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As fun as it is to follow the adventures of comic book superheroes, they would be nothing without their villains. However, inevitably, only a select handful of them have become as iconic as the good guys they frequently try to kill, and that’s a testament to how great they are.
When looking at Marvel’s selection of bad guys, there are quite literally thousands of names to pick from, but only a small percentage of those stand out as being the most impressive, evil, and sadistic.
Of course, it’s easy enough to select and rank the villains who square off with specific heroes or teams, but what happens when you throw all of those together and attempt to pick the best? Plucking villains from every corner of the Marvel Universe and singling out the best of a very evil bunch is no easy feat, but that’s exactly what you’ll find here!
Some of these baddies have attempted to conquer the Earth, while others have made things much more personal by taking aim at the loved ones of the heroes they despise, but the one thing they all obviously have in common is that they’re truly the greatest bad guys ever put inside the pages of your favourite Marvel comic books…
15. Kang The Conqueror
Time travel is a headache inducing concept in any form of storytelling, but that’s particularly the case in comic books.
Kang the Conquerer however is someone who has made good use of his ability to travel through time to make The Avengers’ lives a living hell, and he’s actually succeeded in both conquering the Earth and at one point destroying it altogether (as you’ve probably already guessed, time travel was later used to undo both of those moments).
With a fascinating backstory which actually saw him serve as a heroic member of the Young Avengers as Iron Lad, Kang is one of Marvel’s most complex and delightfully evil bad guys, and the way he manipulates time for his own means makes him a threat not just to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but reality itself.
14. Bullseye
Before Frank Miller came along, Bullseye was very much a throwaway Daredevil villain who he would beat on a regular basis with relative ease. However, pitting the assassin against Elektra led to one of the most shocking moments in comic book history as he brutally murdered Matt Murdock’s former flame hours after figuring out the Man Without Fear’s secret identity.
That put him on that map, and he’d return many times over the years to plague The Man Without Fear. However, Bullseye hit the big time when his place in Norman Osborn’s Thunderbolts led to him being drafted into the Dark Avengers as a deadlier version of Hawkeye! Bullseye hasn’t had much luck since then (Daredevil killed him at one point), but even after being resurrected as a paraplegic, he’s still tried to take out the hero!
13. Phoenix
Jean Grey is one of the Marvel Universe’s greatest heroes, but when her immense psychic abilities led to her being bonded with the Phoenix Force, destruction followed. After obliterating an entire planet, the out of control Jean was ultimately forced to take her own life to stop this cosmic power, but it’s come back to haunt the X-Men many times since.
For example, when the Phoenix Force recently returned to Earth, it led to a massive conflict between the Avengers and X-Men which left the latter superhero team fractured for good after Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Colossus, and Magik were imbued with its power and attempted to take over the planet. The point is, regardless of the host, the Phoenix is one of the most deadly entities in the Marvel Universe!
12. Doctor Octopus
He’s always been one of Spider-Man’s most iconic villains, but it wasn’t until Doctor Octopus discovered he was dying as a result from all the blows to the head he’s received at the hands of the wall-crawler that he truly become one of the hero’s greatest foes. It was then that he enacted a plan to steal Spider-Man’s body, and he succeeded too in one of the most shocking Marvel moments in recent memory.
Despite attempting to become a hero, Doc Ock caused a significant amount of damage to the life of Peter Parker and ultimately gave him back his body when he realised he couldn’t protect New York anywhere near as well as his enemy. However, his conciousness is still out there and plotting against Spidey, and it remains to be see whether he’ll return as Doctor Octopus or attempt to once again steal Spider-Man’s body.
11. Thanos
Thanos’ quest for the Infinity Gauntlet has factored into pretty much every single one of his appearances, and the heroes of the Marvel Universe live in constant fear about what could happen when he finally gets his hands on that ancient weapon (the one time he did, he tampered with reality and killed pretty much every single Avenger, so that gives you an idea of just how dangerous he would be if it came into his possession for more than a few minutes).
With The Mad Titan expected to play a key role in the upcoming Civil War II comic and the Avengers: Infinity War movies, his profile looks set to increase in a major way over the next few years, and that means he’ll no doubt have yet another event story based solely around his evil schemes before too long.
10. Venom
While being transferred to hosts like Mac Gargan and Flash Thompson has watered down the Venom symbiote somewhat in recent years, this alien bonding with Eddie Brock to create a twisted version of Spider-Man made for some truly terrifying tales in the 1980s.
Unable to detect his presence via spider-sense, Peter Parker was at his most vulnerable against this vengeful reporter/shunned alien suit, and Venom has very nearly killed him a number of times.
However, one of Venom’s most shocking moments came when he invaded the hero’s home, threatening Mary Jane and leaving her utterly terrified of the monster she had just seen. As a “Lethal Protector” a few years later, Eddie may have flirted with the idea of being a hero of sorts, but he always returned to his villainous ways because his hatred for Spider-Man was far too great to ever let him leave the wall-crawler alone!
9. Apocalypse
The ancient En Sabah Nur is the world’s first mutant and his belief that humanity must be wiped out to make way for the superior mutant race has inevitably led to the X-Men stepping in to try and stop him many times.
They’ve not once emerged unscathed though, especially as he’s left transformed many of them into members of his Four Horsemen (Angel was unable to recover from his time spent as Death and ultimately died as the insane Archangel). Apocalypse’s role in the Marvel Universe is in fact so significant that it led to the creation of a bleak alternative future known as the Age of Apocalypse. and visits there are always terrifying.
Apocalypse may have so far failed to take over the world in the regular timeline, but with Oscar Isaac set to bring him to life on the big screen, the villain will be making a lot more comic book appearances in 2016…
8. Ultron
Created by Hank Pym, Ultron is an android who hates humanity and is made even more dangerous by the fact that he has some serious daddy issues. He’s pretty much immortal too thanks to his conciousness surviving even after his body is destroyed, and so Ultron has reared his ugly head in many different forms over the years.
He’s even succeeded in conquering Earth and wiping out most of The Avengers, and that was only put right by some time travel shenanigans which left the Marvel Universe with some long lasting damage. The villain has even set his sights on outer space, wiping out entire planets in his quest for domination! Regardless of where Ultron returns though, his plans for domination are always significant.
7. The Kingpin
After being introduced as a Spider-Man villain, Wilson Fisk found much more success when Frank Miller decided to pit him against Daredevil. Since then, this hulking crime lord has attempted to bring down the Man Without Fear by any means possible, and their hatred for each other has only increased as the years have passed.
While he’s often been on the receiving end of many a beating at the hands of Daredevil, The Kingpin outsmarted his foe at one point by learning his secret identity and breaking Matt Murdock’s mind. That would lead to years of Daredevil battling depression, meaning Fisk has had a real lasting impact on his life.
If feels like these two are locked in a never ending battle, and their rivalry is definitely one of the most memorable and interesting in the superhero comics genre.
6. Galactus
When it comes to sheer power, it’s pretty tough to beat a villain who spends most of his time eating worlds! In fact, the only reason he doesn’t place higher here is because he’s failed to gobble up Earth on so many occasions (usually thanks to the timely intervention of the Fantastic Four), but that doesn’t mean Galactus isn’t a formidable and very frightening threat.
A glimpse at a possible future where Thor is the last living being left on the planet showed that he’s still causing problems thousands of years from now, but don’t go thinking old age has slowed him down, because Galactus actually punched the God of Thunder through the Moon! His hunger is never satisfied, and that makes Galactus a threat to every planet in the universe.
5. Red Skull
The Red Skull isn’t immortal, but he may as well be. Whether it’s in the bodies of clones or with time travel, the Nazi villain always finds a way to come back and make Steve Rogers’ life as difficult as possible. He’s the man responsible for orchestrating the patriotic hero’s death after the events of Civil War, and very nearly ended up stealing Captain America’s body as a result.
Recently, the Red Skull has found a new enemy in the form of the X-Men after he dug up Professor X’s remains and grafted part of the hero’s brain to his own, gaining psychic powers in the process. Oh, and in the Old Man Logan timeline, he’s managed to become the United States President (and, after murdering Captain America years earlier, he takes great delight in dressing up in his old foe’s costume…weirdo).
4. Loki
The God of Mischief’s feelings towards his brother Thor have inevitably led to him clashing with The Avengers on multiple occasions, and it was actually one of his earliest schemes which led to the heroic team forming for the first time.
While that may have backfired on Loki, he’s got revenge many times in the decades which have followed, often working behind the scenes in an attempt to bring down Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
While he’s had something of a change of heart in recent years after serving as a member of the Young Avengers, Loki will no doubt soon find himself once again drawing the ire of The Avengers as he plots to destroy Thor! After all, he’s always working on some sort of dastardly plan, and while his motivations are forever changing, the jealousy Loki feels towards his brother is unlikely to disappear any time soon.
3. Magneto
Magneto may be a hero of sorts these days as he fights alongside the X-Men he once tried to destroy, but that doesn’t wipe away the fact that the Master of Magnetism spent decades on the dark side with his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
Responsible for almost countless deaths, Magneto has also torn the Adamantium from Wolverine’s skeleton and put Charles Xavier in that wheelchair, all while lashing out at the humans he so despises for the crimes they’ve committed against his people.
While he may have earned forgiveness for those acts, you just know that a return to his evil ways is inevitable for Magneto somewhere down the line.
2. Doctor Doom
This Latverian dictator has been plaguing the Fantastic Four since before they even became a team, and Doctor Doom has committed some truly horrific acts in his quest to bring down Reed Richards.
The villain’s desire for power has seen him become an enemy of the entire Marvel Universe (just look at the recently released Secret Wars for proof of that), but it’s when he takes aim at the Fantastic Four that Victor is at his most hateful. That ultimately stems from the fact that he blames Reed for his horribly scarred face, and that makes this rivalry particularly personal.
Perhaps his greatest “achievement” was forcing Mr. Fantastic to shoot The Thing dead when he took over the hero’s body and threatened to snap the Human Torch’s neck if Reed didn’t pull the trigger…
1. Green Goblin
I’m sure some of you may object to the Green Goblin placing so highly, but stop a minute and think back to what Norman Osborn has done to Spider-Man over the years.
This is the man who murdered Peter Parker’s teenage girlfriend, faked the death of his beloved Aunt May to try and drive him insane, and even made the hero doubt his very existence when he tricked Spidey into believing he was a clone (and when Peter formed a brotherly bond with Ben Reilly, the Goblin killed him too).
The Green Goblin has also inspired a twisted legacy of pretenders to his throne (including his own son, Harry), and that ensures Spider-Man will forever be plagued by his greatest enemy. However, there’s only one true Goblin, and he cemented his position in the Marvel Universe as true big bad after taking over S.H.I.E.L.D. and forming the Dark Avengers, a team responsible for killing Ares and destroying Asgard!
Which Marvel villains do you think deserve to be on this list? Share your favourites below in the comments thread.
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