Guardians 3: How Nebula becomes the strongest member with her new powers, explained

Nebula has been a great supporting character in almost every one of her MCU appearances, and she’d continue to play a crucial role in Guardians 3 as well. She started as a supporting villain but soon became a complex antihero that many fans related to.

Her character development created a great dynamic for the stories she was involved in. She was among the two most important Guardians in Endgame. Now, along with Rocket, she’d remain an important figure in Guardians 3.

Since it is supposed to be a finale, all the characters are expected to be at their best in terms of their abilities. So, Nebula ends up getting two major upgrades from Rocket Raccoon, which add two new attributes to her set of abilities. The following is a list of all powers (new & old) that make Nebula the current strongest member in Guardians 3.

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All powers and abilities of Nebula in Guardians 3

Superhuman durability and stamina

Nebula in Avengers: Infinity War (Image via Marvel)

Nebula is a character who can just go on and on in a battle. Not only does she have the will to keep fighting, but she also has the stamina and durability to do so. After all, she survived Thanos’ abuse throughout her entire life. He kept replacing her body parts to enhance her.

Those cybernetic enhancements basically turned her into a Cyborg. They increased her strength, durability, and stamina. On top of that, she even gained several new abilities, thanks to the added machinery.

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A new Nanotech bionic arm

While Nebula was the one to steal Bucky’s arm, she has been on a journey to perfect her own arm. First, she cut her hand off in Vol. 1 and temporarily added a weird weapon to replace that in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. But towards the third act, we saw her getting a new hand from the ravagers, which she continued to have until Avengers: Endgame.

In Endgame, she damaged her arm again while trying to get the Orb. So, it was upgraded yet again in Thor: Love and Thunder. Now, in Guardians 3, Nebula has a new nano-tech arm, which looks much like the sentinels from X-Men: Days of Future Past. But this arm works exactly like Tony’s nano-tech suits or perhaps Blue Beetle’s Scarab.

It can create a long and hot blade, or it can also be turned into a massive cannon for the “Blue Meanie.” Even Karen Gillan teased this new addition to Nebula’s arsenal. It’s likely that Rocket gave Nebula this upgrade after she gifted Bucky’s arm to him. Even though she is more sentient than a robot compared to DC’s Cyborg, this new arm upgrade has made her more like the DC character.

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The ability to fly

So far, Nebula has been an expert at flying space crafts. But now she has an ability similar to Tony Stark because Rocket gave her a set of wings along with a cannon arm. It will be interesting to see if these wings have some other attributes besides flying.

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Skill with weapons

Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy (Image via Marvel)

So far, we have seen Nebula handle a bunch of weapons. She used daggers in Vol. 1, and then she switched to Blasters. We saw her attack Thanos with a couple of electric batons. Then she again used Blasters in Endgame and took up a massive gun in Thor: Love and Thunder.

Now in Guardians 3, she has a new arm that turns into a sword and a blaster at will. So along with her skills in hand-to-hand combat, Nebula knows how to handle all kinds of weapons really well.

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Why Nebula might be the strongest Guardian now

Karen Gillan as Nebula in Guardians 3 (Image via Marvel)

With her superhuman strength and skill in handling weapons, Nebula was already one of the strongest characters on the team. But her new nanotech arm and wings have given her a major advantage over every other Guardian of the Galaxy.

Peter Quill lost his Celestial light, so he obviously isn’t as strong as Nebula anymore. Drax is superior to her, but her cannon arm gives her an edge as she could practically kill the Invisible Man with her blasters now.

The only character that would stand as a challenge for her is Groot. Even though the humanoid tree has wooden protection, he becomes vulnerable if constantly attacked. So if Nebula uses her wings and arm to fire at Groot from a distance, she might emerge on top. Hence, Nebula is arguably the strongest Guardian right now.

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Guardians 3 releases on May 5.