With every MCU movie, there is a villain. The quality of the villain usually determines the quality of the movie. As movies trended towards presenting villains as misunderstood characters that were dealt a bad hand in life. While it was interesting, it started to get mundane.
Nobody wants a villain with a bad childhood. Moviegoers are looking for an over-the-top bona fide villain, with evil selfish plans. Or at least do it right, and get the villain to be the absolute obstacle of a character that goes against the titans that are the superheroes of that universe.
Marvel risks the possibility of having a library of movies that fail terribly, such as these high-budgeted movies.
Best Villains
Green Goblin (Spider-Man: No Way Home)
The Green Goblin was Spider-Man’s first villain to appear in Sony’s Spider-Man trilogy played William Dafoe. The movie came out in the early 2000s, so it presented a certain campy tone, as it was for movies in that time.
The Green Goblin came back with a vengeance in Spider-Man: No Way Home when we’re presented with villains from different universes converging into the main MCU universe. We get a weary Norman Osborn, the man who looked lost and afraid.
While we’re distracted by the battles between Spider-Man and the other villains, the penultimate moment when the Green Goblin makes his appearance was an amazing moment. The Green Goblin brings back the definition of evil and owned his role to breaking Spider-Man’s moral core.
Compared to Spider-Man’s villains so far, no one came close to the malicious brute that is the Green Goblin.
Erik Killmonger (Black Panther)
Black Panther marks the first step of the MCU making movies about African superheroes. And Black Panther is no lightweight when it comes to his role in the expansive comic world.
Black Panther sets off to be a great standalone movie, once introduced into the Marvel universe in Captain America: Civil War. And with a great superhero, we’ll be needing an equally terrifying villain.
Erik Killmonger, the cousin of the Black Panther, comes back to Wakanda with revenge in his mind. Traumatized by the years of oppression and inequality suffered by him living in a black community, Erik has turned radical. Despite Wakanda’s isolationism and lack of aid to African-Americans who have suffered from centuries of oppression in the United States, Erik Killmonger takes matters into his own hands by seizing the throne and declaring war on the whole world.
Thanos (Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame)
One word to describe Thanos? Balance. This is the major villain that sparked the MCU to try and make villains with understandable motivation. Overpopulation in the universe? Cull them.
Thanos is the Mad Titan that is on a quest to collect the Infinity Stones in order to use the Infinity gauntlet. He will eventually succeed and wipe out the universe from half of its living beings. What sets him apart from misunderstood villains is that while he truly believes what he’s doing is righteous, there’s an undertone of a mad tyrant that lingers in his words and mannerisms.
Helmut Zemo (Captain America: Civil War)
It’s tough to come up with a villain when you’re up against a team of superheroes that comprised of mostly super-beings.
However, even if you’re just a human, possessing the right set of skills and knowledge, you can witness the mighty falling.
Helmut Zemo, a Sokovian military office turned terrorist discover secrets pertaining Bucky Barnes @ Winter Soldier. And with that, he orchestrated an eloborate scheme that breaks the Avengers into 2 factions. While he doesn’t have any special abilities, it’s quite exhilirating to see a human being with the cunningness to take on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
It didn’t take much to split the Avengers up, and of course their unresolved traumas didn’t help the case. Helmut Zemo is refreshing addition to the list of villains who didn’t have to be demigods, aliens or even sentient AI. All you need is the will to exact your revenge.
Wenwu (Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings)
Yes, ladies and gentlemen. The actual Mandarin is here. Wenwu is another example of how a villain should be portrayed. A complex character that is given enough time to be developed throughout the movie.
Wenwu is a warlord from ancient times who discovered the powerful alien artifact known as the Ten Rings. It has given him superhuman abilities, along with longevity. Throughout his violent history, he only sought out power. That is, until he meets a mysterious guardian who ends up being his wife.
Wenwu gave us a glimpse of how a villain was given a second chance in life, to have a normal family. But of course, his past haunts him, taking the one person he loved from the world. The movie didn’t skip a beat from every moment of his character’s transition in and out of darkness.
He became the vassal to a much bigger evil, but his path of destruction ends with a beautiful moment of self-sacrifice that earns him redemption in the eyes of his children.
Terrible Villains
Malekith (Thor: Dark World)
If you remember the villain’s name from Thor: Dark World, congratulations. You’re now MCU’s number one fan. In fact, if anyone remembers the plot of this movie, I’d be surprised. Like the obscure movie it is, the villain is more so.
Malekith is the leader of the Dark Elves race that has a major beef with Asgard. In order to defeat them, he has employed the use of the Infinity Stones, but unfortunately stopped. And thus, starts a movie with an alien villain that fits in every cliché that exists in cinema. No character development, no memorable lines. Honestly, it’s a pain in the ass trying to remember him or this movie just by memory.
Kro (Eternals)
Eternals was supposed to be where the power levels of the MCU are amped up. This movie signals to the introduction of more powerful beings that are brought to the roster. While the introduction to Celestials and their function in the universe fills up a lot of the gap in the MCU, the Eternals felt mostly as a pointless movie.
Kro the supposed villain of the movie, is somehow overshadowed by Ikaris’ blind loyalty towards the Celestials. It’s hard to view Kro as a super villain since his existence seems to be more of an animal, rather than something with reasons to wipe out life. Kro is perhaps the pests that eat the food that Celestials need to birth new Gods, aka living beings.
MODOK (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania)
Antman has always been the family-friendly show that I loved watching. It fits the characters and the premise of the movie. However, the representation of MODOK is terrible in this movie.
MODOK is shown to be Adrian (what name) that was transported to the quantum realm after the events of the first Antman movie. After being transformed into MODOK, he is feared by every living creature in the quantum realm.
However, MODOK has turned into a running joke amongst the Ant-Man family. We get the shock of the reveal for every member of the Ant-Man team, which gets really stale after the first two times. In fact, it was done numerous times that MODOK did not impact the movie watching experience, other than a slight annoyance that the Ant-Man’s team has to deal with from time to time.
Gorr the God Butcher (Thor: Love and Thunder)
If you’ve read the comic books, specifically about the God Butcher, then you probably share the resentment that I have against this movie. This movie did not do justice to the source material.
Sure we all loved Taika’s Thor: Ragnarok, but some were concerned his comedic tone in directing and writing might be out some of the intensity that is the Gorr the God Butcher. And what do you know? It was total shitshow.
In fact, Taika went crazy with his comedic routine while brilliant in Ragnarok, came up short in Love and Thunder. What we get are cringy dialogues and very bland interactions.
And as for the God Butcher, viewers were expecting to see more pantheon of Gods getting the business end of the Necrosword. Instead, we see him kidnap a bunch of children to goad Thor into a battle, so he can retrieve Stormbreaker. The Godbomb plot is removed, the Thors from different times, and let’s just say Gorr was underutilized that it made me sad. Christian Bale did a good job though.
Aldrich Killian (Iron Man 3)
Motivation is what makes or breaks a villain. The anti-hero could just be someone who wants to watch the world burn. Or perhaps bring a new world order. But when you have a whiny villain who was shunned away by the cocky superhero, this seems more like a Disney teen flick rather than a superhero movie.
Aldrich Killian, who called himself Mandarin, did absolutely no justice to the original character. This is however rectified in a later (superior) film, it is absolutely jarring to his motivation to somehow one-up Tony Stark.
