The Avengers have battled many of the greatest villains in the history of comics. The Avengers brings together the greatest heroes in the Marvel Universe, and that means the villains they have to face have to be able to deal with heroes on the level of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and a variety of other powerful, skilled heroes. Avengers villains have to be a cut above the rest. However, power level of the villains is only a part of what makes a great story; the actual story of the villain and their battle against the Avengers has to also be entertaining and well-told. The Avengers have some villains, like Ultron and Kang, that have amazing stories outside of their threat level that make them compelling.
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However, the same can’t be said for every Avengers villain. The Avengers have some amazing villains, but they also have some villains that could be a lot better if their stories were more worthwhile. These eight Avengers villains could be some of the best villains ever, if only they had a better story.
8) Red Onslaught
Uncanny Avengers (Vol. 1) was one of the best Avengers series ever, introducing readers to the Avengers Unity Squad, which brought together the X-Men and the Avengers. Their first enemy was the Red Skull, who had exhumed Charles Xavier’s corpse and grafted the telepathic portion of the mutant’s brain to his own, a melding of Avengers and X-Men concepts that fit the book’s concept to a tee. That story would end with a tease of Red Onslaught, Red Skull as Onslaught. This was such a hype moment, but unfortunately Uncanny Avengers #24-25 and AXIS dropped the ball with the villain. Red Onslaught is something of an insane idea, and there’s so much that could be done with the Red Skull having supreme psionic power. Red Onslaught should have been an amazing villain, and instead is almost all but forgotten.
7) Proctor
Avengers in the mid ’90s was struggling, as Marvel put all their power into keeping the X-Men and Spider-Man at the top of the heap. However, that doesn’t mean they weren’t trying with the team, which brings us to Proctor. Proctor was an evil version of Black Knight from another Earth. On his Earth, Sersi had transformed him into what amounts to an Eternal, but then left him. This, combined with the curse of the Ebony Blade, drove him mad, and he decided to go after Sersi on Earth-616. Proctor is a cool alternate universe villain with great power, but he was put into a rather mid story from an era of Avengers that many fans don’t like (although, Steve Epting’s art back then was peak). Proctor could have actually become an A-list villain if Marvel had a better writer on the book back then, and it would be awesome if someone brought him back with the right story.
6) The Masters of Evil
The Masters of Evil are the Avengers opposites, a group of villains that has starred in some of the most beloved Avengers stories over the decades, like “Under Siege”. There have been multiple versions of the team over the years, but be honest — when was the last time anyone was actually excited for the Masters of Evil? A new version of the team showed up in One World Under Doom, and they were basically just cannon fodder to use against Doom. The last time the Masters of Evil were important was in Thunderbolts (although Jason Aaron tried to make the Multiversal Masters of Evil important at the end of run that most fans didn’t actually like), and it’s about time the team go another amazing story. The Masters of Evil are old school cool, and it should honestly be pretty easy to give them better stories in the 21st century.
5) Iron Patriot/Norman Osborn
Norman Osborn is best known as Spider-Man’s greatest villain, the Green Goblin, but that’s not all he’s done. Norman Osborn was an amazing Avengers villain, the chief antagonist of “Dark Reign”, a story that ran throughout the entire Marvel line, using modified Iron Man armor to become Iron Patriot and lead the Dark Avengers. Dark Avengers, the various The List one-shots, and Siege are all pretty great, but then he returned in the “Heroic Age” Marvel books, and just did the same story all over again, trying to use HAMMER and a new Dark Avengers to fight the Avengers. It was such a disappointing story after getting a year and a half of awesome Norman Osborn as an Avengers villain stories. Norman Osborn deserves way better, and had the potential to become an overall Marvel villain, instead of pigeonholed into the Spider-Man side of things.
4) Veranke
Veranke was the main villain of Secret Invasion, the Skrull Empress who tried to take over the Earth for her people. The ideas behind Secret Invasion were sound, but the problem was the story itself. In Secret Invasion, Veranke honestly didn’t really do much; if you wanted to see her do anything, you had to buy in tie-in issues of New Avengers. While those stories gave us Veranke’s actions leading up to Secret Invasion (and are pretty good), the fact that Veranke in the main book was such a milquetoast villain was disappointing. On top of that, unceremoniously killing her off at the end of the story never really right. Veranke was a villain that could have become a new Skrull antagonist for the Marvel Universe if only she had a cooler story to star in.
3) Count Nefaria
Count Nefaria is one of the best forgotten Marvel villains ever. Nefaria was a leader of the Maggia, a superpowered version of the mafia. Nefaria was given ionic energy-based powers, and went after the Avengers in one of the best Bronze Age Avengers stories in Avengers #165-166. However, since then, he’s rarely had a good story. Count Nefaria was able to fight against one of the most powerful teams of Avengers ever, and even battled the Thunderbolts and Avengers all on his own. Count Nefaria is a villain that could make a huge splash with the right story, and it’s about time he got one. His last appearances were as a Ravencroft inmate in The Amazing Spider-Man, which is a shame for a character who can battle Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to a standstill.
2) The Revengers
The Revengers were an amazing idea that only had one outing. Wonder Man decided that the Avengers were hypocritical and brought together a team of anti-heroes and heroes who were hurt by the Avengers’ actions to fight them and reveal the team’s wrongdoing to the world. The Revengers appeared in New Avengers Annual (Vol. 2) #1 and Avengers Annual (Vol. 2) #1, in one of the better stories of the Bendis “Heroic Age” books. However, the story wasn’t as great as it could have been. The Revengers had so much potential to be an anti-Avengers team, but Bendis just used them as a cool fight. The Revengers are one of those ideas that an entire run of Avengers stories can be built around, showing the weaknesses of the Avengers concept and that they do more bad than good, and the way they were wasted by Marvel is a shame.
1) Grim Reaper
Grim Reaper is Wonder Man’s evil brother, and a villain whose potential has been squandered for decades now. There are only two Grim Reaper stories — him going up against Wonder Man and the Avengers because he hates Wonder Man or him as a member of the Legion of the Unliving. Grim Reaper is a necromancer who never stays dead; there are loads of great stories that can be told with Grim Reaper. He’s a villain who hasn’t had an amazing story in a long time, if ever, and has the potential to be an A-lister if Marvel ever got serious about giving him better stories.
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