First of all I'm not trying to bash the MCU at all, because I love The Avengers, Thor, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. But I must point out the series' major flaw and this is horribly mediocre villains. Now I wouldn't call any of the villains are terrible but all of them are just meh....except Loki who is among the greatest comic book villains ever. But if we look at all the other villains they are what keeps this franchise from being the greatest superhero franchise ever.

Iron Monger-so no, he's not a crap villain but he is sort of a Darth Maul styled villain in the way that as a character he's very, very flat but the acting and visuals make him a bad-*** but boring as a character. Not to mention he's really just Iron Man Jumbo Sized!

The Abomination-okay so this dude's actually pretty good, his arc is simple but sufficient and his visuals are strong he's not poor just pretty good. But again another mirror villain. I would say he's second best MCU villain behind Loki. Although the gap between them is giant.

Whiplash-could've been amazing, his very presence makes every scene stronger and he certainly had the potential to be a fantastic villain. But they didn't do anything with him. And his second battle was poor, he loses in like 20 seconds. A failed attempt at a good character, he falls into the Darth Maul category too. At the end bigger suit, another mirror villain.

Justin Hammer-just really generic and boring. Also he is a Tony Stark wannabe, mirror villain again.

Red Skull-just like Whiplash could've been terrific, but was robbed of his greatness. He was way, WAY underused and underdeveloped. His action scenes were lame...I mean c'mon Marvel! Hugo Weaving's acting is amazing and the dialogue is pure poetry why you gotta ruin him with poor story?Oh and this is the last mirror villain, thank god too I'm beating a dead horse with that.

The Mandarin-Aldrich Killian is Justin Hammer level boringness and is just another rehash of the previous Iron Man villains.

See, Loki is the only truly great villain in the MCU. Sure you could argue "not every villain can be great" but they can at least make an effort. Look at the X-Men film series...3 great villains, Sir Ian Mckellen's Magneto, Kevin Bacon's Sebastian Shaw and Brian Cox's William Stryker. Look at the Spider-Man film series...2 fantastic villains. Look at the Batman film series, there is like 6 fantastic villains. I'm not trying to hate on the MCU, but the singular thing that makes the series inferior the Batman, X-Men and Spider-Man film franchises is the fact that there is only one memorable villain the whole series, the rest are so passable and mediocre.

well the MCU is just getting started, theirs going to be more characters and stories added to it, theirs even hints leading to Cival War.

I hope Thanos is done correctly. And agreed. Loki, Otto and Shaw were beast. Gotta put Lievs Creed in there. And Blades Deacon Frost.

The only bad villains were the Iron Man ones. Red Skull, Loki, Abomination and Malekith were fine.

@tyrus: This.

I don't think their was any hope for Whiplash. He just sucked and was easily the worst villain so far.

I really enjoyed the Red Skull so I would have to disagree there, however you are spot on with everything else! Most all the villains have been lackluster, including the recent Malekith. Ugh, poor Eccleston.

I only liked Loki and Red Skull

The correct answer to the only thing wrong with the MCU is Agents of SHIELD. SO BLAND, not to mention the bad humor, terrible dialogue, and unlikable characters outside of Coulson and May.

Yup. Agreed. Even then, I liked Aldritch Killian (sorry if I spelled that wrong).

@darehulk: IF they would have done Whiplash a la Iron Man Armored Adventures when he destroys the suit etc. now that would have been wicked.

Me neither. I know they aren't miracle workers. Maybe if the movie was 3 hours long and allowed more character development it'd be better, but in 2+ hours or less it'd be implausible.

True, but everything about him just seemed bad. Justin Hammer was a better villain for me than Whiplash.

Also because they don't have X-Men, Fantastic Four, or Spider-Man. Missing out on a lot of good villains because of those missing properties

So far, only Loki has had any long term, cross-film staying power. Really, i'd say DC has really thwomped them on iconic villains.

My main issue with the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that they are victims of their own success. Basically, theyll just push anything through, and a lot of the movies seem just formulaic. They just want to hit the points on their checklist, and set up the next team-up movie. Iron Man 2 & 3 first really raised my suspicions about this, but Thor 2 really drove it home.

I didn't even like Loki in the Avengers. He was fooled so many times, and thats supposed to be his thing!

Yes. I ranted about this in my blog a few weeks ago

MCU villains suck. Even Loki who is brilliant in Thor and Thor:TDW is terrible in Avengers (not the acting, the script). I liked Iron Monger and Red Skull.

Everyone else is mediocre at best. Down right terrible in some cases.

Winter Soldier aside, unless they can solve the problem of cosmic villains sucking (Galactic, Parallax, Malekith) there isn't much hope for the future.

@darehulk: It's a pity they turned Red Skull into a mirror character. They should have shown him using brains vs brawn etc similar to Luthor vs Superman. Although as others said, he's not the worst offender.

Abomination is pretty good, just needs to fleshed out more.

Iron Monger is actually a good villain if you think of himself outside of the suit/as Obadiah Stane.

As for the rest, besides Loki and Malekith( Haven't seen it yet so can't judge), they're pretty forgettable villains.

Id honestly say Malekith was one of the weakest villains yet. But youll have to be the judge for yourself of course.

I'm hopeful for future villains... Winter Soldier looks perfect, Ronan should be great especially since I keep hearing from his actor that he's a "psycho" and Ultron is under Joss Whedon's care so I have no doubt there.

We should just be grateful that we're actually seeing villains like Red Skull, Malekith or Ultron appearing on the big-screen - Never did I think that I'd see any of these Marvel villains in my lifetime.

I disagree with you on Red Skull. I thought Skull was very well done. Usually the (non-comic fans) complain that he wasn't a very complex or relatable villain like Loki is, but honestly he's not suppose to be. He's a Super-Nazi, both in the literal and figurative sense, and that's all you really need to know about him. Over-all I thought his movie portrayal was great, I hope they bring him back in Cap 2 or 3.

Rest I agree with. Kurse I thought was a cool henchmen type villain, but Malekith was kindof a "meh" main villain. All the villains from the Iron Man/Hulk movies have been "meh" as well.

Yes, this is true.

But hopefully the Winter Soldier changes things.

@tyrus: He will be epic. Prepare to be Judged!

Winter Soldier and Ultron will surely dominate

The teaser of him turning around catching Cap's shield was sick.

Hopefully he's a BAMF

Red Skull & Loki were only good villains , Abomination was ok rest were meh.......i hope in Avengers 3 or any future movie they don't turn Thanos into a comedy character & while RDG cracks jokes about Thanos's chin , costume or other stuff & Hulk smacks him around like Loki while yelling "PUNY TITAN!" or "PRUNY CHINS!" & in climax of the movie, it is revealed that Thanos isn't main bad guy instead that Thanos's Lackey who was bullying Loki around in Avengers is actually the real bad guy

Confession: I really liked Justin Hammer.

Movie villains can be tricky. Generally, I find that the less you need to mess around with backstory/origin/transformation for the villain, the better he or she works out.

Yeah the villains are totally the problem. Yes, I love Loki but everyone of the others are weak, its probably why haven't seen a Marvel movie since. Even though DC is lacking film wise, you've got to give credit to Christopher Nolan to pushing Batman's rogues and making them 3D characters (well maybe not Bane) but still how many more people can still remember Heath Ledger's Joker than Hugo Weaving's Red Skull. I'm sure a lot of people.

Eh, I think the main flaw is the comedy, which I really disliked in Thor 2 and wasn't impressed with in IM3.