The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been an unprecedented success, the kind that has never been seen in Hollywood. Ten years, 18 films, almost all of which are critically acclaimed and box office hits. And yet, if they have a flaw, it’s that their villains aren’t always the most memorable. However, there are diamonds in the rough among the Marvel bad guys, and maybe some of these villains have been under-appreciated. So let’s countdown the MCU’s bad guys, from worst to best, and see where they all rank in the halls of villainy.
Warning: Spoilers for all 19 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies from here on out, including Avengers: Infinity War!
19. Malekith (Thor: The Dark World)
Thor: The Dark World isn’t the worst Marvel Studios film — that honor goes to Iron Man 2. It’s near the bottom, but it is fun and entertaining enough that I always stop and watch when I catch it flipping though channels. Nevertheless, poor Christopher Eccleston’s turn as Malekith the Dark Elf is absolutely the least memorable and most boring of all the MCU villains. Everything about his performance, make-up, etc., is just totally forgettable. Maybe it was his direction, or the way he was written, but it was just yawn inducing.
18. Darren Cross (Ant-Man)
Ant-Man ended up being a delightful surprise, despite all the negative behind-the-scenes drama surrounding its production. One thing that they didn’t nail though was the villain, Darren Cross. Played by Corey Stoll, this bad guy is really just a rip off of Obidiah Stane from the first Iron Man. Basically, he’s another jealous corporate CEO type who feels that a paternal scientific genius figure should have paid more attention to him and not his actual children. While his final fight with Ant-Man is one of the movie’s best moments, I’m more than okay if we never see Cross again in the MCU.
17. Ronan the Accuser (Guardians of the Galaxy)
Credit where credit is due: actor Lee Pace has such a charming, nice guy face, it’s amazing that he was able to come off as evil as the Kree villain Ronan the Accusser in the first Guardians of the Galaxy. Although he is convincingly an evil tyrant, he’s also pretty much just your standard monologuing alien bad guy, who goes off on insane rants which end with his killing someone. He’s everything we hated about Steppenwolf in Justice League, minus the terrible CGI. Ronan’s makeup looks convincing at least.
16. Aldrich Killian (Iron Man 3)
The memorable villain in Iron Man 3 is the fake-out villain in the movie. Played by Ben Kingsley, both his villainous persona of the Mandarin, which parodies every “scary voice” movie baddie ever, to the clueless actor who portrays him, Trevor Slattery, are a joy to watch on screen. Sadly, since he’s a decoy to the the movie’s real bad guy, he can’t be used on this list.
Iron Man 3’s true villain is actually Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian, another genius who Tony Stark slighted in his younger hedonistic days. Killian just feels like any bad guy in an ’90s action movie, except he breathes fire. He just never has enough personality to make an impression.
15. Justin Hammer (Iron Man 2)
Watching Sam Rockwell chew the scenery as jealous weapons manufacturer Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2 is somewhat diverting, because it’s among the few times that the movie isn’t super boring. I’ll go on record as saying I think Iron Man 2 is the weakest of all the MCU films (yes, even over Thor: The Dark World and Incredible Hulk. Don’t come for me), but it least it sparks to some kind of life when Rockwell is on screen.
14. Ivan Vanko (Iron Man 2)
It’s hard to decide who sucked more of Iron Man 2’s villains: Justin Hammer or Ivan Vanko, a weird combination of old school Iron Man bad guys Whiplash and the Crimson Dynamo. While Sam Rockwell chews the scenery in a fun way, Mickey Rourke does so in a grating way. But, he edges out Rockwell’s Justin Hammer only because he got a cool action scene in an otherwise boring movie. When he was fighting Tony Stark, I at least remembered this was an Iron Man movie still, and not “RDJ and friends throw out the script and improv.”
13. Emil Blonsky/The Abomination (The Incredible Hulk)
The Incredible Hulk is the red-headed stepchild of the MCU, maybe because it’s the only one that under performed at the box office, and had to have their lead replaced. Personally, I think it’s a perfectly decent comic book movie with some nifty action scenes, and Tim Roth gives a pretty good performance as an over the hill military operative who just wants to be able to keep kicking ass. No, he’s not the most nuanced villain, but I understood him, and he was fun to watch on screen.
12. Kaecilius (Doctor Strange)
I don’t have anything really bad to say about Mads Mikkelsen’s turn as rogue sorcerer Kaecilius from Doctor Strange. I mean, this guy can to do sophisticated Euro evil in his sleep. And whenever he was on screen, he was actually threatening. I realize this movie didn’t dive deeply into his backstory and motivations, but it was just enough for me to be satisfied with the final product. Plus he had cool glittery eyes. That helped.
11. Ultron
In some circles, the Avengers’ second big villain Ultron gets a lot of hate. Is it because he’s an all CGI character? Is he just too classic Whedon “Jokey-jokey” for some? While I understand the complaints, I get Ultron as a character and his motivations, and I enjoy James Spader’s slimey delivery of every line he utters. If Tony Stark is Ultron’s “father,” then he sure inherited Daddy’s tendency towards snarky delivery. We probably won’t, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Ultron again down the line sometime.
10. Helmut Zemo (Captain America: Civil War)
The best villains have simple motivations that are easy to understand, and Helmut Zemo, played by German actor Daniel Brühl, is absolutely one of those. Having lost his family due to the events of Age of Ultron, he blames the Avengers, and frankly, it’s hard not to see where he’s coming from. His complicated plot to make the Avengers fight against one another actually holds up upon multiple viewings, which is more than can be said for most of these villains. He’s not onscreen a lot in Civil War, but when he is, he makes good use of his screen time.
9. Obidiah Stane (Iron Man)
The very first villain of the MCU, going back to Iron Man. The whole “I was your right hand man but I really hate you” thing has been played out in a million movies before this one, and probably done better, but Jeff Bridges brings so much smarmy glee to the role, you kind of can’t help but enjoy him every second he’s on screen. Ok, less so when he’s in the Iron Monger suit, but in every other part of the movie? He’s aces. He gets points just for the way he yells “Tony Stark built one of these in a Cave! With a bunch of scraps!!!”
8. Alexander Pierce (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
It was something of a stroke of genius to get Robert Redford, the star of so many paranoid conspiracy thrillers back in the ’70s, to play the man behind the giant conspiracy in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But it’s not just stunt casting here; not only is Pierce’s evil HYDRA plan scary in almost a real world way, Redford sells you on the fact that he’s a true believer in this kind of authoritarian rule. Also, watching an Oscar winner and acting royalty like Robert Redford say lines like “Hail HYDRA” meant comic book movies were no longer marginalized, second rate entertainment.
7. The Red Skull (Captain America: The First Avenger)
While most of the MCU villains try not to go for over-the-top comic book style theatrics for their live-action incarnations, the same can’t be said for Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull…and that’s a good thing. Maybe because the first Cap movie is a 1940s period piece, but we forgive a lot of the heavily accented mustache twirling that the Red Skull does here, because it’s just so era appropriate, and Weaving just seem to be having so much fun here. And really, how does one play a guy with a red skeleton face in a subtle way? You don’t, and I’m glad Weaving just went for the jugular. I hope there is someway this underappreciated baddie returns to the MCU. Because he totally went to Asgard at the end there right??
6. The Vulture (Spider-Man: Homecoming)
The best Marvel villains have motivations that make sense, and among those are Adrian Toomes, a.k.a the Vulture, in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Played with the perfect balance of empathetic working class everyman mixed with terrifying criminal (that scene with Peter Parker going to the prom!), Michael Keaton just nails it, and makes you genuinely care about his character and hope he doesn’t get killed off by the end (spoilers: he doesn’t). While not the best cinematic Spidey villain –that award still goes to Doc Ock– the MCU Spider-Man rogue’s gallery get off on the right foot here.
5. Ego, the Living Planet (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
In many ways the polar opposite of Michael Keaton’s Vulture (one’s a god, the other lives in New Jersey), they both fall under the category of villains that you can’t help but kind of like. OK, less so with Ego, who is a mass murderer, but in the scenes where he’s just hanging out with his son Peter Quill, you honestly get the sense that he really does care about him, in his own weird and twisted way. Of course, a lot of the reason Ego works at all is due to the fact that he’s played by Kurt Russell, who can’t help his rugged charm. Impeccable casting is always Marvel Studios’ strength.
4. Hela (Thor: Ragnarok)
Does Thor: Ragnarok’s Hela have a great deal of complex motivation beyond the obvious? Well, no….but man, does Oscar winner Cate Blanchett just tear up the screen every second she’s in this movie. Vamping it up like a modern day version of Julie Newmar or Eartha Kitt’s ’60s Catwoman, Blanchett is having so much fun it’s just infectious. That’s a costume that could wear her, it’s so over-the-top, but make no mistake, she wears it. The role is thin on paper, but when you’re acting at 110%, it doesn’t really matter. Some roles are so memorable just because they’re fun to watch, and Hela fits into this category.
3. Erik Killmonger (Black Panther)
Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger in Black Panther is the best kind of villain, because though he might be misguided, he isn’t wrong. Much like Magneto over in the X-Men films, Killmonger makes a ton of good points that you can’t help but agree with. In this instance, his points about why T’Challa and his father before him have let their people down for centuries as they hid Wakanda away from the outside world are hard to debate. But like Magneto, his methodology is twisted, and his moral compass is skewed by his own horrible life experience, which is what ultimately makes him a villain. In a movie that is filled with memorable characters, Killmonger shining so brightly is no small thing.
2. Loki (Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War)
People might not love the Thor movies, but there is just no question that they gave us one of the very best villains in not only the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but just one of the best villains in movie history. Tom Hiddleston brings a metric ton of Shakespearean level weight to the role of the adopted son of the King of Asgard, and yet manages to make him endearingly witty as well. As I’ve said for many of the previous entries on this list, the key to a great villain is that you kind of have to like like them on some level and root for them, and Loki is the epitome of that notion. Whether he’s destroying New York or brooding in a jail cell, we all can’t help but love the god of mischief.
1. Thanos (Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War)
For over six years, ever since the post-credits tag at the end of Avengers, Marvel has been teasing the imminent arrival of the character who was supposed to be their biggest bad, the “Mad Titan” known as Thanos. Almost since the beginning, Kevin Feige and the folks at Marvel have been saying that Thanos would be the Marvel Universe’s Darth Vader (no pressure or anything). After all that build up, he had to be great. But fans were rightfully worried. Just look at the bottom half of this here list to see why.
Well, turns out, they didn’t need to worry at all. After all these years, Thanos, as played by Josh Brolin, who has been playing him in cameo form since Guardians of the Galaxy, finally made his real presence known in Avengers: Infinity War, and he did not disappoint. He was instantly one of Marvel’s most complex and nuanced villains, whose motivations kind of/sort of made sense, despite still being a genocidal madman. Before the credits even roll, he mops the floor with the Hulk, and kills Loki, almost as if to say “you know that guy who was Marvel’s best baddie? Yeah, I just killed him. Who’s the best villain now?”
Usually the villains who are the most dangerous are the ones who think they’re the hero, something Thanos absolutely does. And unlike all the other villains on this list, Thanos isn’t all talk — because he actually wins at the end. Most CGI villains are forgettable, but Brolin’s acting and personality always came through the purple pixels, truly making the Mad Titan one of the great movie villains, and on easily the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s best villain yet.
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So there you have it folks. Do you agree or disagree with our final rankings? Be sure to let us know how you would rank the Marvel villains down below in the comments below!
Images: Marvel Studios
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