Rank the Main Antagonists of the MCU by Phase

[Web-Head]

Phase ONE:

1. Loki (Thor)-9-9.5/10.
2. Iron Monger (Iron Man)-8.5/10.
3. Abomination (The Incredible Hulk)-8/10.
4. Red Skull (Captain America: TFA)-7.5/10.
5. Whiplash (Iron Man 2)-6.5/10 (mostly for Mickey Rourke's performance).

Phase Two:

1. Alexander Pierce (Captain America: TWS)-9-9.2/10.
2. Ultron (Avengers: AOU)-8.5/10.
3. Ronan the Accuser (Guardians of the Galaxy)-7/10 (mostly due to Lee Pace's performance).
4. Yellowjacket (Ant-Man)-6.5/10 (mostly due to Corey Stoll's performance).
5. Aldrich Killian (Iron Man 3)-5/10.
6. Malekith the Accursed (Thor: TDW)-BORING!!!!!

Phase Three:

-Helmut Zemo (Captain America: CW)-8/10.
-Kaecilius (Doctor Strange)-7/10.

Hopefully Hela, Vulture, Ayesha, Killmonger, and Thanos will be better/more memorable. They certainly have all the potential to be.

Pretty much agree wholeheartedly, I'd swap Yellow Jacket and Ronan though.

Great post.

 

[BoredGuy]

I think Hela's gunna vault to number 1 on a lotta people's phase 3 lists come November (or at least I hope)

Vulture has a good shot, Keaton's the man
and they damn well better knock Thanos outta the park

 

[Oscorp]

Phase 1

1) Loki (great)
2) Iron Monger (good)
3) Red Skull (OK)
4) Abomination (OK)
5) Whiplash (bad)

Phase 2

1) Alexander Pierce (great)
2) Ultron (good)
3) Ronan (OK)
4) Yellowjacket (OK)
5) Aldrich Killian (bad)
6) Malekith (bad)

Phase 3

1) Zemo (great)
2) Kaecilius (good)

 

[Web-Head]

I think Hela's gunna vault to number 1 on a lotta people's phase 3 lists come November (or at least I hope)

Vulture has a good shot, Keaton's the man
and they damn well better knock Thanos outta the park

Vulture looks great from everything we've seen in the trailer. Really looking forward to it, hopefully he's able to deliver.

 

[Wildcard]

Pretty much agree wholeheartedly, I'd swap Yellow Jacket and Ronan though.

Great post.

I'll second/third that. In my honest opinion, while Ronan was a pretty damn good villain, Yellow Jacket had more depth to him & his relationship with Pym added another layer.

But other than that swap, I agree with Loki882's post. Perfect summarization.

And Vulture is definitely gonna be memorable, it doesn't look Keaton is going to do anything less than knock it out the park. Regarding Thanos, I expect them to spare no expense when it's his time to take center stage. Outside of Dr. Doom and Green Goblin, I'd say he is the greatest Marvel villain there is.

 

[Loki882]

My problem with Yellowjacket is that, if ever a movie needed flashbacks, that one did. When they keep talking about Hank "seeing himself" in young Darren Cross, and this relationship that fell apart, etc, it would have helped a lot imo if we'd gotten to see Young pre-crazy Cross and Hank's dynamic.

As it stands, without that context, he comes across as just a two-dimensional psychopath to me. Whereas Ronan is kind of meant to be the extremist psychopath from minute one. And he works fine in that context.

Also there's just something hilarious where, in a movie where almost every other character is joking winking at the audience almost, Ronan takes everything so freaking seriously and treats every word that comes out of his mouth like it's THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER SAID!!!

 

[Drizzle]

Phase 1

1. Loki
2. Red Skull
3. Iron Monger
4. Abomination
5. Whiplash

Red Skull and Iron Monger are neck and neck, but I just put Red Skull first because he had more of a presence in the movie overall compared to Stane. Whiplash was the most disappointing.

Phase 2

1. Ultron
2. Alexander Pierce
3. Ronan
4. Yellowjacket
5. Aldrich Killian
6. Malekith

The only thing keeping Ultron above Pierce is that Pierce didn't kill an Avenger.

Phase 3

1. Ego
2. Zemo
3. Kaecilius

I didn't think Zemo would be beat so soon, but here we are. Phase 3 has been killing it with the villains so far, and Vulture and Hela look promising. Marvel seems to be turning it around with their villain situation.

 

[Loki882]

Yeah Ego is definitely the best Phase Three one so far (not that that's a high bar to clear).

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

So idk, Ego was great, but I'm trying to suss out how he ranks with the rest...

Loki
Zemo
Ego
Abomination
Pierce
Zola
Dormammu
Iron Monger
Hammer
Ronan
Kurse
Thunderbolt Ross
Red Skull
Ultron
Kaecillius
Coldblood
Strucker
Whiplash
Thanos
Laufey
Maya Hansen
Aldrich Killian
Yellowjacket
Malekith

I'm under the impression any others aren't relevant. It does appear they are making strides to improve in this area. I still think Loki is at the top though.

 

[Boom]

First post has been updated to include the main antagonist for GotG Vol. 2.

 

[First Avenger]

Loki
Red Skull
Iron Monger
Abomination
Whiplash

Ultron
Pierce
Ronan
Yellowjacket
Killian
Malekith

Ego
Zemo
Kaecilius

Loki
Ego
Ultron
Pierce/Winter Soldier
Red Skull
Zemo
Kaecilius/Dormammu
Iron Monger
Ronan
Yellowjacket
Killian
Abomination
Malekith/Kurse
Whiplash

 

[Rowsdower!]

I don't really care too much about phases so I just want to rank who I view to be Marvel's top 10 antagonists:

1. Loki
2. Ego
3. Zemo
4. Ultron
5. Ronan
6. Alexander Pierce
7. Red Skull
8. Arnim Zola
9. Iron Monger
10. Justin Hammer

But here's to hoping Thanos and Hela top them all!

 

[Lantern Venom]

Phase One:

1. Loki
2. Red Skull
3. Iron Monger
4. Abomination
5. Whiplash

Phase 2:

1. Alexander Pierce
2. Ultron
3. Ronan the Accuser
4. Yellowjacket
5. Malekith
6. Killian

Phase 3:

1. Ego
2. Kaecilius
3. Sokovia Joe

As I look over the list of MCU villains, I have to wholeheartedly disagree with those who think the Marvel baddies are subpar. Outside of the INO experiments, Marvel Studios has actually done a great job of bringing out their baddies.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Phase 1:
1. Loki (good)
2. Iron Monger (OK)
3. Whiplash (meh)
4. Red Skull (meh)
5. Abomination (meh)

Phase 2:
1. Alexander Pierce (OK)
2. Killian (OK)
3. Ronan the Accuser (OK)
4. Yellowjacket (meh)
5. Ultron (ugh)
6. Malekith (ugh)

Phase 3:
1. Zemo (good)
2. Ego (good)
3. Kaelcius (meh)

Phase 3 is off to a good start. Two wins out of three.

 

[NealKenneth]

Seperated into three categories in order of first appearance. Also seperated into alter egos when necessary. Movies only.

The great:

Justin Hammer
Loki
Red Skull
Dr. Zola
The Mandarin
The Winter Soldier
Ronan the Accuser
Nebula
Dormammu
Ayesha

The good:

Obadiah Stane
General Ross
Whiplash
King Laufey
Trevor Slattery
Malekith
Kurse
Alexander Pierce
Crossbones
Korath
Scarlet Witch
Yellowjacket
Zemo
Kaecilius

The bad:

Iron Monger
Abomination
Aldrich Killian
Quicksilver
Ultron
Ego
Taserface

 

[First Avenger]

Malekith in the good and Ultron/Ego in the bad. Interesting.

 

[NealKenneth]

Malekith in the good and Ultron/Ego in the bad. Interesting.

I've never understood why Malekith got such a bad reputation. He's simple and straightforward, and he never breaks character. His plan makes sense too. These are all underrated qualities IMO.

I've written enough about Ego in other threads that I don't really want to get into it here.

As for Ultron, maybe it's realistic that AI would be this way, but to me it's a huge missed oppurtunity to have a robot that acts basically like a normal (but grumpy) human. It just made me wonder what the point of it was. There was a lot of melodramatic speeches, a sort of grand vision, and lot of symbolic/visual language in his dialogue. (At the same time, he struggles to remember the word "children?" Come on.) To me, it's just mischaracterization. Worst of all, he never once feels like someone that would have either the ability or desire to destroy the planet. He's too jokey to be that dark and too sloppy to be that competant. And it doesn't help that he doesn't have a single good fight scene in the whole movie.

In the cartoon Earth's Mightiest Heroes, he's done far better. He's cold and calculating and his dialogue is very matter-of-fact...like a robot should be! He also has a "problem" in his programming initially where he is unable to harm any human. This makes for some very memorable moments. I highly recommend the two episodes where he makes his debut.

It's not like Wheedon was unable to write such a character. Vision comes across as part human/part robot and a lot of that is in the way he walks and talks. Ultron just comes across as James Spader.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

3. Sokovia Joe

Outside of the INO experiments, Marvel Studios has actually done a great job of bringing out their baddies.

No ill-intent, but can I just ask, do you feel like Bruhl's Zemo could be expanded/improved upon in a future installment? Say, if he leads a team of Thunderbolts against Cap or takes another crack at The Avengers in costume and sword?

 

[The_Manhunter]

Phase One
1) Loki (A)
2) Red Skull (B)
3) Iron Monger (B)
4) The Abomination (C)
5) Laufey (C) [I argue there are two main villains in Thor]
6) Whiplash (D)

Phase Two
1) Ultron (A)
2) Malekith (B) [I know I'll catch flack for this one]
3) Ronan (B)
4) Alexander Pierce (B) [I don't consider Winter Soldier a main villain]
5) Yellowjacket (C)
6) Aldrich Killian (F)

Phase Three
1) Ego (A)
2) Kaicellius (B) [I can't decide if he or Dormammu is the main villain, if it's Dormammu he's number one]
3) Zemo (D)

General trend I've noticed: I really really enjoy the MCU cosmic villains significantly more than their Earth counterparts.

 

[Venom 1988]

Phase One
- Loki (Thor, The Avengers)
- Red Skull (Captain America: The First Avenger)
- Iron Monger (Iron Man)
- Abomination (The Incredible Hulk)
- Whiplash (Iron Man 2)

Phase Two
- Aldrich Killian (Iron Man 3)
- Ultron (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
- Alexander Pierce (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
- Ronan (Guardians of the Galaxy)
- Yellowjacket (Ant-Man)
- Malekith (Thor: The Dark World)

Phase Three
- Ego the Living Planet (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
- Helmut Zemo (Captain America: Civil War)
- Kaecilius (Doctor Strange)

 

[Drizzle]

Seperated into three categories in order of first appearance. Also seperated into alter egos when necessary. Movies only.

The great:

Justin Hammer
Loki
Red Skull
Dr. Zola
The Mandarin
The Winter Soldier
Ronan the Accuser
Nebula
Dormammu
Ayesha

The good:

Obadiah Stane
General Ross
Whiplash
King Laufey
Trevor Slattery
Malekith
Kurse
Alexander Pierce
Crossbones
Korath
Scarlet Witch
Yellowjacket
Zemo
Kaecilius

The bad:

Iron Monger
Abomination
Aldrich Killian
Quicksilver
Ultron
Ego
Taserface

Winter Soldier, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch aren't villains. They were manipulated.

 

[NealKenneth]

Winter Soldier, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch aren't villains. They were manipulated.

I think I included every named antagonist in the series. You could argue that quite a lot of them aren't truly villains but I think that'd be making things more complicated than they need to be...

 

[Steamteck]

Phase One
1) Loki (A)
2) Red Skull (B)
3) Iron Monger (B)
4) The Abomination (C)
5) Laufey (C) [I argue there are two main villains in Thor]
6) Whiplash (D)

Phase Two
1) Ultron (A)
2) Malekith (B) [I know I'll catch flack for this one]
3) Ronan (B)
4) Alexander Pierce (B) [I don't consider Winter Soldier a main villain]
5) Yellowjacket (C)
6) Aldrich Killian (F)

Phase Three
1) Ego (A)
2) Kaicellius (B) [I can't decide if he or Dormammu is the main villain, if it's Dormammu he's number one]
3) Zemo (D)

General trend I've noticed: I really really enjoy the MCU cosmic villains significantly more than their Earth counterparts.

I was going to post my list but you're pretty much where I am except for Dormammu who's really just a force of nature to me. Thanks.

 

[NealKenneth]

*UPDATED*

Seperated into three categories in order of first appearance. Also seperated into alter egos when necessary. Movies only.

The great:

Justin Hammer
Loki
Red Skull
Dr. Zola
The Mandarin
The Winter Soldier
Ronan the Accuser
Nebula
Dormammu
Ayesha
Vulture

The good:

Obadiah Stane
General Ross
Whiplash
King Laufey
Trevor Slattery
Malekith
Kurse
Alexander Pierce
Crossbones
Korath
Scarlet Witch
Yellowjacket
Zemo
Kaecilius

The bad:

Iron Monger
Abomination
Aldrich Killian
Quicksilver
Ultron
Ego
Taserface

 

[Boom]

Updated to include the Vulture.