7 Best Upgraded Versions of Marvel Villains, Ranked

Marvel Comics took the superhero and brought it to new levels, doing the same to their villains as well. The Marvel Universe is a more realistic world and that has meant that the villains have to be more hard-edged and more real, their goals and personalities feeling authentic to readers. These antagonists are some of the most dangerous out there, challenging the heroes in new and terrifying ways every time they show up. However, a surefire way to make a villain boring is to never change anything, whether it be in the mainline universe or in alternate ones. Upgrading these bad guys has led readers to some awesome stories, giving them unforgettable new versions of favorite villains.

Often times, alternate universe stories revolve around amped versions of the House of Ideas’ greatest ideas. There are so many Marvel stories that are just “(insert bad guy) gets power and succeeds at their mission”, creating more upgraded versions of classic villains than you can shake a stick at. These upgraded villains were able to inform stories that might not always land, but still showed just how bad that they can be. These are the seven best upgraded Marvel villains, bad guys with even more power than they had before.

7) King Loki

Loki is one of the most powerful Asgardians and we have seen some very powerful versions of them over the years. An argument can be made that the current God of Stories Loki is the best, but for my money the best upgraded Loki came from Loki (Vol. 1), a miniseries that saw the villain take over Asgard, defeating the armies of Odin and putting down Thor. The story was told completely from their perspective, dealing with their issues ruling and their eventual loss. This was the first story that made me and a lot of readers see Loki in a new way and it was fantastic. They get more attention now that they’re a more morally grey character than a villain, but villain Loki as a focus can be just as fantastic and this version of the trickster proves it.

6) Red Onslaught

Some Marvel events are better on a re-read, with AXIS being a maligned book that is honestly kind of cool because of Red Onslaught. After Avengers vs. X-Men, Red Skull stole Professor X’s body, took out the telepathic portion of his brain, and had it grafted to his own. He battled the Avengers Unity Squad with his S-Men, then created a mutant concentration camp in the ashes of Genosha. This goaded Magneto into going after him, the Jewish mutant smashing his skull with a brick, because Magneto wanted to kill Skull with his bare hands. However, this was all part of the plan and Skull became the Red Onslaught, gaining the godlike psionic power of the being. He whupped the superhero and villain community, only defeated because Scarlet Witch switched the morality of Red Skull and a group of villains, as well as key X-Men and Avengers. Sad Skull, horrified at what he did, helped restore the heroes, the telepathy being removed from him, and we haven’t seen Red Onslaught since.

5) Age of Ultron Ultron

Ultron is always one of the most dangerous villains in the Marvel Universe. As an artificial lifeform, he’s enhanced himself many times, but the greatest enhancement came in Age of Ultron. This version of the villain had just come back from space, after controlling the Phalanx for years, and was able to build an army of Ultrons in secret, blitzing the world with a swarm of Ultrons all controlled by him. He was no longer one body, he was every Ultron out there. He was a swarm of bodies, hunting the ruins of the Earth for survivors; if you saw one, they would come after you. The Avengers were able to go back in time and stop him from building his army (after Wolverine and Invisible Woman messed up and killed Hank Pym, creating a world on the cusp of destruction), ending the threat of this ultimate version of the Avengers’ cruelest foe.

4) Ultimate Green Goblin

Green Goblin is Spider-Man’s greatest villain, so when the original Ultimate Universe was started by Ultimate Spider-Man, he was a shoe-in to show up. Norman Osborn created the Oz formula which gave Spider-Man his powers. Osborn would also take the formula and become the Green Goblin. On Earth-616, he wore a costume. On Earth-1610, he became a massive hulking goblin, living up to his name. He was stronger than Spider-Man and could blow flames. He was the greatest foe of this new version of Spidey, a horrifying new version of a villain that was already dangerous to begin with. He even ended up killing Peter (or so he thought), showing that he was a better Goblin than 616 Norman could ever be.

3) King Thanos

Thanos is the most dangerous villain in the Marvel Universe. Over the years, many of his stories have revolved around him trying to get his hands on an object of ultimate power and using it to destroy half (sometimes more than half) the universe. However, one of the things us real Thanos fans know is that he’s never needed anything like that to kill the universe and “Thanos Wins!” was the proof we all wanted. In this universe, the Mad Titan decides to just start killing, first attacking Earth and going after the superhero community, killing them and the villains. And everyone else on the planet. He then traveled throughout the universe exterminating everything in his way. The story picked up at what is the end of time. King Thanos has killed everything he could find and wanted to die, so he brought his past self to the future to kill him. This was the ultimate version of Thanos, proving just how powerful he was completely on his own.

2) “Age of Apocalypse” Apocalypse

The X-Men have, for my money, the best villains in the Marvel Universe, with Apocalypse as the most powerful. We’ve seen numerous versions of Apocalypse over the years, some more powerful and some weaker, but the best of them is easily the “Age of Apocalypse” version of the villain. When Legion went back in time and accidentally killed Charles Xavier it was international news, and Apocalypse decided to up his timetable on attacking humanity and revealing the existence of mutants. The world wasn’t ready for him at all, with Magneto forming a group of X-Men to battle the evil mutant army that couldnt’ stop the tide of death. Apocalypse was able to take over the Americas, destroy Japan, devastate Africa, and basically wreck the world, with the surviving humans all moving to Eurasia and protected by Sentinels. He was the ruler of his world and the most feared person on the planet. Magneto was able to tear him apart, ending his reign, and putting away the most powerful Apocalypse ever.

1) God Emperor Doom

Doctor Doom is Marvel’s greatest villain, the inspiration for an entire generation of Silver Age villains and beyond. Victor Von Doom is one of the smartest humans on Earth, the King of Latveria, one of the most powerful sorcerers on Earth, and a man who is always an eyelash away from taking over the world. During the Incursions, he discovered their existence on his own and came up with his plan, working with the Mad Thinker (who both Doom and Reed have trusted, strangely enough), Molecule Man, and eventually Doctor Strange. They stole the power of the Beyonders and he became God Emperor Doom. This led to him rebuilding the multiverse in Secret Wars, creating Battleworld from the ashes and lording over its residents. He ended up giving up his power after heroes and villains from Earths-616 and 1610 caused a rebellion, giving his power to Reed Richards, who repaired his face before removing the Incursions from the timeline.

Who’s your favorite upgraded Marvel villain? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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