Ultron?
Thanos?
He Who Remains?
Forget them all.
Here's a ranking of the most powerful MCU villains — and the top spot may not be who
you're expecting…
In Ultron, Tony Stark envisioned one thing:
"I see a suit of armor around the world."
What Stark made, however, was a genocidal entity convinced that planet Earth would be
better off if humanity were destroyed.
It is bad enough that Ultron is so fixated on violence, but to make matters worse, he
is an almost unbelievably persistent foe.
As a form of artificial intelligence, Ultron proves difficult to defeat in the second Avengers
movie, as he can simply transfer his consciousness to a new robotic body whenever he is damaged.
One of the more tenacious foes the Avengers have faced, Ultron stands as a chilling symbol
of what happens when Tony Stark's misguided ambitions go unchecked.
Hela, the Goddess of Death, makes one of the more memorable entrances in the history of
the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Sauntering on-screen, she approaches the formidable Thor and Loki, demands that they kneel to
her, and then shatters Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, when they refuse.
In this short scene, it is made abundantly clear that Thor is about to face a villain
like no other.
Hela's might stretches far beyond just destroying magical hammers, too.
She single-handedly wipes out a whole army of Asgardian soldiers, while a flashback sequence
sees her slaughter nearly all of the space kingdom's Valkyrie warriors.
Then, in her climactic fight with Thor, she slices out the God of Thunder's eye.
The Goddess of Death is not an adversary to take lightly, and Thor: Ragnarok repeatedly
reminds viewers that Hela is a foe for the ages.
Even her defeat is a demonstration of her power, since it takes the full might of Surtur
to take her down.
The MCU has a thick metanarrative coursing through its veins, so it makes perfect sense
that the "meta" would eventually manifest into a literal existential threat.
In the She-Hulk season finale, Jennifer Walters grows annoyed by her story's clichéd conclusion
and decides to take matters into her own hands.
True to her comic book origins, Jen smashes her way out of her show and into the "real"
world to meet her maker: the Knowledge Enhanced Visual Interconnectivity Nexus — also known
as KEVIN.
It's difficult to quantify the strength of a villain who exists beyond the fourth wall
— if they control everything in a fictional universe, are they the most powerful by default?
Maybe so, but what KEVIN has in potential, it lacks in a core villainy principle: free will.
The A.I.
claims it possesses "the most advanced algorithm in the world," upon which it bases its creative decisions.
In other words, KEVIN doesn't actually have any control over the MCU, instead dictating
the results of a cold, unfeeling equation.
Though this cybernetic stand-in for Kevin Feige has all the power in the multiverse,
it lacks the will to act on it.
At the end of Season 1 of Loki, the God of Mischief and his multiversal counterpart,
Sylvie, arrive at the home of He Who Remains, the man responsible for creating the Time
Variance Authority.
He Who Remains reveals that he has tasked himself with keeping the primary timeline
of reality clear of imperfection.
If he were to die or abandon his duties, his variants would return, chaos would unfold,
and the timelines would begin to collapse on one another.
Unlike most MCU adversaries, He Who Remains isn't much of a fighter.
Once Sylvie gives in to her lust for vengeance, she dispatches him with ease.
The power of He Who Remains comes not from his physical strength but the responsibilities
he holds in the upper echelons of the multiverse.
And, of course, we haven't technically seen everything He Who Remains can do… yet.
"See you soon."
He Who Remains has countless variants across alternate dimensions.
One particularly formidable variant is Kang the Conqueror, who is set to appear in a number
of upcoming MCU projects — and it's entirely possible that Kang's future conquests will
lead to a reappraisal of his all-knowing predecessor.
The incredibly catchy WandaVision tune "Agatha All Along" concisely sums up the various ways
that Agatha Harkness used her powers to manipulate Wanda and Vision's life in WestView.
Her devious acts include brainwashing a man to pose as Pietro Maximoff, controlling the
townspeople, and…
"And I killed Sparky too!"
Deceit isn't the only trick up Harkness's sleeve, either.
She also wields the powers of the Darkhold and has previously killed a coven of witches,
including her own mother.
Of course, Agatha is no match for Wanda once she finally taps into her powers as the Scarlet Witch.
Still, she is an immensely powerful figure whose use of dark magic adds further chaos
to the mayhem in Westview — and with Agatha set to return in her own upcoming series,
it's a safe bet that she's only going to grow more powerful.
The true might of Thor: Love and Thunder antagonist Gorr is evident from his full name: Gorr the
God Butcher.
Armed with the Necrosword, Gorr dedicates himself to wiping out the gods themselves.
This plan isn't just a nebulous ambition either.
Gorr's quest for revenge spans multiple planets and results in the death of countless gods.
Gorr only becomes more powerful once he sets off to visit the cosmic being Eternity.
While many MCU foes have failed at even coming close to realizing their nefarious plots,
the same cannot be said for Gorr.
After a showdown with Thor and Jane, Gorr achieves the impossible and reaches Eternity.
Gorr's arc in Love and Thunder concludes on a sentimental note, as he uses his wish to
revive his daughter rather than slaughter all of the remaining gods.
However, before his moment of redemption, Gorr is established as a tremendously strong
villain — one with holy blood on his hands.
"My people call me K'uk'ulkan, but my enemies call be Namor."
Who on Earth could pose a threat to its most technologically-advanced nation?
A general?
A terrorist?
As it turns out: neither.
Instead, Wakanda's biggest worry after T'Challa's death is a centuries-old mutant hailed by
his people as "K'uk'ulkan," the Feather Serpent God.
One of Marvel's oldest creations, Namor the Sub-Mariner finally surfaced in the MCU in
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as the exalted South American ruler of the underwater kingdom Talokan.
Aggravated by the world's growing interest in harvesting vibranium, a resource precious
to his people, Namor doesn't hesitate to articulate his demands to the surviving members of Wakanda's
royal family.
When negotiations fall through and blood is shed on Talokanian soil, the superhuman sea-dweller
makes good on his threats, storming Wakanda's gates, crippling its defenses, and murdering
Queen Ramonda.
Though Namor does kind of have a point in Wakanda Forever, his unrelenting commitment
to his people results in an all-out war that almost brings down the Black Panther's homeland.
The Eternals may live for centuries and wield powers that can move mountains, but even they
answer to a higher power.
These ancient superheroes act in the name of the Celestial lifeform Arishem, a gigantic
being from the farthest reaches of the cosmos.
Sersi later finds out that Arishem created each of the Eternals, and that she and her
cohorts are synthetic lifeforms have been designed to wipe out planets to help birth
new Celestials.
Arishem wipes these horrific acts from the memories of Sersi and her comrades once their
jobs are finished.
Before Eternals, the might of the Celestials was glimpsed in Guardians of the Galaxy, but
the terrifying presence of Arishem in Eternals reveals the truth of their horrifying cosmic power.
This power is never clearer than in the climax of Eternals, in which Arishem towers over
Earth to confront the Eternals that defied his orders.
In the vast pantheon of intergalactic foes in the MCU, Arishem quite literally looms large.
Arishem isn't the only prominent Celestial in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, however.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 introduces Ego, the father of Peter Quill.
Ego is an all-powerful creature that has created a whole planet around himself.
Always yearning to expand his reach ever further, Ego has tremendous power at his disposal,
and he isn't afraid to kill to get what he wants.
Just the fact that Ego crafted an entire planet indicates just how powerful this Celestial
truly is.
The staggering number of people he has killed also provides a chilling reminder that Ego
isn't interested in using his magnificent powers to improve the cosmos.
His ability to regenerate his human form no matter how many times it's blasted out of
existence further solidifies Ego as a threat unlike any other, too.
Basically, don't mess with Ego.
When she reunites with Doctor Strange in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Wanda
Maximoff delivers a grave threat to her new enemy.
"It won't be Wanda who comes for her.
It'll be the Scarlet Witch."
Throughout the movie, Wanda uses her powers to destroy anyone who gets in her way, and
even inhabits the bodies of other versions of herself to wreak havoc in alternate dimensions.
Nowhere is the overwhelming strength of the Scarlet Witch made more apparent than when
the character encounters Earth-838's version of the Illuminati.
Here, the likes of Black Bolt, Mr. Fantastic, and Captain Carter are all wiped out by Wanda
without a second thought.
Even Professor X is ruthlessly killed after reaching out to try and talk some sense into her.
Of course, Wanda has always been a powerful figure in the MCU, but Multiverse of Madness
takes her abilities to the next level as she embraces the Scarlet Witch persona.
In the process, she becomes one of the most formidable villains in the universe — and beyond.
Many powerful MCU villains are physically imposing, but Loki is an interesting departure
from that norm.
Loki lacks that super-muscular physique and resembles more of an average man, but that's
part of what makes him such a powerful foe.
He's the last person you might expect to be the supervillain equivalent of a cockroach,
an unkillable creature who just keeps on coming back.
Throughout his various MCU appearances, Loki has used his wits to cheat death on countless occasions.
In the process, Loki has very nearly conquered Earth, taken on the TVA, and tricked his brother
over and over again.
And even if he is forced into a confrontation, Loki can hold his own against most of Earth's
mightiest heroes.
The God of Mischief may not seem like a force to be reckoned with at first glance, but Loki's
self-serving impulses and his ability to survive — no matter what — will soon demonstrate
why he's such a fearsome villain.
"I am inevitable."
For many of his earlier appearances, Thanos never seemed to do much other than sit around
on a big, scary throne.
The opening of Avengers: Infinity War established Thanos as something much more terrifying, however.
In a single scene, Thanos and the Black Order wipe out a ship of Asgardians, take on the
Hulk, kill Loki and Heimdall, and leave Thor himself for dead.
Throughout that movie, Thanos uses the various Infinity Stones to make life miserable for
the Avengers and their allies.
His reign of terror reaches its notorious apex at the end of Infinity War when Thanos
acquires all six stones and uses them to wipe out half of all life in the universe.
He's only finally defeated by a stroke of good fortune, when the Avengers discover that
they can rewrite history in Avengers: Endgame.
All in all, few villains are likely to have as much an impact on the Marvel Cinematic
Universe as the Mad Titan.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings opens with a prologue set centuries before
the movie's events, in which Wenwu uses ten magical rings to destroy his enemies.
Though the origin of these rings is shrouded in mystery, Wenwu uses them to annihilate
anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path.
With the rings by his side, this crime lord expands his empire beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
Wenwu reaps many benefits from the rings, including his ability to live for centuries
without aging.
Even when Wenwu is unwittingly manipulated by monstrous forces, his power remains evident.
Who else but Wenwu would have the strength to shatter a barrier that keeps an army of
flying monsters enclosed?
Wenwu's cunning intellect, a trait entirely divorced from the powers of the Ten Rings,
makes him even more of a threat.
Wenwu may not be a monster or a god from the stars, but his lengthy legacy of destruction
makes him arguably the most powerful adversary in the saga.