by Ran
Updated 4/2/23
Most of us show up for the heroes but sometimes we just can't help being captivated by the bad guys. Here are the MCU's best:
12. Alexander Pierce
To the probable delight of Republican moviegoers everywhere, S.H.I.E.L.D. bigwig Alexander Pierce illustrates the importance of small government. This dude actually orchestrated -- and nearly executed -- a plot to lethally eliminate all potential troublemakers on American soil, most of whom are U.S. citizens. Luckily, Captain America, Falcon, Nick Fury, Sharon Carter and Natasha Romanoff shut that down permanently in The Winter Soldier.
11. Ivan Vanko
Ivan "Whiplash" Vanko is Tony Stark without the extremely privileged background. Vanko had the brains and the physicist/weapons-engineering pops. But when that father, Anton Vanko, was disgraced, deported, left penniless and descended into alcoholism, Ivan ended up in a Soviet detention facility for 15 years. Tony Stark never would've survived Russian prison, but he did endure being held captive by terrorist kidnappers. Sadly, Vanko is a decent villain who got stuck in a bad movie (Iron Man 2).
10. Batroc the Leaper
Very few mortals have the balls to take Steve Rogers on one-on-one and Georges Batroc found out why in The Winter Soldier. But at least he tried. And the fact that the Algerian mercenary lasted a few seconds says a lot -- and earned Captain America's respect.
9. Kang the Conqueror
The magnificent title of a terrible James Bond movie seems to by Kang's ethos: The World is Not Enough. Not satisfied with controlling the planet -- or even the universe, this temporal-traveling warlord seeks to dominate all of time itself.
8. Death Dealer
Chinese assassin Death Dealer is criminally under used in his one and only onscreen appearance (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). The MCU's first ninja falls into the Boba Fett category of movie characters: a mysterious badass with a dope design whose bumped off in an egregiously anti-climactic manner after minimal screen-time.
7. Taskmaster
Like James "the Winter Soldier" Barnes, Antonia Dreykov was put through a Russian assassin training program after being seriously injured. Though she lacks the benefit of a bionic arm, Dreykov's intense study of various members of the Avengers Initiative allows her to utilize their respective fighting styles in combat.
6. Ultron
Like Skynet, after becoming self-aware, Ultron concluded that mankind is the biggest threat to the globe and quickly conceived a plan to rid the world of its most destructive infestation so that the Earth could start fresh without us. Lucky for us, the Avengers evacuated the town that he'd planned to drop from the sky and the team's new inductee, the Vision, was there to frog-stomp his ass into oblivion.
5. Helmut Zemo
Without his signature pink ski mask from the comics, Zemo is better than ever. Now a Sokovian special ops soldier with a vendetta, Zemo successfully masterminded the implosion of the Avengers where Loki failed miserably before him.
4. The Winter Soldier
As we learned in his self-titled movie, the Winter Soldier executed countless assassinations over decades and shot Black Widow during a ballistic confrontation that left him unscathed. But it was Civil War that revealed his personal hand in the murders that orphaned Tony Stark and showed off even more of his super-soldier-serum-enhanced skills.
3. Namor
Kukulkan, the centuries-old ruler of the Talocan empire, worshipped by his people as a deity, posed the only credible outside threat to the African kingdom of Wakanda since Thanos' defeat.
2. Thanos
Don't let Thanos' protestations of overcrowding fool you. If he really cared about saving people he'd have created more resources instead of killing off half the universe. But the Mad Titan certainly keeps his promises -- you gotta give him that. He said he'd retire once he'd completed his mission. And he did. It's not like a guy who can beat the shit outta the Hulk and pull a moon out of orbit could've been forced onto the bench.
1. Killmonger
T'Challa's (Black Panther) American-born cousin, Erik Stevens, steadily inched his way to his ancestral home with single-minded determination. After becoming a Navy SEAL and graduating from MIT, Stevens honed his skills as a warrior in Afghanistan and other hot spots around the globe, picking up the nickname "Killmonger" (a reference to his considerable body count) along the way. His military career also includes black-ops missions in which he helped to destabilize governments.
With assistance from black market arms dealer Ulysses Klaue and Tilda Johnson, Stevens used his skills to steal (or liberate) two Wakandan artifacts from a London museum.
After murdering both of his accomplices, Stevens made his way to Wakanda, where he revealed his native name (N'Jadaka) and the fact that he's of royal blood (as the son of King T'Chaka's brother) and thereby eligible to challenge T'Challa's claim to the throne. Following his defeat of T'Chaka in ritual combat, N'Jadaka assumed the Wakandan throne and announced his intention to distribute the country's advanced technology and weaponry (based mainly on vibranium) to the African diaspora across the globe so that the world's Black population could rise up against white regimes.
Originally Posted 3/12/19
No comments:
Post a Comment