WARNING: Spoilers for Loki! Disney+’s Loki has managed to do something the Marvel Cinematic Universe could not throughout twenty-three films: scare us. Not courtesy of pruning, multiple timelines, or even cults masquerading as bureaucratic organizations that control all of space and time. No, what scares us more than the Time Variance Authority is its mascot, the cartoon clock ala Schoolhouse Rock or Jurassic Park’s Mr. DNA, Miss Minutes. That bitch is up to something. She’s not a recording nor is she alive; to ominously quote the mischievous A.I. herself/itself, she’s “uh, sorta both.”
Episode 4 of Loki pulled a Wizard of Oz and revealed the Time-Keepers nothing but place-holders. So, who rules the TVA with an iron fist (not to be confused with another character)? As we get to know Loki‘s star Miss Minutes or await the arrival of Kang the Conqueror, let’s take a look back on perhaps the most lackluster aspect of the MCU: its villains. Most of the time they’re as one-dimensional as an A.I. fed up with humanity—here are the big bads who haven’t been that bad.
Disclaimer: these are just MCU bad guys, so no one from the Netflix shows, etc. Will be included. Apologies to Jessica Jones’ Killgrave and Daredevil’s Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, you guys deserved better than to be cast aside…
Cover Photo: Marvel Studios
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14. Adrian Toomes (Vulture)
Don't you just hate when the disgruntled employee (not the only one on this list) screwed over by the government, who sells alien tech on the black market and/or uses said tech to create a winged suit and cause mayhem, just so happens to be your crush’s dad? This is Peter Parker’s dilemma in Spider-Man: Homecoming. The brilliance that is Michael Keaton—and pep talks like “I’ll kill you, and everyone that you love”—keep Vulture from being another cookie-cutter villain.
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13. Johann Schmidt (Red Skull)
Long before that wonderful “guiding others to a treasure I cannot possess” meme referencing Red Skull’s tenure as the caretaker of the Soul Stone, Hugo Weaving played Johann Schmidt Aka Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger. HYDRA has caused more than a few problems for the MCU. That said, Hitler’s science and tech division would have been nothing without its leader, said Skull. Like Captain America, Red Skull is a super soldier, disfigured by an earlier, more defective version of the Erskine’s serum. Sure, Weaving is a bit over-the-top in this role but you can’t play a guy who looks like that without the theatrics.
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12. Alexander Pierce
Robert-Fucking-Redford. Captain America: The Winter Solider is when things got real for the MCU; dealing with real-worldish things like the dangers of mass surveillance and brainwashed best friends. In it, Mr. Redford played a homage to his conspiracy thriller roots in Secretary Alexander Pierce, a high-ranking SHIELD official and member of the World Security Council who’s secretly HYDRA’s top dog (presumably). Thanks to him, HYDRA almost conquered the entire planet with massive Helicarriers that could eliminate anyone they deemed necessary with the press of a button. On top of that, seeing an Oscar-winner in Redford in a comic book movie solidified Marvel Studios as the real deal.
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11. Ego
Ah, daddy issues, the cornerstone of any good story. At the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, Peter Quill/Star-Lord handled the Power Stone with bursting and everyone wanted to know why. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, his father is a Celestial, the living planet Ego. Therefore, he’s half god. Delving deeper into Quill’s backstory, Ego was a mass murderer who went around the galaxy breeding and killing all his children who didn’t carry the “light.” Also, he purposefully gave Star-Lord’s mom cancer. Not even Kurt Russell’s charm can pull off a line like the one above.
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10. Quentin Beck (Mysterio)
Even though Mysterio is a well-known comic book villain, somehow Jake Gyllenhaal convinced both Spidey and the audience that he was actually a hero? In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Quentin Beck, the disgruntled ex-Stark employee used his illusion tech to trick the world into believing the world was under attack by monsters from the multiverse, sets himself up as the next Iron Man, and reveals Spider-Man’s secret identity all in one movie.
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9. The Winter Solider
For non-comic-book readers James “Bucky” Barnes’ death in Captain America: The First Avengers was final. Captain America: The Winter Solider adapted one of the greatest twists in its source material by bringing Sebastian Stan’s character back as a brainwashed super soldier with an affinity for knives. The film sees Steve Rogers grapple with the idea that his friend may be gone for good and then decide that no one, especially not a friend, is beyond saving. And in case that wasn’t clear, the recurring line “I’m with you until the end of the line” makes it so. The Winter Soldier specifically is on this list because he’s a villain that truly brings out the best and the worst of our heroes (especially Tony Stark/Iron Man in Civil War).
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8. The Grandmaster
Aside from Loki, Jeff Goldblum’s hedonistic Grandmaster is perhaps one of the MCU’s most charismatic villains. In Thor Ragnarok, Thor and Loki find themselves stranded on the trash planet Sakaar, which is ruled by Goldblum’s playful dictator who pits captured warriors against one another in the Contest of Champions. While the Grandmaster isn’t the film’s primary villain, he and his pardon stick are as threatening as one can imagine...until the “prisoners with jobs” spark a revolution.
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7. Dormammu
The ruler of the Dark Dimension may only show up in Doctor Strange for a matter of minutes, but it’s long enough for audiences to realize how scary this Sour Patch Kid turned inter-dimensional entity, who wields apocalyptic amounts of supernatural power really is. He is the Cosmic Conqueror, the Destroyer of Worlds, and we will see him again.
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6. Agatha Harkness
Kathryn Hahn’s “noisy neighbor” was the perfect mainstream role for a largely overlooked actress. You aren’t sure of her at first but you like her nonetheless, even when she ends up being the envious witch, Agatha Harkness. While Wanda Maximoff herself is arguably the real villain of WandaVision, Agatha is certainly exacerbated the situation in Westview and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. Besides, it’s not often villains get their own theme song.
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5. Hela
Thor: Ragnarok’s Hela isn’t necessarily a complex villain. Following the death of Odin, Thor and Loki's sister, the Goddess of Death, escapes her prison and sets her sights on Asgard out of a sense of entitlement and spite. That said, Cate Blanchett struts the hel out of this role; wearing that ridiculous costume like she was born in it and making the absolute most out of paper-thin material—she's simply a whole lot of fun to watch.
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4. Baron Helmut Zemo
Ex-Sokovian intelligence officer Helmut Zemo is the only villain to ever actually beat the Avengers and he did it without any sort of super powers. In Captain America: Civil War he used Bucky Barnes's identity as the Winter Soldier to frame him, create a rift between Steve and Tony, and then intensify that rift by revealing that the Winter Soldier killed Tony’s parents. When Zemo returns in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he steals the show, both with his dance moves, intellect, and motives you can’t help but respect.
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3. Erik Killmonger
The best villains have a point. Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger in Black Panther calls out Wakanda for letting its people suffer for centuries; despite his twisted moral compass, he’s not wrong. Killmonger is a byproduct of mistakes made by T’Challa’s father and, as T’Challa attempts to take on the mantle of king, Killmonger is his worst nightmare: an opposing party with a claim to the throne whose oppressive message—to use Wakanda’s technology to free those suffering by any means necessary—is attractive to many. Killmonger is such a good villain that by the end of the movie, T’Challa alters his own approach at ruling to reflect Killmonger's, albeit in a more reasonable, less angry way.
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2. Thanos
Some have said that Marvel has struggled to bring compelling villains to the MCU; however, iconic villains like Thanos would not only say otherwise but call himself “inevitable.” A good villain elevates their respective movie and pushing our heroes to their absolute limits; in that, Thanos takes the cake. Thanos’ presence looms over several MCU movies. When we get to know him in Avengers: Infinity War, his population control logic and twisted sense of self-righteousness set him up as the most intimidating force in the MCU. Sure, the nut sack of a chin” is dumbed down in Avengers: Endgame but what can you do.
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1. Loki
In Loki, the Thor franchise gave us not only the greatest MCU villain but one of the greatest villains in movie history. Thanks in large part to Tom Hiddleston’s endearing performance, Odin’s adoptive son and God of Mischief is motivated by a “glorious purpose,” which is just a delusion manifested by a mountain of insecurities. This chip on his shoulder leads to him targeting Earth in 2012’s The Avengers before coming to appreciate, understand, and sacrifice himself for his brother Thor in Avengers: Infinity War. Thankfully, Loki’s popularity prompted Marvel to hit the reset button, allowing the 2012 version of this villain (even though he’s really not a villain in the series...) to headline Disney+’s Loki.
