• It’s Official: Twitter Is Suing Elon Musk To Complete the Deal

    Twitter is following through on its promise to sue Elon Musk, filing suit against the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX in a Delaware court. Twitter says it wants Musk to follow through on the deal and to be "enjoined from further breaches, ordered to comply with their obligations to work toward satisfying the few closing conditions, and ordered to close upon satisfaction of those conditions."

    The scathing complaint calls Musk a "model of bad faith," and claims that he is attempting to pass along the costs of the recent stock market downturn to stockholders. Twitter also dismissed Musk's claims that the social media giant failed to comply with its part of the agreement as pretexts that lack any merit.

    "Having mounted a public spectacle to put Twitter in play, and having proposed and then signed a seller-friendly merger agreement, Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away," the lawsuit reads.

    In response, Musk tweeted, "Oh the irony lol."

    The lawsuit follows Twitter chairman Bret Taylors' vow to sue Musk, saying that the company is confident that it will prevail in court. Musk, for his part, has claimed that Twitter is obfuscating the true number of spambots and fake accounts it supports.

    Musk first made a $44 billion offer to buy Twitter back in April. He seemed to feel buyer's remorse immediately after the deal was accepted, claiming that Twitter was failing to fulfill its obligations and claiming the company was in breach of contract. Twitter, for its part, moved steadily ahead with the deal, unaminously recommending that stockholders vote in favor of the merger.

    Twitter is seeking a four-day trial in September, with a deadline of October 24 for the deal to be completed.

    Blogroll image credit: Patrick Pleul/Pool/AFP via Getty Images.

    Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

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    The 25 Best Marvel Villains in the MCU

    It took the Kree Empire threatening all of Earth for SHIELD super agent Nick Fury to kickstart the Avengers Initiative back in the '90s. And in his quest to find the world's most extraordinary beings, with the hope of protecting humanity from massive threats, Fury brought together a billionaire tech whiz, a scientist with anger issues, an unfrozen war hero, a bombastic cosmic deity, and two of his best operatives. The Avengers were assembled, and over the years they combated Marvel villains including HYDRA cells, alien hordes, sinister swarms of rabid robots, and much more.

    For almost a decade and a half, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been delivering unparalleled thrills, pitting famed costumed heroes against the ultimate bad guys from the comics. Everyone from neighborhood crime lords like Kingpin to galactic tyrants such as Thanos to villains just on the verge of turning good like Loki has tried to take down Marvel's best and brightest, giving us some of the greatest baddies in movies (and TV).

    And now, with Thor: Love and Thunder's Gorr the God-Butcher entering the ranks, not to mention the never-ending swarm of Disney+ shows (and their villains), we figured it was time to update our ranking of the 25 best Marvel villains of the MCU here, spanning the movies and TV shows, in celebration of the franchise's more ferocious evil-doers.

    As for how this list was created, a group of IGN editorial staff voted for their favorite MCU bad guys. The results of that vote were then calculated to create this ranking. The criteria we considered when voting included character development, performance by the actor playing the role, overall contribution to the shared universe narrative of the MCU, diversity, and, of course, the just plain cool factor of the character.

    Note: Wanda Maximoff, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes and Nebula get off-screen "honorable mentions" here. Bucky, as the Winter Soldier, was an unwilling tool of HYDRA and Nebula redeemed herself multiple movies ago (and even killed her evil "past" self), while the Scarlet Witch was seemingly under the control of the evil Darkhold when she did lots of bad, bad things.

    25. Brock Rumlow (Crossbones)

    As a SHIELD strike team leader who was also a secret HYDRA agent, Brock Rumlow was an integral cog in Alexander Pierce's plans to launch Project Insight and plunge America into tyranny. After surviving the partial collapse of the Triskelion, Rumlow became a masked and armored mercenary for hire. A front lines threat in any scenario, Rumlow is a top-tier thug and his actions in Nigeria, which some still think may have been orchestrated by Helmut Zemo, brought about the Sokovia Accords after Wanda Maximoff accidentally killed innocent civilians.

    24. The Grandmaster

    As Asgard fell under the rule of Odin's daughter Hela, Thor and Loki found themselves stuck on the (literal) trash planet of Sakaar, where a hedonistic Cosmic Elder known as The Grandmaster pitted captured warriors against each other in a gladiator-style spectacle called the Contest of Champions. Playful, narcissistic, and lethal, The Grandmaster would lose his stranglehold on Sakaar after an uprising spurred by Thor's escape.

    23. Ikaris

    The Superman-like Ikaris was perhaps the most powerful member of the robot-space-gods known as the Eternals, but his devotion to the cause of his masters, the incomprehensibly ancient Celestials, also led to his downfall. As played by Richard Madden, Ikaris was an inspiration to the rest of the team (and the lover of Sersi) before his betrayal brought the group to near ruin. In the end, his love of his teammates led Ikaris to abandon the Celestials' Earth-destroying plans. But he had already killed his teammate Ajak and ultimately took his own life out of guilt.

    22. He Who Remains

    He Who Remains was a variant (the first actually) who came in contact with other universes, and hence, proof that the multiverse exists. As a variant of Kang the Conqueror, one of the great Avengers villains from the comics, the presence of He Who Remains in the Loki Disney+ series served mainly as set-up for what is yet to come from this character (or his variants at least). But as played by Jonathan Majors, He Who Remains — the founder of the TVA and ruler over the Sacred Timeline (before it was destroyed by Loki and Sylvie) — was a great mix of humorous and dangerous, which oftentimes proves to be just what the MCU needs.

    21. Gorr the God Butcher

    Christian Bale's Thor: Love and Thunder villain hits that sweet spot between sympathetic and treacherous, in that the film opens with not just his suffering as he witnesses his daughter's death, but also him actually meeting the god he had prayed to for salvation — and being mocked and rejected by the so-called deity. His zealotry is hence turned to hatred and a need for vengeance, which powers his death mission against all gods in the film. It just seems a shame that we didn't get more time in the film to fully explore his state of mind, and like many MCU villains, now he seems to be gone for good.

    20. Ronan the Accuser

    Killjoy Kree extremist, and brief partner in crime to Thanos, Ronan the Accuser sought to end all life on Xandar after the Kree Empire made a peace pact with them. Fitting really, considering that this genocidal warlord once sought to wipe all Skrulls from existence, and would have succeeded had it not been for Captain Marvel. Anyhow, years later, Ronan would find himself smashed to atoms at the joined hands of the Guardians of the Galaxy as they channeled the might of the Power Stone.

    19. Aldrich Killian

    Tony Stark's dark reflection, a scientist who the billionaire playboy had shunned years earlier, Aldrich Killian created a fake terrorist leader, The Mandarin, to take credit for accidental explosions caused by A.I.M.'s Extremis-enhanced soldiers going "pop!" In his plot to control and manufacture America's war on terror, which he conceived alongside Vice President Rodriguez, Killian also sought to ruin Tony's life, reputation, and relationship with Pepper. We would eventually learn, however, that the real Mandarin was out there somewhere in the shadows.

    18. Ulysses Klaue (Klaw)

    Ruthless arms dealer and perennial pain in Wakanda's ass Ulysses Klaue was the only person to ever successfully smuggle vibranium out of the clandestine African nation. And while the searing brand the Wakandans gave him on his neck marked him forever as a crook, it's Ultron who would scar Klaue in a major way when the rogue A.I. sliced off his arm. Klaue would replace his limb with a cybernetic sonic canon and continue to work as the world's foremost vibranium thief… until he was double-crossed and killed by T'Challa's cousin, Erik Killmonger.

    17. Arnim Zola

    Red Skull's chief scientist Arnim Zola may have gotten himself captured during the war, but this wormy HYDRA operative would wind up doing more damage to the good guys of the MCU than just about anyone. Spending decades within SHIELD, like a parasite, Zola would infect the organization with HYDRA agents so that, by the end, it was hard to tell the two outfits apart. Ahead of his death in 1972, Zola downloaded his entire consciousness into a computer room, where he would command his agents and give birth to Project Insight from beyond the grave.

    16. Alexander Pierce

    HYDRA's top undercover agent Secretary Alexander Pierce hid in plain sight as a high-ranking official in SHIELD and member of the World Security Council. Under his rule, with the virtual brain of Arnim Zola still kicking, HYDRA almost conquered the United States via massive Helicarriers powered by the Insight algorithm – which was designed to proactively eliminate potential "threats" to a HYDRA-run U.S. The Red Skull may have been blasted into space decades previous, but his spirit lived on inside of Secretary Pierce.

    15. Obadiah Stane (Iron Monger)

    In the wake of Howard Stark's death, business partner Obadiah Stane took over as Stark Industries CEO until Tony was ready to inherit the mantle. Stane, though a father figure of sorts to Tony, was never happy with Tony's rule and objected even more so when Tony returned from being held captive by terrorists and announced that the company was no longer going to manufacture weapons. Stane, for years, had been double-dealing and supplying terror cells with arms and in his attempt to kill Tony and reclaim the company, he donned the Iron Monger suit and went to war with his former protégé.

    14. Ultron

    After the Battle of New York saddled him with severe anxiety, Tony Stark was infused with a mad drive to protect the world. His plan, however, fatally fell off the rails when Wanda Maximoff's powers helped give birth to Ultron – a crazed "peacekeeping" A.I. program, housed in vibranium armor, which had the same idea that most hellbent A.I.'s quickly devise. That would be the old "the only good human is a dead human" philosophy. Ultron ran the Avengers ragged and, in its efforts to extinguish humanity, leveled Sokovia and killed Pietro Maximoff.

    13. Ego

    Peter Quill's cosmic lineage — see also: the reason he could handle the Power Stone without painfully exploding — was unveiled when a Celestial, the living planet Ego, revealed that he was Peter's father. Which made Star-Lord half-almighty alien. Of course, Peter was only created so that Ego could double up on his own power and spread himself, literally, across the entire universe. And while that sounds pretty terrible, it somehow doesn't compare to the cruelty of Ego purposefully giving Peter's mom cancer.

    12. Quentin Beck (Mysterio)

    After Tony Stark's death, as Peter Parker felt the weight of possibly carrying on Iron Man's legacy, a cabal of disgraced and discouraged former Stark Industries employees, headed by illusioneer Quentin Beck, decided to manufacture a new "hero" from scratch. He would fill the void left by Tony's passing, trick the world into believing they were under attack by multiverse monsters, and generally run circles around everyone using deep fake footage to control the narrative. As Mysterio, Beck never wanted to protect the world, only make people think they were safe while he killed thousands in his quest to inherit Tony's legacy – and weapons. Beck's influence would continue to be felt in Spider-Man: No Way Home, as Peter struggled with the fact that the world now knew his secret identity because of the villain.

    11. Agatha Harkness

    From nosy neighbor to malicious magical momma, Agatha Harkness — a.k.a. Agnes — had us wondering about her true nature through most of WandaVision. But then again, who weren't we wondering about with that theory-spawning show? Of course, ultimately we did learn that Agnes was actually the centuries-old witch Agatha, a key player from Wanda's past in the comics (as well as the Fantastic Four's!). And her MCU version also proved to be pivotal in Wanda's evolution into full Scarlet Witch mode. Much of Agatha's appeal as a villain was her cheeky sense of humor, but let's not forget how darned powerful she also proved to be. Plus, she "created" Ralph Bohner. It doesn't get better than that.

    10. Hela

    Never had two MCU heavy-hitters been instantly owned as much as Thor and Loki were when their sister Hela, who they never even knew existed, arrived back on the scene fresh from Hel, having been freed from her prison upon Odin's death. In an instant, Mjolnir was destroyed (or so it seemed at the time) and the two bickering bros were cast off into space. The Goddess of Death easily conquered Asgard and it would take Thor losing an eye and all of their realm being destroyed in the foretold doomsday event, Ragnarok, to defeat her.

    9. Adrian Toomes (Vulture)

    After getting stiffed out of a Chitauri clean-up and salvage job by the government, Adrian Toomes decided to put his crew to work as weapons dealers, using the alien tech he recovered to fetch high prices. Soon, Toomes, who himself took to flying around in a winged exo-suit and stealing more tech, was living the good life and nothing was going to prevent him from providing for his family. Not even his daughter's new boyfriend, Peter Parker, who Adrian figured out pretty quickly was the Spider-Man kid that had been causing him a lot of problems. Michael Keaton expertly transforms the comics version of the character into an aggrieved working-class dad who strays into villainy in order to provide for his family in the face of the big corporations that steamroll folks like him.

    8. Johann Schmidt (Red Skull)

    On top of all the damn Nazis the Allied Forces were dealing with in World War II, Hitler's science and tech division, HYDRA, went rogue when its leader, Johann Schmidt, decided to launch an attack on America. Having been disfigured by an early version of Abraham Erskine's Super-Solider Serum, which would eventually be perfected for Steve Rogers, Schmidt — known as Red Skull — developed deadly weapons that were powered by the Space Stone encased in the Tesseract. Captain America thwarted Red Skull's bid to take over the world and the Space Stone sent Schmidt away, far away, to become the cloaked caretaker of the Soul Stone.

    7. Helmut Zemo

    Though many thought they had what it takes to bring down the Avengers, it took a former Sokovian intelligence officer, acting out of sheer grief, to do the job. After decrypting HYDRA files that had been made public, Helmut Zemo realized Earth's Mightiest Heroes had a hidden pressure point – Bucky Barnes. And Zemo would use Barnes, framing him for a terrorist attack to create a massive rift between Captain America and Iron Man, one that would play out intensely during Zemo's own endgame: the reveal that Bucky, as the Winter Soldier, had assassinated Tony's parents. Zemo later returned in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series, where he proved to be one of the most interesting characters on the show. And also a secret dancer!

    6. Kilgrave (Purple Man)

    One of, if not the, vilest villains in all of the MCU was Kilgrave, a sadistic rapist with the ability to make anyone do what he commanded with his words. Even more than forcing people to kill themselves (or others), this purple-clad monster, born Kevin Thompson, enjoyed keeping women as sex slaves. The object of his deepest fixation was Jessica Jones, whom he forced to be his personal servant for months. This was some of the darkest territory ever tackled by the MCU (while on Netflix) and it was enough to rocket Kilgrave up toward the worst of the worst.

    5. Xu Wenwu (Mandarin)

    After years of misleading Mandarins in the MCU (Aldrich Killian! Trevor Slattery! "All Hail the King"!), the real guy finally appeared in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings where he was revealed to be the father of Shang-Chi himself. And not just that, but Xu Wenwu turned out to be a very powerful, almost immortal being who used those same Ten Rings of power to become a power player over the centuries, first as a conquering warlord and later as a criminal mastermind. As played by Tony Leung, Xu Wenwu is an ultimately tragic figure who did a lot of wrong in his life, but who ultimately sacrificed himself to save his son while battling the Dweller-in-Darkness.

    4. Wilson Fisk (Kingpin)

    No one wears a white suit, or looms over a room of subservient crime lords, like Wilson Fisk. A five-steps-ahead master manipulator, and a tower of strength, Fisk could control any environment he was placed in. Whether he was a mystery player in a syndicate of crooks trying to take over Hell's Kitchen or a convicted felon in Cell Block D, Fisk would soon own everyone around him. Hell, this guy managed to get the FBI in his back pocket while he was on house arrest. But also, within this Kingpin of Crime there was a vulnerable human being with love in his heart. And an impulse control problem that led him to kill anyone who got in the way of that love. And now we know he has crossed over from the Netflix Marvel shows to the Disney Plus-verse as well.

    3. Erik Killmonger

    Abandoned by his family back in Wakanda because of his father's radical beliefs, King T'Challa's cousin N'Jadaka grew up angry and alone in America, having been erased from Wakandan history. As Erik Killmonger, N'Jadaka trained to be a murder machine as part of a U.S. military black-ops unit, all in preparation for one day returning to his homeland and confronting his family over what they'd done. Killmonger was T'Challa's worst nightmare come true, though it was one he knew he had to face. Killmonger's ideas about Wakanda busting free of the shadows and using their wealth and technology to free oppressed peoples around the globe by any means necessary naturally attracted followers and soon he and T'Challa battled for supremacy. Killmonger was, pure and simple, one of the best adversaries to come out of the MCU. He was so good that's it's hard to label him a "villain," given that a lot of his messaging rang true.

    2. Loki

    Thor's adopted brother, the Trickster God Loki, grew up with an immense chip on his should regarding Odin, Thor, and the leadership of Asgard in general. After separate failed attempts to conquer both Asgard and Earth, using an alien horde (and the Mind Stone) lent to him by Thanos in the latter case, Loki began to see the error of his ways after his mother, who he felt was his one true ally, was killed by Dark Elves. Over the course of the MCU's Phases 1 through 3, Loki slowly redeemed himself. Maybe not with the people of Earth, who were probably still touchy about him trying to invade the planet and subjugate them, but with Thor, the brother he grew up resenting. Charismatically arrogant, flippantly cruel, and demonically deceptive, Loki is the reason the Avengers assembled in the first place.

    Of course now the Loki Disney Plus series is depicting a variant of the character who seems to be transforming fully from villain to hero… Will it work? Time will tell.

    1. Thanos

    The threat of Thanos lingered in the background of the MCU for years as the Mad Titan journeyed to find each of the six Infinity Stones. What could/would this galactic ghoul want with the Stones, you might ask? Well, he sought to save life… from itself. Knowing firsthand the dangers of overpopulation, waste, and greed, Thanos, and his many lethal "children," were determined to cull the universe and eliminate half of all life. As quick as a snap.

    And he did it. Mercifully (if you ask him), half of all life was erased from the cosmos. It took the Avengers, a Time Heist, and Doctor Strange's one-in-14 million outcomes to win the day and return everyone back to existence. But not before our heroes had to face down a past version of Thanos who, thanks to the Avengers meddling with time, now knew erasing half of all life wasn't enough.

    Thanos was the savage storm on the horizon. The callous calamity that arrived and shattered the entire universe. And it took the full force of Earth, and even those beyond, to take him down… twice. His actions continue to be felt in the MCU to this day.

    For even more top 25 lists, check out our ranking of the 25 Best Marvel Heroes in the MCU.

    This list was originally published in June of 2021. It was updated on July 12, 2022.

    Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

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    Amazon Prime Day Deal: 15% Off NVIDIA Shield Android TV Pro 4K HDR Media Player

    Amazon Prime Day brings us a deal on a rarely discounted media player, the NVIDIA Shield Android TV Pro. It's normally $199.99, but today Amazon has docked the price by 15% down to $169.99. This is the lowest price we've seen for the newest generation Shield Pro. Without doubt this is the one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, ready to go 4K HDR streaming media player you'll find on the market.

    NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV Pro for $169.99

    The NVIDIA Shield Android TV Pro is a few years old now, but the hardware is more than up to snuff for a media player, and the software has been updated to Android TV version 11. In terms of performance and versatility, the Shield Pro blows the Roku, Apple TV, Fire Stick, Chromecast, and just about every other media player out of the water. The Shield Pro features an NVIDA Tegra X1 CPU (the same processor found in the Nintendo Switch), 3GB of RAM, and 16GB of built-in storage. It's capable of handling 4K video with Dolby Vision HDR from all of your favorite streaming apps. It's got your surround sound covered as well with support for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital Plus. The Shield Pro is one of the only devices that supports GeForce Now, which allows you to stream your PC games to your TV without having to own a gaming PC. A remote PC does all the processing work for you, and all you need is a fast internet connection. It even has a built-in Plex server so you can organize all of your digital media in one centralized location.

    Looking for More Amazon Prime Day Deals?

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    UPDATED: The Best Projector Deals on Amazon Prime Day 2022

    If you are a big movie buff, projectors are an incredible way to get the "movie theater" experience from the comfort of your own home, yard, a local beach, or wherever you are, and a bunch are on sale during the expansive Amazon Prime Day sale. From huge, home-based projectors to tiny, portable projectors, there is something for everyone.

    For more great sales, check out all the best Prime Day deals, our Walmart deals mega-post, our Best Buy mega-post, and the below link for some free cash.

    Get $12.50 Free When Buying a $50 Amazon Gift Card

    The best deal available during Amazon Prime Day is free cash, plain and simple.

    Amazon Prime Day 2022 – Best Projector Deals

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    Brian Barnett writes reviews, wiki guides, deals posts, features, & more for IGN. You can get your fix of his antics on Twitter (@Ribnax), Twitch (Ribnax), & YouTube, or check out his weekly video game talk show on Twitch (The Platformers).

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    Save on Soundbars During Amazon Prime Day 2022

    If you've recently picked up a 4K television, you'll definitely want to get a soundbar to bring your audio quality up to the level of your picture quality. Lucky for you, there are a handful of good Prime Day sound bar deals available right now. The biggest item from JBL is $300 off if you have Prime, and it comes with surround sound speakers in addition to the 4K UHD soundbar. You can also check out offerings from Bestisan, Polk Audio, and more. For more on Prime Day, be sure to check out the best Amazon Prime Day 2022 deals.

    Amazon Prime Day 2022: Best Soundbar Deals

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