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Sign in to your Collider account Add Us On Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recapThe following article contains spoilers.The MCU has given us some of the greatest villains of all time. There have been sorcerers, gods, and titans who can bend reality, devour entire planets, rewrite time, and wipe out universes with a snap of their fingers. That is exactly why the MCU TV side often gets judged so harshly, because many of its antagonists feel lackluster. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had the Flag Smashers, who never felt as intimidating as the story wanted them to be. In Hawkeye, the Tracksuit Mafia felt like a parody of a criminal gang and was difficult to take seriously.
And yes, not every series has produced a Thanos (Josh Brolin)-level villain, but that doesn’t mean the small screen has been lacking in power. Across multiple shows, Marvel has introduced some incredibly menacing villains with insane power levels. And as hard as it may be to believe, a few of these TV villains even outrank the strongest movie villains.
10 Kingpin
'Daredevil: Born Again' (2025–Present)
Vincent D'onofrio as kingpin Wilson Fisk in 'Daredevil: Born Again.'Image via Marvel Studios/Disney+
Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) was an absolute menace in Marvel’s Netflix era, and with Echo and Daredevil: Born Again, that canon is now firmly part of the mainline MCU. This is a man who murdered his own father. He once decapitated someone by repeatedly slamming a car door into his head. And in Born Again, he kills the NYPD Commissioner by crushing his head with his bare hands. The man is physically terrifying!
But Fisk’s real power has never just been about brute strength. It is his mind. He is a master manipulator who knows exactly how to read people and find their weak spots. And now, he is the mayor of New York City. He has outlawed vigilantes and created an anti-vigilante task force, effectively turning the legal system into a weapon against heroes. Going from crime boss to a legitimate authoritarian power makes him more dangerous than ever before.
9 Arthur Harrow
'Moon Knight' (2022)
Image via Disney+
Moon Knight introduces Ethan Hawke's Arthur Harrow as the former avatar of Khonshu and a fanatical cult leader who is now devoted to the goddess Ammit. Unlike Khonshu, who punishes evil after it happens, Harrow wants to release Ammit so she can judge and execute people for sins they have not even committed yet. His main weapon is the Staff of Ammit, which allows him to judge souls. If the staff reveals someone’s scales are unbalanced, he drains their life force on the spot.
The staff also allows him to open portals to another dimension and summon invisible jackal creatures to attack his enemies. But even without the supernatural elements, Harrow is incredibly dangerous because he leads a cult. Just like Fisk, he knows how to break people down psychologically and replace their sense of self with blind devotion.
8 Gravik
'Secret Invasion' (2023)
Secret Invasion Episode 1Image via Disney+
Skrulls are already a scary enough threat on their own. They can wear any face and slip into any system. Over the years, they have seeped into powerful governments and major organizations across the world. And as their rebel leader in Secret Invasion, Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) is the worst of them all. He believes the Skrulls were betrayed and abandoned by the humans, and he seeks vengeance by attempting to eradicate humanity and seize Earth as the new Skrull planet.
To achieve this, Gravik acquires genetic material from numerous MCU heroes and villains and transforms into a Super Skrull. He gains the Extremis regenerative healing factor, so he can recover from serious injuries almost instantly. He can stretch and extend his limbs like Groot (Vin Diesel). He has Cull Obsidian’s (Terry Notary) raw superhuman strength and Ebony Maw’s (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) telekinesis. On top of that, he wields Captain Marvel’s (Brie Larson) cosmic energy manipulation and flight. Even though he is defeated by G’iah (Emilia Clarke), his brief reign shows how terrifying a fusion of the MCU’s strongest powers can be.
7 Agatha Harkness
'WandaVision' (2021)
Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness dressed as a witch while driving a car in WandavisionImage via Disney+
Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) is a centuries-old witch and an expert in forbidden dark magic, and her main ability is siphoning the power of other witches. During the Salem witch trials, she survived by absorbing the magic of her entire coven and turning their attack back on them. And she truly proves just how skilled she is when she inscribes protective runes on the walls of her basement, which completely negate all of Wanda's (Elizabeth Olsen) Chaos Magic within that space.
Inside the Westview Hex, she moves freely without being mentally controlled by Wanda. Using a single strand of Wanda’s hair, she even forces her to revisit traumatic childhood memories. And Agatha’s cunning almost let her control Wanda, who is arguably the most powerful magic-user in the MCU. Even though she ultimately loses, Agatha remains one of the very few characters who could counter Chaos Magic and go toe to toe with the Scarlet Witch herself.
6 Death
'Agatha All Along' (2024)
Image via Disney+
In Agatha All Along, Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza) is revealed to be the personification of the cosmic entity of Death. That means death isn’t something she controls; it is what she is. She can instantly kill living beings, and as an amortal entity, she is also unkillable. Her power cannot be separated from her essence. So, if anyone attempts to absorb her energy, they die instantly. That is why she was able to kill Agatha with a single kiss.
She was also the original, primordial Green Witch, which means her connection to nature-based magic operates at a cosmic level. Life and decay both fall under her domain. And this is still just the surface of what she represents. In the comics, Death has been one of the most important cosmic forces in existence. She was the one Thanos was obsessed with and tried to impress by wiping out half the universe. Entire storylines have revolved around her approval or disapproval. So, even though the MCU has only shown a glimpse of what Death can do so far, the scale of her abilities is limitless.
5 Mephisto
'Ironheart' (2025)
Sacha Baron Cohen as Mephisto in Ironheart Season 1, Episode 6.Image via Disney+
Mephisto (Sacha Baron Cohen) is essentially the Devil of the MCU. He rules over his own dimension and collects souls by striking Faustian bargains with desperate people. In Ironheart, he shows a few glimpses of his wild reality-warping powers. He can bring people back from the dead and freeze a loud family into silence with a simple wave of his hand. He also casually dismisses Dormammu’s power, which says a lot. Dormammu was a cosmic threat that even Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) could not truly defeat, and only managed to outsmart through a time loop. For Mephisto to brush him aside so easily implies that he operates on a much higher level within the hierarchy of evil.
And this is still only the tip of the iceberg of what he can really do. In the comics, Mephisto is the one who turned Johnny Blaze into Ghost Rider. Mephisto stole the soul of Doctor Doom’s mother. And at one point, he even rewrote reality and erased the Avengers from existence. When he finally steps into the MCU spotlight fully, he may emerge as a multiversal-level manipulator rivaling Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) cunning and Strange’s mastery of the mystic arts.
4 Zombie Wanda
'Marvel Zombies' (2025)
Image via Disney+
In Marvel Zombies, Zombie Wanda retains her intelligence and Chaos Magic, and she uses it to command the entire undead horde of Earth-89521, which includes zombified versions of many superhumans and Avengers alike. She can use magic to disguise her decaying form and appear human, which is how she deceives and infects the Asgardians. She overpowered Thor, defeated the Infinity Hulk, and was even able to reforge Stormbreaker to help Thor fight against the Hulk.
And she is one of the few villains that remains undefeated. In the final stretch, Kamala believes she has finally beaten the Queen of the Dead and healed the world of the zombie virus. But it is revealed that Wanda had been manipulating reality the entire time. Kamala was never free; she was actually trapped inside an illusion created by Wanda to keep her contained.
3 Strange Supreme
'What If...?' (2021–2024)
Strange Supreme coming through a portal in What If...?Image via Marvel Studios
In What If…?, Strange Supreme is a corrupted, immensely powerful variant of Doctor Strange. His grief over losing Christine Palmer, who died in the accident that originally injured his hands in the main MCU timeline, drives him down a dark path. He studies the Dark Arts and tries to rewind time to save her, only to discover that her death is an absolute point in time that cannot be changed.
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Dive further into villain power tiers: subscribe to the newsletter to get exclusive breakdowns, ranked comparisons, lore context, and expert takes that expand your understanding of MCU threats and their power. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.Refusing to accept fate, he absorbs hundreds of mystical beings to become more and more powerful. These include stag gods, dragons, gnomes, snake-like creatures, and the Lovecraftian, tentacled monster Shuma-Gorath. Each absorption increases his abilities to near-godlike levels. Eventually, he becomes powerful enough to break the absolute point in time and achieve a level of consciousness that even allows him to detect The Watcher’s presence.
2 He Who Remains
'Loki' (2021–2023)
Jonathan Majors as He Who Remains in Loki Season 1 finaleImage via Marvel Studios
He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) turns out to be the mastermind behind the TVA at the end of Loki Season 1. He is the final surviving variant of Kang who managed to harness the power of Alioth and defeat every other variant of himself to create the Sacred Timeline. That means everything that happened in the MCU up until that point happened because he allowed it. He is aware of every action and reaction and is prepared for nearly every possible outcome. That is a level of control over causality and consequence that no other villain has ever come close to.
He built an entire organization that exists outside of time and constantly prunes any timeline branch that strays from his intended path. And he was only defeated because he chose to be. His death was meant to unleash another multiversal war filled with ruthless Kang variants across time, which would have truly shown how powerful he was since he managed to defeat all of them before. Unfortunately, that storyline never fully played out because Kang was replaced by Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) as the next big bad of the Avengers movies.
1 Infinity Ultron
'What If...?' (2021–2024)
Image via Disney+
Ultron (James Spader) was already terrifying in Avengers: Age of Ultron. He was a superintelligent being who lifted Sokovia into the sky and planned to drop it back down to wipe out humanity. But in What If...?, this variant actually fulfills Ultron’s original purpose. He successfully uploads his consciousness into Vision’s (Paul Bettany) body and gains control of the Mind Stone. From there, he launches a global nuclear holocaust and eradicates most of humanity. When Thanos arrives on Earth to collect the final Infinity Stone, Ultron slices him in half with a beam from the Mind Stone and claims all six Infinity Stones for himself.
With the full power of the stones, he annihilates all life in his universe until he transcends the boundaries of reality itself. He becomes near omniscient and hears The Watcher narrating his story from the Observational Plane. Only Strange Supreme, after devouring hundreds of mystical beings, has ever reached that level of awareness. But Ultron goes even further. He breaks through the barriers of the multiverse and attacks Uatu across different universes. At one point, Ultron grows to a cosmic size and devours an entire galaxy just to demonstrate his raw power. And the Watcher eventually retreats because he realizes he is no match for Infinity Ultron alone.
Like
What If...?
Superhero
Animation
Action
Adventure
Release Date
2021 - 2024
Showrunner
Ashley Bradley
Directors
Bryan Andrews
Writers
Ashley Bradley, Matthew Chauncey
Cast
See All-
Samuel L. Jackson
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Stanley Tucci
Expand
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MCU
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Loki
Subscribe for deeper MCU villain breakdowns and analysis
Dive further into villain power tiers: subscribe to the newsletter to get exclusive breakdowns, ranked comparisons, lore context, and expert takes that expand your understanding of MCU threats and their power. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.What To Watch
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