Agent 47 is the best assassin in all of fiction. He has the skills, he has the style, he has the success. The fact that he canonically doesn’t kill anyone accept his target other than in the most unique of circumstances puts him apart from a lot of his fictional contemporaries, and the fact that he does it without any kind of superpowers or unrealistically advanced technology cements his status as the best, although he does have some relatively minor enhancements. So who are the assassins from other fictional settings that stand the best chance of beating him, either in a fight, or taking him down as a legitimate target?
I’ve made a list here of the 10 most likely to be able to achieve that feat. Now, the parameters: no superpowers or inhuman abilities or characters are included. The rival assassins must be as human and as “normal” as possible, although some preternatural or inhuman feats may be permitted, within reason. This means no aliens; no robots, androids or cyborgs; no supernatural beings; no technology that provides advantages similar to feats found with the aforementioned categories. This means characters like Thane Krios from Mass Effect, Corvo Attano from Dishonored, Deadpool from Marvel, and others of the like are exempt from the list.
To that end, here we go…
10) Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad
The first playable character from the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Altaïr is perhaps the best assassin in fiction after 47 himself. His skill, success rate, and unwavering dedication to the life of killing for a living is unmatched by any other than our favorite bald clone, and to be honest, he’s actually the one who stands the best chance of taking 47 down, either in a straight-up fight, or a contest of trying to assassinate one another… if he were facing him in the 10th century CE. Altaïr has some enhancements similar to 47 in terms of strength, endurance and superior senses because of him possessing some DNA from humanity’s Precursors, and because of that, in a straight fight using bladed weaponry, it could go either way. However, 47 does not exist in ancient times, but modern times, with modern tools, weapons, obstacles, and killing grounds. Obviously, Altaïr wouldn’t be able to do a thing against a sniper rifle or a bomb, and we don’t know how good he would be if he had been raised and trained in modern times, so the ranking isn’t transferable through time periods. As such, Altaïr unfortunately can only reasonably be placed at the bottom of the list, despite technically deserving to be at number 1. Considering 47 is literally the only fellow professional killer who could be considered his superior, that’s a damned shame.
9) James Bond
While more spy and saboteur than assassin traditionally, Bond usually has to kill to safeguard England’s interests, even before the Craig era. Taking his enemies alive is a rare occurrence, and so he qualifies for the list. The only reason why he ranks higher than Altaïr is because he’s prepared to operate in the modern world. Otherwise, while a match for average hit men, he’s not holding a candle to the rest of the heavy hitters. Bond usually ends up just kind of stumbling into a fire fight that leads to him shooting his target, if not blowing them up or dropping them from a great height. Bond makes the list because he does have a chance on raw dogged determination alone if he ever confronted 47, although it would likely never get to that. 47 takes him out easily, mainly because everyone already knows who and where he is. Bond makes no effort to camouflage and is careless enough to accept food and drink out in the open. 47 effortlessly poisons Bond’s shaken martini, shoots him after waiting for him to finish banging the local Russian/ French/Italian model/spy, or rigs the missles in his fancy car to turn around and blow itself up with Bond in it. Bond may be a classic action and espionage hero who influenced most of 47’s style, but when it comes to killing, 47 is a massive upgrade.
8) Léon
The titular hit man from Léon: The Professional, Léon is probably the closest you can get to a real-life version of 47. He moves like a ghost, he occasionally uses disguises, he dual wields suppressed pistols, has every traditional tool of murder at his disposal, takes jobs that regular contract killers can’t pull off, and always succeeds at the job. Where Léon and 47 differ is mainly that Léon has no enhancements and relies solely on practiced skills, he is a killer savant with very low intellect outside of being an assassin, and he usually leaves dozens of bodies in his wake, mostly the henchmen and bodyguards of his targets. But, since 47’s ability to get to his targets without taking anyone else out is unrealistic outside the world of Hitman, Léon‘s feats are all the more impressive for that reason. In a fight between the two, the similarities between them that would make Léon predictable, 47’s much higher intelligence, and the fact that he’d probably hear Léon coming as he dropped bodies along the way, means that he’d get the jump on Léon before he ever got into the room. But, if it ever came down to a shootout between the two, Léon‘s unwavering dedication to the contract and quick reflexes mean that his chances of winning are likely higher than anyone 47 actually faced in his games. He is also willing and able to use grenades in battle, something that would give even 47 some trouble. Léon is good enough at the job to take this spot on the list.
7) John Wick
Didn’t expect this one to be this low, did you? Yeah, to the likely surprise of many, the famous John Wick doesn’t stand quite as much of a chance against our homeboy Hitman as you would think. That’s not to say it would necessarily be easy, but John Wick relies a great deal on luck and circumstance for his success as an assassin, especially once a full fledged firearm free-for-all breaks out, as is wont to happen with Wick. In hand-to-hand fights, John Wick is tough and powers through pain unimaginable, but so does 47, who has been shot in what would have been a fatal manner for a normal human, and who has been tossed around by super soldiers and shaken it off. A fist fight could go either way, with 47 have the slightest of edges. Ditto for a shootout. 47 has rarely had to go guns blazing, and when he has, it never lasts long, whereas this is John Wick’s bread and butter situation and he is able to do so for extended periods. Then again, he’s never dealt with an enhanced killer with perfect aim before, so 47 might not let a gunfight go very far. In the end, it really comes down to distance killing, in which 47 excels. Nobody has really tried to snipe Wick since the first movie, nobody has tried to place a bomb in his vehicle, and nobody has tried to poison his bourbon. 47 does all three of these with the ease of thumbing through a magazine, and with that being the case, it wouldn’t take him 4 movies to put Wick in the ground for good.
6) Adam Clay
The newest member on the list, The Beekeeper action hero is a hurricane in a human body and with an axe to grind, and he’s gonna grind it into your skull. This man is what you get when you’re halfway from being John Wick to being Agent 47; he can take on slews of soldiers by himself, his aim is super deadly, he can use almost anything as a weapon and rig the environment to create “accidents,” he works for a clandestine organization that is eerily similar to the ICA, he makes use of disguises, and he goes on a rampage against the entire system once a personal loss pissed him off. Against 47, both are going to be ranking in the top 5 most difficult fights they’ve ever had. In his film, Clay had to face 3 specific opponents who were uniquely qualified to be able beat him, but all 3 squandered the opportunity by trying to beat him one-on-one with melee weapons and wasted precious moments talking to him. 47 gives no such quarter, so Clay may not get a moment to catch his second wind. Also, since Clay has a clear objective that he makes no effort to conceal, it will be easy for 47 to prepare for him in advance and lie in wait, and so Clay loses his edge. 47 might take a few stings in the process, but he ultimately swats this bee.
5) Black Mamba
Black Mamba, aka Beatrix Kiddo from the Kill Bill films, is the only woman to make the list, but she represents the hell out of the ladies. Whether using firearms, blades, martial arts or even (presumably) poison, Black Mamba is ruthless and precise. She is also extremely strong when it comes to striking blows, as she has been trained in how to throw her full weight and power into strikes in such a way that a male opponent who could lift or throw far more weight than her, would come up woefully short when comparing the amount of force being put into their hits compared to her. With her very hands being arguably her most dangerous weapons, Black Mamba could theoretically tear 47’s head off with one well-placed hit, or stop his heart with the famous Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. The problem is, getting to the point where she’d be able to deliver such deadly blows to 47 in the first place. While superb with firearms, she is still presumably inferior to the perfect aim of 47, and while he does not typically engage in prolonged sword fights with katanas, he’s almost certainly been trained to do so, and with his genetic enhancements, would not tire as easily as the Mamba would, even with her extensive experience in such battles. Assuming 47 doesn’t just drop a chandelier on her head, a well placed bullet to the face while she’s busy drawing a sword from its sheath ends the fight pretty anticlimactically. And if it comes down to a fist fight, 47’s dodging ability means he likely stays ahead of her strikes while dishing out his own, and if he witnesses her use the FPPEHT, either on someone else or dodging the move being attempted against him, his quicker reflexes and enhanced memory will likely allow him to perform the attack right back on her.
4) Robert McCall
Ex-CIA assassin-turned-vigilante from The Equalizer series, Robert is a pretty good example of how 47 would be if he didn’t operate on a contract basis, especially during the Freelancer era of the Hitman timeline. Robert has OCD that causes him to lead a very meticulous lifestyle, with everything being just so. He gets very little sleep, but is able to stay sharp with mental and physical exercises that have been trained into him for years while working for the government. He is able to hone in on the little details of the environment around him within seconds, everything fading to a sort of slow motion. He makes note of every possible weapon, every possible weak point of his opponents, and then exploits them in a matter of seconds in an explosion of lightning fast, close-quarters violence, usually without even having to use firearms. He often times himself while doing this with a stopwatch, as is usually accurate with his guess on how long the fight will take. McCall can clear a room of hostiles after walking in bare-handed, and can make use of his surroundings to set up traps for careless enemies. In a confrontation with 47, it really comes down to who has had time to prepare for who, and whether 47 underestimates Robert’s perceptiveness. If he ends up on the defensive, the question becomes whether 47’s experience and enhancements are enough to make up the difference before Robert lands a lethal or crippling blow. 47 holds the cards at the start of the fight, but will he use them decisively against an opponent who is more ready than he’s used to? 47 wins, but he works for it more with this one. Even distance killing is something McCall will note as a possibility beforehand, so the odds, while still in favor of 47, are lower than usual.
3) Jason Bourne
Hailing from the Bourne series, Jason Bourne takes everything that makes Robert McCall deadly and amps it up another level, with a little bit of John Wick, Black Mamba and Adam Clay thrown in for good measure. Bourne is basically a science experiment like 47, but he was born as a normal human, and his enhancements aren’t so much physical as mental and psychological. Much like Robert McCall, Bourne takes note of every detail around him, but at a much faster rate and with even more precision, so much so that even suffering amnesia doesn’t diminish his ability, it is so ingrained into him. Bourne has a steadiness and accuracy with firearms that could rival 47. Most impressively, Bourne is an incredibly fast and brutal combatant in close range. Bourne can move faster than anyone on this list so far, and strikes with such brutal efficiency that makes clear his goal is to inflict as much damage on his opponent as fast as possible, right from the get-go, no escalation of the fight; it is to the finish from the beginning. Normally, Bourne doesn’t go for the kill, unless he’s surrounded by enemies who are, in which case he’ll do so in defense. Determining who wins is really tough here, because in both hand-to-hand and using weapons, Bourne can match 47 closely enough that 47’s enhanced superiority doesn’t really contribute to his chances anymore. To that end, it mostly comes down to setting up a trap for Bourne without needing to be present for it to occur, something 47 excels at like no other. Aside from that, it can probably go either way, unless Bourne is trying to run more than fight, in which case, 47 gains back enough of an edge that the win is more likely his than not.
2) Bullseye
Possibly the most deadly non-superpowered human in Marvel Comics (more on that in a moment), Bullseye would be a challenge unlike any Agent 47 has faced before, and he might actually be on the defensive more than not for a change. Bullseye is gifted with extremely superb aiming skills, his accuracy being off the charts. While he can and does use guns, he finds them too boring and so only uses them when necessary. He prefers to throw things at his targets, and Bullseye can make anything he throws lethal, from playing cards to toothpicks to paper airplanes to his own teeth, whether throwing it or spitting it at his enemy. When incarcerated, Bullseye is given only liquid food and laxatives, so he won’t have a solid bowel movement and therefore can’t use his own feces as a weapon. No joke. He’s also excellent at hand-to-hand combat, and has part of his skeleton coated in adamantium, including his skull, so no one can take a head shot at him in retaliation (admantium meets the parameters because although it is advanced technology, it’s really just a harder form of metal, no more outlandish than 47’s clone status). Bullseye’s throwing ability is so good that I’m convinced he must be a mutant, but since that’s never been stated, we must accept him as just an unnaturally gifted human. How he is able to throw items hard enough, never mind accurately enough, to be lethal every time is never explained, either. While 47 has perfect aim, and could probably throw and shoot just as well as Bullseye, it’s not his usual thing, so he isn’t as experienced with relying so constantly on perfect aiming as Bullseye is, giving him a disadvantage. While he could probably shoot anything Bullseye throws at him out of the air, he’d eventually run out of ammo, while Bullseye would just keep grabbing things to throw. He could also probably beat Bullseye hand-to-hand, but Bullseye would keep trying to turn it into an opportunity to throw something, making it an inconsistent fight. What it comes down to is that Bullseye is absolutely crazy, almost Joker-level crazy, and prideful, so he’s going to always try to take down 47 by getting close enough to be able to throw something at him, and that gives 47 the opportunity to prepare a trap for him. While Bullseye can also react just as fast as 47 as part of his unnatural gift, 47 can still shoot or stab Bullseye between the ribs and into his heart, which is not protected by adamantium, bringing the fight to a difficult end.
1) Deadshot
Yeah, this one is probably coming as a surprise to those of you who know. Deadshot is the DC Comics equivalent of Bullseye, but with a far more focused specialization. The reason why he’s number 1 is because there exists a specific scenario, which only Deadshot could pull off out of everyone listed here, that 100% guarantees that he kills 47, no question. As mentioned, Deadshot is really DC’s answer to Bullseye, but with some slight differences. He uses body armor to protect himself, but that won’t protect him much from 47, as Dino Bosco can attest. He is a pretty good hand-to-hand fighter, but not at Bullseye’s level, and so nowhere near 47’s. He has the same kind of super-perfect accuracy Bullseye does, except Deadshot uses that ability almost exclusively through the use of guns. While he can probably throw things as accurately as Bullseye, which is sometimes shown, he doesn’t do it often, so isn’t as practiced in the skill. Bullseye is probably the more accurate over all, but Deadshot arguably has the better aim when using guns specifically. Deadshot prefers to shoot his targets, and he can use any kind of firearm. From handguns to shotguns to assault rifles to sniper rifles to grenade launchers, you put any kind of firearm in Deadshot’s hand and he is instantly, intimately familiar with it and can use it flawlessly. Deadshot practically worships guns and despises people who don’t use them properly or take their threat level seriously. Deadshot is also the only expert at ricochet shots. In the Batman: Arkham game series, Deadshot almost exclusively goes after his targets by shooting his bullets off of other objects first. While normally impossible, it’s generally assumed that Deadshot does this with specialized guns and ammo designed to do this (within the parameters for the same reasons as Bullseye’s adamantium). While Bullseye and 47 could also probably do the ricochet shots with the right equipment, neither does so regularly, leaving them not as experienced in the maneuver as the gifted Deadshot. Deadshot is so perfect in shooting that only three things can save you from him: if he can’t get a fix on your location to aim at you, if something outside his control disrupts his shooting or interferes with the bullet in some way, or if he just plain chooses to miss, all three being the only reasons he’s never killed Batman.
So how is Deadshot the top assassin who is able to beat 47? As I mentioned, there is one situation that only Deadshot can take advantage of to take out 47 in a way that can’t be blocked, dodged, or walked away from. If Deadshot is contracted to kill 47, or decides for personal reasons that he wants to take him out, all he needs to do is wait for 47 to be in a place where Deadshot knows exactly where he is. Possibly putting out a fake contract himself on someone and waiting for 47 to dress up as a server at an outdoor wine-tasting, for example. If that should happen, if Deadshot should be actively after 47 and know exactly where he is at a given moment, Deadshot, and Deadshot alone, could use a specialized sniper rifle and shoot at 47 from a mile away, ricochet the bullet off of 2 or 3 other surfaces and send it straight into 47’s skull. We know from the cutscene with Lucas Grey in Colorado that 47 can feel when someone is aiming a sniper rifle at him, at least within reasonable distance. But with Deadshot, who would be firing from a much further distance and not even aiming directly at 47 but at a different surface entirely with several degrees of separation in-between, 47 would likely not sense the threat coming, and would never be able to avoid or counter it once Deadshot squeezed the trigger. So while Deadshot doesn’t have any advantage over any of these other assassins outside of being the best shot with a gun, he is also the only one who can exploit a situation, even one with such a narrow set of requirements as this one, that gives him an absolute success against 47, while all other scenarios for him and everyone else are 70% chance at absolute best. So for that reason, because a scenario exists where Deadshot alone can absolutely put 47 in the ground, he gets the top spot of the top 10 assassins who could maybe beat 47, because he’s the only one with any chance to make it more than a maybe.
, with the realism (or lack thereof) of their portrayal in mind.