Who has the better villains, Marvel TV or Marvel Movies?

[The Overlord]

Who has the better villains, Marvel TV or Marvel Movies?

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

MCU movie villains that impressed me so far were only Thanos, Ultron and Killmonger. On the other hand, MCU tv villains that were stellar are the Kingpin, Madame Gao, Elektra, Black Mariah, Cottonmouth and the Hand.

I'd give the edge to the tv villains.

 

[psylockolussus]

Films.

 

[scarlet-witch]

Movies by a long shot.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

I'm going to only consider Netflix here, mostly because I haven't seen a lot of the ABC shows so far.

Kingpin, Purple Man, Cottonmouth and Bushmaster are all great. Black Mariah, Shades, Elektra, Alexandra/Gao/Nobu/Bakuto were decent...

But none of them are better than Thanos, Loki, Zemo imho...

 

[Thör-El]

#1 & #2) I'd say Kilgrave and Kingpin are probably the best villains in the MCU. The medium of a TV series allows for way more character development, the adult target audience lets the writers show us darker, more intimidating moments and the end result in both cases is complex believable villains who can be intense, disturbingly ruthless but occasionally make you feel sympathetic. Plus they're both great villains in the comics and that carries over.

#3) Loki's the only film villain I'd say is just as good as my top two. Hiddleston's a great actor, he's the best comic villain Marvel has the rights to and they gave him a five film arc to develop.

#4) Killmonger is brilliantly written/acted, he has this great combination of personal tragedy and real world race issues as his motive and he actually had a good point about Wakanda's isolationism. But his plan to work with/rescue Klaue before killing him made no sense and his end goal of taking a small country to war against the world was too far fetched to make him the perfect villain. Plus he only got one film.

#5) Thanos is a charismatic villain that genuinely feels like the kind of huge cosmic threat that can take on the combined might of the Avengers/Guardians. His last survivor of a planetary apocalypse he warned against backstory, intense belief in committing evils he know are horrific but feels are necessary make him more interesting than the comic version in some ways. On the other hand though, his plan to gain infinite power and use it to wipe out half the universe indiscriminately in one snap to prevent what happened to his own planet happening to others makes no god damned sense.

Other than that they both have:
-plenty of good but not great villains (Grant Ward, Black Mariah, Bushmaster vs Ego, Vulture, Zemo)
-solid artificial intelligence gone wrong style villains (Ultron vs Aida)
-really interesting villains that get killed off mid story (Cottonmouth vs Ulysses Klaue)
-brilliant actors wasted on mediocre roles (Sigourney Weaver as Alexandra, Christopher Eccleston as Malekith, Mads Mikkelson as Kaecilius).

 

[Fincher]

I haven't seen that much Marvel TV, but Dottie Underwood is my favorite, and I'd put Whitney Frost above pretty much everyone else I've seen (despite the rest of that season not doing her many favors). So I'm gonna say probably TV.

 

[Bayne]

I honestly hadn't really made this comparison before, so I'm not sure how things ultimately stack up when all tallied together. I'm definitely interested to try it out, though:

TV

Agent Carter - Whitney Frost is definitely a +1, but I have to -1 as well since the season 1 villain(s?) were so forgettable I literally can't remember who they were.

Agents of Shield - Grant Ward +1, Aida +2, Radcliffe +1, The Superior -1, Hive -2

Daredevil - Kingpin +3, Madame Gao +2

Jessica Jones - Killgrave +3, Alisa +1

Luke Cage - Cottonmouth +2, Mariah +1, Shades +1, Diamondback -2, Bushmaster +2

Iron Fist - Harold Meachum +1, Bakuto +1

The Punisher - Billy Russo +1

Defenders - Elektra +1, Alexandra -1

I haven't yet seen Inhumans, Runaways, Cloak and Dagger or AoS season 5 (any villains that seem 'missing' would've scored 0, ie, neutral), so the total score for tv is: 17


Movies

Iron Man - Stane 0
Iron Man 2 - Whiplash -1, Hammer -1
Iron Man 3 - Mandarin -3

Incredible Hulk - Ross +1, Abomination -1

Thor - Loki +3
Thor 2 - Malekith -2
Thor 3 - Hela +1, Grandmaster +1

Captain America TFA - Red Skull +1
Captain America TWS - Pierce +2, Arnim Zola +1
Captain America CW - Zemo +3

Avengers Age of Ultron - Ultron +1
Avengers Infinity War - Thanos +3, Ebony Maw +1

Guardians Vol 1 - Ronan -2, Nebula +2
Guardians Vol 2 - Ego +2

Ant-man - Yellowjacket +1

Dr. Strange - Kaecilius -1

Spider-man Homecoming - Vulture +3

Black Panther - Killmonger +2

So the movies total is: 17

Pretty even overall, then, although I have actually seen all the movies and not seen all the shows. No idea if the missing shows would tip the scales towards tv or away from it, though.