Most under rated MCU villain

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I have just done a similar poll for the DCEU but was interested what people think is the most under rated villain in the MCU. For me personally it’s Ronan, and I really hope we get to see more of him at some point as I love the character in the comics. But I was wondering what everyone else felt. I will leave out Loki, Ego, Vulture, Hela and Killmonger as they are all pretty much universally praised. Stane, Winter Soldier and Zemo are pretty well thought of also.

 

[Flint Marko]

Red Skull. People seemingly forget that he was generally well-received back in 2011, but ever since the Marvel villain problem has become such a taking point people lump him in with the Ronan’s and the Malekith’s. Was he great? No, but he was a good foil to Cap in that movie and if I had to guess, he said going to win this poll.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Red Skull. People seemingly forget that he was generally well-received back in 2011, but ever since the Marvel villain problem has become such a taking point people lump him in with the Ronan’s and the Malekith’s. Was he great? No, but he was a good foil to Cap in that movie and if I had to guess, he said going to win this poll.

I think either RS or Ultron will win. Funnily enough I thought both were poor .

 

[DACrowe]

Jeff Bridges. I say Jeff Bridges, because on the page Obdediah Stane kind of sucks. But Bridges plays him with such good dude humor that his unsurprising malevolence is still somehow surprising. If the third act hadn't turned him into a lame mustache-twirler in the final fight, he'd probably stand out better.

Just my opinion, but all the ones in this poll pretty much sucked.

 

[BigThor]

Ultron and Aldrich Killian, even though I felt Ultron was too quippy I still felt he was a solid villain.

 

[Lantern Venom]

From that group, Red Skull is the easy choice. The character's biggest shortcoming is that we didn't get to see enough of him. I've always contended that all of the Phase 1 villains were exception, but Loki has been such a mainstay that he's eclipsed the older, one-shot MCU villains.

 

[2kt09]

This is a hard one. Not for the sheer amount of villains, rather because there isn't really that sweet spot of a villain people overlooked.
I'd like to change my vote to Blonsky if I could. His obsession and arrogance is perfectly played up by Tim Roth.

 

[Web-Head]

Ultron

 

[jaqua99]

Ronan. Easily

 

[The Overlord]

Red Skull. People seemingly forget that he was generally well-received back in 2011, but ever since the Marvel villain problem has become such a taking point people lump him in with the Ronan’s and the Malekith’s. Was he great? No, but he was a good foil to Cap in that movie and if I had to guess, he said going to win this poll.

I disagree, I didn't like MCU Red Skull back then and I don't like him now.

In the comics Red Skull is an actively evil, racist hate filled man, a former beggar and thief who the embraced the Nazi's ideology due to his hatred of the world due to his own unhappy childhood. In the MCU, he is just generic power mad villain who wants to take over the world because he has a god complex, I have seen that villain a million times, comic book Red Skull is far more unique and is far more developed, despite being pure evil. Comic Red Skull seems to have a real ideology that I could see attract followers, MCU Red Skull just seems like he's no ideology beyond ''I want power'', without telling us what he plans to do when he takes over.

Frankly I think all these villains are rated fairly, they are all pretty bland.

 

[Pennywise]

Stane/Iron Monger. He should be on the list, IMO.

 

[parkerpete]

Of the characters on this list, I'd go Ronan/Mandarin. Mandarin was a great twist, one of the few really surprising, subversive, and risky choices Marvel has made. And Ronan was great because he absolutely performed a role that was unglamorous but necessary in 'Guardians'-- A completely humorless religious zealot that contrasted perfectly with the ragtag outcast heroes.

But Jeff Bridges' Obadiah Stane would win if he was on this poll. The fact that he's not even on the poll shows how unfairly forgotten he is! Stane was a great villain and a really sneakily charismatic performance by Bridges.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I didn’t forget about Stane, I mentioned him in my first post but my autocorrect changed it to ‘Stand’ unfortunately.

In my eyes Stane is pretty well thought of and that’s why I left him off the poll.

 

[parkerpete]

I didn’t forget about Stane, I mentioned him in my first post but my autocorrect changed it to ‘Stand’ unfortunately.

In my eyes Stane is pretty well thought of and that’s why I left him off the poll.

Ah! So you did!

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Ah! So you did!

 

[Pennywise]

I didn’t forget about Stane, I mentioned him in my first post but my autocorrect changed it to ‘Stand’ unfortunately.

In my eyes Stane is pretty well thought of and that’s why I left him off the poll.

That makes sense!

 

[Finarfiniel]

I guess I'm going to be the sole person to say Alexander Pierce. Robert Redford is such a great actor and he made Pierce so breezily affable and likeable that when his true nature was revealed in the scene where he shot his poor unsuspecting housekeeper in cold blood, I genuinely found it quite chilling. Such an interesting, understated performance, I think he's massively underrated as a villain.

 

[Kuwolski]

Ultron. He's already starting to get some traction online as we move further away from AoU.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Ultron. He's already starting to get some traction online as we move further away from AoU.

I’m curious, what traction?

 

[Tg11]

For me it has to be Tim Roth in 2008's Incredible Hulk as Emil Blonsky/Abomination. Even though Tim is known for playing villains throughout his movie career his performance in the early stages of the MCU as Blonsky is definitely one that is not only memorable but one that is actually really villainous at least it was to me. Next to him would be Guy Pearce as Killian in Iron Man 3 definitely. Now that I think about it Guy he is probably the most underrated villain ever in the MCU bar none.

 

[Drizzle]

I think people unfairly trash Ronan too much. I don't see anything particularly wrong with the character. Going into it I wasn't expecting him to have a whole lot of screentime because the film had to establish the five main characters first and foremost. I think Lee Pace did a good job portraying him and I still think he's the third best Phase 2 villain after Ultron and Pierce.

Ultron is another one who I think is underrated. Sure, he had a few too many quips and wasn't scary enough, but he did kill an Avenger. Besides him, that's something only Loki (technically he killed the mortal Thor via the Destroyer) and (I'm safely assuming) Thanos can claim.

I do think Ultron gets more love than Ronan, so I'll vote for Ronan.

 

[Tg11]

I would say Robert Redford his villainous performance as Alexander Pierce in Winter Soldier is also underrated as well

 

[Frankeh]

Ultron. The writing for him annoys me more than once (the omelette gag), but he could've been worse (hello Apocalypse from X-Men: Apocalypse).

 

[Kuwolski]

I’m curious, what traction?

Just seeing more people online praising his role in the film. It's basically gone from "too quippy" to people saying more positive things about the character as a villain in general. Enough time has passed where fans are more looking forward then back and their emotions are less a factor in evaluating the film.

I don't think they realized the full potential, but they could still use Ultron going forward if desired.

 

[parkerpete]

I guess I'm going to be the sole person to say Alexander Pierce. Robert Redford is such a great actor and he made Pierce so breezily affable and likeable that when his true nature was revealed in the scene where he shot his poor unsuspecting housekeeper in cold blood, I genuinely found it quite chilling. Such an interesting, understated performance, I think he's massively underrated as a villain.

I agree with all of this, but I wouldn't call Pierce underrated because I don't think he belongs in the poll at all-- If there have been a lot of fans criticizing the character or the performance, I haven't seen it.