Nova. Ebony Maw can only telekinetically manipulate inanimate objects. Nova can move people without even really thinking about it. She flays his skin from his body.
Ebony Maw seems to have more brute telekinetic strength, but he has difficulty, bordering on a near inability, to control inanimate objects. Even his What If variant that actually directly manipulated T'Challa Star-Lord only suspended him in mid-air for a few seconds IIRC before using inanimate objects to bind and manipulate him further. So, he has one feat of doing so out of dozens of TK feats, and it was his What If version. And, as we've seen, What If characters can vary greatly from their main counterparts, so don't scale to them.
Whereas Nova, while not displaying Maw's raw power, can use her powers directly on opponents to great effect. And Maw's durability barely seems to be above a normal human's, so he gets the Human Torch treatment.
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Yeah it's pretty clear he can only control objects, not people. While Nova is so precise that she can remove skin and all the pieces holding a person's frame together in a split second. Because even without skin your body wouldn't just fall apart like that.
Maybe. But then the 616 version should have been able to control Iron Man via his suit, for example, which he never did. And we've seen other characters with TK or TK-esque powers (Scarlet Witch, High Evolutionary, Agatha etc.) directly control opponents before, so it's not an MCU thing where they just don't have people with those kinds of powers directly target enemies.
My headcanon is basically that he can control animate objects, but only to a very limited extent and with great effort, to the point where it's impractical for him to do so most of the time.
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Ebony Maw knocked away Cull Obsidian him when Tony blasted him.
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Cull Obsidian was covered in armor and had his weapon in his hand. Considering every other time he directly manipulated a person it was with an object or part of the environment or they also had on armor, it seems more likely that he knocked away what he had on him and Cull just went with it.
Tony himself is though. Otherwise, Maw should be able to just manipulate the clothing of anyone he fought, like Spider-Man, Dr Strange etc.
Could also be that maybe he struggles with things that are already in motion, like being unable to simply telekinetically catch the brick spikes that were redirected at him by Strange and Wong and trying to use a car as a shield instead.
Whatever the reason, the bottom line is that, whether by choice or some undefined limitation, it's not in character for Maw to directly manipulate opponents instead of using the environment against them. Unlike Cassandra Nova, who repeatedly used her powers directly against Wolverine, Deadpool and others.
And, IIRC, I think it's mentioned in the film when they talk about Magneto's helmet that she killed a version of Magneto offscreen. So, she should already have experience fighting someone who uses the environment to attack.
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Well surely the strength of their clothing would be a limitation. E.g. trying to pick you up with your clothes but your clothes just rip off. In Bjj when someone isn't wearing a Gi and we grab their shirt or T-Shirt it rips pretty easily.
Fair. Just FYI, if we make that comparison to Magneto, he actually could/would just crush Iron Man's armour around him. So no idea why Maw couldn't/doesn't do the same.
Well, Spider-Man's suit, for example, is a lot tougher than regular clothing, so it's probably sturdy enough to manipulate. But even with regular clothing, assuming he could control it, he could just strangle someone with their own shirt, for example. Doesn't need to try and lift them off the ground.
But that's neither here nor there. Whatever the reason, barring two instances where he or an alternate version of him extremely briefly directly affected an opponent (him deflecting Cull and What If Maw TK'ing T'Challa for like 3 seconds), Maw fights by using his TK on the environment to fight enemies. And, like I said earlier, this is particular to him, because other MCU characters with telekinesis or quasi-telekinetic powers can and do use their powers directly against opponents all the time, such as Scarlet Witch, Agatha, High Evolutionary, Yon-Rogg with his gauntlets, Loki and even Nova herself.
Well, I made the comparison more with regards to Nova having experience fighting someone who operates similarly to Maw. Nova is just a bad matchup for characters like Maw or Magneto. For all their raw power, they have no way of stopping her literally tearing their flesh from their bones (no notable durability or counter to being directly attacked by TK) and no ability to recover from said damage (no healing/regeneration).
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
Like I said before "Cull Obsidian was covered in armor and had his weapon in his hand. Considering every other time he directly manipulated a person it was with an object or part of the environment or they also had on armor, it seems more likely that he knocked away what he had on him and Cull just went with it."
Watch the clip and you see Obsidian has not only his axe/hammer thing, but an armored torso piece and armor on his legs. So Ebony Maw flinging him away by any of those fully tracks with his capabilities and Cull's armor would be more than tough enough and rigid enough to withstand the manipulation.
But this brings us back to the why doesn't he just TK Iron Man via his armour question. Because when he knocks Tony into the air at one point during the New York fight, he does so by launching the ground underneath him upwards. And he later tries throwing pieces of metal and concrete at Tony instead of targeting his armour. The reason is likely something to do with the present motion of the object in question, but exactly how it affects things is unclear.
But, like I said, ultimately, the bottom line is that it's simply not in character for Maw to fight like Cassandra Nova and other people I've mentioned do, regardless of the reason. In character, Maw will telekinetically grab something from their surroundings to throw at her or try and restrain her with, whereas she'll just flay him without a second thought. And that means he dies.
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^ I think it's just not in character (maybe not used to fighting that way as he doesn't control living flesh). Because there's no logical reason why he couldn't fling IM around directly.
I've seen people theorise it's actually a form of geokinesis that only allows him to control metal and stone, but then he should still be able to control Iron Man's armour, unless it being a nanotech composite interferes. Because we don't actually know what materials (other than being nanotech) Iron Man's nanotech suits are composed of. But then he was also unable to directly TK the full IG in Endgame and needed to lift it up via surrounding stones and debris. So, there does seem to be some weird limitations to what he can and can't affect.
Anyway, we can theorise as to the reason, but the end result remains the same.
Edit: Now that I think about it, the gauntlet he couldn't directly manipulate in EG was also IM nanotech.
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Last edited by TheVaultDweller on Sep 6th, 2024 at 12:26 PM
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