Ranking The Marvel Cinematic Universe's 8 WORST Villains In 2021's Films And TV Shows

Ranking The Marvel Cinematic Universe's 8 WORST Villains In 2021's Films And TV Shows

2021 was an exciting year for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but we were introduced to a lot of disappointing bad guys (a recurring issue for Marvel Studios). This lot, however, were the worst!

Feature Opinion
By HamiltonParker - Jan 06, 2022 01:01 PM EST
Filed Under: No Way Home

It's a New Year, and the next 358 days or so promise to be incredibly exciting for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We'll spend time with lots of new and returning characters in theaters and at home, though one can only hope that 2022 is a better year for Marvel Studios' evildoers 

Villains have been problematic for the MCU since day one, and while we met lots of awesome bad guys in 2021 (such as Kingpin, the Green Goblin, Wenwu, and Agatha Harkness), there were an awful lot who didn't quite hit the mark in the same way.

In this feature, we're looking back at the villains who most underwhelmed on the big and small screen.

Some were just there in a supporting capacity, while others were the main foe of the heroes we rooted for. All of them were terrible for different reasons, though, and you can find out why below!
 

8. Lizard

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Spider-Man: No Way Home featured five sinister villains, but Sandman and The Lizard were really only there to make up the numbers. So, why does Dr. Curt Connors earn a spot here in place of Flint Marko?

It was a close contest, but the fact that Marvel Studios failed to improve The Amazing Spider-Man baddie's appearance in any way definitely goes against him. The Green Goblin's mask was ditched because fans didn't love it, so why not address one of the 2012 film's biggest complaints by introducing a slightly more monstrous Lizard in the MCU?

That aside, and Connors' story wasn't expanded on in any sort of meaningful way. He still just wanted to turn people into lizards and, to us, that's just a waste of one of Spidey's most iconic foes. 

Here's hoping Lizard gets another shot at redemption down the line. 
 

7. Taskmaster

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On the one hand, there's really nothing wrong with Taskmaster. 

While "he" was pursuing Natasha Romanoff in Black Widow, Taskmaster was more akin to a Terminator and seemed genuinely unstoppable. In fact, some questionable costume decisions aside, this villain had all the makings of an antagonist who could serve as an exciting new addition to the MCU. 

It all went wrong, however, when the movie revealed that Dreykov's brainwashed daughter was beneath the mask. A female Taskmaster is actually a neat twist, but now she's been cured of her programming, it's hard to imagine the villain ever returning. We'd like to see Antonia Dreykov return with a new badass suit as formidable as ever, but that doesn't seem likely. 

For the most part, Taskmaster was wasted and feels like another Ghost. There's room for redemption, though, hence why she doesn't rank higher. 
 

6. Infinity Ultron

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Had Infinity Ultron showed up a little sooner, he could have been a truly memorable big bad in What If...?'s first season. Instead, this Ultron Variant who managed to defeat Earth's Mightiest Heroes in his reality didn't quite leave the lasting impact we hoped. 

Look no further than the lazy way he killed Thanos for proof of that, though we will give the show some credit for having him battle The Watcher through the Multiverse. Ultron wielding the Infinity Stones should have been more exciting than it really was, and his defeat at the hands of Arnim Zola, while clever, was a disappointment. 

Ross Marquand did a decent enough job, but he's not James Spader, and that didn't help matters. 

Hopefully, season 2 of What If...? will make better use of its time to make use of a lead villain who truly justifies a team like the Guardians of the Multiverse assembling.
 

5. Eleanor Bishop

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The Tracksuit Mafia was great fun to spend time with, while Vincent D'Onofrio's return as Kingpin was a rousing success for Marvel Studios (we just hope there are already future plans in place for him). 

Not quite as effective, however, was Eleanor Bishop. Marvel Studios showed their hand far too early by hinting at her being shady in the Hawkeye premiere and it quickly became apparent that she was secretly a villain. Because of that, the eventual reveal - which took five episodes to get to - was extremely underwhelming and telegraphed. 

This had ripple effects throughout the entire series, and also similarly lessened the impact of that Swordsman twist. 

When Eleanor's relationship with Wilson Fisk was revealed, Hawkeye failed to double down on her true nature and this was one part of the finale that fell flat, as a result. 
 

4. Tyler Hayward

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Talking of predictable bad guys, did any of you not foresee S.W.O.R.D. Director Taylor Hayward being outed as a stereotypically shady bureaucrat who was only doing what he deemed to be the right thing?

If so, you might not have been paying enough attention. No matter how easy that was to see coming, Hayward proved himself a villain with little depth and his borderline irrational desire to kill Wanda Maximoff never quite clicked. The reveal that he'd reprogrammed The Vision was a solid twist, but not one that really tied into Hayward in anything more than a superfluous way.

His defeat also came far too easy, and wasn't a moment we ultimately even really cared about. 

Why? Everything that came before was too underwhelming and forgettable and there was nothing about Hayward that made us want to see more of him in the MCU's future. 
 

3. Death Dealer

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Death Dealer has never been a major villain, so we can't imagine there were too many comic book fans disappointed with his portrayal in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

You'd think Marvel Studios would have done something a little more memorable with him in this otherwise near-perfect action epic, however, especially after scenes revealing the role he played in Shang-Chi's traumatic childhood. Beyond that, Death Dealer only really showed up for a couple of cool fight scenes and not much else. 

In the final battle, the villain was killed off in the most boring way possible, and that was that. 

Perhaps there was another version of this film with a better story arc for Death Dealer, but we didn't get to see it. It's a shame too as, visually, this guy was pretty cool. 
 

2. Flag-Smasher

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There was a lot to love about The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, including John Walker's descent into "villainy" after becoming Captain America and taking the Super Soldier Serum. 

The Flag-Smashers, however, were the worst part of Sam Wilson's transformation into the new Cap. Their mission was poorly conceived and felt like it had, for whatever reason, been changed heavily during reshoots (perhaps explaining rumours that they originally wanted to unleash a COVID-like virus on the world). 

Karli Morgenthau was an underwhelming leader, and despite being a formidable threat to Sam physically, Erin Kellyman wasn't a strong enough performer to make this character land. 

Throw in the Power Broker and this series was really lacking on decent bad guys. 
 

1. Kro

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There was not a worse villain in any 2021 superhero film or TV show than Kro. Eternals didn't deserve the negative reviews, but anyone who found something good to say about the leader of the Deviants must have really loved this movie. 

Kro brought nothing of any substance to the table, and looked horrendous as well. The visual effects team dropped the ball in a big way, while Marvel Studios casting Bill Skarsgard in such a thankless role can't be forgiven. There was no need for Kro to be in Eternals, and the story of the Deviants would have played out pretty much the same way without him stealing powers. 

By wasting Kro and making the film even more bloated than it already was, Chloé Zhao made a huge error here.

The opportunity to properly explore the dynamic between the Eternals and Deviants has been missed, as has Kro's romance with Thena. He's clearly dead, too, so there's no redemption to be found here.
 

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OptimusCrime
OptimusCrime - 1/6/2022, 1:02 PM
I seriously thought nr.1 would be Josh Wilding...😞
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 1/6/2022, 1:03 PM
Hamilton Wilding. Infinity Ultron was great and I wouldn't even call Eleanor a villain per se or not the villain of the show. She was just doing what Kingpin told her to do and she tried to get out by the end
TheWalkingCuban
TheWalkingCuban - 1/6/2022, 1:10 PM
That Hayward guy was so Huffleshield Larper, you know what, I hope secret invasion has no movie cameos, just this sword guy, the black guard lady in the TVA, Kylie, the larper cop lady. That would be really fun and exciting
imnotwearinghockeypants
imnotwearinghockeypants - 1/6/2022, 1:13 PM
Bad, boring, villains will kill a great story.
FinnishDude
FinnishDude - 1/6/2022, 3:36 PM
@imnotwearinghockeypants - Eh, besides Loki, none of the Phase 1 villains were particularly great, but I still enjoyed those movies (probably other examples too, but too lazy to think of those at the moment).
JFerguson
JFerguson - 1/6/2022, 1:15 PM
Great now do the 8 best villains.

Wenwu, Gobby, Yellowjacket Pym, and Zemo comes to mind
WaffeX
WaffeX - 1/6/2022, 1:25 PM








Why Marvel? Just Why?
Matchesz
Matchesz - 1/6/2022, 1:29 PM
The fact that Eleanor Bishop is considered Hawkeyes shows villain is really incredibly lame. Like Clown or Swordsman working for Kingpon could not have possibly been the plot? They had to make it the mother. Did MCU’s new writers come from lifetime? Also spent more time watching sign language than hawkeye shooting a bow
Origame
Origame - 1/6/2022, 4:50 PM
@Matchesz - why wouldn't she be considered the villain? She is literally the reason any of this is happening, and it's not like she didn't know or was tricked.
TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 1/6/2022, 1:29 PM
I liked “Taskmaster” in the movie, I thought she was a great top henchman type villain. The problem was pretending that she was Taskmaster in the first place. Call her Projectmanager and most of the “problems” with this villain float away. But it’s what I’ve been saying for decades, why would you take a character from the comics and completely change them? The vast majority of the audience has no idea who Taskmaster is and doesn’t care if they are in the movie or not and the small subset who do know and do care aren’t going to be happy with a completely reconceptualized version of the character. Save your self the headache and create your own character or pull such an incredibly minor character from the comics that no one will care about.
MCUKnight11
MCUKnight11 - 1/6/2022, 1:34 PM
Flag smasher, Taskmaster, and Kro were the bottom 3 for me this year. Here's hoping Taskmaster gets Mandarin's retcon treatment and we get Tony Masters, maybe in Black widow 2?
Origame
Origame - 1/6/2022, 4:58 PM
@MCUKnight11 - the mandarin retcon annoys me because fans keep using that to defend any pointless change, like "well marvel will probably just retcon him like the mandarin".

Well they didn't do that for villains like malaketh. Marvel isn't gonna bother if we don't show our hatred for this decision. And there's no reason why taskmaster had to be done dirty like this in the first place.
OmegaDaGrodd
OmegaDaGrodd - 1/6/2022, 1:35 PM
Flag Smashers really were good up until those last 2 episodes when the show kinda stopped caring about showing why we should empathize with them. I rewatched last week and forgot how little they were in those last few episodes besides the scenes where they got punched

I have no idea how someone looks at Kro and thinks he was bad, let alone really even a villain in that story. He was basically a semi-justified antagonist at worst
Matchesz
Matchesz - 1/6/2022, 1:38 PM
Every villain they gender bend and make a female is never memorable in their role, I thought ghost and Taskmaster were interesting in the comic but in the movies they’re bland af. Not that it being an actress fault its that maybe they should focus more on writing a good character than thinking theyre already clever by making it a chick
TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 1/6/2022, 1:40 PM
It’s hard for me to really be too hard on most of these villains. It’s not like they were being positioned as some new big bad. For the most part they played their parts. Hayward was precisely who Hayward was supposed to be. A character we’ve seen before, nothing to write home about, but anything more and you are taking away from the story actually being told. Was Mama Bishop even a villain?

The only one(s) I thought were actually a waste were Kro and the Deviants. They could actually be huge menacing threats with lots of intricacies and they were an afterthought with no future.
Matchesz
Matchesz - 1/6/2022, 1:48 PM
@TheUnworthyThor - thats thr problem with Hawkeye, there wasnt even a real villain. kingpin just comes in at the end and is a punching bag before he’s defeated without meeting hawkeye once.. the finale was just women taking a crap on kingpin like whoever wrote the finale had harvey weinstein in mind
TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 1/6/2022, 1:54 PM
@Matchesz - I don’t know if a show really needs some overarching big bad. Loki sure didn’t have one. And it was great. I thought Hawkeye was like WandaVision, there were antagonists for sure but it was really the situation that was the problem, not some supervillain’s scheme.
noahthegrand
noahthegrand - 1/6/2022, 1:43 PM
Lizard = the best villain. His turn people into lizards pitch is solid
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