It’s not easy being a foe of the Avengers.
Or at least, we’d imagine that’s the case.
Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have a whole lot of fire power and superhuman abilities at
their disposal, and it takes a lot to throw them off their guard, or even defeat them
in a brawl.
But sometimes, their foes have proven to gain their respect for specific reasons, despite
being a major pain in their you-know-whats.
So today, we’re taking a look at Avengers enemies who have managed to impress the team
or surprise them in some sort of noble way, despite, you know, being evil, with our list
of the top 10 super villains the Avengers respect.
Let’s get to it!
10 Kang the Conqueror Kang is by far one of the Avengers most notorious
villains.
So much so that fans of the MCU have actually speculated he’ll be the next big bad in
future phases.
In the comics, he’s almost destroyed Earth in an attempt to gain the power of a celestial.
The time travelling villain has had many different iterations over the years - as is the case
when you’re a character who can and has travelled to vastly different eras.
But the reason why he’s earned their respect came from his later years in the comics, when
his teenage self became Iron Lad and led the Young Avengers.
That version of Kang had an almost tragic story though, since he was forced to return
to his own era knowing that he would become Kang the Conqueror - something he had to do
in order to preserve the timeline and ultimately, save his teammates.
9 Ultron In the comics, Ultron was created by Hank
Pym; a defence protocol that he concocted that eventually exceeded Hank’s own intelligence,
and decided it had greater ambitions.
For the past five decades, he’s a character that has kept the Avengers on their toes,
and in the Age of Ultron story arc, an alternate future timeline, he actually defeated the
team, and has taken over the planet.
Despite all of the crazy time travel shenanigans Ultron has caused the team to endure over
the years, he’s also responsible for the creation of the Vision, and he’s a character
whose intelligence is something that several members on the team can at bare minimum respect.
Even look to the MCU to see a similar result; Tony Stark, with the help of Bruce Banner,
created Ultron, a robotic being whose intelligence and snark he can at least say matches his
own, if not excels altogether.
8 Hank Pym Okay, hear us out on this one.
Traditionally, Hank Pym is a super hero.
But he’s had moments where he’s antagonized the Avengers and purposely put them in danger
for his own means.
And yes, while those moments happened under extreme duress and were the result of the
poor state his mental health was in, technically speaking, you could still argue that his actions
were villainous.
When he was court martialed from the Avengers, he concocted a plan to have one of his robotic
creations attempt to kill the Avengers, with him saving the day and therefore getting back
in their good graces.
Janet protested, and he beat her.
As you can imagine, his plans backfired, and he was outed from the team, eventually joining
up as an advisor with the West coast Avengers where he almost comitted suicide.
That being said, he’s also a character that the Avengers saw needed help (eventually),
and has managed to get back into their good graces.
These days, Hank is a combination of himself and our previous number, Ultron, an actual
hybrid between the two, although it was revealed that the hybrid is kind of one sided; it’s
more so Ultron wearing Hank as a skin suit.
Yeah, the whole thing has us feeling a little unsettled, too.
7 Cyclops Again, yes, we have a number that is technically
a superhero, but has had a history of straying from the path of good into one where he let
a bunch of teenagers become murderers, just cause.
When Cyclops first hit the scene in the X-Men issue 1 in 1963, Scott Summers was the leader
of the team, working under Charles Xavier to guide his team of mutants to successful
victories on the battlefield and in missions.
But over time, Scott changed.
During the Schism story event, we saw a more villainous side of Cyclops emerge.
And later, during Avengers vs X-Men, after Cyclops had started up his own team of X-Men
on Utopia, and the Phoenix Force was discovered to have returned to Earth using Hope Summers
as a host, Cyclops found himself up against the Avengers.
Captain America and the Avengers wanted to take Hope into custody to protect the Earth,
fearing what the Phoenix force may try to do.
Cyclops believes that Hope and the Phoenix Force can be used to jump start the mutant
population.
Major conflict ensues, and Scott only got darker from there.
Needless to say, despite being arrested and ending up in prison, and still having pretty
messed up ideologies, he’s cooperative with the Avengers, letting Iron Man study him for
remaining effects of the Phoenix Force.
These days, he’s trying to get back on track as a good guy.
But at least before he lost his crap, he was a respectable leader for mutants to look up
to, and for a long time, that was something the Avengers respected as well.
6 Nebula Nebula is a character in both the comics and
the cinematic adaptations that has managed to earn the respect of Avengers members.
Thanos, who is her grandfather in the comics, was pissed off that Nebula claimed kinship
to him, and proceeded to almost kill her after he got all of the Infinity Gems, transforming
her into a corpse like figure, always almost on the verge of death but never actually dying,
but not truly alive either.
She remained maimed and disfigured, but when Thanos defeated eternity and his consciousness
expanded into the universe, she took advantage of his comatose body and stole the gauntlet
from him.
She reversed what he had done and banished him.
While she wanted to use it to take over the universe, you gotta give it to her - managing
to do what no one else could is a pretty big feat, and something to respect.
And, in the MCU, she’s a villain turned hero, aiding after Thanos’ snap (or as the
MCU refers to it, the blip) in helping the Avengers return the world to the way it was,
and to finally defeat her adoptive father once and for all (despite her being the unintentional
reason why the 2014 timeline Thanos was able to head over to the present timeline, stir
up a massive battle and eventually, indirectly, cause the death of Tony Stark.
Just saying’).
5 Adam Warlock Adam Warlock has done a lot for the Marvel
universe.
He’s the one who spearheaded the attack on Thanos in the 1991 Infinity Gauntlet story
arc, the comic that was the primary basis for the MCU’s Avengers Infinity War.
Warlock is the one who orchestrates the attack on Thanos after he’s snapped, managing not
only to recruit heroes, but cosmic entities and even celestials.
Eventually, after Nebula grabs the gauntlet from Thanos, Warlock manages to convince Thanos
to help them get it back, and ultimately saves the day (that’s without getting into the
sequel miniseries of course).
But here’s the thing with Adam Warlock.
While he’s highly respected in the Marvel Universe, especially by the Avengers, he’s
also got an evil half.
The Magus.
There’s been three incarnations of the Magus over the years, with the second version being
one that is expelled from his soul after he acquires the Infinity Gauntlet.
That evil part of his soul becomes the corporeal form of the Magus, and ends up seeking out
the Gauntlet for himself.
He even recently appeared in the Infinity Wars storyline as well, found by Gamora in
a cocoon.
4 Norman Osborn But the reason why he’s respected by the
likes of the Avengers (not including Spider-Man, to be fair) is that in recent years, he’s
fluctuated between being a baddie and being an anti-hero.
But let’s jump back for a sec.
In more contemporary comics, he went from being Peter Park’s arch nemesis to a full
blown Avengers enemy, taking on the guise of Iron Patriot in the process.
He was once the director of SHIELD and HAMMER, and started up a team called the Dark Avengers.
And that’s exactly why he ended up on our list.
Aside from his intelligence and busy savvy, which the likes of Tony Stark can at least
nod to, Osborn was once respect by a group of Avengers.
The Dark Avengers, which just so happened to be his very own team of Avengers.
It still counts, right?
3 Scarlet Witch Scarlet Witch’s origins in the comics established
her as a villain before she became a part of the second iteration of Avengers.
She and her brother Pietro initially joined up with Magneto (prior to knowing he was daddy
dearest) and joined his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in order to repay him for saving them
from a mob.
Eventually, after Magneto is abducted by the cosmic entity Stranger, the Brotherhood disassembles,
and the two, feeling their debt has been paid, end up moving on and becoming Avengers.
But let’s talk about the real reasons why she’s on this list.
She may be a hero, but her mental instability in the comics has caused her to turn her back
against her peers in catastrophic ways.
During Avengers Disassembled, she discovers from a mildly intoxicated Wasp that she had
children with Vision once upon a time, two twins, and that that information was hidden
from her for years.
She loses it, resurrecting villain Jack of Hearts to kill them, blowing up the Avengers
Mansion and murdering Scott Lang.
She forces Vision to crash the Quinjet into the mansion and makes him cough up pieces
of himself that turn into Ultrons, and then, She-Hulk ends up ripping him in half, killing
him in order to prevent more ultrons.
She then uses her abilities to summon Kree warships, which cause Hawkeye’s death.
And then later on, Quicksilver would manipulate her to create a world where mutants were the
dominant race and the Avengers didn’t exist.
So all in all, when girl has a grudge, she goes hard on dishing out revenge.
At the end of the day though, she’s still an Avenger, and a hero, so despite all this,
she does have the respect of some of the team members.
Or at least the ones she hasn’t killed in the past.
2 Doctor Doom Doctor Doom fits into the classic villain
trope of ‘villain with a point’.
Despite all of his personality flaws, he genuinely wants the world to be the best it can be,
which, of course, means he needs to be the one ruling it.
Funny enough, in an alternate reality in which he does rule, it’s actually the best possible
outcome, all things considered.
Regardless of that, despite all of the evil things he’s done, Doom’s behaviour is
dictated by strict codes he chooses to follow.
Doom has been know to keep his exact word, and has a code of honour; the latter led him
to save Captain America from drowning because Cap had saved his life prior.
He also kept Spider-Man alive once after the hero had saved him from terrorists attacking
him at an airport.
He also won’t attack a foe who is weakened or at a severe disadvantage, since he believes
a victory in that state is hollow and meaningless.
In addition to that, his magical skills have gotten him the respect of characters like
Doctor Strange, who once admitted that Doom had the chops to be Sorcerer Supreme.
1 Loki For starters, Loki is the OG Avengers villain.
The very first, and the reason the Avengers were brought together.
In the first Avengers comic, Thor ends up needing some assistance with his dastardly
brother, so he ends up working with the Hulk, Ant-Man, the Wasp and Iron Man to take on
his trickster god sibling (this was before Cap was defrosted from his block of ice).
In the process, Loki uses the Hulk to fight against them.
For years, he’s been causing trouble for the Avengers.
But he’s also earned the respect of many of their members.
Take Spider-Man for example.
After the web slinger helped him out, he gave Parker a favour that later, the hero cashed
in to help save innocent civilian lives.
Parker even promised to put in a good word for Loki to other members of the superhero
community.
Loki has become more of an anti-hero in recent times, and despite sometimes still having
his own best interest at heart, he’s turned a leaf; something that several Avengers members
have grown to respect.
And do we even need to bring up the MCU?
Loki is one of the most beloved villains to appear up on the big screen, and even managed
to work his way back into the hearts of our heroes, helping his brother Thor out in a
big way during Thor Ragnarok.