Not every Marvel villain can be as powerful as Thanos or as entertaining as Killmonger. These baddies didn't live up to the hype they generated — even the ones that didn't generate much hype at all.
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00:00Not every Marvel villain can be as powerful as Thanos, or as entertaining as Killmonger.
00:05These baddies didn't live up to the hype they generated, even the ones that didn't generate
00:09much hype at all.
00:11In 2022, Marvel fans finally got to see the real Mandarin, the iconic Chinese villain
00:15from the comics who was a persistent adversary of Iron Man.
00:18Played by Tony Leung, the Mandarin appeared in Shang-Li and the Legend of the Ten Rings,
00:23but a decade earlier, the third Iron Man film completely wasted the villain.
00:27Other than being the wielder of ten mystical rings that grant him supernatural, almost
00:31god-like powers, the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 is portrayed as the leader of a Middle Eastern
00:36terrorist organization.
00:37Played by Ben Kingsley, it seemed like it had the potential to be an interesting take
00:41on the character, but it was all undermined by one of the worst twists in the Marvel Cinematic
00:46History.
00:47Look around you, costumes, green screen.
00:49Honestly, I wasn't on location for half this stuff.
00:52When I was, it was Movie Magic Club.
00:54Kingsley's version of the Mandarin turns out to be little more than a patsy.
00:57He's a British actor named Trevor Slattery who's been hired by Aldrich Killian to be
01:01the face of his criminal empire.
01:03Despite the negative reaction, Marvel brought Slattery back for Shang-Chi, and he's slated
01:08to appear heavily in the Wonder Man series on Disney+.
01:12Adam Warlock is an important character on the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe.
01:16First introduced as the hero of an alternate Earth, Warlock went on to play a central role
01:20in multiple Infinity storylines.
01:22Nowhere to be seen in the MCU when the Infinity Gauntlet was adapted for the big screen, his
01:26eventual arrival was teased in the final moments of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
01:31Unfortunately, due to a series of poorly-aged tweets, director James Gunn was fired and
01:36ultimately rehired, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was delayed by years.
01:41That only made people more excited for Adam Warlock's debut, especially when it was announced
01:45that actor Will Poulter was cast to play him.
01:47On screen, however, the cosmic hero is nothing like his counterpart on the page, at least
01:52not the version people really wanted to see.
01:54I am the Warlock, Mom, and I am done with being ordered around!"
01:58Where fans wanted the foreboding, aloof, and ominous interstellar hero, what they got is
02:02an overpowered, clumsy goofball, as the character is reimagined as an artificial man with the
02:07mind of a child.
02:09It certainly works for the tone of the movie, which ping-pongs between lighthearted romp
02:13and tear-jerking send-off, but as an adaptation of the character, it's sorely lacking.
02:18Stephen Strange has only a few major villains in the comics, and two of them get serious
02:22play in 2016's Doctor Strange.
02:24Although Dormammu is saved for the film's finale, classic villain Baron Karl Mordo is
02:28a supporting character, and surprisingly, a friend rather than a foe.
02:33That all changes in the film's post-credits stinger, where it's revealed that Mordo is
02:36seeking to destroy magic users following the rise of Doctor Strange, setting him up for
02:40a major role as the antagonist in the sequel.
02:44Fast forward to 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives, and Mordo is
02:56nowhere to be found.
02:57To be fair, Mordo does technically make an appearance, played once again by Chiatel Ejiofor,
03:02just not the same version of him.
03:04Ejiofor plays the Earth-838 variant of Mordo, who's also the Sorcerer Supreme, putting in
03:09a solid performance while also completely ignoring all the major developments from Strange's
03:13first film.
03:14Even though this Mordo is a member of the Illuminati alongside Professor X, Mr. Fantastic,
03:19Black Bolt, and Captains Carter and Marvel, the fact that he doesn't try to start a magical
03:23apocalypse like his comic book counterpart was a bit disappointing to fans of the comics.
03:29Another second-string villain from the Iron Man comics, MODOK is one of Marvel's strangest
03:33creations, a giant floating head with little arms and legs.
03:36The mental organism designed only for killing totally works in his own comedic stop-motion
03:41animated series, but he's hardly the kind of weird character one would expect to see
03:45in the MCU.
03:46That is, until the MCU went into the Quantum Realm, where weirdness reigns in Ant-Man and
03:50the Wasp Quantumania.
03:51For the MCU, MODOK was imagined a bit differently.
03:55Instead of a brilliant scientist working for A.I.M., he's Darren Cross, the villainous
03:59Yellowjacket from the first Ant-Man film, whose physical form is warped by his journey
04:03to the Quantum Realm.
04:04While comic book MODOK is a master tactician who's defeated some of Marvel's most powerful
04:08heroes, he was little more than a punchline in Quantumania, and not a very funny one.
04:13I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me.
04:15Just now noticing the baby legs.
04:16They're not baby legs.
04:18A little bit like a Bjorn.
04:19To make matters worse, the effects used to bring MODOK to life are wonky at best, and
04:23feel like something out of a Spy Kids movie at worst.
04:26Maybe someday the character will be reintroduced more effectively, but right now we're forced
04:30to wonder if it'd have been better served on the cutting room floor.
04:34As a villain who can mimic the fighting style of an enemy combatant, Taskmaster is a frightening
04:38adversary of the Avengers.
04:40He carries a shield like Captain America and a bow and arrow like Hawkeye.
04:43He can swing like Spider-Man, fight like Daredevil, and has expert marksmanship skills like Bullseye.
04:49Suffice to say, he's one of the most lethal villains in the Marvel Universe who's not
04:52a superhuman or mutant.
04:54That's why audiences are right to be excited when Taskmaster was announced as a major antagonist
04:58in Black Widow, after being ignored for some 15 years in the MCU.
05:02Played by Olga Kurylenko, the MCU's Taskmaster is gender-swapped, but otherwise accurate
05:07in terms of the character's abilities.
05:09She can copy Black Widow's moves and is shown studying the likes of Spider-Man, Black Panther,
05:14and Captain America to learn their techniques.
05:16Even her costume is a pretty good translation.
05:18She wields a shield, a bow, and a sword, just like her comic book counterpart.
05:22So what's the problem?
05:23Like another character on this list, the normally chatty mercenary is rendered silent in the
05:27script, barely speaking a word and serving as a glorified henchman to the actual main
05:31villain, Dracov.
05:33Taskmaster is due to return in Thunderbolts, but considering how little she's known in
05:36the trailers, it seems that Marvel may be making her the equivalent of Slipknot in their
05:40version of DC's The Suicide Squad.
05:44Daredevil is Marvel's top street-level hero, but you might be surprised to learn that he
05:47doesn't have many well-known villains in his rogues' gallery.
05:50That's why it was a curious decision to burn all three of his biggest baddies in his big-screen
05:54debut, with Kingpin, Elektra, and Bullseye all playing major roles in the 2003 film.
06:00It's Bullseye who gets the short straw.
06:02Played admirably by Colin Farrell, he's reimagined as an Irish punk with a Matrix-style leather
06:06jacket and a scar shaped like a bullseye on his forehead.
06:09Despite Daredevil wearing a relatively comic-faithful bright red leather costume, Bullseye looks
06:13more like he walked out of a back-alley fistfight in Dublin.
06:16With so many options for a character with expert marksmanship skills, it's a curious
06:20decision to portray him as borderline clownish.
06:23Was that really necessary?
06:25Necessary?
06:26No.
06:27It was fun.
06:28A decade later, Bullseye was rebooted for Season 3 of Netflix's Daredevil, where he
06:32was played by Wilson Bethel, but he was sadly disappointing there as well.
06:36Rather than show Bullseye at his best, we don't see him for long, until he's driven
06:40insane and starts wearing Daredevil's costume.
06:43Bullseye has yet to appear on screen in his classic outfit, but he does wear Daredevil's.
06:48Marvel may have missed the Bullseye with Bullseye, but neither version of that character was
06:51botched quite as badly as Dark Phoenix.
06:54In the comics, the Dark Phoenix, a twisted form of the hero Jean Grey, is the result
06:58of a cosmic force, with her story largely taking place away from Earth.
07:02She's among the most powerful X-Men villains, and was showcased in one of the comic's most
07:05iconic storylines.
07:07Unfortunately, X-Men The Last Stand defangs the entire story, portraying Dark Phoenix
07:11as a brainwashed Jean Grey who's sounded up psychic powers and making her a glorified
07:15henchman of Magneto.
07:16The professor can help.
07:17He can fix it.
07:18I don't want to fix it.
07:23A disappointing interpretation, Famke Janssen's turn as Dark Phoenix in 2006 might as well
07:28have been an entirely different character.
07:30After all, there's no mention of cosmic anything, the result of Fox's more grounded approach
07:34to the X-Men in the 2000s.
07:36By 2019, though, superhero movies like Guardians of the Galaxy were featuring interstellar
07:40adventures that audiences ate up like candy.
07:43That's why it was truly head-scratching that Fox's second attempt at the story, X-Men Dark
07:47Phoenix, was arguably an even bigger flop.
07:50Set mostly on Earth and only hinting at the cosmic nature of Jean Grey's new powers, Sophie
07:54Turner's version of the character was a squandered second chance.
07:58Batroc the Leaper admittedly isn't the biggest Marvel villain, or even an especially memorable
08:03one, unless you're a serious fan of Captain America from the comics.
08:06He's a somewhat goofier character in his early appearances, and he did little more than kick
08:09a lot.
08:10That said, the character got some attention in the MCU when real-life mixed martial artist
08:14and UFC champion Georges Saint-Pierre played him in 2014's Captain America The Winter Soldier.
08:20You won't find a more perfect casting choice, as Saint-Pierre is both French and a master
08:24of martial arts.
08:25He even shares his first name with the villain.
08:27Unfortunately, his lone showdown is more of a letdown, as Cap trounces the French mercenary
08:32with just a few quick moves.
08:34It's a solid fight sequence, but the fact that it's goodbye to Batroc in the movie feels
08:37like going to a big-name boxing bout that ends in a first-round knockout.
08:41Saint-Pierre got a second chance in 2021's The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, but once
08:45again, his character felt sorely underutilized.
08:48When it comes to Marvel's Netflix shows Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, there
08:54are quite a few overhyped villains to point to, but few of them overpromised and underdelivered
08:59like The Hand.
09:00In the comics, The Hand are 616's premier group of ninjas, appearing in Daredevil comics
09:04and playing a prominent role in Wolverine stories.
09:07Then came Defenders.
09:08Filled as an Avengers-like team-up of Marvel's TV heroes, the eight-part miniseries pits
09:13the combined might of the four Netflix heroes against The Hand, who have diabolical plans
09:17for New York City.
09:18The only problem is, The Defenders paints The Hand as a mostly incompetent band of thugs
09:22that have more in common with Shredder's bumbling Foot Clan from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
09:27than the highly-skilled, battle-hardened ninjas from the comics.
09:30After all, their leader's big plan is apparently to collapse New York City over the skeleton
09:34of an ancient dragon.
09:35"...it's just a city, you'll get used to watching them fall."
09:41Sorry, Alexandra Reid, but when it comes to using giant, mythical creatures to destroy
09:46Manhattan, Arzimandias did it better.
09:49Following Avengers Endgame, fans were anticipating the MCU's next big bad, and Kang was an obvious
09:54choice for many fans.
09:55In the comics, the time-traveling Kang has been a thorn in the side of the Avengers since
09:59the 60s, with many variants of Kang throughout Marvel history.
10:02He seemed like fertile ground for an MCU saga that could culminate in a massive two-part
10:06Avengers event.
10:08Fans got their wish when rising star Jonathan Majors was cast as Kang, but when he finally
10:12appeared, he wasn't what they were expecting.
10:14His first appearance was as a quirky oddball called He Who Remains in Season 1 of Loki,
10:19while his ultimate reveal as the monstrous Kang the Conqueror came in one of the MCU's
10:23most disappointing entries, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Quantumania.
10:27In that film, Kang is far from the imposing, multiverse-conquering tyrant he is in the comics,
10:32and instead comes across as a bargain version of better villains, easily bested by the tiny
10:36heroes.
10:37Today, we conquer eternity, and the dynasty of Kang."
10:44Of course, Avengers 5 didn't end up being the Kang dynasty.
10:47Due to Majors' legal woes, Marvel was forced to pivot their grand plans in the direction
10:51of Victor Von Doom.
10:53If there's anything that frustrates fans of Fox's X-Men movies, it's how the series kept
10:58Magneto as its main antagonist, rarely exploring the rest of the team's incredible array of
11:02iconic villains.
11:04Fans begged for powerhouses like Mr. Sinister, while major characters like Juggernaut were
11:08relegated to glorified cameos.
11:10After a decade of being ignored, the ancient evil called Apocalypse showed up in 2016's
11:15X-Men Apocalypse, and he was met with groans before the movie was even released.
11:19He's played by Oscar Isaac, but few people blame the actor under the mask.
11:23In the comics, Apocalypse is supposed to be as cosmically terrifying as Thanos or Kang,
11:27but that's not felt in the movie.
11:29Isaac's five-foot-inch stature is rarely altered to make him seem physically imposing, while
11:33his makeup gives him the look of a glorified Power Rangers villain.
11:36Thankfully, Marvel wasn't afraid to bring the Golden Globe winner back into the multiverse,
11:40casting Isaac as Moon Knight in the critically acclaimed Disney Plus series of the same name.
11:44"'Through the ashes of their world, we build a better one!"
11:51Nobody is ever going to argue that Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool, as featured in his three films since
11:562016, has been anything short of uncanny in his accuracy to the source material.
12:00His costume is lifted right off the page.
12:02While Reynolds' performance is a pitch-perfect recreation of the Merc with a Mouth that comic
12:06book fans had come to love, the same can't be said, of course, for the character's debut
12:10in 2009's X-Men Origins, Wolverine.
12:13Reynolds reluctantly agreed to star as Wade Wilson despite not being happy with the character's
12:17portrayal in the script.
12:19He was right to have concerns, as fans were outraged to find that everything they loved
12:22about the character was wrong.
12:24He had no costume, he had giant blades in his forearms, and shot lasers out of his eyes.
12:29And worst of all, his mouth was fused shut.
12:31Fans have been waiting years to see Deadpool on screen, but even Reynolds knows that first
12:35attempt was a total disaster.
12:36"'Why don't you do us all a favor and shut the f---- up, or I'll sew your pretty mouth
12:42shut."
12:43"'Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you.'"
12:47Often in comic book movies, more outlandish characters are given more grounded interpretations.
12:51So when Tim Story set out to adapt The Fantastic Four into a big-budget franchise, certain
12:55elements had to be changed.
12:57Doctor Doom, for example, was given a long, fancy trench coat instead of a flowing cape.
13:01But what do you do when your villain is a giant alien in purple robot armor who eats
13:05planets for breakfast?
13:06Well, the obvious answer is you make him a cloud, and that's exactly what happened in
13:102007's Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer.
13:14For fans, the reality that the Fantastic Four's most powerful foe Galactus wasn't at all faithful
13:19to the comics was absolutely infuriating.
13:21Comic readers had been dreaming of seeing the giant purple planet-eater for decades,
13:25so the reveal that he was nothing more than evil gas was a massive disappointment.
13:29Thankfully, Marvel is finally correcting their mistake with The Fantastic Four First Steps,
13:33which promises to show Galactus in all his giant glory.
13:38Sam Raimi's first two Spider-Man films are the gold standard of comic book movies, and
13:41they set a new bar for just how good they could be.
13:44Major moneymakers that also happen to be critically acclaimed, they featured two of Spidey's most
13:48famous foes, the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus.
13:51But one popular villain was saved for the threequel, the alien symbiote known as Venom.
13:56The only problem was, he had very little in common with the character from the comics,
13:59largely due to his casting.
14:01In the comics, Venom's human identity is Eddie Brock, a physically intimidating, tough-talking
14:05bodybuilder and journalist who the alien symbiote sees as a worthy host due to both his size
14:10and vicious personality.
14:12So who's the best actor to embody the qualities of this oversized, violent meathead?
14:16Of course, you'd choose Topher Grace, 5'11", and slight of build, who'd recently ended
14:21a run as a teenager on That 70s Show.
14:24Grace isn't an imposing figure, and hardly the right actor to play a tough jock.
14:28So the character written for him was a whiny, petulant man-child who isn't very tough at
14:32all, the polar opposite of Brock from the comics.
14:34"'Ooh, my spider-sense is tingling, if you know what I'm talking about.'"
14:41Raimi himself admitted that he didn't quite understand the character, saying,
14:45"...I didn't recognize enough humanity within that character to be able to identify with
14:48him properly.
14:49That's really what it boils down to."