With characters like Loki, Ultron, and Thanos, the Avengers have battled some of the most compelling villains in the Marvel Universe. To increase the stakes of a story, villains typically will temporarily triumph over the heroes before ultimately being bested. However, there have been times when Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have fallen to some bland, silly, and controversial villains. Some of these villains are so goofy that no one would ever consider them a serious threat. Others are so bland and lacking nuance that they are completely forgettable. And yet others are just infuriating to longtime fans. And even though all these villains are eventually thwarted by the Avengers, the fact that they managed to be victorious for even a moment is shameful.
Videos by ComicBook.com
These are seven instances where some truly pitiful villains managed to defeat the Avengers.
1) The Zodiac Cartel
A supervillain team based on the Zodiac Signs had a lot of potential. However, the team’s costumes and their obsession with astrology signs just made them too silly to be taken seriously. All their crimes are based around astrology signs and none of them have any distinguishable personalities, making them just a standard supervillain team with a gimmick. The team was brought together by Cornelius Van Lundt, aka Taurus, a corrupt businessman who amassed his fortune with the guidance of his astrologer. The rest of the members are elites of the criminal underworld who were given Zodiac-based costumes based on their signs. The Zodiac Cartel has clashed with the Avengers numerous times, defeating and capturing them on several occasions. Nick Fury once impersonated a Zodiac member, Scorpio, and brought the “captured” Avengers to the supervillains as his prize. The plan was for the Avengers to attack when the Zodiac Cartel let their guard down, but the plan failed, and the Zodiac Cartel escaped. It’s sad when the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers are outwitted by people obsessed with star signs.
2) Egghead
The name “Egghead” itself is a clue that the villain so dubbed won’t be “eggactly” fearsome. Named after his unusually egg-shaped head, Elihas Starr was a mad scientist who was driven to prove his intellectual superiority over Hank Pym, aka Ant-Man. His hatred for Hank leads him to fight the Avengers. Egghead wasn’t cracked and preferred to fight indirectly He created his own supervillain team the Masters of Evil to battle the Avengers on his behalf. His most successful plot was to manipulate events behind the scenes to turn the Avengers against Hank by making it appear as though Hank was in league with Egghead’s Masters of Evil team. Egghead succeed in getting Hank arrested and fracturing the Avengers’ unity over whether Hank was innocent or not. Egghead’s scheme was finally revealed, and the villain was defeated. Nonetheless, the damage to the Avengers’ synergy was severe because it caused Hank to quit the team. Who would have thought that a villain called Egghead could leave the Avengers so scrambled.
3) The Kallusians
The primary issue with the alien race known as the Kallusians is that they are boring. They fled to Earth to escape an interplanetary war and set up a base in the North Pole. They have no unique or interesting abilities, plans, or designs, and instead feel like a stock-alien threat. When the Wasp is shot by the villain Count Nefaria, the Avengers take her to a surgeon named Dr. Svenson so that he can save her life. However, the Dr. Svenson they meet is in fact a Kallusian in disguise. Once the Avengers figure out this deception, they track down the aliens’ base to find the real Dr. Svenson. The Avengers attack the Kallusians but quickly find themselves overwhelmed by the Kallusians’ numbers and weapons and are imprisoned. The Avengers are not freed until the real Dr. Svenson, who had been helping the Kallusians hide from a hostile alien fleet, arrives. The Kallusians soon thereafter leave Earth. The real Dr. Svenson is returned to perform surgery on the Wasp and saves her life.
4) Master Pandemonium
Martin Preston became the all-powerful villain Master Pandemonium after he made a deal with Mephisto to restore his lost arm. Mephisto cured Martin’s arm but took a piece of his soul as payment. Desperate to regain his lost soul, Martin who named himself Master Pandemonium, attacked the West Coast Avengers to get to the Scarlet Witch’s children, Wiccan and Speed. He thought that the two children were pieces of his lost soul and tried to claim them as his own. With his power to manifest demons from his body, Master Pandemonium was a serious threat to the Avengers and managed to destroy Scarlet Witch’s children. While all of this sounds like he would make for an incredibly intimidating villain, the problem is that Master Pandemonium loses a lot of his “cool” factor because when his hands take the form of demons, they look like he has two puppets. So, rather than looking like a fearsome master of evil, he appears to be the Jim Henson of supervillains.
5) Regent
Regent is a character with a terrific concept, but its execution is lackluster. In the alternate universe of Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, Augustus Roman, aka Regent, rules the planet with an iron fist after killing most of the world’s superheroes, including the Avengers. He was able to accomplish this thanks to his suit, which can mimic any superpower. Spider-Man, alongside his superpowered wife and child, fought back against the villain’s regime. After a long and hard fight, Regent managed to take Spider-Man’s daughter, Annie, hostage and threatened to kill her. However, Spider-Man managed to distract the villain by telling a joke. The joke made Regent laugh hard enough that Spider-Man got the opportunity to punch him out and save Annie. Aside from the laughable defeat, Regent was a flat character who lacked significant development or any distinguishing features that set him apart from the numerous other supervillain dictators in the Marvel Multiverse.
6) Commissar
A racist Asian caricature and a product of American Red Scare propaganda, Commissar is one of the most offensive villains Marvel Comics has ever greenlit. The Avengers fly to the fictional Central-Asian country of Sin-Cong to overthrow its tyrannical Communist leader, the giant and ruthless Commissar. With his super strength, Commissar quickly defeats almost every member of the Avengers in combat. It’s only until the dictator faces the Scarlet Witch that he is beaten. She discovered that Commissar was a robot controlled by machines operated by Major Hoy. Once Scarlet Witch used her hex powers to destroy those machines, the metal ruler quickly collapsed. With his defeat, Sin-Cong was liberated. Although he may have been a physical threat for most of the Avengers, the blatant racism and anti-Communist propaganda make Commissar a villain Marvel wants people to forget.
7) Hydra Supreme
In 2016, a single panel caused the entire Marvel fanbase to riot: Captain America proclaiming, “Hail Hydra.” Marvel initially pushed the idea that Captain America was always a Hydra double agent and was not brainwashed. As a Hydra agent, Captain America manipulated events either to exile superheroes from Earth or to trap them inside New York City under a force field. Captain America then proceeded to lead a complete Hydra takeover of both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the United States. It seemed like a full character assassination of cosmic proportions. However, in a major reversal, it was revealed that he wasn’t the Captain America we all know and love, but instead an evil Hydra counterpart from an alternate universe that swapped places with the original Cap. When the true, heroic Captain America returned and led a rebellion against Hydra, his evil doppelganger was arrested. As a villain based entirely on contrived twists with no real identity of his own, Hydra Supreme may be the worst villain to have ever defeated the Avengers.
Most Viewed
-
Image Courtesy of Paramount -
Image Courtesy of Big Finish Productions. -
Amazon Prime Video
