The most recent Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, saw a villain who wasn’t really a bad guy at all. Namor was a man wanting to protect his nation and did what he felt he needed to in that aspect. The MCU has an interesting track record overall with bad guys. There are two archetypes in the MCU. This includes villains who pretended to be heroes and villains who found redemption in the end.
However, there were also villains in the MCU who wanted nothing more than to burn the entire world to the ground. These were violent men and women, and they mostly left a path of dead bodies in their wake. From villains who killed countless people to those who killed out of a sense of vengeance, these villains showed a sense of violence than was frightening.
Killmonger
Killmonger fits squarely into the category of MCU villains who believe they are on the right side of history. This was a man who knew the King of Wakanda had killed his father and wanted to see the world burn around him. He was as violent as it came, as well as one of the smartest MCU villains, thanks to the United States.
Trained by the United States military as a black ops killer, he brought that to Wakanda and prepared them to declare war on the world. Killmonger almost killed Black Panther and then created a military force that he hoped would lure the entire world into war.
Ultron
Tony Stark created Ultron for one reason: he created the robot the protect the planet. The entire purpose was to deal with any threats to the world, like Loki and the Chitauri. There was one problem. There isn’t a bigger threat to the planet than humans, who spend every day destroying it.
Thus, Ultron set out to eliminate all humans to save the planet. Ultron attacked and killed without remorse. He was single-handedly responsible for the destruction of Sokovia, which led to countless problems in the hero’s future. He also killed the first Avenger to fall in battle with Quicksilver.
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch was a tragic MCU villain. She was also one of the most violent villains in MCU history. She started out as a hero, a member of the Avengers who fought to save the world from Thanos. However, she lost everything in her life, from her parents to her brother Quicksilver to her lover Vision to her own children.
This sent her into a rage to regain her children, and she violently killed anyone who stood in her way. Wanda killing The Illuminati was one of the MCU’s most violent moments. While Ultron killed more people, the way Wanda killed was much more violent and ruthless.
Dreykov
Dreykov was one of several MCU villains who operated from behind the scenes. However, unlike men like Justin Hammer and even Aldrich Killian, Dreykov was the most violent of these puppet masters. He took in children and forced them into assassins using mind control.
He then sent these young women out to kill anyone considered an enemy. He also used his own daughter, also using mind control, to kill anyone and everyone. When Black Widow saw how many active Widows existed in the world, the frightening reach of Dreykov and the Red Room was revealed.
Gorr the God Butcher
Gorr the God Butcher was an unlikely candidate for redemption, but that is what he ended up receiving. He was one in a long line of MCU villains who turned evil after the death of a loved one. Unlike Killmonger, who lost his dad when he was a child, Gorr lost his daughter. That made his vengeance more violent than even Killmonger.
Gorr set out and started slaughtering gods, killing them without remorse. He even killed the gods who had done no wrong, one of the evilest MCU plans. Gorr was seemingly unstoppable, and the only thing that finally ended the violence was the opportunity to resurrect his daughter.
Red Skull
One of the earliest violent MCU villains appeared in Captain America: The First Avenger. Most early MCU villains were fairly generic. The one that stood out as someone unique was the Red Skull, the greatest threat to the world in World War II.
Though Hydra operated under the German Nazi army, he wanted to conquer the entire world, taking out along with America and the allied powers. As one of the most prideful MCU villains, he was so violent and evil that he ended up banished to Vormir to serve the next seven decades as the Stonekeeper.
Thanos
Thanos is an interesting villain, as he felt like he was doing things for the right reason. However, what he did was kill more people than any single villain in the main MCU timeline. When he took in Gamora as a child, he killed half the people on her planet.
He also ordered the destruction of other planets and worlds, and when he arrived on Earth, he laid a trail of destruction in his wake. He felt he was saving the universe, but he did it in the most shockingly violent way possible.
Ronan the Acc
Thanos was violent, and he ordered the destruction of half the universe. However, his goal through his violence was to save the universe in the end. That was a different goal from Ronan the Acc. Ronan worked for Thanos, and he killed for Thanos.
However, Ronan killed not to save the universe. He killed because he loved to kill. He set out to destroy the entire homeworld of the Nova Corps and slaughtered almost the entire peacekeeping unit, and he did it for his love of violence.
Hela
Hela was so violent and powerful that her own father, Odin, banished her from their realm. When Odin died, she returned and immediately proved more powerful than Thor and Loki together, outsmarting both MCU heroes. Hela then went to Asgard and slaughtered the entire Asgardian army.
Hela’s legacy was born in violence. The Valkyries were Asgard’s greatest warriors, and Hela killed every one of them, save one. In the end, the only person able to stop her reign of violence was Surtur, whose entire existence was to destroy Asgard.
Infinity Ultron
The most violent villain in MCU history showed up in the Disney+ series What If…? This villain was a version of Ultron, but one that made the original Ultron look pale in comparison. Instead of just an Ultron that Tony Stark created who wanted to save the world from humans, this was one that created a new body for himself while in possession of the Mind Stone.
He killed almost every human on Earth, but he wasn’t finished and destroyed other planets and worlds. He was so violent and relentless that The Watcher had to break his oath to gather a team of heroes to stop him.
