Here Are The 27 MCU Villains, Ranked From Duds To Legends

It's 2024. The MCU is just four years away from its 20th birthday. With 45 movies and shows, various sagas, and endless crossover possibilities, it's not slowing down any time soon. What does any seemingly endless list of superheroes need? Lots of villains.

Villians have often been considered something of a weak spot for Marvel and Disney's mega-franchise, but are they actually that bad? This list seeks to get to the bottom of it. Here are 28 major MCU villains ranked from worst to best.

Qualifiers:

– This list doesn't have every single MCU villain, but your favorite might still make the list later on.

– Villains from the movies and Disney+ series have been included.

– The two major factors considered for this ranking were impact on the franchise and memorability. The worst villain is one who is forgettable by both audience and in-universe standards, and the best is someone who we love to see give our heroes a hard time.

28. Malekith

Appears in: Thor: The Dark World

As forgettable as he was, Malekith did some damage in Thor: The Dark World. He killed Thor's mother and nearly killed Jane Foster! But even with those considerable misdeeds, he remains a meh villain in the weakest Thor movie. No disrespect to Christopher Eccleston, who played him.

27. Kang the Conqueror

Appears in: Loki Season 1, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Kang had a lot of potential, but too many factors soured the Conqueror's time in the MCU. Overinflated expectations, a bloated multiverse storyline, and Jonathan Majors's personal life led Kevin Feige to pivot to Doctor Doom.

26. Justin Hammer

Appears in: Iron Man 2

Sam Rockwell does all the heavy lifting to make Justin Hammer fun, but he isn't much of a villain. He's hardly threatening on his own, and even teaming up with Whiplash didn't help him much. He wound up arrested at the end of Iron Man 2, but still alive, which means he could still return and make a stronger impression.

25. Kro the Deviant

Appears in: Eternals

Eternals had the unenviable task of introducing ten new heroes, thousands of years of mythology, Celestials, Deviants, and the Emergence. That's too much real estate for one movie, and the Deviants and Kro, their leader, simply did not get enough development to be memorable.

24. Dreykov

Appears in: Black Widow

Dreykov is a creep. He kidnaps girls and trains them via mind control to become assassins. The few who survive become Black Widows; the rest are killed. The Widows undergo involuntary hysterectomies so that they never have children, aka distractions from their mission. He lacks all morals, decency, and compassion, but he also lacks even one iota of charisma, which means all you remember about him is that he generally sucks.

23. Ivan Vanko/Whiplash

Appears in: Iron Man 2

Vanko started the MCU's "I Hate Tony Stark" villains club. This club consists of villains whose main motivation is a personal vendetta against Tony Stark, and it has too many members. Like his predecessor, Obadiah Stane (more on him later), Vanko also seeks to emulate Tony's Iron Man technology, but the closest he can get is a sort of metal skeleton with electric whips attached to his hands. The whips are admittedly cool, but Vanko doesn't have much of a spark.

22. Arthur Harrow/Amit

Appears in: Moon Knight

In theory, Ethan Hawke playing a bitter, overzealous cult leader with a god complex is a recipe for excellent television. Unfortunately, like much of Moon Knight, the result is a feeling of missed opportunity. Harrow is as intense and unrelenting as you expect him to be, but even after he becomes the goddess Amit's avatar, he remains an inconsequential villain. His fate is so unimportant that his death is relegated to a mid-credits scene.

21. Aldrich Killian

Appears in: Iron Man 3

Killian isn't a bad villain; he just suffers from the unfortunate quality of being on the looong list of people who resent Tony Stark. It felt like every other movie had a new person from Tony's past who wanted revenge against him. Iron Man 3 had a lot of fun moments, many of which included Killian (he can breathe fire!), but his motivation was stale.

20. Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

Appears in: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow (post-credits scene), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Thunderbolts (upcoming)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus hasn't had much time in the MCU, but her brief appearances have teased that Val will have shades of her Veep character. In other words, she seems like a conniving, brutal leader who thinks any level of amoral action can be justified. It's a promising start, but we need to see more before ranking her any higher.

19. John Walker

Appears in: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Thunderbolts (upcoming)

John Walker doesn't suck because he isn't Steve Rogers, nor is he inherently evil because he accepted the Captain America job that rightly belonged to Sam. In fact, a chunk of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is dedicated to convincing you that Walker isn't that bad of a guy. But he did kill an unarmed man in a fit of roid rage. And showed remarkably little empathy towards Karli Morgenthau. And was a little too happy to be working for Val. He'll be back in Thunderbolts, so we'll see if his anti-hero arc progresses or if he turns fully evil.

18. Helmut Zemo

Appears in: Captain America: Civil War, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Zemo was personally responsible for the Avengers breaking up at the end of Civil War, which led to their defeat in Infinity War. You can't say the man didn't have impact. He was cunning enough to realize that the Avengers could only be defeated by other Avengers, and Iron Man and Captain America played right into his hands. Solid work for a guy with no enhanced abilities.

17. Cassandra Nova

Appears in: Deadpool & Wolverine

The newest MCU baddie was around for a good time, not a long time. Charles Xavier's giddily evil twin has similar mutant powers to her brother but none of his restraint. It's a shame we got so little time with her, though, because her moments of vulnerability hinted at deeper layers.

16. Gorr the God Butcher

Appears in: Thor: Love and Thunder

For someone whose name is God Butcher, he sure did little butchering. Christian Bale was, as expected, inspired casting, and Gorr is SCARY...when he gets to do something. Love and Thunder had a few issues, but chief among them was not giving Gorr enough screen time. Compared to Hela's commanding presence in Ragnarok, Gorr felt like a minor subplot.

15. Mysterio

Appears in: Spider-Man: Far From Home

Being the first villain in a post-Endgame MCU did Mysterio no favors, but even worse was the fact that his beef with Spider-Man wasn't really about Spider-Man...it was about Tony Stark. His whole scheme with the drones also felt low-stakes after the Blip.

14. Vulture

Appears in: Spider-Man: Homecoming

Too many MCU Spider-Man villains only go after him because they want revenge on Tony. What set Vulture aside was that he also had a connection to Spider-Man as Peter's girlfriend's dad. Michael Keaton also played him, automatically bumping him up a few spots.

13. Ego

Appears in: Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2

Kurt Russell was the perfect casting choice for Starlord's narcissistic father/god, and Ego was a suitable step up from Ronan as a threat to the Guardians. If he loses any points, it's because he wasn't around long enough to be truly memorable.

12. Ultron

Appears in: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Ultron wasn't the most exciting villain on his own — AI gone wrong is nothing new in the superhero/sci-fi genre. But he did plant the seeds for what would become important MCU plotlines: Tony's guilt, the Sokovia Accords, Vision's "birth," and Wanda's neverending parade of trauma.

11. Hela

Appears in: Thor: Ragnarok

This diva was everything. Thor and Loki's lost sister was unrepentantly evil and looked amazing doing it. Her spiky headdress made Loki's look like a toddler's bike helmet. Hela was only around for one movie, but she inflicted quite a bit of damage by bringing forth the end of Asgard.

10. Agatha Harkness

Appears in: WandaVision, Agatha All Along

"And I killed Sparky, too!" This woman is evil. Who kills a dog?? Puppy murder aside, Agatha is a fun, deceptively dangerous villain throughout WandaVision. She wasn't an agent of Mephisto in the end (well, that we know of so far), but revealing the truth by way of "Agatha All Along" more than made up for it. 

9. The Winter Soldier

Appears in: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Thunderbolts (upcoming)

The Winter Soldier's deviousness has to be called into question because he was mind-controlled at the time of committing his crimes. Nothing he did was Bucky's fault, but his vicious fighting style led to some of the best fight scenes of all the Captain America movies.

8. Red Skull

Appears in: Captain America: The First Avenger, Infinity War, and Endgame

Red Skull was a Nazi with a demon head and super strength, a fitting adversary to the human Labrador Retriever known as Captain America. He's not quippy or remotely charming, and his fate, as revealed in Avengers: Infinity War, was similarly dour. But, hey, that's what you get for being a literal Nazi.

7. The High Evolutionary

Appears in: Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3

He experiments on and tortures sweet little animals like a remorseless sociopath. Is he the most evil MCU villain yet? Yes, actually. Other bad guys have motivations you can almost understand — even Thanos had a point: the world is overpopulated. But the High Evolutionary is just an irredeemable jerk.

6. Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch

Appears in: Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

It hurts to put Wanda on a list of villains, but facts are facts. She did technically murder a lot of sorcerers and try to kill a child...and mentally enslave a town as a form of grief therapy. But Wanda will always be mother, and she will always be A mother as well. If her story did end with Multiverse of Madness, at least we'll always have WandaVision, the best thing the MCU has ever produced.

5. Obadiah Stane

Appears in: Iron Man

Jeff Bridgers played the MCU's first villain, Obadiah Stane, and he was great at it. Tony Stark's mentor-turned-enemy, Stane was just cold enough that you knew something wasn't quite right with him but still felt the twist of his betrayal. He died during his final fight with Iron Man, but he left big shoes to fill for his successors. None of the subsequent Iron Man villains were able to fill them.

4. Green Goblin

Appears in: Spider-Man: No Way Home

The MCU's Green Goblin didn't have a motivation besides "be evil," and he did just that. He killed Aunt May for fun! What a monster. But Willem Dafoe didn't lose a step after almost 20 years since he first played the character, so at least his misdeeds came with that iconic evil cackle. No Way Home had a collection of bad guys played by amazing actors, but GG was the most impactful.

3. Killmonger

Appears in: Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Killmonger didn't relent in his mission even when it killed him, and his motivations are by far the most sympathetic of any Marvel villain. At the end of Black Panther, T'Challa reveals Wakanda to the world because he acknowledges that Killmonger had a point all along, a powerful legacy to have as a villain. His brief appearance in Wakanda: Forever was a short but potent reminder that he and T'Challa represented two sides of the same coin.

2. Loki

Appears in: Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Loki

Loki is the villain who has appeared in the most MCU projects, so naturally, he's had the most complete arc. He was a tragic, bitter younger brother, comic relief, or a reluctant hero, depending on which movie you were watching. However, by the end of his most recent appearance in Loki Season 2, he wasn't reeeeally a bad guy anymore, considering he was holding the fabric of time together with his bare hands, so he does lose some villain points. 

1. Thanos

Appears in: The Avengers (mid-credits scene), Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron (mid-credits scene), Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame

To date, Thanos is the most effective villain in the franchise. He won! He defeated the Avengers and used the Infinity Stones to pulverize half the universe, which was his plan all along. Yeah, they killed the 2018 version of him immediately after, but he died victorious. He gave our heroes five years of PTSD, and the only way they could defeat him was by going on a complicated time heist and sacrificing Black Widow and Iron-Man. No single villain has given them more trouble before or since.