It’s that time of the year again: Hollywood summer blockbusters and now that usually equals to comic-book-superhero-movies which also just as equally equals to Marvel films – at least for this year. So while we cheer on for our favourite avengers of the Earth, let’s not forget those who are the very reason why those heroes even exist in the first place – the bad guys. Here’s a look at the top 10 most powerful Marvel villains from all cinematic universes (whether it be Marvel Studios, Fox or any other).
10. ALEXANDER PIERCE – Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Portraying as the big dark shadow in a suit that secretly rules the world is none other than Mr. Alexander Pierce, the head of HYDRA in the 21st Century cum head of the S.H.I.E.L.D World Security Council. Seriously, you can’t get any better at being the best ever undercover agent than that sort of achievement. With a cool, calm demeanour, this elegant villain never wavered in putting his main plan of Project Insight in motion, not even batting an eyelash or frowning with an evil grin at the idea of killing 20 million people. He’s so cool that he maintains his eerie cucumber state to his dying breath, proclaiming, “Hail, Hydra.”
9. DOCTOR OCTOPUS (DOC OCK) – Spider-Man 2
Dr. Otto Octavius got the name Doctor Octopus or Doc Ock for short thanks to his four artificially intelligent mechanical arms attached to his body. Add his four natural limbs and you get eight, get it? Anyway, what got this brilliant but megalomaniacal evil scientist to make the cut on this list is not only due to his cool factor, but also for the fact in comic-dom he is the founder of he Sinister Six, a group of Spider-Man’s arch-villains hopefully to be seen in the yet-another-reboot of Spider-Man. Also, fun fact, he went on to become Superior Spider-Man, literally, becoming the next Spider-Man when he took over the friendly neighbourhood Spidey’s body.
8. MYSTIQUE – X-Men
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how this awesome mutant came to be. All we do know of her origins is her fear of humans and that her parents had even attempted to kill her. Such tragic circumstances were all put to an end when Charles Xavier found her and took her in. If you don’t already know, she is able to shape-shift into anybody she wants and she’s all blue. May not seem much on paper, but this bad-ass chick uses her powers to the best of their abilities – up to the point that in comic-dom, she infiltrates the White House as a wife of an important Senator! Not to mention that she would be the next leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, taking over Magneto and plays mother to Nightcrawler and Rogue, arguably the strongest of all the X-Men after Phoenix. Lastly, it must take a darn powerful woman to come in between Charles Xavier and Magneto.
7. LOKI – Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World
Arguably everyone’s current favourite Marvel villain (especially the girls) is the one and only Loki, The God of Mischief and the Prince of Lies. Such a title naturally relates to his powers and abilities, consisting of mental manipulation with his tricky illusions and hypnosis. Though in Thor: The Dark World, he was not so much a villain but a sneaky anti-hero, which only made him more lovable to fans. Still, this charming puny god earned his place on this list for mainly his unfailing ability to gain (read fool) Thor’s trust despite his extensive evil rap sheet. Not to mention that as clued at the end of the latest Thor movie, he had perhaps succeeded in his ambition to rule Asgard!
6. ULTRON – The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Ah-hah, the latest Marvel villain that has come into play, and this one plays it hard. He was the result of Tony Stark’s initial intention to use the artificial intelligence found in the gem of Loki’s scepter for his Ultron global defence program. Of course, as all artificial intelligent experiments go, the sentient’s understanding of world peace is to destroy humanity – hence Ultron. Being a Stark creation automatically makes Ultron a tough match to beat, what with his instant evolution to becoming a better and stronger version of himself AND building a massive army of other versions of him. For the fellow 90s geeks out there, did you all feel it a little reminiscent of the Digimon movie when you saw that? Anyway, despite Ultron’s amazingly destructive forces, did anyone else also feel how actually endearing it was that the core of this Pinocchio’s problem were daddy issues with Tony and how he truly just wanted someone to understand him?
5. RONAN THE ACCUSER – Guardians of the Galaxy
He may be answering to a sort of master, but this alien baddie is still as powerful as can be. As an evil genocidal militarist and a radical member of the alien race Kree, Ronan basically has superhuman abilities of everything, from strength to agility to regenerative healing power, not to mention he is also a master at military tactics and strategy, and can hold his own against Thor when wielding a hammer, his one being the Universal Weapon.
4. MALEKITH THE ACCURSED – Thor: The Dark World
He is the ferocious leader of the Dark Elves who got pretty close in destroying the world as we know it, so deserves to be this high in the ranks. Another plus side is that he is of an alien race that is one of the oldest, so old that it is even said that they are older than the universe itself. As he and his race was born into darkness, that is exactly what he sought for: to transform the universe into eternal darkness by unleashing the power of the Aether to all Nine Realms, something he almost did when he absorbed the Aether, one of the Infinity Stones. With longevity likened to immortality, an insatiable thirst for vengeance and massive army, it’s no wonder that it took not one but two Asgardian gods and an assortment of human scientists to finally defeat him.
3. MAGNETO – X-Men
For those living in a cave, Magneto is the founder and leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants, basically the anti-humans group the X-Men fights against. He is blessed with the power is to control all metallic elements. With a painful history of being a victim of the Holocaust, all Magneto knows of the humans is their evil, causing his own brand of blindly justified evil. He is ranked high on this list simply because: as long as the world uses metal to especially form weapons of destruction, there is no way to stand up against him. Plus, just imagine what he can do to Captain America’s shield. Let’s not go to Iron-Man or S.H.I.E.L.D’s hovercraft…
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2. RED SKULL – Captain America
It was bad enough that he is Johann Schmidt, the very founder of HYDRA, but he also had to transform into a ‘damn’ scary bloody skull, due to taking a dose of the earlier version of the Super Soldier Serum. This evil visionary militant rose high enough in the Nazi ranks to become Hitler’s most trusted confidant, only to turn his back and put all his concentrated efforts in making HYDRA the evil organization that stood the test of time. Also this mad man was the one who found the Tesseract on Earth, providing a key element integral to the whole Marvel cinematic universe. Plus, even after death, his evil plans are still being carried out by like-minded followers. Now that’s power.
Before we go to the number one Marvel villain, here are a few honourable mentions that didn’t make it to the list, but still worth mentioning.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
THE VOID
Okay, this is a villain not of any current Marvel cinematic universe, but still, he is worth a mention. To know of The Void, one must first get to know Robert Reynolds a.k.a Sentry because The Void is literally Sentry’s evil side personified. He was formed when Robert Reynolds drank up a secret formula, hoping to get high – yes, seriously. That is due to the fact that Robert Reynolds had a dark past as a thief and drug addict, all of which came to life as The Void. Such a link between hero and nemesis can only bring some awesome complexities to their story. So, true to expectations, here’s the short version: the number of people the Sentry saves will automatically be the same number of people the Void kills. And on top of that, as long as the Sentry remains alive, the Void cannot be killed! The Void is so powerful that it can crush every bone in Hulk, take down Asgard, and can withstand the combined shields of Doctor Strange, Invisible Woman and Ironman. It also has the ability to shape shift, often as a black, demonic humanoid entity clad in a trench coat or a giant, black, armoured monster and breathe fire. It should definitely make for great CGI, hopefully in the nearest future of Marvel movies.
ARNIM ZOLA – Captain America, Captain America: The Winter Soldier
This maniacally genius scientist of HYDRA is in the list as a testament of Brains over Brawn. He is the reliable mind behind the infiltration of S.H.E.I.L.D and mainly all the dangerous machineries running for HYDRA, including Project Insight – you know, the one created to kill over 20 million specifically targeted people on the planet. And also, for a human he managed to push his mortality forward by putting his brain into a computer to live on as a machine. Pretty impressive for a non-alien/superhuman villain.
THE ABOMINATION – The Incredible Hulk
Anyone who can stand to give the Hulk a good fight deserves a mention as a potential most powerful. Formerly the K.G.B agent, Emil Blonsky, the Abomination is practically Hulk’s evil and not green twin who can match up against Dr. Banner’s Mr. Hyde self in all areas of abilities – except that he can’t turn back to human form. Also he can breathe underwater better than the Hulk and is actually stronger, at least when Hulk ‘no smashing angry’.
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And here’s the number one villain of the Marvel cinematic universe…
1. THANOS – Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers, The Avenger: Age of Ultron
This particular villain can be easily thought of as the Godfather of all Marvel Villains as he has been playing puppet master to some of the very powerful villains already mentioned in the list! Yes, I’m talking about that big bad purple dinosaur – I mean, alien warlord, Thanos. He doesn’t seem to have one special nemesis like most. Just simply: only those who stand in his way of ruling over the universe shall face his wrath. In the meantime, he had provided Loki with his massive Chitauri army to invade Earth and sent out Ronan the Accuser to destroy Xandar – all for his mission to gain possession of the six Infinity Stones and the Infinity Gauntlet. So far he’s got the Infinity Gauntlet but regarding the Stones, that hasn’t been going good for him which is why, if y’all catch that mid-end credits scene from the latest Avengers movie, he promised he’d do the job, himself next time. According to the films he was featured in so far, his powers and abilities are still unclear, though it should be pretty bad-ass since he could strike fear in Loki and seemed to show no concern even after Ronan threatened to kill him with the Orb. He will be featured as the main antagonist in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War films. Looking forward to seeing this giant finally getting his own hands dirty.
See Also: 10 Most Powerful Avengers
