Following on from our previous list about the 10 biggest heroes that Marvel have yet to adapt for our screens, we’ve also gone and done a list of the 10 biggest villains we haven’t seen too. Because, after all, we wouldn’t want to be accused of bias.
Of course, Marvel haven’t had the greatest track-record when it comes to bringing their Villainous characters into the MCU. Despite their best efforts, and a whole host of popular bad guys being lifted from the pages of the comic books and parachuted in their movies, they still find themselves relying heavily time and time again on Loki.
The unfortunate truth is the company’s most creative minds simply haven’t been able to replicate the accidental success they found in casting Tom Hiddleston to play the Norse God of Mischief. He was auditioning for the role of Thor at the time, after all…
The result is that despite having an unbeatable roster of superhero talent, there aren’t really any villains with enough engagement or sufficient backstory to delve into, that have the potential to last past a single movie appearance. Malkeith, Ronan, Vanko. Few have managed to capture the hearts and minds of Marvel audiences, and there have also been so many wasted opportunities. Tim Roth’s return as Emil Blonsky was teased in a one-shot, but ultimately shelved. And the untimely demise of Frank Grillo’s Crossbones also incurred a minor fan backlash.
But it hasn’t all been bad in terms of ‘Team Bad Guys’. It will be nice to see the eventual promised return of the Red Skull in some format, despite Hugo Weaving remaining noncommittal about the idea. Hopefully one villain who will definitively be returning to the franchise is Daniel Bruhl’s brilliant Zemo, and Mads Mikkelsen’s performance as Kaecilius last year also showed a lot of potential.
So let’s look at our list of Marvel baddies who haven’t been lucky enough to face off against an Avenger yet. Is the next big fan-favourite or heavy-hitter lurking somewhere in amongst the ten of them? Let’s find out:
10. Typhoid Mary
Jon Bernthal aside, the standout performance in ‘Daredevil’ Season 2 was Elodie Yeung’s updated appearance of Elektra. I mean, that girl was CRAZY. On one hand you’ve got the Jennifer Garner incarnation of the character that your mom wants to see you get together with. Yeung’s version of Elektra just decapitated your mom, and then burned her house down, before still turning up for coffee at your place. But it turns out that even she isn’t the most unhinged of Matt Murdock’s ex girlfriends. That accolade is set aside for Mary Walker. AKA ‘Typhoid Mary’.
In the finest traditions of comic book origin stories, it was Murdock himself that created Mary, accidentally knocking her out of a window when she attacked him. The resultant fall activated a low-level psychic ability within Mary, but also spilt her personality three ways. Each more psychotic than the previous. As dangerous in bed as she is with a baseball bat, she’s always been on the edges of the main events in the Marvel comics.
Benefitting from the miseries of others, and rallying organised crime when a big boss gets taken down. Oh, and she can set fire to shit with her mind. Cool, huh?
9. Kraven
One of the major disappointments of Sony’s planned ‘Sinister Six’ movie not coming to fruition is that we didn’t get to see the big-screen debut of Kraven The Hunter, one of the original founding members of said aforementioned Criminal Cabal.
A Marvel villain with true pedigree, he’s been haunting the pages of the comics for the last 50 years, and he’s managed to defeat pretty much everybody he’s even gone up against in the process. No fan of guns or bombs, Kraven likes to go hands-on with his prey, and has a slightly unhealthy fixation with a certain wallcrawling webslinger.
But, when you bring Kraven to the table, it’s not just the man you get, it’s a whole family affair. As well as his wife, and also a son and daughter who are eager to carry on the family name, the Hunter’s brother is also a Marvel super-villain. The Chameleon. There’s no shortage of buff actors out there who would fit the role, and as the number of Spider-Man reboots continues, the list of potential spidey bad guys we haven’t seen yet gets smaller and smaller. Which is good news for this Baltic Brigand and his demented family…
8. Moonstone
You know what the MCU is missing? A sexy and sassy female super villain, that’s what. Sure, with the arrival of Cate Blanchett’s Hela this year, we’re finally coming close to that. But I get the distinct impression that she’s not particularly interested in getting up close and personal with anybody. Which is in stark contrast to Dr Karla Sofen.
Coming from a poor background, young Karla’s mother vowed to never let her daughter face the struggles she had, and worked three jobs to put her offspring through college. Which kinda worked, as Sofen emerged with a PHD in psychology. Oh, and murderous tendencies that ultimately led to her killing for her superpowers.
She’s as sexy as Black Widow, with a costume that literally looks like she was poured into it. She also happens to be a complete Man-Eater, happy to use her body in order to get whatever she needs, on both ally and enemy alike. Having killed her patients and colleagues whilst working her way into the Criminal Underworld, Sofen eventually acquired the powers of the original Moonstone. With the ability to manipulate the minds of any opponent, augmented by super strength, flight, and powerful energy blasts, this Doctor is definitely not one you want to find making a house-call.
7. Morbius
Now, you can argue that Michael Morbius is ultimately as much a hero as he is a villain. But when he was introduced in the comics, he was a truly horrific creation, and one who’s persistently failed to control the gnawing hunger that rages within him. Whilst resembling the hammy vampire characters of the 1940’s and 50’s, it would be easy to write Morbius off as a harmless, comic creation. But the character has not only consistently cropped up across a range of Marvel publications over the last 30 years, but also enjoyed a successful run in the 1990’s animated ‘SpiderMan’ series.
We’ve already come close to seeing a live-action version of the character. Back in the early 2000’s, Morbius was pitched as a possible antagonist in the future Spider-Man movies, and David Goyer originally had the character cameoing during the final scene in ‘Blade’, in order to set him up as the main villain for ‘Blade 2’.
He’s a character that’s got it all. Tragedy. Redemption. And pure horror. Bearing in mind the persistently weak villains that Marvel line up in the MCU to face off against the Avengers, Morbius must surely close to getting his shot at the title…
6. Omega Red
A firm fan favourite, it remains a complete mystery as to why we still haven’t seen Omega Red crop up in any Marvel cinematic outings yet. Russia’s Cold War answer to Steve Rogers, this unpredictable and psychotic super killer proved so difficult to control that the Soviets ultimately tried to bury his existence, leading him to become one of the most lethal and powerful crime bosses on the market. Tricked out with an inferior version of Wolverine’s adamantium, he possesses a pair of whip-like metallic tentacles, that literally drain the life from his victims.
Is he a mutant? Is he a vampire? Is he just a really fucking nasty human serial killer? Most likely, there are elements of truth in all three backstories, and the hellish procedures he was subjected to have pulled all three versions together to create one nightmarish creature.
With the return of Liev Scrieber’s Sabretooth having been teased and then dropped from ‘Logan’, any future Wolverine flick would benefit greatly from introducing another of the character’s historical adversaries. And who wouldn’t want to see a movie set in the 60’s/70’s explaining where the beef between the two metallic mutants came from?
5. Taskmaster
Now, this fella’s LONG overdue for a live-action appearance, and with the success of last year’s Deadpool movie, here’s hoping the character has moved a couple of steps closer to achieving just that. His backstory is such a mystery that not even the most devoted of Marvel readers could accurately relate it to you. Possibly a SHIELD agent gone bad, possibly a mutant. What’s for sure is he’s lethal with a broadsword, incorporates a skull into his look as successfully as The Punisher, and he’ll use your own super moves to end your days.
Taskmaster is one of the few unfathomable mysteries that the Marvel Universe has left to offer up. Ostensibly a mercenary, he’s happy to play any side of the field, but has sometimes been known to let his love of revenge get in the way of a sweet payday. Possessing the coolest ability of all time, to mimic any move he’s seen any other person do, he’s defeated the best heroes that Marvel have to offer in single combat, and was even enlisted by the Avengers to train new recruits, teaching Bucky how to handle Captain America’s shield after the death of Steve Rogers.
4. The Hood
Funny thing, magic. It’s a concept doesn’t necessarily mix well with comic books. The villains that use it as their main source of power tend to be relegated to moustache-wielding showmen, and the heroes who use it seem only to be popular with a niche market. I mean, ‘Doctor Strange’ was by no means a bad movie, but it certainly wasn’t Marvel’s best. And ‘Constantine’ didn’t prove strong enough to carry his own DC series (and they’ll give a solo series to ANYBODY…). So are there any Marvel bad guys who can make using magic look cool as fuck? Hell yes…
Because this isn’t just magic, this is DARK MAGIC. A magic you can only get when you kill a demon, and take his magical cloak from his still-warm corpse. Which is exactly what happened to Parker Robbins. This unforeseen happening propelled Robbins from the lower levels of the Kingpin’s employment, to a seat at the Dark Reign tale with Dr Doom and Namor.
When you combine the ability to disintegrate a man with some pretty damn cool gunplay involving a pair of 9mm pistols, you’ve got the recipe for a goddamn spectacular MCU villain.
3. Onslaught
After the heartbreaking abortion that was ‘X3 – The Last Stand’, the X-Verse suddenly became cool again with the arrival of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as rebooted versions of our two favourite Knights Of The Realm. And now, with both the younger and older incarnations of Charles & Eric (which sounds a bit like. Reggae band…) having appeared onscreen together in DOFP, it’s hard to tell which is the cooler combination of the two. Still, I’ll tell you the undisputedly coolest, and most lethal combination of the two characters. The nightmare that is, Onslaught.
When Wolverine was nearly killed in one of Magneto’s more unhinged attacks, Charles Xavier decided enough was enough, and psychically lobotomised his old friend. Magneto’s last gamble was to project the darkest park of his mind into his opponent, where it sought out all of Xavier’s fears and resentments from 30 years of suffering mutant oppression. The resultant being destroyed both mutant leaders, and threatened the end of existence in the Marvel Universe.
A psychic beast with the powers of the greatest telepath and electromagnet in existence. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see a live-action version of that?
2. Barracuda
Frank Castle is well known to be the Boogeyman of all bad guys. He doesn’t possess any superpowers or wonderful suits. Put simplify, he’s a monster. An unrelenting and unyielding force of nature, that remorselessly carves his way through the massed ranks of organised crime. Now, hold that thought. and imagine for a second that there was a criminal equivalent of him. Because there is…
As much a product of the US military machine as The Punisher himself, this delightful giant of a gangster quickly tired of the tedium and discipline of his army life, and instead turned his attentions to making a fast buck. Initially falling foul of Nick Fury, ‘Cuda retired to his native Florida, using his military connections and resources to set himself up as a go-to Guy for the CIA.
As lethal with a pig-stick as his is with a .50 cal, there’s no hit too big or too small for this monster of a man to get paid. If he’s not being teased as a future villain at the end of the debut Punisher season, we’ll be VERY surprised…
1. Carnage
So who made the top of the list then? What possible force could be so relentlessly evil that it left all the other villains behind in its wake? A serial killer of some kind, perhaps? Who now has the potential to enter the MCU with the new grittier and edgier access points that the Netflix shows have created? Or maybe some kind of unbeatable alien organism, from the many worlds and planetoids that can be found out where the Guardians Of The Galaxy inhabit? Fuck it, how about a combination of the two?
It’s recently been announced that Sony are going to be salvaging the character of Venom from the train-wreck that was ‘Spider-Man 3’, and rebooting it for a solo outing. This has caused Spidey fans no end of anger, as they’re still waiting to see Carnage appear in some format on the big screen. As if a body-possessing alien parasite wasn’t scary enough, combining it with the most feared serial killer since Jack The Ripper has created an evil that is still apparently too severe and bloodthirsty to put near the MCU. Listen up, Marvel execs.
The fans want Cletus Cassidy. And they want him NOW!