Ikaris vs Captain Marvel:
Hmm. While I am in the "Carol Danvers is oft overrated" camp, that's a rather relative thing. She is still definitely a person in the same weight class as Ikaris ( minimum ), who also has experience fighting opponents who can actually hurt her and needing to rely on skill. That means she gets the nod, even if you assume she doesn't have a significant power advantage.
Basically, as a rule of thumb, I think Ikaris will lose any fight against an opponent where he doesn't have a sizable power advantage ( or some kind of obvious "type advantage" in his favor ). Probably the most powerful character I'd give him the nod in a straight fight against would be the Hulk, and even then, he'd need to actually pay attention and fight smart ( it'd be more of a 6/10 than a blowout ).
Have to disagree with some of that.
Honestly, once she gains superpowers when do we see Carol win with skill and not just blast through obstacles with raw power?
By the time we see her fight Thanos, she can shrug off a headbutt from him. I'm not sure we've actually seen her fight enemies who could do much more than stun her. I guess in her prior life as a human she might have had such experience, but when we run into her as Vers, that's long gone.
Again, she doesn't use skill or tactics against Yon Rogg or any of the other Kree warriors, she just kind of overpowers them. Similarly she doesn't use much skill in Endgame and just blasts through everything.
I don't agree that she's overrated, as the films explicitly show feats which suggest that she's one of the most powerful characters in the MCU. Is she a likeable and relatable character, that is a different story
On the other hand Ikaris, in his very first appearance Eternals, is injured by the flying deviant, which Ajak then heals. So he's got some experience fighting creatures that can harm him. The MCU Deviants pose a much greater risk to the Eternals than their comic book counterparts. And the Eternals are shown having to work together to subdue larger Deviants, and the evolved Deviants are shown as being able to harm them ( in the comics 4 Eternals can take out thousands of Deviants).
In Eternals we see how Ikaris fares against Makaari, Druig, Phastos and Thena - sometimes all of them at once. Kind of the MCU version of Superman vs Flash, Cyborg and Wonder Woman.
One on one he can take any of them, and does - he overpowers Thena very quickly.
The film is ridiculously inconsistent when it comes to the Eternals' durability- Ikaris and Druig survive being pounded into a rock face with little visible injury, yet Sprite is Ko'd by a rock and Sersi gets shanked. Ikaris shrugs off multiple superspeed attacks from Makaari and catches one of Thena's blades in his hand - but the Deviants can harm him ? It doesn't seem to make sense.
So my point is that Ikaris does have experience with tough opponents, but it's a bit hard to gage just how tough and strong he is. As far as skill goes, he too relies a lot on his powers, rather than fighting smart.
Given all the inconsistencies in his feats I struggle to place Ikaris. He's a lot like Vision that way.
I feel like he's probably a pretty even match for Thor - with Thor ( without Stormbreaker or Mjolnir ) probably coming out on top after a tough but probably not for Carol.
Could Ikaris overpower Dr Strange, who's a massive glass cannon ?
Both Ikaris and Carol are brawlers.
All in all, I would say Captain Marvel would take this, mostly based on her feats vs Thanos - I'd like to think that he's much tougher and stronger than a bunch of generic cgi monsters.
