Marvel movie villains ranked
With a site called Proper Villains, it seems only fitting that we talk about bad guys. So we took the time to go back through the current Marvel movie universe to not only chronicle, but rank the Big Bad from each film. This isn’t a comprehensive list of every villain, so much as a ranking of the ones that mattered.
14. Abomination
Ugly and gruesome, but at the end of the day was anyone really scared? If we’re being honest, Tim Roth was more menacing in Pulp Fiction than he is here. Of course with the Hulk, you have an unstable monster as your “hero” so it’s tough to match him up against a suitable villain.
13. Malekith
This villain was as forgettable and inconsequential as this movie. There’s a whole bunch of reasons no one remembers this movie, but burying a great actor like Chris Eccleston behind makeup and a fake alien language ranks chief among them.
12. Kaecilius
As Mike and I talked about in our Dr Strange review, this bad guy’s motivation was uninspired to say the least. Vague ambitions driven by power weren’t enough to make him particularly compelling. That said, Madds Mikkleson in glam makeup was a fun choice.
11. Ultron
There was potential in spades (boom!), but it just didn’t pay off in the end. No strings — that was clearly the direction Joss Whedon gave to James Spader as he chewed scenery even in CGI form!
10. Ivan Vanko/Justin Hammer
If you can get past Mickey Rourke’s brutal accent and Sam Rockwell rehashing his bad guy from Charlie’s Angels, these two aren’t the worst. But this is the classic sequel logic of more bad guys equals greater peril (see all Spider Man movies). But ultimately we end up confused as to who we should care hate and why.
9. Yellow Jacket
I’m a big fan of this movie, a big fan of Corey Still and frankly any successful follicly-challenged actor. And while I liked his slightly unhinged take on the overly ambitious apprentice, it just wasn’t compelling enough to move him past some of the bigger hitters on this list.
8. Obadiah Stane
The dude does not abide Iron Man’s new friendlier, more heroic outlook on life. Stane is still a bit unique among his villain peers, as he wasn’t actively looking for power and world domination so much as he wasn’t going to let someone take power away from him.
7. Red Skull
It’s Red-freaking-Skull, what more do you need to say — he’s a A black-magic wielding Nazi for God’s sake? Hands down the most comic-booky villain of the bunch in every way. He’s terrifying to look at, diabolical and menacing in his motivation and played expertly by Hugo Weaving. I think he’d rate higher if there was a threat of his return, although his presence is still felt through Hydra.
6. Loki (Thor)
There’s a reason he’s on this list twice — Loki is a bad guy you kind of love. He’s funny and smart and seemingly always on the cusp of redemption. Here is when Hiddleston introduces the character and frankly becomes the gold-standard for Marvel baddies moving forward.
5. Ronin
While he’s a little one-note from an emotional sense, he’s still pretty bad-ass. He looks physically imposing but he’s smart enough to be working a few different angles — all the things you want in a bad guy. He’s got a scary army of zealots, a massive space ship, a super cool hammer-weapon-thing and he doesn’t seem the least bit intimidated by Thanos. He checks all the boxes as far as I’m concerned.
4. Hydra/Alexander Pierce/Robert Redford
There were so many bad guys in The Winter Soldier, he’s tough to really figure out who was out-front of all the chaos. A brain-washed Bucky was the physical foil to Captain America, but in reality it was Alexander Pierce pulling the (many, many) strings. And to have such an iconic ‘good guy’ make the turn at the end made it all the more satisfying. They got us good.
3. The Mandarin
The Mandarin makes the top 3 not because of his powers or his motivation, but because the incredible way the character develops throughout the film. Shane Black does a masterful job of creating mystery and intrigue around the villain, giving us an unrelenting terrorist then delivering a fantastic bait and switch at the end (in a way Christoper Nolan couldn’t in the Dark Knight Rises).
There’s also the meta elements of making The Mandarin the comic book alter ego to Aldrich Killian’s more suit and tie Wall Street villain — in a movie based on a comic book! Levels man, levels! Combine that with one of the greatest actors — Sir Ben Kingsley — playing an actor (more meta) and you’ve got the makings for a hall-of-fame bad guy.
2. Loki (Avengers)
So popular was Hiddleston’s Loki they brought him back as the main bad dude (or so he thought) for the first Avengers film — and he didn’t disappoint. He monologued like a Bond-villain, played everyone against each other and came within a hair of world domination (or destruction). But as menacing and manipulating as he was — he also peppered in the right amount of humour and swagger. It’s easy to see why he was nearly #1.
1. Baron Zemo
If Loki was the standard-bearer for Marvel’s phase 1, then Baron Zemo raised the bar for phase 2, and he didn’t even need a costume or a catchphrase to do it. Zemo wasn’t driven by power, greed or ambition, his motivation came from revenge — plain and simple. And instead of having him pursue some all-powerful weapon to destroy his foes, he turned them against each other in a more lasting and impactful way.
Zemo is the only successful villain in the MCU and for that alone he rises to the top spot, but his depth and nuance are what really put him at #1. The only draw back is Baron Zemo has set such an impossibly high bar for MCU villains Marvel might have a hard time doing it again. With the likes of Thanos on the horizon it’s tough to imagine a more satisfying bad guy coming along soon.
