other eventually absorbed all the magic from all the other Tims and their universes that the real Tim created. However, since all their power ultimately came from the real Tim, then the real Tim should in theory be able to do anything the Other can do. However, the Other is more technically trained and experienced and thus might be able to access effects the real Tim couldn’t.

The Other learns to travel to other dimensions using spells learned from books. [BOMA-3]

After another Tim accidentally freezes time in his world for years, the Other unfreezes it. [BOMA-3]

The Other absorbs the time-freezing Tim’s power and with it, he is easily able to travel to new dimensions. [BOMA-3]

He enchants the Punk Waitress into sleeping with him. [BOMA-3]

In this dimension, the native Tim is a Faerie prince and has great power. The Other tanks one of his spell blasts, then blasts him back, killing him. [BOMA-3]

In another world inspired by classic DC heroes, the local Tim is called Hellspawn and has magic powers. Other team members also have magic and super powers. The Other manipulates them into destroying each other. [BOMA-3]

The Other turns a Tim and Molly into trees, then burns them. [BOMA-3]

The Other is vicious; he tauntingly stabs a Tim and absorbs his world. [BOMO-51]

The Other TKs a Tim from a “perfect” world, kills Molly by setting her on fire by his touch, kills Perfect-Tim's family with lightning despite their magical shield, and then kills the perfect Tim. Thomas Currie, however, manages to protect himself and escape, later becoming the real Tim's teacher.

Overall, the Other absorbs more than a thousand Tims and their worlds and brings some of the denizens of their worlds with him as his minions. [BOMA-3] He keeps them in a box [BOMO-57] and can pull them back in. [BOMO-60]

He uses a set of singing rats to send a message. [BOMO-60]

The Other defeats Thomas Currie and a decoy fake Tim who has a little magic, and survives a stab to the gut. [BOMO-60] Then he destroys the house. [BOMO-60]

The Lords of the Compact, a group of gods, fairies, demons, angels, and similar magical beings including Zeus and Auberon, are afraid of him, and he taunts them. He teleports them (including Tim’s enemy Barbatos) away, against their wishes. [BOMO-68]

He explains that he Opened the gates between all their realms, which they are unable to close. [BOMO-68]

However, he is ultimately overwhelmed by Tim's full power, when Tim tricks him into absorbing it.

Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra is a rogue archaeologist—basically a mix of Indiana Jones and Han Solo. She is a skilled archaeologist, but her claims to fame are her constant scheming and her exceptional technology skills. She is a capable combatant, utilizing standard Star Wars weapons and gear of her own design. She plays pretty fast and loose with ethics.

She has often worked with two droids, BT-1 (BeeTee) and 000 (Triple-Zero or Trip). She rebuilt/rescued them both from what were essentially prisons for droids deemed too dangerous to exist. They served her for a time, then forced her to serve them, and then worked as allies who shared goals. They respect Aphra’s loose morals as well as her tech abilities.

BT-1 is an astromech who sports a variety of guns, munitions, and other weapons. He is basically a small, mobile weapons platform. He is psychotically violent.

Triple-Zero is a sadistic interrogator who loves nothing more than torturing and killing living beings. His hands sport a variety of blades, torches, and shock devices that can extend from his fingers.

Aphra's appearances are largely in Darth Vader, Star Wars, and her two solo series. In her current volume, she has not worked with 000 and BT, but at least in my mind, they are joined at the hip, and thus this combined RT.

TT=“The Trigger” short story from the book, From a Certain Point of View

VD: Vader Down

DV: Darth Vader, 2015 volume

DV-A: Darth Vader annual

SW: Star Wars, 2015 volume

V1: Dr. Aphra, volume one

V2: Dr. Aphra, volume two

V1-A: Dr. Aphra, volume one annual

GE: Galaxy’s Edge

N: Doctor Aphra novel (which is really the transcript of the audio drama, which is based on the Vader/Star Wars issues with a few scenes of her origin from the first solo volume)

Blasters

Aphra carries one or two [TT] blaster pistols, typically a DH-17 and/or a DL-44. She is capable of firing dual-handed. [V1-4]

Both blasters have regular and stun functions (DH-17 stun [V2-3], DL-44 stun).

Aphra briefly had possession of Farkiller, an ancient Jedi sniper rifle that is powered by lightsaber crystals. It can shoot from a hundred klicks away [V1-32], even at space battle distances [V1-33] and can destroy buildings. [V1-33]

Explosives

Aphra regularly uses a variety of explosives. These include:

• Thermal detonators [GE4], which are a typical explosive

• Bombs which short out technology [DV8]. The novel confirms they are explicitly electro-magnetic pulse grenades. [N]

• Mini bombs, which can stick to surfaces [SW31] and go off on a timer

• Explosive putty [TT]

• Micromines [DV15], which she can lay out across a space [TT], are apparently hard to see, and are set off by remote or pressure

• Detonite bombs: these can be shaped into various shapes, and make pretty large explosions. [V2-7]

• Unnamed bombs that range from medium to significant [DV7, V1-12] The novel provides a bit more detail on the large bomb. [N]

Her most effective explosives, however, are her bioengineered Tookas [V1-15], small semi-intelligent creatures who can obey commands and run all over, can be programmed to search for energy sources, and who can explode [V1-16] in a significant fireball. [V1-19]

Other

Aphra has collected multiple [V1-5] antique lightsabers [V1-24/25]. She is by no means a skilled lightsaber combatant, but can at least swing them around and slice stuff up with a lightsaber’s renowned cutting power. [V1-6]

Her electro-tattoos (the lines on her arm) [V1-14] allow her to telepathically communicate [V1-39] with other people who have electro-tattoos, and they let her slice (hack) into technology by touch (see Tech Skills below).

Her goggles function as both anti-hypnosis protection (here they block the powers of a psychic vampire who hypnotized people such as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo [V1-7]) and as Infrared vision. [V1-28]

She has microdroid dust to see invisible laser traps. [DV3] The novel confirms that it is, further, "antique" stealth microdroid dust she stole from Maz Kanata. [N]

She carries bacta (healing) spray on her. [V2-9]

She has hijacking units that can control technology, like droids (see Tech Skills below). Along the same lines, she has a device that disables Imperial blasters. [TT]

Aphra has utilized jet packs and also a null suit, which protects from acid and other environmental issues. [A-A2]

Her ship, Ark Angel [V1-4], is set up to bombard by remote. [DV4]. When her ship is destroyed, she gets a new one; she is currently up to Ark Angel IV. She sacrificed the first one, which she had highly modified (for instance using old astromech parts to notably increase its accuracy), to kill one of Vader's enemies upon Vader's order. [N]

BeeTee can sprout all kinds of weapons out of his core. [SW13, V1-38, V1-39] Really, there’s no way it would all physically fit in there, but it does.

He has multiple blaster gatling guns [DV11, DV21], multiple missile [SW13] launchers (including proton torpedoes [DV20]), and more sniper-style guns. [DV21]

BT’s barrage of overall firepower from these weapons makes for a pretty sizeable set of fire and explosives flying through the air at once. [V1-28]

He can eject bombs. [V1-4]

He has an electrical shockwave [GE5] and taser darts. [V1-10]

He has a flamethrower [SW14, V1-8, DV4, SW13] and a welder [V1-7].

He has a variety of small blades, such as this shuriken-like flying blade [V1-31] and this saw on an arm. [GE4]

He can flood an area with a knockout toxic gas.

Perhaps most impressively, he has a powerful magnetic or tractor beam [DV8], which allowed him to siphon an enormous cloud of credits out of space and over to him. The novel confirms that it is magnetic in nature [N].

He can fly [SW13], including in space [DV8], and can project platforms [V1-4] behind his feet if Trip wants to ride behind him. He can hold Trip’s weight while flying. [DV4] He sometimes uses flight to attack from above, for maximum advantage. [SW13]

BT has a drone [GE4].

BT can automanufacture more ammo when he runs out. [V1-28]

He has small manipulator arms.

Trip’s weapons mostly protrude from his fingers. [V1-2, V1-12, V1-27, V1-28, V1-38] They include various blades and blowtorches.

He also has a shock palm [DV20; text reads: Proton charge, Electric pulser, Field shielded syringe] that can knock someone out [DV13] or be lethal [DV3, DV-10, SW13, N] This shock can also be shot out a short distance. [V1-38]

He has syringes in his fingers that can drain blood [DV18]. They can also administer paralysis drugs [V1-8], sedation drugs [V1-8], hallucinatory drugs [SW13] called Mandalorian Xenotoxins, and lethal neurotoxins [V1-2]. He also has antidotes [DV23].

This means Trip can one-shot a standard person both by shock palm and injection.

His sensors can pick up the details of a human pulse nearby. [GE4]

Trip can detect lies. [V1-9]

When Black Krrsantan punches through Trip, a massive electrical blast takes out the very durable Wookiee. [DV15]

Aphra’s archaeological area of expertise [TT] is weapons technology. [V1-18]. She specializes in munitions. [SW16]

Not humbly, she refers to herself as an “incredible slicer.” [V2-7]

In the novel, she regularly talks metaphorically about how she speaks the language of machines, and that they speak to her and tell her how to work with them: one, two, three. [N] This implies a savant-style ability rather than simply technical know-how.

Better than Triple-Zero and BeeTee: She puts an override on Trip when he’s activated [DV3]. Then she put an “unbreakable encryption” on Trip’s memories; he’s a solid hacker so that’s a serious statement [V1-20]. Also, the place she hid her control of Trip and BeeTee was placed somewhere they never would have looked [V1-12].

Rigs sonic pulse in Triple-zero without Trip knowing it: She needed to take a bomb out of 000’s brain. She had 10 minutes. In that time, she took out the bomb and rigged a pulse in his head to explode inward on voice command, so she could kill him if she needed to. But later she reverses the direction of its blast and kills a bunch of bad guys around him instead. Trip is clearly stunned that she was able to do this hack so quickly, and without him knowing. [V1-30]

Fixes BT’s logic matrix in record time: After BT is hit by an ion device, Aphra fixes his logic matrix in minutes when it should have taken hours. [V1-31]

Control of vehicles: She remote-controls an Imperial shuttle from inside a small escape pod [V1-39]. She also hotwires one speeder bike and sabotages two more, while being shot at. [V2-6]

Her Expertise Goes Across Eras: She repairs and slices a centuries-old High Republic ship’s computers. [V1-8] Also, she can tell at a glance that a machine based on ancient Nihil tech (which is alien, and no one knows how it works) is fake and won’t work. [V2-9]

Hacks Techno-Union: She effortlessly hacks the Techno-Union’s database to find 000’s missing memories--one of their most deeply held secrets--and ALSO discovers the equally super-secret plans for the Hivebase-1, which is the research and development center for the Tarkin Initiative—i.e., one of the most high-tech places in the galaxy. [V1-16] The Techno-Union is, obviously, a union of advanced techno-beings and thus not an easy hack either. For example, a decade or two before Aphra hacked them, the Techno-Union was already able to use their technology to create a cybernetic hookup that drained the Clone Trooper Echo’s strategic knowledge out of him for use by the Separatists, in a kind of human/machine military prediction/reaction system (The Clone Wars, season 7 episodes 1-3).

Hacks Hivebase-1 in record time: As I mentioned, Hivebase-1 is the most advanced Imperial tech center that exists, with a data core so dense it literally has its own gravity. [V1-18] They think it would take her 8 hours to hack it. Aphra does it in less than 3. [V1-18/19]

Reprograms robots quickly by remote: While some guardian robots are marching directly towards her, she hacks into them by remote and makes them attack each other. [V1-32]

Rewires cyborg: While fixing a cyborg ally, she pretends to be doing some diagnostics, but really it’s a hack that later on she activates, making him go haywire and creating a distraction. This is both a good tech-hack and good planning ahead for the future. [V1-18]

Rewires droid while fighting it: Aphra (in yellow) rewires a droid while it is actively attacking her, Leia, and Sana. She has no tech resources to do this--she's in prison. [SW18]

Hacks Tagge’s own hack: Ronen Tagge, one of the richest people in the galaxy, with some of the most extensive tech resources in the galaxy, has his people hack one of Aphra’s friend’s droids. Aphra then effortlessly hacks that droid to get Tagge’s secret location. [V2-4]

Then she easily slices his home security system so that it takes over his disintegration chamber and makes it explode. Again, as one of the richest people in the galaxy he can obviously afford the best, AND this is where he houses his most rare art artifacts, so this security system should be as good as you can get [V2-5].

Hacks propaganda minister: This minister is an effective tech user. Aphra, while wandering along with her on a tour essentially as the minister’s prisoner, realizes the minister’s long-ago actions led to Aphra’s mom’s death. Aphra then—with no prep, and without the minister or even Aphra’s own apprentice realizing that she’s doing anything at all—casually hacks the minister’s tech so it records her and broadcasts it to the galaxy. [V1-36]

Creates unique search algorithm: She hacks her own algorithm to predict where Luke is, out of an entire planet. [N]

The first is a piece of technology that regulates the technopathic abilities of a disembodied ancient Jedi spirit [V1-5] that has translated itself into an artificial intelligence [V1-6]. This spirit, Rur, is a technopath, able to control and embody technology [V1-5] with its mind. Aphra, however, was able to (1) confine this AI spirit in an imprisonment field (2) give the AI its technopathy back after it had first been taken away by someone else [V1-9] and then (3) build gear that negated Rur’s technopathy [V1-11]--which is incredibly impressive when technopathy is barely admitted to exist in the Star Wars universe. This means that Aphra would have to pretty much invent the science it would take to both PROVIDE and AFFECT technopathy from scratch. Her control over his technopathy was very specific—she was for instance able to open a small window for Rur to control one particular robot [V1-9] as a demonstration.

The second and even more impressive feat of her engineering is Dek-Nil [V1-15], a probability droid. In essence, this is a droid that can take tweak probabilities in such a way as to create incredibly unlikely series of events that work out to Aphra’s advantage.

Here are examples of what Dek-Nil could do:

1) It shoots a blast, which hits a plant pod, which lands goop on a Stormtrooper, who is surprised and shoots upwards by accident, which blows a hole the roof, making a giant monster fall down and disrupt the situation Aphra was stuck in. [V1-16]

2) It zaps a water pipe, which starts to drip. Way later, the water eventually reaches a wire, which creates a “little surge” in a jail cell far way, where Aphra and Dek-Nil are being held by Tolvan at gunpoint. The surge randomly shoots out of a box on the wall, shorting out Tolvan’s cybernetics, making her miss her shot at them and instead hit the cell controls, allowing them to escape. I want to emphasize that this was way later and nowhere near the original drip, and that there was no way to predict ahead of time that they would be in that cell. It’s an extremely unlikely chain of events. [V1-17]

3) Aphra is on a prison ship where a bomb goes off if you’re not near your assigned guard. Dek-Nil is disguised as one of the guards. When her own guard droid is destroyed, Dek-Nil randomly finds her and is able to assign her to his care; all his own other prisoners were previously killed by random accidents. Essentially it acts as her guardian angel on the ship. [V1-20]

4) She points out that she is the one who created Dek-Nil and that he will soon “discover some fantastically improbable confluence of random events which will permit us to escape.” Immediately after, they run into a random escape pod at exactly the right location for them to take it, and which should have been destroyed in a recent crash, but was not. She also notes that her tech is protected against normal restraining bolts and other hacks, partly due to its beskar plating. [V1-20]

Dek-Nil is, incidentally, not easy to kill, even if he’s mostly defenseless; here he is shot but turns out fine. [V1-18/19]

Dek-Nil shows that Aphra is not just a highly-skilled slicer, she is a true genius at creating technology that is almost magical in its scope.

BT hacks droids: BT and Trip force a black market weapons engineer named Ruen to provide them with new weapons. They can’t kill him themselves due to some programming he put in them, so BT hacks the engineer’s other droids so they are free of his control, leaving the other droids to kill him. Aphra herself says this engineer is so good that “he’s got skills that could take a half-dozen tin cans and turn them into the next Death Star,” so it’s a good example of BT quickly hacking a very skilled engineer, and using strategy when he can’t just blast him away himself. [DV20]

000 hacks droid: In just a few moments, Triple-zero turns off a droid's pain receptors and strips its data core. [DV-A1]

000’s data processing and communication: As a mob boss, Trip slices into a wide range of networks and has distributed extensive listening devices, and is good at processing all that info. [V1-22]

Aphra’s strategic and tactical abilities could be summarized as Always Be Scheming. She is excellent at manipulating people psychologically, thinking numerous steps ahead, creating plans within plans within plans, and also thinking on her feet and adapting as necessary. [V1-24]

I’m going to divide this into three loose categories: psychological manipulation, short-term tactics, and long-term strategy.

I am going to sum up most of this stuff with my own descriptions, and mostly just show one or two excerpts from a strategy, because it would be overwhelmingly complicated to show every page that was related to some schemes.

Aphra excels at playing with people’s emotions and expectations.

Airlock: A classic example of both her psychological manipulation and long-term planning. Aphra is hired by Darth Vader. She knows he will eventually kill her as he does everyone. So she plans a long con: When he first threatens her at the beginning of their relationship, she mentions that she would prefer to be killed quickly by a lightsaber, and that being thrown out an airlock would be her greatest fear. [DV4]

When, long after, Vader finally decides to kill her, he ignores his classic go-to move of killing her with his lightsaber, and instead acts on her planted idea of throwing her out the airlock. [DV25] She has planned for this, however, and has BeeTee and Trip wait outside in another ship, where BeeTee tractors her in from space.

This is a great con not only because it shows (1) how long-term her thinking is (2) how good she is at manipulating even people who think of themselves as being a mental fortress, but also (3) she is willing to take any risks, including being thrown out into goddamn space, completely unprotected, for a plan.

Manipulates hunters: She was accidentally swallowed by a monster and needed to be rescued. While inside the monster (in a protective suit) she sets up a call for hire for bounty hunters, finds the team of Winloss and Nokk, who are known for not killing, and gets them to safely rescue her out of the creature—without them knowing she was in there. [V1-A2]

Tricks two mind probes: Aphra is interrogated by standard Imperial technology, and resists it with her electro-tattoos. [V1-20] Then she is subjected to a mind-probe by a Bor, the kind of beast they used on Bodhi in Rogue One. She keeps it from learning her secrets by focusing on other things. [V1-22] The answer she eventually gives is part of her larger plot to defeat the Imperials.

Tricks mercs: She tricks a group of criminals into thinking she is willing to sacrifice her partner Black Krrsantan if they let her go, but she is actually just waiting for a droid’s bomb (which she planted) to go off. [V1-12]

Sees through lying ally: Aphra is observant of others, which is what enables her to manipulate them: this woman has been trying to play Aphra and a group of others for several issues, but Aphra knew it all along. [V2-3]

Analyzes Vader: Knowing that the only way she'll survive working for Vader is if she understands him, she engages in close observation of his body language and speaking patterns on several occasions, eventually discovering his most important secrets, such as that Luke is his son. Here are a just a couple examples: one, two [N]. Aphra is basically a student of human nature as much as she is of machines.

Manipulates Boba Fett: She tricks the normally-canny and closed-mouth Boba Fett into giving her important confidential information.

Trip and BeeTee

Blood droids: Triple-zero is also manipulative: here he uses psy-ops on a bunch of human fighters, convincing them that he has converted a horde of droids into blood-drinkers, thus destroying the humans’ morale. [DV19]

Lots of quick traps and distractions.

Tricks monster into firing zone [GE4]: When chased by a monster, she gets it to run through a trap of a field of lasers that she had found earlier. She is always using the environment to her advantage.

Use Trip as distraction: She and the droids regularly use distractions. Here, Trip is working with Vader and acts as a distraction for him. [DV-5]

Hides inside cannons: she hides inside the cannons of a ship, then hacks them so they activate and attack while she escapes. [V1-39]

Tricks Ronen Tagge: She gets him to put her friend Eustacia into a disintegration chamber and theoretically test some magic rings, but really uses it to distract him (she next kicks him in it and hacks the chamber, see Tech Skills above). [V2-5]

Tricks droid with tech: Aphra palms multiple hijack devices on a droid, knowing he’ll find some and thus feel safe [V1-33], but actually she put even more on him that he doesn’t find, so she takes him over [V1-34] at her discretion later. She does it to him again later [V1-39], so even when he knows her tactics, he can’t stop her.

Defeating Vader: This is badass. Vader is hunting Aphra and she needs to stop him—an almost impossible task for a normal human in the Star Wars universe. She leads Vader on through a trail of breadcrumbs so that he follows her to an ancient Jedi temple. Then she has Trip attack and wound him; Vader chops up Trip, but his blades, which are stuck in Vader’s chest, explode and stagger Vader. Aphra then activates the temple’s powers by invoking their magic chants which she learned as an archaeologist, causing Vader to go through a traumatic series of memories. She had previously figured out that he had these traumatic memories, so this is a trap specifically set for him.

Then she has BeeTee soften him up some more, and Vader destroys BT. Now both Trip and BT (who are both supremely self-centered themselves and would never do this on purpose; she has tricked them) have been sacrificed for Aphra’s own personal goals. Between their physical attacks, weakening his cybernetics, and putting him in a force confessional that saps his force powers, Aphra puts Vader at her mercy, to a degree that almost no one in Star Wars has done.

She then takes advantage of him, hijacking his tech to alter the Imperials' records about the Rebels while he’s down, literally talking through him like a puppet to his own Star Destroyer, for a real cherry-on-top approach to humiliating him.

As she says, “Don’t pick a fight with an archaeologist in a spooky old ruin. And don’t wage war against a tech criminal if you’re half a machine.” [V1-40]

I’ll just use a few examples because they take so long to explain, but she’s big on the long con.

Many heroes make plans or wind up in complicated plots. The difference with Aphra is that she gets through all these examples based almost entirely on her scheming—by being smarter, and thinking faster and farther into the future than anyone else around her. The way she describes her own planning process is somewhat similar to the Force Shatterpoint power or Karnak's power--a savant-like ability to perceive all the working parts of a situation and then act in the one way that realigns everything in her favor. [N] This is similar to her ability to innately perceive machines' "language" and humans' weak points.

Steals credits from ship [DV8]: a classic clockwork heist. She rigs a meteor to explode, thus showering a ship in asteroids, which the ship reacts to as an emergency. Aphra then (not shown here) hits the ship with an ion torpedo, disabling its electronics, knowing they’ll think that’s an effect of the asteroid. She goes in with a bunch of other bounty hunters and explode a vault of credits so they shoot out into space. The ship thinks this just happened due to the asteroid.

Then, BeeTee uses his magnetic power to suck up the credits that floated out of the seemingly accidental meteor holes. This means it’s not only an effective heist, but the ship doesn’t even know it was a heist. Aphra then shares the cash with the bounty hunters who helped her.

THEN it turns out that while BT was tractoring some of the credits, Aphra’s friend Black Krrsantan was tractoring the majority of the credits using another ship without the other bounty hunters knowing. This meant that Aphra got a much larger haul of credits than the bounty hunters, and she ended up scamming both the ship and her own allies.

Raiding Hivebase-1: Aphra wants to steal stuff from the Tarkin Hive Base, the most advanced tech center in the Empire, but its defenses are impossible to get past. Therefore she commences the following scam:

She and a crew of bounty hunters pretend to be interested in working for the Rebels, and go to a Rebel capital ship to sign up. While there, Aphra sets her Tookas loose and runs after them as if they’re lost pets. While literally running past the ship’s control system, she manages to hack it just by touching it with her electrotattoos so she can control it later. [V1-19]

Then she tricks the Rebels into attacking Hivebase-1, using their ship to activate Hivebase’s impossible defenses, making it so she can slip in on her own [V1-18].

THEN she hacks Hivebase’s computers (I’ll focus on the details of their computers in another section) and when caught, remote-controls the massive Rebel capital ship like a remote-control car so it crashes directly into Hivebase, securing her exit. She ultimately destroys Hivebase-1 with her Tookas. This shows how she will go through numerous steps, each of which requires the ability to predict how others will react to that step in order for the next one to work. It also shows how she will do anything—like remote control an entire capital ship—to accomplish her goals, and how smoothly she pulls it off.

Prison ship: This is maybe the epitome of her super-complicated plans-within-plans approach, which also shows how she is good at thinking on her feet. I’m going to write this all out, but the upshot is to get across how even in the midst of ridiculous constraints and insane problems constantly popping up, she is always riding the wave of chaos and makes it to shore having met her goals.

Aphra is relegated to a prison ship that is really a bunch of shipwrecks held together by a tractor beam. Every prisoner has a bomb in their head that goes off if they go too far from their droid guard. She destroys her own guard, and Dek-Nil attaches her to his squad. However, Dek-nil’s Imperial restraining bolt, which Aphra had kept from working, is suddenly activated by an ancient Jedi spirit that has been embodied in a space fungus called Gundravian Hookspores (this is different from the technopathic Rur from before), and Dek-Nil goes under Imperial control. Aphra discovers that her fellow prisoner, Lopset, is a shape-changer, and starts to plan how to use him. She uses his tech to contact Tolvan, her semi-girlfriend who put her in this jail in the first place. Aphra now reveals to Tolvan that Vader wants to pull off a coup against the Emperor; Aphra tells Tolvan this specifically so Aphra can then blackmail Tolvan over knowing the information, so Tolvan will help Aphra. Tolvan goes to the prison and gives Aphra the codes to jailbreak Dek-nil’s new Imperial control, and Aphra goes to Tolvan’s escape ship. However, Aphra calls off the escape because she realizes the ghost comes from an ancient Jedi ship, and she sees a valuable ancient lightsaber in there. (She now has two goals: get the expensive lightsaber, then escape.) Meanwhile, Sana, who is also an ex-girlfriend and works with the Rebels, comes to rescue Aphra to get some codes out of her for the Rebels’ use. Meanwhile, bounty hunter Tam Posla is hunting Cornelius Evazan (an evil doctor) and Aphra (who killed his boyfriend). Sana destroys Tolvan’s ship, and Tolvan destroys Sana’s ship. Sana and Tolvan team up. Aphra is recaptured and tells the Imperials about the dangerous Hookspore infestation. This makes the Imperials evacuate the ship themselves, and deactivate the prisoners’ bombs, but they also launch the prison ship toward a planet so it and the prisoners will be destroyed along with the Hookspores. Aphra contacts Posla, and tells him to come to rescue them because she has Evazan—but really it’s Lopset using his shape-changing. They find an escape pod, but it’s separated from them by a blast shield. Aphra hacks the tractor beam that’s holding the ship pieces together so the escape pod has enough power to get out, AND uses the beams to move the old Jedi ship so it breaks the blast shield blocking the route to the escape pod. The Jedi spirit wants to possess them but she knows it won’t because it will only possess a hero. Aphra puts Sana and Tolvan in the escape pod and tries to send them off without her, but Tolvan stays. They go down to the main launch bay, which Aphra knew all along was there and working. Posla shows up in the hangar. Aphra freezes Lopset, in his guise as Evazan, in the ice that is usually used to freeze a Bor interrogator. The Hookspore comes to possess Posla since he is a hero. She then freezes the Hookspore in the same freezer. Posla takes “Evazan” away. Aphra goes to the Jedi ship which is now empty of Hookspores and spirits, and gets the lightsaber. She and Tolvan take another ship in the hangar to fly away before the prison rams into the planet. However that ship is shot down by Trip and BT in another ship. Vader stops the prison ship from falling toward the planet and looks for Aphra and Tolvan, since they know about his plans. Aphra’s plan is to use the Bor to wipe her own mind, making it so Vader doesn’t have to kill her. Tolvan wants to wipe her mind instead. Posla returns with Lopset who he now knows is not Evazan. Trip shows up and kills Posla. Aphra, instead of wiping Tolvan’s mind, makes Tolvan think she killed Aphra instead. Now Vader won’t come after Aphra. Tolvan is rescued by Sana, returning with some Rebels. Lopset blasts Trip and Aphra and takes them away with him on Posla’s ship. It turns out that Lopset is actually Evazan after all. This starts a whole new story where Aphra wins out over Evazan eventually.

A summary of things she accomplished in the prison story:

1) switches out her old guard for her probability droid

2) finds an escape pod using the probability droid

3) blackmails her girlfriend Tolvan into helping her by manipulating Vader

4) disables her probability droid with Tolvan’s code

5) gets the Imperials to leave the ship and disable the prisoners’ bombs

6) gets Posla, who hates her, to come help her by pretending she has Evazan

7) finds another escape pod, and uses the tractor beam to: clear a way to it, make it so it can leave the prison’s gravity, help Sana escape, and bring the Jedi ship into an accessible area

8) freezes the Hookspore, knowing it will come after Posla who she brought here much earlier for this reason, NOT to escape on his ship as she originally said

9) gets the ancient lightsaber

10) flies off from the hangar she knew was there all along, with Tolvan

11) uses the Bor to make Tolvan think she killed her, getting Vader off her tail, and saving Tolvan

Note how she turns problems into solutions. Get interrogated by a Bor? Great—now she knows there’s a Bor-freezing machine she can use to freeze multiple things that are key to her plot, AND she can use it to manipulate her girlfriend’s mind to save them from Vader.

Each of those achievements was incredibly difficult, and no one else around was capable of achieving them. No one had ever escaped the prison or its guards/implanted bombs. She arranged for multiple rescue ships when no one else could get one. She tricked a sentient force virus into moving away from its anchor site by knowing who it would like to possess and luring that guy in from across the galaxy. She manipulated Darth Vader, famous for his successful ability to hunt down resourceful people, into no longer hunting her. Again, some of those plans she figured out long in advance, some on her feet as the situation changed. But she is always able to win out in the end through just her mind.

Trip and BeeTee

Trip starts criminal syndicate: Triple-zero is a pretty good strategist as well. After he blackmailed Aphra into removing his control program, he quickly took control of a large criminal consortium via threats and murder, and forced Aphra to be his slave for a while. [V1-14]

Trip’s scheming is often too complicated and in the background to document easily. However, he constantly spars with Aphra on a tactical level, and sometimes gets the best of her, which given her skills shows how good he is.

Aphra

Palms darts off bounty hunter’s bandolier and stabs him without him knowing. [V1-6]

Palms tech pyramid while searching a body so her father doesn’t see it. [V1-5]

Slips bombs into Luke Skywalker’s pockets without the force-sensitive hero noticing. [V1-7]

Escapes four sets of prison binders without resources. [SW16] The novel has her picking the lock on a set of binders in an additional scene beyond the ones in the prison. [N]

She picks the locks to the Emperor's private chambers, certainly one of the most secure rooms in the Empire. [N]

As an example of all her hacking, thievery, and combat skills used together, she breaks into the highly-guarded vault where the Farkiller weapon is housed [V1-32].

Trip and BeeTee

Trip effectively tortures a guy into giving up important information he swore to keep secret, then kills him with his palm shock-touch. [DV10]

Trip tortures a guy to death via his blades, fire, and electricity. [V1-26]

Trip is skilled enough to do broad head surgery to Black Krrsantan. [V1-7]

BT repairs Trip. [GE5]

BT takes down C-3P0, cuts off his arms, and attaches them to Trip. [DV14]

Aphra

Holds onto platform with one arm. [DV3]

Hangs off ramp while ship is flying. [V1-4]

Trip and BeeTee

Trip throws a guy into a lava lake. [DV18]

BeeTee drags a man with his arms. [V1-39]

Aphra

Falls down a pretty huge distance and is ok [V2-8]

Takes a blaster bolt right in the chest and is hurt but conscious [V1-31]

Floats in space for an undetermined but certainly not short amount of time [DV25, images 3-8]. A normal person would pass out after 15 seconds and die after 60-90 seconds, from what I have found online in various sources. It is hard to judge the amount of time she was out there, but it seems longer than that. The “Earlier” narrative cue only references the fact that the story is being told in chunks through a flashback. A later dream sequence about this scene shows her with an oxygen mask, but there is not one shown here. In the retelling of this sequence from the novel, she does not have an oxygen mask, but stuffs her jacket with the stolen ingots in order to somehow help protect her body from space, which honestly makes zero sense. How does filling your your jacket with metal wafers protect you from a vacuum or freezing cold? Anyway, it's in [N].

Trip and BeeTee

Trip withstands being beaten with his own arm by the superhumanly-strong Chewbacca. [SW13]

Trip has a heatproof chassis. [V1-28]

Trip is shot point blank in the chest and, while down for the count, is not killed. [V1-28]

AFTER Triple-Zero is beaten by Chewbacca, Luke cuts off Trip’s other arm and then stabs him directly through the chest with a lightsaber, and he’s up and walking soon after. [SW13]

BT was hit by an ion blast and resisted/overcame it. [V1-29]

Vader thoroughly destroys BT but he comes back soon. [V1-25]

Aphra

Avoids/dodges many blaster bolts: [DV11], [DV11], [DV21], [SW17], [V1-32], [V2-6], [V2-7] [N]

Dodges blasts from computerized cannons. [V1-13]

Dodges strike from giant monster warrior. [GE4]

Outruns/dodges rolling Droideka. [DV3]

Swings on cables like Tarzan [V1-32]

Dodges some grasping giant hands [V2-3]

Trip

Nokk, an experienced bounty hunter, throws a spear at Aphra and Trip, and Trip grabs Aphra and pulls her away, grabbing a speeder flying nearby and dodging the spear. This is also strength, as he holds onto the speeder with one arm and carries Aphra in the other. [V1-29]

Aphra

Jumps in front of a blaster bolt while it is only a short distance from target.

Catches a falling data card. [DV3]

Shoots Snowtrooper who is holding a gun to her head before he shoots her [V2-1]

Trip and BeeTee

Trip is actually pretty fast. Most of the time he waddles around like C-3P0, but when he wants to strike, he’s like a snake.

Trip attacks Darth Vader, who is obviously absurdly fast, and gets in the first hit before Vader chops him up. This is not just a “oh he’s a protocol droid so I can just let him hit me” situation on Vader’s part either, Trip’s blades stick in Vader’s life support system. [V1-40]

Trip slices his way through several Snowtroopers with blur speed. [V1-40]

BT is seemingly able to roll as fast as Aphra can run. [GE4]

Aphra is by no means a top-level streetlevel combatant, but she has some skills.

Stabs a guy with a sword. [GE5]

Intercepts two blaster bolts with a sword, although the impact stuns her. [GE5]

Briefly fights off Tolvan, a trained Imperial officer. [V1-39]

Holds several guards and Leia at bay. [SW16]

Kicks officer down the stairs. [V1-4]

Kicks Ronen Tagge. [V2-5]

Punches out a guard. [SW16]

Casually shoots small rat at a distance. [DV10]

Gets in shootout with multiple robots. [V1-32]

Shoots a bridge control box from a distance. [V1-5]

Shoots 3 weird flying electric eels. [V1-32]

Shoots a thin chandelier chain without really looking at it. [V2-1]

Gets in shooting battle with squad of Stormtroopers [V1-34]

As a kid, holds off pirates all night [V1-34]

Shoots cyborg warrior with massive gun [V1-16]

Shoots hive of bugs to fall on Han Solo, he does the same to her. But note that she does it with a handgun, and he needs a rifle with a scope [SW13]

Trip slices up Tam Posla, a skilled bounty hunter, in an attack from behind. [V1-25]

After Posla is resurrected by a force fog, Trip kills him again, and again from behind. [V1-31]

Trip calls BT “impressively accurate,” having shot a number of guards, all in the heart. [DV-A1]

BT hits the already-wounded but naturally very fast Vader with multiple shots. [V1-40]

BT headshots a droid. [DV10]

Vader instructs BT to shoot to maim, clearly believing that BT is an accurate-enough shot to do so. [V1-38]

BT shoots a guy’s gun in half. [DV10]

BT shoots Nokk the bounty hunter in mid-leap. [V1-29]

BT can successfully target multiple things at once with separate multi-beam weapons. [DV20]

Aphra

When Aphra is confronted with a force-powered giant, she dodges its blows, runs through its legs, and takes it out with a bomb. [GE4]

Shoots six guys, mostly off-panel. [V1-13]

Trip and BeeTee

Brief gun battle between Aphra and the droids [DV21]

Trip and BT take out a whole spaceport (or at least one lounge in it), with Trip even being distracted in the process. [V1-20]

BT, when attached to the bottom of the ship, is basically like a turret, bombarding the area below with missiles. [V1-24]

When Trip and BT are surrounded by Geonosians, BT burns them down. [DV4]. The novel confirms they are actually droid versions of Geonosians. [N]

Blasts numerous guards at once. [SW32]

BT “annihilates” a group of Stormtroopers. There are least 22 of them, and while the others help to defeat them, it’s mostly BT. [V1-31]

BT one-shots big armored guy. [V1-7]

BT takes out a group. [V1-13]

BT takes down a small group of Snowtroopers. [V1-40]

Trip takes on numerous hardened convicts, seen in silhouette, and massacres many of them (precise numbers unclear), seemingly without them being able to fight back effectively at all. The slaughter is enough to make the normally-brave Captain Tolvan say they need to run away. [V1-24]

Aphra’s morality is quite loose (shooting a guy in the back over an archaeological find is not a problem for her [V1-1]), and has been willing to put even loved ones in harm’s way for money or new tech. For instance, here she holds her lover, Tolvan, at gunpoint, and later stuns her. [V1-14] Over time she has shown a little more care for those she is close to.

Aphra has had relationships with several women, including Magna Tolvin [VA-16], Sana Starros [V2-9], and Professor Eustacia Okka [V2-2]. She has complicated relationships with her father, who is still alive, and her mother, who died when she was a child.

Her ethical standard, from her mom, is “Evil’s just a measure of how your choices take away other people’s.” She sometimes holds herself to this, sometimes not. [V1-21]

As she says about herself: “Scientist. Sci-en-tist. Means I like ‘how’ more than ‘why.’” [V1-18]

Aphra usually works alone, but she does have some leadership qualities [DV10] and has led a few teams.

Aphra causes the death of hundreds of convicts and is ok with that. [V1-23]

In perhaps the most piercing indictment of Aphra’s ethics, Triple-Zero had this to say to her once (everything he says is true) [V1-19]:

Trip: You condemned a prince just to get airborne. You killed a good man just to exploit the rage of his lover, You left behind a probability-calculation droid—your own creation!—just to help you escape. You’ve murdered legions of enemies—and almost as many allies. You’ve used dumb beasts as weapons and betrayed every kindness shown you.

Aphra: You did all this to make me more like you?

Trip: I did it to make you see you’re already like me.

Moving on to other themes, even early on she is more famous than Han Solo. [N]

Aphra is heavily interrogated by the Rebels for two weeks and doesn't crack. [N]

Triple-Zero was originally created [V1-30] during the Old Republic, he went on a mass murder spree until he was caught and put into stasis. He was revived by the Tarkin Initiative. [DV20]

A few quotes from Triple-Zero:

Hello, I am Triple-Zero, Human/Cyborg Relations and Collective Agonies. I look forward to a long and enduring friendship based on your unanswered please for death. [V1-38]

I have had more grateful masters. No, it didn’t stop me from killing them and draining their blood. I’m not sure what that has to do with anything, Bee Tee. Politeness costs nothing. [DV5]

I’m Triple-Zero and I’m looking forward immensely to torturing you today. [DV4]

We get to torture and exterminate indiscriminately! [VD]

We could always simply murder everyone we encounter. No matter the problem, I usually find that to be the most elegant solution. [VD]

Hahaha! You are on fire and also dead. [DV4]

Aphra: You take your joy in the work.

Trip: I was not locked in a room with a humanoid and a sharp instrument, Mistress Aphra. There was little “joy.” [DV8]

Aphra is a highly skilled at both tactics and trickster-style manipulation. She is a tech genius, capable not only of top-level hacking, but engineering one-of-a-kind creations like a probability droid. She has decent combat skills, allowing her to largely get through continual scrapes unharmed, and dealing out her share of kills from her blasters and bombs. She has surprisingly decent durability and dodging. Her low-bar ethics allows her to deal maximum damage to her opponents without worrying about morals getting in the way.

BeeTee and Trip are a dangerous combo, with smarts and cool savagery. BT’s multi-weapon barrages of missiles, gatling-blasters, and flame-throwers, combined with excellent accuracy, make him an easy room-clearer, and Trip’s calculating mind and speed make his array of shock palm, blades, and blowtorches a danger to any mob, let alone those who end up in his interrogation chamber.

Marc shows up at K’un-Lun to take Danny’s power. There is no sign that Marc has been amped by unusual powers like intangibility in this fight. What’s not clear is how much, if at all, Marc is amped in terms of strength, speed, and durability beyond his normal level of enhancement.

Marc starts off praying. He is clearly in communion with Khonshu. My overall sense is, he is getting an amp in physical stats from Khoshu—but as I’ve noted, I believe that is the standard for how Moon Knight works: Khonshu gives him the power he needs to accomplish his goals, within reason, and sometimes in a fickle way. This is usually not explicit, but it’s the best explanation for how Marc, for example, falls out of an airplane and survives. There are many other examples like this.

Back to the fight: Marc punches Danny twice, and Danny blocks them. Danny hits Marc in the chest solidly, and Marc is pushed back but largely shrugs it off. Danny eagle claws his throat, and Marc punches Danny in the face, turning his head and clearly causing some hurt. Danny hits Marc four times in a row, knocking him down. The moon becomes brighter. Marc punches Danny in the face again twice, and again Danny is clearly hurt by this and knocked down.

For the first time, Danny breaks out the Iron Fist, and hits Marc in the face, knocking him back. That’s the last time he hits Marc. Marc then kicks Danny, and then punches him, again turning his head back, and Danny misses Marc for the first time. Then Marc pummels Danny in a flurry of punches (16, if we go by the number of afterimages).

Danny is still standing, and his Iron Fists are lit up, but he is bent over and can barely speak. Then Marc uses Khonshu’s ankh to steal his power.

Lessons: I believe this is a pretty straight version of Moon Knight, meaning that he is clearly enhanced by Khonshu (for instance, he’s praying to him at the beginning, and Danny points out the increased glow of the moon), but not in a way that is radically different from other levels of enhancement that he has received from Khonshu in the past. What we see here from Marc is his standard skill level. If we just go by hits that contacted, before that flurry of 16, then Danny landed 7 on Marc and Marc landed 5 on Danny. That’s a reasonably appropriate number for their respective skill levels.

Marc shows a level of strength that is pretty normal for him when his strength is enhanced—Danny did take 18 straight hits from him at the end and was still standing, after all, so his striking power was not that different from usual, especially when Marc’s classic “moon” strength is enough to do this or this. And Marc’s durability was not radically higher than usual—Danny only hit him with the Fist once, plus 6 normal strikes. I think a normally-powered Marc could take that, considering he's been blasted by Kang, repeatedly clawed by Werewolf by Night, ignored a hatchet blow directly to chest, burned, taken massive claw hits through the torso, been hit by a van thrown by Mr. Hyde, etc. Marc’s speed may be a bit higher than usual, given the flurry of blows at the end, and in general his capacity to hang with Danny’s own ability to enhance his speed with chi. But given Marc’s proven bullet-timing in the past (for example one, two, three, four), even that flurry may just be a combination of Marc’s normal speed plus Danny’s level of woundedness making him incapable of responding.

The one point of context I will make in Danny’s defense is that he didn’t break out the Fist until late in the fight, partly because he didn’t know Marc really wanted to beat him up. But, that’s also in part a matter of character. Danny is often a little more carefree kind of a fighter and doesn’t get serious until he realizes he has too, at which point sometimes it’s too late; Marc goes into a fight intending to pound the other guy into submission no matter what.

Bottom line: Whatever level of enhancement Marc got from Khonshu, plus his own skills, was enough to defeat the level of enhancement Danny was capable of getting from Shou-lau, plus his own skills. This was a pretty straight fight between two skilled characters and their attempts to use their mystical enhancements to their advantage, and Marc’s skills and enhancements beat Danny’s skills and enhancements.

The next couple fights have less to tell us about Marc’s normal abilities. Khonshu brings a legion of his sorcerer-priests and mummies to attack Doctor Strange before Marc hits him and takes his power. Marc just steals Ghost Rider’s car from outside his house, presumably using a mix of Khonshu, Strange, and Shou-lao’s power to do so. Then he beats Thor by setting the fight on the moon, where he has the advantage, and by surprising Thor (and the readers) by explaining that uru is made of moon rock, and thus under his control. Presumably his other amps help here too. He beats up Thor with his own hammer and then squishes him between a bunch of crushed-together moons. The use of multiple, or larger, moons throughout does echo to an old West Coast Avengers fight where, in a dimension of numerous moons, he was able to trash a robot supposedly immune to powers at Wonder Man's level. He also briefly fights Carol Danvers and Iron Man and destroys an incarnation of Mephisto. But again, all these fights are only possible due to his various extra amps and Khonshu's priests so they don't matter much to the battle forum.

Inexplicably, from my perspective, he is unable to steal Black Panther’s power when he can steal all these others. I get that the power is a part of T’Challa, and that he has a really strong will, but those don’t seem like radical differences from others whose powers were more easily stolen. In any case, Khonshu goes nuts, and in Avengers 36, Moon Knight no longer has any of the ankhs that give him the enhancements when he fights Black Panther. He has, however, talked with the Unseen and learned about how to summon the Phoenix.

Point being, this is normal Moon Knight, enhanced to, at best, the degree he was when he fought Iron Fist, and potentially less than that since Khonshu is now busy with other things and needs to marshal his power. I present the scans of this fight in chronological order instead of how they appear in the comic, which intentionally told the story out of order.

There are three points of context to look at throughout this fight, as I’ll discuss along the way: Moon Knight thinks T’Challa is Mephisto for a good portion of the fight, and so certainly fights him a different way than he would if he knew he was fighting Panther. Panther is probably holding back to some degree while trying to convince Moon Knight to stop. And Moon Knight’s real plan is not to win, but to feel enough pain that he summons the Phoenix.

The fight:

They jump at each other, and Marc punches T’Challa, which he partially blocks but still says “Hnngh!” in pain. Panther throws some energy blades at Marc, which Marc dodges, and Marc throws some crescents at Panther, which Panther breaks with his claws.

Marc hits Panther with his nunchucks. On the one hand, T’Challa’s armor absorbs kinetic energy, so none of Marc’s hits can really hurt him. On the other hand, T’Challa is sitting on the ground, his right arm up in a pretty defensive stance. If you want to argue that Panther is always really in control and is just holding back, it’s hard to explain how he would let himself get into this position, it’s the kind of position you only get in if you’re forced into it. Panther blasts Marc with a kinetic energy blast, which pushes Marc back a distance.

Panther takes the nunchucks and Marc grabs a sword. Panther sort of runs through the air and kicks through the sword, and then flips around, kicking Marc in the chest and getting some vibranium foam incapacitant on him. All this time he is telling Marc he wants to help, so that is an argument in favor of him not going all out. Marc easily cuts and rips off the goo off his chest.

Panther hits him in the face with what looks like the hilt of a laser dagger as opposed to the blade, although Marc does complain about the heat. Marc punches T’Challa in the face, then knees him in the face, and then kicks him in the shin, all of which again only charges Panther’s armor. T’Challa punches Marc in the face, eliciting a “Guugh!” from Moon Knight.

At this point in the fight, as the dialog shows, Marc still believes Panther is Mephisto. T’Challa says “So be it,” and again lending weight to the idea that he was holding back and that he is now going to take it more seriously. At this point, they have both hit each other five times, if you count both the nunchucks on the arm and T’Challa breaking the sword as hits.

T’Challa hits Moon Knight 3 times, really knocking him around. Marc hits him, then T’Challa hits Marc, then Marc hits T’Challa. The times when Marc hits Panther, again really he’s just charging up Panther’s armor, but Panther’s head does get knocked about too, so there is some effect.

Panther hits Marc 3 times in a row, and Marc is now down on the ground holding his head. It is around this point where Marc starts talking about praying to a god, and as we ultimately understand, this means he is praying to the Phoenix, not Khonshu. So, really, his strategic goal here is NOT to beat Panther, but to goad Panther into hitting him enough to summon the Phoenix. At this time, he also says he stopped thinking that T’Challa was Mephisto a few dozen punches ago, presumably exaggerating the number of punches since we haven’t seen that many; I personally think he figured out who Panther was around “so be it.”

Marc punches T’Challa with zero effect, and Panther hits him back twice, leaving Marc splayed on the ground. Panther won’t fight him any more, so Marc punches himself at least one more time, which is finally enough to summon the Phoenix.

So, how to unpack this?

We have what I hope that I have shown is a straightforward fight in one sense—Marc, with possibly some stats enhancement from Khonshu, but possibly less than normal due to Khonshu’s distractions, plus Marc’s normal skills and gear, fights against Black Panther, his normal Panther god/herb enhancement, T’Challa’s normal skills, and his normal gear.

There are then the following contexts: (1) Marc thinks Panther is Mephisto for a good chunk of the fight. (2) Panther is trying to convince Marc to give up rather than going all out for a good chunk of the fight. (3) Marc’s real goal is not to beat Panther but to get Panther to hurt him enough to summon the Phoenix.

The effect of (1) is for Panther to do better than he would otherwise, because Marc isn’t adapting his fighting to his actual opponent. The effect of (2) is for Marc to do better than he would otherwise, because Panther isn’t trying as hard as he could. The effect of (3) is that Marc is letting Panther hit him, and thus Panther is doing better than he would otherwise.

Personally, I think (1) and (2) probably mostly cancel each other out. (2) may have a little more weight than (1). But (3) is a pretty major factor on its own.

Let’s look at the tale of the tape again. Up until the time Panther said “so be it,” which I think is also around when Marc realized that he is T’Challa and not Mephisto, they had both hit each other 5 times. That sounds pretty even, but again, Panther’s kinetic-absorbing armor is a pretty massive advantage, so even with 5 hits each, Panther is doing more damage to Marc than Marc is to Panther.

After that, Panther hits Marc 9 times and Marc hits Panther 3 times. This is a pretty big difference from the first half of the fight. I think it shows that Panther has stopped holding back, but I think it also shows that arc is putting his Phoenix-summoning strategy; into full effect; he has now goaded Panther into unleashing on him, and largely stops fighting back.

So: who won the fight? Panther, clearly. But, partly because Marc wanted to get hit, in a sort of reversal or embracing of the Taskmaster fight where Taskmaster says Moon Knight never knew a punch he didn’t want to take.

Who would win a fight between Panther and Moon Knight without all this context? I think in a straight fight, Panther would still win. His gear is a massive, almost insurmountable advantage all by itself. I think their stats are about even when both are enhanced by their respective gods, but Panther also has a clear skill advantage over Moon Knight. This is not to say that Marc is a bad fighter; he is actually quite skilled. But in my estimation, Panther is one of the top-3 martial artists in Marvel (along with Iron Fist and Shang-Chi) out of the people we have consistent feats for (which is to say, excluding Marvel’s cosmic women Gamora, Moondragon, and Mantis, and a variety of Iron Fist and Shang-Chi secondary characters). So, with Panther’s skill and gear advantage he would win anyway.

There are a lot of Moon Knight respect threads out there. This one is idiosyncratic. It focuses on only certain time periods, and brings a sharp focus to certain aspects of his fighting style that I have noticed in reading him, which may or may not be of interest to others.

In short, it focuses on the time from his inception up through the end of Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu, and including his time in the West Coast Avengers (1987-89), but skips over Marc Spector: Moon Knight (starting 1989) and largely everything else up until 2014, where I pick up with his eponymous volume of that year and continue on to the present. In other words, it basically covers 1975-1989, and 2014-2021.

Why? It came about when I was doing a CAV, using the Moon Knight who, in the terms of the debate, was non-powered. I believed that both the 2014 Moon Knight, as personified in his Mr. Knight identity, and the Moon Knight of his first volume, were non-powered.

However, the deeper I read, the more I realized that was not exactly the case. I will use this RT to parse some of the details of the state of his powers (and lack thereof) in both eras. I am also including the 1985 Fist of Khonshu volume since it intentionally introduces the fact that the Moon Knight of that volume gets powers for seemingly the first time. This makes it seem like the first-volume Moon Knight (and earlier) did not, a concept which I shall interrogate.

In addition to the volumes I noted above, I will also go into some of the volumes in-between to a totally arbitrary degree, partly as a further commentary on the state of his powers.

I should note that, in general, his powers change on and off quite a bit from volume to volume, as each writer changes his circumstances in an explicit in-universe way, but also picks and chooses which parts of his history to acknowledge and which to ignore.

In addition to the powers/no powers question, I also wanted to highlight certain aspects of his fighting style, just because I think they are interesting.

The main appearances that I cover here are: Werewolf by Night 32-33, Marvel Spotlight 28-29, Defenders 47-51, Spectacular Spider-man 22-23, Marvel Two-in-One 52, Hulk! Magazine 11-15 & 17-20, Marvel Preview 21, Moon Knight volume 1, Fist of Khonshu, West Coast Avengers, the 2014 Moon Knight volume, and the 2016 Moon Knight volume. Plus a little extra here and there. I haven’t gotten a few issues in volume 1 and WCA yet, those will be added when I do.

Of course, Moon Knight is about to become the Big Bad in Avengers starting next week, so that will presumably involve quite a change to his powerset. See the final example in “Other Powers” for a hint.

Marc has Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID, popularly known as having multiple personalities. His personalities are Marc Spector, mercenary; Jake Lockley, a cab driver; Steven Grant, a millionaire; and Moon Knight. He also has dipped deep into violent psychosis at various times. His multiple personalities were originally presented as an intellectual strategy to infiltrate different parts of society, but soon it because clear that he was psychologically unable to avoid his different selves. Recently this has been explained as being, at least in part, due to his exposure to a Nazi child-abuser. In addition to his DID and psychosis, he also has an extremely strong will, even for a comic character. Overall, his mental state varies from stable to unstable, from somewhat moral to ridiculously vicious, depending on the writer/volume.

Here’s an early, detailed breakdown on his personalities by Doug Moench.

His different personalities have often competed with each other in the past, but have also agreed to work together.

How far is he willing to go if he needs to? He is willing to tear a rabid porpoise apart with his bare hands and eat it!

He has recently learned to work with his Dissociative Identity Disorder and owned his "power of crazy."

He considers himself a sadist. "The broken part of me is made of bleak, pitch-black fury. So, the blood-spray and bone-breaking...I won't lie, I enjoy it. I look forward to it, sometimes."

What does he feel about killing? He “[doesn’t] kill people, mostly,” but he is perfectly willing to torture/main them so horribly that just talking about it makes hardened guys like Foolkiller retch.

At one point, he carved the moon into 47 people’s foreheads.

See also the links under Durability/Endurance, showing his ability to will himself back to being able to walk after a severe spinal injury, his ability to will himself through gale-force winds right after that, and his ability to force himself through sonic attacks that put the Thing down.

Marc’s past history has changed slightly over time (X vs Y years in the marines, etc.) but it has stayed largely the same:

Was a merc in three African wars and five South American revolutions, was in the CIA and in the Marines for eight years.

Was a marine, in the CIA, and an assassin.

Made money as a merc, which gave him the money he needed to play the stock market. He made a lot of money off a mining stock, which was based in the same area he worked as a merc.

Spent three years as a Marine then joined an underground fight-ring.

If you’d like to read some formal written histories of early Moon Knight, here is one by Doug Moench and here is one by Allen Zelenetz.

His gear has varied VERY widely over the decades, with a costume ranging from cloth to adamantium armor, and with gear ranging from very simple to fancy dart guns and Hawkeye-ish style weapons, etc. I’ll show a couple of those examples, but in the eras we’re looking at, it has been pretty simple:

His original gear included:

• Crescent darts—his most classic weapon

• A truncheon, which can release a grapple.

The crescents have always been pretty sharp; here one cuts through a gun.

The grapple can be used as a tripwire.

Grapple used as weapon.

Grapple used to smash helmet faceplate.

He later configured the truncheon so it could convert into nunchucks.

After he started to work with the priests of Khonshu in the second volume, he used:

• A golden ankh that glowed when danger neared.

• A boomerang with protective charms.

• Wristbands (like those he already had, and used to deflect bullets).

• Scarab darts and throwing irons to replace his crescent darts

• A lasso/grapple/axe

• A bola

Examples of modern gear, some from the earlier 2000s, include:

• Flash device, used to blind

• Multi-colored sparkle-flash devices, also used to blind and/or confuse, capable of temporarily affecting Sentry

• Hypersonic devices that can be put in the ear; sufficient to make the Hulk jump away in pain.

• Khopesh sword.

• Some examples of the weapons he has in his armory.

He also has, more uniquely, magic armor that allows him to fight incorporeal ghosts.

Moon Knight’s strength is fascinating to me.

In his first appearance, there was no comment on his strength, but he contended equally with Werewolf by Night. Later, it was brought up that he gained enhanced strength by being bitten by Werewolf by Night, and that strength waned and waxed with the moon. I had no idea about this, previous to doing this research.

This wasn’t really commented on much later, and I would say he seemed to be strong, but more like Captain America strong instead of truly superhuman, for a while. But then they made a point of saying that his werewolf-strength had faded away (volume one, issue 6), maybe just because they had forgotten about it before, and were coming up with an explanation for that. He continued to be more or less peak human in strength in volume 1, but even in the letters pages, the editors said that whether he was superhuman or not was an open question: “Some of the stunts he’s pulled have been nigh impossible…maybe it all comes down to a system of beliefs (‘It’s all in the mind’)—or maybe it simply depends on one’s definition of ‘supernatural’—or, finally, maybe MK really does have transcendant powers which he simply hasn’t tapped yet.”

Then eventually, in the second volume, he gained a more direct connection to Khonshu, and explicitly got superhuman strength that changed with the moon—fascinatingly the same as with the werewolf strength.

But also fascinatingly, in this volume he was constantly having problems getting used to his now-enhanced strength, as if that werewolf strength had never existed.

At various times since then, he has switched back and forth between having enhanced strength or not, depending on the writer. For instance, I’d argue that in the two most recent volumes, he has not had enhanced strength, despite having a direct connection with Khonshu—his powers have been more nebulous in this era, with Khonshu helping out when needed, instead of giving a constant amp. At least, that’s my interpretation.

When Moon Knight was in an alternate dimension fighting a robot, there were “untold thousands” of moons. The aliens that made this robot kept sending it out against different West Coast Avengers, and each time it lost, they made it proof against the previous one’s abilities. This meant it was impervious to Wonder Man’s strength, for example. Moon Knight’s strength was amped by each extra moon to the degree that he was able to rip the robot apart.

“Werewolf Strength" Era

(everything after his first issue where he was bitten by Werewolf by Night, up through volume 1, issue 5 where he says his werewolf strength is gone):

Mentions that his werewolf-strength under a quarter moon is still stronger than most men.

Mentions that under a three-quarter moon, his strength is “well up to par.”

Mentions that with the moon waning, he can feel his strength draining.

Knocks over heavy mechanical chess piece with a small crescent dart.

Bends metal bars with a kick (which “came faster than the committee could gasp”).

Lifts a guy.

Rips out of chair restraints.

Grabs and throws a dog.

Grabs, swings, and throws a guy.

Throws a guy a fair distance.

Breaks a rifle over his leg. (issue 5, right before he says his werewolf strength is gone)

“Normal Strength” Era

(His professional mercenary days, and volume 1 from issue 6 on):

Smashes robot with a kick.

Smashes robot with truncheon.

Stuns a guy who is incredibly strong—able to lift 4 women.

Kicks open a door.

While underwater, loosens a brick, then kicks the wall down, then holds against the current’s “incredible force.”

Lifts big guy and throws him.

Lifts a guy and throws him.

Throws another guy a pretty good distance.

Punches Werewolf by Night into a bunch of debris.

Falls enormous distance down cliff, but is able to stop his fall by grabbing a small branch. Given the speed he was falling, it would take a lot of hand-muscle power to stop that fall; clearly the thin branch is also superhuman in its ability to cling to the cliff J

Throws a grapple up several stories.

Throws a grapple up several stories.

"Khonshu-Amped Strength" Era

(Fist of Khonshu, West Coast Avengers, and also Marc Spector: Moon Knight, although I am not including MS:MK scans here)--Khonshu has directly amped him and by the time of West Coast Avengers, fully possessed him:

When amped by Khonshu, he has “more than human strength.”

Khonshu “strengthened me.”

Khonshu says his “strength will increase with the moon by night.”

Hits a guy so hard, not realizing how strong he is, that he knocks him a good distance outside a window.

He is so strong he is unsure of his strength and breaks a guy’s arm bone out of his skin.

Tests his enhanced strength while doing gymnastics.

Bends metal bars, then kicks in a door that is several inches thick.

Breaks a thick chain.

Crushes a metal pistol with his foot.

Lifts a big desk and throws it through a wall.

Rips out of mummy wrappings.

Rips out of steel-mesh net alongside the also-strong Tigra.

Rips enormous metal door off hinges.

Throws guys long distances, including on guy up to the really high ceiling.

Throws guy with great speed at other guys.

Destroys a robot off-panel.

"Near-Modern" Strength Era

(2000s-2012)--he still has superhuman strength here; I am not including scans from this period, but did include some for comparison’s sake:

Throws guy through rock wall.

Throws one guy through a windshield, then pulls another guy out of the windshield and throws him.

Lifts Slug using his grapple-line.

Holds on to his line (with separate lines attached to each arm) while Valkyrie’s horse lifts him, a team, and a big circle of concrete. Also, note that his crescent somehow slices a circle through the concrete.

Lands on jeep, crushing it.

Strikes and breaks a guy’s helmet with a single strike.

Throws a guy through a car windshield—it’s impressive enough to throw a 200-pound guy, but a windshield is damn tough to break, this takes a lot of power, as specifically pointed out by some first-responders in a later panel.

Modern Strength Era

(2014-now)--his strength is inconsistent, but he generally does not display superhuman strength on a significant level:

Kicks through windshield.

Punches a guy hard enough to knock a heavy desk and other items all over.

Here he rips perfectly flat floor boards apart.

Totally destroys a door when he kicks through it. Lots of guys break down doors, but this turns it into splinters.

Swings a lady around by her legs, knocking other guys with her, thus showing the speed and momentum with which he was swinging her.

Moon Knight’s durability is infamous. I won’t go into some of the more well-known examples that come from the 2000s, which have been well-documented elsewhere.

Early Period

While fighting Werewolf by Night the first time, Russell hits him numerous times, and is amazed at Marc’s endurance: “It was impossible. I’d slashed, clawed, mauled, and choked him—and he wanted more, still more--!”

Slashed by Werewolf by Night. WWBN not only has claws, but enhanced strength.

Thrown by WWBN into a wall.

This one takes some context. Marc was previously injured with a “severe” spinal injury. He has surgery, but his doctor says he “may never walk again.” It’s bad enough that Marc thinks he may need to retire as Moon Knight. But then later he sees a villain, Bora, kill a famous ballet dancer. She uses super-cold winds to buffet and freeze him to death. While that happens, Marc can’t help him, but he is inspired by the guy’s determination—the guy dances his way to death. So Marc gets all his folks up on a roof and just wills himself back into being able to walk. I have to emphasize that everything in this comic up til now made that seem impossible. This foreshadows future times when he has massive injuries like when Midnight tortures him and his spine.

Then, immediately after this, in the same issue, he fights Bora. He gets the X-men and Fantastic Four to help, and uses other stuff to distract her. I mostly cut out those parts, and focus here on just when Marc forces his way through Bora’s winds—which as we saw in the last scene can go to -60 degrees Fahrenheit. So again—just previously he was totally unable to stand. Now he is able to force himself through gale-level winds. That is crazy pants. Xavier even points out his pain tolerance. Finally Nightcrawler distracts her and gets her to shut the winds off briefly so Marc can take her out. But overall, Marc goes from being paralyzed in his legs to pushing his way through winds that the other characters can’t get through in a ridiculously short time.

This one also takes some context: Crossfire gasses Marc and the Thing. However, Marc’s mask mostly helps him avoid the gas, and so he is awake when he is chained up. Crossfire explains his weapon, the Sonic Mind-Warper. It can “kill with swift and painful effect.” But he leaves them alone and later they get out, and Marc explains about the gas and mask. Still, the gas did affect him and he is somewhat woozy. Crossfire uses the Sonic Mind-Warper on Marc and Thing. Thing goes down, but Marc pushes through, in part due to his training against torture and brainwashing. But this is a physical attack too, not just “brainwashing.” Anyway, Marc makes it where Thing doesn’t, and takes out Crossfire.

Speaking of gas, the whole “not affected by gas” thing is somewhat inconsistent. Here he is affected by a smoke bomb, and as we see here, he is affected by gas, but Khonshu controls his body so he doesn't have to breathe for a while.

Marc is blasted through a wall by Kang and survives. Marc is temporarily stunned, but Kang’s weapons are top-notch, and even surviving is impressive.

Marc takes a hatchet straight in the chest. He still eventually beats the guy. I don’t know if this needs explaining, but a hatchet in the chest ought to open your ribcage right up. That’s a crazy wound to just get up and survive.

Modern Era

Finally here he gets shot by Bushman, then totally ignores the bullet wound while he blitzes Bushman and smashes his face into a wall, dodges some fire blasts, fire-pantses Sun King, and knocks Sun King out the glass door before he can react. So he basically has four speed/agility feats in a row right after getting shot; getting shot is like another day at the office to him.

A bunch of ghosts (whose hits were physical) whaled on him for a while, just stomping on him because he couldn't hit them back, and he got right up at the end of it.

This lady who says she’s another avatar of Khonshu claws him twice, quite seriously, in the side (which based on the depth of the claws goes quite deep) and the back, and he keeps fighting enough to punch her out.

He was zapped by some sort of suit taser and was fine.

He was right next to a bomb (with 2 seconds left on the timer, we can see that he’s right above the bomb) when it goes off. He survives and we next see him (a day later at most) spryly vaulting a barrier.

He fell from a plane, at terminal velocity, into a frozen lake, and survived—clearly with the help of Khonshu, but what this underlines is that Khonshu will help him when he needs it. Not only should the fall have easily killed him, but he should be completely frozen and not be able to even move. But he wakes up, pulls himself on the boat and talks just fine.

He’s a pain tolerant guy. He gets cut in the face and doesn’t flinch.

But consider that he was hit by a van thrown by Mr. Hyde, a guy who can fight Thor. Marc went on to beat up Mr. Hyde immediately after.

He beat this sniper up after getting shot in the side, and basically ignored it, as you can see in the end of the fight. (Also, we see that the sniper was surprised by how hard it was to shoot him, since he also missed Marc a bunch of times. And yet, we know the guy was a good shot, since he just sniped several people at once.)

Mentally survives 5 hours of Morpheus's powers.

Marc lets himself get beaten up by a bunch of guys, then tortured by a lady with some hot needles.

Then he’s thrown in a combat circle with the pyrokinetic Sun King. The durability he shows here is insane. He takes severe burns on his hand and head, has teeth knocked out and fingers broken, and still takes down Sun King.

(How powerful a pyrokinetic is Sun King, the reader may ask? Powerful.

While it’s hard to say whether volume 1 Moon Knight is a true bullet-timer, in the sense that he can see the bullet moving and dodge specifically out of its path, he dodges the hell out of bullets on a constant basis. There are a number of statements that comment on his speed, and he is clearly extremely agile. 2014 Moon Knight steps beyond the “constantly dodge bullets” line into bullet-timing territory.

A guy (actually a vampire, who should have enhanced speed) attacks him from behind. Marc turns around and hits him first, and the vampire says, “He’s too fast!!” (This is in his Khonshu-enhanced era.)

Marc dodges a bullet a point-blank range, and the guy says, “It ain’t possible—no one can move that fast!!”

Still in the Khonshu-enhanced era, the Green Goblin, who also has enhanced speed, says, “You are quite fast.”

A boxer who sees Moon Knight move says “That cat’s quick!”

Does an agile flip-kick on Crawley while Crawley’s intentionally misses his shot, and a guy says “nobody moves that fast!”

A branch falls down toward a woman, and Marc knocks it out of the way. As seen in the first scan, Marc is a distance away when the branch starts to fall, and it is like 6 inches above her head before he moves, but he still gets to it in time. That’s a lot of ground to cover in almost no time.

A guy tries to catch a suitcase but misses. As we see, Moon Knight is a distance away when the guy misses, but he still gets there in time before it hits the ground.

Avoids a trap door.

Knocks a guy’s arm up before he can shoot.

Knocks a guy’s arm up before he can shoot and punches him.

Punches a lady assassin before she can raise her gun.

Kicks pipe before Arsenal can shoot.

A leopard (jaguar? Cheetah? I forget) attacks him and is seen to be very close, in mid-air, when Marc’s gun is pointed down. Marc lifts the gun and shoots before the leopard hits him.

Spider-man lands on Moon Knight’s back. Marc then grabs and throws Spidey before Spidey can react, even with his Spider-sense.

Uses a swooping attack to hit a criminal in a mask, then, when he has to make a choice between stopping the guy’s gun and a rolling barrel of drugs, does both in time.

Gets off of train tracks while recovering from hallucinogenic drug.

Here, a guy is on a rooftop, shooting at Moon Knight, who is on the ground. Then the guy jumps down and is suddenly disarmed (twice) from hits from above. He finds that Moon Knight was able to scale the building in the time it took him to just jump down. That’s pretty fast.

Marc executes four moves in the time it takes a guy to swing a baseball bat. Notice that the heavy guy on the left starts swinging his bat in the first panel, and completes it in the third. In that time, Marc kicks a guy, punches a woman while simultaneously blocking a hatchet chop with a crescent, and then turns completely around and, switching his crescent to his other hand, slices the guy with the bat. An excellent example of how much faster he is than a typical person.

Marc cuts a bullet in half with a crescent in mid-air. I’ll be honest, when this first came out I was all over it, pushing it as bullet-timing. Then in recent years I was less hot on it, feeling that it was a high showing for him and less in sync with his other feats. But upon reviewing his earlier feats, I think it is actually fully in line with his speed as seen elsewhere.

In a perfect example of comic bullet-timing, multiple frames on the left are synched with others on the right, showing that the right-hand panels take place between the left-hand panels, and providing a total time period in which all the action takes place. In the time it takes to pull a trigger and for the bullet to leave the barrel, Marc is able to reach behind himself, grab a crescent, and put it precisely in the right spot to intercept the bullet. This shows true bullet-timing speed and the accuracy to put it in the right spot.

Moon Knight has always had been very gymnastic.

Catches a punch, flips over the guy, then kicks him. The guy says, “That’s impossib—uhnnn!”

Casually leaps off the top of a two-story building, and has the wherewithal to chop a guy in the neck and grab his arm as he lands.

Does some fancy diving.

Some basic gymnastic work.

Does a fancy, agile double-split kick then dodges a point-blank shot from a Nick Fury LMD.

Does a whole series of agile attacks all over this room.

Fancy series of flips.

Uses an agile style of kick.

Agile jumping around.

Jumps around on multiple flagpoles.

Agile fighting style: lands on guys from above.

Agilely lands after falling through trap door, then deflects darts from mechanical armor.

Has some nice flips and swoops.

Jumps from building to building; it’s too far for another guy to follow.

Makes a big leap off a squad car.

Makes a pretty significant leap onto a helicopter.

Runs away from some missiles (it’s not clear what happens to them) and leaps over a fence in one bound.

Makes a huge dive down into his pool.

Leaps up multiple stories in a couple bounds.

A pretty high leap.

Marc casually leaps off a building and then launches his grappling gun to climb up into another.

Casually leaps off his moon-copter in flight as it’s hit, an unknown high distance in the air, and lands on a fire escape with no problem.

Leaps off his glider as it’s about to hit a roof.

Moon Knight can dodge like it’s his job.

Dodging a FEW Bullets

Bushman shoots at Marc; Marc is distracted by Marlene squealing, but he STILL dodges a point-blank shot with a speed that Bushman has to exclaim, “No! No one could dodge like that!” (I’ve edited two panels together to be next to each other instead of on separate rows.)

Bushman shoots at Marc; Marc is distracted by Marlene squealing, but he STILL dodges a point-blank shot with a speed that Bushman has to exclaim, “No! No one could dodge like that!” (I’ve edited two panels together to be next to each other instead of on separate rows.)

In a blitz, disarms a cop with a crescent, then knocks two down, then dodges multiple shooters shots, throws another guy, and runs off dodging more shots. One cop says “I’ve never seen anybody move like that,” and another specifically says, “Nobody can dodge bullets forever,” pointing out that he is dodging them and they’re not just missing.

Dodges a bullet fired by a mechanical chess piece.

Dodges a bullet.

Dodges some shots.

And more shots.

Dodges multiple shots from Arsenal. Arsenal, a semi-major villain for Marc, is known for his range of weapons and his skills.

Dodges a shot from Arsenal at point blank.

Dodges more shots from Arsenal, described as “far worse than Master Sniper” (who was, obviously, a master sniper).

Dodges shots from cops.

Dodges more shots from cops.

Dodges point blank gunfire.

Dodges shots from Midnight Man.

Dodges shots from soldiers.

Dodges shot from point-blank range.

Dodges shots and closes in, in an agile way.

Dodges shots while carrying Marlene.

Dodges shots while gliding (upper right corner).

Dodges shots.

Dodges sniper rifle shot.

Dodging MANY Bullets

In an amazing show of agility and dodging, he leaps up a complex set of platforms that are pretty high and far from one another, with ropes all between them that make it hard to get a clear path (as seen in the first scan), while dodging numerous shots, ending by closing in and disarming him.

Dodges and closes in on a vampire woman with a machine gun at point blank range.

Dodges a vampire using a machine gun.

Dodges more shots from Arsenal.

Dodges numerous machine gun shots while swinging on grapple.

Dodges numerous machine gun shots from soldiers.

Dodges machine gun from ultra-point-blank range.

Dodges machine gun shots from Bushman.

Dodges more shots while carrying Marlene.

Moon Knight dodges medium-range automatic machine gun fire from two shooters.

The lady who shoots at him at the bottom was trained to be a killer by a highly successful hitman from the time she was a baby. She had to fight for her food growing up, so she has plenty of training and experience. She killed before puberty, and was near 100 kills by the time she was 20. Eventually she killed her own teacher. So she’s a great fighter and a great shot. But as we saw, she misses Moon Knight from close range—while he disarms her.

Then in a later fight she once again shoots from point-blank range and again can’t hit him.

Dodging Energy Blasts

Dodges an energy blast at point blank.

Dodges energy blast from Morpheus.

Dodges energy blast.

Dodges another energy blast.

Dodges fire blast shot by mechanical chess piece.

Dodges lasers.

Dodges more lasers.

Moon Knight fights Sun King, a pyrokinetic. He dodges some flame, but his pants are on fire. He manages to kick his flaming pants onto Sun King! That takes skill and speed! I know this is a ridiculous feat, but consider what has to happen here. Marc is wearing pants on both legs; he has to pull them down, and while balancing on one leg fling them at Sun King. This would normally be totally awkward to do in the first place, and easy to dodge, so it shows how fast and nimble Marc is for Marc to hit Sun King with such an awkward attack! :)

Dodging Arrows

Dodges crossbow bolt from Stained Glass Scarlet.

Dodges an arrow shot by a mechanical chess piece.

Dodges a crossbow bolt shot by a mechanical suit of armor.

Dodges rapid-fire arrow shots from Saggitarius LMD.

Dodging Other Stuff

Dodges Spider-man’s web.

Dodges spike trap, flips around agilely.

Dodges thrown oil drum, agile kick.

Dodges car.

Is called a “weapons expert, versatile practitioner of virtually all the martial arts, ex-prizefighter.”

This is probably a little hyperbolic, but he does unquestionably use a lot of skill, both in a highly trained “using difficult martial arts techniques” sense and in a “targets vulnerable body parts” sense.

TECHNIQUES

He’s skilled with a staff, with nunchucks (and again), and even esoteric chain-swords.

Uses esoteric weapons like a three-piece staff (an extremely awkward weapon) and claws.

Faced with four skilled fighters, he one-shots two of them, including the martial artist.

Uses a snazzy backwards kick.

This move shows ridiculous skill and agility. Kicks two guys over his head while doing a hand-stand. Think just how hard it would be to target these kicks.

Has some pretty fancy moves: disarms a gun while in a handstand, then grabs the guy around the neck using his legs, and throws him into another guy using his legs.

Pretty flexible—a very high kick.

Uses throws pretty often. Here he throws a guy who comes at him from behind, another guy who comes at him from behind, another guy on his back, the skilled fighter Midnight Man, the skilled fighter Conquer-lord, an LMD of Nick Fury, and the very skilled fighter Shroud.

ANATOMICAL TARGETING

Has an overall brutal fighting style, where “the cacophony of snapping collarbones and pit-pattering plasma is like whale-song to him.”

Kick breaks the arm of The Truth.

Methodically busts up a guy’s body.

He specifically targets weak points in a body:

• Ankle

• Fingers

• Knee

• Eyes

• Wrist and knee

• Chin, knee, chin

• Knee

He knows nerve strikes and weak points:

• Uses neck pressure points to chop two guys into unconsciousness, with his “rigid hands hard as oak.”

• Uses neck pressure point.

• Targets multiple weak points.

• Takes out two guys via nerve clusters.

• Takes out two more guys via nerve clusters.

• Can escape out of chains.

Deflection/Catching

Deflects lasers with gauntlets.

Deflects darts shot from mechanical armor.

Blocks an incoming thrown glass shard (by an expert thrower, natch) with his truncheon.

Marc catches an arrow.

Also see Multiple Simultaneous Attacks and Accuracy below for more detail.

Especially in volume 1, Moon Knight regularly uses simultaneously attacks on multiple people. He might kick one person while punching another. Or kick two people. Or throw one person while kicking someone. He also often hits multiple people with one strike. And again, yes other heroes do this. But it is clearly a part of his fighting style, and it would take a lot of coordination and technical skill to do it.

•Triple move: disarm/punch/kicks snow in face

• Triple move: two kicks and an elbow

• Multiple double moves: double punch, another double punch, a single kick, then a triple chop/chop/kick

• Multiple double moves: double kicks, then double bull rush for a double-disarm, then double blocks

• Multiple double moves: double throws, then a double bend-over-trip/flip and a punch

• Multiple double moves: triple disarm, then a single kick followed by a double nunchuck/punch

• Double move with triple targets: hits three guys with two kicks

• Double disarm

• Double move: grab/punch

• Double move: grab/kick

• Double move: two grabs

• Double move: punch and two kicks

• Double move: punch/kick

• Double move: punch/kick (on guys attacking from behind)

• Double move: punch/kick

• Double move: punch/kick

• Double move: punch/kick

• Double move: punch/kick

• Double move: punch/kick

• Double move: kick/throw

• Double move: kick/throw

• Double move: kick/throw

• Double move: throw/slash

• Double kick

• Double kick.

• Double upside-down kick.

• Disarms two people with one swing, then kicks two people with one kick

• Hits two guys with one punch

• Hits two guys with one nunchuck strike, followed by a kick

Moon Knight is renowned for his near-Bullseye-level throwing accuracy. He is most known for using his crescent darts, but also has a lot of feats throwing his truncheon. He often disarms people as his opening gambit.

Crescent in finger/disarm.

Crescent in foot/trip.

Crescent in hand.

Crescent in multiple guys’ chests.

Throws numerous crescents.

Throws crescents in both of The Truth’s eyes.

Takes guy down with a crescent throw at a significant distance.

Knocks gun away from hand with crescent.

While traumatized by Morpheus, and unsure of his new strength levels, hits him in the neck on second try.

Knocks glass out of hand with crescent.

While literally dying of thirst, he hits a small mic with a crescent.

Hits a tree after imbuing the crescent with his scent to distract a dog (more strategy)

Knocks money out of hand with crescent.

Hits multiple creatures in the eyes.

Pins shirt collar to the wall.

Pins shirt to the wall.

Pops a tire, and does it again.

Stops unique wrist gun.

Throws crescent into gun barrel across the street.

Slices through two gun barrels.

Knocks gun backward with crescent.

Deflects a hatchet strike with a crescent.

Deflects a thrown grenade with a crescent.

Slices a bullet in half (and crescent in knee).

Cuts Spider-man’s web with a crescent.

Cuts a distant rope with a crescent.

Cuts Daredevil’s grapple-line with a crescent.

Cuts wick of dynamite with crescent.

Slices a gun in half with crescent.

Cuts cigarette in half with crescent.

Disarm with a crescent, using a ricochet.

Disarm with a crescent, ricocheting the sword into Moon Knight’s hand.

Disarms three people with crescents.

Disarms three cops with crescents.

Disarms 14 times with crescent: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.

Disarms two people, with a crescent and truncheon.

Disarms with his truncheon.

Disarms with his truncheon (while holding it, not throwing it).

Disarms with truncheon, then the guy’s gun ricochets into his own head.

Disarms with his truncheon.

Disarms with truncheon.

Disarms with boomerang.

Disarms with boomerang again.

Disarms with grapple.

Disarms with held nunchucks then KOs with thrown truncheon.

Disarms with random chunk of metal.

Disarms with weird triple-laser gun he just picked up.

Disarms two guys with his truncheon and a crescent.

Disarms multiple guys with multiple different weapons.

Throws grapple while falling.

Catches ladder with crescent on a wire, while falling.

Trips with truncheon, four times: one, two, three, four.

Hits Daredevil in the head with truncheon while in a distracting environment.

Throws truncheon at head, six times: one, two, three, four, five, six.

Smacks two guys with one hit using the truncheon in his hand, then hits another by throwing it.

Hits guy in head with thrown nunchucks.

Throws truncheon in very small space in front of gun hammer.

Throws a bola to the feet, and a boomerang to the head, while he is falling.

Knocks down a camel with a bola.

Hits an eagle with a boomerang.

Breaks a chandelier’s light with his truncheon.

Throws dagger in heart.

In one of his most impressive examples of skill ever, He shoots an arrow so it intentionally splits on a guy’s sword and then shoots through the hands of the two people on either side of him so they can’t use their guns!!!!!

One thing I noticed is that Moon Knight, in volume 1, one-shots bad guys constantly. Sure, they’re fodder. Sure, other heroes do this too. But it was a pattern that stood out to me.

Here is an accumulated set of his one-shots. I know you can’t see the effects of every one to “prove” he knocked them out. You’ll just have to trust me, these are all people he knocked out with one hit. Some pages have multiple people who are one-shotted.

Again, yes I know other heroes can do this too. But it’s more of a pattern for Moon Knight than it is for most others, in my opinion. And it’s also fun to see all in one place.

I had somehow previously not realized before how well Marc can glide on his cape. He can go a fair distance, is fairly maneuverable, and is fast enough to catch up to a car.

He often uses it to glide in from behind someone and slam into them (examples one, two, three, four, five).

Gliding.

Gliding.

Gliding.

(This is only a small selection of his gliding feats, which are pretty ubiquitous.)

Marc was able to use “wall street wizardry” to turn his merc money into millions. This obviously takes some real ability and intelligence.

Shows off his detective skills.

Sometimes he has a closer relationship with Khonshu than other times. Either way, Khonshu may lead him places, as he does here or here.

His multiple personalities, his sometimes-possession by Khonshu, and his significant willpower have given him the ability to resist the Voice’s control (a powerful mind-controller) and hypnosis by a special-tech set of keys.

His experience with his multiple personalities, and mental instability in general, also allowed him to enter the “mind” of the Contagion that was taking over New York. Contagion took over an enormous host of heroes, including those with psychic defenses like Dr. Strange and Elektra. Moon Knight, however, survived mentally intact, and rescued several of them from the Contagion’s mental control while inside its mindscape. He was eventually overwhelmed, but was finally rescued by one of the people he had freed earlier. Regardless of the fact that he was overwhelmed at the end, he was the only hero who was able to resist the Contagion’s control.

Especially when under the control of Khonshu, he can control his normally autonomic body responses, like breathing.

Marc has clearly gotten some new powers from Khonshu as of the Conan crossover, Serpent War. He can see ghostly images and walk through a window’s glass. These and other new powers will presumably come into play in his role as the antagonist in the Avengers next week.

Basically, when Marc was first resurrected by Khonshu, he might have amped his strength, dexterity, and durability a bit, but not to obvious levels. He also occasionally gave him a sense that there was something he should do, but mostly he left him alone. Then he was bitten by the Werewolf by Night, and had increased strength under the moon for a while. Then that slowly went away, and he was normal again. Then he hooked up with the priests of Khonshu, and they amped his strength to new levels. Eventually, Khonshu straight-up possessed him in West Coast Avengers. Then Khonshu completely left him. His powers varied a bit from volume to volume after that. By 2014, he didn’t seem to show superhuman strength at the levels he had before. However, Khonshu now became more of a guide, giving him various buffs when needed. For instance, he gave him mystic armor to fight ghosts. And while it wasn’t explicit, I think it was through the intervention of Khonshu that Marc survived a fall from a plane, and a bomb in a house. His relationship with the moon god has continued to vary. However, I have tended to see Khonshu’s relationship with Marc as being more of a patron who steps in to help Marc out when needed than someome who gave him continual gifts of strength, etc. In his most recent appearance in the Serpent War, however, Khonshu has given Marc some new amps, and we’ll see where that leads.

I’ve kept to the time periods I am focusing on for these battles. There’s no Taskmaster here, for example.

FODDER/ANIMALS

Marc is attacked by a panther, is slashed by it, and hits it a couple times before Morpheus zaps it.

A jaguar attacks. Moon Knight quickly kicks it a long distance away.

Marc fights fodder constantly. He’s always fighting some criminal goons or soldiers or guards. Sometimes these fights are worth looking at because there’s just so many of them, and sometimes he just beats them up in a cool way.

This is just one nice example of seven guys who are clearly very strong. He one or two-shots all of them in a nice display of his simultaneous-attack skills.

Here he takes on a whole mob, and while he takes a bunch of hits, he leaves them all on the ground by the end.

Here he takes out a whole building of cultists along with some other allies. This is just one page showing him wading through guys.

In a nice early fight with some criminals, Moon Knight uses many of his signatures moves: simultaneous attacks, throwing someone, blocking someone form shooting, and dodging gunfire.

He fights a huge mob of Hand (he intentionally loses this fight to get inside Shadowland), and later he fights another huge group of them on the way out.

“Raid” battle. Moon Knight infamously invades a tenement in a style similar to Raid. These guys are all fodder, but he kicks their asses in an awesomely cinematic and brutal fashion. Beating the crap out of no-names has never looked so cool.

LESSER-KNOWN VILLAINS

Marc fights a guy who is putatively his brother, but really he is a random guy that was brainwashed into thinking he was Randall. Keep in mind that Marc was already hit straight in the chest with a hatchet before this. Marc throws him, then dodges and “Randall” is killed.

Here Marc fights an LMD of Nick Fury. LMDs are generally supposed to be pretty close to the actual abilities of the character; this one was made by Jake Fury, his brother, a highly skilled LMD creator.

Three Killers. Early Moon Knight often featured him fighting against a character with no other appearances, but who was said to be an expert in one particular form of combat or another, thus showing off Marc’s versatility in beating them all. Of course in our feats-based system of debate, this often doesn’t mean much. But if you take the statements as truth, here he defeats a gun-master, a master of knives filled with acid, and a strong guy specializing in sumo.

Conquer-lord 1: Marc interrupts Conquer-lord’s assassination attempt. They got back and forth a bit. The next issue then recaps that whole fight, with Conquer-lord running off.

Conquer-lord 2: In the rematch, Conquer-lord has set up a chess board with pieces that attack, and spaces that explode. Marc avoids multiple attacks by the pieces before closing. Conquer-lord again runs off, this time in his ship, but Marc follows and throws Conquer-lord out the door, holding him pinned in place.

Moon Knight beats Druid, an exceptionally strong but somehow not superhuman guy. As you can see, he’s capable of ripping a desk out of its attachment to the floor and throwing it, and kicking apart a massive stone column, lifting it, and surviving it falling on him.

Lupinar—Lupinar shows off his skills by quickly disarming three men in one strike. He mentions that Moon Knight has “mastered virtually every weapon devised by man.” They clash a number of times, then Lupinar kicks Marc back. Marc uses a crescent to disarm Lupinar and bounce his sword back to Marc. Lupinar, beaten, then impales himself on the sword.

The Truth. The Truth is a big physical fighter and also a mind-controller of sorts. Moon Knight takes him on physically, then shocks him with the distressing contents of his mind, and ends up putting crescents in his eyes.

This is a snippet of a big series of trials he has to go through, but this one page encapsulates this entire trial. His opponents are: two sadists who are not necessarily big fighters (the guy with the hatchet and the guy with the mohawk), plus a guy who is a mass murderer and a successful serial killer over decades and is thus presumably a good killer (the guy with the bat), and the woman who is an extremely successful professional killer (as described in the Dodging section above). So a mix of skill levels. One reason to believe they are decent opponents is that it’s the fifth trial to get into an elite sadists’ club, and each trial is supposed to get progressively worse. So this is intended to be a hard fight. Regardless, it’s a worthwhile scene for the clear grace, ease, brutality, and efficiency with which he beats them, and especially the supportive text, “Trial? Nah. Spanking.”

SHIELD cyborg. Marc takes on an ex-SHIELD agent who is now a cyborg in a nice example of tactics, speed, and accuracy. First, Marc throws a crescent away, pretending to disarm himself but really banking it off a wall and messing up the guy’s machinery. Then he bullet-times the guy’s shot, blocking it with his crescent and deflecting it back at the guy, taking him down.

BIGGER VILLAINS/MAIN ADVERSARIES

Werewolf by Night 1: This is Marc’s first appearance. According to all the explanations of the time, Marc should have no enhancements here. He gets his first enhanced werewolf-strength after this fight, and has no Khonshu powers yet. However, he manages to fight on equal footing with the decidedly superhumanly-strong, -fast, and -durable Jack Russell in an protracted battle. He does this partly by using silver weapons, which are a weakness for Russell, but he is also obviously just a good fighter, and knocks Werewolf by Night out. However, Jack wakes up and they fall into the water where Marc once again temporarily takes him out and pulls him onto the pier. They battle again with multiple hits on both sides, WWBN noting that “It was impossible. I’d slashed, clawed, mauled, and choked him—and he wanted more, still more--!” Finally WWBN gets the advantage this time, but then he turns back to human. Overall, Marc beat him solidly once, temporarily again, and was losing the final clutch—an impressive score for any human, even with silver weapons.

Werewolf by Night 2: Marc and Jack again trade several blows, and are eventually both knocked out after falling off a roof.

Black Spectre 1: when Marc first fights Spectre, a military vet who has been training intensively due to his inspiration by Moon Knight, Marc takes a spiked glove in the face, a mace in the shoulder, and then a kick in the face. It’s not a good scene.

Black Spectre 2: When they meet again, Marc has already been shot in the shoulder. Then Black Spectre kicks him in the back, and stabs him in the chest. Marc then wills himself up, takes out some fodder, and knocks Spectre off the building. They fall several stories into a spotlight. Only Marc gets up, despite his multiple serious wounds. This is not so much a win by skill as by guts and endurance.

Bushman 1: Bushman is Marc’s main adversary. Marc dodges a shot, then basically beats the crap out of Bushman.

Bushman 2: In this fight, Marc takes him out pretty quickly after just a bit of a struggle.

Spider-man: Marc and Peter fake this fight to trick some criminals. Note that Marc manages to hit Spider-man on the head with his truncheon, clearly surprising him despite his spider-sense—and it is a hard enough strike to make Peter yell out, so it was the kind of attack his spider-sense should have warned him of.

For comparison, here Marc and Pete fight for real in their first meeting. Peter knocks Marc away from a criminal he’s interrogating. Marc dodges his webs, then slices another web with his crescents—both despite Pete having superior speed and spider-sense. Peter shows that speed, dodging Moon Knight’s first punch. Then Marc turns his attention to the criminal, and Spider-man jumps on Marc from behind. Moon Knight throws Peter off his back, and the fight ends when Cyclone shows up.

Marc fights the Bogey Man. Marc flips over a really tall creature, shooting upside-down. He takes a hit to the head from the superhumanly-strong monster, but Marc just shoots the hell out of it. I would note that Marc is supposedly doing this without Khonshu, but that’s a pretty serious flip for a baseline human.

Shroud: Shroud is a highly-skilled martial artist with Darkforce powers. They go back and forth several times, but Moon Knight ultimately takes him down.

Daredevil: A context-heavy fight. Moon Knight impressively cuts Daredevil’s line, despite his radar sense. Then they go in an arcade, where Daredevil’s senses are confused by the sounds. They both tag each other a couple times before realizing they’re on the same side. A decent showing for Moon Knight regardless of the distraction of Matt’s senses.

Black Knight: Black Knight, impressively, blocks some of Moon Knight’s throws, but then Marc throws several at once and trips Dane up. The Black Knight gets out, and destroys Moon Knight’s axe, but then Marc tricks him into thinking he got stabbed, and bonks Dane on the head for the win.

Moon Knight takes on the Thunderbolts. He dodges multiple attacks from the superhumanly-fast Venom, trips him with his grapple line, then disappears on him. He throws crescents at Moonstone, but those are blocked by a field from Songbird. Then Andreas von Strucker comes out to fight. Von Strucker used to be one of the two members of Fenris, but now he uses the Swordsman identity. He cuts Marc, then Marc blocks the next strike and sweeps him, then knees him to the ground. (Those last two panels are Radioactive Man preparing a blast, but being hit by an attack from the outside; since he also wears a hood it sort of looks like Marc is being hit by the blast, but it’s not.) I’m including this because I used to think this was the original Swordsman, and it’s not, and I wanted to correct my record on that.

Marc has a rematch with Von Strucker. Marc closes in pretty quickly and starts choking him out. Von Strucker in unconscious when Venom attacks, giving Marc a huge claw strike and knocking him into some cannisters. Marc, however, is still well enough to do a flip out of the way. A bomb goes off and Marc escapes, getting all the way back to his base before collapsing. It should be noted that Venom is a multi-tonner and his claws are very serious weapons; for Marc to survive this is impressive.

Hyde. I’m just including this because it’s ridiculous, really. This is the 2011 volume. Hyde is able to fight Thor. Marc is able to cause him pain by punching him, is hit by a van thrown by Hyde without dying, and ultimately knocks him out.

Having finished the Fights section, I realized I didn’t include all of Marc’s fights from his last two volumes. I’ll add more of those later.

This is kind of an appendix. Marc’s erstwhile girlfriend (and now mother of his daughter, Diatrice) Marlene’s skills are sometimes ignored. She was rarely just the girlfriend in distress. She often went on missions with him and was a fairly good fighter. These are only some of her feats.

She fought the highly-skilled bodyguards of Arsenal on a variety of occasions. Here she beats one and takes her place. Here she beats another. Here she beats two at once.

Here she trains with Marc, and here she takes out a bodyguard.

Fights with a hitman.

I thought I had this stuff pretty much complete, but in writing it up I’ve found areas where I want to add some more material. So I will do that in the coming months.

It is also possible that I will slowly backtrack the periods I am covering. For instance, I put in a few feats from 2000-2013 in here, but not a ton. I may eventually put in all of the 2011 volume, and then Secret Avengers, etc. We’ll see how I feel. But overall I like the “mostly unpowered version of Moon Knight” that I’ve presented here, with some Fist of Khonshu/West Coast Avengers for contrast.

Hellcat, aka Patsy Walker, is a fascinating character for many reasons. She is unusual because she was originally a mega-star in Marvel’s pre-Marvel romance comics, starring in multiple long-running series. These were similar to the Betty and Veronica stories in Archie comics. Her first appearance was in 1944. More than a third of her total appearances are from these romance comics.

The romance comics actually crossed over into Marvel modern (post-Fantastic Four) era, but were dwindling. Then in 1965 Marvel decided to have her show up in the Fantastic Four annual where Reed and Sue got married, bringing her into the 616 universe for the first time.

They soon had her interacting with Beast in Amazing Adventures, where she left her romance-era husband Buzz Baxter and blackmailed Beast into letting her hang out with the Avengers, which was her dream. She managed to find a copy of Greer Nelson’s original Cat costume (Greer is now known as Tigra) and, putting it on, became Hellcat.

She went on a couple adventures with the Avengers, but turned down the opportunity to join permanently in order to instead take Moondragon up on her invitation to train Patsy’s mind and body on Titan. She did so, learning fighting skills and mental powers under Moondragon’s tutelage. She returned to Earth and joined the Defenders, where she became one of their core members for years (1977-83; issues 44-125).

Her Titan-trained psychic powers lasted only a little while; Moondragon took them back during an adventure involving Omega the Unknown. However, they occasionally showed up afterwards on a somewhat random basis.

During that time, she met and fell in love with Daimon Hellstrom: America's daughter, "the girl who could be you," was paired up with the Son of Satan. Both she and Hellstrom went through a phase where they wrangled with their real and believed parentage. For a time, Patsy believed she was the daughter of Satan, just as Daimon was the son of Satan. However, this turned out to not be true.

This story with her mother was the first in-universe explanation of Patsy’s long sojourn in romance comics. Those comics, which were printed in actual reality, were also printed in-universe. In 616, Patsy was a child star, the focus of a whole world of comics and cross-platform publishing. Patsy’s mother controlled her in this career with a domineering hand. Eventually Patsy left that career, and her mother; hard feelings existed on both sides. Eventually this led to her mother trying (and failing) to sell Patsy’s soul. Today, Patsy continues to be famous in 616 for her work as a child star, as well as her more recent career as a popular author.

Back to the story: Patsy eventually married Hellstrom (a wedding which was marred by the appearance of her ex, Buzz Baxter, now a supervillain called Mad-Dog). Patsy and Daimon left the Defenders and started a paranormal investigation business. This went well for a while, but Daimon became more unstable and eventually regained his Darksoul, which Patsy helped to happen. The reality of his dark side turned her insane and she killed herself.

Patsy spent years in hell, fighting in the pit of the damned, often alongside fellow-deceased-Avenger Mockingbird. There she gained even more fighting skills. She was resurrected due to a scheme by Hellstrom that involved tricking Hawkeye into thinking he was rescuing Mockingbird.

Alive once more, her powers changed. She now had the ability to sense and avoid magic. She was involved in several solo or small-group mini-series, including Hellcat, where she solved a war between Mephisto, Dormammu, and Hellstrom; Patsy Walker: Hellcat, where she had magical adventures with native Alaskans as part of the Avengers Initiative; Marvel Divas, where she, Black Cat, Firestar, and Monica Rambeau took on Hellstom and other issues as a group of Sex and the City-like friends; and Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat, which portrayed her at a younger-seeming age and was told in a more all-ages format. The 2020 Iron Man featured a thoughtful, mature investigation into her mental health and brought back her psychic abilities. The 2023 Hellcat volume brought her back to the west coast and amped up the supernatural factor, with Patsy becoming more and more imbalanced. She has also been featured in various volumes of She-Hulk.

Normally a respect thread wouldn’t go into all that history. But it’s important, because there is confusion about where she gets her powers.

Recall that Patsy found the original suit of the Cat. She put it on, and got the Cat’s powers, because the suit was what gave the Cat her powers.

Except that that wasn’t actually the case. Greer Nelson got her original Cat powers through an experimental treatment that directly affected her body. She had the powers long before she wore the suit. So wearing the suit should not have given Patsy any powers.

But, that’s how they explained it, so that’s what happened. Except, after a few years in the Defenders, they pointed out that Patsy had replaced all the parts of her suit many times due to wear and tear, so the suit couldn’t be the origin of her powers, and that she was just as athletic without the suit on. They showed her wearing one pair of the uniform while holding another pair and talking about how it got wrecked. There was not much of an explanation for how she got so athletic, other than that she surfed a lot as a kid. This also didn’t explain her clearly-super strength.

The first OHOTMU follows this explanation. It says "she believed that the costume had somehow enhanced her agility and speed, and by the power of suggestion more than anything else, it had." It then goes on to say she has "no superhuman physical abilities," which you will see is clearly not true.

Soon after the previous scene in Defenders, Patsy came to believe she was the daughter of Satan, and Satan explained that the suit did sort of have powers, but it really just brought out the natural athleticism she always had. Seemingly, the suit transferred its powers to her, or in any case its effects permanently affected her.

But, then it turned out Satan was lying about being her dad (here, here, and here), so he could well have been lying about her suit, too. However, she was still seen leaping around alongside Beast without her costume in Defenders after that, so seemingly Satan's "the suit prodded her natural abilities awake" explanation was still the explanation for her powers. Years later, when Patsy was on a talk show, she seemed to support this idea, saying that she was “naturally athletic,” and the costume “augmented that.”

This would all change again. Shortly after leaving the Defenders, in an arc of West Coast Avengers, Patsy meets Greer Nelson, now Tigra. Nelson loses her Tigra form, so Patsy gives her the Cat costume, since it originally belonged to her. The story specifically explains how, by putting on the suit again, Nelson’s stats are increased, and she is able to defeat an enemy with similar stats. Then Nelson turns back into Tigra, clearly destroying the suit as one of the main plot points of the story.

So, if the suit is the source of the power, Patsy should definitely not have any powers any more, because that suit was definitively destroyed.

But, Patsy showed up again not long after, once again wearing the same kind of suit and still exhibiting her powers. I have seen an explanation online that this is possible because Nelson and the original suit-designer (Dr. Tumulo) saved multiple copies of the suit when it was originally made. But the original comic is very clear that Dr. Tumulo only took one, as seen in the original and a flashback, and anyway this doesn’t jive with the fact that the suit didn't give Greer Nelson her powers anyway, or with Patsy’s original explanation that she just replaced the suit parts as they wore out with normal cloth.

Very long story short: there have been specific plot-points, with concomitant feats, that have pointedly explained that the suit is the source of Patsy’s powers. There have also been specific plot-points, with concomitant feats, that have pointedly explained that the suit is not the source of Patsy’s powers.

One other powers-related inconsistency/evolution: remember that Moondragon trained Patsy to have psychic powers, which did not ever come from her suit—although they somewhat replicated powers the original Cat had (see The Cat's powers at the very bottom of this thread). Then Moondragon took these powers away. But, Patsy still used those powers on occasion anyway, without any real explanation as to how, other than that she was possessed by a demon at one point, who again, like her costume, may have woken up her natural abilities.

Later on, after she died and was resurrected, she got new, clearly innate powers—the ability to sense and deflect magic, but also the kind of random ability to magically and instantly change into her costume. So even though these magic powers were innate, they were still connected to her costume! This also made a nice link between the Cat’s original “intuition” power, Patsy’s Titan psychic powers, and her current magic powers. Patsy's psychic and magic powers have been amped up even more after the 2020 Iron Man and the 2023 Hellcat series.

Since then, there have been a few instances where they say her costume is the source of her powers—which makes no sense since there really is no normal physical costume that she puts on, she just creates it, and can use her agility without it. And this panel from Models, Inc. seems to make fun of the idea that her, or anyone's, powers would come from a costume.

My personal explanation, which is not at all backed up on-panel, is this: Greer Nelson gained her powers from an experimental machine. When she wore the original Cat suit, her body’s power-radiance transferred the aura of her powers to the suit. Patsy wore the suit, which then transferred its powers into her. Even though she kept changing the suit, Patsy’s powers would transfer themselves back into any new suits she wore—in addition to also staying in her own body. Thus, when she gave a suit to Nelson, it once again radiated its powers back into Nelson—but Patsy never lost her powers. (Nelson, however, lost her Cat powers when she turned into Tigra.) Then when Patsy came back from hell, she internalized the idea of the suit as the symbol of her powers, and changes into it as a mental reinforcement of her innate abilities. Even that doesn’t fully explain it all, but I think it’s the best shot.

All clear? Don’t care? No problem. Let’s get to the feats. I will say ahead of time, this will involve a fair amount of scaling, partly to dig into the Cat/Hellcat relationship, and also because a lot of Patsy's opponents are not well-known.

Alright one last detour we get to powers. Let's revel in Patsy's happy-go-lucky spirit, which I think is best encapsulated here as she punches out an Einstein clone and looks for an Oppenheimer.

Patsy considers herself to be the "best Defender." Ok, maybe that's not a trustworthy source :)

However, Scoundrel, who is a very effective thief that She-Hulk was unable to beat in a fight or stop from stealing things in attempt after attempt, and had experience off-Earth, said Patsy is "formidable."

She has enhanced dexterity, to near-Spider-man or -Beast levels; enhanced speed; enhanced strength, to around 1-5 tons; and enhanced durability, especially to blunt force.

She can magically change into her costume, sense magic, and deflect magic attacks.

She used to have mind-blasts and telekinesis. She also temporarily had a Shadow Cloak like Devil-slayer’s.

Her costume has claws on the hands and sometimes feet, and a grappling claw on a line that she can use to swing around or tie people up.

She is a fairly skilled fighter, with Avengers training; training from Moondragon, one of 616’s most-skilled martial artists; and years of combat experience in hell. Her signature move is a double kick.

Patsy’s official stats have always underestimated her actual feats to some degree.

The Deluxe OHOTMU from the mid-80s, soon after her time in the Defenders, says her strength is that of someone who engages in “intensive regular exercise”—which is to say, is normal human strength.

However, in the '70s and '80s, Patsy was throwing couches and breaking concrete with Hulk's face.

This modern data page (2005) describes Hellcat’s skills as being “an exceptional athlete and martial artist.” Her intelligence is 3, “learned.” Her strength is 3, “peak human,” up to 800 pounds. Her durability is 3, “enhanced.” Her fighting skills are 5, “master of a single form of combat.”

In this era, Patsy was drop-kicking giant wolves, tilting over SUVs, and swinging trees like baseball bats, so peak human is still low, but the other numbers are more accurate.

The current History of the Marvel Universe says that she has "notably enhanced agility."

Patsy's agility and acrobatics are her prime ability. She is close to Spider-man or Beast agility levels.

Spider-man says Patsy is “almost as fast and agile” as him.

Her agility is enough to work out alongside Beast, a regular gynmastic partner in both the Avengers and Defenders. She was capable of being thrown an enormous height in the air and landing on one hand, balancing on Beast’s one foot. (Notice she does this without her Hellcat uniform.)

Typical leaping and flipping around rooftops, partially using grappling claw.

Swinging all around the city using grappling claws.

Falls out of Daimon Hellstrom’s grip while flying 100’ feet in the air. Lands safely with no problem, with multiple flips.

Long Leaps

Leaping between mega-skyscrapers with significant distances between them.

More leaping between significantly-distant buildings.

Leaps multiple stories straight from the ground to a rooftop.

Jumps multiple stories by bouncing off a wall.

Jumping over a 12' or so fence.

Jumps all around She-hulk.

Leaps up to the top of a lightpole.

Leaps across an alley, balances on a railing.

Multiple long leaps.

Leaps multiple stories up using a swing around a flagpole.

Leaps to the fourth-floor windows of a building, using multiple flips but only one ricochet-bounce, while completely hammered drunk.

Then flips around over a big robot, again while completely hammered.

Acrobatics

Flips around for no reason, just because that’s who she is.

Has a friendly competition/playful game of agility with Tigra. See "Comparison with Tigra," below, but TD;LR is that Tigra should be more agile than her, and is herself spider-level in agility.

Rides two racing horses simultaneously by standing up on both of their backs.

A representative example of a totally unnecessary but skilled use of acrobatics.

Flips around a machine Nighthawk designed to catch him, for training, including doing a one-handed flip and dodging rings, until finally being caught and then doing flips while her legs are caught. It should be noted that Nighthawk is also a highly trained acrobat (that’s what he did before he had wings) and has superhuman speed at night, plus he has wings, so anything designed to catch him is a real challenge.

Flipping Fighting Style

Leaps and flips straight up above a giant monster and lands on its head.

Flipping-around fighting style.

Fights by leaping and swinging above the fray.

Fights by leaping onto people from above.

Starts on the back of a snowmachine, leaps off, lands on a polar-bear-monster’s head

Leaps on top of a bad guy, then later swings up again and steals his cape.

More flipping around above the fray.

Patsy quickly defeats a mugger by landing on him.

Because of her agility, Patsy can dodge pretty solidly. She's not a bullet-timer, but can dodge energy beams and bullets effectively.

Physical Dodging

Dodges giant ice monster’s claw attack.

Dodges giant monkey god’s sweeping arm, twice.

Dodges multiple strikes from She-hulk before getting hit.

Dodges punch from the superhumanly-fast Hyperion.

Dodges swooping attack from behind from Cap’n Hawk, after being warned.

Dodges punch from the superhumanly-fast Hulk.

Dodges bull-rush from the superhumanly-fast Hulk.

Dodges thrown metal from the superhumanly-fast Wonder Man.

Dodges bull-rush from Amphibion.

Dodged punch from Hulk and charge from Namor, who both have enhanced speed. They are in a ghostly form here but if anything are amped rather than hindered by it.

Dodges falling lamp dropped by mystical creature.

Dodges a bunch of snowball-like creatures.

Dodges debris thrown by demon.

Dodges demon’s strike.

Dodges sweeping anvil-arm from Awesome Android.

Energy Blasts

Dodges magic energy blast from Serpent Crown.

Dodges two blasts of hellfire from original Ghost Rider.

Dodges fire blast from Firestar.

Dodges multiple point-blank magic energy blasts from Mephisto.

Dodges multiple attacks from Red Guardian. And again.

Dodges blast from Volcana (singes boot).

Dodges magic blast from sorcerer.

Dodges multiple magic blasts from sorcerer.

Knocks Red Guardian out of the way of a blast, then dodges multiple energy blasts while escaping.

Dodges two blasts from Scorpio, plus a ruptured floor.

Dodges demon’s blast.

Guns/Projectiles

Dodges Foolkiller’s ray gun. And again.

Dodges three more blasts from Foolkiller.

Dodges multiple bullets.

Dodges bullets.

Dodges shots from Sagittarius and closes in to melee range.

Patsy's speed is not as obviously enhanced as her agility, but she is fairly fast. Remember that Spidey said she was nearly as agile AND as fast as him.

Patsy kicks a gun out of a guy’s hand before he can shoot. He exclaims, “But…that’s impossible! No one can move that fast!”

Patsy kicks a gun out of a guy’s hand before he can shoot.

Someone throws a knife. Patsy intercepts it.

A guy holds a gun on Patsy, point blank. She changes into her costume and knocks away the gun before he can shoot.

A guy holds a gun on Patsy, point blank. She grabs his gun arm and breaks a bottle on him before he can react. The narrator points out that “Patsy is faster than most people assume.”

Dodges a simultaneous attack by Triathalon (later 3D Man, he has triple-normal speed and strength) and She-hulk.

Grabs the flaming ribbon of a demon who is copying her, and has shown equal levels of agility.

Hank Pym is thrown off a skyscraper. Patsy, a distance away, see him mid-fall and is able to swing to him in time before he hits the ground. Someone reaches 150mph after 10 seconds of falling. He wasn’t falling that long, but it gives a general sense of how fast she must have reached him.

Patsy and Tigra catch Whirlwind, who is extremely fast. They make a note of the speed of their reflexes. He notes that almost no one is able to lay a hand on him. Whirlwind moves so fast that cops trying to grab him can’t see where he went. Whirlwind is fast enough to run up the side of a building.

He tries to attack her with his spinning moves, but she dodges out of the way. Tigra, whose speed should be fairly comparable, although higher, than Patsy’s, makes Whirlwind exclaim, “Nobody told me you really could move so fast!” He is shocked by her, and presumably Patsy’s, speed.

Patsy is able to hold her own with Tigra while climbing up a building; granted she uses her grappling claw.

Swishes around a pillar fast enough to hit her attacker.

Patsy is superhumanly strong. Her strength has varied over time, and her post-resurrection feats are somewhat better than before. I would overall rate her at a 1-5 tonner.

Lifting/Pulling

With Nighthawk, who is also a couple-tonner, holds together a giant Atlantean ship.

Swings sizeable tree (2’ diameter, 20’ long?) like a baseball bat.

Tilts a giant stone tablet, maybe four feet in diameter and a couple feet thick.

Tilts an SUV over on its side.

Easily lifts and carries Nighthawk.

Holds a giant bear-monster in the air with one arm.

Holds a giant yeti in the air with one arm.

Pulls Bruce Banner up on her claws, then carries him on her back while running.

Picks a guy up, holds him under one arm, and jumps across an alleyway with him.

Hitting/Throwing/Pushing/Carrying

Grabs and spins a huge bear-monster around in a circle so fast it blurs.

Drop-kicks a giant wolf-being a significant distance. Note that its head is bigger than she is.

Punches another version of herself through the air, for 15+ feet.

Throws a demon 15+ feet.

Kicks a guy out a window and across an alleyway.

Lifts and throws a couch a significant distance.

Knocks She-hulk backwards with a double-kick.

Knocks Hulk off plane with double kick.

Tilts over huge metal cauldron filled with liquid metal using double-kick.

Capable of physically wrestling with large demon.

And again.

Physically out-strengths muscular demon.

Punches large demon backwards.

Knocks out demon with punch.

Knocks polar bear-monster's head to the ground by landing on it.

Strong enough to knock this Yeti-guy, who is significantly heavier than her, off a ship, then hold him at her mercy.

Knocks down the much-larger Shocker, from the Mutant Force, with a double-kick.

Swings and tosses a giant Yeti-guy a long distance.

Smacks a ball up to the top in a classic carnival strength game.

Knocks down Cardiac with a kick.

Breaking Stuff

Lands on Hulk’s head, knocking him down and breaking chunks of concrete in the process.

Breaks stone chunks off Volcana with a crowbar.

While training on Titan, breaks a robot in half with a double-kick.

Breaks apart chains.

Kicks a door off its hinges.

Kicks a zombie’s head off.

Smashes three concrete blocks.

Punches off a car door, high into the air.

Kicks a fire hydrant off its foundation.

Hellcat has slightly-enhanced durability, especially for blunt force.

Blunt Force

Orka, who is around a 90-100 tonner, is treated in this story as a team-buster. He takes out Vision, Iron Man, Hellcat, Captain America, Beast, and Scarlet Witch in one single punch. They are captured. Patsy is the first one, out of all of them, some of whom have extremely high durability, to wake up. She then beats up her ex-husband.

She falls from a huge height, along with Valkyrie and Nighthawk (who both have enhanced durability). She is seen as being fine soon after.

Patsy falls off the side of a pretty high cliff, at least a couple hundred feet. She lands on a giant squid-monster, and is fine.

Patsy and Nighthawk are open-hand slapped by Dracula. Dracula was able to catch punches from Colossus at this time. Patsy falls to her knees (Nighthawk is prone and seemingly unconscious), but is up and about minutes later.

Piercing/Slashing

Tigra (mind-controlled) guts Patsy with her claws. Tigra’s claws can cut through steel and concrete. Patsy falls, but then gets up and is able to hold herself together long enough to KO Tigra. She is in the hospital later, but is OK.

Black Cat stabs Patsy in the shoulder. Patsy beats Black Cat, then seems pretty much fine afterward.

Is shot, temporarily dies, and goes to hell then comes back and beats up two cops. (This is connected to her recent magic amps; see that section below.)

Energy/Magic

Is blasted by a pretty enormous amount of hellfire from Daimon Hellstrom and temporarily goes down, but is ok.

A sorcerer blasts her directly with magic. It hurts, but she shrugs it off.

Rips a disk off a flaming android and isn't badly hurt.

Is shot in the chest point-blank by an energy pistol, falls to the ground off a quickly-moving Big Wheel, and is fine.

Gets blasted by Unicorn at point blank and is fine.

After her resurrection, Patsy has various magic-related powers.

Senses

Says she can “smell magic.” She was drawn to a mystic situation in Alaska by her “super-psychic sniffing abilities.”

Can “sense mystic energy.”

Can “sense mystic energies.”

Due to time in hell, now has “demon-sight.”

Could sense that someone was mystically controlling bedbugs.

While in hell, can sense magic traps, and find a pathway to their goal, that even Mephisto can’t sense.

Senses incoming magic attack before it happens.

Has "demon-sight" that can tell someone is not fully human.

Can see that people are actually disguised demons.

Senses that a guy is a dangerous demon before he attacks.

Senses the location of a demon who is mimicking her.

Can sense the name and exact location of a sorcerer.

Can see magic, but also normal invisible lasers.

When She-hulk implies Patsy is a normal human, Patsy points out that She-hulk asked her to use her powers two days ago.

Slipping out of Magic

While in Hell, she learned more about magic, and can now “twist and slide free of it, like a cat!” Escapes magic bonds.

Can “shift just so” and magic “glances off [her] aura like a polarized light off a screen.” Magic blast deflects off her.

Slips out of a magic bind created by Daimon Hellstrom.

Her powers can resist blasts from the wearer of the Serpent Crown, an incredibly powerful magic artifact. Notes how she can “slip free” of magical attacks. The attacker backs up the existence of this ability.

Was trained by Moondragon in “the powers of the mind," which includes psionic blasts and telekinesis. After a certain point Moondragon took these powers away. However, when Korvac started psychically connecting with her, her old powers reawakened, and then Moondragon intentionally improved them.

Older examples:

In an act of desperation, psychically blasts a huge number of heroes and villains, knocking them all out.

After Moondragon took her powers away, she was still able to psychically blast Dr. Strange backwards. He describes it as “quite…formidable.”

While Overmind, a powerful psychic (this is his “7 merged psychics” version), tries to read her mind, she accidentally blasts him backwards. He describes her mind as “quite formidable” and said the blast caused him “much pain.”

Psychically blasts demon of the Six-Fingered Hand along with the other Defenders who use their magic abilities.

Psychically blasts the Miracle Man, who has Hellstrom’s Darksoul, along with other Overmind: one, two.

Telekinetically lifts her grappling claws so they attach onto a tree.

Newer examples:

Telepathy: reads a rando dude's mind

Notes that she's telepathic and read her friend's mind

References her telepathy

Inter-solar system telepathy/astral projection and again

The Silver Surfer felt her telepathic call across the galaxy

Forces Korvac into a psychic landscape along with Tony

Patsy transports Iron God (Tony with the power of Korvac) into a telepathic landscape, also seemingly forcefully

Creates psychic illusions that temporarily trick Korvac

Telekinesis: throws back the Controller

Beyond her psychic powers, and beyond her previous magic powers, Patsy has gained new mystical abilities stemming from her various resurrections and trips to Hell--here are two slightly different ways of explaining it.

Seemingly reaches through floorboards to extract an Imaginator.

Blackheart says she's stronger in hell.

Tanks hellfire because she's used to it.

Tears out Blackheart's heart in hell.

Two ways of showing a scene where she "almost kills" Blackheart: one, two.

Blackheart sees what is in her and is afraid.

Sleepwalker sees what's in her and is frightened.

Hellstrom says she's the real threat.

See also her Devil-form, below.

Insta-changes into costume while disarming a guy.

Changes into costume. Does it again.

Changes back to normal clothes. Does it again.

Changes into new blue costume while trapped by magic.

Changes into costume while chained up.

Can make the costume whatever she wants.

Can materialize whatever costume she wants; had been wearing a blue costume but switched to yellow subconsciously.

Can change into just part of her costume: makes just her glove materialize.

Her costume was made by the magic cat people (the scientist who made it was a cat-person), using both science and magic.

IR lenses

The original Hellcat costume had lenses so the wearer could see in the dark. To my knowledge, Patsy has never specifically said her costume can do this, but it would be strange if it couldn't, since it has all the other capabilities of the original costume. Patsy can see things like invisible lasers just by using her mystic senses, however.

Insulated

Her suit is insulated against electricity. Here, Mutant Force’s Shocker created an electric field. She is dropped in it and survives with no problem.

Her suit is insulated against cold.

Claws

She has claws on her fingers, and sometimes on her toes. She can use these claws for combat, for climbing buildings, and for destroying hard materials.

Breaks chunks off giant rock Dr. Strange. Does it again.

Claws draw blood from Red Hulk.

Claws open the face of a sorcerer; not afraid to hurt people.

Guts demon.

Claws are on the hands, and sometimes on the feet.

Claws the uniform off AIM agent.

Claws are retractable.

Can claw through her own strong grapple cable.

Still has claws: one, two.

Grapple

She has grapple-claws that she can launch off both hands; they are connected by a strong cable. She can use this to swing around the city like Spider-man or Daredevil, to disarm, or to wrap up people's legs and trip them.

Grapples Ghost Rider off his bike.

Grapples Tiger Shark, who is swimming faster than harbor patrol boats, while on a swerving boat herself.

Wraps grapples around the legs of a giant monkey god to trip him.

Wraps grapples around Tiger Shark, who is a 50-75 tonner. Describes it as a steel-niobium alloy.

Grapples the highly-agile Black Cat.

Grapple-wraps a demon.

Grapples a car’s hood open.

Grapples huge machine; when Wonder Man pulls on the cables, they don’t break, but instead pull down the machine.

Uses grapple to pull down furniture on demon.

Swings on a grapple to grab Ruby Thursday, then pulls her up in the air and drops her.

Grapples a stalactite, then pulls herself up to double-kick Master Pandemonium with the momentum.

Grapples Bruce Banner and pulls him up off the ground.

Grapples a plane taking off.

Grapples a gizmo away from the superhumanly-fast hands of Whirlwind.

Grapples the Scorpio Key while it's in the air.

Sets up grapples so people can climb down them to escape a fire.

Pierces a guy’s shoulder with her grappling claws.

Shadow Cloak

For a while, she wore a Shadow Cloak just like the one Devil-slayer uses. She eventually got rid of it due to the danger it poses. You can teleport by wrapping the Shadow Cloak around you, you can control its ends like tendrils, and you can reach into it and pull out any weapon you want.

Pulls a dagger out of it and throws it.

Pulls a monster out of the Cloak—the only time this has been done.

Tangles up multiple women warriors and throws them.

Skilled in using its movement.

Uses her psychic connection to the Cloak to teleport through it, even when she’s not wearing it--something Devil-slayer never did.

Teleports from one dimension (earth) to another (hell).

Hellcatmobile

On a couple of occasions, Patsy drove a convertible sports car she called the Hellcatmobile. It had no discernable special features.

Her skill comes from three sources: the Avengers, Moondragon's personal tutelage, and fighting for years in the pits of Hell.

Accepted Moondragon’s offer to train on Titan. Moondragon is one of the most technically skilled martial artists in the Marvel Universe.

On a talk show, notes that Moondragon “really taught me skill.”

After being condescended to by She-hulk, Patsy takes her down and notes that she has “been combat training since, like, forever.”

Notes that she had “Combat training. Years of it.”

She fought for years in the Pit of the Damned in Hell, and increased in skill while there. Kicks the assault rifle out of a soldier’s hand.

She often fights using double-kicks, seen also under striking power. The following are all examples of attacks that use technical skill.

Uses an arm-throw on a guy.

Moondragon, an extremely skilled martial artist, describes a demon as “faster than he looks.” Patsy grabs the giant demon’s hand and flips with it, locking him. Patsy says she’s “not your pupil any longer,” and Moondragon agrees, saying “I…see that, Patsy!”

After a double-kick, she arm-throws a guy.

Grabbed from behind by two super-strong Lunatiks, she throws them both.

Throws a guard.

Lifts another guard to throw him.

Throws Satan.

Wraps her legs around Daimon Hellstrom’s neck and breaks it.

Tosses a sorcerer using a double-kick-throw.

Double-kicks Leo, then tosses him using a double-kick throw.

Chop to the back of the neck.

Uses an elbow strike to the neck.

After disarming a guy, chops him on the back of the neck, then rides him into a tree.

Disarms a sorcerer after closing in past his energy blasts.

Uses an arm-lock to disarm a guy, then a forearm strike to the neck.

Sends multiple guys flying.

Flying kick to the throat. And again.

Simultaneously grabs a guy’s nunchucks to hit another guy; blocks and grabs a pole-arm, and kicks another guy.

Simultaneously fights with two very unwieldy weapons that are used very differently--a polearm and nunchucks—while also kicking. Manages to target specific areas, like blocking incoming attacks, or hitting throats, while doing so.

Blocks five shuriken with one sweep of her nunchucks, showing incredible accuracy. Then kicks two guys at once, each with a different foot, which would be incredibly difficult.

Two separate, simultaneous kicks.

A classic Hellcat double-kick.

Fights a dinosaur with a spear.

Critiques a guy’s fighting form, then one-shot punches him.

Accurately throws dagger.

Athletic kicks.

Non-Fighting Skills

Picks a lock.

Hellcat has not gotten in a huge amount of one-on-one fights, but the ones she has been in have shown off her abilities well.

Vs Mind-Controlled Tigra

Patsy beats a mind-controlled, bloodlusted Tigra. Tigra slashes Patsy in the shoulder. It’s not clear if Patsy throws her or if Tigra jumps away. Tigra slashes through a chair and Patsy pops her on the head with it, collapsing Tigra to the ground in pain. Tigra severely guts Patsy with her claws. Now Patsy is on the ground in pain. Then Patsy knocks Tigra on the head with a rock and knocks her out, and keeps her from falling off the roof. Patsy wins, and stays awake long enough to call for help.

See "Comparison with Tigra" below for why this is impressive.

Vs Mind-controlled Valkyrie

They fight evenly, but with context.

Patsy pulls a sword out of the Shadow Cloak, and manages to hold her own in sword-fighting against Valkyrie, one of the most skilled warriors in Asgard. As she notes, “I don’t know the first thing about sword-fighting, and Val practically invented it!”

Patsy uses her agility and speed to dodge Val’s strikes. Even Val is amazed how fast she is, saying “How can you move so swiftly?” Val eventually disarms her, then Patsy is able to remind Val of her true self.

One reason Hellcat can keep up with Val is because Val is cursed by a spell from the Enchantress, which keeps her from fighting women. By fighting Patsy, Val becomes weaker. However, Val is still a 45 tonner to start off with, and has been able to find ways to win against women in other situations. When she fought this woman on the first page, Val moved faster than the eye, employed her enhanced strength, and used pressure points to avoid having to use more direct violence; on the third page she uses her durability in a tactical way; she dodges effectively, and causes harm by using a trip and by causing damage through the medium of a chair instead of directly.

For Patsy to do as well as she does here, it requires great skill and speed.

To give a baseline sense of Valkyrie: she was fast enough to routinely deflect bullets at the time (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). She beat (at least for a temporary take-down) the highly-skilled Lady Deathstrike, and was strong enough to throw tanks. So even when fighting a woman, like did with Hellcat, Val still had plenty of options to take her out. It's a solid feat for Hellcat.

Black Cat 1

Beats Black Cat.

Patsy jumps on Felicia. Felicia throws a kick which Patsy grabs. She throws Black Cat against a wall and grapples her.

Black Cat 2

Patsy beats Black Cat again.

Black Cat, who has defeated and fought evenly with numerous Spider-man villains such as Scorpion, and is both agile and skilled, stabs Patsy.

Patsy quickly leaps over her, grabs the knife, and puts her in a submission hold. Patsy is then sucked into a magic bag by someone else.

Felicia's pretty quick wins over Black Cat are pretty solid. Black Cat, who has multiple black belts, is often underestimated, so here's a quick run-down on some of her fights:

• Felicia beats Spidey through his holding back and using strategy/the environment, then he beats her, then she wins.

• Felicia stomps Silk when Silk is tired; then beats her again, then beats her again. I don’t know a lot about Silk's exact abilities in relation to Peter, but my understanding is that she is not as strong as Peter, but is more agile and has a better Spider sense.

• Felicia beats an early Sabretooth; like Wolverine, his healing factor back then was not as good as now, but he was still a formidable foe even then.

• In maybe her best fight, Felicia fights equally with the Lizard, who is stronger and faster than Peter, and he definitely does not hold back here. She eventually wins by kicking him off a roof, but she was fighting absolutely equally—claw for claw—with him throughout.

Given the dexterity and skill that Black Cat already shows in her first fight with Patsy--for instance when she flips through a laser grid, deflecting lasers off mirrors on her arms and legs to specific targets--Patsy's two clear wins over her feline foe are excellent testaments to her fighting ability.

Lunatik

Valkyrie, Nighthawk, and Hellcat each fight a copy of Lunatik. Lunatik is superhumanly strong, durable, and agile. Patsy beats him.

Val’s fight with a Lunatik shows that he is strong enough to break a lamp-post and knock down Valkyrie, skilled enough to fight the sword-master Valkyrie in weapons-fighting, can take two hits from her and still fight, and agile enough to balance on the end of his pole and bounce off a tree.

Hellcat double-kicks her Lunatik in the back; he tosses her, then spanks her in the butt with his pole. Then she wins with an unanswered set of a kick, a double-kick, and a double-neck-chop.

Here’s an earlier, longer fight between Valkyrie and Lunatik, a later one with multiple Lunatiks against Valkyrie, and a fight between Lunatik and three Defenders plus Spider-man, to give more of a sense of Lunatik's abilities.

Mad-Dog 1

Patsy easily beats Buzz Baxter when he is a normal human.

Mad-Dog 2

Buzz gets powers and becomes Mad-dog, and attacks Patsy’s wedding to Hellstrom. He fights a whole team of Defenders and loses, but succeeds in drugging Patsy.

He is a couple-tonner, with enhanced agility, durability, and drugged fangs.

He is tough: he is hit twice by the master martial artist Moondragon, then psi-blasted by her. He is able to throw her and knock her out. Then he tosses Hellstrom and is about to hurt Patsy when Moondragon psi-blasts him again.

He punches Patsy, but she shrugs off his superhuman blow. She kicks him, then he drugs her with his fangs. Luckily Moondragon and Hellstrom finish him off.

Mad-Dog 3

Mad-dog kidnaps Patsy but she beats him.

Baxter drugs Patsy again. She wakes up, still affected by the drug.

She elbows him, but he locks her arm. He kicks her on the ground. She claws him multiple times on the chest, then he punches her off. She bites him, then kicks him off, then knocks him out by smacking his head into a crate.

This fight shows she can beat someone with similar levels of enhanced strength, who is a trained soldier, and she can absorb superhuman blows—all while drugged.

Patsy and Beast vs Squadron Supreme members Cap’n Hawk, Amphibion, and Tom Thumb

In her first major superhuman fight, Patsy and Beast team up against against multiple Squadron members. Patsy takes out the superhuman Amphibion on her own, but is caught in some glue. Beast finishes off the others.

Spars Mockingbird

While in Hell, Patsy and Mockingbird spar evenly.

They aren’t trying to win, just talk while fighting, but fight at the same level. Mockingbird is a very trained fighter. They both dodge bullets at the end.

Mockingbird can fight evenly with Hawkeye, and is fast and skilled enough to dodge and deflect his arrows. (This is technically an LMD, but one proven to be as accurate as the real Hawkeye.)

Sorcerer

Defeats a sorcerer.

A sorcerer blasts at her, but she closes in past his attack and claws him cruelly in the face. He hits her with a blast and she shrugs it off. She dodges several more blasts, disarms him, kick-throws him, and has him at her mercy.

Five Magic Ninjas

Patsy beats five magic demon-ninjas, who are all armed.

They try to capture her with magic, but she escapes it. Then she puts on a master class of fighting unarmed against multiple armed opponents, taking their weapons and using them against them, with great precision. Most impressively, she simultaneously wields a polearm and nunchucks, which would be incredibly awkward, and deflects five shuriken with one swipe of her nunchuks.

Satan and Demons

Patsy beats some demons.

She throws one demon and kicks another in the face. One demon grabs Patsy from behind. She double-elbows it, then knocks it off with her powerful butt! Then she throws Satan (in a semi-human form) and punches him several times, then lifts him to throw him once more—but transforms into a semi-demonic form herself due to his magic. He points out that no normal human could do to him what she has done, even before she transforms.

Nightmare

In a casual montage-style scene, Patsy is seen kicking Nightmare off a wall with the implication that she somehow wins the fight.

Three Demons

Defeats three demons.

Physically beats up muscular demon, and ends up gutting it with her claws. Ties another one up with her grappling line. Then physically beats up a third demon.

Four-armed Demon

She beats a skilled, four-armed demon with multiple weapons.

She dodges numerous near-simultaneous attacks with weapons that have a long reach, then closes in past his many weapons and two-shots him with a kick and a face-claw.

Four Demons

Beats four super-strong, armed demons.

She dodges the first demon’s attack and uses a hand-lock to put him on the ground, uses a double-kick-toss to throw a second one into the first, dodges and then claws the third, and knocks the fourth off a ledge.

This fight doesn't look big, but features a nice combination of skill and ferocity.

Doombots

Single-handedly destroys at least 22 Doombots, knocking many of their heads off.

Note that she is not wearing her Hellcat uniform.

These seem to not be the most powerful Doombots, but Doombots can be serious foes. For example, one Doombot took repeated blows and blasts from Luke Cage, Carole Danvers, and Jessica Jones. Another took repeated blasts from Victor Mancha and Karolina Dean. Others are more easily defeated. However, Reed Richards does say that a Doombot is supposed to be able to stand in for Doom, and be just as effective as him.

I don't want to make too big a deal out of this; I don't think these are top-of-the-line Doombots. But beating 22 of any robot at once is pretty damn good.

Many Mind-controlled Women

Patsy has the Shadow Cloak. At least 9 mind-controlled female scientists attack.

These women are not trained fighters. Patsy defeats them while having to hold back from hurting them, and one by one taking away their mind control. The end of the fight isn’t shown on panel but it is clear that she wins.

Zombies

Helps She-hulk defeat a horde of zombies.

Avengers vs Dead Avengers, including Patsy

Patsy transformed into a more devilish version of herself on a couple of occasions, when influenced by demons like Satan and Avarrish. She was able to blast people with mystic power in this form.

"Stuns" Daimon Hellstrom with a blast.

Simultaneously blasts Dr. Strange and Valkyrie.

Blasts Strange, knocking him out.

Blasts Namor, Hulk, and Hellstrom powerfully enough to make them all kneel.

Resists Hellstrom’s exorcism and hellfire, knocking him out.

Knocks down Valkyrie with a blow, and lifts and throws Nighthawk.

Strong enough to choke Valkyrie.

Recently transformed into her demon form again after being put through a magic "True Form" door: pic one and two.

Releases her energy in a giant blast, knocking Daimon out of the lighthouse in flames.

Beats on Blackheart.

Beats on Sleepwalker.

Obviously, Patsy's powers and history are very intertwined with those of Greer Nelson, The Cat/Tigra.

Greer Nelson: From the Cat to Tigra

First, Hellcat’s suit, which most stories describe as the source of her powers, was originally designed for Greer Nelson, when she was The Cat. (As described in the intro, the original Cat stories said Greer got her powers from scientific experiments that directly affected her body, but this has been ignored since then.) So Cat-era Greer Nelson feats should pretty much all be replicable by Patsy.

Dr. Tremulo, who made the suit, says it was “designed to give outworlders the powers of our people through artificial means.” It succeeded and made Greer “something very like an artificial Tigra.” So the suit is near-Tigra level.

However, Nelson has said that the Cat suit was “designed to extend any woman’s strengths, but especially mine!”, implying it might enhance other women less than it does for Greer. So the Cat may have abilities slightly higher than Hellcat.

Once Greer turned into Tigra, her abilities were enhanced.(somewhat contradicting the idea that the suit is Tigra-level on its own). Then they were enhanced again when she regained her Tigra form while wearing the Cat suit; seemingly the suit's powers and her Tigra powers were merged.

So, Patsy should have feats a few tiers below Tigra. However, this is not the case. When they fought against Whirlwind and Tiger Shark, they were equally effective. And when they fought recently when Tigra was mind-controlled, Patsy won.

The Cat's Powers: a Mini-Cat Respect Thread

Basic Description

Greer's powers as The Cat included enhanced strength and agility, enhanced intelligence and the ability to quickly absorb information. She had a sixth sense that was like intuition or empathy, where she could sense pain in other beings, as well as danger, and enhanced natural senses as well. These show the basics: one, two.

Other flashbacks to this scene that use slightly different descriptions of her abilities ("incredible physical power and coordination"): here and here.

So Patsy should theoretically have all these abilities, at basically the same level. However, there are also Cat feats and abilities Patsy has never quite used, like Cat’s enhanced normal senses, or sense of intuition, or hyper-intelligence. Patsy’s magical senses are likely based on, but not the same as, Cat’s senses.

The Cat's Senses and Intuition

Her senses can pick up sonar.

Can sense that a guy’s wounds are too bad for him to survive.

The Cat suit’s eyes have night vision. Seen again. Seen again. And again.

Senses danger.

Can follow another car filled with crooks with “radar-like sensitivity.”

Senses the presence of Dr. Tumulo.

Can pick a lock due to her “super sensitivity.”

Can detect how a machine works and immediately see any problems it has.

The other woman who underwent the treatment was able to memorize the complicated equipment used, and replicate it. Greer’s abilities “far exceeded” Shirlee’s.

The Cat's Strength

The Owl notes that she is “amazingly strong.”

Knocks Man-bull over.

Hits Man-bull so hard he reverts to human.

Breaks cables tying her hands with “relative ease.”

Smacks down extremely strong guy.

Shirlee, who went through the same treatment but not as effectively, lifts a guy and takes down some others with him.

The Cat's Durability

Takes a charge from Man-bull, who can overturn cars with the same attack.

When Man-killer punches her mid-flip, she takes it without a "wince of pain" and lands gracefully.

Man-killer's strength: punches through wall, breaks chunks off wall when she hits a guy into it. Makes Spidey get knocked back and cry out “woof!”

The Cat's Agility/Dodging/Speed

Spidey says she “almost” caught him. She punches Spidey: he gets dizzy, says “that lady really packs a whallop.”

Dodges bullets. Again. Again.

As the Cat, the narration says two characteristics that were heightened were “lightning reflexes and decisive action.”

The Cat's Skills

She simultaneously kicks two different guys and claws the rope off another.

Uses nerve strike.

Nerve pinch and two neck chops.

Uses a hand-lock and flip on Man-bull.

Throws huge guy with her legs, killing him.

Takes down a big guy with a knee strike.

The Cat's Gear

Basic rundown.

Flips down a wall, making holes in the brick with her claws.

Disarms a cop with her grappling hook.

Uses grappling claw to disarm crook.

Greer grapples a pirate who is running away.

Trips Man-bull with grappling claw.

Claws pierce steel.

Foot claws pierce concrete too.

Grapple-wraps champion of the cat-people.

The Cat's Fights

Fights evenly with the Owl in their first encounter (one, two), then chases him off when they see each other again.

Beats Man-bull.

Quick fight against Spider-man: one, two.

As Tigra

Tigra notes that she already had highly-developed senses, which became more refined as Tigra. She was also stronger as Tigra. Also confirmed here.

Dodges and deflects Hawkeye’s arrows.

Runs across animals’ backs in a way that “makes it look easy” but push Spidey to the limit.

Is “meters away” from Kraven but catches him, prompting him to think “Didn’t think she could move so fast--!!”

Bullet timer: one, two.

She was able to rip apart a robot that had been specifically made so that Wonder Man couldn’t break it.

Rips steel net.

Punches Trapster into machine, breaking it.

Can bend steel bars (and again).

Her claws can tear steel.

Is a skilled fighter and knows nerve-pinches.

Capable of temporarily fighting Werewolf By Night.

She has a long run of fights against Kraven where she typically does fairly well but then he wins through poisons or traps (fights: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), did OK against Spider-man with some context involved, and fought evenly with Spider-woman, who was holding back on her venom blast, but says about Tigra, "She's an acrobatic wonder! She moves better than I do!"

Takes out multiple goons who have guns trained on her (one, two).

Tigra displays significant agility and endurance when Dr. Doom tests her and Moon Knight in a room full of weapons. They have to constantly dodge or destroy all kinds of weapons, including a swarm of missiles, bladed weapons, and flames, for about an hour and a half. (Note that Moon Knight intentionally lets himself get knocked out so the spirit of Khonshu can visit Doom and get them released.)

Since we've spent so much time talking about Patsy's costume, I thought it would be fun to just drop these pics in here. Patsy, on this show, is a whole other ball of wax that maybe I'll deal with somewhere else someday. But I enjoyed how much they focused on her in the show, and really brought Hellcat alive in the last season.

OK, actually this was in a Spidey Super Stories issue. But it was awesome! I am mostly just putting this here because, Thanos-Copter aside, not everyone seems to know this is a non-canon series. It was a kids' series sparked off the Electric Company show.

Devil-slayer is an ex-marine and ex-mob hitman with a long history of PTSD, alcoholism, insanity, and existential despair. He spent time with a demon cult, learning their ways before turning against them. He was a member of the Defenders, and then later was a member of the Avengers Initiative. Payne's long history of mental disabilities, stemming from his original PTSD and the trauma of working with and fighting demons, eventually culminated in a breakdown where he was situated in an asylum for a time. He has recently, and somewhat against his longterm character arc, had some brushes with criminality, working with Wonderman’s Revengers and being sighted in the Pleasant Hill prison.

Devil-slayer is a natural psychic, with telepathic, telekinetic, and “6^th sense” (danger sense) powers. He can create limited illusions and has very limited mind control. He also has a Shadow Cloak, which he gained from the cult. The Shadow Cloak contains a portal to another dimension, somewhat similar to Cloak from Cloak and Dagger. He can wrap himself or others in the Cloak and teleport to that dimension, then reappear in another location in our dimension after essentially no time has passed (which is also how Nightcrawler's teleportation works). He can reach into it to grab weapons from other dimensions. He can also control the ends of his cape like tendrils, allowing him to grab people with them.

Devil-slayer, who is white, was married to a woman named Corey, who is black. This was a highly unusual interracial marriage both in reality and especially in mainstream comics publishing, for the time it was first shown in the 1970s, so the character helped break ground in that area. His marriage was also notable for the realism with which it was written, as it showed them having real strife and marriage problems, based partly on his violent nature, but also on her religious evangelism, which he did not share. They eventually divorced, and later she was killed.

I will be using some other characters to scale Devil-slayer's abilities, especially Valkyrie, and I will also show several other individuals who have used a Shadow Cloak. I will provide all the background information on these folks at the end of this post. The key thing to know about all the other Shadow Cloak wearers is that Devil-slayer is more experienced at using it than any of the others are, so he can do anything they can do. Devil-slayer does not have a huge number of appearances, so showing these subsidiary Shadow Cloak wearers provides useful additional insight into its powers.

His most prominent psychic power is telekinesis. He can use it to lift someone of approximately his own body weight, as he does here with cult leader Vera Gemini.

He has fine-tuned control over small objects as well, as he shows when he jams Deathlok’s gun:

He can also use it to fly with somewhat limited maneuverability:

Gallery

He also uses his telekinesis to control the ends of his cloak like tendrils. He wraps the cape around people and holds them in place or throws them around. There is some ambiguity as to whether he does this entirely with his telekinesis, or whether the power is inherent in the cape.

The Cloak's tendrils are very strong: here he grabs the Hulk, lifts him up, and teleports him away:

Here he grabs Valkyrie (she has enhanced speed, as seen in Scaling at the bottom, so he is fast with the cape), Vera Gemini, Deathlok (who also has computer-enhanced reflexes), and the Agent of Fortune, who has the same Cloak (again, see Scaling at the bottom), grabs Dr. Strange.

Hellcat grabs several attackers at once and throws them.

Hellcat wraps someone up while simultaneously fighting hand to hand with other opponents.

His telepathy can be used to read surface-level thoughts, and to speak to others telepathically, within about 100’.

He can use it to translate other languages, and helped rid a friend of his heroin addiction.

He can also use it in more abstract ways, as he did to connect Valkyrie’s spirit with her sword Dragonfang, or to help Dr. Strange find something while in another dimension.

Here’s his original handbook’s description of his telepathy.

He can create an illusion to make himself look like someone else. Usually he does this to hide his costume, as he does below and here:

Gallery

But he can make himself look like anyone, and can hold it for a long time in front of a lot of people. For instance, when he was stranded in a South American village, he basically made himself look like Rambo for about a week straight.

Presumably he could create other kinds of illusions but he never has.

He has used his powers to make minor mental “suggestions,” as he does here when he makes the bar tender give him a drink:

This power has not been widely explored and he hasn’t used it in combat.

He regularly uses his “sixth sense.” This is a precognitive sense that warns him of danger or evil, and sometimes gives him an intuitive pull towards a place. It is nowhere near as developed as Spider-man’s spider-sense, and does not warn him of specific blows in the midst of combat. It’s more something that would warn him that combat is about to take place.

Here it warns him of an imminent attack of demons that are about to come out of his refrigerator, even while he’s drunk and fairly insane.

Here it warns him of his upcoming fight with Deathlok.

While fighting Valkyrie and the Hulk, he twice notes that he is surprised his sixth sense didn’t warn him about them—which is of course because it was a mix-up and they are not evil. But this supports the fact that his sixth sense would normally notify him of opponents’ presence.

Here he senses an upcoming Skrull attack all day.

Here he senses evil and death while in the jungle, and soon finds it in a village.

Here he senses evil, warning of demon magic in the Everglades.

His sixth sense draws him to graveyard where the Defenders’ enemy Null resides. This shows it has a locational sense--a general idea of where the danger comes from, which he can track.

In this same way, Clea uses her magic to draw on Devil-slayer's sixth sense when they are trying to find Gargoyle, showing again that there is a locational aspect to it.

So, his Sixth Sense may warn him of an attack well ahead of time, and then also immediately beforehand, and it may also be used to find the source of danger.

He can teleport pretty swiftly at short and long range by enveloping himself in his Cloak.

He not only uses it for transportation, but also tactically, during battle, and is able to do so quite quickly. Tactically, he uses it for optimal battlefield positioning, for BFR, and for evasion.

Here he swiftly teleports away as the Hulk rushes at him:

He teleports out of the hands of some guys:

Here a lizard creature pretending to be Devil-slayer tactically uses his Cloak for a quick “teleport-in and stab immediately” maneuver.

The Agent of Fortune avoids the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak, renowned for their speed, by using the Cloak.

Here another guy, called Slayer, uses Devil-slayer’s Cloak to swiftly teleport out of danger in the midst of falling during a battle.

He can also use it to tactically BFR someone. Here, the Hulk leaps at him and instead falls into the Cloak, where he is teleported back to Earth.

We also saw him BFR Hulk above.

Here are some other examples of what it looks like inside the Cloak's dimension: one, two, three.

The Cloak is capable of teleporting not only from one place on Earth to another, but also from Earth to another dimension; here they teleport to hell.

The Cloaks are also capable of penetrating mystic defenses. Here, the Agent of Fortune teleports directly inside Dr. Strange's well-protected Sanctum Sanctorum.

There do not seem to be any major limitations on how far Devil-slayer can teleport. He did become exhausted when he teleported a very large number of heroes in his Cloak multiple times in quick succession. However, he has otherwise never shown strain at teleporting.

Devil-slayer can grab all kinds of weapons out of his cape’s pocket dimensions in a way that has never been well explained. They can be literally almost any kind of weapon: melee weapons and guns; normal weapons and magic items; medieval and contemporary and future weapons. Seemingly they come from other places in the real world, not just in the Cloak itself, but this is not clear. It does not take a lot of skill to grab the weapon you want; Hellcat was able to pull weapons out without much training. The following is a list of known examples:

Devil-slayer often pulls out all kinds of classic melee weapons, for instance a morningstar.

Devil-slayer pulls out Dragonfang, Valkyrie’s fabled blade.

Devil-slayer pulls out an “anti-matter mace,” whatever that is.

Devil-slayer (in a variant costume) has some kind of laser-blasting spear.

Devil-slayer pulls out a normal pistol.

Devil-slayer pulls out wrist-rockets and a targeting helmet.

Devil-slayer can get weapons in huge numbers. Here he pulls out an entire arsenal of military weapons for a whole village to use.

Hellcat pulls out a dagger, also helpfully explaining how it works.

Hellcat pulls a sword out of the Cloak.

The portal can actually get pretty much anything, not just weapons. Here, learning how it works, Hellcat grabs a monster from another dimension.

Slayer pulls out a laser pistol.

Slayer pulls out a crossbow with some kind of gas bolts.

Slayer pulls out a shrinking bola.

Here he tells 3-D Man to pull something out in the middle of a fight; he grabs some kind of energy swords that he uses to kill a Skrull, again showing how easy it is to get a weapon you want from the portal.

Most uniquely, when the writers were clearly thinking about rebranding him as a character, he pulled a magic staff out of his Cloak, then lost the Cloak. (He later lost the staff and regained his Cloak). This staff allowed him to create a forcefield that protected him from a large explosion. He was also able to draw psychic energy from it to enhance his other powers.

Devil-slayer was a marine and a professional mob hit-man, so he has all the standard fighting and weapons skills one would expect from those careers.

Devil-slayer is particularly handy with weapons, and often fights two handed or with his off-hand:

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Here he displays the skill and speed necessary to deflect a magic demon blast with his sword:

Valkyrie, considered one of the most skilled fighters in Asgard, says his skill almost matches hers. The narration backs up her reputation by saying that she is a grand master of fighting:

Valkyrie is superhumanly strong, so a normal human like Devil-slayer would require great skill to fight in such a way that his blows were not constantly dominated by her strength. She also exhibited superhuman speed a lot in this era. See Scaling below.

Although Devil-slayer is physically a normal human, he has shown surprisingly good durability. On multiple occasions, he has been hit by a traumatically damaging blow, only to recover very quickly afterward.

Here the Hulk throws him through a wall. He is stunned, but Hulk wakes him up and he fully recovers immediately after, to the extent that he is then able to defeat Hulk by grabbing him and BFRing him.

Here a super-strong Skrull (during Secret Invasion) punches him in the face. He is knocked out but recovers “soon” after, as the narrative bubble says.

Here a demon from the Six-fingered Hand (relatively powerful demons) blasts him, and he recovers very quickly after.

Here he is just temporarily knocked down by a mystic blast from sorcerer Ian Fate, who is a good enough sorcerer that he can control demons, travel interdimensionally, and create illusions.

Here he takes a kick and a punch from Deathlok, who depending on the Handbook you read is a ½ ton to 2 tonner in his robot arm (he also has a robot leg, for the kick):

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If he gets stunned, he may have the presence of mind to teleport away for a few seconds while he clears his head, then come back, as he does in this scene with Deathlok after he takes a third hit.

Devil-slayer is seemingly a peak human in strength.

Here he lifts a pretty heavy guy above his head and throws him a decent distance.

Here he grapples with the super-strong Deathlok.

Here, in what is probably an extreme outlier, he punches Thing, knocking his head back and breaking off a couple pebbles of rock. (That's him in the top panel.)

Devil-slayer doesn't have a huge number of high-profile one-on-one fights. Many of his fights are against hordes of demons. But he does have a few quality fights against Deathlok, Valkyrie, and Hulk.

Devil-slayer’s first fight is one of his best, against the original Deathlok. It should be noted that Deathlok back them was around a 1-tonner, nowhere near a contemporary ~100-tonner Deathlok. Still, Deathlok was a formidable foe with tech, strength, durability, speed, a computer processor brain, and skill. Devil-slayer telekinetically jams his gun, impressively grapples with him, takes some punches and kicks, notes Deathlok’s strength and speed, grabs him with his cape, gets hit again and tactically BFRs himself, then brings Deathlok to his dimension and hits him with an anti-matter mace, whereupon Deathlok sues for peace. (His internal computer thought a second hit from the mace would be fatal, showing its power.)

Devil-slayer also fought Valkyrie and Hulk. He telekinetically grabs his original target, Vera Gemini, then clashes several times with Valkyrie (whose skill is noted in the narration, as pointed out above) before she breaks his weapon. He is tossed by the Hulk, and eventually grabs the Hulk and BFRs him and himself. This shows his skill at arms and his variety of powers.

Much later, a pretty insane version of Devil-slayer temporarily rips apart the Man-thing. Note that, famously, “whatever knows fear burns at the Man-thing’s touch!” but Devil-slayer has no fear and is unaffected. Man-thing doesn’t fight back, so this is mostly about damage output.

Most of his other fights are against various demons. For example:

Here he fights a horde of demons ruled by a sorcerer named Ian Fate (see especially page 3, where he takes out 4 demons in one swipe of his morning-star, onwards) to save what Devil-slayer thinks is his wife Cory, with help from Beast, Wonder Man, and Dr. Strange.

Here he fights a bunch of demons across multiple dimensions, while drugged so he can’t use any of his psychic powers, ultimately killing a pretty major demon, Balthazar (and then reuniting Valkyrie with her sword).

Here he fights a giant bunch of small demons that come out of his refrigerator where he is hiding his Cloak, while he is both drunk and insane.

Here he fights a demon across various dimensions, using his Cloak.

He and the Defenders fought a group of demons disguised as angels.

And sometimes he fights military targets:

Here he shoots up a small militia.

Here he shoots down 3 helicopters using gear he pulled from his cape.

All together, these fights show a clear competence with martial combat, often against a large number of creatures that presumably have higher stats than him, as well as with the highly-skilled Valkyrie and the trained future-apocalypse-soldier Deathlok

I will also note that Slayer, another character who temporarily had Eric's Cloak, was able to defeat the skilled and Super-Soldier-Serum-enhanced Nomad twice in a row, and knocked out a slightly-serum-nerfed but still fully-skilled Captain America. And unlike Eric, Slayer was a completely un-skilled fighter. More on Slayer and all the details of his fights under Scaling, but it is an example of how effective the Cloak can be.

Val’s reputation as an excellent fighter is well-earned, and not just statements.

Here she defeats Lady Deathstrike, after Deathstrike takes her by surprise. Deathstrike is a highly-skilled martial artist and long-time Wolverine nemesis.

Here she defeats Sif when they were younger, who is probably the next-best warrior in Asgard in terms of pure skill.

And here, just to show a completely different kind of fight, Val beats a giant snow worm monster, showing off various combat abilities.

Technical point: in the era that she fought Devil-slayer, Valkyrie’s spirit inhabited the human body of Barbara Norriss, and did not have the same level of strength as she does today. However she could still lift and throw tanks.

Valkyrie was also known at that time in particular for her bullet-blocking speed feats, so keeping up with her is impressive. Here Val shows her speed by spinning her sword fast enough to block fire, and to block bullets from single-shot and machine guns on multiple occasions:

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She continues to be able to intercept bullets in the modern era.

The Hulk is also much faster than many people give him credit for. When Devil-slayer is able to grab Hulk, or teleport out of the way when Hulk is trying to get him, or get Hulk in the Cloak when Hulk is coming at him, that’s good reaction time on Eric’s part. Here are just a few of classic Hulk’s speed feats (from the same era as the Devil-slayer fight):

Hulk moves with "unbelievable speed for one so huge."

“Like a living tornado, the Hulk spins himself around, causing Mr. Fantastic to unwind his body before the irresistable power of the incredible creature !”

Jack of Hearts : “It's impossible ! Nothing alive can move that fast !!” (Jack can fly at interstellar speeds)

And multiple examples of catching or dodging rockets/bullets: one, two, three, four, five, six. All images from this thread with many, many other examples.

The Agent of Fortune belongs to the demonic cult that Devil-slayer was temporarily a part of, and which gave Devil-slayer his Shadow Cloak. This cult is super-hierarchical. Every job category can only be achieved by beating someone at the level above. This particular guy is at the “Agent of Fortune” rank, which is below Devil-slayer’s rank, “Reaper of Souls.” This Agent wants to beat Devil-slayer so he can become a Reaper. But he can't. So again, anything the Agent can do, Devil-slayer can objectively do better, given the Cult’s very pragmatic ranking system.

The Agent of Fortune used the Cloak to dodge the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak. The Crimson Bands are very fast. As it says here, “no possible speed of flight” could avoid them. Here we see that Silver Surfer could be caught by the Bands (even if he can break out after), proving that the Bands can catch even those with very high speeds. Now, I am by no means saying that Devil-slayer is faster than the Silver Surfer in travel or reaction time. But clearly, dodging the Crimson Bands is a great example of how fast the Cloak's teleportation can work.

Patsy Walker took the Agent of Fortune's Cloak and used it for a while. Ultimately she got rid of it. She used it capably as a source of weapons on a couple occasions, but mostly used it for its tendrils capacity.

This seems to lend credence to the idea that the tendril usage of the Cloak is inherent in the Cloak itself, and doesn't come from Devil-slayer's telekinesis, but other times he makes statements to the contrary.

Also, unlike Slayer (below), Patsy had extensive psychic powers in this era, due to her training by Moondragon on Titan. She was capable, for instance, of unleashing a psionic blast that knocked out all kinds of villains and heroes at once, or knocked back Dr. Strange, and also exhibited telekinesis on her own. She eventually lost those powers. Nowadays, she has a psychic magic/danger sense. This innate psychic potential, however, is certainly why she is able to use the Cloak at all, and may be how she used the tendril technique.

Slayer is Dave Cox, a friend of Captain America’s. He was a pacifist Viet Nam vet, and is not a particularly skilled fighter. Red Skull and Sin got ahold of him and mind-warped him to turn him temporarily evil. They gave him Devil-slayer’s cape while Devil-slayer was in jail. The Cloak can normally only be used by someone with magic or psychic powers, but they modified it with tech to be usable by anyone. (That modified version of the Cloak was later destroyed.)

Cox attacked Captain America and Nomad using the Cloak. This Nomad was the Bucky from the 1950s, and has the Super Soldier Serum himself.

Slayer ambushes Nomad and beats him (off panel), then all three of them fight, and Slayer knocks out Captain America—certainly a rare feat. Then Nomad fights him again immediately after, and Slayer almost kills him before stopping himself by remembering who he really is.

There is context: we later find out that Nomad had been hypnotized into poisoning Cap, thus diluting Cap’s Super Soldier Serum. This left Cap, as he put it later on, feeling like his reflexes were much worse.

To sum up: a guy with no combat skills and without Devil-slayer's psychic powers was able to use Devil-slayer’s gear to very quickly knock out the Super Soldier Serum-ed Nomad, and then a partially-nerfed Captain America, and then beat Nomad again. Even with Cap’s serum partially negated, Cap’s tactical mind and skills were still fine, and the Serum was not totally negated (he doesn't even realize it is weakened until later).

Clearly, Devil-slayer, who is much more skilled, has more powers, and is more experienced with the Cloak, could have done even better in this fight.

The lizard man is from a race of mystic ancient lizard people who tried to take over the earth. He and his people defeated the Defenders. He took Devil-slayer's Cloak, and used magic to make himself look like Devil-slayer. Then he tried to trick Spider-man into helping his people. Spider-man eventually figured it out and the Defenders helped beat the lizard people. Since the lizard guy had almost no experience with the Cloak, Devil-slayer should be able to do anything the lizard guy could do with it.

Nat's general tier of peers would probably include characters like Moon Knight, Punisher, Crossbones, and Lady Bullseye (most of whom she's beaten), but she occasionally punches up to the Cap and Elektra level, and has fought more or less equally against Bucky multiple times now.

• Vs Captain America

Takes out Captain America with a Widow's Bite to the head. This is a heavy-context fight, with Captain American on drugs that increase his rage, so he's essentially in a bloodlusted state where he's thinking less strategically, but is more aggressive and morals off. This same Cap beats the crap out of Daredevil (who in more context is somewhat off his game) to the degree that Daredevil is lying on the ground and too weak to stop Crossbones from looking under his mask. Anyway as you can see, Diamondback and Black Widow are both fighting him with no major damage to anyone until Natasha blasts him full in the face to KO him.

• Vs Elektra

Fights Elektra after Nat had major surgery. Dodges Elektra’s strike after Elektra has shown her speed by cutting a bullet. Kicks Elektra and strikes her in the head with the pistol. Ends with weapons at each other’s heads. After Elektra leaves we see how hurt Natasha still is from the surgery.

• Vs Taskmaster

Taskmaster has been on the run from Nat throughout this series, explicitly saying that he thinks she would beat him multiple times (see Reputation, below). When they finally fight, it is fairly close, but Nat gets the majority of hits and has him at her mercy at the end. An excellent win against a top-tier streetleveler.

• Vs Punisher

Fights Punisher, more or less to a stalemate. Then Punisher runs off.

In a rematch, she comes after him again, this time with the rest of the Avengers. Granted that Frank has taken some punishment himself by this point, but Natasha kicks him before he can draw his gun, then disarms him, smacks him around a bit, and uses her Bite to shoot first when he draws a pistol on her.

Beats "Hydra Punisher" in Secret Empire: dodges his shots, hits him twice and jumps off him, he shoots her, she misses with touch-Bite, he hits her with butt of gun, he kicks and misses, she kicks him, she disarms him, he grabs her by the neck and kicks her, she blocks his knives and kicks him, disarming him again, he grabs her foot and pushes her back, knocking her to the ground. He goes to get his gun and she picks up his knives and disables him by stabbing him in both legs (somehow getting in front of him in the process). In all, she strikes him 5 times, and he hits her 4 times, BEFORE she incaps him.

• Vs Crossbones

Black Widow vs Crossbones. Wins via using her Widow’s Line as a garrote.

• Vs Bucky and/or Hawkeye

Fighting Bucky: granted that he is not fighting to kill and it’s broken off quickly, but she fights well against him, getting in two kicks to one tackle. He says: “What I didn’t know is how much she’s been holding back when we spar, how strong she really is.” “She’s gonna take my head off if I’m not careful.” This makes clear three things: one, when she has sparred with Bucky in the past, she’s so good she felt the need to hold back so as to not hurt him (what other reason would she have for holding back during sparring?). Two, he’s impressed by her strength, making it clear she’s not just normal. Three, even if he’s not fighting with the intent to hurt her right now, she’s good enough that she could kill him anyway—thus it doesn’t matter what his fighting intent is.

Natasha beats on Bucky pretty much at will as Hawkeye watches. There's context here: Nat has been resurrected in a cloned body after Secret Empire, and Bucky and Clint are shocked to see her alive. She is annoyed that they are unknowingly messing up a plan of hers. She attacks Bucky to stop them from interfering, and he fights back defensively. She basically runs all over him: she hits him, he disarms her, then she gets in every hit after that: 3 hits to his face, pulls his hair, grabs him with her legs and kicks him into Clint. Then she takes off. Even with the context, this is all in her favor: she is more serious in her intent, but doesn't want to hurt them; they are stunned and don't want to hurt her, but clearly they don't want to be hurt themselves either, and Bucky is fighting defensively as hard as he can, as shown by the fact that he needs to ask Clint for help: "She's gonna kill me in a second if you don't stop her!" I added the final page for Bucky's line about how she had the drop on them.

Nat and Bucky fight on a boat. Neither of them gets any major hits in on the other. What's notable is that they fight pretty much as equals, and her signature balletic fighting style, where she looks like she's dancing as much as she's fighting.

• Nat one-shots Hawkeye with a suckerpunch.

• Nat beats Hawkeye, although this was part of a plan and was staged to some degree. (Although since she let him actually shoot her in the side with an arrow right after this, they may also have been fighting to the best of their abilities to sell the fight's reality.)

• Daredevil and Black Widow vs Kraven:

First Natasha and Matt fight fairly well against him; Kraven notes his superhuman speed and strength. However, Kraven tags her with a poison dart and then he knocks out Daredevil physically.

In the continuation, Kraven is about to throw Daredevil off a cliff. Black Widow is still affected by the poison, as noted in the captions. She jumps at Kraven, who throws Matt off the cliff. A bunch of cops attack, and distract Kraven while Natasha comes from behind and one-shots him with a kick, knocking him out. Even as she does this, she notes that she is still “weak as a kitten” from the poison. Kraven is pretty durable, even in this era, and hadn’t taken too much damage in the first part of the fight, so taking him down with one kick, even by surprise, is pretty impressive.

• Vs. Lady Bullseye. Overall, they basically tie:

In the first fight, Lady Bullseye gets in the majority of the hits and is about to stab Natasha when the fight is interrupted.

In the second fight, Black Widow jumps into a train with some kind of protective energy net and gets Lady Bullseye on the ground, more or less at her mercy, when the train goes into another dimension.

In that dimension, after an unknown amount of time (maybe immediately, maybe much later), Natasha has Lady Bullseye at her mercy at sword point before being interrupted by a monster.

• Vs. Mockingbird

Natasha is attacked by an out-of-control Mockingbird and defeats her pretty easily, kissing her with an antidote to the nanites that made her go crazy.

• Vs. Spider-man

The first time they meet. This fight is full of context; Spider-man was feeling beaten up and tired, and almost like he was losing his powers. Even with that, she gets in some decent shots, but runs off. This is honestly not her best showing but I figured it was worth seeing.

One-shots Spidey after putting him through some tests: Recently, an offshoot of SHIELD hires her to test Spider-man's Spider-sense for what she thinks are good reasons. After running him through a gauntlet of attacks, all of which he dodges (not shown), she blinds him with a light, then attacks him in hand-to-hand. He dodges 3 times, saying his spider-sense can compensate, but she hits him on the fourth try, hard enough to take him down so he can't fight back. This is the first time he's hit the whole time, so it's impressive that she one-shots him, considering his durability.

• Vs Silver Samurai

Black Widow and Spider-Man vs Silver Samurai. First, Samurai vs Spidey. Then Black Widow joins in to help. Note Samurai's clear strength and speed in beating Spider-Man, and his claim to beating Daredevil. Since her Bite is not enough to penetrate his armor, Natasha spends what must be about a quarter of an hour dodging Samurai's katana while Spider-Man is wedging up the building--very impressive dodging. Samurai is consistently shown as being a serious challenge to Spider-man through this arc: one, two, three more confrontations.

• Vs Imus Champion

Fights Imus Champion. His strength here is unclear; in the past he had an exoskeleton and could lift planes and fight whole teams of Avengers (here's him--using gear--to take out the Avengers; two hightlights include Thor and Power Princess). Now he seems to be strong and fast but not as much, with no exoskeleton. Dodges, kicks in groin, kicks in head, uses Widow’s Line to garrote. He punches back at her, she shoots at him in h head, she dodges multiple times before being grabbed. Takes out his eyes with her thumbs, slashes his gut, kicks in face, has him at gunpoint. Then chops throat, and basically curb stomps him. TD:LR--she takes out a weakened version of a team-buster.

• Vs Jean Grey, Psylocke, and Viper

Smacks down Jean Grey, Psylocke, and Viper at once. (Note the details of her earlier fight with Viper, below.)

• Vs Weeping Lion

Black Widow vs the Weeping Lion. The Lion was presented as a pretty tough guy, although more through reputation than feats. Here she beats him fairly easily. In particular note the use of a touch-based Widow’s Bite (clearly influenced by the movies) and again, incap via Widow’s Line. She also gets up with no problem after being smashed against a wall hard enough for it to crack.

• Vs Iron Scorpion

She attacks Iron Scorpion (this is interspersed with flashbacks about sniping a guy way earlier), breaks his leg, throws him into an oncoming truck. Iron Scorpion seems to be enhanced—he easily cuts through pistols (twice), a thick log, and other hard objects with his sword, and has uncanny accuracy as well, throwing a dart into her pistol barrel earlier: One, Two

• Vs Recluse

Natasha and Bucky fight Recluse, who was trained in an updated Red Room. Recluse is tough enough to have captured Bucky in the first place, and then to fight both Nat and Bucky to a draw. Some nice acrobatics and unusual weapons use from Nat, also noted under Bite below.

Natasha has a rematch against Recluse, who notes again that it took her and Bucky to fight her to a draw before. This time, Black Widow beats her. (She comes back from the waterfall later, but Nat clearly has her at a disadvantage here.) Also note impressive strength feat holding back against the waterfall, also noted under Strength below.

• Vs Snapdragon

Sometimes I see assertions that Snapdragon could beat Black Widow, or beat her a majority of times. Looking at their full set of fights makes it clear that in a straight fight, Black Widow wins.

First fight: Widow is ambushed in the dark by Snapdragon when Natasha’s Bite isn’t working. Snapdragon, who has IR goggles, only beats Natasha because Natasha can’t see to fight back.

Second “Fight”: Black Widow kicks a guy while tied, but is subdued by Snapdragon with a pole. Not exactly a real fight.

Third fight: Black Widow is disarmed by surprise, while Snapdragon has multiple weapons. Natasha dodges and strikes, but is hit back. Then Natasha gets in four unanswered strikes, ultimately knocking Snapdragon through a hole in the walkway for a conclusive win in their only straight fight.

Brief fight, years later: Nat kicks Snapdragon in the back by surprise. Snapdragon misses Nat twice, and Nat shoots her in the leg, ending the fight. Nat seems to slash her in the stomach for good measure later on.

• Vs Alexi/Red Guardian/Ronin

She beats Alexi, the former Red Guardian, now Ronin. For context, Ronin/Red Guardian is the leader of a ninja group that killed over 80 people; they fear and respect his skills enough that they are willing to let him kill them if they see his face.

Here's a few Red Guardian feats for context: speed and throwing ability; throwing; Red Guardian takes on Hercules (Captain America wrestled Herc right before that too, Red Guardian's feat is intended to show their equality); Red Guardian vs Hawkeye, where first Hawkeye is faking being knocked out, but then actually is; Red Guardian lifts one guy with each arm; Red Guardian punches through concrete wall.; Red Guardian uses his boomerang to take out 5 guys.

• Vs Enhanced-speed assassin

Fights an assassin with enhanced speed and another guy. Quickly takes guy out with thrown pipe, is first beaten down by speedster. Then knocks her out.

• Vs. a Crocodile

Nat is dragged under water for a significant amount of time, and kills the croc by hand. Also a nice feat of strength when she throws it in front of Danvers and Strange.

• Vs. at least 15 Guards

This sounds like just a fodder fight, but it is intense. She starts off with 2 swords and was just poisoned and tortured; they have guns. She takes them all out; the fight is notable for its brutality and targeted, skilled strikes.

• Vs Red Room Girls

Fights off six highly trained Red Room girls. Looking at the panels, she seems to defeat them without ever getting hit. However, she must have been hit to be hazy at the end. Various weapon uses also seen below.

• Vs. Group of "World's Deadliest Assassins"

Takes on a whole group of powered assassins while tied up. Starting off tied up, she kicks one lady, then another. Kicks a pot at guy to KO him, kicks another guy (basically one-shorting four people in a row), then has a longer fight with a sumo guy. Does more tied-up fighting, dodges a bullet so it hits the sumo guy, dodges even more while rolling on the ground toward the shooter and takes him out. Is freed by Iron Maiden, whose armor tanks her blast and almost beats her before being stopped by James Woo from SHIELD (and later Agents of Atlas). All together, even given that these gimmicky assassins are mostly featless, an impressive set of moves for someone tied up almost the whole time.

• Vs Drug-enhanced General

Defeats general who is drugged into enhanced strength and rage.

• Vs Hand

Way back in the day when the Hand was just being introduced, she fights well against several of them, dodging throwing stars and swords, and getting in 5 unanswered strikes before being caught by poisoned caltrops.

This is just a minor fight, but is an interesting historical footnote. Here she defeats her handler/mentor/semi-father/friend Ivan, who also has the Soviet age-increasing serum, which as I note below may or may not also enhance their agility, durability, and other stats. She's mind-controlled here and not fighting at her best.

• Vs Ivan (as cyborg)

Here she battles Ivan once he's been turned into a massively-durable cyborg (described as "indestructible") with intense destructive power. Her dodging and her own destructive power are notable.

• Vs new versions of Darkstar, Sibercat, and Ursa Major

These are new people with the powersets of the classic villains. In this fight, she first dodges a couple attacks from Sibercat and then kicks it, and is hit from behind by some darkforce energy from Darkstar, who Nat didn't know was there. Note that this Darkstar thought she hit Nat hard enough to kill her, but it didn't. They all get separated due to some interference from Fantomex. Then in the third page, she ends up fighting Sibercat and Darkstar, plus now Ursa Major. She defeats them in five minutes.

• Vs Man-Mountain Marko

Efficiently beats Man-Mountain Marko in four hits--a disarm, a kick to the knee, boxing the ears, and a knockout palmstrike to the chin. Marko is a few-tonner, probably less than 10 (Powergrid of 4). Jessica Jones beat him too, but not how she pummels him repeatedly with her own superhuman strength (including also boxing his ears) and it doesn't actually knock him out. That shows a solid striking force for Widow, especially in that last palmstrike.

• Vs Viper/Madame Hydra

Solidly defeats Viper, who a couple issues earlier said the reason Silver Samurai obeyed her is because "he knows that in single combat, his skill is nothing compared to mine." I don't think most people would agree with that statement, but the important thing is that in this multi-comic story arc involving Viper, Samurai, and Widow, that's the way their relative positions are presented. Nat has just been through an enormously challenging series of events, is very tired, and just woken up out of brainwashing, and still "Viper doesn't have a prayer."

• Vs 100 Guards

Natasha takes out 100 guards over the course of a few hours. Basically she and Thing are stuck in a base, and she needs to take out all the guards so they don't distract Thing from a job he has to do. She does so by stalking them through stealth, and using tactics and skill. I don't care who you are, 100 guards is a lot of guards.

• Vs Viper's Personal Guard

• Kills at least 14 of Viper’s personal guard, while brainwashed and not knowing who she is.

• Vs The Living Blade

The Blade is extremely skilled and has low-level superhuman strength, speed, and durability (he takes multiple Bites without much injury). In their first fight, years ago, he mostly had her on the defensive and on the run. In their second fight, she was able to tag him back more, especially with the aid of her powered suit, but he still won and cut her arm off, and was only chased away by Hawkeye. In their third fight, after her arm was healed by a mutate, she won.

• Nat and Yelena vs the Liv and Lars

Liv and Lars can shift their pool of superhuman strength between them. Nat and Yelena won after a short fight.

• Vs a Bunch of Superhuman Mutates, Three Times

On three occasions, she quickly takes out a group of superhuman mutates. In the first, she beats a room of superhumans by using gear and skill. In the second, Nat and Yelena burn through the powered villains like wildfire. In the second, Nat takes out a group of 11 powered enemies in seconds without most of them even really fighting back. She takes down most of them in one quick series of moves.

• Vs Apogee

Apogee has various gear plus powers from drugs. Nat uses her powered suit, whose powers are not super-clear but seem to involve at least enhanced strength. A friend distracts Apogee after he grabs Nat, and Nat kicks him off a bridge.

• Vs a Superhuman Brick

Beats a tall guy with superhuman strength and durability through a combination of skill and gear.

Nat's fighting style is naturally very gymnastic. She does all kinds of flips and jumps as an innate part of her fighting that simultaneously works both offense and defense, in an extremely balletic manner that combines her H2H and weapons, often gymnastically hitting multiple targets at once.

• While most of this section will focus on her technical skill, targeted strikes, and agile fighting style, she packs some solid striking power: one-shot KOs Kraven with a double-kick, even though she was under the influence of one of his poisons.

Techniques, often including neck strikes and multiple simultaneous targets:

• In a fairly common one-shot move for her, she chops two guys in the neck at once. A very effective move.

• While literally disintegrating due to poison, she neck strikes a guy. (Again, a bit of a signature move for her.)

• Throat-strikes one guy while taking out two others with one kick.

• Yeah, another neck chop.

• And another.

• Chops a guy's neck while teleporting.

• Neck chops a guy so devastatingly, her hand cuts open his throat (see the blood spatter).

• In a slight variation, but still showing her tendency to strike vulnerable areas, she hits another guy on the back of the neck.

• Chops a guy in the neck twice while she's brainwashed and doesn't even know she has skills.

• And does another of her "hit multiple people at once" attacks, following it up with a crazy acrobatic break-dance spin-kick.

• Takes out 3 guys at once with a chop.

• Does a double-neck chop with a kick, taking out 3 people at once.

• Kicks two guys in the face with one kick.

• Some chops and throws in a splash-page montage. These aren't really in a scene, but are obviously intended to show what she can do.

• Kicks one guy while cutting another’s hand off.

• Kicks a guy coming up behind her without looking.

• Viciously takes out some street fighters: breaks an arm, jumps out of the way of a blade so a bad guy gets stabbed instead; slices a guy's throat.

• Similarly takes out four street toughs by kicking through a knee, cutting off a leg, and impaling, among other specific targeted strikes.

• Punches through a guy's elbow.

• See fight with Imus, but here are selections with pretty harsh eye gouging and head stomping.

• Takes one guy’s eyes out while shooting another with Bite.

• Viciously kills a guy with a knife when she was a child assassin-in-training.

• Kick to the back of the knee and then a throw.

• Kick to the knee.

• Breaks a neck with a kick.

• Breaks a Hydra agent’s neck.

• Casually breaks a guy's neck while walking past.

• Grabs neck with legs, kicks Hydra agent through railing.

• Breaks Hydra agent’s arm.

• Breaks both of a superhumanly strong guy's arms, first with a hammer and second with her elbow.

• Fishhooks a guy in the mouth and uses that for a throw (while herself being caught in a net).

• Breaks the low-level superhuman Iron Scorpion's leg and throws him in front of a bus, seemingly entirely with arm strength (not a martial arts move).

• She uses a lot of throws: a double throw, another double throw, a throw (jokes about how she won't throw him too far), another throw, throws again, and one more throw. Another throw, read right to left. (Also note the throws used above in combination with other techniques.)

• A disarm (also see more disarms under her Line)

• Swings on her line to disarm with a kick

• Closes and disarms a SHIELD agent (elsewhere described as one of their elite special forces) who is holding a gun directly on her with the intent to kill, while Nat is brain washed and doesn't even know she has skills. She is described as having "eye-blurring speed" and countering the woman "with deceptive ease" (again, she doesn't even know she can do this).

• Soon after, still brainwashed into not knowing her skills and after this group has shot and beaten down Spider-man, Natasha "tears through the elite strike force--they're the best SHIELD has to offer, yet against her, they haven't a prayer!" I want to emphasize again she is doing this with entirely subconscious skill.

• Blocks a point-blank shot.

• Takes out two people at once while handcuffed, and disrupts point blank gunfire.

• Takes out a bunch of guards, including throwing one over her back for a pretty good strength feat. She shoots a gun out of guy’s hand, uses a flash bomb, and shoots guy’s hand.

• She and Sharon Carter kick each other’s ropes off, which is presented as effortless and looks silly, but honestly would be really difficult to do.

• Knocks guy out by kicking handcuffs at his head, throat strikes two others (this is immediately after she had major surgery):

• In an example of showing skill even under duress, she has the presence of mind, strength, speed, and fortitude to block a sword strike from the Living Blade, who is extremely skilled and has superhuman strength and speed, right after he cuts her other arm off.

• Of course, she can also block his attacks when she has both arms, but in particular she can block his sword stroke even when she only has a knife.

• Has a friendly sparring match with Wolverine when she is a teen.

Examples of Particularly Acrobatic and Fast Fighting

• Does an acrobatic double-kick on Daredevil.

• Multiple balletic kicks/flips, two against Bucky (one, two) and one against a random guard, and one that's a two-target upside-down double-split kick. You get the sense that she's fairly coordinated :)

• A nice jump-kick to Bucky's head.

• While in the process of killing a bunch of mercs, she uses a nice, graceful move to kill one: swinging her body up and around him while holding on to his head, thus breaking his neck in the process.

• She repeats this move later in the issue, where she jumps up and swings her body around a guy, breaking his neck as she swings around.

• After throwing a chair at Punisher and punching him in the face, she does a kick-back-flip off him.

• In an older issue, Spidey sneaks up on her, but she is able to react, grab, and throw him without him being to react back, even given his spider-sense. (Compare this example of his speed and reactions in the same issue.)

• Spider-man and Widow are surrounded by armed henchmen. Spidey runs off to defeat the Owl, and is gone only a very short time. Then he runs back, clearly believing there are a dangerously high number of guys to fight, since he says she "has her hands full." However, she has easily beaten them all, saying Spidey took too long coming back. I count at least 12 guys. These guys aren't particularly tough, what's impressive is the speed with which she beats them, and that Spidey considers them to be enough to be a challenge.

• Double-kicks the Owl in the face.

• Acrobatically shoots Deadpool, incapacitating him until he's decapitated by another guy. (She's the blonde here.)

• Takes out two guys in the time it takes a coffee cup to fall to the ground.

• A very flexible kick.

• Blitzes several guards including two of her classic neck chops.

• Takes out several muggers while she is brainwashed she she doesn't even know she has skills. This includes, among feats placed in other sections, showing her battlefield awareness by seeing a guy in the reflection of her bracelet and a close-in disarm with arm break.

• Blitzes three goons who were waiting for her, while she was brainwashed and was only slowly becoming aware she had skills, with her initial weapon being only a clothes hanger.

Nat is a very accomplished sniper and all-around highly accurate shot.

• Shoots through a guy at a target while she is stunned.

• Shoots a thin string or rope three times. First, while riding a motorcycle, she shoots two strings that come out of a trick arrow from Hawkeye. Second, she shoots a thin rope that Hawkeye is walking on, from a fair distance. Third, she shoots Hawkeye's bow string, from a decent distance away again. Each is a very small target, under difficult circumstances. Also throws a knife through three thin wires.

• Daredevil calls Natasha one of the only three people who could have made a difficult shot, the others being Bullseye and Punisher.

• Daredevil knows what he's talking about: she shot him in the chest, almost killing him. Some context: he probably didn't dodge as much as he could have because he didn't think she was going to do it. BUT on the other hand, not only did she shoot him, she purposefully ricocheted the bullet off a rib so it didn't kill him.

• She shoots a hole in a card held by Bullseye, so far away he can't see her; he's obviously impressed with the shot.

• Rogue absorbs her abilities, then makes a 2.8 mile shot.

• While tied up, she uses her legs to grab and manipulate a guy's arm so he first shoots another bad guy in the head, then in a second shot she uses her legs to make him shoot the small rope holding her up, while she's swinging on it. This is a CRAZY shot for her to make, using his arm/gun and only using her legs to target it.

• Shoots two guys while blindfolded and running.

• In both these examples (one, two), shoots a gun out of a guy's hand while doing a complicated gymnastic activity (jumping in through a skylight and shooting in midair in one, flipping upside-down while dodging gunshots in the other).

• Shoots an object holding Ivan while she is in a straightjacket and with her body facing the other direction.

• Shoots two grenades that were thrown at her so they bounce back at their targets.

• Simultaneously shoots two small objects in the opposite directions with her two different gauntlets.

• Shoots a woman hiding behind Yelena.

• Shoots three test tubes in a guy's hand in three shots.

• Shoots a guy in the knee and shoots the gun out of another's hand.

• Snipes a guy.

• Shoots numerous octo-bots at once.

• Shoots while flipping upside-down.

• And again.

• And again.

• And again.

• Accurately shoots at people who are behind her while in the middle of some huge leaps.

• Knows a wide range of weaponry, including a .50 cal machine gun used to take down a helicopter. This wide range of weaponry also obviously includes things like standard assault rifles.

• Shoots guy behind her without looking (here she has gone through surgery to look like Yelena Belova).

• Shoots a guy to her side without looking.

• Shoots Hydra agent behind her without looking.

• Shoots a mutate behind her without looking while simultaneously kicking someone else behind her without looking while also using the Line as a whip.

• Throws two knives behind her without looking.

• Shoots guy with Bite behind her without looking.

• While fighting two other Hydra agents in H2H, shoots another behind her without looking (the guy in panel 2 who is hanging over the railing) and then throws a knife in another’s head.

• Accurately shoots a small package of dynamite on a far-away ship. Despite its scope, this gun is not a style that is made for sniping.

• Accurately throws two knives, using one to knock a guy out with the butt end, and the other to pin a guy's hand to the wall.

• Pins another guy's hand to a door with a knife throw.

Natasha often uses her Widow's Line (normally a grappling line) as a weapon for incapacitation or entangling.

• Uses Widow’s Line to trip soldiers:

• Uses Widow's Line to disarm Stilt Man.

• Uses Widow's Line to disarm Red Room girl.

• Grabs a guy with her Line then swings in for a double kick.

• Snares a telephone receiver with her line then brings it to her ear, which is actually a pretty nice accuracy/coordination feat.

• Snares Magneto with her Line.

• Uses Line to ensnare Red Room girls.

• Ties up several guys with Line (also a speed feat).

• Ensnares another Red Room girl.

• Has weights on the end of the Line, which she uses bolo-style to wrap up two guys.

• Not technically with the Widow's Line, but she uses a normal fishing rod and line to ensnare Madame Masque, including impaling her with the hook.

• Uses Line to grab onto a robot.

• See fight with Crossbones (Line used for incap)

• Line used for incap against Weeping Lion (two pages edited together).

• Wraps a guy up with her Widow’s Line with Silver Sable.

• Uses Line to garrote Imus.

• Garrotes another guy.

• Garrotes a guy pretending to be Captain America.

• Here she uses her Widow’s Line in two directions at once, disrupting the aim of an assassin and tying up her hand, and connecting the other end to a sign, pulling her off the car.

• Line is conductive.

. The comics have recently started to copy the way her gauntlets can create a shock by direct contact in the movies as well. They weigh 4 kilos each, or about 9 pounds.

• Blasts two guys right next to her:

Ranged attacks

• Knocks armored guy out of window, blasts guy in face, blasts two more from a distance at once.

• Takes one guy’s eyes out while shooting another with Bite, then blasts another.

• Blasts dogs.

• Can be used on multiple targets at once.

Destructive Power

• Bite melts a giant fan in one shot.

• Bite destroys some large sonic generators.

• Bite incaps Silvermane in one shot. For reference, Silvermane is a highly durable cyborg who, for instance, has shrugged multiple punches from Spider-man without a problem; it took several of Dagger's light knives to take him down.

• Takes out Captain America with a close-range Widow's Bite to the head

• Bite takes down Wolverine for a page and a half.

• Blasts armored foe and is amazed that she isn’t taken down, as her Bite is "enough to stop ten men."

• Blasts through the helmet of a Federal Dynamo, basically a lower-level Crimson Dynamo.

• She fights Ivan, now in a robot body that is called “indestructible.” ... She defeats him by blowing a giant hole in his chest with her Bite.

• Takes out dude in an exo-suit. How tough is this suit? Tough enough to require four sustained shots from Punisher's van's minigun to take the same amount of damage as in one Widow's Bite.

• Bite described as enough to melt a handgun, then does just that.

• She again destroys a handgun. Spidey notes, "that Widow's Bite of yours is something else!" :)

Short Range

• Twelve point-blank blasts, often to the face. In one, she's entangled; in another, she notes how she helped write the SHIELD handbook on fighting. Plus once to Hawkeye; that was part of a plan they made and may have been staged, but it still shows how point-blank attacks are a tactic). The Bite is a good ranged weapon, but is also a bonus to her H2H combat. Note that these blasts are different from her touch-based attach, which is shown farther below.

Contact

• In addition to using her Bite at short range, she can also use it by direct contact, as seen in these seven examples, one of which partly shorts out Bucky's arm. Also uses it to short out a computer by touch.

Taser

• Here, she uses it sort of like an unconnected taser dart, creating an electric shock, and here, like a classic taser, shooting out a line running electric current along it. It's sort of like a mix of her Line and her Bite.

• Her gauntlets now also shoot spikes. See four examples here, each with excellent accuracy and a couple clean one-shot headshots.

• And also has darts with black widow poison.

• Shoots several Hydra agents at once with gauntlet spikes, which spread out in a fan-like pattern.

• Blocks a point-blank shot and knocks him out with the Widow’s Kiss, a 24-hour knock-out gas:

• Uses both gas and Bite against Black Panther.

• Gas from her gauntlets.

• Has gas bombs that blind you and make you feel drunk (one, two)

• Gas grenade.

• Uses tear gas bombs against Hand.

• Uses smoke bombs and red smoke bombs, which can also stick to walls.

• Paralyzing gas from her purse.

She has used many kinds of bombs, hidden in her uniform in many locations. Back in the day, she uses a micro-bomb hidden underneath her thumbnail:

• Belt bombs blow up a train floor.

• This "minor charge" makes a massive explosion.

• She uses some small spherical bombs to blow up the wall of a helicarrier.

• A bomb also makes a massive explosion out on a road.

• A couple more examples of using belt bombs, one with a timer; they can stick to surfaces.

• Uses a classic explosive grenade, and another grenade.

• An adhesive bomb to shatter glass.

• Flash bomb, and a flash bang.

• Uses a time-delayed belt bomb.

• She also uses a slingshot bomb.

• Uses a belt bomb on a Sentinel, and destroys it, covering it with rubble.

• Belt bomb blows the giant door off a safe and it flies for a significant distance.

• Exudes some kind of blinding oil from her gloves or gauntlets:

• Shoots what seems to be a power-disruption dart—in any case it’s some kind of dart that ends up disrupting the power.

• Reusable knockout dart from gauntlet.

• Muscle-relaxant dart from gauntlet.

• Has IR goggles, and more goggles.

• A glider suit with a parachute.

• A later suit has a parachute (also seen here) for jumping out of buildings, etc.

• Pulls a gas mask up out of her suit's collar.

• Uses her gauntlets to open an electronic lock.

• Uses a tool in her wristlets to start a car.

• Uses a laser-cutter.

• Gauntlet has a flare (also an example of durability, in swimming underwater in arctic temperatures with no problem).

• Gauntlet has a homing signal.

• Here she has claws.

• Smoke can to find lasers.

• She wears armored gloves even while in civilian clothes, enabling her to catch a knife.

• Her gauntlets are also able to block a sword-stroke from Mr. X.

• Using random objects as weapons: While she is brainwashed and doesn't even know she has skills, she turns her civilian necklace into a whip, striking the eyes.

• Using random objects as weapons: Blitzes three goons who were waiting for her, while she was brainwashed and was only slowly becoming aware she had skills, with her initial weapon being only a clothes hanger that she uses to hook and rip the second guy's cheek open (close up of previous scan). Then she uses a pot to take out the third guy.

• Using random objects as weapons: Uses one of the above guys' weird axe, which would have a really unusual balance, which she ties to a rope, to act as a sort of grapple-axe that disarms and pulls a guy out the window, and also uses a nail gun, while hanging upside-down and brainwashed so she is only slowly becoming aware she has skills. Full page, and close up that's a bit easier to see.

• Natasha’s suit has suction cups that allow her to stick to walls. Here are two more examples. A couple examples of sticking to walls even in her first costume, and her first appearance in her now-standard black catsuit, and again. Also does it recently. A variant explanation: it's "electro-molecular adhesers!" Some kind of electro-static charge seems to be the current option.

• But who needs that when you have anti-grav shoes!

• Her recent suit was seal-sealing for injuries.

• It could also power up, as seen in this fight against Apogee and this fight against some goons. The exact effects were unclear but seemed to involved enhanced strength. It also emitted some kind of red energy strobe whose effect was also unclear as seen in the goon fight.

Natasha is noted for her graceful agility, and is an extremely effective dodger. Her speed has been noted as superhuman. Also note some examples under FIGHTING SKILLS where she knocks away guns that are shooting at her from point blank range.

Dodging

Numerous instances of dodging guns and other attacks, often machine gun fire, often from very close range. Note the grace with which she dodges--it's not hard for her to do this. In a couple examples her hair is blonde (this is when she was disguised as Yelena Belova).

Guns and Arrows

• Dodges point-blank double automatic cannon fire from an Exo-suit.

• Dodges gatling-gun machine gun fire, twice.

• While she is mind-controlled, she dodges a bunch of close-range shots from Bucky. As it says, he's not trying to hit her, more herd her in a direction, but his comment about "she's too fast" implies that he probably couldn't hit her regardless. Also note the comment about her grace in dodging. And, she's playing him by actually dodging in the direction she wants to go. Slightly after he throws a knife and she dodges that too.

• Dodges three shots from Punisher.

• Acrobatically dodges multiple machine guns at once in several examples.

• Senses an incoming sniper shot from a distance and avoids it.

• Widow and Daredevil gymnastically run through gunfire to take out the shooter.

• Clearly twisting her body out of the specific pathways of multiple, close-knit individual bullets in a pretty clear example of bullet-timing.

• In another fairly explicit example of bullet-timing, she bends back to dodge some bullets (lower left corner) while in the midst of beating up a hallway of guys.

• Dodging up-close machine guns.

• Also, dodging some machine guns (seen in the first page).

• Dodges multiple shots from Madame Masque, and also deflects a point-blank shot from her with her gauntlets.

• Dodges multiple point blank shots from two pistols.

• From a point-blank handgun.

• Another point-blank handgun.

• From multiple guns.

• Can you say acrobatic? More guns.

• Dodges two close-range pistols shots while tied up.

• Dodges Federal Dynamo's multiple close-range rapid-fire blasts.

• Dodges nearby hand gun fire (notable for its gymnastic quality).

• Dodges Hawkeye’s net arrow at point blank range (however this was part of a plan with Hawkeye and may have been staged)

• Nine special agents with automatic weapons attack. She dodges, then dodges again, then rushes them, taking them all out. She is only hit once.

• Ducks under a close-range shot then closes.

• Kicks a gun so it shoots the wrong direction, then dodges the next point-blank shot, while handcuffed

• While being held in a full nelson by one guy, another guy shoots at her at point-blank range. She pushes her body out of the way so she breaks the hold and the guy holding her gets shot.

• Nat tries to assassinate Taskmaster. Tasky shoots 3 arrows at her, using Hawkeye/Bullseye skills, and she dodges, with the arrows hitting her motorcycle instead. Taskmaster clearly is shocked that this is possible: “No way. No way!” He runs off and escapes with Nick Fury Jr.’s help.

Energy Blasts

• She fights Ivan. She dodges his point-blank gatling-style laser blasts.

• Acrobatic dodge of Red Guardian's energy blast.

• And again.

• Gymnastically dodges multiple energy blasts from a robot.

• Dodges energy beams from Carol Danvers, among others, while simultaneously shooting two targets.

• Gymnastically fips through a host of lasers from a security system. It's not clear if they're shooting at her, or a static laser fence.

• Dodges point blank energy blasts (granted, from a guy who has no business shooting a gun): one, two.

Random Other Stuff

• Acrobatically dodges a goop blast so it hits the guy's own ally.

• Dodges a fire blast.

H2H Attacks

• After major abdominal surgery, she dodges a sai attack from the casual bullet-timer Elektra--by doing a split in midair above it--and engages in more equal H2H combat with her, seemingly at no speed disadvantage.

• Acrobatic dodge of a kick.

• Gymnastically dodges a giant robot arm.

• Closes in to Federal Dynamo quickly enough to knock his fire-blasting arm aside.

• While fighting an alternate-dimension counterpart of herself, she dodges Cap's thrown shield three times, and Cap comments, "Damn, she's fast."

• A notably acrobatic looping double-kick.

• Dodges two simultaneous sword attacks; notable for her ability to do so while moving only very slightly, which requires a lot of skill to do precisely.

Some Pure Agility

• Natasha often randomly throws in acrobatic flips and leaps that are beyond what is necessary to get from one place to another, as seen in the fifth panel here.

• Leaps from one building to another, across a street. Note the distance from the other building in the bottom center panel.

• After a helicopter crash, Cap faceplants, but Widow lands on her feet.

• A coffee tray blows off a high-rise, maybe 8' off the edge, and a brainwashed Black Widow who doesn't even know she has skills reaches out and grabs it by seemingly hooking one foot around a girder. Notice that neither of her hands is holding on to the building, at the angle she is at. Onlookers say "I've never even heard of anything like that."

• Widow (transformed to look like Belova) jumps up to grab some guns, flips, and shoots two guys while coming down.

• Again as Belova, she is held at point-blank gunpoint, kicks the guns out of their hands, flips, and catches the guns.

• Drives a car on an overpass above the car she is chasing, leaps out of her car, off the bridge, and onto the speeding car below, in a feat of both timing and agility, then manages to stay on the hood of the speeding, swerving car with only her feet—no hands. This is totally beyond human ability.

• Hop-scotches across suits of armor floating in lava, then somehow commandeers one to fly away.

• Natasha somersaults out a window into the open air.

• She bounds up a wall and lands on a wire.

• She runs along wires with Daredevil, bounds around, and climbs a wall with her suction cups.

• Jumps from a ridiculous height into water tower.

• Casually runs along a wire that is high above the city.

• A crazily high flip while fighting (upper right-hand corner).

• Enormous leap down a silo, while shooting accurately.

• Another absurdly long jump/fall with a safe landing.

• Jumps out of a Helicarrier. This is interesting to compare with Elektra’s jump out of a helicarrier. Before this, she steals some stuff from SHIELD, and fights past a bunch of agents. Then, as shown here, she blows up the wall with some bombs and jumps out with no path for survival. SHIELD agents follow in a flying car and jetpacks. In the air, she maneuvers herself into the car and ejects the drive. Then she ties one of the jetpack guys to the car, which falls. She pretends that she’s scared so one jetpack guy grabs her, then steal his pack. When the agent blows up her pack, she falls safely on a car and drives away on a stolen motorcycle. As the agent says, “she turns a 40,000 foot fall into a ballet.” It is impressive to have made the jump without knowing for sure what would happen, but more so it is the grace with which she did it—doing something with grace like that makes it clear how easy it is for her.

• Somewhat similarly, leaps out of a high-rise building building without a parachute, while sending some allies out of the same window with a parachute. By the time they land, she has already somehow gotten safely to the ground and stolen a car. How? "Do not ask."

Speed

A lot of the Dodging and Fighting Skills feats above cover speed pretty well, but there are some speed feats that need their own subcategory.

• Is stated by Taskmaster to have enhanced speed due to Red Room conditioning.

• Outruns Taskmaster.

• Blitzes several guards with very little reaction on their part.

• Blitzes three goons who were waiting for her, while she was brainwashed and was only slowly becoming aware she had skills, with her initial weapon being only a clothes hanger.

• Described as having "eye-blurring speed."

I generally haven't focused too much on this area because often it takes a lot of supporting scans to really explain how stealthy someone is, but here's a few.

• Disappears in front of Captain America.

• There are so many examples of infiltration, I'm just showing this one example where she quickly infiltrates the new Red Room.

• She is caught in this guy's stream of water, which is his body, and escapes out of it without him noticing.

• Drops a tracer in a guy's pocket and takes out a bag.

• Takes the sharp part of a guy's belt buckle off while he's catching her in a net and tossing her off a pier.

• Her white suit is invisible to cameras.

• After Spider-man sneaks up on her in one issue, she later sneaks up on him, and is able to tap him on the shoulder simultaneously with his spider-sense going off, and before he can react (also notable because when he sneaks up on her, she is able to grab and throw him, while when she sneaks up on him, he just flips away instead of being able to counterattack).

• Sneaks up on Conan, then in the second panel (which takes place later), leaves without him realizing it. Conan is known for his enhanced senses/awareness. In fact, Conan was able to perceive Elektra behind him, and normally I'd say Elektra is stealthier than Widow.

• Stealthily drops a bug on a guy.

• Hides in the backseat of an open convertible for a while without the driver knowing.

As seen below, Natasha has some pretty solid blunt force durability with multiple falls from a great distance, and some excellent pain tolerance. It is almost a trope now for her to let herself get tortured to get some information from the tormentors, then to break out and kill them, as if prolonged torture was nothing.

• See fight with Weeping Lion (smashed against wall, no pain)

• Hit against a wall by Black Dwarf ... who is massively super-strong ... and is up and jumping around on the next page.

• Similarly, here she takes a punch directly in the face by an enhanced golem-like LMD, whose next punch caves in a wall, and she gets up immediately after with no problems:

• Quickly shakes off a punch from a superhumanly-strong guy.

• Stays awake during major abdominal surgery without anesthesia. She can’t move at all or they’ll nick her organs. This is a crazy display of pain tolerance and body control.

• This is a great scene not only for durability but also fighting style: she lets herself get beat up for a while, then takes out the guards while still tied up.

• She takes a knife in the shoulder to avoid worse injury; she has a bit of a history of doing this—stoically accepting an injury for tactical reasons.

• Intentionally takes a bullet in the shoulder to kick a guy; and then falls many stories to the street and is basically fine.

• Intentionally allows herself to be tortured, then once the plot has advanced as she wishes, she unties herself and leaves.

• Waterboarded, and is fine (also remembers other examples of torture). Beats the guy up right after.

• Is unusually tolerant of poisons.

• During Elektra’s first attempted resurrection, Natasha fights some Hand, taking an arrow in the shoulder without a peep (she does turn out to be pretty injured later, but in the moment, completely ignores it)

• Survives lengthy fall into water.

• Falls an enormous height out of building, bounces off sign and hits car, and is basically fine.

• A huge fall, going through a roof, but still ok (the damage she's referring to is mostly from blade injuries she received earlier).

• After asking Hawkeye to shoot her in the side with a 3-bladed broadhead arrow, she is still able to agilely jump off a roof.

The Soviet Super Soldier formula gives her a “ramped up immune and cell repair system.” Her “wounds heal four, maybe five times as fast as a normal human’s would. [She doesn’t] hardly get sick, [she doesn’t] age as fast.” This immune system works so well that it sees a fetus as a disruption and miscarries it.

• Spider-man falls off what must be at least a 3-story building, although its precise height is not shown. Nat sort of catches him with her body, cushioning his fall. The both collapse on the ground, but get right back up.

• Viper shoots one of her own men for believing that giving Widow enough tranqs to take out a dozen men is enough to take out Nat.

• Is badly stabbed but still beats a group of goons.

Natasha took a Soviet version of an Infinity Formula or Super Soldier Serum, which increased her life and durability. Taskmaster also stated that her Red Room conditioning gave her enhanced strength. See Stats, below.

• Stabs a fat guy and lifts him up at the end of a pole and tosses him:

• Rips off robot’s arm. And in the same situation, also breaks robots a couple more times.

• Rips head off giant robot bee.

• Holds on to a staff against a raging waterfall with one arm. (Last few pages in the scan) With this amount of water, the power of the flow would be incredibly strong, it would be very hard to hold on here.

• Pushes a pretty heavy chair back with only her toes—must be very strong toes!

• Grabs a fat guy and throws him out of a car window, mostly with one hand.

• See also Bucky comment about forgetting "how strong she really is."

• Knees through a door.

• Holds a guy off a ledge with one arm.

• Chops three thick boards in half.

• Chops a different set of three thick boards in half.

• Spider-man falls out of a Helicarrier. She leaps out and snags him with her Line, then shoots another line up and snags the carrier. This is already a speed and accuracy feat. Then she goes with the momentum and swings Spidey up so he can grab the carrier. This is significant strength because she is: not only holding Spider-man with one arm, but one arm also arrested his speed from falling a decent distance. Then with her other arm, she is holding herself and Spider-man, and then is able to swing him up toward the carrier. That is a lot of muscle power.

• Two examples of hanging off the side of a building--once just using her arm to hold on, once while holding her line and wedging herself against the building. This looks easy but would take decent grip and arm strength.

• Picks up a guy on her shoulder and carries him off with no seeming effort.

• Jumps off the side of a boat and grabs onto a port-hole ledge, arresting quite a bit of momentum with just small finger-holds in that move. Then she holds herself up with one arm for a while.

• In this fight with guards she threw a guy over her back, not really seeming to use martial arts/leverage to do it.

• One-shot punches Hawkeye for a knockout.

• Holds a guy up in the air.

• Carries a teenager.

• Not a huge deal, but crushes a metal remote control box.

Yelena is not as skilled as Nat, and has fairly similar gear, so generally anything she can do, Nat could do. I have not gone back to get Yelena's feats from the past.

Yelena briefly crosses swords with the Living Blade, a highly skilled and superhuman fighter who has given Nat quite a lot of difficulty.

Yelena uses the Bite from close range; it acts like a taser, convulsing the target.

Yelena uses her Bite to electrify the Red Widow's sword by touch.

Yelena uses close-up taser-style Bite on two guys at once.

And again.

Yelena fires a solid metal cylinder out of her gauntlet to knock a guy out.

Yelena grabs with legs, throws.

Yelena disarms two guys with one kick.

Yelena dodges fire from three guys with automatic weapons.

Yelena dodges two shield throws from the superhuman Red Guardian (the previous Vanguard).

Yelena leaps down from the top of a building by bouncing off the sides of an alley in some giant leaps.

Yelena uses belt bomb

Yelena throws a guard

Yelena uses gas cylinders and has gas mask

Yelena has spray bottles of cyanide gas

Yelena has lockpicks in cylinders

Yelena wraps Line around guy’s neck

Yelena takes out at least 18 armed, trained guards

Sometimes Yelena does have different gear, like Falcon-style wings.

These are only a few representative examples. Black Widow is noted for long-term strategies and cons, and for breaking into challenging locations.

• Outsmarts Tony Stark. Stark is after her for kidnapping the guy who helped him first build the Iron Man suit when she was much younger. She plays on Stark’s weaknesses by using a fake phone call and make up, then KOs him and breaks into his computer system (and steals some of his tech, not shown here).

• Absurd prep—has fake skin on her back to cover a bow and arrow. Fingernail has electric charge (or something) to blow up plastic explosive. Also one-shots a mind-controlled Ivan.

• And she did the same thing earlier--she has a kit for a field disruptor rifle under a false back.

• She passes a lockpick to Daredevil via a kiss...which he then realizes she kept in her stomach.

• The entire plot of one miniseries is that she was willing to have painful plastic surgery done on her to look like Yelena Belova, and then have the surgery reversed after finishing the con. This is, just to point out, crazy! Then she does it again, this time using a drug.

• Works with Punisher to make complicated plan to fake Frank's death, where she shoots him off the side of a building, where he is caught by Ghost Rider.

• Vassily, who is connected to the Red Room, is repeatedly referred to as being tough, and in his one feat catches a thrown knife and then two-shots a trained assassin. They fight. He has a pheromone scent that Black Widows can’t fight against. He hits her four times (two was enough to take out the other assassin). But, she calculates that by letting him break her nose and fill her throat with blood, she won’t smell the pheromone. Then she gets up and two-shots him.

• This is more of a pure tactical move: she hides in the shadows and attacks from above.

• Says she knows how to take down a synthesoid like Viv Vision.

Stats: Intelligence 3 (learned), Strength 3 (peak human: lift twice body weight), Speed 2 (normal—“the ability to move over land by running or flight—next level, 3, is up to 700mph), Durability 3 (enhanced), energy projection 3 (short range and duration, single energy type), fighting skills 6 (master of several forms of combat).

Black Widow has kept her youth due to multiple treatments from the Soviet government, which also increased her physical stats, including strength, speed, and durability ("Government treatments slowed her aging, augmented her immune system and enhanced her durability”).

The Red Room physically and mentally conditioned the 28 Black Widows (of which Natasha was only one) in their youth in various ways:

• The Red Room conditioning gives her a “ramped up immune and cell repair system.” Her “wounds heal four, maybe five times as fast as a normal human’s would. [She doesn’t] hardly get sick, [she doesn’t] age as fast.” This immune system works so well that it sees a fetus as a disruption and miscarries it.

• They physically conditioned them to react to a pheromonal scent that locks into her biology. She is unable to fight or even disobey someone with it. This is how Nick Fury got her to defect. (However, see her fight with Vassily on how she can overcome it.)

• They also implanted false memories, such as of her training as a ballerina. These memories were unstable, and when asked directly by Red Guardian, she was unable to give a consistent answer. If a Black Widow tries to think directly about the memories, they get physically ill.

• Taskmaster, who is an expert at the training of assassins, said the Red Room built the Widows to be superhuman, including strength and speed.

Soviet Super-Soldier Serum: The Winter Soldier, who worked for the Soviets at the time, also provided Natasha and her caregiver Ivan with a formula which expanded their life-spans and also healed him enough to recover from a mortal injury. This was in 1956. It is unclear if this serum is in addition to, or the same as, the treatment the other Widow trainees received.

As I mention below under "Other" while discussing her resurrection by the Hand many years ago, she could have arguably gotten some of her physical enhancement from that as well.

Age: How old is Natasha? Deadly Origin shows her as an infant in 1928, and says she is 29 in 1957, which would also imply a 1928 birth year. The Avengers Roll Call handbook backs this up and says she was born around 1928. This is also supported by a plethora of stories, such as Uncanny X-men 268, a flashback where Captain America and Wolverine meet Natasha during World War II in 1941, when they were all alive (Natasha would have been, and looked approximately, 13).

However, in The Things They Say About Her (published before Deadly Origin), Yelena Belova says Nat is "nearly 40" (she would actually be 77 at the time TTTSAH was published) and that Yelena herself is "not yet 30." It is unlikely that Yelena would be so unaware of the history of the Black Widow program since she graduated from a later iteration. Perhaps we may take this to mean that Natasha looked like she was almost 40.

However, after the 2015 Secret War in which reality was rebooted, the Mark Waid/Chris Samnee Black Widow volume implies she is actually much younger. Natasha kills the uncle of a boy who later became the Weeping Lion when both she and the boy were children. Since the Weeping Lion seems to be a normal adult age, this is problematic. Further, only "several years ago," according to a caption, she captured Yinsen and brought him into captivity. Yinsen is the man who later helped Tony Stark build his first Iron Man armor when they were both captives. Natasha looks like a young woman in this story, which means that she is actually younger than Tony Stark at the time. The letters page in issue 8 takes on this confusion. It says she is 88 years old (at the time of the volume in 2016, thus a birth year of 1928), but then notes that there are some problems with how her age is portrayed in the story, and that they care more about the story than the math. It suggests a few possible solutions, such as that the Weeping Lion could have also had enhanced age, but basically leaves it open. The letters page to issue 10 follows up on this: a letter writer suggests that it was the reality-altering aspects of the Secret War that changed the timeline, and the editor gave him a No-Prize for the idea, seemingly endorsing the concept. The letters page in issue 11 continues the discussion, implying that it is not clear exactly when in her life she was in the Red Room.

Nat fights and kills pretty viciously under the right circumstances.

• Crushes a guy's head in a car door:

• Ties some dead guys up to a car to make a point.

• Jams a pool cue in a guy's throat.

• Kicks through a knee, cuts off a leg below the knee.

• While she was working as an assassin for the Soviets, she not only killed a good friend of hers in cold blood because those were her orders, she then proceeded to kill their cat just to tie up loose ends!

• She threatens (and means it) to shoot the Punisher unless he does something for her, and she threatens to kneecap a pretty innocent guy for information.

• Cuts a guy's arms off as revenge for what he did to a girl.

• Intentionally has Hawkeye shoot her in the side with a 3-bladed broadhead arrow, clearly causing significant damage, in order to fulfill a plan.

• Callous enough to assassinate a guy who did her wrong in cold blood. He's not expecting this at all, or aware of what's going on. She just walks up and drops a grenade in his lap.

• Has no compunctions about killing a defenseless, disarmed female agent (the last guy's partner) in cold blood.

• Ruthless: forces a guy to jump off a high tower at gunpoint, breaking many bones, then threatens to let wild dogs eat him (and does actually let them start to visciously chew on his leg).

• She promised two guys that they wouldn’t walk again, so after she beats them and the one guy is just lying on the ground unconscious, she breaks his back with a pressure point (which was completely unnecessary).

• Trains the Champions in “ethical adjustments” which are so hard core she makes them cry just by talking.

• Is interrogated by a man using hallucinogenic drugs. When she used these same drugs on him, he went nearly insane and gave up everything he knew, and kept having flashbacks much later. While it affects her strongly on the inside, she resists it unlike anyone else ("I've never seen resistance like this"), and is in fact able to act completely conscious soon after (and then get in a big fight).

• Good at disguise. Tricks Taskmaster, even though he can read movements, plus, knows that by wearing an eyepatch, no one can recognize her ;) :

• Spits in a guy’s face, manipulating him into reacting in such a way that he drops a needle exactly where she can grab it and unlock the cuffs. Incredible timing, accuracy, and intuition, not to mention needles aren’t great for lock picking.

• Manages to poison Lady Bullseye without her knowing it.

• She was resurrected by the Chaste after being killed by the Hand’s disintegrating poison. Sometimes people resurrected by the Hand in a similar manner (such as Bullseye, Kirigi, and arguably Elektra) have increased physical stats; this, in addition to her Super Soldier Serum, may explain her stats.

• Daredevil can't tell if she's lying here. Her heartbeat is under enough control to keep Daredevil from reading it here. Does it again.

• Perception: Can tell Miles Morales is behind her. Then does it again. His “how do you keep—” comment shows that he was trying to be stealthy.

• Perception/knowledge of snipers: senses or is aware of a sniper 7 blocks away, which the sniper considers to be beyond Daredevil's senses

• Infiltration of high-tech security skills: Easily breaks into security of a Hydra base. She initially says their security would be an insult to a back alley safecracker, then revises that to an insult to Gambit or the Black Cat, implying that they are not very good compared to her in this area.

• Infiltration of high-tech security skills: Shuri's tech expert Flea (who has lots of on-panel feats proving his expertise) describes a satellite's security as incredibly hard--it would be easier to break into Stark Industries. Only a "top of the line specialist" could break in, and beating it "in the time they have would be impossible." Black Widow breaks through its computer security in about 2 minutes, as seen in the time stamps (from 2:18 to 0:06).

• Wolverine thinks it’s a joke that he’s supposed to be her protector; obviously he thinks she can take care of herself better than he can take care of her:

• Wolverine is cautious enough about her reactions to stay out of arm’s reach when she wakes up unexpectedly.

• She is described as “running circles around men and women who possess ten times her strength”

• Fighting SHIELD and Nick Fury. She breaks an agent’s neck and disarms him in one move. In fighting Fury, an agent says, “this is the Black Widow we’re talking about. There was never any questions about whether she’d get the upper hand, just how long it’d take her.”

• A Federal Dynamo, basically a low-level Crimson Dynamo, knows she's going to toast him as soon as he runs into her.

• The other Avengers try to interrogate a guy and fail, but she succeeds in minutes.

• This is more her own self-assessment, and certainly imbued with class Stan Lee hyperbole, but she describes herself as having "powers enough to be a challenge to Iron Man."

• Nick Fury Jr says Widow is “the greatest killer to walk the Earth at present. Better than the Winter Soldier. Better than Elektra Natchios.” Tasky, who has happily fought every top Marvel street tier, including Iron Fist shortly after, clearly agrees: "I’m going to die. You got to help me.”

• When Taskmaster sees her again, he flatly says, "I'm dead," and then "Just don't let her kill me." Then, "I could run, sure. But she'd be on me in a second. And then I'd be dead." He clearly thinks he has no chance in combat against her. Then, when he manages to take her (and the rest of the base) out with some prep by getting some psychics to release a massive psi blast, he stands there looking at her unconscious body wondering if he should kill her. "All I'd have to do is take two steps." But: "what if she wakes up before I get there?" Taskmaster, top-tier streetleveler, is paralyzed by fear at trying to take out even the unconscious Widow, and decides to leave instead of risking it.

Also has a funny voicemail message.