WhenIron Manfirst rack up theater in 2008 , moviegoers had no idea aboutthe cultural landmark that had just start . Over the next four years , Captain America , Thor , Black Widow , Hawkeye , and the Hulk were all introduced to Tony Stark ’s world , culminating in a innovative crossover outcome in which Earth ’s Mightiest Heroes teamed up to take on a Norse god and his cosmic overlord .

In the early days of the MCU , the franchise was n’t yet gettingthe “ villain trouble ” criticisms that it gets today , because its first round of movies had amazingly strong antagonists . Of course , they were n’t all marvellous .

Laufey

While the main villain ofThoris the titular god ’s adopted brother Loki , it has a subaltern   opponent in the manikin of Laufey , the King of the Frost Giants and Loki ’s biological founder .

Laufey ’s deficiency of ontogeny may be a upshot of his limited screen time , but there was a passel more potential in the Frost Giant who mother the trickster god .

Abomination

SinceThe Incredible Hulkfeatures an exclusively different incarnation of Bruce Banner played by Edward Norton and it ’s barely been acknowledged by subsequent movies , many fans do n’t even consider it to be a part of the MCU . Tim Roth plays the villain , Emil Blonsky , a needlessly evil soldier who becomes the Abomination , fundamentally a snowy edition of the Hulk , for a predictable smash-‘em - up showdown in the third act .

Some devotee have been hoping that the Abominationwill return if the MCU assembles its own Thunderbolts team . mayhap if that does happen , Roth can be given a roleworthy of his endowment .

Arnim Zola

Toby Jones is a great histrion , but he ’s relegated to the persona of Red Skull ’s lackey inCaptain America : The First Avenger . Arnim Zola is a demented Nazi scientist , but he ’s characterized like Jeff Fungus fromMonsters , Inc ..

Zola would later toy a more interesting role inThe Winter Soldierwhen he was resurrected as a supercomputer and came darn close to put a ton of assassination across the orb based on an algorithm he devised .

Whiplash

away from his cool electrify whips , whose visual spectacle put on thin after their first visual aspect on the Monaco racetrack , there ’s not a lot about Whiplash that ’s very exciting . Tony and Rhodey easily defeat him in the last fight , and it ’s not a works - and - payoff victory   — it ’s just something they strain in the urging of the second that happens to work out .

Mickey Rourke seems to be hear out a dissimilar Eastern European accent in every view , and for most of the moving-picture show , Tony does n’t even realise he ’s out there , so there ’s no tenseness between hero and baddie .

Justin Hammer

Justin Hammer is n’t a particularly well - written type . He ’s passably obviously qualify as a less coolheaded variant of Tony Stark . He ’s a guy who urgently wants to be Tony ; he has the money but not the charisma . As await , this jade thinly moderately quickly .

Fortunately , Marvel managed to bring Sam Rockwell for the part . His performance as Hammer elevated the type above his poor written material . He tip into Hammer ’s break down endeavour at Stark - ian flash , like his dancing onto the convening stage , and it ’s a mint of fun .

Red Skull

Steve Rogers faced his most iconic foe from the funnies in his first solo movie . The First Avenger , and the strip it ’s drawn from , tip around depict Hitler and the Nazi Party by using Red Skull and Hydra as a outdoor stage - in . As a snarling , office - hungry , hatred - mongering egomaniac bent on universe mastery , Red Skull is a perfect counterpoint towhat Captain America stands for .

Hugo Weaving already had plenty of experience playing bad Guy , like Agent Smith inThe Matrixtrilogy , and comic book graphic symbol , like the title of respect character inV for Vendetta , when he was drift to spiel Red Skull . He unsurprisingly tap it out of the park .

Obadiah Stane

The first villain that Iron Man faced established the tendency of Tony Stark ’s envious business rivals trying to take him down in his solo movie . What makes Obadiah Stane so peculiar is that he ’s also the guy rope who raised Tony . After Howard Stark die suddenly , Obadiah act as Tony ’s father figure between his reckless adolescence and his equally reckless adulthood .

Tony really imagine that he could commit Obadiah , so he was dismayed to come upon that the bozo essay to have him murdered by terrorist . Jeff Bridges , who usually play sympathetic protagonists , did a stellar job of making Obadiah ’s evil seem palpable .

Loki

Loki became the first MCU villain to have a multi - movie arc . Thorintroduced his jealousy of his comrade and Odin ’s neglectful parenting , demonstrate   Loki ’s motivating as a villain . ThenThe Avengerssaw him launching a full - scale alien attempt on New York City . Even after multiple deaths , Loki is still around , becausefans ca n’t get enough of him . He ’s Marvel ’s very own Bobby Ewing .

InThor , the prankster god ’s characterization was a little smarmy , but Joss Whedonbalanced his personality traits deftlyinThe Avengers ’ hand and Tom Hiddleston settled into the mustache - twirling villainy of the part by the time his second coming into court roll around .

NEXT : Star Wars : rank All The Villains In The Original Trilogy

Iron Man looking inside Sokovia in Avengers Age of Ultron

Spider-Man in the MCU and Jean Grey in Marvel Comics

Tom Holland’s Spider-Man upset and determined in No Way Home

MCU Phase 1 villains - featured image

Laufey looks to his right in Thor

The Abomination charges in The Incredible Hulk

Arnim Zola working on a Tesseract experiment in Captain America: The First Avenger

Whiplash

Justin Hammer

Red Skull

Obadiah Stane and Tony Stark in iron man

Loki in The Avengers

Movies

Marvel Cinematic Universe