Every MCU Movie Villain Ranked Worst To Best

Kurse (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), also known as Algrim, was one of Malekith's top men and sacrificed himself to take on the power of Kurse in "The Dark World." He allows Asgardian forces to capture him to get inside Odin's kingdom, and once he makes it to the Asgardian dungeon posing as a regular prisoner, Algrim activates the Kurse stone and turns into the hulking beast we know and love from the comics. 

Kurse leads a straight-up prison riot in Asgard (with a bit of help from a locked-up Loki providing directions), 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 God of Thunder positively senseless with his brute strength before Loki manages to take Kurse out with some black hole grenades. Despite all that, Kurse is nothing more than a forgettable force of nature with no personality. He's just big and violent, and ultimately an obstacle cleared out of the way for the big finale between Thor and Malekith.

Laufey (Colm Feore) is a powerful force in Thor's corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but we never get to see a lot of him in action. King of the Frost Giants and biological father to Loki, he has super-strength and ice powers, but it turns out 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.

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 "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," during the hijacking of the ship the Lemurian Star. We get a breathless fight scene between Batroc and Cap, with the First Avenger accepting the challenge for a hand to hand fight without his shield. Batroc manages to hold his own — he's a beast when it comes to parkour — though Cap eventually knocks him out. And while actor/UFC champion Georges St-Pierre reprised the character in the Disney+ series "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," it did little to raise his stock among the MCU's biggest and best villains.

"Spider-Man: Homecoming" didn't just give us our first solo Spidey flick in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it also dug into the wall-crawler's deep bench of rogues, including not just one but two Shockers. We first meet Jackson Brice (Logan Marshall-Green) wielding a Shocker gauntlet, but after the Vulture kills him, the trademark weapon is passed down to Herman Schultz (Bokeem Woodbine). 

Schultz looks to be our "main" Shocker in the MCU, and he gets one epic fight against Spidey before being sidelined. The 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, to boot). So why does Shocker rank so low? Because it wasn't even Spidey who took him out — 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, gift-wrapping him for the cops. Maybe next time, Shocker. Maybe next time.

It doesn't get a ton of screen time in "Thor," but when the Destroyer shows up, it sure makes full use of every moment. Basically an enchanted Asgardian automaton you can point at an enemy, its giant, powerful arms and legs can crush or stomp just about any opponent — and if they don't kill you, its laser blasts probably will. In "Thor," 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 finally no match for Thor: the God of Thunder regained his power and overcharged the Destroyer, ending the attack.

Dr. Samuel Sterns doesn't actually ever call himself the Leader, which is his villainous moniker in the comics. But "The Incredible Hulk" isn't exactly subtle about the eccentric scientist's destiny. The last we see of him, he's on the ground as the Hulk-ified blood he just pumped into Emil Blonsky drips into an open wound on his head. If a "Hulk" sequel had come to pass, we would almost certainly have seen Tim Blake Nelson return as the psychic and super-intelligent Leader.

Nelson is perfect as an obsessed scientist who doesn't care much about the consequences of pursuing his goals across ethical lines. While he never actually turns green on screen, he shows plenty of signs of a moral compass in need of some fine tuning. He clones a whole room full of Banner's blood without Bruce's knowledge or consent, and he has no problem with the notion of turning Blonsky into Abomination. And of course, in his final moments in the movie — while Banner's blood begins to change him and Abomination starts his deadly rampage — he is seen smiling, when any sane person would be horrified.

We should note that even without an "Incredible Hulk" sequel, Kevin Feige has made it clear that "never say never" is the correct attitude to take, when it comes to Nelson possibly returning as the Leader. Fingers crossed!

General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (William Hurt), father of Bruce Banner's love interest Betty Ross, is put in charge of trying to capture the Hulk after he goes rogue in "The Incredible Hulk." Ross' project originally started as an attempt to recreate the Super Soldier Serum that created Captain America, but it went sideways and turned poor Bruce Banner into an unstoppable anger machine. 

Ross has a vendetta against the Hulk because Betty was injured during the Hulk's creation, so he blames Banner for putting her in a coma (though she eventually came out of it unscathed). Ross was also the catalyst in creating the Abomination, one of the more boring one-note villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ross spends the entire film chasing Banner, and tries and fails to kill him a few times along the way (though those sonic cannons were admittedly pretty cool). For much of the film, he's a relatively one-dimensional "Military Bad Guy," and falls into most of the attendant clichés.

Interestingly enough, Ross is one of the few characters from "The Incredible Hulk" to resurface onscreen later in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, he remains a major player in the MCU. He becomes the U.S. Secretary of State in "Captain America: Civil War," pushes for the adoption of the Sokovia Accords, and was actually in charge of the secret prison where Captain America's rogue team was being held in "Civil War" before Cap freed them.

The early Marvel Studios films tended to lean into the old cliché of a hero facing an evil version of their own power set (Iron Man vs. Iron Monger, etc.), and former soldier Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) pretty much fits the bill. In an effort to capture the Hulk after Banner's alter ego punches him through a tree, he hits himself with an experimental version of the same gamma MacGuffin ... except it doesn't turn him into a burly green guy. Instead, he becomes the Abomination, a monstrous creature that looks like a rotting troll. 

Sure, he's formidable, but he's also relatively one-note. He's mean because he's mean, and his only real character trait is that he loves to be a soldier. He was a forgettable baddie in an even more forgettable movie. He lived through the end of "The Incredible Hulk" and apparently spent some time rotting away in a jail cell somewhere. But with a recent cameo appearance in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," we're wondering if Abomination might get a second chance to impress in the MCU. 

When traveling across the multiverse, be prepared for all sorts of surprises. Red lights might mean go, and green lights might mean stop. Peggy Carter might be a superhero instead of a super spy, and people might actually like the Inhumans. But no matter the dimension, some things are always absolute. And one of those things is that Mordo will always be a jerk.

When America Chavez and Dr. Strange arrive on Earth-838, they learn that here, Mordo is Sorcerer Supreme. And at first, he seems glad to see Strange. He's jovial, he's chatty, he serves them tea ... but you should never drink tea from multiversal magicians. Soon enough, a drugged Strange finds himself on trial in front of the Illuminati, and while the other members of this elite group might be willing to give the doc a chance, Mordo is dead set on Strange ending up dead.

It's implied that this Mordo is much sneakier and more cutthroat than his version from Earth-616, and while he's eventually bested by Stephen in a hand-to-hand battle, it just goes to show that Mordo and Strange will never play nice. However, we do have to hand it to the original bad guy. While 838 Mordo is power-hungry, 616 Mordo seems like a much more principled villain. Sure, he may have it out for sorcerers, but at least he's operating from a set of actual beliefs, even if they are twisted.

There's no getting around the fact that "Eternals" was a big letdown for Marvel. The film registered the second-worst box office opening in MCU history when it dropped to poor reviews in November 2021, and it went on to score a disappointing 48% on Rotten Tomatoes. Why did "Eternals" fail so spectacularly? Having the eponymous beings go up against an unmemorable CGI villain with little-to-no backstory certainly didn't help matters.

Kro is the leader of the Deviants, a race of near-immortals made by the all-powerful Celestials. These cosmic creators grow inside planets with intelligent life, and it's the job of the Deviants to wipe out apex predators so that intelligent life can thrive. The Celestials created the Eternals when the Deviants began to disobey their orders, and most of them were wiped out as a result. However, Kro and his pack of Deviants happened to land in Alaska when they came to Earth, and they remained frozen in ice for millions of years. Honestly, we kind of wish they'd stayed there.

He's had plenty of memorable moments in the comics, but Kro is reduced to a dime-a-dozen CGI beasty in the "Eternals" movie. He looks like a giant alien dog when he first emerges, and even though he begins to take on a humanoid form as he absorbs power from the Eternals, it's hard to take Kro seriously as a villain. When he meets his end at the hands of Angelina Jolie's Thena, it's not a moment too soon.

Fundamentally, Adam Warlock is one of the most powerful villains in the MCU's whole history. His mother, Ayesha, brought him into the world intending to destroy the Guardians of the Galaxy. He has super strength, flight, indestructibility, and almost every other superpower needed to kill off Marvel's plucky intergalactic heroes — or anyone else in the MCU for that matter.

Fans first see Warlock when he interrupts the Guardians as they set up shop in Knowhere in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" in an attempt to kidnap Rocket at the behest of the High Evolutionary. Warlock can easily defeat any member of the Guardians in a one-on-one battle, but when they work together, it's a different story. Warlock is clearly a powerful villain, but he lacks drive.

Warlock's entire motivation appears to be pleasing his mother, who is attempting to court favor with the High Evolutionary to persuade him not to destroy their home planet. Warlock's lack of purpose essentially reduces him to a mere court jester, a role that mirrors Will Poulter's prior work in "We're The Millers." But ultimately, Warlock realizes that he wasn't cut out to be a villain. And it's hard to disagree.

Taneleer Tivan, better known as the Collector, has a remarkably low-key career as an MCU villain. He doesn't really do a whole lot on screen, to the point that you might understandably question whether he's really a villain at all.

Well, first off, he's definitely a villain in the comics. But even within the MCU, the Collector's brief appearances make it clear that, whether or not he's wrestling with superheroes, he's pretty darn evil. As early as his first appearance in a "Thor: The Dark World" mid-credits scene, we learn that, like Thanos, one of his goals is to collect all of the Infinity Stones. Unlike the Mad Titan, the Collector probably wants them for bragging rights alone — but a closer look at his expansive collection reveals a whole lot of unwilling prisoners within it, including at least one slave who's there for not being diligent enough about cleaning. 

We're fairly certain that if the Collector were ever given a more active role in the MCU, he'd earn a higher spot on this list. But the fact that he doesn't take center stage is part of what makes him a good character: There's something deliciously intriguing about the way he's been on the periphery of the narrative's most cataclysmic events. Mystery surrounds Tivan, including the mystery of whether or not he's still alive.

Djimon Hounsou has popped up in everything from "Gladiator" to "Wayward Pines," but for Marvel Cinematic Universe fans, he'll always be the guy who had no idea who "Star-Lord" is or why he should care. 

Hounsou's Korath has a small but memorable role in "Guardians of the Galaxy" that finds him tracking Star-Lord as he pursues the Infinity Stone. Though Star-Lord does get 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 for the assault, 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.

Walton Goggins is a genuine delight every time he shows up on screen no matter what he's in, and his appearance in "Ant-Man and the Wasp" is no exception. Admittedly, he doesn't do much compared to the likes of Killmonger or Thanos, but he makes the most of what is there, and it actually makes him 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, vibranium shields, and alien technology. The difference is that while the Vulture's operation was as low-key as you can be while still having a personal jetpack, Burch is the kind of sleazy mastermind who rolls around in a white-and-gold SUV, conducts his illegal business in broad daylight, gets information by dosing his enemies with truth serum, and commands a seemingly endless army of nameless henchmen who are prepared to launch an all-out motorcycle crime spree at a moment's notice. He's like one of the villains from the '60s "Batman" show transplanted directly into the MCU.

The best thing about the "Ant-Man" movies is that, while they're undeniably connected to the larger universe, their tighter focus allows them to tell smaller stories — no pun intended. Burch is the perfect character to have around to reinforce the idea that there's more to this world than Shakespearean gods and magic space rocks.

She might not have been the big bad in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," but the golden goddess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) 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 which come within one shot of taking out the Milano following an extensive chase. As if all that wasn't enough, the post-credit scene revealed Ayesha is actually the person responsible for birthing Adam Warlock, a major player in Marvel's cosmic universe and someone we expect to meet in "Guardians Vol. 3." If nothing else, that portion of her legacy makes her more than worthy of a slot on this list.

In "The First Avenger," Arnim Zola's (Toby Jones) appearance is basically just an Easter egg for fans in a movie that's full of them. He's a Nazi scientist who's seen through a weird lens for a moment, a callback to what is unquestionably one of Jack Kirby's weirdest designs. But beyond the nudge and wink, he could have honestly had any name without changing the plot at all.

When we pick back up in "Winter Soldier," though, the setup of having Zola around for the first movie pays off in a pretty cool way. He might not be a robot with a camera for a head and his face on a giant TV screen built into his torso like the Bio-Fanatic of the comics, but what this big reveal lacks in robot bodies, it more than makes up for by making him genuinely creepy.

Recasting Zola as the architect of Hydra's secret survival instantly makes him one of the most sinister enemies that Captain America has ever faced. On top of that, his synthesized voice and the way the camera tracks Cap and Black Widow's movements when they find the computer mainframe that he uploaded his consciousness into is the closest the MCU has ever gotten to a horror movie. Admittedly, both movies treat Zola as less of a villain and more of a plot device, but who's to say that there's not a backup of his programming somewhere just waiting to come back and make more trouble — and maybe next time, they'll upload it into a weird robot body (well, outside of "What If...?" anyway).

In the comics, Mac Gargan (Michael Mando) has a long villainous history, including tenures as the Scorpion, Venom, and even an brief period where he's the official Spider-Man of the United States government. In "Homecoming," on the other hand, not so much. His most notable actions in that movie 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.  

As far as secondary muscle villains go, Namora and Attuma are pretty solid bad guys. We dig their look — blue-skinned, Mesoamerican warriors wearing water masks to help them breathe on the surface world. And perhaps for the first time in MCU history, the Dora Milaje find themselves equaled and occasionally outmatched by these two foes. In fact, we have to give a shout out to the entire kingdom of Talocan. While they're really chill and peaceful when Shuri visits their underwater kingdom, these aquatic adversaries become downright terrifying whenever they go into war mode. They ride on whales, they have devastating water bombs, and they can literally sing people to their doom like the sirens of myth. While these lower-level villains are definitely outshone by their king, we have to give them props for being so fierce and terrifying when they're looking to crack some skulls.

Ronan (Lee Pace) was a religious zealot who co-opted a full-fledged Infinity Stone to continue his crusade to wipe out Xandar, but even without one of those awesomely powerful baubles, he's still one 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 he actually walked away from the Mad Titan without much consequence.

The Guardians were no match for Ronan — Rocket Raccoon's super-gun left him unscathed, and the team's battle against Ronan's forces ended with the entire Xandarian fleet destroyed and Ronan reaching the planet's surface. Luckily, Star-Lord was able to actually control that Infinity Stone with the help of his team (and those sweet, sweet dance moves), and they used its immense power to blast the bad guy into oblivion.

One of the most common motifs in the MCU is a villain who sees themselves as nothing more than an extreme egalitarian. High Evolutionary considers himself a deity of some sort, merely attempting to right the wrongs of modern society. He attempts to achieve this by constructing new worlds and civilizations, such as Counter-Earth, but when he discovers a "flaw" in one of his creations, he decides to destroy it and start over — even though his creations are now sentient and have lives beyond the limits of his imagination.

In the Rocket-centric "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," the High Evolutionary is revealed to be the one who first created Rocket by painfully modifying the mind of a raccoon. The High Evolutionary was experimenting on animals to build a new world in which other species, not humans, are at the top of the food chain. But when the High Evolutionary learns that this new civilization is sliding into the same harmful habits that humans have, such as violent drug trafficking, he decides to wipe out the entire new society.

In a rare occurrence in the MCU, High Evolutionary's own minions turn against him once his machinations became too dangerous. And part of his character's problem is that he isn't fully able to convince his underlings of his grand vision — he had everything except influence going for him. He may soon join the list of MCU villains who fade into obscurity because his cause was never pertinent to anyone other than himself.

We're going to go out on a limb and guess that when Marvel talked to Annette Bening about playing a villain in "Captain Marvel," they didn't open with, "You're going to be a giant, green disembodied head with a bunch of gross tendrils floating in some kind of goo." That's a fairly accurate description of the character's physical appearance in the comics — and probably not something that would have played well on screen. Instead of the floating head, the creators of "Captain Marvel" chose to represent the artificial intelligence that rules the Kree Empire on a kind of psychic plane with Carol Danvers. Everyone who communes with the Supreme Intelligence sees someone different, and in Carol's case, the Intelligence appears as Mar-Vell, the Kree secret agent who dies to protect the Skrulls from the Kree.

Unfortunately, we don't get to see a lot of the Supreme Intelligence, which is a real shame, because Bening is great as the powerful villain. As viewers, we spend a lot of time in "Captain Marvel" thinking the Skrulls are the bad guys — then, once the truth is revealed, it's Yon-Rogg who's the most visible villain. Perhaps in future installments of Captain Marvel's films, we'll see more of the Kree ruler in the bad guy driver's seat, giving the Supreme Intelligence a chance to get a better spot on this list.

He might've just been a disciple of Dormammu in the end, but Mads Mikkelsen's 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 of the Sanctums and put the Ancient One's forces on the ropes, and shows his prowess with magic in a few excellent fights against Doctor Strange. Luckily, a quick-thinking Strange managed to briefly trap him in magical straightjacket (thanks to a few assists from the Cloak of Levitation). Even if he was technically the B-list baddie in "Doctor Strange," he'll always be an A-lister to us.

Every great ruler needs someone beside them to carry their melting stick. In "Thor: Ragnarok," that job goes to Topaz, played by Rachel House, the sadistic and unforgiving right-hand woman to the Grandmaster. She's a perfect match for her eccentric, airheaded boss: While he laughs and enjoys his games and acquisitions, Topaz stands ready nearby with his instruments of torture. Sometimes she doles out insults, and she makes it clear that she's always eager for the Grandmaster to melt, well ... anyone. She delights in watching her master destroy his victims, so much so that she occasionally tries to hand the melting stick off to him, even if he doesn't ask for it.

Unfortunately for the Grandmaster but thankfully for everyone else on Sakaar, Topaz does not survive "Ragnarok." Distracted by the Grandmaster's ship's fireworks display, Topaz crashes into rocks while chasing Bruce Banner, Thor, and Valkyrie during their escape from Sakaar. Topaz's service to Grandmaster is clearly not forgotten — in one of Marvel's "Team Darryl" shorts, we see that the Grandmaster has erected a modest shrine to his former assistant/bodyguard in his new Los Angeles apartment.

Throughout Sam Raimi's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," Scarlet Witch sends out quite a few demons to do her bidding, from the imposing Knights of Wundagore to the furious beastie in the opening act of the film. But the monster who makes the biggest impact is without a doubt Gargantos. 

Based on the comic book villain Shuma-Gorath, Gargantos is a tentacled beast that's out to kidnap America Chavez and drag her back to Wanda Maximoff. Unlike some generic MCU monsters, Gargantos is instantly memorable, with its slimy limbs and cyclopean eye. And Gargantos is quite the imposing foe, as it takes the combined forces of Doctor Strange, Wong, and America to ultimately bring the creature down.

Diehard superhero fans will notice that Gargantos' battle with Doctor Strange in New York is reminiscent of the showdown between Peter Parker and Doc Ock in Sam Raimi's other great superhero film, "Spider-Man 2." And when the big squid meets his fate, it's delightfully disgusting.

Frank Grillo's 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 takeover began. He was a part of that epic elevator fight with Cap in that film, but wound up on the wrong side of the shield — after getting the edge on Sam Wilson during their one-on-one fight, he failed to notice a crashing helicarrier coming right for him, which resulted in Rumlow's burned, broken body being hauled out of the wreckage once the battle was over.

It seemed like that could be the end for Crossbones, but he survived to take one last shot at Cap in "Civil War." Rocking his own homemade-looking battle suit, he got a fantastic extended action set piece fighting Captain America and Black Widow, and even laid some bone-crunching punches on Cap thanks to his suit's capabilities. So filled with hate that he literally blew himself up with Cap beside him, his final attack was foiled when Scarlet Witch managed to relocate the blast — taking out a group of Wakandan diplomats and kicking off the events of "Civil War" in earnest.

2021's "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" was one of the most fun MCU entries in a while, and it also boasted a few memorable villains, including the man that trained the titular hero. Real name Li Ching-Lin, Death Dealer is a skilled warrior loyal to Shang-Chi's father, Xu Wenwu. When his boss ordered him to train his son, Li became the most brutal teacher you could imagine. "From sun up to sundown, I was taught every possible way to kill a man," Shang-Chi said. His history with the hero and his eye-catching costume made Death Dealer one of Marvel's more interesting villains of recent times, but the character wouldn't have worked so well if it wasn't for the high-flying performance of a relative unknown named Andy Le.

Le is a martial artist who came to the attention of the late "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" stunt coordinator Brad Allan after his moves went viral. "Before this I was just doing YouTube videos, putting out martial arts short films and creating content," Le told Pop Culture. "They sent me the concept art of the costume, and I'm like, 'Yo! This is me! This is ninja as hell!' I kind of felt like that role was tailored for me." Death Dealer's knife fight with Shang-Chi is one of the standout sequences in a film packed with impressive action.

Remember when we said that Ray Winstone's General Dreykov wasn't a very nice man? He did a lot of terrible things during his time at the helm of the Red Room, but the most heartless of them all was turning his own flesh and blood into one of his trained killers. 

"Black Widow" finally revealed what happened in Budapest, a place that had been named-dropped in the MCU on several occasions but remained shrouded in mystery. Natasha Romanoff and her good friend Clint Barton tried to assassinate Dreykov in the Hungarian capital, planting a bomb in his office. He managed to come through the blast relatively unscathed, but his young daughter wasn't so lucky. Antonia Dreykov sustained severe injuries in the explosion, and her dear old dad decided to use her as a guinea pig, inserting a chip into her neck that stopped her suffering but turned her into the perfect soldier. She was able to perfectly mimic the fighting style of anyone she came across, including Black Widow. As a result, Antonia became the villain Taskmaster, though she's really just another victim of Dreykov.

Watching Black Widow figure out how to beat someone who's her equal in every way is pretty entertaining. The set-up makes for some exhilarating action sequences, with the film's mid-air, free-falling fight proving particularly thrilling. It would have been a shame to lose such an interesting character, so it was a relief when Black Widow freed Taskmaster from her father's control instead of killing her.

When Nebula first appears in "Guardians of the Galaxy," she's a cutthroat assassin, eager to slice her sister to pieces. But after one final, explosive tussle with Gamora, Nebula joins the side of the angels in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," and helps both the Guardians and the Avengers in "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame." 

But that's not true of every version of Nebula we meet. In fact, it's indirectly because of Nebula that Thanos gets to wage his final battle against the good guys in "Endgame." When good guy Nebula goes back in time to 2014 to help get the Orb, the Nebula of that time becomes aware of her time-traveling self. The 2014 Nebula isn't reformed — she's still loyally killing anything and everything her father tells her to kill, as well as harboring murderous jealousy towards Gamora. 

The 2014 Nebula is poignantly tragic, admittedly. Even when she's confronted by her future self, who's not only working on the side of the heroes but has forged a relationship with her sister, the 2014 Nebula sees no way out. She clearly wants to be different, but as she tells the 2023 Nebula and Gamora, "He won't let me." She dies because of her refusal to change, which forces the 2023 Nebula to shoot her to save Gamora, even though the proof that she can change is literally standing in front of her.

Jamie Foxx was one of the first former Spider-Man villains to confirm that he was reprising his role in the MCU, even revealing that he would have an all-new look for "Spider-Man: No Way Home." In a hastily deleted Instagram post (via The Independent), Foxx wrote, "I won't be blue in this one!! But a thousand per cent badass." It was the first of many leaks that Marvel attempted to plug as production grew nearer. By the time "Spider-Man: No Way Home" swung into cineplexes in 2021, the cat had long been out of the bag. Nobody was surprised to see Jamie Foxx's Max Dillon (aka Electro) cross over into MCU Spidey's universe, a chance at redemption for the actor.

Foxx debuted as Electro in 2014's "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," the film that brought Andrew Garfield's tenure as Marvel's web-slinger to an early end — a third film was planned, but the lukewarm response to the second installment meant another reboot was around the corner. The general consensus among fans was that Foxx got hung out to dry with bad writing, goofy wardrobe choices, and distracting CGI. The version of Electro he played in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" went down much better with viewers. After all, this new take on the villain was far cooler, more menacing, and more ... well ... electric.

"Shang-Chi" villain Razor Fist is, as Awkwafina's Katy Chen put it, "a guy with a freakin' machete for an arm." Real name Mattias, he's the adopted son of Shang-Chi's father, Xu Wenwu. Razor Fist was sent by Wenwu to retrieve Shang-Chi, leading to what's undoubtedly the film's best scene — the bus fight. The titular hero has yet to reveal to longtime friend Katy that he's highly trained in martial arts, so she's just as surprised to see him kicking butt as she is by the man attacking him. The sequence combines comedy (Awkwafina attempting to steer a runaway bus through the streets of San Francisco just doesn't get old) with inspired small-quarters choreography, executed perfectly by Simu Liu.

Of course, it takes two to tango, and the bus fight wouldn't have been so badass if it wasn't for Florian Munteanu. A former boxer, he was best known for playing Viktor Drago in "Creed 2" before joining the MCU as Razor Fist. One of his fists had to be wrapped in a "CGI glove" for his "Shang-Chi" scenes, he told Looper in an exclusive interview. "I had to actually play it like I have no forearm there," he said. "So that was tough in terms of stabilization and your fighting style. I had to adapt, it was basically a completely new fighting style, but I was aware of that coming into the project."

The MCU once had a reputation for being a franchise with great heroes and subpar villains, and a big part of that was the benchmark set by the likes of Alfred Molina. The Brit raised the bar for onscreen super-villainy with his turn as Otto Octavius (aka Doctor Octopus or simply Doc Ock) in 2004's "Spider-Man 2," delivering a "pathos-packed performance" that's "widely regarded as one of the most powerful, humanistic villain roles in the history of comic book movies," said Den of Geek.

A brilliant scientist and inventor, Octavius became a villain when the AI mechanical limbs he created fused with his nervous system during an accident in the lab. Molina wore physical tentacles when he fought Tobey Maguire's Spidey back in the day, but they were fully CGI in "Spider-Man: No Way Home." These advancements in technology meant Molina (who was in his late 60s in "No Way Home") felt comfortable coming back, though it was Doc Ock's arc in the MCU movie that ultimately convinced him to sign up.

When Doc Ock arrives in "No Way Home," he's the first of the Multiverse-hopping villains to show up onscreen, and he still has a bone to pick with Spider-Man. But using Stark Industries tech, the MCU Peter Parker frees Octavius' mind from his AI appendages and brings him back to his old self. He's then willing and able to help track down the other new arrivals, becoming a major part of the plot. "I mean, in a lesser environment, us as villains would just be functionaries," Molina said. "But here we've got real storylines, we've got back[story] — they're real people."

"Eternals" would have benefitted from spending less time with its big CGI baddies and more time with Richard Madden's Ikaris, who betrayed his fellow Eternals when they opposed Arishem's plan. Ikaris learned of Earth's intended fate centuries before his comrades did, let in on the terrible secret by Ajak (Salma Hayek), the Prime Eternal. When the time came and Ajak began to have second thoughts about the Emergence (the in-movie term for a Celestial bursting out of the planet it was seeded in), Ikaris killed her. The Eternal with the laserbeam eyes was determined to fulfill his purpose, believing the obliteration of Earth to be in the greater interest of the universe: What is one planet against a galaxy-creating Celestial?

It's a question that Ikaris debates to a certain point, but even his love for fellow Eternal Sersi (Gemma Chan) can't completely sway him in the end — leading to a complicated ending for the hero turned antagonist. "He's kind of trying to bury that love because it gets in the way of his duty," Madden said at a press conference for the movie (via The Illuminerdi). "He's constantly wrestling the two, and that's kind of what made it really interesting to me." The "Game of Thrones" alum didn't particularly enjoy being strung up during his flying sequences ("You're hanging upside down on a wire going, 'This costume now looks dumb,'" he said, per CinemaBlend), but he gives a committed performance throughout, and it didn't go unnoticed by fans. Madden was "the best part of the movie," one Redditor said.

Generally speaking, the very best Marvel villains are ones with sympathetic backstories, and they don't get much more sympathetic than the tragic tale of Gorr the God Butcher. A disciple of the god Rapu, Gorr loses his faith after the death of his daughter — especially once he discovers that Rapu totally doesn't care about his loss. Armed with the cursed Necrosword, Gorr swears revenge, vowing to kill every god in existence. And until Thor comes along, he does a pretty darn good job of dicing up deities.

Played with a wonderfully over-the-top theatricality by Christian Bale (the second former Batman to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Gorr hops back and forth from a leering, sadistic swordsman to a man absolutely wracked with pain. At one moment, he's taking great joy from attacking towns and taunting a cage full of children, and the next, he's totally lost in thought, remembering the precious little girl he lost. Granted, when a divine being tells you to your face that your suffering doesn't matter, no duh you're going to pick up a cursed blade and start chopping heads. But as we see in the film's climactic moments, at the end of the day, Gorr is a man who's haunted by the past and who craves one thing more than vengeance — love.

Also, the dude controls an army of shadow monsters. We have to say — that's pretty rad.

Peter Quill's search for his father was a key part of the story in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," a journey that brought him face to face with Kurt Russell's Ego. It takes awhile for Ego to reveal that he's actually the villain of the film, but when the reveal comes, it's cosmic (literally). 

As far as sheer abilities, Ego is one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, right up there alongside the Mad Titan Thanos himself. Ego is essentially a god, encompassing an entire planet and capable of manifesting himself however he wishes. His master plan aims to expand his reach across most of the known universe, wiping out pretty much all other life in the process. The best part? Russell sells it so well that you really do understand where Ego's coming from, even if he is a psychopath who's killed hundreds of his own children in his quest for power. Ego redefined the concept of daddy issues—a tall order in a universe that already included Tony Stark.

MODOK is one of the silliest villains in Marvel history, both on the page and on the big screen. This Mechanized Organism Designed for Only Killing is just a giant floating head with tiny baby limbs who also happens to be really good at murdering superheroes. And in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," director Peyton Reed and screenwriter Jeff Loveness give the killer cranium an extra little character twist — MODOK is what's left of Darren Cross, the sociopathic businessman from the original "Ant-Man."

The result is actor Corey Stoll's face stretched out into a ghastly grin. He's ugly, he's ridiculous, and he is glorious. MODOK is one of the most bonkers baddies the MCU has ever seen, and every time he flies onto the screen in his silly Doomsday Chair, the movie gets ten times better. He shoots lasers, he's got giant buzzsaws, and he just loves killing in the service of Kang the Conqueror. Of course, MODOK also gets a quick hero turn near the end of the film and gives himself the title of an Avenger as he lays dying. It's one of the film's best jokes from its most unbelievably awesome character, and that's why MODOK gets his own entry independent from Darren, and it's why we're putting him so high on this list. MODOK rocks.

It's hard to fully judge Kang the Conqueror because we suspect he's coming back in some way or form. Even though Scott Lang defeated him and seemingly killed him at the end of "Quantumania," Kang could very possibly return later in the franchise, and we'll definitely see his variants in action across the Multiverse Saga. With that in mind, the time-traveling destroyer of worlds makes a great first impression in "Ant-Man 3," with Jonathan Majors coldly torturing Scott Lang and loudly pronouncing his intentions to burn the rest of the Kangs out of time.

Banished by his variants to the Quantum Realm, Kang has spent his spare time building a new empire. After all, when "conqueror" is part of your name, it's really all you know how to do. With his genius intellect and superpowered suit, Kang is an unstoppable force, only prevented from expanding his empire thanks to Janet van Dyne's quick thinking and Scott Lang's decision to sacrifice his future for the greater good. But even then, Kang seems to exist outside of time as we know it — he's seen the future and all the horrors it brings, and he's killed the Avengers countless times across the multiverse. When you can't distinguish Ant-Man from Thor because you've butchered them both so easily and so many times, that's the sign of a bad dude right there.

But the reason Kang really works is thanks to Jonathan Majors — perhaps one of the best talents of his generation. In "Loki" Season 1, he portrayed He Who Remains as a crazed Ben Gunn type, all-powerful but also a bit mad. Here, he displays Kang as a being with ice water in his veins, whose stately bearing, haughty eyes, and assured walk shows us a man who thinks he's truly superior to every other being in the multiverse. That's his ultimate undoing, underestimating his foes, but his variants — and perhaps Kang himself since time travel is at play — won't be making the same mistake again.

He's a man of many names. Some call him Namor the Submariner. Some call him Kukulkan. But it's not 100% accurate to call him a "villain." Writer/director Ryan Coogler prefers to call him an "antagonist" as opposed to a "villain" (via Collider). And we get it. Namor is one of the most understandable, relatable adversaries in the MCU.

In the midst of great tragedy, Namor (played by the scene-stealing Tenoch Huerta) created the underwater kingdom of Talokan, an empire that rivals the surface world of Wakanda. Namor greatly cares about his people, and his goal is to keep them safe at all costs. However, while the aquatic king is filled with a genuine love for his citizens, it's matched by his hatred for the nations above. And hey, when you've lost your family and your old way of life to the ravages of colonialism, it's bound to make you a bit angry.

However, Namor starts sliding into villain territory when it comes to defending Talokan. The Submariner is a big believer in preemptive war, and if he has to kill Riri Williams, flood Wakanda, or drown Queen Ramonda to protect his world, he will. Ultimately, Namor is the perfect foil for Princess Shuri. Just as she's grieving the loss of her family, facing the encroachment of other countries, and figuring out how to protect her people, Namor is grappling with the same issues. It's how they ultimately deal with those problems that sets them apart as "hero" and "villain."

In the MCU, bad guys often join the side of the angels. Loki eventually gave up his evil ways, Doc Ock became Peter Parker's ally, and even Thanos abandoned his genocidal plot (albeit begrudgingly) in the animated series "What If?"

It's much rarer to see MCU good guys join the dark side ... but that's exactly what happens to Wanda Maximoff in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." After the events of "WandaVision" — where she lost her family but found the evil, corruptive Darkhold — Wanda has broken bad. She's hellbent on murdering America Chavez, stealing her multiverse-hopping powers, and finding a world where she can be with her boys, Billy and Tommy. And if she has to kill everyone in Kamar-Taj to get what she wants, that's just her being reasonable. You'd hate to see her when she gets unreasonable.

Granted, Wanda is a sympathetic villain. She's lost everyone, and what parent wouldn't do anything it took to see their kids again? At the same time, the unwillingness to let go of her grief is Wanda's ultimate downfall, turning her into the truly terrifying Scarlet Witch, a monster who's willing to possess her innocent multiversal doppelganger and sic demons on a teenage girl. While she eventually sees the error of her ways and sacrifices her life for the multiverse, Wanda's tale is one of grief, horror, and devastation.

With the exception of outright Nazi monsters like the Red Skull, the Marvel movies tend to be pretty good about telling stories of villains with complicated, and even relatable, motivations. Characters like Loki, the Vulture, even Hela, the literal goddess of death, have some pretty legitimate reasons for what they're doing, even if those reasons have led them down exactly the wrong path. None of them, however, come close to being as sympathetic as Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan).

He 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 the continuing history of racism, it's hard not to admit that he makes some pretty good points.

But the key word there is "vengeance." For all of Killmonger's justifications, his major personal motivation is built around inflicting the same kind of pain that he experienced onto the world around him. Even if he's right, 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 to the death (and beyond) for their ideals without compromising who they are.

Thanos is the villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure, Loki may have been the immediate threat back in "Avengers," but Thanos was the one behind him, whose arrival on the screen was foreshadowed for the better part of the decade before he finally stepped into the spotlight, with devastating results.

The thing is, he's not just a mindlessly powerful threat. 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 a movie that's also juggling story arcs for dozens of other characters at the same time. Through it all, though, 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. And after he accomplishes, true to his word, he retires to a quiet life, happy in the knowledge that he's done what no one else could to make the universe a better place.

There's just one problem. His "heroic solution" is genocide on a galactic scale that's all but unimaginable. The sacrifices he makes aren't his own, they're simply more murders that simply don't matter when they're stacked up against what he intends to do with the Infinity Stones. In the comics, Thanos has often 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.