Reading through Marco's list on wasted MCU villains here - https://comicbook.com/movies/list/7-iconic-marvel-supervillains-the-mcu-wasted/

there have been some definite misses. Red Skull is the one for me. To have him melt away to nothing, and then illogically turn up as the Soul Stone's guardian never made sense to me, and robbed us off Cap's best villain. What I really wanted was more World War II set stories with him, or at the very least a cult that sought to resurrect him for another showdown.

I also think Baron Stucker was a comically bad miss. And what they did to the "Super Skrull" in Secret Invasion should have been a criminal offense. However, I don't agree with the apparent consensus on Gorr (who I thought was actually great).

They fumbled them all. DC’s renditions on villains is much more iconic. Nearly every one.

I generally just don't care for Marvel villains broadly, but I will quite honestly never forgive them for not doing more with Red Skull or at least doing right by him. He could have been a solid franchise baddie.

I second MODOK. The design, the portrayal, and the twist around his identity are just terrible. Especially given that Corey Stoll is great in nearly everything.

Have to agree with Gorr taking the top spot, wasting Christian Bale in a bad MCU comedy was criminal

🗣️ THEY SHOULD HAVE RECAST KANG AND KEPT THAT STORY GOING

Yeah, the MCU has been quite bad with villains. There are a few good ones, but most of them are awful or just unmemorable...

7 hours ago, Marco Vito Oddo said:

Yeah, the MCU has been quite bad with villains. There are a few good ones, but most of them are awful or just unmemorable...

It's funny that this was the talking point for so long, Thanos kind of cured it for a minute, but now it's back to being true 😂

lol feel like Kang is forever going to be the biggest fumble. Even without the controversial actor, what even was the plan there? no way they really were going to put the same guy in 20,000 different projects and still expect people to care

23 hours ago, saperry said:

It's funny that this was the talking point for so long, Thanos kind of cured it for a minute, but now it's back to being true 😂

I think some of the greats still came after Thanos (High Evolutionary, He Who Remains, evil Wanda, even Namor I liked), but the number of poor or forgettable ones makes the supposedly bad ones from early on look like top tier baddies.

6 hours ago, Simon Gallagher said:

I think some of the greats still came after Thanos (High Evolutionary, He Who Remains, evil Wanda, even Namor I liked), but the number of poor or forgettable ones makes the supposedly bad ones from early on look like top tier baddies.

I think all your examples are great too, evidence that the bad villains of recent days aren't par for the course. The real question will be Downy's Doom, does he buck the trend or convicne people that it was never a problem?

On 6/2/2026 at 6:34 PM, kristyne said:

🗣️ THEY SHOULD HAVE RECAST KANG AND KEPT THAT STORY GOING

I SO AGREE

I'll also cast a vote for MODOK. That was so bad. And I was expecting much more from Christian Bale as an unhinged villain.

Klaw is an interesting one on that list I didn't really consider, but who wouldn't want to see more of Andy Serkis? I really enjoyed him in Black Panther.

I would say they missed opportunities with Kang. They could have at least recast him, but I know that may have also caused issues. MODOK comes to mind as another one. I also think they could have done more with Gorr, however, I don't really know much about the character.

I truly love me some James Spader, but Ultron wasn’t snarky in the comics. He scared the crap out of the Avengers and me.