The (potential) Masters of Evil thread

[terry78]

Yes, there is already a thread focusing on villains we want, but if Whedon decides to go the MoE route this time around, who should the team be composed of?

My thoughts are:

- Abomination

- Radioactive Man

- Crossbones

- Enchantress

A couple more, maybe some SHIELD based enemies whose names I can't recall.

[Chewy]

Going with the same 6 member team + Ms Marvel, I'd say:

- Baron Zemo (Cap enemy, maybe pulling Bucky's strings in Cap TWS?)

- Loki

- Ghost (Iron Man enemy, new for the movie)

- Abomination

- Songbird (SHIELD aka Hawkeye/Widow enemy, imply some backstory but don't get into all of it)

- Moonstone (Ms Marvel enemy, new for the movie)

Maybe just call them "Masters". And definitely use Under Siege as a blueprint

[Silvermoth]

Originally Posted by Chewy

Maybe just call them "Masters". And definitely use Under Siege as a blueprint

Agreed, def loose the 'evil' moniker.

Want to know something a bit crazy? I bet whichever team of supervillians gets together be it MoE, Dark Avengers whatever, they'll all be played by British actors.

[I'm Venom]

Abomination
Baron Zemo
Crossbones
Enchantress
Executioner
Ghost

[terry78]

^Well, they are the Masters of EVIL.

[sauronthegreat]

Baron Zemo (leader of the group, from Cap2)
Enchantress (from Thor2)
Abomination (from TIH)
Radioactive man (possibly from IM3)
Whirlwind (possibly from AntMan)
Klaw

Ultron (founder and unofficial leader)

[Joeyjojo72]

Please god no. Amen.

[TheHeatKitchen]

Originally Posted by Joeyjojo72

Please god no. Amen.

Second.

[cherokeesam]

Yes to no Masters of Eeeeee-vill.

[jaqua99]

None. No masters of evi;

[Shawkur]

Main Antagonists:
-Zemo
-Enchantress & Executioner
-Radioactive Man if he gets some kind of intro beforehand.

Possible Muscle:
-Wonder Man: A plant inside the Avengers.
-Wrecking Crew and/or Absorbing Man: Magically empowered thugs, perhaps a gift from Loki.
-Thugs empowered by Zemo's science/scientists unless introduced in other movies first: Whirlwind, Power Man/Goliath, Titania, Songbird, Beetle, Fixer, Mr. Hyde, Melter, ect.

I am not suggesting every single one of theses villains above would be in the movie but I would like to see a large group that could storm Avengers Tower/Shield base and give the Avengers a sound thrashing before the tables get turned.

Themes that could be explored through the Masters in the MCU: Superhumans as celebrity/superpowers as status symbols, the addiction of power/superpowers, superpowers as an arms race, ect.

A possible alternative to the Masters, The Lethal Legion:
-Count Nefaria
-Grim Reaper
-Power Man/Goliath
-Living Lazer
-Absorbing Man
-Wonder Man (plant inside the Avengers)

[OsGom]

With the Avengers basically rogue, what about a government team of Dark Avengers?

[cleverusername8]

I would say yes to the MoE only if they get creative with the plot and make them actually threatening. The idea of a super hero team vs a villain team would probably seem cheesy to the GA so Whedon would have to really come up with a convicing reason why these two groups are fighting.

The roster should be Enchantress, Zemo, Wonder Man (I could really see them pulling off the 'Tony Stark ripped this guy off story' with the way they characterize Iron Man in the MCU), Abomination, and aid from Loki but don't have him on the team because I think he's had enough spotlight already. Plus it would suit him to cower out of physically fighting the Avengers again.

[C_Carmichael]

I'd like to see a MoE / Avengers plot in a future movie, using a lineup similar to the AEMH lineup.

Baron Zemo vs Captain America (No MCU appearance yet)
Enchantress vs Thor (No MCU appearance yet)
Living Laser vs Iron Man (No MCU appearance yet)
Abomination vs Hulk
Chemistro vs Hawkeye (No MCU appearance yet)
Bullseye vs Black Widow (No MCU appearance yet)

And possible additions / substitutions:

MODOK
Baron Von Strucker (Cap / BW / Hawkeye)
Ulyses S. Klaw (Ant Man)

[jaqua99]

None. No masters of evil, no spiderman no wolverine. Its not going to happen.

Masters of Evil won't work on film.

However, possibly in that show.

[Oberon sexton]

Why won't they work on film?

[MMMMM...Dounuts]

I also want to know why they won't work on film.

[Silvermoth]

I would say it's because of that groan inducing name.

Cue 'Hurr durr if you don't like cheese don't like superheroes' comments but it's true, the name is fairly ridiculous. Take your fanboy hat off for a moment and think about what the average movie goer would think of it.

Plus there are other alternatives if you want a supervillain team to match the Avengers.

[The Question]

Originally Posted by Silvermoth

I would say it's because of that groan inducing name.

Cue 'Hurr durr if you don't like cheese don't like superheroes' comments but it's true, the name is fairly ridiculous. Take your fanboy hat off for a moment and think about what the average movie goer would think of it.

Plus there are other alternatives if you want a supervillain team to match the Avengers.

You're right, but it's all about how you play it.

Like, look at The Joker in The Dark Knight. All his talk about how the mob is pathetic because they only care about money, his "this city deserves a better class of criminal," it's pretty clear he's talking about super villains. This is a guy who fetishizes crime and social deviancy for their own sake and believes the world deserves to have criminals operating on the level of the great villains from stories. A character like that I could totally buy forming a group called The Masters of Evil.

Not so say that they should rip off The Dark Knight, but if they build up Zemo's motivations and personality the right way, a name like the Masters of Evil could work. Play him less like a bond villain and more like a serial killer who fantasizes about being a creature from nightmares operating on a global political scale and it would work pretty well.

Like, play Zemo as a seemingly harmless Eurotrash playboy grandson of a Nazi war criminal who has underworld ties. He seems like an air headed party boy who's only of note because of the dirty deeds his grandfather did and his low level criminal connections. Then you peel that back and we find out it's a Patrick Bateman deal: The shallow, promiscuous trust fund kid is a mask hiding an emotionally hollow sociopath with no sense of direction or purpose in his life, fueled only by a cold, gnawing frustration born from the shadow his grandfather's actions cast over the family and his own inability to escape it or to live up to anything worthwhile or find any meaning in the roles laid out for him by the life he was born into. Then, Captain America re-emerges, The Avengers become a thing, and he realizes that "old fashioned notions" of heroism and valor don't have to be relegated to the past, so much like Patrick Bateman worked out his existential crisis by becoming a serial killer, Zemo works out his by reinventing himself as a super villain and forming an anti-Avengers, becoming a post modern version of his war-criminal grandfather and finally finding a way to live up to the Zemo name.

I could see a guy like that calling his team the Masters of Evil.

[terry78]

They obviously won't call themselves that, akin to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants being renamed. That's just what they'll be known as in regards to marketing.

[MMMMM...Dounuts]

The name would be hard for the general audience to take seriously, I won't argue that. I just think the concept itself would work very well on film, I won't mind them changing the name.

[DrCosmic]

My thoughts on this have changed. Yes, Masters of Evil is an incredibly difficult thing to pull of and pull of right. I would argue, though, that Avengers was considered the same thing before Iron Man came out.

I also think the payoff would be similar. We've never had a real comic-book style superhero faceoff. If Marvel could pull that off, it'd be gold, and I think they're uniquely positioned to make it happen because they have this growing list of bad guys who have survived.

Think about, when/if Red Skull comes back from wherever... if he builds an army to take down Cap's... if he grabs Justin Hammer and boots back up the Iron Monger/Whiplash suit, frees Abomination from the government, finds Loki, and then adds to that whoever survives Cap 2 (Taskmaster?) IM 3 (Mandarin?) and Thor 2 (Enchantress? Kurse?). If he uses the super soldier serum from TIH to create an army... well. Mercy. It could be a very good story that builds on the mechanism that made Avengers popular.

[Orphix]

I could see the MOE working. Drop the name - it could just be a line in the film - and have the members as a loose connection of people with a similar goal.

They could even face off against each other as a sort of 'anti-avengers'. Each one may even have their own 'armies' to back them up.

When Joss Whedon said that the second avengers film would be more personal and 'smaller' I immediately thought of the MOE - as each avenger would have their own personal foe.

[jaqua99]

Originally Posted by Orphix

I could see the MOE working. Drop the name - it could just be a line in the film - and have the members as a loose connection of people with a similar goal.

They could even face off against each other as a sort of 'anti-avengers'. Each one may even have their own 'armies' to back them up.

When Joss Whedon said that the second avengers film would be more personal and 'smaller' I immediately thought of the MOE - as each avenger would have their own personal foe.

When he said smaller and more personal I thought Ultron. And with ant-man really being pushed for before avengers 2...

[Human Torch]

The only way they could go bigger than Avengers is to have them face the MoE.I'm all for it!It'd be cool to see the Heroes facing different villains.(Thor vs Abomination,Iron Man Vs Red Skull,Etc)