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.
