Who is the Main Villian of The entire MCU

[Spidey-Lad93]

Who is it

[R_Hythlodeus]

Expectations

[Mike Murdock]

There is none. There are multiple non-aligned threats. The two best candidates are HYDRA and Thanos. At least HYDRA is a villain to Captain America and SHIELD, but not to the rest of the Avengers. They're certainly not connected to Thanos, which is the driving force for the Avengers 1 and 3 and GotG 1 (and possibly 2). But there are plenty of villains and organizations unconnected to either that are significant villains.

So I'll say Thanos and HYDRA, but there's no reason to choose one over the other as the "main" villain, nor does is there any need to do so.

[cherokeesam]

Originally Posted by R_Hythlodeus

Expectations

(wins One (1) Internet)

Originally Posted by Mike Murdock

There is none. There are multiple non-aligned threats. The two best candidates are HYDRA and Thanos. At least HYDRA is a villain to Captain America and SHIELD, but not to the rest of the Avengers. They're certainly not connected to Thanos, which is the driving force for the Avengers 1 and 3 and GotG 1 (and possibly 2). But there are plenty of villains and organizations unconnected to either that are significant villains.

So I'll say Thanos and HYDRA, but there's no reason to choose one over the other as the "main" villain, nor does is there any need to do so.

:runner-up

/thread

[Mike Murdock]

I'm happy with runnerup. Clearly R_Hythlodeus's answer is the correct answer.

[metaphysician]

Fox and/or WB. WB wants to conquer them, and Fox just wants to see it all burn.

[Da Games Elite]

I'm tempted to post a joke response...

But yeah, Thanos and Hydra are legitimately the biggest threats in the MCU, though the better question isn't so much who is the biggest bad in the whole MCU, but rather which ones have the biggest influence thus far.

- Thanos really is more of a cosmic threat, and, while he was behind all the stuff in The Avengers, not so big of a factor now in Phase 2 or even early Phase 1.

- Hydra, though, have had a hand in tons of things, from the deaths of Tony's parents, to the government trying to shut down Iron Man in the second film, to everything Cap's dealt with. If you take it further, without Hydra, the Super Soldier program would never have been put on ice following Hydra's interference, which means that the Banner would never have worked on it in the first place. Not only that, but also most of SHIELD's more questionable actions throughout all of Phase 1 and 2 can be chalked up to Hydra's meddling.

So far, Hydra is the MCU's biggest threat. But then you have a lot of the smaller enemies who are not directly tied into Hydra or Thanos.

- AIM's allegiances seem to be themselves. Seeing as how SHIELD didn't help Tony stop them, you could argue that Hydra might have wanted them to succeed in some way, which might tie them into the greater Hydra threat, but that's speculation.
- Loki worked with Thanos, but that was more a means to an end. He's his own character, and, currently, is in charge of Asgard. It remains to be seen how this affects everything.
- The Abomination and Leader are on their own.
- Most of Iron Man's bad guys, like Hammer, Stane, and Vanko, are independent as well. Though, again, Hydra might have kept tabs on them, and hoped they succeeded.
- Ultron will be created to help save the world, possibly in response to Hydra and all that. Again, independent, but his origins are tied to the threats throughout the MCU.

For the first two phases, yeah, Hydra is the biggest bad around. It remains to be seen how Thanos can take the reigns.

[Mike Murdock]

I think HYDRA is the closest to a crossover villain, but, in the end, they're small potatoes (or at least, uh, medium sized potatoes?). I think the Avengers is building towards truly galactic threats. Even Ultron is a bigger threat. That being said, the Avengers deal with the big threats, Daredevil, Luke Cage, etc. deal with street level threats, and HYDRA is dealt with by the medium players (SHIELD or Captain America by himself).

Although I did have a good idea to tie AIM into HYDRA. Not because I need them to be connected from a movie perspective, but because they were connected in the comics. AIM is a government think tank, right? Just have Senator Sterns as their strongest proponent in Congress to give them funding. They're essentially the scientific research half of HYDRA. I'm fine with the idea that they were just used as the scientific research half through Senator Sterns and the United States Congress. Would make it more invidious in a way.

[Marvelocity]

Unfortunately, Iron Man 3 has ruined AIM and The Mandarin. That movie is such a disaster. I would have made AIM the over-arching enemy in an Ant-Man trilogy, but too late now.

[Mike Murdock]

I disagree with it being too late. Killian was part of AIM, but there's no reason to believe there weren't others involved as well. It won't be perfectly like the comics but, then again, HYDRA isn't perfectly like the comics. AIM is at least salvageable.

[Shoppy]

Mickey Mouse!

[Da Games Elite]

Most organizations have people who can take the reigns once the top guy leaves. There is no indication that AIM was just Killian and a handful of guys. They can easily just say "Hey, this guy took over after Killian blew up."

Hydra can also recruit AIM to help them manufacture weapons. If they go that route, it would be an easy way of keeping AIM in the fold.

...also, Iron Man 3 ruined AIM? How? By making them an organization with enough influence to kidnap the President? Cause a massive amount of international collateral damage? They were pretty threatening in Iron Man 3...

[Drizzle]

Originally Posted by Mike Murdock

There is none. There are multiple non-aligned threats. The two best candidates are HYDRA and Thanos. At least HYDRA is a villain to Captain America and SHIELD, but not to the rest of the Avengers.

From a certain point of view, Hydra is also a villain to Tony Stark, even though he didn't really know it at the time. After all, Cap 2 revealed that Hydra was behind the deaths of Tony's parents. Plus, Gary Shandling's Senator character was revealed to be aligned with Hydra, and while he wasn't really a threat to Tony, he was still a thorn in his side.

I'll say Thanos, when all is said and done. Especially if they are particularly faithful to the Infinity Gauntlet story.

[R_Hythlodeus]

YAY! One Internet!!!

I'm so happy, I'll share it with all of you.

Except

Originally Posted by Marvelocity

Unfortunately, Iron Man 3 has ruined AIM and The Mandarin. That movie is such a disaster. I would have made AIM the over-arching enemy in an Ant-Man trilogy, but too late now.

you are just failing with this whole internet stuff

[Mike Murdock]

Originally Posted by Drizzle

From a certain point of view, Hydra is also a villain to Tony Stark, even though he didn't really know it at the time. After all, Cap 2 revealed that Hydra was behind the deaths of Tony's parents. Plus, Gary Shandling's Senator character was revealed to be aligned with Hydra, and while he wasn't really a threat to Tony, he was still a thorn in his side.

I'll say Thanos, when all is said and done. Especially if they are particularly faithful to the Infinity Gauntlet story.

It's certainly possible to draw Tony Stark into the HYDRA fight, which isn't all that unusual for the comics. But I do think it's Howard Stark who HYDRA is a main rival. Tony seems to be more about rival scientists/technologists (is that a word?) in general.

However, yeah, I'd have no problem connecting HYDRA to Tony through their scientific aspects by connecting Senator Sterns and AIM.