The 5 Most Unlikeable Marvel Villains In The MCU According To Many Fans
A superhero movie is typically only as good as the main villain. An antagonist who truly challenges the hero in an interesting way while really livening things up on the evil front can turn a good film into a great one. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has introduced many intriguing interpretations of classic villains, but Redditor u/Big_TinyRequest brought up an engaging question, "If there was meeting with the Villains, what are characters every villain will be disgusted at?" All villains are bad, but the question poses which villains went so far at the deep end they would potentially offend other bad guys.
After all, some Marvel villains have sympathetic motivations. They merely pursue nefarious methods to achieve their goals. For example, Thanos (Josh Brolin) wants to wipe out half of all life in the universe, which is obviously bad, but it's to ensure there are enough resources to go around. The logic is flawed, but Thanos wants to achieve something positive. Something similar could be said of Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) from "Black Panther." He had reasonable motivations that underscore why he would be upset at the world.
They're bad guys, but fans can see their point of view, which is often the trait of a great villain. But for these antagonists, many fans think they would be negatively viewed even among their peers.
Dreykov from Black Widow
When ranking the best Marvel villains of all time, Dreykov (Ray Winstone) from "Black Widow" is pretty low on the list in terms of being memorable. However, u/Big_TinyRequest offers him up as an example of a threat who would be despised by other Marvel villains, and many agree with them. They state, "Once Dreykov tells everyone That he kidnaps little girls from their families, tortures them, trains them non stop to be killers and kills the ones that aren't 100% Perfect he's getting a beat down."
Other Marvel villains may have sympathetic motivations and goals, but Dreykov doesn't have that. He's pure evil, and the fact he could theoretically exist in the real world may make him even harder to stomach. As u/tsengmao put it, "Dreykov was purely about control and power. He had no greater good aspect." It's interesting to compare Dreykov to a villain viewed more favorably — Thanos. After all, they both sacrificed their daughters, but Thanos at least seemed to care for Gamora (Zoe Saldana) a bit.
Redditor u/Alexdykes828 offers this comparison, "I'd be interested to know how Thanos and Dreykov would interact. They're both responsible for heinous acts against children but Thanos actually loved Gamora. Whereas Dreykov just turned Antonia into another weapon." Such lack of emotion makes Dreykov come across as more callous than some of the more supernatural antagonists in the MCU.
High Evolutionary from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
The other Marvel villain u/Big_TinyRequest offers among the most unlikeable is the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) from "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3." As for the reason why, it's similar to Dreykov in that he doesn't have any sympathetic motivations. He tortures innocent animals, and when they're no longer to his liking, he kills them. He destroyed an entire planet because it didn't fit into his definition of "perfect." Associating a villain with the concept of eugenics is never going to win them any fans, and it's going to be a recurring theme running through this list.
People like u/ResponseTight think High Evolutionary would've even been a negative influence on other Marvel villains, "I think high evolutionary as he's the worst of them all and creepy and like totally unhinged, I'm pretty sure he'll reprimand thanos for not improving Nebula even further, by making her more usable."
To add to the idea that the High Evolutionary is the worst, the YouTube channel How It Should've Ended offered its take. When the High Evolutionary is hanging out with a bunch of villains, the likes of Voldemort and General Zod insist he's the worst for experimenting on animals. Even Thanos claims that his genocide was random and therefore pure. The Mad Titan may just put it best when he tells the Guardians villain, "You just suck."
Kilgrave from Jessica Jones
Following in the vein of "Marvel villains who hit too close to home," there's Kilgrave (David Tennant) from "Jessica Jones." He may have one of the lower death counts in the MCU, but his characterization makes him entirely irredeemable. In a separate Reddit thread, people discuss who's the most evil out of the likes of Thanos, Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio), and Kilgrave. Redditor u/cbekel3618 offers a succinct summation of why Kilgrave is worse than anyone else, "Kilgrave: Dude's a sociopathic rapist with no aim to the pain he causes, probably the most irredeemable of these guys." Other comments refer to him being "pure evil," and it's hard to argue.
He kidnaps and sexually assaults Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and manipulates plenty of other women in the process. For a lot of Marvel fans, it seems to come down to end results. Kilgrave could never accomplish anything on the scale of someone like Thanos, but Thanos hides behind a guise of righteousness. Another Redditor believes Kilgrave's intentions are what make him truly terrible, "Kilgrave is a serial rapist and has no remorse for his actions. At least Killmonger and Thanos THINK they're doing the right thing and have some limits on who they hurt." If anything, the other Marvel villains probably wouldn't respect Kilgrave for having zero grander ambition than causing as much harm as possible.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger
Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) is a Nazi. That alone is more than enough reason to make him an abhorrent foe that even other villains would have a problem with. After all, bad guys like Vulture (Michael Keaton) and Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) may commit crimes, but one would assume they would draw the line at Nazism. Redditor u/Stevenwave suggests Red Skull may not last long if all the Marvel villains got together, "Some of the American villains would probs shoot him on the spot. Vanko would too. Killmonger might be quickest to do it."
It's a salient point. Killmonger also crosses the line morally, but his goal of overthrowing racist and oppressive systems would put him in direct conflict with a literal fascist. There's even evidence from the comics to support the idea Red Skull is hated even among villains. As u/TheUltimatenerd05 posits, "This is something the comics also do where a lot of the villains hate him for being a nazi. granted the mcu doesn't have Doom and Magneto yet so there aren't really villains that would have a personal reason to hate Nazis like they do but I think it would still be pretty similar."
Perhaps it's for the best Red Skull was exiled to Vormir before Magneto and other mutants entered the MCU. They would have some have some choice words for him if they ever crossed paths.
Ego from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Out of all the Marvel villains on this list, Ego (Kurt Russell) may be the most comic book-y. He's also not what one would call "grounded," as he's a god-like Celestial who seeks to turn numerous planets into his own image. In the process, he impregnated women from all kinds of worlds, but upon discovering most of his children did not inherit the Celestial gene, he killed them. He's egomaniacal in every sense of the word (hence the name), and he doesn't pretend as though he has any noble pursuit, as Redditor u/sanguiniuswept points out, "Ego was going to turn the universe into Ego through the plants he'd seeded on thousands of planets. I feel like this is almost worse than Thanos, because Thanos just wanted to kill half of all life, he wasn't trying to make all life Thanos."
Thanos is an appropriate comparison here. He killed his daughter, Gamora, and Ego killed many of his children. But u/gruelly4 notices a crucial difference, "I don't think the filicidal Ego gets enough hate here. I mean, enough dead kids to fill a cave with their bones. Children's bones aren't that big, you need a lot of them to do that. They're very small!"
From all of these comments, it's clear audiences can at least understand where a villain comes from if they have somewhat understandable motivations. There's an old saying of how villains should think they're the heroes of their stories. But in some cases, the bad guys are evil for evil's sake. That's all right, too, as long as they're written well, but it's likely not going to earn them any favors at the next big villain meeting.