40. Ulysses Klaue, Avengers: Age Of Ultron, 2015; Black Panther, 2018
Comic origin: Fantastic Four #53 (1966)
Played by Andy Serkis
A blackmarket criminal specialising in selling stolen vibranium from Wakanda, Ulysses Klaue cuts a deal with Ultron that ultimately costs him an arm, and then teams up with Erik Killmonger sporting a weaponised prosthetic. Perhaps most striking of all though is his South African accent, which Andy Serkis says was chosen because it “gives him a real edge” as well as deepening his relationship with Wakanda because “he grew up through apartheid”.
Most Dastardly Moment: Telling a guard he can go free during a robbery only to shoot him anyway because he wanted to spread out the bodies.
Killer One-Liner: “I only deal with the man in charge.”
39. Cable, Deadpool 2, 2018
Comic origin: Uncanny X-Men #201 (1986)
Played by Josh Brolin
Though he was introduced as a newborn baby in 1986, it took four more years for Cable (aka Nathan Summers) to emerge as a kick-ass military hardnut, and 14 more for he and Deadpool to join forces. Muscular, armed to the teeth and given cybernetic abilities by a techno-organic virus, Cable was basically Marvel’s Terminator: a warrior from a post-apocalyptic future sent to warn the mutants of the present that the world they know is on borrowed time.
Some of that sturm und drang makes it into Josh Brolin’s performance in Deadpool 2, while the robot arm and eye are present and correct. Yet the real power of his portrayal comes from his unshakeable conviction that offing Firefist (Julian Dennison) will restore his loved ones to life, a personal vendetta that no amount of Wade Wilson wisecracks can vitiate.
“Cable has lost a great deal,” explains co-writer Rhett Reese. “He’s lost his wife and daughter at the hands of a madman and he’s doing anything in his power – including travelling back in time – to solve that issue.” For his part, Brolin made sure he was in “the best shape of his life” to play a character modelled on the Schwarzenegger/Stallone action man template of the ’90s. “What I should have done was blow myself up with steroids and just eat ice cream,” he grins. “But I didn’t. I had a great midlife-crisis idea. Buy a Ferrari? No, I’ll get into shape.”
With Cable hoped to return in Drew Goddard’s X-Force and possible future movies (currently unclear due to the Disney/Fox merger), Brolin won’t be getting tubby anytime soon. “I look forward to continuing with it,” he says. “It scared the shit out of me, but I like to be confronted with fear.”
Most Dastardly Moment: Laying waste to the Ice Box where Firefist is held captive.
Killer One-Liner: “There’s nothing I can’t kill.”
38. Ronan the Accuser Guardians Of The Galaxy, 2014; Captain Marvel, 2019
Comic origin: Fantastic Four #65 (1967)
Played by Lee Pace
A towering titan with skin like blue granite, Ronan was a vengeance-mad renegade out for Xandarian blood after his family was killed during the Kree-Nova War. Oh, and he wielded an enormous battle axe. “He’s nuts,” chuckles Lee Pace, the theatre actor hired to play him. “The more I played him, the more fun I had with just being evil.”
Most Dastardly Moment: Launching an aerial assault against the peaceful planet of Xandar.
Killer One-Liner: “You call me BOY?! I will unfurl one thousand years of Kree justice on Xandar and burn it to its core!”
37. Bad Superman Superman IIII, 1983
Comic origin: N/A
Played by Christopher
Reeve Richard Pryor’s Gus Gorman is no Lex Luthor, but he bags a place in supervillain history for his part in turning Superman to the dark side – instead of weakening the Man of Steel, the artificial kryptonite he formulates removes that famous moral centre. To be honest, Bad Supes isn’t all that despicable (he drinks, his clothes are dirty and he’s a bit of a womaniser), but it’s worth it for his famous (probably metaphorical) scrapyard showdown with Clark Kent.
Most Dastardly Moment: A toss-up between blowing out the Olympic torch and straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Killer One-Liner: “I hope you don’t expect me to save you, because I don’t do that any more.”
36. Baron Zemo Captain America: Civil War, 2016
Comic origin: Captain America #168 (1973)
Played by Daniel Brühl
In the comics, Helmut Zemo was a masked evil genius, but he lands in the MCU with a more down-to-earth makeover. He blames the Avengers for the death of his family at the Battle of Sokovia, and – realising he won’t beat Cap, Iron Man and the rest in a fair fight – embarks on an ingenious revenge mission, subverting the Winter Soldier’s programming to turn Earth’s Mightiest Heroes against each other. More a catalyst than a bona fide supervillain, he ultimately succeeds in his mission by tearing the Avengers apart.
Most Dastardly Moment: Arranging the bombing of the Sokovia Accords that kills King T’Chaka of Wakanda.
Killer One-Liner: “I lost everyone. And so will you.”
35. Yon-Rogg, Captain Marvel, 2019
Comic origin: Marvel Super Heroes #12 (1967)
Played by Jude Law
Kree commander Yon-Rogg seems like an enlightened guy. The charismatic leader of elite squadron Starforce, he heads up a diverse team of men and women. His commitment to equality appears to be so complete he refuses to pull any punches in the opening training session with Vers (aka Carol Danvers, played by Brie Larson), smashing her to the floor. “I slipped,” she protests. “Right,” comes the reply. “You slipped as a result of me punching you in the face.”
But scratch the surface and that woke exterior comes off like thin exo-armour. Yon-Rogg’s repeated warning that Danvers must suppress her emotions might scan like standard military discipline, but is revealed to be part of a broader system of control as the Kree look to inhibit Vers from reaching her full potential. Add to this the third act revelations that Yon-Rogg actually murdered Vers’ mentor Mar-Vell, and that the Skrulls – long portrayed as villains – are in fact refugees fleeing genocidal onslaught from the Kree, and a very different picture emerges.
It is these tensions between surface virtue and interior corruption that make Yon-Rogg the villain of today. His brand of toxic masculinity isn’t about sexual entitlement, but instead insidious gaslighting designed to keep Vers in her place, conforming to the narrow perimeters of what he conceives her role to be.
Law was tempted to camp it up more in the role, but directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck encouraged him to play it straight. “We didn’t want any telegraphing to go on of where his character would be going, or where the story was going,” says Boden. “We had a film that had a lot of outrageous things happening in it. But the acting itself is clearly grounded and naturalistic within all that outrageousness.”
Most Dastardly Moment: Organising the murder of innocent Skrulls.
Killer One-Liner: “Turn off the light show, and prove, prove to me, you can beat me.”
34. Ultron, Avengers: Age Of Ultron, 2015
Comic origin: The Avengers #54 (1968)
Played by James Spader
How do you follow a psychotic trouble-causer like Loki? Returning to the Avengers, Joss Whedon delivered a killer answer: with a big kid on a mission. A Frankenstein’s robo-monster armed with the history of knowledge and a city-sized cruel streak, Ultron was just the intimate/expansive challenge needed to test the re-assembled Avengers. And he could out-quip Mr. Stark.
Designed as an AI global defence program by Stark and Banner with the help of an infinity stone, Ultron realises that the way to defend the planet is to eradicate its worst threat: humanity. Sure, he isn’t the first villain to toy with global extinction. But it’s the unfriendly giant’s mirth, methods and messiah complex that distinguish him.
Pitched by Whedon as “idiosyncratic and goofy, and yet also terrifying”, Ultron certainly talks a good fight. Thanks to the deliciously silky grandeur and insinuating threat of James Spader’s voice, he rattles off Shakespeare-grade one-liners with the gestural panache of someone who knows all the world’s his stage.
And when he takes that stage, he makes sure it stays taken. Not least because he spoils a perfectly decent party, Ultron’s on-screen arrival serves notice of Whedon’s horror know-how. He poses a psycho-chiller threat to the Avengers, using Wanda Maximoff to tinker with their minds and team-based connective tissues. With his strength and volcanic petulance allied, he’s also a formidably wayward physical threat, as Ulysses Klaue’s gratuitously severed limb would surely agree.
As Spader explains, “He has more power and knowledge and strength and ability than he really is mature enough or wise enough to harness.” And, indeed, more power than one film can contain. As the effects of his actions spill over into the Sokovia Accords, Tony’s sense of guilt-freckled responsibility, the Hulk’s exile and more, Ultron’s impact lingered long after his short-lived Age.
Most Dastardly Moment: Losing his temper on Ulysses Klaue’s arm. “I’m sorry…”
Killer One-Liner: “When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal.”
33. Ma-Ma, Dredd, 2012
Comic origin: N/A
Played by Lena Headey
Lena Headey tapped the effortlessly charismatic influence of imperious punk- poet Patti Smith to play Ma-Ma, a scarred ex-prostitute turned crime boss/drug lord with a soul blacker than her eyes and gloriously unkempt goth-riot hair. The script pitches Madeline Madrigal as an “obese septuagenarian”, but Headey owns the role with the same unforced authority she brings to a Gatling gun massacre. Deathly malevolence oozing from every whispered syllable, Ma-Ma is a walking personification of sociopathic cruelty: witness the guys she has dosed up on the drug Slo-Mo (it extends the suffering), skinned and tossed off a balcony for the messy evidence.
Most Dastardly Moment: Removing Clan Techie Domhnall Gleeson’s eyeballs by hand.
Killer One-Liner: “You’re a piece of work, Dredd. But so am I.”
32. Mysterio, Spider-Man: Far From Home, 2019
Comic origin: The Amazing Spider-Man #13 (1964)
Played by Jake Gyllenhaal
Sure, the ‘disgruntled ex-employee seeks payback’ thing has been done to death, but Mysterio – aka Stark Industries reject Quentin Beck – takes it to a whole new level. Not only is he a master illusionist, he’s a consummate bullshit artist, conjuring an elaborately tragic backstory before hoodwinking Peter Parker into handing over Earth’s deadliest spectacles. Gyllenhaal embraced the charade to such a degree he even conned his co-stars: “Sometimes if he was laughing, I’d think he was just laughing,” says Tom Holland. “And then I’d realise, ‘Oh no, he’s acting!’”
Most Dastardly Moment: Revealing Spidey’s secret identity to the internet.
Killer One-liner: “People need to believe. And nowadays, they’ll believe anything.”
31: Ra’s al Ghul Batman Begins, 2005
Comic origin: Batman #232 (1971) P
Played by Liam Neeson
A master of misdirection, Ra’s al Ghul was hiding in plain sight: in the film (and its marketing material), Ken Watanabe was a front for Neeson’s actual archvillain. The distinct, comic-accurate face fuzz should have been a giveaway. Secret Society leader Ra’s – whose name translates as ‘the demon’s head’ – trains Bruce in the League of Shadows, before their extreme methods (mercilessly wiping out corrupt cities) drive him away. Neeson also had a hallucination cameo in TDKR, in which his daughter Talia (Marion Cotillard) tries to finish what he started.
Most Dastardly Moment: Trying to spread fear toxin in Gotham on a massive scale.
Killer One-Liner: “You took my advice about theatricality a bit literally.”
Click through to Page 3 to continue our ranking of the best comic book villains of all time
