Marvel Comics has created amazing villains during their decades of publishing superhero comics. Over the years, we’ve seen so many awesome bad guys, with various sorts appearing in different stories. Some bad guys like to keep secrets. They hide parts of their lives from others, whether it be their villainous actions, their identities, or their families. They are always hiding something from everyone and this can make the heroes lives much, much harder. However, there’s another kind of villain and they can honestly be way more dangerous. These villains don’t go in for secrets and lies; they are upfront about who they are and what they want, consequences be damned.
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These villains may hide some portions of their schemes – even heroes do this sort of thing – but everyone knows what they are about. When they show up, we all know what’s about to happen. These seven Marvel villains have nothing to hide and this has made them extremely dangerous.
7) Carnage
Carnage is Spider-Man’s deadliest villain and you know exactly what you’re going to get when he shows up. Cletus Kasady is serial killing monster and all he wants to do is end the lives of as many people as he can every chance he gets. He’s not going to pretend to be a hero, he’s not going to come up with some kind of long, involved plan to get to his goals. He’s just going to show up and kill as many people as he wants. That’s the thing about Carnage; what you see is what you get. He’s going to show up and do as much damage as possible. Everything that he does is going to be in the pursuit of this goal. He’s little more than a drooling psychopath, covered in his living murder skin. He doesn’t care if you know who he is and he doesn’t care if you know what his plans are. As long as you ended up dead, that’s all that matters to him.
6) Ultron
Ultron has been trying to destroy humanity for ages. Created by Hank Pym, he quickly decided that humanity needed to die. At first, he hid his identity, organizing the second Masters of Evil as the Crimson Cowl. However, he soon revealed himself in all of his terrible, genocidal glory and since then has been one of the most dangerous threats to life in the entire universe, constantly bettering himself and becoming more deadly. He has one purpose – the destruction of all biological life – and never hides it. He wants to be feared, so pretending to be something else is a waste of time. There are times when he wants parts of his plan to be unknown – the element of surprise can be everything against superheroes like the Avengers – but for the most part, he’s not going to pretend and be something that he isn’t. Fear is a key part of what Ultron does.
5) Kang the Conqueror
Kang the Conqueror has forged himself into one of the greatest warriors in the history of the Marvel Universe. The descendant of Reed Richards (interestingly, there are also records suggesting that he’s related to Doom) grew up in a time when the Benefactor, Reed’s dad Nathaniel (who Kang was named after) made a peaceful new universe for the people of the future. The nascent Conqueror hated it, becoming obsessed with the glories of the past. Those glories would forge him into something terrible and new, setting him on a path of destruction. Kang is actually an honorable man; he wants to defeat his enemies in straight up combat, proving to them that he is their superior. There have been times when he used other identities to pave the way for his schemes, but when it comes right down to it, Kang is all about fighting. He doesn’t try to hide what he wants; he prefers to come to face to face with those he battles and defeat them in a fair fight… or as fair as he’ll allow it to be.
4) The Leader
The Hulk faces very powerful villains, but his most dangerous villain isn’t physically potent. He’s a mental one. The Leader was exposed to gamma radiation and gained the ultimate intelligence, as well as green skin and a massive distended cranium. The Leader finds it almost impossible to hide – there’s no way you could miss him in a crowd – and he doesn’t want to. He wants to conquer the world and he doesn’t really care who knows about it. He’s the smartest, he’s the best, and he thinks that he should be, well, the leader of everything. All of this comes from the man he was before he became the Hulk’s smartest enemy. Samuel Sterns was a man with developmental difficulties and becoming one of the most intelligent people on Earth twisted something inside of him. He never wanted to be looked down upon again, and this has fueled his megalomania. He wants the world to know that he is the one they should fear.
3) Red Skull
Red Skull is the ultimate Nazi and he doesn’t really care who knows it. While he has definitely been known to wear disguises, there’s one thing that he wants more than anything else – the Fourth Reich – and he doesn’t care who knows about it. He wants his foes to fear his rise, to fear what he’s going to do. He loves the mental anguish he puts his targets through just knowing that he’s out there, constantly working to destroy them and the world they’ve built. He doesn’t care about hiding what he is – he’s proud of it. Now, obviously, Skull is going to put on a disguise at times or insulate himself from his schemes with labyrinthine plots but that doesn’t mean he’s trying to hide. One of the most terrible things about Johann Schmidt is his pride in being what he is. He’s a monster who wants a monstrous world and he’ll do everything he can to prove it.
2) Galactus
Galactus has only one thing that he wants – sustenance. Galan of Taa was one of the last beings in the last universe, its end and the birth of the new universe bathing him in power and making him into Galactus. Since then, every time he shows up over an inhabited planet, it’s pretty obvious why he’s there. He even has someone who shows up before and announces his intentions. He has worked to save the universe many times over the years – he has to keep his food source in existence after all – but everyone knows that after he does that, he’ll be back to trying to eat everything he can. Of course, it did take ages for the secrets of the World Devourer to be revealed, but that doesn’t mean that he hid them. If anyone would have cared enough to ask, there’s a good chance that he probably would have told them. His whole thing is announcing his presence; he makes people into godlings constantly do they can play hype man for him.
1) Thanos
Thanos is one of the most powerful Marvel villains and everyone knows what he’s all about. The Mad Titan is a nihilist; he believes that nothing matters. He’s set to destroy as many lives as possible and has been, unfortunately, wildly successful. There was a short time where he was rather heroic, working with former foe Adam Warlock, but one thing links both his time as a villain and hero – he’s completely upfront with what he wants and what he’s going to do. He has no fear, so he sees no reason to hide anything, and there are few out there who can actually stop him. There’s also a lot of arrogance to the way he moves through the world; he doesn’t care if anyone knows what he’s doing because there’s a part of him who wants the universe to fight against him. He likes the challenge of figuring out a way to defeat the most deadly forces in all of creation.
What Marvel villains do you think have nothing to hide? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
