With 36 movies and 11 live-action Disney+ series, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has introduced plenty of villains to audiences. And, quite frankly, some of them aren’t just worse than others, but rather far, far worse than others. What follows are the worst of the worst, from antagonists in the sequels to 2008’s Iron Man, which had a great villain, to big bads that whimpered more than yelled. We’re looking at big screen and small, so those in the Disney+ series were subject to inclusion just as much as a baddie in an Avengers movie. That said, none of the villains from the Avengers movies made it in, not even Ultron, though he (or it) came quite close.
We’re restricting prospective candidates to main villains or immediate subordinate villains. In other words, M.O.D.O.K. from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was fair game but an Aldrich Killian minion from Iron Man 3 was not. The former had enough time to make a good impression, but failed to do so, whereas the latter is, well, just a minion. Every action movie has them, and they’re all there just to get punched or kicked.
10) Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3
At the time, the whole the Mandarin twist in Iron Man 3 disappointed people. And rightly so, as trilogy-cappers typically conclude with some major big bad, and that’s what the ads said Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery would be. But, in time, even those who found themselves detractors of Shane Black’s MCU adventure have found things to like about it.
Even still, Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian is silly. The twist involving the often-drunk Trevor Slattery was silly, but it was at least effectively silly. Aldrich Killian spewing fire out of his mouth? That’s a bit much.
9) Samuel Sterns/The Leader in Captain America: Brave New World
Captain America: Brave New World changed the MCU in a few ways, and it will be interesting to see just how many of them hold. For instance, Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns AKA the Leader survives to the credits, and even has a tag scene with him warning of some great threat, but given the reception to the character design and the film as a whole, will he ever come back?
Like with many other entries on this list, the failure of Brave New World‘s the Leader isn’t due to the actor portraying him. It really comes down to a lack of compelling characterization in the writing and, as has been seen all too often in later phase MCU movies, weak CGI. It was a disappointing return for Samuel Sterns, who hadn’t been seen in 17 years, and an even worse introduction of one of Marvel’s more famous villains that had yet to be touched by the cinematic universe.
8) Whiplash in Iron Man 2
MCU Phase One had an overall strong track record, both in terms of quality of the films and the villains within them. Iron Man 2‘s Whiplash was really the only trashed villain of the bunch, and there were several reasons for that.
One on hand, Mickey Rourke, fairly fresh off The Wrestler, which kicked off his short-lived comeback, is an incredibly ranged performer. On the other hand, some of his line readings in this MCU movie are funnier than they were probably intended to be. But, really, the larger problem is that most of Whiplash’s scenes were seemingly left on the cutting room floor. He’s never quite developed into anything other than “vengeful guy with a thick accent” who pops in every now and then to talk about his bird and blood in the water.
7) Dreykov in Black Widow
Was Olga Kurylenko’s Antonia Dreykov AKA Taskmaster the MCU’s most criminally underutilized character? After the events of Thunderbolts*, it’s quite safe to say yes. But she at least had an interesting arc in Black Widow, even with somewhat limited screentime. Not to mention, she was a standout in the film’s action sequences.
But the same can’t be said of Black Widow‘s true big bad, General Dreykov. On paper, he’s an interesting character. His daughter was disfigured by the protagonist and he’s furious about that. He oversees an operation that brainwashes young women and turns them into assassins. And, lastly, he’s turned his own daughter into one of those assassins. The problem is, for a big bad, he has very little screentime to make much more about him known other than those three things, and they’re more things that have happened to him or happened because of him than things about him.
6) Ronan the Accuser in Guardians of the Galaxy
Ronan the Accuser could have been great. But, in the end, he’s by far the weakest part of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Fortunately, Gunn seemed to recognize this and brought in truly layered and compelling villains for the other two movies.
Essentially, Ronan comes across as a mean guy who is after a shiny thing. Then again, so are the protagonists. The difference is the quirky protagonists are all endearing presences, most of whom come equipped with motivations outside of, “I want the shiny thing to do with as I please.”
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5) Gravik in Secret Invasion
He may be responsible for one of the most brutal moments in an MCU TV show, but on the whole Gravik is a swing and a miss. Like much of the remainder of Secret Invasion, the development of Gravik as a character feels like it’s rushed at a lightning pace.
Kingsley Ben-Adir does his best, but the series’ scripts make him either a consistently angry political activist whose motives are bland or a big green monster. Neither version works. Then again, very little about Secret Invasion does.
4) Kro in Eternals
Yes, Richard Madden’s Ikaris is the primary villain of Eternals. But for most of the runtime we don’t know that. We think one of the Deviants, Kro (voiced by the ultra-talented Bill Skarsgård), is. Even with Skarsgård behind the character, he’s a primary villain (misdirect that he may be) that fails to make any sort of impact, good or bad.
Kro is just there sometimes, visually indistinguishable from his similarly CGI-generated peers. Even when he kills one of the film’s most likable characters, we don’t feel hate for him or anger towards him because he’s just a CGI blob. Being a CGI character isn’t inherently a downfall, but it means that the script needs to work overtime to flesh them out. Eternals‘ doesn’t, at all.
3) M.O.D.O.K. in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Hinging so much on the future of Kang the Conqueror was one of the MCU’s biggest mistakes with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, but it wasn’t its worst. That would be its portrayal of M.O.D.O.K.
On paper, M.O.D.O.K. (or Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) is an intimidating villain. Put into live action, he’s a joke. Worse yet, he’s basically written to be one big joke. With his impact further diminished by quite possibly the worst CGI ever seen in the MCU, M.O.D.O.K. is a disaster. And, like the next two entries, he’s a fair choice for the number one spot.
2) Malekith in Thor: The Dark World
MCU Phase One overall had some really excellent villains. Iron Monger was iconic, even if he was just a bigger, mean version of the protagonist. The same goes for Abomination, perhaps minus the iconic part. Loki was, of course, great (both times), as was Red Skull. Only the aforementioned Whiplash fell short.
But Phase Two kicked off with not one but two outright lame villains. And Malekith from Thor: The Dark World was even lamer than Aldrich Killian. But, instead of breathing fire, Malekith was just a big bad with absolutely no presence. It wasn’t the fault of Christopher Eccleston, a talented performer who has made it clear he didn’t enjoy shooting the film, but rather a script. Malekith is just an elf who like power, is fueled by vengeance, and wants to drop something big on a city.
1) Todd Phelps / HulkKing in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
In the comics, HulkKing was a future, more powerful version of Hulk. In She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, he was an incel 20-something named Todd Phelps played by the guy from the Baywatch movie. In the series, he goes on a date with Jennifer Walters, she sees he’s a jerk, and there isn’t a second date, which rubs him the wrong way.
As a whole, She-Hulk is not one of the easier MCU projects to take seriously, but Phelps is irritating. And, once he turns into a Hulkling, as it were, courtesy of Walters’ blood, he plays less like an intimidating big bad and more of a hideous dime store CGI version of a character we already know. Time will tell if Walters will ever get more to do in the MCU, but it’s been three years since her Disney+ series and Tatiana Maslany has yet to be confirmed for, say, Avengers: Doomsday. Here’s hoping she gets a chance to come back, because Maslany was by far the strongest element of the show.
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