There’s always been a line drawn between what makes a person a hero or a villain. Sometimes, that line is a little thinner than others, where a character’s guilt or innocence is almost indistinguishable. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a genius at creating these complex characters that people love to hate, but really just love for the pure enjoyment of watching them wreak havoc.
Everyone loves the bad boys — and girls — but everyone also loves a good redemption arc and the following 10 are some of the best the MCU has to offer.
10. M.O.D.O.K.
Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) was the main villain in the original Ant-Man movie. He was insanely jealous of Hank Pym’s (Michael Douglas) genius intellect and did some extremely evil things. He experimented on numerous animals and humans to test out his own variation of Hank’s Pym Particles, which allow people to grow to the size of a building or shrink to the size of an ant. His experiments resulted in people and animals being turned to goo without any remorse from him. He also kidnapped and traumatized Cassie Lang (Abby Rhyder-Fortson) when she was a child, which resulted in him going subatomic and being trapped in the Quantum Realm.
During Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Scott (Paul Rudd) and Cassie (Kathryn Newton) discover Darren was disfigured while going subatomic, resulting in a form that resembles a tiny body with a giant head. After receiving a special suit from Kang (Jonathan Majors), Darren changes his name to M.O.D.O.K. (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing). Cassie helps M.O.D.O.K. see the error of his ways and he helped bring down Kang’s forcefield at the end, but was mortally injured in the process. He thanked Cassie for helping him and believed he was dying as a member of the Avengers.
9. Trevor Slattery
Although its difficult to call Trever Slattery (Ben Kingsley) a villain, he did pass himself off as the Mandarin and terrorist leader of the Ten Rings in Iron Man 3. It was revealed at the end of the movie that he was actually just an actor hired by Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) and Advanced Idea Mechanics.
Kingsley reprised his role in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, where it was revealed that after being sentenced to death for pretending to be Xu Wenwu (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung), the real Mandarin, he ended up charming his way out of the sentence and became Wenwu’s court jester of sorts. Trevor and his hundun sidekick named Morris helped Shaun (Simu Liu), Katy (Awkwafina) and Xialing (Meng’er Zhang) gain entrance into the mysterious village of Ta Lo. Trevor and Morris quickly became fan favorites of the 2021 blockbuster hit.
8. Abomination
Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), a former special-ops commander in the British Royal Marines, was first introduced in The Incredible Hulk, when he was recruited by General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt) to become a test subject for a Super Soldier Serum variant and defeat the Hulk (Ed Norton). After losing to Hulk, Blonsky forced the doctor to give him a blood transfusion with Bruce Banner’s gamma-irradiated blood, which transformed him into Abomination. Abomination went on a rampage through New York City, killing possibly hundreds of people before being defeated by Hulk.
Abomination returned in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, when it’s revealed that Wong (Benedict Wong) pulls him out of prison to fight in underground fight clubs. He returned again in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, where he requests Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) represent him in his upcoming parole hearing. Emil now has control over his transformations and only does it when he wants, such as fighting in the underground fight clubs with Wong. Roth portrays him so well that people can’t help but root for Abomination to finally receive peace. Emil now leads a self-healing support group and does guest speaker engagements.
7. Hulk
Hulk wasn’t always the destructive but loveable Hulk we now know. After initially becoming Hulk in the aforementioned The Incredible Hulk, he rampaged through New York City and killed a couple dozen people before he was apprehended by General Ross.
After helping to defeat Abomination, Bruce Banner secluded himself in South America, which is where Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) found him during Avengers. Now portrayed by Mark Ruffalo, Bruce Banner has done everything in his power to keep the Hulk at bay all these years. Believing he can help them defeat Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) recruits Bruce to be part of the Avengers Initiative. With Black Widow’s help, Bruce has semi-control over his Hulk impulses. Sometime between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: End Game, Bruce was able to merge his two identities, which he calls Professor Hulk.
6. Wanda Maximoff
Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and her twin brother Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) had a difficult childhood, to say the least. After watching her parents get killed with bombs developed by Tony Stark, the twins joined Hydra and agreed to undergo experiments to master their powers. Experiments with the Mind Stone amplified their latent abilities, giving Wanda psionic abilities and Pietro super-speed. After the fall of Hydra, they joined Ultron to help get their revenge on Tony Stark, but then realized Ultron’s plan to commit genocide on the human race, so they agreed to help the Avengers defeat him, which resulted in Pietro’s death.
Wanda helped the team countless times and became a powerful ally, but since Wanda’s story wasn’t tragic enough, she was forced to kill the man he loved (Paul Bettany), only for that to be reversed and then forced to watch him die at the hands of Thanos (Josh Brolin). After waking from the Snap, Wanda discovered the plot of land that Vision purchased for their home and broke down, unknowingly creating a fairy tale world for herself where Vision was alive and they had twin sons. After discovering that the people trapped in her make-believe world were living their worst nightmares, Wanda gave up her perfect life with Vision, Billy and Tommy, but not before transforming into the Scarlet Witch.
After hearing the screams from her children in an alternate reality, Wanda — corrupted by the Darkhold — killed countless people on her quest to reunite her family. In the end, however, seeing the fear in her children’s eyes caused by her, Wanda realized the destruction she had done and destroyed the Darkhold, possibly killing herself in the process. Wanda’s story is tragic because she is genuinely a good person who just can’t seem to catch a break. She’s lost everyone close to her, but always seems to do the right thing in the end.
5. Clint Barton
After losing his entire family in the Snap, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) put down his bow and arrow as Hawkeye and picked up a sword to become Ronin. Clint was angry that good people like his wife and children were taken, while evil people were left to wreak havoc on the world. As Ronin, Clint assassinated countless people before Black Widow found him and gave him hope they could bring his loved ones back.
Clint is essentially a good person who was overcome with grief and killed a lot of people in the process. He was willing to die to save the universe, but Black Widow beat him to it. Clint helped his protégé Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) become possibly as good as him.
4. Nebula
Nebula (Karen Gillan) is the adopted — and least favorite — daughter of Thanos. Nebula is a Luphomoid who has been nearly completely altered due to the constant torture she endures at the hands of her father. In fear of him, Nebula does everything Thanos wishes, including helping him find the Infinity Stones. Nebula hates Gamora (Zoe Saldana) for being Thanos’ favorite daughter and wants to kill her as payback for always overshadowing her. The sisters eventually reconcile and Nebula joins the Guardians of the Galaxy.
3. Baron Zemo
After losing his family in the Battle of Sokovia, Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl) sought revenge on the Avengers and framed Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) for the murder of King T’Chaka of Wakanda in Captain America: Civil War. Zemo was eventually captured by T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and placed in the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre.
Zemo returned to the MCU in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, where he talked Bucky into helping him escape from prison. Most everyone can agree that Zemo was the best part of the Disney Plus series and quickly became a fan favorite. Zemo eventually made amends with Bucky and was taken into custody by the Dora Milaje.
2. Bucky Barnes
Bucky Barnes is the best friend of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). He voluntarily joined the Army during World War II and helped Steve, who was given the Super Soldier Serum to become Captain America and defeat Hydra. During the battle, Bucky plummeted to his presumed death, where he was taken captive by Hydra and given a variant dose of the Super Soldier Serum. While Steve was frozen in ice for more than 65 years, Bucky was brainwashed and used as an assassin known as the Winter Soldier. As the Winter Soldier, Bucky was ordered to kill anyone who posed a threat to Hydra, including Tony Stark’s parents, Howard and Maria Stark.
After Steve realized who the Winter Soldier was, he called out Bucky’s name, which caused him to start remembering who he was. Bucky eventually remembered who he was and has since begun atoning for his past deeds, despite not being in control when he’d committed the crimes.
1. Loki
The bad boy of the MCU is definitely Loki, the God of Mischief. He’s tried to kill his brother Thor (Chris Hemsworth) countless times, killed possibly thousands of people and caused more destruction than any other character.
Despite all his evil deeds, there was always a glimmer of good inside Loki, who eventually became an ally and real brother to Thor. Despite his countless fake deaths, he was killed by Thanos after trying to betray him.
After the Avengers went back in time to bring everyone who died in the Snap back to life, a variant of Loki grabbed the Tesseract (Space Stone) and escaped, only to be apprehended by the Time Variance Authority in Loki. Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) helps Loki see the error of his ways and come to terms with his past misdeeds.