At Marvel Studios’ D23 panel, Tim Blake Nelson’s The Leader – who hasn’t been seen since he acquired superpowers at the end of The Incredible Hulk – will appear as the main antagonist in Captain America: New World Order. In an interview with Screen Rant, director Julius Onah described the new villain as a “brilliant mastermind.”
But not all MCU villains are evil for the sake of being evil; some of them have a personal vendetta against the heroes. Justin Hammer was jealous of Tony Stark, Wenwu resented Shang-Chi for running away from home as a teenager, and Gorr the God Butcher held a grudge against all deities – including Thor.
10/10 Aldrich Killian
In the opening scene of Iron Man 3, set on New Year’s Eve, Aldrich Killian approaches a young Tony Stark and offers to pitch him his new idea. Tony doesn’t show up for the pitch, setting the stage for a decades-long grudge.
In the present, Killian has developed the Extremis virus, infected an army of regenerative henchmen, and formed a terrorist cell that the world is afraid of – all to get back at Tony.
9/10 Taskmaster
Until the third act of Black Widow, the identity of the Taskmaster is kept a secret. When Natasha Romanoff confronts the villainous General Dreykov, she finally finds out who’s been hiding under the mask and trying to kill her.
As it turns out, the Taskmaster is Dreykov’s daughter Antonia, who was severely injured and presumed dead in Nat’s first S.H.I.E.L.D. operation with Clint Barton.
8/10 Hela
At the beginning of Thor: Ragnarok, just before Odin fades away, he tells Thor and Loki that he has an evil daughter they didn’t know about. He’s been keeping Hela imprisoned for years, but after he dies, she’ll be free. Lo and behold, seconds after Odin dies, Hela shows up and crushes Mjolnir with her bare hands.
Naturally, Hela holds some bitterness toward Thor and Loki for being the kids that Odin decided to raise instead of her.
7/10 Justin Hammer
Killian was far from the first Iron Man villain in the MCU to hold a personal grudge against Tony Stark. The villain in Iron Man 2, Whiplash, resents Tony for how Stark Industries treated his father, and the villain bankrolling that villain, Justin Hammer, simply wants to be Tony.
Like Stark, Hammer is a billionaire weapons manufacturer. But unlike Stark, he has no style. That can be seen when he tries to dance onto the stage at his own expo.
6/10 Killmonger
In the early scenes of Black Panther, it was unclear why Erik Killmonger held a personal vendetta against Wakanda. But when he got there, he revealed that he was T’Challa’s cousin, whose father was killed by his in the movie’s cold open.
The revelation that Killmonger is T’Challa’s cousin is comparable to the iconic revelation that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father in The Empire Strikes Back.
5/10 Baron Zemo
After the Avengers had defeated an alien army and an omnipotent android, the enemy that ended up tearing the team apart in Captain America: Civil War was just a regular guy. Helmut Zemo wanted to bring down Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in retaliation for the collateral deaths of his family in the Battle of Sokovia.
Zemo explained to T’Challa, “I knew I couldn’t kill them. More powerful men than me have tried. But if I could get them to kill each other…”
4/10 Gorr The God Butcher
In the surprisingly dark opening scene of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, Gorr’s daughter dies in his arms, he stumbles upon a magical garden, and finds that the deity he’s worshipped his whole life doesn’t care about him. After his god laughs in his face, Gorr seizes the Necrosword, kills him, and pledges to slaughter all gods.
Not only does Gorr have a grudge against the God of Thunder; he has a grudge against every single god in existence, blaming them for all the tragedies that have befallen regular people.
3/10 Obadiah Stane
Before Justin Hammer and Aldrich Killian entered into feuds with Tony Stark, he was betrayed by his own father figure in the original Iron Man movie. Obadiah Stane took Tony under his wing after his real father died, seemingly as a mentor, but he just turned out to want to usurp him as CEO of Stark Industries.
Tony thought he could trust Obadiah, but he couldn’t have been more wrong; Obadiah hired terrorists to kidnap and kill Tony in Afghanistan. And if he didn’t have a box of scraps and a will to survive, they would’ve succeeded.
2/10 Wenwu
Nearly a decade after the disappointing fake-out in Iron Man 3, Marvel Studios finally introduced the real Mandarin, Wenwu, in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Wenwu renounced his life of evil after falling in love with Shang-Chi’s mother, then resumed it right after she died.
In the second act of the movie, Wenwu lures Shang-Chi into a trap. He resents his son for running away from home as a teenager.
1/10 Ego
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Peter Quill finally meets his biological father, Ego the Living Planet, and is initially enamored with him. When Ego feels the time is right, he explains his grand plan to Quill – to reshape the universe in his own image – and expects Quill to be onboard with it.
When Quill refuses to get onboard, Ego quickly turns against him: “Who the hell do you think you are? You really need to grow up!”
