10 Oldest Marvel Villains Ever, Ranked

In Marvel Comics, the multiverse is in a constant cycle of death and rebirth. Most of Marvel’s history takes place within the Seventh Cosmos. At 13.8 billion years, this version of the multiverse began with the Big Bang. Each iteration of the multiverse similarly has a lifespan of several billion years. However, there are forces of darkness that existed before the Big Bang and the multiverse as we know it today. Hailing from the multiverses before the Seventh Cosmos, these entities possess overwhelming power because they lived long enough to witness and survive multiple multiversal destruction and creation events – that they themselves often have caused. Many of these villains personify abstract concepts, including entropy, and seek to annihilate everything in their path.

These villains are so ancient and powerful that they see humans as less than insects whose lives begin and end within the blink of an eye. When these eldritch villains emerge, the fate of the multiverse is at stake.

10) Galactus

Galan was once a humble scientist and resident of the Sixth Cosmos. Tragically, as the Black Winter began to consume the multiverse, Galan watched everything die. When he was the last living mortal in the dwindling Sixth Cosmos, Galan merged with the all-powerful Sentience of the First Cosmos. When the Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago and created the Seventh Cosmos, Galan was reborn as Galactus. Fueled by the Power Cosmic, Galactus is a force of nature who has consumed countless planets teeming with life to satiate his eternal hunger. Galactus has tried multiple times to devour Earth. However, even with his almost endless power, he’s still routinely thwarted by the Avengers and Fantastic Four.

9) Black Winter

A formless eldritch entity, the Black Winter’s sole purpose is to consume multiverses. Although its exact age is unknown, we do know that it’s responsible for destroying the Sixth Cosmos, making it significantly older than Galactus. In fact, the Black Winter chose Galan to be its new herald in order to spread destruction across the new multiverse. Although Galactus rebelled against his master, the Black Winter tried to force him to return to servitude. The Black Winter can effortlessly annihilate universes and release deadly snow that disintegrates everything it touches.

8) Anti-All

During the Third Cosmos, two entities began an eternal battle for supremacy. In one corner is Lifebringer One, who embodies light, order, and existence and is considered to be the first hero in existence. In the other corner is the great dragon known as Anti-All, who embodies destruction, chaos, and non-existence. Anti-All sought to eradicate all of creation and return it to the void. Lifebringer One and Anti-All’s clash lasted through the Third through Seventh Cosmoses, where the eldritch dragon almost succeeded in devouring his heroic foe. Luckily, with the aid of the Defenders, Lifebringer One slew Anti-All, bringing an end to a dark creature that had existed for billions of years.

7) Beyonders

The Beyonders are a nigh-omnipotent race that emerged during the Second Cosmos, the very first iteration of the multiverse. The Celestials created them to aid in the creation of new universes. From their dimension, the Beyond, which lies outside the multiverse, the Beyonders forged numerous universes and pocket realities. The Beyonders sought to annihilate the current Marvel Multiverse to prevent the arrival of an all-powerful villain called Enigma. By creating and then harnessing the reality-warping power of the Molecule Man to eradicate the multiverse. They were successful in their multiversal genocide, but Doctor Doom used the Beyonders’ power to salvage the remnants of reality to create Battleworld to act as a sanctuary for the few survivors.

6) Abraxas

When the Second Cosmos first came into being, the abstract and sentient embodiment of multiversal destruction was born: Abraxas. He emerged when the original multiverse, the Second Cosmos, was forged by the Celestials. Abraxas is the counterpart and enemy of the omnipotent personification of the universe, Eternity. Abraxas desires to destroy the multiverse, but he was imprisoned by his heroic counterpart. Eternity created Galactus to keep universal balance, which prevents Abraxas from escaping. When Galactus was killed, Abraxas broke free and began destroying countless universes. Luckily, Franklin Richards used his reality-warping powers to resurrect Galactus, who promptly used the Ultimate Nullifier to eradicate Abraxas from existence.

5) Celestials

At the dawn of creation, there was only one universe. It was sentient and known as the First Firmament. Desiring company, the First Firmament forged the alien race known as the Celestials, who worshipped it as a god. However, the Celestials ultimately rebelled against the First Firmament and shattered it into countless pieces, creating the first multiverse, known as the Second Cosmos. The Celestials remained through all the numerous cycles as they are immortal. These god-like aliens arrive on planets and experiment on the native lifeforms. When they arrived on Earth, they created the human subspecies known as the Eternals, the Deviants, and even the first mutants. The Celestials are impartial to the suffering they cause and will destroy planets that don’t meet their standards.

4) Chaos King

Before there was light or matter, there existed Amatsu-Mikaboshi, aka the Chaos King. Although the lines between truth and legend are muddled when it comes to what happened to this dark god of evil and chaos, what is known is that he was eventually imprisoned in the underworld of Yomi by the goddess Gaea and numerous other deities. After billions of years of imprisonment, the Chaos King eventually broke free. He used his vast power to slaughter or imprison countless gods in his crusade to exterminate all of existence. Even all-powerful entities like Satan and Death herself are powerless against the Chaos King’s might. Only by tricking the dark god into a pocket universe did Hercules defeat this ancient evil.

3) Oblivion

Whereas the Chaos King emerged from the emptiness that predated creation, Oblivion is the void itself. Oblivion is the living embodiment of the darkness that existed before time and space came into being. Eldritch gods of darkness like the Chaos King and Knull are merely extensions of this eldritch deity’s will. He’s considered to be the very first son of the One Above All, who’s the primordial god and creator of existence. He represents true nothingness, where not even one’s soul remains intact. Like his acolytes, Oblivion is incredibly sadistic. He stands as the ultimate enemy of life, spending billions of years in his never-ending crusade to destroy everything.

2) One Below All

Before creation and the void that predated it, there was the One Above All. The supreme creator of everything and the ultimate ruler of the Marvel cosmology, the One Above All is the most ancient and powerful entity to have ever existed. However, as the personification of life and compassion, the One Above All has a darker half as old as he is. The One Below All emerged from his good counterpart as the personification of hate and destruction. Through gamma radiation, the One Below All spreads his demonic influence across the infinite multiverse, turning people into horrific monsters. This eldritch god is one of the strongest and most ancient entities ever and is the dark reflection of Marvel’s creator god.

1) Mother of Horrors

Although the One Above All is credited with the creation of all of existence, there’s something just as ancient and primordial as him that he had no part in creating. Vinruviel, aka the Mother of Horrors, is the enemy of Marvel’s supreme being. She’s the only being in existence capable of harming the One Above All, and by corrupting his blood, she created the One Below All. She, alongside her numerous other nightmarish children, was banished beyond reality by the One Above All, where she rested for billions of years. The Mother of Horrors is a creature so old that she even rivals the ultimate creator of existence in raw power.

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