In a story of good against bad, a hero can only be amazing if the villain is enough of a challenge to take down. Now you wouldn’t want Iron Man and the Avengers to take down a purse thief.
So here are 10 of the strongest villains that Marvel has created to give all of their superhero teams a fearsome challenge, not only in power but in spirit and motives as well.
10. Gorr the God Butcher
An adversary of the great Norse God, Thor, Gorr the God Butcher is a curious case of a victim trying to get back at his culprits. Stranded on a planet with scarce resources, Gorr sees all of his family members die one after another because of famine. But when his last son, Agar dies in his arms, Gorr starts believing that there are no Gods in the world.
Being exiled by his traditional community, Gorr ends up in the duel between two Gods, and seeing as one is about to meet his end, he takes the weapon of the one winning, stabs him with it and kills the other God as well. This marks the beginning of his revenge plan against all Gods in the universe.
While on his quest he comes to Earth slaying more and more Gods, but when he has slain some Slavic Gods, Thor hunts down this God butcher. In all of the comics, Thor has always been defeated by Gorr, even three different Gods weren’t able to put the God butcher down.
In the Thor comics, Gorr stands out as a villain who isn’t a God or a deity but a simple human. It’s the concept of atheism taken to the extreme when all the atheist wants to do is ignore the concept of God to kill the concept of God altogether.
9. Thanos
The Mad Titan himself, the collector of infinity stones and the wielder of the Heart of the Universe. The Marvel Cinematic Universe depicted him in a grey light, neither good nor evil. But that isn’t really what makes him the Mad Titan.
Originally he went off on the quest of killing half of the living beings in the whole world, not because of concern for living and dying but because he wanted to impress his beloved. That’s what makes him mad. Like we say, love makes people do stupid things, Thanos also did a stupid thing in love, killing off half of the universe.
But the MCU didn’t do all wrong, in another storyline, Thanos is very concerned about the way that nature has taken its course or better yet how living beings have twisted nature. So he sets off on another journey, this time to gain the Heart of the Universe.
An object that could bring anything that the wielder wanted into reality. And to gain it he fought everything, from heroes to gods to cosmic beings that govern the multiverse themselves. Nothing was able to stop him and he wiped the whole multiverse clean but after that, he had no idea. This is what makes him The Mad Titan.
His character is very simple in execution but tricky to reinvent that’s why he takes a back seat to most of the biggest conflicts of the Marvel Universe or is the one who brings that conflict. The madness of our day to day life shines in Thanos which makes him such an interesting villain.
8. Galactus
The devourer of planets was just a human in the last edition of the multiverse, being the only survivor of that era he was granted the Power Cosmic. Now if you have read any comics related to Galactus you know that he is feared by many but also has been defeated a lot of times. Well, that is the reason why he doesn’t fare well when it comes to the strongest villain category.
But if there is one thing that makes them very formidable against his enemies is the fear that he built before even meeting his foes. The name Galactus has now been synonymous with the coming of death, destruction and end. That’s why Galactus is such an easy enemy to take down, there is always someone shouting his name, for him to come.
And these beings that act as his heralds aren’t weak on their own. Granted the fraction of Power Cosmic themselves by Galactus, they should be considered as his aids whenever trouble strikes for the big giant.
Now about Galactus, there isn’t some high concept that governs his character except that he resembles most of the natural calamities in the real world. Being unavoidable and coming with a sort of caution, some natural disasters have taken away people, lives and whole cities. People call them evil but are they? Galactus is called a villain but he just wants to feed himself doesn’t he?
7. Dark Phoenix
One of the darkest nightmares for the X-men time and again, the Dark Pheonix is an entity that gives any individual that wields it incredible power. While there are cases when the Pheonix Force has been used for good.
Like the time when Hope Summers was able to control it and wield it to knock down the spell of the Scarlett Witch and give powers back to the mutant race. Some of the most remarkable instances of the Pheonix are the ones where it overpowered the user and unleased fury.
Like the iconic storyline of Jean Grey. At the beginning of the tale, she was able to use the power and wield it to banish evil. But she was overpowered the Pheonix destroyed everything Jean held dear, including her husband, Cyclops.
The Pheonix can also be read as a metaphor for the power-hungry essence that is in humanity. When we gain power, even if it is used responsibly could be harmful if it is too much for the mind and body to take.
Just the countless tales of good-hearted politicians and lawyers, who abide by the rules of the system, turning to the corrupt side when they feel they are nigh important for the system to work, are a great example of this metaphor.
6. Doctor Doom
The mastermind to outmanoeuvre the best of brains, Doctor Doom is on this list solely for his brains. The smartest villain on this list, he was once the holder of the Beyonder’s power. When Beyonder was foolish enough to bring Doctor Doom to his secret wars battlefield he should have known the boundaries that Doom is willing to cross for power.
Created to reflect the worst kind of intellect in humanity, he is the reflection of real-life baddies who were able to topple democracies and overthrow the monarchy to get what they want.
The ruler of Latveria himself, Doctor Doom remains calm and peaceful, just like an educated man until someone bothers his meditation or a chance to gain more power arrives at his doorstep.
A staple villain of the Fantastic Four, he has defeated the team of four or even more multiple times, but as said earlier, his gaining the powers of the Beyonder made him the ruler of anything and everything that was a being.
5. Beyonder
Not exactly a villain but always causing mischief and turmoil for the heroes, Beyonder is a being that is a part of an otherworldly race known as Beyonders. He was brought to this world through a ray that was searching vibranium in the galaxy, but whatever his reason for coming, his presence changed the whole turn of Earth’s Mightiest Hero.
When he was observing life on Earth, he got fascinated by the small creatures living a life unknown to everything around, him while also being a part of that universe. The existence of such creatures led the Beyonder to run an experiment that would go down as Marvel’s best comic story.
Hulk, Spider-Man, some of the members of the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, were transported from the gardens of New York City to a space-time area. While Absorbing Man, Doctor Doom, Doctor Octopus, the Enchantress, Kang, the Lizard, the Molecule Man, Ultron, the Wrecker and the rest of the Wrecking Crew, and Galactus, found themselves in the same area.
Now, before them, a planet came into existence, known simply as the Battleworld. As the name suggests they were invited to wage a secret war. This would show the Beyonder the truths of these heroes and villains that stand as the embodiments for the humans down below.
A lot of stuff happens but the general gist of Beyonder was that, as an existence that lives with other beings similar to itself, humans have the choice to live alone. But the communities and societies that we inhabit are what make us human.
4. Legion
An off again on again hero and villain, Legion is the name of the collective consciousness of David Haller, the son of Charles Xavier. Being the son of such a powerful mutant, he also gained psionic abilities.
But one incident in his early teens would define him forever. When a group of terrorists infiltrate his hometown and killed his step-father in front of his eyes. David had an outburst of psionic energy which rendered him vulnerable to all the astral energies in the area around him. This incident led to dissociative mental disorder in David’s mind.
Sometimes when he was in control and could use his psionic powers, he was one of the strongest mutant heroes. But when a personality overtakes his mental space, he is just a puppet to the whims of his captor. A victim in his head, Legion is that force that is strong enough to move David to the side and use his powers for their motives.
A great representation of a dissociative mental disorder person as well as an autistic person, David’s victimhood and eventual victory over himself make for an amazing journey.
3. Amatsu-Mikaboshi (The Chaos King)
The being that came from the cosmic entity Eternity, Mikaboshi was the ruler of the Earth when it was nothing but a void and nothing existed. After Gaea gave birth to life and the planet flourished it was destiny that Mikaboshi comes back to reclaim what he had left milleniums ago.
With the end goal of bringing the universe to its void state, every being in the universe was fighting to stop Mikaboshi. But ultimately they failed, even the power of the almighty gods couldn’t stop the Chaos King.
With the power to turn his defeated foes into puppets he can use, and an undead army thanks to Death fleeing from the scene, Mikaboshi was truly invincible. At the end of the day, it was the brains of Amadeus Cho, the smartest kid in the universe that led to the Chaos King’s demise.
While being taken straight out of the pages of the Japanese myth of creation, Mikaboshi reminds us of the darkness that dwells within us that screams to end things. When you get those bad thoughts, every good thought is either overtaken or unheard, which is very damaging for us.
2. Void
From one alter-ego to another, the hero known as Sentry is a sentient with the power of a thousand suns in his mere fist. What happens when he loses control over his powers which gives rise to an overpowered evil?
That is exactly what Void is, a being created out of the imbalance that Sentry’s power creates in his head.
One time when the Sentry was a part of the Dark Avengers, he got so out of control and manipulated by the whims of Norman Osborn that he destroyed Asgard. While that might be Sentry’s fault, when he had done the deed Void took over ans chaos ensued.
Not only did he rip Ares into two halves and defeats the Avengers with ease. That is the true power that the heroes cover before they call Sentry for any mission.
The Void is the manifestation of our very would, the darkness that dwells within us. The creators of the Void mock the very humane nature of being greedy and selfish sometimes. There are methods to control to a degree but substance abuse isn’t like the story of Sentry teaches us.
1. Molecule Man
The strongest among them all, Molecule Man was once a silver age comic joke villain who became a thought project in modern times.
Hailed as being the strongest being in existence, having control over every molecule in the existence, Molecule Man suffers from an insufferable disease. The proper use of his abilities to the maximum effort.
Once he can achieve equilibrium in himself, there is nothing in this multiverse that could come close to this omega-level threat.
But in a grand twist Molecule Man could turn to the side of good if after realizing the extent of his powers he is overtaken by the guilt and responsibility that comes with this amount of power. But that is impossible for a villain isn’t it.
This character is the most high-concept that Marvel writers have ever gone, here we have a human, a normal thug at that, struggling to make ends meet. But one day he discovers he has the power that rivals that of the very beings who gave us life, the cosmic entities. It is truly fascinating to think that a villain like this exists.
Now villains come in any shape or form but it is inside of ourselves that true evil is born. So it is our duty in good conscience to get rid of these thoughts that would affect someone else. These were some of the strongest villains of the Marvel Universe, what did we miss or didn’t seem to notice.
