@SuperDoahBoy: lol bro, if u havent seen the movie your gonna feel rilly silly when u do.. lokis THE PERFECT villain for the first mashup for nostalgia (their 1st villain in comics)&common sense reasons.. in MCU he hjas a grudge against Thor/Earth.. he actually WASNT easily beaten by Thor single handedly.. to top it off his trickery &manipulation is the perfect setting for the out of sync heroes

as for the rule that says u shouldnt spend 15whole min introducing a character its a rule for a reason, it isnt about not catering to geeks/fanboys.. thats just about making a good movie &common sense.. do u know how long 15mins is when ur watching a movie?

Whedons responsibility isnt simply to cater to the whim of unreasonable fanboys, but to make a sharp exciting movie that is structured &concise while giving deserving winks&nods to the knowing among the audience

imagine if u will ur fav comic spent 15pages introducing &overexplaining ONE villain..u'd be pissed!! expect no less artistry &integrity from our humble comicbook fan/director.. u wont be disappointed.. trust me.

There really wasnt anyone else.. anyone else that made SENSE anyway.. none of the other villains mentioned could/should have made the cut.. &i for one would have a VERY big problem if Kang showed up in EXACTLY what hes wearing in the comics.. thats just silly lol

u mentioned Red Skull, Whiplash, Justin Hammer, Abomination as villain choices.. or even villains from Iron Man, Cap or Hulk's history.. but remember this has to be an AVENGER LEVEL THREAT.. Red Skull POSSIBLY but a stretch &I have a feeling he'll be involved in later movies.. Whiplash? no chance, Hammer? please -_- .. Abomination? again 3rd rate..

that leaves Loki the Prince of Chaos with a grudge against Thor so deep it s on par with the chessapeak.. &a lust for power left wanting by his last attempts at conquest being cut short..combine all this with his mile long petulant streak &ability to directly manipulate ppl.. its literally THE perfect setup.

Never mind the fact that HISTORICALLY he's the first villain to unite them

Loki is a good starting villain for the series but his appearance would have been more effectivehad he not been the primary antagonist for Thor. It's kind of like, "hey, we JUST saw you in Thor, how have you been?" They might as well have called it "Thor and Loki Settle Their Differences Again: Featuring The Avengers!!"

Another theme I've noticed with Marvel villains lately is that the tone is never TRULY menacing. Even when the world is threatened, the villains don't make you believe that the stakes are very high at all. Iron-Man 2, Whiplash is supposed to be this badass and literally spends the entire movie doing NOTHING. Here in Avengers Loki briefly causes some mischief (and does one very bad thing that I won't spoil) and then is stopped (obviously). Compare that with the latest Batman movie portrayals; Joker not only caused a ton of havoc but killed Batman's ho and ruined Dent's life, Bane is MORE THAN LIKELY going to break Batman's back and fuck a lot of shit up.

It's not fair to compare The Avengers with a series as dark as Batman, I'm just saying in terms of truly menacing villains I don't think The Avengers is going to be able to compete with TDKR.

The best villains are not usually the best brawlers or fighters, it's their plans and alliances that are what the heroes really fear. I loved how in the movie Hulk just tossed him around. But Loki totally thought he was strong untill that point i laughed so hard. I think the need to do Ultron next but they have already hinted elsewhere

This movie proves superhero team movies can work if managed right and with the right actors. I hope we get a Justice League movie eventually. You could do it just with the trienty

It will be interesting to see where they take all the individual movies... especially with Iron Man. Because up until that point, he had been fighting somewhat 'grounded' villains as opposed to 'gods' and aliens.

I wonder who they'll go up against next.

I'm thrilled that Loki is the main villain as he's come to be one of my favourite villains of late. Hiddleston does a bang-up job of playing Loki and after reading an interview with him I read at fandango.com I have even more respect for him. I'll be attending the Ultimate Marvel Marathon tomorrow which ends in the midnight premier of The Avengers and I am sooo psyched!

You know the other main reason it's Loki is because of contract issues with Fox, right?

Loki is the man!! or god lo. He's the logical choice here.

How about because Loki, like Lex Luthor, is awesome, complex, charming and has very, very good reason to hate Asgard and Odin aka kidnapper aka worst father ever? And frankly Thor doesn't come off looking much better when you look at the history of the character in both the comics and myths. Loki is a villain you want to win because you understand him.

Loki was a good choice but they made him a lot weaker than in the comics.

@Darkseidis said:

Loki was a good choice but they made him a lot weaker than in the comics.

I could be wrong but I got the feeling that they may have done that on purpose, to establish him in his early days more as a schemer than an outright power. I think in Avengers he is going to really show his power, time having past and his abilities having been explored more.

@AweSam said:

I wonder who they'll go up against next.

Personally, i'm reeeeally hoping for Ultron. I think with SFX at the level they are today he would look AWESOME and could be a real, absolute threat. Use the Busiek/Perez' Ultron arc from Avengers as the template and i reckon you've got yourself a BLOCKBUSTER!

Have to agree. I loved everything about Loki in the movie, and I've yet to talk to someone who thought he was poorly chosen. I could stand to see even more, in fact.

I'm just glad they pick a professionally trained actor to play this chap. Anyone can be Thor (anyone with muscles that is) but to play an insidious manipulator who's hellbent to create chaos just for fun which still retaining that intellectual fortitude that best most of the heroes in Marvel....not easy :) Given time Loki can be the smartest and greatest villain, if he had a spine.

Yeah, completely agree with Loki as a good villain for the team, and his somewhat inexperience so the Nordic God learn too and sharp the axe but to put Thanos as the next boss is to finish early the avengers since there´s barely few bigger threats that him in marvel and even less more famous .

The Mandarin, Ultron, Graviton, could be decent villains to not run out of the extent of evil in marvel. Then a crossover with the X men will be good too i want to see how the Avengers would deal with the Brotherhood of mutants.

Cause Loki is an awesome GOD!

I'm just wondering has Loki fought the Avengers at any time besides their first appearance? Also has the Red Skull fought the Avengers at any time?

None of those others listed would be worthwhile villains, they don' have Loki's flare or sympathetic backstory.