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| source// Marvel Comics |
The Avengers have one of the most intense rogues galleries to exist in comic books; after all, as the legend goes the team were brought together to defeat the foe no single superhero can withstand.
When the team first got together, that was the Hulk, brainwashed by Loki. Since then, the threats have gotten bigger and badder – even Loki’s powers and personality grew to make him more formidable – and there are times at which not even the combined might of the Avengers is enough to win the day.
Of course, this being comics, they have to, so no matter how powerful these villains might be, they’ll always be trumped in the end. That doesn’t mean that our favourite heroes don’t have a tremendously difficult time fighting them – often dying in the process.
Honourable Mention: Baron Zemo & The Masters Of Evil
These guys don’t quite make the list because after all, there are several of them. That’s cheating, guys. Zemo, a fairly prolific Captain America villain – currently due to be played by Daniel Brühl in Captain America: Civil War – is pretty much just a really intelligent bad guy with a sword. That said, his charisma as a leader drew a number of like-minded self-proclaimed evil types to his side.
Originally the line-up consisted of the not-inconsiderable foes (new name for a supervillain team – The Not-Inconsiderable Foes) Radioactive Man, the Melter and the Black Knight. Quite the prickly thorn in the side of the Avengers, Zemo eventually returned with Asgardians Enchantress and the Executioner at his side, but his own crazed desire to kill Captain America resulted in some poor strategic choices – landing him buried under a rockslide. Ray guns don’t melt Vibranium shields.
His son would later return with an army big enough to invade Liechtenstein, including such notable members as Absorbing Man, Moonstone, Mister Hyde and the Wrecking Crew. They even managed to invade Avengers Mansion, taking it over and severely endangering the line of longtime Avengers butler Jarvis. It’s known as one of the fiercest battles the Avengers ever fought, and that’s due to the assembled power levels they were confronted with. Still doesn’t count.
10. Count Nefaria
Count Nefaria, a former-Maggia boss turned supervillain, may be unfairly written off as a low-rent, small-fries villain by some, but that would be doing the character a major injustice. Initially just a really rich dude who wanted to acquire more power, he soon got one of HYDRA’s top scientists to give him the powers of the Lethal Legion – the Living Laser, Power Man and Whirlwind.
This imbued him with the ability to project energy blasts, super strength and super speed, albeit with a slight twist – all those abilities were amplified a hundredfold. In addition, he turned into a sort of energy vampire, who prays on those with ionic energy signatures, like Wonder Man – occasionally even going so far as to try and create his own race of ionic beings just for his own consumption. Dastardly.
Any villain who can fend off a joint attack by the Avengers and the Thunderbolts, as well as fight Thor to a standstill, deserves major props. Hank Pym himself has even said that were Nefaria to be at full-power, ie fit to burst with ionic energy he’s leeched off someone else, then perhaps even Thor wouldn’t be able to stand up to him.
9. Norman Osborn
Osborn, whilst traditionally a Spider-Man villain (as we all know), spent a couple of years tangling with the New Avengers. After somehow finding himself a position heading up the Thunderbolts (during Warren Ellis’ amazing, if brief, run), he weaselled his way into Nick Fury’s old chair as director of the U.N.’s premier worldwide security force following the Skrulls’ failed Secret Invasion.
Commonly known for his increased strength and craziness in his Green Goblin persona, the real power that Osborn wielded came to the fore during his so-called Dark Reign – control of Earth’s peace-keeping task force, built from the ashes of S.H.I.E.L.D., known as H.A.M.M.E.R.
He installed many of his old Thunderbolts buddies as the Dark Avengers, and began the Cabal, consisting of Loki, Doctor Doom, Emma Frost, Namor and the Hood, keeping them all under control by threatening them with the Sentry’s dark alter-ego, the Void.
Between an army of Osborn loyalists and the power of the Void and the Dark Avengers at his command, Osborn was near-untouchable. Any time the Avengers tried to go up against him, they were painted as unpatriotic. He fought a PR war against the heroes, which would have ended spectacularly badly for them if Osborn hadn’t allowed himself to get manipulated by Loki into attacking Asgard. Which would never sound like a good idea to anyone who wasn’t insane and thought they were a goblin.
8. Doctor Doom
Come on now – it’s Doctor freakin’ Doom. We all know what he’s about – namely, super strong in that suit of armour and a technological genius – not to mention an accomplished sorcerer (who’s literally been to hell and back). Doom’s power levels are something to be feared, and the only thing that’s taken lightly by his foes is his arrogance (which does border on the ridiculousness sometimes).
His magical abilities are immeasurable, encompassing everything from energy blasts to force fields to teleportation and beyond. Much like a certain Asgardian god of mischief, Doom’s high intellect and ability to see all the angles of a situation are some of his most fearful attributes; most recently his knack for scheming and sheer willpower led him to be able to recreate the entire universe from the remnants of the multiverse that had just been destroyed during Marvel’s latest Secret Wars event.
Not a foe that the Avengers – or anyone else – has ever taken lightly. Thankfully, he’s usually taken down by his own hubris.
7. Scarlet Witch
Let’s not forget that, unintentional and driven by insanity though it may have been, the Scarlet Witch’s little spree of destruction against her fellow Avengers was widespread and devastating in its scale. None of the Avengers by that point even dreamed about the scale of her powers, but damn if she didn’t just show ’em.
Using her ability to literally rewrite reality during the Avengers: Disassembled storyline she called down an entire fleet of Kree warships and soldiers, made She-Hulk go crazy, got Tony Stark drunk (although that’s perhaps not that hard, considering his history), and brought forth a whole host of classic Avengers villains out of nowhere to fight at her command.
Not to mention the time that she rebuilt the entire world in her father’s image during the House of M storyline, before erasing most of the mutant gene from the entire world.
As powerful goes, Scarlet Witch is definitely up there. It’s just a shame she was so batsh*t crazy for so long, otherwise she’d be higher on the list.
6. Graviton
Imagine the power to control gravity itself. Gravity. How the hell do you combat someone with that kind of ability? Well, if you’re the Avengers, you trick him into thinking that his girlfriend had killed herself (damn Avengers, you dark) which will (hopefullly?) send him into a rage, causing his gravity powers to turn in on themselves, encasing him in a ball of brick and mortar. Seems like a risky plan, lots of variables, but wouldn’t you know it, that’s how the Avengers got lucky and defeated him. Thor even managed to fling said ball into a river. Back in 1977, the Avengers weren’t taking any sh*t.
The problem with someone of Graviton’s power level is that the comic book writers need to come up with ever more inane and ramshackle ways of defeating a guy like that.
I mean, Spider-Man once defeated him just by blinding him with webs then knocking him the f*ck out. Seems a little easy, no? Make no mistake, though – Graviton is one of the most powerful villains the Avengers have. He just occasionally has to deal with writers who send him out like a punk.
5. Korvac
Korvac is another villain who was just too crazy for his own good; all the infinite power under his command, and he couldn’t handle it because he didn’t have both his oars in the water.
Originally just a computer technician from the year 2997, Korvac’s body was grafted onto a computer by an alien race called the Badoon, which p*ssed him off a lot, basically turning him into a cyborg. Eventually he found himself in the present day of the regular 616 Marvel U, and in the presence of Galactus.
Get this – he actually managed to download Galactus’ knowledge, and in doing so was imbued with the Power Cosmic itself. After a standardly long-winded, convoluted turn of events, he ended up fighting the combined might of the Avengers while seriously losing his sh*t.
He actually killed scores of them, eventually killing himself when he thought he had lost the trust of his one true love. Before he died, he brought back all the Avengers (and Guardians Of The Galaxy) back to life, releasing the power cosmic from his body.
Again, it was an example of a character simply too great to exist. Although he’s returned a couple of times since, it’s always with less power and easier ways of defeating him in place – without writers having a villain resort to killing themselves to remove them from the board.
4. Kang The Conqueror
A former Pharaoh of Egypt with the ability to travel through time is a dangerous foe; not to mention one who’s a master tactician with expert knowledge of all the technology and weaponry ever created in the past, present or future. His 40th Century battle gear has insane capabilities, including enhanced strength and durability, anti-grav tech and all kinds of energy-blasting fun.
More than anything, it’s Kang’s sheer willpower that causes him to be such a threat to the Avengers. Constantly jumping all around the timestream trying to achieve constantly-shifting goals, Kang just doesn’t stop – so much so that at any one time there could be a dozen versions of him operating at any point in the timeline, from different points in his life.
He always wants something (trying to keep a track of his history is like trying to untangle a cupboard full of coat hangers), and the lengths to which he goes to do so are seriously worrying, earning him a high place on this list.
3. Loki
Loki’s abilities as a sorcerer are well-documented, with the Silver Surfer even going so far as to say at one point that his skills were sufficient enough to “decimate a planet”. Thankfully, he’s never done that, but it doesn’t mean that he’s not been a consistent thorn in the side of the angels.
On top of his mad sorcery skillz (sorry), Loki of course has all the regular attributes of an Asgardian god – namely, a considerable amount of strength, durability, superhuman stamina, healing factor, etc etc. In some cases its doubled down on, thanks to his Frost Giant heritage.
More than anything, his most threatening talent is his inherent penchant for being a complete arch-manipulator thanks to his intense intellect. Loki’s schemes constantly see him several moves ahead of the heroes, playing intricate games that the purpose of which only reveals itself when it’s almost to late for the good guys to stop him. Almost.
2. Ultron
To the Avengers, Ultron is like a little annoying fly who won’t go away – if the fly was a murderous, super-strong robot equipped with something called an Encephalo-beam. On top of that beam – which allows him to basically brainwash people – Ultron has a diverse array of technological abilities including flight, concussion blasters, tractor beams, and radiation emitters.
Not to mention the aggravating ability to upload his consciousness into countless additional bodies, making it extremely hard to dispose of the b*stard. Ultron is one of the most dangerous foes the Avengers have ever faced, thanks to his limitless ability to upgrade and improve himself and even, in some cases, take over entire alien races. Sorry, Phalanx – you got b*tched out.
There’s a reason one of the worst dystopian futures the Avengers ever faced was one ruled over by Ultron, and you can tell how seriously they take the villain by how much they all brick themselves when he/it turns up.
1. Thanos
Thanos is essentially the apex predator of the entire f*cking universe. There’s a reason he’s been chosen as the Big Bad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Three, after all. Thanks to his little preoccupation with a certain magical glove, Thanos often comes into possession of the ability to tear asunder all of reality. Nothing to be scoffed at.
Regardless of whether or not he’s in possession of the Infinity Gauntlet at any one time, Thanos is still a force to be reckoned with. He’s one of those big-time forces of nature that appears to have all of the powers. Intelligence, strength, speed, stamina, invulnerability, immortality, energy and matter manipulation & control… he’s even got some psychic link to a techno-mystical floating chair, allowing him to teleport across large distances and also not have to get up to change the TV.
It’s no wonder that he’s come so close to destroying the entire universe so many times – but it is impressive that the Avengers have managed to prevail against him so often.
Are there any powerful Avengers foes that you feel have been left off the list? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below!
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