Top 10 Worst MCU Villains
#10: Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster
“Black Widow” (2021) Although Dreykov was an underwhelming mustache twirling baddie, his daughter Antonia got the shorter end of the stick. (Xref). She was revealed as the Taskmaster in a hard to believe twist. Despite fitting the plot, the character is nothing like the awesome villain seen in comics, games, and TV shows. While the character keeps her cool ability to basically copy anyone’s fighting style, her characterization is incredibly shallow. Taskmaster is known and beloved for being a ruthless and sometimes chatty mercenary. But Antonia barely speaks and is made into a glorified henchwoman with no agency. While her future as a villain is extremely questionable, we know her first appearance was lackluster for many fans.
#9: Karli Morgenthau
“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” (2021) At first, Karli’s beliefs are admirable. As the leader of anarchist group the Flag Smashers, she wanted to maintain the world’s increased freedom to travel and share resources after the Thanos snap. But her actions make her really unlikable. Although Sam actually sees the merit of her cause, Karli consistently pushes back against him. Working together would’ve hugely benefited them both. Instead, Karli and her people constantly fight Sam and his allies. Seeing her fatally wound the well-intentioned Lemar in a battle was bad enough. But her most disgraceful act comes when she blows up a supply depot that had innocent people inside after stealing what she needed. Despite having compelling motivations, Karli’s actions are consistently irksome and despicable.
#8: Emil Blonsky/The Abomination
“The Incredible Hulk” (2008) Unfortunately, one of the most forgettable elements of “The Incredible Hulk” film was its big bad. In an attempt to finally bring Bruce Banner in, Thaddeus Ross hires Emil Blonsky. Audiences are told this man is known for his tremendous track record with the British Royal Marines. But the movie never does much to flesh out Blonsky beyond his desires to fight and take down the Hulk. When he gets a taste of the green guy’s power and becomes Abomination, it leads to an underwhelming final conflict. Not only do they have similar power sets, but they’re essentially fighting for bragging rights instead of something important. “Shang-Chi” made it clear that there are plans for Blonsky’s Abomination in the MCU. We hope he’s handled better in the future.
#7: The Hand
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Various Since the Daredevil and Kingpin have appeared in more mainline MCU outings, it’s not a stretch to assume the villainous Hand organization is canon too. The group was built up as a group of tremendous warriors. But while a few could put up a decent fight, most of the group consisted of generic soldiers the heroes had zero problem with. They reached a new low when they were the main villains of the “Defenders”. Hand leader Alexandra aimed to use the organization's forces to grab a life-extending substance. But after she was slain by her newest recruit, the evil group failed miserably and was severely weakened. Despite having a notorious reputation, this notoriously evil group turned out to be a lackluster organization.
#6: Ivan Vanko/Whiplash
“Iron Man 2” (2010) One of the “Iron Man 2’s” main faults was the one-dimensional villain known as Ivan Vanko A.K.A. Whiplash. Since Anton Vanko’s life spiraled into poverty and darkness after Howard Stark wronged him, Ivan wanted to get revenge for his father by ruining Tony. While the unique and layered motivation is great, Whiplash is incredibly shallow. It’s seriously hard to tell if he wants anything more out of life then to hang out with his bird and kill Tony. Actor Mickey Rourke claimed several times that his character was more complex. However, he allegedly became nothing more than a physical obstacle for Tony to overcome behind-the-scenes. That claim would certainly explain why Whiplash didn’t have much to offer outside of action sequences.
#5: Ronan the Accuser
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“Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014) “Guardians of the Galaxy” is filled with witty dialogue and engaging characters. But its villain sticks out as a boring and overly-serious inclusion. After Ronan grew up knowing Kree family members and allies died fighting the Nova Empire, a peace treaty was signed between the two sides. But the unsatisfied villain became obsessed with destroying his former enemies. Most of the time he’s on screen, he’s just an angry and shouty mess. A blood-thirsty Kree out to spread carnage because that’s how things have been done didn’t make for an interesting character or villain. The role gave the normally wonderful Lee Pace nothing to work with. Unfortunately, Ronan was just as boring and more ineffective when he appeared in “Captain Marvel”.
#4: Darren Cross/Yellowjacket
“Ant-Man” (2015) Businessman Darren Cross wanted to become rich and powerful by replicating his former mentor’s shrinking technology. He becomes willing to commit increasingly heinous acts to win. While it’s implied that Darren’s work with Pym particles may have corrupted him, his lack of screen time really hurts him. Since the movie spends most of its runtime on Scott, Hank, and Hope, the villain and his possible mental struggles feel like an afterthought. It doesn’t help that making a corrupt businessman the big bad is a generic and boring action movie choice. And worst of all, Cross wanted to sell shrinking tech to HYDRA right after they nearly slayed countless innocents. By the time we reached the final showdown, we weren’t invested in this businessman.
#3: Yon-Rogg
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“Captain Marvel” (2019) While Carol believes Yon-Rogg to be an ally for a large chunk of the movie, his true colors eventually come out. And they are all dull. By the end of the movie, we learned that Yon-Rogg killed Carol’s mentor, took the future avenger into space and hid the origins of her powers. That sounds like Yon-Rogg is pretty wicked and devious on his own. Unfortunately, he only committed all these evil acts to serve the Kree’s Supreme Intelligence. We never get hints at his backstory or why he’s so desperate to please his boss. And when the climax comes, he’s far too weak to make the slightest difference against Carol. This non-threatening and flat character also committed the crime of severly wasting Jude Law’s talents.
#2: Aldrich Killian
“Iron Man 3” (2013) On paper, a plan to prop up a fake threat as a distraction so that you can further your illegal dealings is a pretty smart one. In execution, it ticked off nearly every Marvel fan. Killian helped develop an experimental process that could give people powers. When certain subjects exploded, he made an actor named Trevor portray a villain named Mandarin and say it was an attack. Having Killian turn a legendary comic antagonist into a fall guy was disappointing to many. Mandarin aside, Killian’s random evil checklist included everything from kidnapping the president to becoming powerful to getting revenge on Tony. The businessman’s messy objectives and greed made him feel like a clichéd villain. Appropriately, Killian’s death scene is treated as a joke.
#1: Malekith
“Thor: The Dark World” (2013) “The Dark World” is widely considered to be one of the worst MCU efforts to date. The generic antagonist is so boring that we wouldn’t blame anyone for forgetting his name. As the dark elf leader, Malkeith essentially wanted to cover everything in darkness. He even sacrificed his own people to keep his vague dream alive. But after waking up from a long nap, he doesn’t display any of that menace. He’s dull and barely shows any emotion. Although Malekith’s supposed to be an intimidating character, he mostly makes his goons do his dirty work. Actor Christopher Eccleston has spoken very candidly about how much he hated his experience. When a villain is written this blandly, we can’t say we blame him at all.
