Let’s face it – a superhero without a supervillain to match is kind of boring, isn’t it? The Marvel Cinematic Universe may have only half of the charm if it didn’t have a roster full of villains who are schemers, conquerors, and chaos agents. Not only that, but they also come in the form of cosmic tyrants as well as crafty crime bosses. These villains, in addition to confronting our heroes, have been show-stealers themselves and have facilitated the MCU in becoming a music industry giant. So get your Infinity Gauntlet ready, be prepared for some evil charm, and let’s start from the bottom to work up the list of the 10 best MCU villains.
10. Wenwu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings)
Wenwu is not simply the “Mandarin”; he is, for sure, the deadliest father, carrying ten magical weapons and a heartbreak. Wenwu is way more than a straightforward villain who seeks power. Even his most disastrous deeds are powered by the love of his late wife, and Tony Leung represents the character with a perfect mix of menace and sadness, which in the end makes Wenwu Marvel’s most emotionally relatable villain and one of the most layered ones.
9. Green Goblin (Spider-Man: No Way Home)
Willem Dafoe did not only return as Norman Osborn, but he also brought back all the reasons why he is one of the greatest villains in comic-book films. His haunting smile, shattered mind, and wicked delight are instrumental in making Tom Holland’s Spider-Man emotionally drained to the utmost. The amount of suspense is beyond the limit in each scene, and it is agonizing (both literally and figuratively) if the Goblin hits. Dafoe’s performance? Still unmatched by anyone.
8. Mariah Dillard / Black Mariah (Luke Cage)
One of the best storylines in Marvel Television is that of Mariah Dillard’s transformation from a persuasive politician to a ruthless crime boss. She is charming yet fearsome, completely confident until the moment when she isn’t. The rollercoaster of power, morality, and legacy that she goes through makes her one of the deeply layered MCU villain characters. If she had come over to Disney+, she would be the one shaking up Hell’s Kitchen together with Kingpin.
7. Namor (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
Namor is a villain of a different caliber from the usual ones: He is a leader, a protector, and a god to his people. His undersea empire of Talokan is his everything, and he will go to the ends of the earth to protect it, even if it means starting a war. Tenoch Huerta’s engaging performance is just the right mix of both noble and intimidating as Namor is the few villains whom you can’t totally hate because his reasons make sense; it is the way that scares.
6. Wanda Maximoff (WandaVision, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)
Wanda Maximoff is the one who has endured the largest number of losses out of all people in the MCU. At first, she was a hero, now a grieving mother, tearing apart the multiverse in pursuit of what was taken from her, and her descent into evil is both shattering and disastrous. She is not bad just for the sake of being bad; she is a broken-hearted, powerful one, and just as yet, she doesn’t understand her grief. Elizabeth Olsen goes to great lengths to express that sorrow in her performance, and it is almost impossible to sympathize with her when she is causing the multiverse to come apart.
5. Loki (Thor, The Avengers, Loki, etc.)
The God of Mischief has undergone more character development than some entire franchises combined. Across different timelines, he has betrayed, been redeemed, and reinvented himself, always with a smirk and a plan. Tom Hiddleston’s acting makes Loki absolutely one of the most difficult characters to dislike, even when he is the one bringing about all the chaos. Loki stays Marvel’s most lovable wildcard whenever he is around, be it conquering or saving worlds.
4. Erik Killmonger (Black Panther)
One of those villains which lead you to think that he is actually right about what he says is Erik Killmonger. With a fiery pain that he keeps inside, a helplessness that he expresses, and the whole Hollywood drama of a character, Mike B Jordan pulls off a heartbreakingly believable character who makes you understand, though you don’t really agree with that kind of anger. He is not only the one who the failure of the world made, but also the one who the world of Wakanda will be destroyed by. His belief in his cause and his winning ways have been the reason for his raving success-and one of the greatest Marvel Cinematic Universe situations to be seen only in a single film.
3. Kilgrave (Jessica Jones)
Kilgrave is undoubtedly a very unsettling character. Out of all the villains that have been depicted on screen, only very few could be compared to Kilgrave in terms of sheer terror. Instead of wreaking havoc on the entire world, he goes for a more personal approach and tears down people one by one. Mind you, he has the power to control a person’s mind completely and seems to have the temperament of a spoiled brat. But what is worse, in the most awful and despicable ways, he uses the weapon of manipulation, which he deploys very cleverly, to cause suffering. The only exception of Kilgrave to this is the character played by David Tennant in a very brief scene; nevertheless, as he shows howling in the silence. It is this that is the main feature of being it – the blending line between villainy and exploit of pure evil. When it is about the terrifying psychological torment, Kilgrave is the one who most definitely rules.
2. Kingpin (Daredevil, Hawkeye, Echo, Daredevil: Born Again)
Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk is almost a flawless example of being the boss: calm, reasonable, and in an incredibly strange way, very human. In short, he is the sort of person who is absolutely convinced that all the cruelty can be regarded as good, provided that it eventually results in the order of things as he likes it. The menace of Kingpin was present for the audiences during both the Netflix and the Disney+ series, and, in fact, he, the giant, has been the turning point, literally, of almost all the street-level characters that the Marvel Universe has to offer. Just by his presence, any fight that may be going on in the hall, he has the power to escalate it times ten.
1. Thanos (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame)
Don’t try to convince me, you knew that this would happen. Besides being the main villain of the MCU, Thanos is also the biggest philosophical puzzle in the whole series. To him, killing a pretty sizeable number of people is actually the way to give them relief, and what’s worse than anything else is that he happens to be the only one who firmly believes in this idea. Josh Brolin, who acts in the role, gave a very quiet and almost pitiable performance, which makes the ruler of the universe quite dignified, and so, very few other villains can be compared to him. He went about it in a way that was simply “I’m just making it disappear”; he did half of the wiping out of the universe, and left everyone with a feeling that it was. Inescapable.
This is the list: the best of the worst of Marvel villains. These are the characters we could classify as tragic or those we could classify as frightful. These villains show that the most memorable tales of the MCU are not just about heroes saving the day but also about villains keeping the fight alive. Feel free to argue the ranking order if you like, but remember that: the greatest villains make the strongest heroes interesting.