The top 22 Marvel Cinematic Universe villains, ranked from worst to best

tom hiddleston loki the dark world

Historically, the biggest problem with the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been its villains.

"Black Panther" was praised back in February for having one of the best villains in the universe (and in movie history).

Loki, who fluctuates loyalty so often it's hard to keep up, is another great example.

Thanos — who many people were unsure about — was recognized for being a well-written, menacing villain in "Avengers: Infinity War." He's played excellently by Josh Brolin despite motion-capture limitations that made villains like Ultron underwhelming and cheesy.

But most of the other villains aren't compelling, such as the ones featured in Marvel's latest release, "Ant-Man and the Wasp." In fact, the main villain isn't really even a villain.

There's not much there in terms of the motives, goals, and overall, a lot of them don't feel like a genuine threat to our heroes. But that doesn't mean that all of these MCU villains are bad: they're just forgettable, even in some of the best movies to date including "Iron Man 3," "Ant-Man," and "Captain America: Civil War."

Still, there are a few gems in there, and we took a look at the top 22 to give you a sense of which were the best.

This list doesn't include all villains in the MCU: just major ones with some very special exceptions (Jeff Goldblum). It also excludes Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes and Nebula, who are good now and it was kind of obvious they would be eventually.

Here's our ranking of the MCU villains, from worst to best:

22. Emil Blonsky/Abomination, “The Incredible Hulk”

Remember when Ed Norton was the Hulk? Tim Roth played the Abomination, and it wasn’t bad, but he was pretty much only there to help Hulk destroy as many buildings as possible.

21. Whiplash, "Iron Man 2"

Mickey Rourke was having quite the moment when “Iron Man 2” came out, being nominated for a best actor Oscar for his role in "The Wrestler." In the marketing and trailers, his character, Whiplash, seemed menacing, creepy, and a major threat. But he was just kind of there. The movie is bad, his character is lame, and Rourke’s lack of enthusiasm didn’t help — especially compared to Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer.

20. Malekith, “Thor: The Dark World”

Who is Malekith? Good question. He was the leader of the Dark Elves and the central villain in the second “Thor” movie. His whole thing was bringing “eternal darkness” to the world, so that’s why the movie was called “The Dark World.” Malekith’s backstory and motivation is pretty much that he likes night? Thanks to Thor, the world never actually went dark. Honestly, the entire movie - which is fine, but forgettable - could have been avoided if somebody suggested Malekith just move to Alaska.

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