Marvel has a lot of villains in its cinematic universe, but which ones stand above the rest when it comes to menacing Earth's Mightiest Heroes? To answer that increasingly complicated question, we've watched every MCU movie and ranked all of their many bad guys, from Batroc and Surturto Whiplash and Thanos, and everyone in between.
This list only focuses on tried-and-true villains, so you won't find reformed heroes like Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Nebula, or the WinterSoldier. We're talking 100% baddies through and through.
So where does your favorite villain rank?
Here's our spoiler-filled take on every MCU villain, ranked from worst to best.
Kurse leads a prison riot, helps Malekith sack Asgard, and actually kills Thor's mother, Frigga. He also leads the battle against Thor in the film's climax, beating the Thunder God senseless with his brute strength. Despite all that, Kurse is still little more than a forgettable monster with no personality. He's the ultimate mini-boss, and is in the basement on this list's rankings.
Laufey
Laufey is a powerful force in Thor's corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but we never really see much of him in action. King of the Frost Giants and biological father to Loki, he has super-strength and ice powers, but he's still no match for the sneakiness of his own son. Loki manipulates events to get Laufey to attack Asgard in Thor, but just as Laufey is about to kill Odin, Loki takes out Laufey instead, simultaneously killing the Frost Giant king and making himself look like a hero. Certainly an unceremonious end. Brandt and Savin Aldrich Killian turned out to be the A-list bad guy in Iron Man 3, with Brandt and Savin shaping up as little more than B-list versions with the same powers. Both are given their super-heating and healing powers by the Extrem is virus, and they both attack Tony Stark throughout the film, but neither is a match for Iron Man, even when he doesn't have his suit. Lame.
The Scorpion
He's a pretty big deal in the comics, but in Spider-Man: Homecoming, not so much. The Scorpion's most not able actions are complete failures, first when an arms deal is interrupted by Spider-Man, and then later when he tries to get the Sinister Six going in prison before being shut down by the Vulture. Basically, he's just there to make Adrian Toomes look cooler by comparison. And when you're not as cool as the Vulture, it's safe to say you screwed up pretty bad somewhere along the way.
Batroc the Leaper
It's easy to forget, but yes, Batroc the Leaper is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We meet the French mercenary during the action sequence that opens The Winter Soldier, during the hijacking of the ship, the Lemurian Star. We get a breathless fight scene between the two, with Cap accepting Batroc's challenge for a hand to hand fight without his shield. Batroc holds his own, though Cap eventually knocks him out. But hey, at least he's a little cooler than this version.
The Shockers
Spider-Man: Homecoming gave us not just one, but two Shockers. We first meet Jackson Brice wielding a Shocker gauntlet. But after the Vulture kills him, the weapon's passed to Herman Schultz. Schultz looks to be our "main" Shocker in the MCU, and he gets one epic fight against Spidey before being side lined. Shocker jumps Peter as he leaves the school dance attempting to follow the Vulture, and sends him flying through a school bus, and he loses his web-shooters, too. So why does Shocker rank so low? Because it wasn't even Spidey who took himout, it was Pete's pal Ned, who grabs the web-shooter and hits Shocker, distracting him long enough for Spidey to web him to a school bus. Shocking.
Baron Von Strucker
Strucker led the experiments on Loki's scepter that created Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, so he's definitely important. But all anyone really remembers about him is his immediate surrender to the Avengers during the opening of Age of Ultron. In the end, Strucker was just another upper-level Hydra goon. Cut off his head, and no one really noticed.
The Destroyer
When the Destroyer shows up in Thor, it makes full use of every moment. The Destroyer's giant, powerful arms and legs can crush or stop just about any opponent, and if they don't kill you, its laser blasts probably will. We saw the Destroyer kill a few Frost Giants, then lay waste to a small town in New Mexico when Loki sent it to Earth hunting Thor. Still, it was no match for Thor when the God of Thunder regained his power and overcharged the Destroyer, ending the attack.
Justin Hammer
Credit Sam Rockwell's unending charisma for Iron Man 2's Justin Hammer not showing up at the very bottom of this list, or even further down, if we could find a way to put him there. As far as credible villains are concerned, Justin Hammer is an absolute joke, he runs an arms manufacturer that's a rival to Stark Industries, except literally everything Hammer builds falls apart. The first version of the War Machine armor is basically a bare-bones Iron Man suit outfitted with a ton of Hammer weapons, which works about as well as duct taping accessories to a car. To summarize: Sam Rockwell is great. Justin Hammer still kinda sucks, though.
General Ross
In The Incredible Hulk, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross spends the entire film chasing Banner, failing to kill him a few times along the way. For much of the film, he's a relatively one-dimensional"Military Bad Guy." Interestingly, however, Ross is one of the few characters from The Incredible Hulk to resurface later in the MCU. He became the U.S. Secretary of State in Captain America: Civil War, pushing for the adoption of the Sokovia Accords, and even made a cameo in Avengers: Infinity War, setting him up for even badder bad guy stuff in films to come.
Abomination
In an effort to capture the Hulk after Banner's alter ego punches him through a tree, former soldier Emil Blonsky hits himself with an experimental version of the same gamma Mc Guffin … except it doesn't turn him into another Hulk. Instead, he becomes the Abomination, a monstrous, one-note creature that looks like a rotting troll. Yawn. He lived through the end of The Incredible Hulk and is apparently in a jail cell somewhere, and the fact that Marvel hasn't really brought him back since then tells you everything you need to know.
Malekith
Dark Elf Malekith had virtually no personality, and basically existed as a freaky-looking dude trying to get an Infinity Stone, and Thanos already does that way, way better. It's a shame, because on the surface, Malekit his extremely formidable. He even stages a surprise assault on Asgard itself, breaching the city's defenses, and later sets his sights on Earth. He put up a heck of a fight against Thor in the final act of The Dark World, though the God of Thunder still prevails.
Taserface
As Rocket points out more than a few times, Taserface's name is pretty dumb, but he still has enough wits to lead a mutiny among Yondu's crew of Ravagers. He's big, mean, ruthless, and conniving, and brokers an uneasy alliance with Nebula to take Yondu's ship in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. He isn't all that bright, but hey, those other four traits go a long way, for awhile, anyway.
Whiplash
Mickey Rourke's Whiplash was one of many problems in Iron Man 2, despite some admittedly awesome action scenes along the way. Whiplash never feels all that intimidating, at least after that epic attack at the Monaco Grand Prix. He's motivated by a vague, kinda boring backstory, and teams up with Justin Hammer, who, we've already established, kinda sucks. And then there was that odd obsession with his bird...
Raza
When Obadiah Stane decides to take out Tony Stark while Stark's on an over seas tour in the first Iron Man film, he contacts the terrorist organization the Ten Rings, led by Raza, to make it happen. Raza keeps Stark captive and proves an intimidating villain, at least until Stark builds his first version of the Iron Man suit and makes shortwork of Raza's soldiers. Raza was savvy enough to survive, and he tracked down stray bits of Stark's armor and tried to cut another deal with Stane. The problem? Stane was more savvy than Raza, and used asonic taser to paralyze him and kill his men. Despite his unceremonious ending, Raza is still technically the first villain we met in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and a throwback to the simple days of the MCU.
Korath the Pursuer
Korath has a small but memorable role in Guardians of the Galaxy, which provided one of the most memorable moments from the movie's opening scenes. "Hey, there's another name you might knowbe by…" "Star-Lord?" "Who?" "I'm Star-Lord, man…" Though Star-Lord gets the better of him in the end, Korath still puts up a heck of a fight. He also manages to reacquire the Infinity Stone along with Nebula, which sets up Ronan the Accuser's near-world-ending attack on Xandar. Without Korath, Ronan would've never had the Infinity Stone to begin with, so he certainly served a purpose. He even holds his own against Drax the Destroyer for awhile, at least until Drax rips out the cybernetic implant in his head, killing him. Hey, at least he went out fighting.
Ulysses Klaue
Andy Serk is actually does an extremely entertaining job with Ulysses Klaue in both Age of Ultron as well as Black Panther, which gives us abelievable version of the Klaw we know from the comics - a character who still has the potential to come back after his "death" as a dude made of hot-pink sound waves. Hopefully the MCU will resurrect this classic comics B-lister for future supervillainous action.
Sonny Burch
Walton Goggins is a genuine delight everytime he shows up on screen, and his appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp is no exception. Sure, he doesn't do much compared to the likes of Killmonger or Thanos, but he might be one of the MCU's most "comic booky" villains ever. As a dealer in illicit technology, Sonny Burch is a character that, like the Vulture before him, operates on the fringes of a universe filled with magic hammers and alien technology. The difference is Burch is the kind of sleazy mastermind who rolls around in a white-and-gold SUV, conducts his illegal business in broad daylight, and commands an army of nameless, motorcycle-riding henchmen. He's like a 1960s Batman villain, transplanted directly into the MCU. Burch is the perfect character to have around to reinforce the idea that there's more to this world than Shakespearean gods and magicspace rocks.
The Tinkerer
The Tinkerer is exactly the kind of character that the MCU needed, for the same reason that he was exactly the kind of character that the comics needed - someone who builds all the gadgets the bad guys use to fight the good guys. He's certainly not the focus of Spider-Man:Homecoming, but Phineas Mason is the kind of bad guy who makes the MCU feel just a bit more real.
The Prowler
Of all the impressive things about Spider-Man:Homecoming, one of the most notable is just how many characters the film pulled in from the comics. And the best minor villain appearance by faris absolutely Aaron Davis, known in the comics as the Prowler. In the film, he's played by Donald Glover, who acts as the thoroughly unimpressed straight man to Peter Parker's "enhanced interrogation. man." It's one of the best comedic scenes in the entire MCU, but what really makes it special is Davis's mention of his nephew. As comics readers know, Davis's nephew is Miles Morales, who eventually takes the name of Spider-Man. As far as villainy goes, Davis doesn't accomplish much beyond a failed arms deal. Hinting at a future of the MCU that includes Miles, though? That's awesome.
Ayesha
She might not have been the big bad in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but the golden goddess Ayesha was able to cause more than enough trouble for Star-Lord and his team. The leader of the powerful Sovereign, she commands a fleet of remote-controlled warships that come within one shot of taking out the Milano following an extensive chase. Moreover, the post-credit scene revealed Ayesha seems to be responsible for creating Adam Warlock, a major player in Marvel's cosmic universe and someone we expect to meet in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3. If nothing else, that makes her more than worthy of a slot on this list.
The Chitauri
These invading creeps basically served ascannon fodder against Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the final hour of The Avengers. Even still, they are a massive alien army, led by those positively terrifying gigantic dragon-like ships that tore through Manhattan. Their eventual humiliation not with standing, the Chitauri were more than formidable enough to push the Avengers to the brink in their first big screen team-up.
Arnim Zola
In Captain America: The First Avenger, Arnim Zola's appearance is basically just an Easter egg. In Winter Soldier, however, the setup of having Zola around for the first movie pays off in a cool way. He might not be a robot with a camera fora head and his face on a giant TV screen built into his tummy like in the comics, but what Winter Soldier's big reveal lacks in robot bodies, it more than makes up for by making him genuinely creepy.
The Black Order
The Black Order are perfectly service able henchmen for Infinity War. They manage to hit that sweet spot of being threatening enough to present the heroes with a challenge. But they also provide additional room for the action so that it's not just 40 people trying to punch Thanos at the same time. Ultimately, they're not so threatening that they overshadow the actual villain of the piece. Each of them is distinct and visually menacing, especially Ebony Maw. Unfortunately, most of them don't actually get to do much other than lose, so that's a bit of a drawback.
Ronan the Accuser
In Guardians of the Galaxy, Ronan was a religiouszealot who co-opted the Power Stone to continue his crusade to wipe out Xandar. But even without one of those awesomely powerful baubles, he's still a heck of a warrior. After all, he laid waste to Drax the Destroyer without even breaking a sweat. He also had the guts to stick it to Thanos, and actually walked away from the Mad Titan without much consequence. The Guardians were no match for Ronan individually, but luckily, Star-Lord was able to actually control the Infinity Stone with the help of his team, his half-Celestial powers, and those sweet dance moves, and they used its immense power to blast the bad guy into oblivion.
Yellowjacket
Ant-Man's Darren Cross spent his entire career trying to duplicate Hank Pym's shrinking formula. But when he did it and created the Yellowjacket combat suit, he didn't realize his copycat formula was actually messing with his brain chemistry, making him dangerously unstable. That led to a villain who was not only dangerously unhinged, but got some really cool fight scenes, the best of which was on a child's play table.
Ghost
Ant-Man and the Wasp's super-powered villain has a lot going for her. Visually, her flickering and phasing through objects is some of the coolest-looking stuff we've seen in the MCU. It's even better in the fight scenes, the shrinking and growing stuff is fun, but pitting that stuff against a completely different set of powers makes for some pretty compelling action. Since she seemingly reforms at the end of the film, we're obviously meant to like her. She has a sympathetic backstory and motivation as a victim of Hank Pym's egotistical past. At the same time, we're also supposed to like Hank, so his part in Ghost's backstory still involves him ultimately being right. None of this is too surprising. Marvel is full of bad guys doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, and vice versa, but it does feel pretty clear that Ghost was shoehorned into Ant-man & amp; the Wasp, rather than building her more organically. Still, the effects are great, and Hannah John-Kamen's performance captures Ava's understandable bitterness and desperation effectively.
Surtur
Diehard comics fans know Surtur is a major villain in Thor's world. In Thor: Ragnarok, however, he's almost anancillary one, appearing only in the opening act and destructive finale. That's not to say he's not important to the story. In Norse mythology, the word "Ragnarok" points to the apocalyptic battle between gods that results in a world destroyed by fire. While Surtur is indeed the monster all Asgardians fear, Thor and Loki summon him to invoke the Ragnarok prophecy. This defeats Hela, but at a price: his attack decimates Asgard, crumbling the city in the sky to dust.
The Mandarin
Ben Kingsley's character in Iron Man 3 wasn't actually the real Mandarin, and the "All Hail the King" one-shot short suggested the bonafide bad guy could still be out there, waiting to make his move. But that "fake" Mandarin still gave us the chills, at least until it was revealed that he's really just an out of work actor named Trevor Slattery who can barely be trusted with a six-pack of beer, much less a gun. Still, though it loses some luster by the end, the Mandarin presented in the front half of Iron Man 3 is one of the scariest baddies in the MCU. It might've been a ruse, but it was effective.
Red Skull
There was every chance it would come off assilly, but Red Skull easily stands out as one of the most original and terrifying baddies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In The First Avenger, he commands his own HYDRA-branded Nazi division, complete with Tesseract-powered weapons, and has his own version of the Super Soldier Serum, making him Cap's physical equal. He vanished while trying to harness the power of the Tesseract's Space Stone, but his surprise return as the guardian of the Soul Stone in Infinity War only served to remind us how great he was so many years ago.
Kaecilius
He might've just been a disciple of Dormammu, but Kaecilius was plenty intimidating his own right, a highly-trained sorcerer who went rogue, left the Ancient One's order to try and take out the Masters of the Mystic Arts, and nearly succeeded. In Doctor Strange, Kaecilius manages to destroy two Sanctums, put the Ancient One's forces on the ropes, and shows his prowess with magicin a few excellent fights against Doctor Strange. Luckily, a quick-thinking Strange managed to turn the tables and win the day. Even if he was technically the B-list baddie in Doctor Strange, he'll always be an A-lister to us.
Crossbones
Brock Rumlow started out as a member of Captain America's strike team in Winter Soldier, eventually revealing himself as a HYDRA agent when the attempted take over began. He managed to survive, and resurfaced during the opening fight in Civil War, where he went toe-to-toe with both Cap and Black Widow before blowing himself up in the event that ended up driving the Avengers apart. For a villain, that's a pretty good way to go out.
Dormammu
He's one of the biggest villains in Marvel Comics, and the MCU actually kept the extremely powerful ruler of the Dark Dimension relatively close to his comics counterpart. Doctor Strange's trip to the Dark Dimension was practically a Steve Ditko panel brought to life. Dormammu is so powerful that Doctor Strange had no chance of hurting him...and had to outsmart him to save the world. He trapped the villain in a time loop where Dormammu killed him over and over, until he was forced to bargain for his freedom. It makes for one of the most clever finales in all of the MCU, and lands Dormammu high on our list of favorites.
Alexander Pierce
When Marvel signed Robert Redford for a superhero movie, you knew it'd be an interesting role, and his turn as Alexander Pierce delivered. He's introduced as the well-meaning Secretary of the World Security Council and old friend of Nick Fury…though it's eventually revealed Pierce is actually a HYDRA agent leading their infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. Pierce shepherded the program designed to create the networked helicarrier system everyone is fighting over in The Winter Soldier. He also planted bombs in the name tags of the other Security Council members, which he uses to brutally murder them when they challenge his takeover. He stayed evil to the end, too, uttering "Hail Hydra" with his dying breath after Nick Fury put two rounds into his chest. Now that's a villain.
Aldrich Killian
Iron Man 3 is one of the most polarizing movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, featuring an epic fakeout that reveals Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian is actually the villain behind a mysterious rash of bombings and terrorist attacks sweeping the globe. His secret weapon? Extremis, a versatile technology that first showed up in the Iron Man comics and is reimagined here as a way to super-heat one's body and literally regrow limbs. Killian's particular skill-set makes for one of the most technically ambitious fight scenes in the MCU. It's sometimes hard to believe any villain can truly go toe-to-toe with Tony Stark, but Killian made a heck of a run.
The Grandmaster
When Thor is suddenly marooned on the junk planet Sakaar, he comes in contact with the Grandmaster. In the comics, the Grandmaster is just an immortal dude who loves playing games of any kind. But in the hands of Jeff Goldblum, the Grandmaster becomes one of the weirdest and funniest characters in the MCU. Here's hoping we get to see a lot more of him in the future - though may be not as much as he wants us to.
Iron Monger
You have to respect where it all began, and Jeff Bridges Obadiah Stane, a.k.a. Iron Monger, set the tone for the villains of the MCU in the first Iron Man film. Bridges Stane is positively slimy, betraying Tony Stark and actually setting his entire hero's journey in action, so really, we can thank Stane for kicking off the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. When his assassination attempt on Stark in the desert failed, Stane eventually donned the massive Iron Monger suit to try and finish the job himself. A lot has changed since Iron Monger stalked the skies, but his final fight with Iron Man had a brutal, messy feel that really let you feel the hate Stane had for Stark, and it still resonates, even in a world with heavy hitters like Thanos prowling around.
Ultron
James Spader brought absolute terror to the metal menace that was Ultron, with a near-endless supply of robot baddies and a design that had comics fans geeking out. He exemplifies how technology can be our greatestscourge, though Ultron does it with a wit that only Spader can provide, verbally sparring with the best of them. Like any great villain, Ultron also has a real motivation for his dastardly deeds. Looking at the facts, Ultron's final determination that humans and superheroes are what make the world such a dangerous place makes its own twisted kind of sense.
Helmut Zemo
The most amazing thing about Helmut Zemo in Civil War is he's just an average guy. No plans for world domination. Just a man who wants revenge for the death of his family, and wise enough to realize the best way to take out the Avengers is to set them against one another. Yes, his plan does require a few big leaps of movie logic, but it was refreshing to see a villain like Zemo brought to life in the MCU. He's a great reminder that it doesn't take world-smashing superpowers to give Earth's Mightiest Heroes a run for their money.
Ego
Peter Quill's search for his father was a key part of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, a journey that brought him face to face with Kurt Russell's Ego, who's as bad a dad as they come. Ego is one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, right up there along side Thanos himself. Ego's essentially a god who wants to literally become the universe by supplanting all other life. And Russell sells it so well that you really understand where Ego's coming from, even if he's a psychopath who's killed hundreds of his own children in his quest for power. Ego redefined the concept of daddy issues.
The Vulture
In a universe of world-destroying monsters, the Vulture is decidedly street-level in his approach, but that's exactly what makes him work. The writers tweaked his backstory to make Adrian Toomes the father of Peter Parker's teenage crush in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and he takes the "girlfriend's angry dad" trope to a whole new level. The effects team also did an amazing job with his armor and look, with the Vulture looking positively terrifying and inhuman when he's stalking his prey.
Hela
We've never seen Thor face a villain like Hela, the Goddess of Death in any of the other MCU films. Much like Loki before her, this Asgardian villain is someone audiences will immediately love to hate. As soon as Odin passes away, Hela appears to the brothers and presents her plan to take her rightful place on Asgard's throne. To prove her point, she easily crushes Thor's hammer. The truth is eventually revealed that Hela once acted as Odin's executioner, leading the Asgardian army to victory over all NineRealms. This secret history elevates Hela to epic villain status.
Erik Killmonger
Erik Killmonger essentially has a superhero's origin: his father is killed in front of him, his royal heritage is denied to him, and he uses those tragedies to motivate a relentless dedication, training himself to the peak of his abilities before seeking vengeance. That setup is a whole lot closer to Batman than it is to, say, Crossbones or Ultron. When you add in the fact that Killmonger specifically wants to address a continuing history of racism, it's hard not to admit that he makes some pretty good points. Even if he's right, though, his goal is dominance rather than leadership, which makes him a true ideological opponent for T'Challa. It's one of the things that makes their final battle, in which they're both in nearly identical Black Panther costumes, so good: they're reflections of each other, both committed to fight for their ideals without compromising who they are.
Loki
While we originally said that villains turned good guys weren't going to be on the list, we had to make an exception for the god of mischief, especially since Loki was a baddie for multiple Marvel movies and caused so much chaos throughout the MCU. There's a reason Marvel Studios chose to use Loki as the main villain for The Avengers, he's one of the most compelling, calculated and charismatic villains ever. Tom Hiddleston is so good at being bad that Marvel opted to keep him around long after his bid for supremacy was foiled at the hands of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. He's still no match for the Hulk… "Puny god…" ...but who is? Oh, wait, we know who…
Thanos
Thanos is the villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's been a lot of character work put into the cinematic version of Thanos, which is especially impressive considering that most of it is shown to the audience in Infinity War, a movie that's also juggling story arcs for dozens of other characters at the same time. Through it all, he's shown to have the same quality that all the greatest villains share: he thinks he's right. He's the hero of his own story, the only one who can step up and save the universe from itself, and is willing to sacrifice whatever he needs to in pursuit of that goal. In the comics, Thanos has been referred to as "the ultimate nihilist," but the MCU's version is the exact opposite. He believes very much in what he's doing, which makes him even more compelling… and more dangerous.
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