WARNING: This post contains SPOILERS
And even worse: OPINIONS
If you’ve been paying attention to my recent reviews of
Marvel movies, it appears that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been making a
conscious effort in making their villains better.
Marvel - and
superhero movies in general – have had a problem when it comes to making their
villains actual characters and not just a plot device for our heroes to beat
up. While the focus should definitely always be on the hero and their journey,
some superhero movies just can’t make villains as compelling as The Dark Knight’s Joker or X-Men’s Magneto.
With Black Panther’s
recent release and the buzz surrounding its compelling antagonist, I decided to
make a list detailing my personal favorite villains from the Marvel Cinematic
Universe. Now this is just for the movies, so any villains from the TV shows –
such as Kingpin, Kilgrave, and Cottonmouth from the Netflix universe – will be
left out of this lineup (though they’d probably score pretty high if they were
on it).
10. Ultron (The Avengers: Age of Ultron)
For most of these villains, they’re memorable mostly because
of their performances. Any great actor can take even the most minimalist
villain and make him interesting. That’s the case with Ultron here.
Ultron’s concept is that he’s an artificial intelligence
that grew beyond his programming and decided to rebel and turn evil. That
concept has been done to death before, but my hope was that the movie would do
something interesting with it. The trailers made him seem like he viewed the
Avengers as a threat more than saviors, after all. And then the movie came out
and Ultron’s ultimate plan was to drop a city out of the sky and case an
extinction level event. Okay then.
But the saving grace here is James Spader. My god, what a
difference the right actor makes. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I
like Ultron as much as I do, given that the performance is similar to Spader’s
Raymond Reddington (another one of my favorite villains) from The Blacklist.
Spader gives Ultron a snarky sense of humor that he obvious
inherited from his creator, Tony Stark, which makes him a subtle mirror to Iron
Man in a sense. Not only that, but Ultron is surprisingly immature, lashing out
and throwing temper tantrums and such. Almost as if he was literally a newborn
and hasn’t reached emotional maturity yet – oh wait, he was.
In a universe full of cool, calm, collected bad guys, it’s
nice to see one that’s basically a child who has a breakdown every time someone
compares him to his dad.
9. Hela (Thor: Ragnarok)
Hela was the MCU’s first primary female antagonist, and she
doesn’t disappoint.
Thor: Ragnarok was
heavy metal action movie from beginning to end, so it’s fitting that such an
awesomely insane movie should have an awesomely insane villain. Hela is
menacing. Hela is funny. Hela can create knives and throw them around in super
cool fight scenes that remind you why she’s the Goddess of Death.
Not only that, but they give Hela a personal connection to
Thor by making her his long-list sister, and a personal vendetta against Odin
for locking her up for her ambition. The best villains are the ones who have a
personal connection to the hero in some way, and Marvel really knows how to
make compelling villains out of estranged family members.
Cate Blanchett really knocks it out of the park in this
movie. She’s clearly having the time of her life being the super cool mistress
of evil, and she totally rocks the badass, comics-accurate costume they gave
her.
The only downside with Hela is that, even with her personal
connection to Thor, she spends much of the movie separated from him, so we
don’t really get a lot of their interactions until the end. Fortunately, that
time wasted is given to the real star villain of Ragnarok…
8. The Grandmaster (Thor: Ragnarok)
I love Jeff Goldblum.
The Grandmaster is just Jeff Goldblum in space.
He’s just playing himself but in tacky makeup.
That’s why he’s on this list.
Next.
7. Obadiah Stane (Iron Man)
Another actor named Jeff that I really love? Jeff Bridges.
Obadiah Stane works as a villain because Jeff Bridges
doesn’t normally play villains. If you’re familiar with the comics, you know
that Obadiah Stane is a bad guy. So when it’s revealed that he’s been allied
with the terrorists that kidnapped Tony all along, it’s not a huge surprise to
some.
But Jeff Bridges plays the character with such a casual,
friendly demeanor that you don’t want to admit to yourself that he could be the
bad guy. This is the guy who bought Tony pizza from New York and just randomly
plays the piano in his house. Even though he’s dressed like a businessman, he
still acts like the Dude from The Big
Lebowski, so you feel like you can trust him. Even when he’s doing
villainous things, he’s still casual and charming about the whole deal. He’s a
guy you could easily have a beer with while he tells you about his plan to kill
half the world’s population. And then when he acts all threatening when he’s
taking out Tony’s arc reactor, it’s all the more disturbing because friendly
old Jeff Bridges is making us terrified.
The downside with Obadiah Stane comes in the third act, once
he dons the Iron Monger suit. That’s when the movie turns into a generic action
climax, and Bridges spends the whole time hollering and overacting while inside
a giant CGI turtle shell. But I think his performance in the first two acts is
strong enough to where I can overlook the weak third act. (In fact, that’s kind
of my stance on the first Iron Man
movie as a whole.)
6. Ego (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
Guardians of the
Galaxy was a fun romp, but antagonist Ronan the Accuser was criticized as
being the weakest part of the movie for not being as memorable or entertaining
as the rest of the cast. Volume 2, on
the other hand, more than makes up for it with the inclusion of Ego the Living
Planet.
Admittedly, this was a weird concept for a villain of the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel. Even
weirder was making a living planet the father of Star-Lord, and even weirder is
casting Kurt Russell as said living planet. But the thing is, it all works.
Ego’s character deals with a lot of themes of the loneliness of immortality and
being the last of your kind in the vast universe. His status as Star-Lord’s dad
adds some real emotional weight as he conflicts Peter over what is right. He
teaches us that blood doesn’t always mean family.
And of course, Kurt Russell nails it in this role, as he
always does. Much like Jeff Bridges as Stane, Russell is friendly, charming,
and nonchalant throughout the film, even when it’s revealed that he’s the
villain. The twist actually does work in this movie despite Ego’s status as a
villain in the comics. The movie changes Ego’s character so much that you could
honestly believe that he’s not the bad guy, and that’s only helped by Kurt
Russell’s humble performance.
Much like Stane, Ego starts to get a little generic in the
third act once the big battle kicks in and he’s mostly delegated to a big CGI
cluster of rocks fighting the Guardians. But even during that, Russell still
gets in some good lines to remind us of the type of character Ego is.
And I can’t explain quite why, but Kurt Russell being the
father of Chris Pratt is some spot on, brilliant casting genius right there.
5. The Winter Soldier (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
I don’t know if this is cheating or not, considering Bucky
eventually switches sides back over to the good guys after his stint as an
antagonist. But I guess he was an
antagonist at one point – in fact his name is the subtitle of the movie where
he’s the villain. Plus, this is my list, and I can do whatever I want with it.
Part of the interesting thing about the Winter Soldier is
how we actually saw his fall from grace in a previous movie before he became
the antagonist in the sequel. Very few superhero movies actually do this,
opting to show us the villain after they’ve already become, well, villainous. This
allows us to have an entire movie focused on his humanity and good side before
we’re reintroduced to him now acting the polar opposite.
The Winter Soldier is a deadly professional. He doesn’t mess
around, and every time he’s on screen, you instantly feel just how serious the
situation has gotten. On top of that, he has a very personal connection with
Captain America being his best friend turned evil by HYDRA. That provides an
interesting dynamic between the two once the twist is revealed. Cap doesn’t
want to fight or hurt someone he cares so much about, and his heart grieves
every time he sees what his buddy Bucky has become. Conversely, Bucky doesn’t
even remember who Cap is until the very end, so that makes their interactions
all the more heartbreaking.
This all of course leads up to Bucky’s well-received redemption
arc, and he currently stands alongside Captain America as a hero once again.
But for that time in his life where he was a bad guy, he earns a spot on the
list.
4. Zemo (Captain America: Civil War)
Okay, so I’m still a little salty that they didn’t include
Zemo’s purple ski mask from the comics in some way, cuz his design in this
movie is very plain and boring by comparison. However, what they do with the
character more than makes up for it.
Zemo in the movie is almost unrecognizable from the
character from the comics. Baron Zemo was a Nazi scientist who fought against
Captain America during World War II, and then eventually his son took up the
grape-colored mantle to carry on the family legacy. Zemo in the movie – not a
baron here – is a soldier, not from Nazi Germany, but from Sokovia, the place
where the final battle in Age of Ultron
took place. His family wasn’t evil and bred him to be evil. His family were
good people who were killed because of something the Avengers caused. He’s
human, as expertly shown when he constantly listens to his dead wife’s last
voicemail to him.
Zemo represents the consequences of superheroes like the
Avengers. He represents the common man’s struggles living in a world where
superhero battles, while looking cool on the big screen, are big, disastrous
war zones where countless lives are lost. He’s not a big galactic conqueror or
a god of death or the leader of a powerful army. He’s pretty much a nobody who
had everything taken from him and wants revenge on those he deems responsible.
My only gripe with Zemo is that, while he’s a skilled planner
and manipulator, his plan to pit the Avengers against each other was a little
convoluted and smelled a little similar of Jessie Eisenluthor’s plan from Batman V Superman (though no where near
as obnoxious). Nonetheless, Zemo did manage something that no other threat had
done before: tear the Avengers apart. Not by being a physical threat, but by
attacking their emotions. That alone deserves some respect from me.
3. Killmonger (Black Panther)
The Marvel comeback story to end all Marvel comeback
stories: Michael B. Jordan goes from the disastrous Fant4stic to being lauded as one of the best villains in the MCU.
And those praises are well deserved. Erik “Killmonger”
Stevens is an incredibly sympathetic antagonist with a tragic backstory caused
by the supposed heroes. Jordan portrays a complex antagonist who completely
sells all the parts of Killmonger’s character. Aside from his likeable demeanor
and deadly prowess, Killmonger also shows powerful scenes of vulnerability,
such as when he visits his dad in the spirit realm, and his very poignant death
scene.
Killmonger’s plan is also surprisingly sympathetic. He
criticizes the Wakandans for keeping all of their technological marvels a
secret for themselves, while across the world, their fellow black people are
being oppressed and stuck in poverty. It’s an incredibly topical and political
ideology without getting overly preachy.
And although Killmonger’s end goal was to arm the
impoverished with Wakandan weapons in a bloody revolution against those on top,
he does have a point about the Wakandans turning their backs on their fellow
man to hide their achievements. He’s got so much of a point in fact that the
heroes actually change some of their viewpoints to match his, with T’Challa
vowing to reach Wakanda’s influence to the outside world more. How often do you
see a villain’s plan in these movies actually influence the heroes to change
the world like this?
Despite his over-the-top villainous name, Killmonger is such
a well-defined and sympathetic antagonist that he’s got people asking: Is
Killmonger really the villain here?
2. Loki (The Thor movies/The Avengers)
Of course Loki is on this list. He’s the original Marvel bad
guy golden boy.
By this point, everyone knows what makes Loki work as a
villain. He’s sympathetic, with a lot of daddy issues caused by a lot of
terrible father figures in his life. He’s charming and has a razor sharp
sarcastic wit. Tom Hiddleston loses himself completely in the role as he
portrays both the brutal villain and the broken orphan with pinpoint precision,
flip-flopping between the two with the ease of a highly skilled thespian.
But I think what really makes Loki stand out is how we’ve
seen him change. As of this writing, Loki has appeared in four separate movies,
five once Infinity War comes out.
We’ve seen him go from a treacherous brother to a primary antagonist to an
untrustworthy ally, and then back to being Thor’s trusted brother again.
The length of the MCU is a true testament to how a character
like Loki can work. You usually see the whole “villain turns to the good guys’
side” in longer works like TV shows or comic books. Rarely is this done in
movies, unless they’re in a longer series. But Loki’s popularity and Tom
Hiddleston’s performance has meant that Loki keeps coming back again and again,
and each reappearance gives us another installment in a compelling redemption
character arc on par with something like Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
But wait, if Loki’s only at number 2, then who’s such a good
villain that he’s stolen the number one spot away from Marvel’s golden boy?
1. The
Vulture (Spider-Man: Homecoming)
That’s right. I’m gonna be the guy that puts the Vulture
above Loki in a best villains countdown.
There’s a lot of factors that make the Vulture my favorite
MCU villain. For starters, he’s Michael Keaton, and Michael Keaton is one of my
favorite actors. Bias aside, I legitimately love his performance in this movie
because it showed how effectively threatening he can be as a villain. That scene
in the car where he figures out Peter is Spider-Man is the best scene in the
movie by far, and neither the hero nor the villain are even in their respective
superhero outfits.
He’s also a dad that’s a villain, which is always effective,
but differently so in this case. We’ve seen instances of fathers being villains
in the MCU before, with characters like the aforementioned Ego and Lauffey from
the first Thor movie. But those
characters wound up being bastards who sometimes played into the drama of the
hero not knowing what was right and often having to fight their own dad. With
the Vulture, it’s the exact opposite; he’s a good father, and everything he
does is for his family. The twist that the Vulture is the father of Peter’s
love interest worked so well because not only was it so unexpected, not only
did it fit so well with the high school movie theme, but it added and revealed
so much about the Vulture’s character that put him so much above other villains
before him.
But the moment that really solidified the Vulture as my
favorite MCU villain was the post-credit scene. In prison, the Scorpion makes
reference that the Vulture knows who Spider-Man really is, but the Vulture
doesn’t reveal anything. There’s a level of respect between the Vulture and
Spider-Man that was created when Spidey saved the Vulture from a clichéd
superhero movie villain death (another of my favorite moments from Homecoming). It’s a similar admirable
quality that was put into Loki: a change in character. Because the Vulture
didn’t die by his own hubris like many superhero movie villains, there’s an
opportunity for him to change and evolve. He’s already shown that even though
he’s a criminal, he’s got a strong moral core that stems from the love for his
family. I wouldn’t be surprised if they bring him back in Homecoming 2 as more of a supporting character to Spider-Man rather
than a flat out antagonist.
The Vulture is a villain that combines a lot of good things
from previous entries on this list. He’s an everyman villain whose life was
affected by the Avengers, like Zemo. He’s a father, like Ego. He changes as a
character, like Loki. And he’s got one of my favorite actors portraying him,
like the Grandmaster, who in hindsight probably should have been my number 1.
So that’s my Top 10 Marvel Cinematic Universe Villains. Do
you agree? Do you disagree? Did I leave any of your favorites out? Let me know
in the comments or wherever you see this post what you thought, and what some
of your favorite superhero movie villains are.
I don’t know if I’ll ever update this list when new movies
come out, but I’m really excited and nervous to see where Thanos is going to
rank on this list. Marvel’s been building him up for six years, so he better
not be another Alien Elf Guy from Thor 2…
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