The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a world full of great heroes and,
of course, despicable villains. Just like in any other superhero movie,
these villains can often be highlights of the movies they appear in. We love seeing them put
their plans together, their battles with the hero, and their eventual defeats. While the MCU has a
few villains who live to fight another day, the majority of them meet a grisly fate. Today, we’ll
be looking at the many villains of the MCU and determine which ones met a mostly painless end,
and which ones probably should have escaped when they had the chance.
I’m Brad with WickedBinge, and this is Marvel Villain Deaths: Gruesome to Most Gruesome
To kick things off, we’ll be starting with the villains who die from being wounded.
Some may come from a sword, others come from a gunshot, but they’re painful all the same!
Earning the title of “least gruesome” demise, we have Mysterio from “Spider-Man: Far From Home”!
After a grueling battle with the webslinger, Mysterio is accidentally shot by his drones in the
abdomen. He unsuccessfully makes one more attempt to kill Peter Parker before he succumbs to his
wounds and dies. That seems to be the end of the fishbowl-wearing foe, but come on, they don’t call
him the “Man of Mystery” for nothing! It’s hard not to think that Mysterio managed to survive,
especially as the film tries its hardest to convince you that he is truly dead. It is entirely
possible that Quentin Beck managed to cheat death, and will come back to try and get revenge
on Spidey in a future installment. Even if we want to believe he did die from the drones, his death
is hardly horrid. It’s just bullets he is hit by, and nothing makes it seem all that different from
similar deaths in this genre of film. Because of its lack of punch, as well as the character's
fate being more on the ambiguous side, we had to give this death the award of “least gruesome”.
Next up, we have Erik Killmonger from “Black Panther”. During the climactic confrontation with
his cousin T’Challa, he tries to use a Wakandan spear to take him out. T’Challa manages to get the
spear in his hands, and impales Killmonger with it. The cousins share an emotional conversation
with each other, and T’Challa takes Erik to look at the sunset. As they watch it, T’Challa remarks
that they can save him, but Erik refuses to live the rest of his life behind prison.
He pulls the spear out and dies of the wound. There is definitely a gruesome element to
Killmonger’s death. After all, being stabbed by a spear is hardly a painless way to go.
However, we feel Killmonger’s end is a more peaceful one than gruesome. He dies watching
the sunset, finally getting to see the beauty of Wakanda he had only dreamed of as a child.
T’Challa also forgives him, something that doesn’t quite happen for most entries on this list.
Even though his end is a peaceful one, we can still definitively label him as dead,
which we can’t do for Mysterio. Being the first character we can absolutely mark down
as having died, it seems appropriate he takes this slot on the list!
Our next entry is Alexander Pierce from “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”!
One of HYDRA’s head honchos, Pierce met his demise at the hands of a bullet from Nick Fury.
He is shot twice in the chest, and the knockback sends him through a glass wall. On the surface,
Pierce’s demise seems like a run-of-the-mill action movie death. You wouldn’t be wrong
for thinking that, but we believe there’s a few elements that make this one a bit more
interesting than prior entries. For one, Pierce is just a normal human. He doesn’t have a powerful
vibranium suit, and he’s definitely no master of illusion, either. He’s just a normal guy,
which makes his demise one of the more realistic ones in the MCU. The lack of a superhuman suit or
abilities surely made the wound worse than it did our earlier entries. Let’s not forget that he’s
an older man, too! His death is also anything but “peaceful”. It’s quick and to the point,
which kind of makes it more of a standout death. He doesn’t have a speech ready or any screams of
pain, just the short whispering of “Hail Hydra”. It makes his death a creepy one, and it shows
the audience that even though its leader inside SHIELD is gone, HYDRA itself is far from over.
As the Red Skull put it, “cut off one head, two more will take its place”.
Finishing off the “wounds” category, we have Nebula from “Avengers: Endgame”! This
isn’t the original timeline Nebula, of course, but a Nebula from the year 2014.
She follows the mad titan Thanos’ orders, and is desperate to please him. As they travel into the
future to wipe out the Avengers, she assumes the original Nebula’s identity, and tries to
take the Stark Gauntlet out of their hands. She is eventually confronted by her present self, and
despite her best efforts at trying to reason with her, 2014 Nebula refuses to disobey her father.
The present version is left with few options, and shoots 2014 Nebula right through the heart.
We’ve seen several characters die from a bullet at this point, but this is the only one to die
from a laser gun. We can clearly see in the film that it's a more gruesome weapon to die from,
as the wound is much more large and noticeable than the wounds that prior entries endured. There
is also an element of tragedy to her death, as she could have easily kept on the path of her present
counterpart, and become a hero. Unfortunately, she ends up being a dark reminder of who Nebula
once was, and who she could’ve lived the rest of her life as if she continued to serve her father.
That wraps things up for the deaths from wounds! Now, we move towards the “crush” deaths!
First up, we have Malekith from “Thor: The Dark World”! Malekith isn’t exactly a memorable
villain in the pantheon of MCU baddies, but he does stand out as being one of only two
villains who die as a result of being crushed. After a long and hard fought battle with Thor,
Malekith is finally defeated after he is teleported to his home realm,
and crushed with his warship. The vessel is teleported to his location, and it immediately
crushes him upon its arrival. Malekith’s death is certainly a unique one, but it doesn’t quite have
that gruesome edge you’d expect it to have. For one, we’ve seen Malekith take so much abuse at
this point in the fight that it doesn’t really have the “shock” factor you think it should have.
Second, it feels more comedic than anything else. The way the scene is framed feels more
like you’re supposed to laugh at his defeat, weakening the grim edge it could’ve had. Even
though these elements weaken the violence of his death, it is still undeniably gruesome. A
giant ship landing on top of you would probably hurt, whether you were a human or a dark elf!
Rounding out the deaths by crush, we have another “Thor” villain, Hela! The main antagonist of “Thor
Ragnarok”, this goddess seemingly couldn’t be killed. Only after intervention by Surtur, the one
who would bring about the fall of Asgard, was she destroyed. Surtur does exactly what the prophecy
of Ragnarok said he would, and begins to destroy Asgard. Hela tries to fight back, but is crushed
by his sword. Hela’s death is a more gruesome one than Malekith’s because she isn’t just crushed by
the weapon. She is straight up obliterated by it! Having your entire body shattered by a sword is no
doubt a bad way to go out! If she weren’t killed by that, then the implosion of Asgard definitely
would have done the job! We feel her death is the most gruesome thus far because there isn’t
even anything left of her by the end of it all. It also feels fairly ironic that the Goddess of Death
who was so confident she couldn’t be stopped, dies in the most painful and explosive way of
any of the villains on this list so far. Speaking of explosions, that reminds us of something…
It’s time for the “explosive deaths!
These villains bring a whole new meaning to the term, “going out with a bang”!
First one in this category is Whiplash from “Iron Man 2”! In the film’s climax, Iron Man and War
Machine duke it out against this armored foe. As Whiplash manages to wrap his electric whips around
their necks, the two shoot energy blasts from their arc reactors at each other. After this,
Whiplash is left dying in his suit, but he still has one last trick up his sleeve. All
of his drones, including the suit he is encased in, are rigged to self-destruct.
The heroes manage to escape, and he is caught in a final explosion. You basically get two
explosions in one here! The explosion generated by the arc reactor is certainly the more gruesome
one. This might be helped by the small fact that we actually see this one! We don’t actually see
him explode when his suit self-destructs, which is one reason we rank this lower than other deaths by
explosions. Also, we can assume his armor did a decent job protecting his body from the first
blow. It was certainly enough to kill him, but he would have been a lot worse off if he
didn’t have the armor. These reasons ultimately keep him from being put higher on this tier.
The fact he isn’t a particularly interesting villain doesn’t exactly help him, either.
Our next entry is Aldrich Killian from “Iron Man 3”! Killian in this film almost feels like a
villain out of a horror movie. Nothing ever seems to stop him! Thanks to the superhuman abilities
his Extremis virus granted him, he possesses a healing factor that seems unstoppable. Even after
Tony encases him in a suit rigged to explode, he comes back. Pepper Potts finally comes to Tony’s
rescue, and throws an explosive bullet at Aldrich. She then shoots a repulsor blast at it, killing
Killian in the subsequent explosion. Killian’s death gets points from us because it has a nice
dose of body horror to it. After it appears that Tony’s suit self-destructing finished him off,
he reappears, covered in flames. His body has scars all over, almost as if he is made of lava.
It makes him look like one of the scarier villains in the MCU. Like we said before,
it goes a long way in making this villain feel like an unstoppable horror movie monster.
Even though it is undoubtedly the most gruesome death at this point, there’s a few elements
that hold it back from being worse. We’ve seen Aldrich go through so much at this point that
it gives us a feeling of relief when he finally dies, instead of a feeling of disgust. We can
also guess that his powers probably made the pain a little more bearable,
though dying in an explosion must hurt whether you’re a superhuman or not. Regardless,
we feel there are enough gruesome elements to this demise that earn it this spot on the list!
The next slot goes to Iron Monger from the original “Iron Man”! Kinda funny how the
main villains in all the “Iron Man” films die in an explosion, right? Even more interesting
is the fact that this is the second “Iron Man” villain to be killed by Pepper Potts! As he
battles Iron Man in the films end, Obadiah Stane makes a critical error, and stands right above a
large arc reactor that is stored inside a complex. Tony orders Pepper to overload the reactor,
causing Stane to be electrocuted to death. After that, he tumbles into the reactor,
exploding upon impact. Stane’s death definitely stands out from the villains in the sequels!
Death by electrocution is already a gruesome start, but the explosion that occurs when he
falls into the reactor really makes this a dreadful demise. The lightning is a huge
bolt shot into the sky, and Stane receives the worst of it. The explosion is also a huge one,
and you can rest assured that there is none of him left when it’s all said and done.
The same goes for the building encasing the reactor, too! We can’t even say the suit made
it a little less painful, as the film makes it clear that his suit lags behind Tony’s in quality.
He’s very exposed in the suit, and could have even fallen out in the final moments before impact. The
ferocity of the explosion, as well as everything preceding it, puts Stane at this spot on the list!
It’s about time we move onto villains who didn’t face off against ol’ Shellhead, wouldn’t you say?
Our next death happens to someone who isn’t as much a person as they are a planet. It’s Ego from
“Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2”! Ego dies as a result of an explosive bomb placed in his brain,
giving a whole new meaning to the term “headache”. As the bomb finally goes off,
his human avatar disintegrates, and all the pieces of his being are blown to smithereens.
We feel Ego has a more gruesome death than the others who die from an explosion because of how
different it is from those others. He doesn’t get caught in an explosion and immediately
perish. Instead, his organs are all blown up, one by one. Even though he’s a living planet,
it’s not too unlike if all the organs in your body gradually exploded. We can only imagine
how painful it is for Ego, especially when you consider that he is an entire planet. He no doubt
has way more vital organs than a human would, making his death a slow one. The fact it’s a more
gradual death than the others also makes it more gruesome. It’s not one that’s over in seconds,
and we see through the amount of explosions happening that there is
a lot to this living planet. Those reasons are why Ego gets this spot on the list!
The next death occurs to Crossbones from “Captain America:
Civil War”! Crossbones death seems like a typical death by explosion at first.
After a fight with Captain America, he tries to detonate a bomb that will take both of them out.
As the bomb goes off, however, Wanda Maximoff uses her powers to contain the explosion. Right here,
the death starts to take a more gruesome turn. The bomb has already gone off at this point,
and Crossbones’ body is being consumed by the explosion. Like Ego before, his death is a long
and painful one. His screams of agony only make the scene more horrid. Wanda then throws his body
into a building, killing many relief aid workers in the ensuing explosion. Crossbones could have
had a pretty unremarkable death in an explosion, but Wanda’s interference makes this one of the
more creepy deaths in the MCU. The collision into the building makes it even worse, as it
leads to the deaths of many others, something that isn’t really seen or referenced in other deaths.
It’s a dark opening for this film, and it shows that superheroes may not always find the most
“peaceful” resolutions to conflict. The length of the death, coupled with the innocent people who
also die in the explosion, certainly makes this one of the more awful deaths in this category.
In the final spot for the explosion deaths, we have Ronan from the first
“Guardians of the Galaxy”! At the end of his battle with the aforementioned Guardians,
both he and Peter Quill make an attempt to nab the power stone. Quill gets to the stone faster,
and begins to feel the full power of an infinity stone. The other Guardians soon unite with him,
and use the power of the stone to destroy Ronan. The power is ultimately too much for Ronan, and he
explodes. We feel this is the most gruesome death by explosion because of what causes the explosion.
The infinity stones are some of the most dangerous items in the entire MCU, and the power stone is no
exception! We are told frequently throughout the movie that this stone is not to be messed
with, and that the consequences for doing so are dire. Ronan gets to experience firsthand,
as his death is another slow and painful one. The stone’s power runs all through his body,
and he is levitated in the air. Finally, the power causes him to explode, and while the
explosion isn’t as big as prior ones, it feels far more morbid than those ones. Having your
entire body torn apart from an infinity stone is a pretty painful way to go out,
perfectly setting the tone for what these stones are capable of! Ronan is totally deserving of
the highest spot on this tier of the list, and anyone who disagrees will stand accused!
That’s it for the deaths by explosion! Now, we move onto the deaths that would
cause any supervillain to surrender on the spot! These are the cruelest deaths.
Starting things off, we have Thanos from “Avengers: Endgame”! This isn’t the Thanos from
the beginning of the movie, but instead the Thanos that travels from 2014 to destroy the Avengers. At
the end of the film, Thanos is finally stopped after Tony Stark uses the gauntlet to take out
Thanos and all of his minions. Just like the heroes did years earlier, Thanos is turned to
dust. On the surface, the deaths in the MCU that come as a result of the snap don’t seem
too gruesome. They just sort of disappear, how could that possibly be considered one of the
worst ways to go out? However, as you think about it more, you can start to see that this is indeed
a horrifying way to go! Directors Joe and Anthony Russo stated that, while envisioning how dying
from the snap would feel, they imagined it would have a similar vibe to the feeling of throwing up.
The duo also stated that they felt the organs in one’s body would be snapped away gradually,
with the body being the last thing to go. The idea of disappearing completely from existence
is already a creepy one, but slowly losing your organs in the moments beforehand makes it even
more gruesome. With its unique imagery and backstory, we had to put it in the top five!
Fourth place goes to Ultron from “Avengers: Age of Ultron”! While Ultron has many bodies in
this film, we are going to look at the fate of his main form in this video. After all,
it is the one we see the most of in the movie. After being tossed out of a jet by the Hulk,
Wanda Maximoff reunites with the android. Wanda, still distraught over the death of her brother,
rips Ultron’s heart out. While it’s up for debate what use an android would have for a heart,
this death definitely stands out as one of the more brutal ones. It’s not everyday you see a
fatality ripped right out of “Mortal Kombat” in a superhero movie! It definitely lives up
to the cruel factor, too. This is one of the few villain deaths where the hero seems to take
joy in killing their foe. Most of the other deaths come as a result of just needing to
stop the villain. Here, Wanda’s main objective is to make sure he suffers as much as she has.
She is very slow in taking the heart out, no doubt enjoying his suffering.
Ultron is utterly helpless in this scenario, as he had just endured a rough beating from the Hulk.
The fact he can’t do anything about it helps make it one of the darker villain deaths. Overall, the
brutal nature and uniqueness of this death make it a perfect candidate for fourth place!
The bronze medal belongs to Yellowjacket from “Ant-Man''! Who would’ve thought one
of the smallest (no pun intended) Marvel films would have had such a gruesome villain death?
At the end of the movie, Yellowjacket attempts to take Scott Lang’s daughter hostage.
Ant-Man manages to save her by shrinking and damaging the mainframe of Yellowjacket’s suit.
His suit collapses into himself, and he is shrunk to the Quantum Realm.
His death is undoubtedly a gruesome one, as we see his limbs mangled and crushed into himself.
This is another death that would be right at home in a “Mortal Kombat” game! He begins to
resemble a squashed bug more than a man in a suit of armor. One can only imagine what his skeleton
looks like in the aftermath of this! The scene is made even more gruesome by his screams of pain.
Surprisingly, it isn’t that often of an occurrence for villains in the MCU to do this as they die.
This one little detail goes a long way in making this one of the more disturbing deaths in the MCU.
Yellowjacket might be a relatively unremarkable villain, but his death sure is anything but!
The silver medal goes to….Thanos? Yes, Thanos is on our list twice! This time, it is the
Thanos that won against the heroes in “Avengers: Infinity War”. At the start of its sequel,
“Avengers: Endgame”, the heroes are eager to get back at Thanos. The mad titan seems to be living
a peaceful existence, but that all comes to an end when the Avengers ambush him. Thor uses
Stormbreaker to chop his hand off, causing Thanos to groan in pain. Finally, after the heroes learn
the stones no longer exist, Thor slices his entire head off. Villains getting limbs chopped off isn’t
a common occurrence in the MCU, and Thanos has to endure it twice! It’s enough to make anyone
squeamish, and it is undoubtedly a grim way to start a superhero movie. You could even call this
one of the messiest deaths for an MCU villain, as some of the blood even makes its way onto Nebula’s
face! His death is made even worse by the fact that Thanos already seems to be in a rough place
when this fight begins. He used the stones to destroy the stones, an act that almost killed him.
We quickly see what he means here, as half of his body is covered in scorch marks. Thanos’
body is suffering already, and he’s put in even more pain when this all occurs. In conclusion,
the savageness of his death is more than enough a reason for this death to get second place!
So, what death could possibly be more gruesome than a decapitation? Well, how about getting
choked to death? That is exactly the fate that befalls the recipient of our golden medal, Loki
in “Avengers: Infinity War”! While it is true that Loki is more of a hero at this point in the story,
we can’t forget that he was the main antagonist of both the first “Thor” and “Avengers”
films. There was no way we could overlook this one, especially when it may also be the most
gruesome death in the entire MCU in general. In the film's opening, Loki attempts to kill Thanos.
Things don’t go so well, and Loki is promptly grabbed by the mad titan. He is lifted off his
feet, and Thanos begins to strangle the God of Mischief. Loki tries to wrangle his way out,
but it is no use. His face turns blue as a result of the strangulation and finally, Thanos snaps his
neck. It’s length and degree of violence make it an easy choice for the most gruesome death.
The scene is drawn out in a way most of these deaths just aren’t. It’s honestly a great start
for the film, perfectly showing the audience the legitimacy of Thanos as a threat to the Avengers.
It’s also the most emotional death on this list. Whether he be a hero or villain,
we have gotten to know and genuinely care about Loki over almost a decade of movies. Seeing him
die in such a brutal manner makes his death an even more tragic one. With its violence and
emotional edge, it’s a no-brainer for the title of most gruesome MCU villain death!
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking. And tell us what we should
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