The Avengers are the pinnacle of the Marvel Comics superhero community. They’re the primary defense force for the Earth in particular and the universe in general, their legend spreading across the cosmos with each victory. While the team has fought a lot of lower-level threats, they’re the ones who get called in when things are at their worst. Avengers villains are built different; even the ones who aren’t all powerful have the kinds of weapons, tactical know how, and minions to challenge the group. That’s what happened when you have a team that’s designed to face the biggest threats; smaller scale enemies just can’t cut it anymore.
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Marvel is full of amazing villains of various power levels but not all of them are Avengers caliber. There are some very formidable villains out there that shouldn’t mess with the Avengers; the team is just way too powerful. This hasn’t stopped Marvel from putting them against the group sometimes, but it’s rarely worked very well. These seven Marvel villains have no business fighting the Avengers, their threat not enough for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
7) Flag-Smasher
Captain America has some underrated villains, with Flag-Smasher being one of the most interesting. He’s basically an anarchist, against the concept of nation-states, leading a group of like-minded individuals in order to “free” the world. He can give Cap a challenge, but let’s be real – he’s just not on the level of the Avengers. If he can’t beat Cap all by himself, there’s no way he can defeat the Avengers as a unit. He’s just a normal human (unlike in the MCU) in every way and that’s just not enough against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
6) Doctor Octopus
Spider-Man has some very tough villains and Doctor Octopus has always been one of the most formidable. His robotic arms are an amazing weapon, but they’re not really going to help him very much against the Avengers. He’s still a normal human, so if one of the team’s energy users hits him, it’s going to hurt. A lot. He’s the definition of a glass cannon; he can do damage but he can’t take much and fighting the Avengers is an exercise in taking damage. His adamantium arms would make a difference, but he’s still just human. He’s led the Masters of Evil in the past, but that doesn’t mean that him fighting the team was ever a good idea.
5) Abomination
Abomination seems like a villain who should fight the Avengers, but looks can be deceiving. Abom is a gamma mutate, but he’s missing the thing that makes fighting the Hulk so difficult – his strength doesn’t increase as he gets angry. He’s very strong – his base strength is higher than Hulk’s – but he’s no match for someone like Thor or Captain Marvel or even the Vision. Honestly, there are very few Avengers rosters in the history of the team who couldn’t handily take him down (maybe Cap’s Kooky Quarter couldn’t, but that’s honestly the only one off the top of my head). The Avengers cream strong guys like him all the time.
4) Crimson Dynamo
Iron Man’s villains don’t get a lot of play, including Crimson Dynamo. Much like ol’Shellhead, there have been numerous Crimson Dynamo armors, although there have also been numerous people in the armor. The Crimson Dynamo armor is quite powerful, but it’s nowhere near as advanced as the Iron Man armor, and this has led to everyone who wears it always losing to the Armored Avenger. If someone wearing the armor can’t beat Iron Man by himself, there’s no way they’re going to be able to challenge the Avengers in any serious way.
3) Bushman
Moon Knight is known as one of the toughest heroes around, so anyone who can fight him has to be formidable. Bushman is one of his most well-known villains, a brutal mercenary who worked with Marc Specter back in the day. He was obsessed with Moon Knight and the two have had some bloody battles. However, Bushman is just a dude. He’s skilled, but there’s no way that the Avengers would be challenged by him whatsoever. He’s the kind of villain who someone would punch once and knock out on the way to fighting the real villain of the story, all while making a joke that Moon Knight is lying about how tough Bushman is.
2) Sabretooth
Sabretooth is way more of a challenge than he seems, but he would still fall short of the Avengers. He’s strong, fast, and skilled with a healing factor and is much more cunning than he gets credit for, but that’s not going to make a huge difference. For a long time, he was able to pretty consistently beat Wolverine, showing how tough he was, but recent years have seen even that change. However, the Avengers are on another level. Can you imagine ‘Tooth squaring up with Thor or Captain Marvel or even Iron Man? Cap would be able to take him even. Victor Creed is a fantastic villain in a lot of ways, but he just wouldn’t work against the Avengers.
1) Green Goblin
So, there’s a large caveat to this one, all because of the amazing “Dark Reign”. Norman Osborn was an Avengers villain for a while, but not as Green Goblin. Instead, he used modified Iron Man armor and became the Iron Patriot. He was in one of this more mentally lucid phases of his life and this definitely made a difference. However, Norman as Green Goblin is a different beast. Norman is smart; Gobby is insane. Insane villains can challenge the Avengers, but they usually need to have much higher power levels or better weapons than Green Goblin. Even as Iron Patriot, Norman didn’t actually have a lot of luck in battle against the team, so without Stark tech armor, he’s going to have a huge issue. Green Goblin is a great villain for Spider-Man, but not so much for the Avengers.
What villains do you think shouldn’t fight the Avengers? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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