Marvel make superhero movies. It's their ultimate DNA. And they have great heroes. But they have great villains too. Increasingly, it seems like it’s the villains that fans are most excited for when it comes to the next big Marvel Cinematic Universe release. And now, with the MCU well into its second decade, we thought it was high time
When rumors about the collision of all Spider-Mans in No Way Home started circulating, much of the debate was about which of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s many foes was going to grace the screen again. And, if you went to see the latest Spidey on opening weekend, you’ll remember how Willem Defoe’s return as the Green Goblin was welcomed with the same loud gasp (if not louder) than either Spider-Man.
However, the presence of some beloved villains in the franchise does not take away from the fact that we have had quite a lot of stinkers in the almost two decades since the MCU kicked off.
We've had villains who it seems like their sole purpose has to make life harder for our heroes with no other motive than ‘just because’; villains who are only there to channel an epiphany for the hero; or villains who do nothing else but chase the heroes from one place to the next, create a bit of tension and have no lasting impact on the story whatsoever (except for maybe a good fight scene if we are lucky enough).
But, conversely, there have been some brilliant, spine-tingling displays of villainy, and it's those we are here to celebrate. And celebrate we will, with some very major spoilers, so if you're not bang up to date with the MCU, proceed with caution.
Now, before we get started, for the purposes of this list we will not be considering henchmen or other antagonists who act as muscle or pawns in the plan of the actual villain. So, unfortunately, that means no Nebula, no Trevor Slattery, no Arnim Zola, no Ikaris and no Taskmaster. That still leaves us with 36 villains, so grab a snack and let's rank them, from the worst to the very, very best...
Be warned, there are massive spoilers for the MCU below, so proceed with caution.
36. Sonny Burch (Ant-Man and the Wasp)
Not the most memorable face to start off our list, but hey, he’s at the bottom for a reason. You might have forgotten Walton Goggins' Sonny Burch. He's the man who spent a large chunk of Ant-Man and the Wasp running around trying to steal Hank Pym’s wheely miniaturised lab for the technology it contains. Goggins gives this character the right comedic tone that makes him a little bit more than just a Scooby-Doo baddie but even a good performance is not enough to salvage a villain with such little impact.
35. Laufey (Thor)
Props to Laufey for being an outlier as a world-destroying threat in Marvel's Phase One.
He's an odd villain, as Marvel didn't end up doing anything with this overpowered Night King and his army of Frost Giants. He gets defeated as quickly as he gets introduced and his legacy outside of Thor’s neck of the woods is reduced having his name uttered any time Loki is formally introduced.
Laufey proved to be nothing more than an obstacle in Loki’s journey to come to terms with his true origins. That's worthy, but ultimately dull.
34. Brock Rumlow/Crossbones (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War)
Frank Grillo must have done something right as Crossbones to land the part of the baddie in Chinese box-office hit Wolf Warrior 2. But, as good as some of his fight scenes are – the elevator fight with Captain America is one of the most iconic fight scenes in the entire franchise!! – his character is just as flat as his body was when that helicarrier shattered every bone in his body.
A former HYDRA agent, he becomes an independent contractor in the business of terrorism and plots revenge against the Avengers. He really just want to fight them and hurt them as much as possible. Not that that doesn’t yield entertaining results, but the MCU can do better with its villains.
33. Raza (Iron Man)
Another one that you probably forgot even had a name, Raza is the guy that kidnapped Tony Stark and was the catalyst for his change of heart on the whole selling weapons for profit thing and ultimately triggered the birth of Iron Man.
The only other things on Raza’s list of achievements are planting the seed of the Ten Rings, even though Marvel probably didn’t know either where they wanted to go with that, it was such a long time ago...
32. Justin Hammer (Iron Man 2)
Justin Hammer is the QVC version of Tony Stark. Much of his entertainment value is in his completely misplaced confidence in himself. He’s an oddball and you can’t help but wonder how he got to be where he is.
And if you ever do buy something from him, you do so wondering if it will ever actually arrive or if you just signed your soul to a pyramid scheme. That’s why all he can do really is hire someone else to take down his biggest rival, but of course, even that backfires...
31. Malekith (Thor: The Dark World)
If the plot of Thor: The Dark World hadn’t had ramifications on Endgame, MCU fans would have surely agreed by now that it did not actually happen – and part of that is Malekith.
You have to wonder how Marvel got Christopher Eccleston to put on all those prosthetics and hand him a villain who looked like a mangled orc is just evil for evil’s sake?
We watch on as Malekith kicks off a war with the Asgardians because he wants the world to go back to the darkness before the Big Bang. But why? The Dark Elves are obviously still thriving. The Battle of Greenwich was cool to watch for Londoners, but Eccleston should be given a second shot at bringing a Marvel villain to the screen.
30. Kro (Eternals)
Kro is a muddled mess of a few villain-tropes: as a Deviant, he is basically just a lackey for the main baddie Arishem, but he also serves the purpose of chasing the Eternals around but ultimately he is on their same side as he too wants to stop the Convergence from happening.
If you ignore the fact that he is an extremely forgettable and utterly useless villain with weird vibes, you could look at Kro as the MCU’s attempt to tackle climate change? Though the result more closely resembles a feral dog on LSD...
29. Dreykov (Black Widow)
Dreykov is the least interesting character in Black Widow. He is one of Marvel's few villains who is trumped by his henchman (or henchwoman in this case).
His brand of slimy, manipulative and abusive fits perfectly with the film's message and narrative, but he's not a villain you'll remember long after the credits have rolled.
28. Ulysses Klaue (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Panther)
Here is Andy Serkis, yet another astonishing British actor who deserves a second chance at a Marvel villain. It’s not that Ulysses Klaue is necessarily a bad character; but is he really anything more than a no-good arms dealer?
It feels like a recycled stereotypical criminal that crops up whenever someone wants to do something with vibranium, just someone who is just there to help the baddies with their plans and get beaten up by the good guys midway through the movie as they try to track down the villain.
Serkis really milks all he can out of Ulysses’ bland character and delivers his usual top-tier performance. But it’s still not enough to save this villain.
27. Emil Blonsky/Abomination (The Incredible Hulk)
The villain and hero as two sides of the same coin is a trope as old as time. And to be completely fair, if Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings hadn’t brought Abomination back for a cameo, he would sit further down this list.
There is something charming about how when this former Marine turned rotting monster is finally freed, he decides to leave all this superhero bullcrap behind and travels across the globe to take part in high-end illegal fights. While we might not see much of it, Abomination definitely has a personality and motives, which might just be doing his own thing but it’s more than others on this list can claim.
26. Darren Cross/Yellowjacket (Ant-Man)
One more entry in the unhinged capitalist mogul category, he is another one of those who want to copy the tech that our main man has just to use for selfish purposes and rule the world.
You have to hand it to Darren though, he goes the distance. He is truly ruthless and will miniaturise and flush anyone who stands in his way. The Yellowjacket suit is very powerful and having two people with shrinking abilities fight each other made for a true feat of cinematography. But for being a bit too much of a trope and not having much impact on the overall universe, he still lands himself towards the bottom of our list.
25. Ego (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
Did anyone truly believe Ego was going to be good? Never believe a guy who looks like Santa and says he’s your dad. You can’t blame Star-Lord for having attachment issues when his God-Planet dad killed his mum before abandoning him to have more illegitimate children in his plan to kill everyone in the universe.
But, you can blame Marvel for ruining Star-Lord’s character, that of a Terran out of his depth in the universe trying to survive as he can, by turning him into a demi-God. Also, as a Celestial, wouldn’t Ego have maybe thought not to implant a Celestial baby on Earth where there is already another Celestial being birth as to not arise suspicion to the other Celestials about his plans? Very confusing. We're not a fan.
24. Ghost (Ant-Man and the Wasp)
Ant-Man might not have the most memorable villains since his solo outings are smaller and self-contained stories, but Ghost is a girl with a cause. She is the type of villain that you could easily see as the hero in her own story. Her ways might be a bit extreme, but she literally only wants to save her own life. It just so happens that for her to save herself, our hero would not be able to save somebody else who he deems more important.
Sadly, Ghost is not having any of that, hence the conflict, which could have been resolved if people just talked it out since in the end both Ghost and Hope’s mum Janet lived. To be completely fair though, if Ghost had died, then Ant-Man wouldn’t have had to go back into the Quantum Realm to get her healing particles and he wouldn’t have gotten stuck there during Thanos’s snap. So minus points to Ghost for being good in the end...
23. Ayesha (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
A controversially high placement for Ayesha, but hear us out. Yes, she might go a bit too over the top chasing the Guardians only because Rocket stole some batteries. And yes, we have been complaining about other characters not furthering the story in any way and having no lasting impact beyond their one film. Sure, she is just a plot device to chase the Guardians around and have a big fight with her overpowered robot. But, she has a point. And for being a plot device, she is a good rage-y shimmery one at that, and we always need more enraged women in our films.
22. Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger (Iron Man)
For being a one-hit-wonder with little imagination when it comes to finding a name for himself, Stane is a solid early MCU villain. His motives are clear if a bit basic, but he will go the distance to get what he wants with little regard for anything else, which he displays time and time again, with his plan to have Tony kidnapped and killed, before taking matters into his own hands and facing him himself.
Unlike Kurt Russell’s Ego, Jeff Bridges perfectly rides the line of portraying a character that while being a bit slimy, you can believe is ultimately on the hero’s side and has nothing to hide – until he stops hiding that is...
21. Ivan Vanko/Whiplash (Iron Man 2)
While he is technically a hired-gun (or brain) for Mr Hammer, Vanko finds himself quite a few positions above his employer because his motives are just that much clearer. His revenge is truly motivated and in the real world, if it came out that Iron Man’s dad stole the plans for the Arch Reactor from a former collaborator who died in poverty while he built an empire of wealth, we would at least see a Notes app apology on Tony’s Instagram.
Also, in addition to making a way better prototype design for his suit, Whiplash is a real threat to Tony and Rhodes: even in a two on one, they truly struggle to take him down and when they do defeat him, Vanko still has another trick up his sleeve and wants to be in charge of his own death, which you've just got to respect.
20. Ronan the Accuser (Guardians of the Galaxy)
Ronan might be one of the toughest villains in the MCU. While he is little more than an extremist who wants to wipe out the world (Xandar in this case) and chases after an Infinity Stone to achieve his purposes, he is set up as a tough boss to beat. If even Thanos hangs up the phone when Ronan threatens to come for him, what chances did Drax really have charging at him two daggers?
But then, the thing that defeats this absolute menace is the power of friendship and holding hands…? Seems a bit far fetched if you ask us. Then again, we got Baby Groot (and angsty teenage Groot) because of the final showdown between the Guardians and Ronan. And where would we be without Baby Groot?
19. Alexander Pierce (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
Alexander Pierce is a true white collar menace and for breaking Nick Fury’s trust we will never forgive him. When a cinema legend like Robert Redfort joins the MCU, you know the results are going to be quite something.
The way Redford plays Pierce makes him believable as both a charming politician who turned down the Nobel Peace Price because he’s just so humble AND a top-tier HYDRA operative who kills the entire World Security Council in cold blood – all through making only subtle changes in his acting. If anything, Marvel could have done more with him...
18. Kaecilius (Doctor Strange)
Another addition to the “dark version of the hero” category, Kaecellius’s backstory of having lost his family and wanting to reunite with them by opening the universe up to other dimensions has ultimately little relevance to his story or his actions as a villain.
He does, however, serve as a cautionary tale for Stephen Strange who since the beginning has been struggling with putting a limit to his own powers. But it’s not really Strange who defeats Kaecellius: it’s his own hubris that takes him down. However, their reality bending fights are some of the best battle scenes the MCU has put out and Kaecellius does some real damage to the Order from which they have still not recovered.
17. Yon-Rogg (Captain Marvel)
A gaslighting menace if ever we saw one. Yon-Rog and the Supreme Intelligence really did have Captain Marvel wrapped around their finger. And not even in an Ikaris-style “I just did what my master told me and I remain loyal to their vision” type thing. He knew all about Carol Danvers’s origin, what she was struggling with and that the Kree were on the evil side of history.
Even at the very end, he still has some twisted admiration for Carol and the desire to see her embrace her destructive powers. And while the twist was not that surprising, Jude Law takes the same consistency of tone of previous “he was bad all along” villains like Obadiah Stane and Alexander Pierce but with few sprinkles of unhinged thrown in...
16. Gorr the God Butcher (Thor: Love and Thunder)
Though Thor: Love and Thunder didn't live up to the high, high bar set by Thor: Ragnarok, Christian Bale delivered a storming turn as Gorr The God Butcher and deserved more screentime.
Vowing to kill all Gods, Gorr is a deeply damaged villain, one with a real cause and real pain in his heart. A compelling character and one who deserved more.
15. Hela (Thor: Ragnarok)
Who doesn’t love the Goddess of Death? While the secret-sister reveal took Thor by surprise when Hela destroyed Mjolnir, imagine Loki’s surprise when he found out he was not in fact his recently deceased father's least favourite child. Hela is so overpowered that the Revengers have to trigger Ragnarok, destroy Asgard and displace all Asgardians in order to get rid of her.
However, she did have a point and a rightful claim to her Dad’s throne since she basically was sent to do all of Odin’s dirty work while Thor had been basically useless until he was banished from Asgard. Maybe the Asgardians should have given Hela a fair shot at governing them...
14. Grandmaster (Thor: Ragnarok)
There aren’t very many villains who can claim to be this iconic while doing this little. Grandmaster is reaaly just a typical tyrant, ruling over Sakaar, but he does know that to keep his subjects from revolting, he needs to provide some quality entertainment. And sure he delivers, bringing some much needed comedic relief to the viewers as well with the Contest of Champions and finding humour in two relatively serious Avengers like Thor and Hulk.
The Grandmaster is the embodiment on screen of Taika Waititi’s trademark style of whimsy and while Marvel made a wise decision keeping him around both as Korg and as a director, hopefully we won’t have seen the last of Jeff Goldblum’s character either. Just throwing it out there...
13. Wenwu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings)
With all the foreshadowing and red-herring-ing the MCU had done about the Ten Rings and the Mandarin, there was a lot riding on the real Mandarin’s debut. The mythical conqueror to crime lord pipeline is solid and fits well within the lore of the MCU as it tries to open up its mostly west-European and Anglo-Saxon based mythos to Eastern traditions.
Wenwu has his own very emotional storyline which doesn’t just explain his actions but actively ties in with the backstory of our hero (and as Laufey and Ego have shown us, being a lousy father isn’t enough to score this point). We understand his hurt, his desire for revenge and that his monstrous actions against his children are ultimately fuelled by a desire to protect them, the same motivation that has him sacrifice his life to save his son in the end.
12. Red Skull (Captain America: The First Avenger)
If it ain’t broken, why fix it? The Red Skull is the type of villain which could very well have come out of an unreleased Indiana Jones movie, a Nazi commander trying to weaponize mystical forces beyond his comprehension. But still, the Red Skull comes off as haunting, classic and iconic rather than old and trite. Also, talk about an unexpected comeback in Endgame!
We don’t think anyone thought they would see any more of him after his first outing was so early in the MCU and especially since his right-hand man Arnim Zola had been the one to survive being a one-off character. But since nothing in the MCU is ever a cold trail, we should note that there is a version of the Red Skull that was freed by Thanos and is roaming somewhere in a different timeline. So we might not have waved goodbye to him yet...
11. Arishem the Judge (Eternals)
Arishem did not make it this far up the list because of his looks, personality or amazing performance. He is however the first planet-threatening-level villain we have had since Thanos. Granted, he didn’t do much in his first appearance except a whole load of exposition about Celestials and establishing they definitely do not have humanity’s best interest at heart. But we are not done with him yet. The Arishem/Celestials saga has only just kicked off. It’s going to be hard for other MCU entries to ignore the big dude that appeared in the sky...
10. Wanda Maximoff (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)
Marvel's flip-reverse of turning one of their own, an Avenger no less, into a villain, was a jaw-dropping twist.
In possession of the Darkhold, Wanda's desperation to gain powers that will allow her to reunite with Billy and Tommy, the children she created during WandaVision, drive her to absolute extremes.
Olsen's is on elite form here.
9. Aldrich Killian (Iron Man 3)
This is why you should fear the quiet ones. Aldrich Killian is a solid villain. We spend some meaningful time getting to know him, his story, his motive and his means which makes him a really impactful character in the film. There is no twist involved in his character but he does send Tony on a wild-goose chase and he creates the first iteration of The Mandarin – and, love him or hate him, Trevor Slattery is an MCU icon.
In his own right, Killian puts up a fight and does not go down easily: it takes Iron Man, Iron Patriot, the entire Iron Legion and Pepper Potts in an Iron suit to finally defeat him. A worthy adversary.
8. Ultron (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
Ultron’s one and only outing might have been a bit muddled as the MCU was setting up the events of the Infinity War, but that did not stop this sentient robot from leaving a mark on the franchise. His genocidal plans might not have been that different from other entries to this list, but where Ultron shines (he literally sparkles in his vibranium body) is the wit with which he confronts the Avengers. He is as formidable a foe on the battlefield as he is in a verbal sparring match and in doing so, he holds a mirror up to the Avengers for them to take a good hard look at themselves...
7. Mysterio (Spider-Man: Far From Home)
Mysterio worked so well as a villain because the audience had been primed to believe that what he was telling was all 100% possible in a post-Endgame MCU. And so did Spider-Man, who was looking for a father figure more than ever after the death of Tony Stark and he thinks he has found one (albeit one wearing a fishbowl on his head).
The character's drone tech makes for some amazing fight scenes in even more iconic locations and his actions have more than dire consequences on both Peter Parker and Spider-Man even after he is defeated. Mysterio is a more than solid start to Phase Four, giving us all the fun of a one-off villain but also subtly introducing the multiverse into the mix.
6. Helmut Zemo (Captain America: Civil War)
You have got to love a baddie that knows his limits. This dude managed to break up the Avengers without having to fight them. He is a true evil genius while really being just a regular guy. He’s not an alien, he doesn’t have superpowers, nor does he have an infinite pile of money that will buy him powers. He doesn’t want to take over the world or eradicate humanity. He just wants revenge.
5. Vulture (Spider-Man: Homecoming)
It’s rare to find a villain in the MCU that is equally threatening in and out of his villain persona. Vulture is a true menace to Spider-Man in both his identities and Michael Keaton’s performance shines in riding the line between which version of this character we’re seeing on screen at any given time.
He does lose some points for ultimately being a pawn in Spider-Man’s moral journey about not letting him die even if he committed unspeakable crimes. But he is still a top-tier villain to start Tom Holland’s tenure as the web-slinger and set the bar for all of his foes.
4. The Winter Soldier (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
Bucky Barnes is such a good character that he makes the title as both a villain and a hero. The Winter Soldier’s origin as a villain gives him a complex emotional depth that some of his Avenger companions can only dream of. The transition between the two was executed flawlessly despite and because Marvel didn’t grant Bucky an easy out from his past.
Barnes is still grappling with his role in the world and his identity. And in that, his character remains consistent since his introduction: at first he was all Captain America had left from his past, all that tied him to his life before being a hero, but once he frees himself from HYDRA’s brainwashing, it’s Cap who becomes his anchor. And without him, Bucky is still looking for a reason to stick around.
3. Killmonger (Black Panther)
With Killmonger, the MCU bested itself in creating a villain that is just as much a hero. Told from a different angle, Erik Killmonger is seeking justice against a secretive regime that killed his father for wanting to open up to the wider world and denied him his rightful place on the throne. While the hero Killmonger would probably fit better in the DCEU, the only thing that makes him a villain in Black Panther is the fact that his motivation is vengeance – but it’s not like all our other heroes started off on the righteous side either. Adding in the fact that Killmonger is the only character who wants to address systemic racism and how Wakanda’s failure to act contributed to that, it’s hard to see him on the same pane as the true evil-doers on this list.
2. Thanos (Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame)
Of course, Thanos was going to make the podium. He defined the franchise for over a decade and brought billions of people to the cinema to witness his demise. He is a big bad with straight ideas and a clear plan on how to achieve his goals of universal genocide. His giant raisin stature, while key to his menacing image (and innumerable memes) is not really what makes him so scary and insurmountable. He has got both the brawl and the brains. He is a menacing presence in the MCU even before we truly meet him and still after he is defeated.
Ranking how impactful he was on the heroes, he was the cause of multiple deaths inside the Avengers and they finally lost for once. If we want to look into his legacy on the franchise moving forward, everything that has come out since has dealt with the Blip in one way or another. There would be no MCU without Thanos – he has earned this spot.
1. Loki (Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War)
If Thanos represents the peak world-ending baddie, Loki takes the crown on the opposite side of the spectrum of Marvel villains – the emotional villain, who does bad things not in pursuit of power but because he is struggling with his own inner demons. Loki is part of the fabric of the MCU just as much if not more than some of his hero counterparts. He has had a more complex journey than any of them.
He began life as the resentful brother of Thor, exacting a plan with the sole motive of fuelling his own rage, he turned into a mischievous trickster, dipping his toe into the good side whenever the situation called for it but always keeping both audiences and the other characters on their toes on whether or not they could truly trust him.
Loki is a villain in the sense that he only acts to serve his own purposes, to protect himself and his best interests, whether that requires ruthlessly gouging out someone’s eyes or charming them on a train. And with the Marvel audience, he has used all of his charm (and the devilish good looks of Tom Hiddleston) to top our list.
