Ranking the Most (and Least) Popular Marvel Villains

When it comes to bad guys, Marvel villains are some of the worst of the worst (or best of the best, depending on how you see it!).

But how do they compare to each other?

We decided to tackle this difficult question and rank some of the most popular Marvel villains in the MCU.

But how does one go about ranking a Marvel villain? For us, we decided that we would consider a few things: how much we hate the villain, how evil the villain is, how popular the villain is, and how memorable their storyline is.

Using those factors, we’ve put together this completely unscientific list on how we would personally rank some of the MCU’s most worthy — or unworthy — baddies!

1. U.S. Agent

Oh, fake Captain America, how do we hate thee? Let us count the ways. If there is any one villain that our team hates more than any other, it’s John Walker, aka U.S. Agent, from The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. This guy had the audacity to pick up Steve Rogers’ shield and become the new Captain America (when we all knew it should have been Sam Wilson).

And what he did with that shield stained the title of Captain America forever. We still can’t get over how awful this guy is. And kudos to actor Wyatt Russell for making us detest the character so much.

2. Thanos

So the biggest villain in the MCU so far has been Thanos, who wiped out half of the population of the entire universe. And sure, he had some valid (albeit misguided) reasons, but he’s still a monster.

Also, we’re still traumatized by him yanking the infinity stone out of Vision’s forehead and killing him — because we now know how that affected Wanda. So Thanos is right behind our most hated villain here.

3. Loki

We’re not going to leave Loki out of any of our Marvel lists, and yes, he is still a villain. But he’s one of the most lovable villains in the MCU, so he gets a top spot on our list. As the god of mischief, he can’t be trusted, and he will betray pretty much anyone.

Of course, we’re finally seeing a different side of Loki on his TV show, but he’s still out there sowing the seeds of chaos because that’s who he is. Also, we’re throwing in all the other Loki variants here, too, because they, too, were punished for being themselves — agents of chaos. Alligator Loki, we see you.

4. Ultron

Okay, so any villain intent on genocide will make our list of top Marvel villains because that’s just EVIL. Ultron wanted to wipe out all of humanity (again, he DID have his reasons) and populate the earth with other A.I. beings like him.

That makes him a very bad dude in our book. Maybe he was right that humans were the biggest threat to peace on Earth, but still…

5. Hela

Okay, so Hela had her reasons for being so angry — she was Odin’s firstborn, but her father had her locked away. So it’s no big surprise that once Odin died, she returned to Asgard to claim it as her own. But the people were like “nope,” and so she killed some of them and enslaved others.

Cate Blanchett as Hela is what seals this character as one of the more memorable Marvel villains, not to mention that wild headdress. She looked so terrifying!

6. Ego

Our hearts were overjoyed when Peter Quill, aka Starlord, finally found his father, Ego, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Except that Ego wasn’t the good father figure he seemed, and, oh, he killed Peter’s mom, among others. NOT COOL. He’s like the Darth Vader of the MCU.

And of course, he had a world domination plan that involved him recreating the universe in the way he thought it should be. Fortunately, Peter found a real father figure in Yondu.

7. Red Skull

So what can we say about why Red Skull made our list? Well, for starters, he’s probably one of the evilest villains in the MCU — the guy was literally a Nazi. We’re just saying — he hung out with Hitler.

Not only that, but he was a Nazi that wanted to use the Tesseract to control the world. A very very very bad man.

8. Baron Zemo

So we would have to vote Baron Zemo as one of the MCU’s most charismatic villains — we also love his sweet dance moves. Sure, he tried to turn the Avengers on each other AND he framed Bucky for T’Chaka’s death.

He’s a bad guy that we love to hate — and we were pretty happy to see more of him on The Falcon and Winter Soldier. We won’t forget him anytime soon.

9. Ronan The Accuser

Ronan first appeared in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and we learned that he’s another genocidal warlord who wants to put an end to the  Xandarian race.

Ronan makes our list because he actually had the nerve to betray Thanos (who sent Ronan after the Orb, but Ronan wanted it for himself). Of course, that didn’t work out too well for him, but kudos to this villain for trying. Also, he looks pretty scary.

10. Mysterio

So Mysterio had us — and Peter Parker — completely fooled. We thought he was  a good guy from an alternate universe, not a villain who was just mad because he lost his job at Stark Industries and sought revenge for it.

It was a twist that we never saw coming, and we hate him for making us — and Peter Parker — like him. He’s also responsible for unmasking Peter Parker as Spider-Man so now the whole world knows Spider-Man’s secret identity. Boo, Mysterio, boo.

11. Killmonger

Killmonger was the villain in Black Panther we kind of identified with. We understood much of where he was coming from. T’Chaka did kill his father (after Killmonger’s dad tried to murder Zuri), so he had the revenge theme going — his life’s mission was to dethrone T’Challa and set himself up as the leader of Wakanda.

Why? Killmonger wanted to use Wakanda’s technology to force the world to end the oppression of people of African descent all over the world. His mission was noble.

12. Agatha Harkness

We don’t know about you, but we were shocked when WandaVision revealed that it was Agatha all along! Yes, we had a feeling something was up with her when she was just Agnes, the wacky next door neighbor, but we loved learning that she was something WAY more.

And that final battle between Agatha and Wanda? That was EPIC. We got to see two powerful witches battle it out in the heart of Westview.

13. Yon-Rogg

Yon-Rogg is another villain that we thought was a good guy. In Captain Marvel, he was Carol Danvers’ trainer on Kree and the leader of Starforce. But then we realize he had been manipulating Carol all along and keeping her from reaching her full potential.

Yon-Rogg is another villain we love to hate, and we felt so justified when Carol refused to fight him without her powers and then hit him with her Proton Blast. You go, girl.

14. Vulture

Vulture is a villain that could easily have been a throwaway character, but Marvel cast Michael Keaton in the role, and the rest is — as they say — history. This is another person that lost his job because of Tony Stark, so he chose life as a criminal, seeking revenge.

In the end, though, he didn’t give up Spider-Man’s identity after Spider-Man spared him. So he’s not quite as bad as Mysterio.

15. Justin Hammer

Another character that could have been a throwaway is Justin Hammer (hilariously played by Sam Rockwell). He’s a military contractor with a strong rivalry with Stark Industries and did his best to damage the public’s perception of Tony. And failed miserably by damaging his own reputation instead.

He then tried to replicate Stark’s Arc Reactor but ended up being betrayed by one of his own guys. Ouch.

These are 15 of Marvel’s most iconic, evil, and popular villains. Did your favorite make the list? Let us know!

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Which Marvel villains would you rank highest on your list? Let us know in the comments!

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