The Marvel movies are beloved the world over, and they are consistent box office and critical hits. But if there’s an Achilles heel to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s its villains. They’re not particular good or even interesting. And given how many films they’ve made now, it’s become a bit of a running joke that Marvel’s villains are lackluster. Of course, they make up for it in the protagonist department, but that doesn’t mean creating a fascinating Marvel movie villain is impossible. In fact, they’ve come close a few times and there is one indisputablegreatMarvel movie villain.
So as we await the release of the latest film in the MCU, let’s look back on every major Marvel movie villain to date ranked from worst to best.Be aware there are spoilers discussed.
Note: I only included major villains in this piece, or characters who at one point in the story served as a primary/major antagonistic force to our hero. So while Kursed and Crossbones are in the MCU, it’s unfair to compare their character-lite screentime with other major villains, and thus they’ve been left off the list.
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45. Whiplash –Iron Man 2
You really can’t blameJon Favreauand Marvel for wantingMickey Rourketo play Whiplash inIron Man 2. At the time, Rourke was in the midst of what would ultimately be an incredibly brief resurgence thanks to his terrific performance inThe Wrestler. But when he showed up forIron Man 2, he basically wore his same clothes off the street, demanded the character have a pet bird and mumbled his way through the film. Ivan Vanko was supposed to be a formidable foil for Tony Stark that brought up all of Tony’s daddy issues, but Rourke’s performance is so stilted and odd that Vanko/Whiplash just comes off as one big joke. WhileIron Man 2certainly is one of the MCU’s worst films, a lot of the film’s stink is due to this complete dud of an antagonist and Rourke’s unwillingness to give Favreau and Co. anything resembling an actual performance. —Adam Chitwood
44. Kro -Eternals
Bill Skarsgårdseems like he would be the perfect person to play a Marvel villain after he brought the terrifying Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the recentItfilms. This makes his completely bland and pointless villain inEternalseven more crushing. You can tell how bad a villain Kro is when I couldn’t remember his name and had to Google it, and there’s a reason why his name is hard to remember. For starters, Kro is overshadowed by Ikaris (Richard Madden), who becomes the real main villain in the third act. Secondly, Kro appears about halfway through the movie, becoming the first intelligent Deviant after absorbing the abilities of some of the other Eternals. Having a character that can mimic the abilities of those it’s killed might sound interesting, but ultimately Kro doesn’t get to do anything in the story besides show up out of nowhere for the final fight. A complete waste of a talented actor in an already convoluted plot.— Aidan Kelley
43. Emil Blonsky/Abomination –The Incredible Hulk
The Incredible Hulkis an outlier in the MCU for many reasons—it was produced at the same time asIron Man, and yet only two characters fromHulkhave appeared in any other MCU films. It’s a weird movie that’s kinda-sorta part of the MCU mythology, but as a film itself, it’s pretty forgettable. That extends to its main villain Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), who in the film is basically just portrayed as a macho military dude who wants to get Hulk-sized ripped. He becomes Abomination because, reasons, to fight Hulk, and is beaten to a pulp. The end. He really only exists in the film to justify a big third-act fist fight between Hulk and a formidable challenger, and as a character is as paper-thin as they come. —Adam Chitwood
42. Malekith –Thor: The Dark World
In the long line of pointless villain roles in the MCU,Christopher Eccleston’s Malekith inThor: The Dark Worldranks as one of themostpointless. Case in point: I bet you forgot/didn’t know Christopher Eccleston was even in a Marvel movie! Malekith is a mean Dark Elf who wants to rule the universe. That’s the beginning and end of his story, and the film makes no efforts to inject any sort of pathos or emotion into the character at all, just using him to get in the way of Thor and Jane. It’s all the more glaring when coming off of Loki inThor, who was chock-full of pathos. But Eccleston’s not alone in the MCU legion of wasted talents. —Adam Chitwood
41. Dormammu –Doctor Strange
I debated even putting Dormammu on this list, but seeing as how he’s the one pulling the strings inDoctor Strange, it felt appropriate. He can’t rank very high because the character only has a teensy bit of screen time, during which he’s seen only as a floating psychedelic face. The character is only made interesting by the fact that he worked alongsideTilda Swinton’s Ancient One, and his visual design is admittedly pretty cool, but beyond that, he doesn’t make much of an impression. Of course, that’s certainly not the last we’ve seen of the character, so To Be Continued… —Adam Chitwood
40. Laufey –Thor
Thoris a weird movie in regard to antagonists because yeah, the film starts out by setting up the Frost Giant Laufey (Colm Feore) as the main villain, but he’s really just a misdirect. There’s also S.H.I.E.L.D. that gets in Thor and Jane’s way, but in the third act, it’s Loki that emerges as the biggest threat to our hero. So Laufey’s a bit of a patsy, and that’s not really his fault. He ranks low on this list by design. —Adam Chitwood
39. Ronan –Guardians of the Galaxy
It’s a marvel thatGuardians of the Galaxyworks as well as it does with a villain as lame as Ronan, but that’s kind of become the modus operandi of the MCU.Lee Pace’s villain is a religious zealot who is angry that his people, the Kree, have signed a peace treaty and thus decides to basically start a galactic war over racial superiority. Thatcouldbe interesting, but the movie doesn’t spend near enough time on Ronan to flesh out his motivations beyond “A crazy dude who wants to do bad stuff.” He’s basically just there to get in the way and set up jokes and set pieces, and by that metric he serves his purpose well. But as an antagonist who’s even mildly interesting, Ronan fails miserably. —Adam Chitwood
38. Taskmaster –Black Widow
While Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) is a fairly solid physical antagonist for Natasha Romanoff inBlack Widow, the character’s true identity is a twist you see coming a mile away, and even then we get very little payoff or resolution to who’s really under the mask. So in the end, Taskmaster serves as a secondary villain in the film, purely there to drive action sequences. Taskmaster isfine. —Adam Chitwood
37. Todd Phelps/HulkKing/Intelligencia –She-Hulk
Intelligencia is surely the source of Jennifer Walters' (Tatiana Maslany) problems, but Todd Phelps (Jon Bass) is hardly the worst of the worst. A verified incel, Todd spends most of the season working in the shadows while being Jen’s client at work. Although he’s got more personality and his transformation to whatever the HulkKing was means he’s more interesting and funnier than some other villains on this list,She-Hulkisn’t really a show about the villain. Intelligencia is simply the vehicle for angry men and their misogyny. What Josh (Trevor Salter) does to Jennifer is awful, but is it comparable to snapping away half the universe? No, it’s not. —Therese Lacson
36. Infinity Ultron –What If…?
The psychotic murder robot returns inWhat…If?, kinda. This is a variant of Ultron who comes from a universe where he succeeded in transferring his consciousness to Vision, killed most of the Avengers, and even obtained all six Infinity Stones. Dubbed Infinity Ultron, the machine grows so powerful that he is able to discover the Watcher, thus learning that there are an infinite number of universes out there for him to conquer. Infinity Ultron is ultimately held back by the lack of power he seems to have despite having every Infinity Stone and the noticeable lack ofJames Spadernot returning to voice the character makes him feel like your average Saturday Morning cartoon baddie. Still, it’s a fun callback to a classic MCU foe and it’s cool to see him interact with alternate versions of popular characters.
