The Fantastic Four's Top 10 Most Filmworthy Villains

With Fox's promised reboot of the Fantastic Four film franchise seemingly dithering around in the pre-production stages without having officially announced any casting, plot or villains, we thought it would be fun to rank the Fantastic Four's most filmworthy foes. With upwards of 600 issues and countless foes they've come into contact with, how hard could this be? Now--in putting this list together, we're only considering memorable villains strongly associated with the FF who actually have a chance of appearing in the reboot. This means that Maximus the Mad (owned by Marvel with the rest of the Inhumans), Ronan the Accuser (slated to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy), and Namor (cooling his heels at Universal Pictures, last anyone knew) are out of the running right off the bat. We're also writing off Galactus because he's probably considered toxic for the foreseeable future considering the whole "cloud" debacle from Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Filmworthy villains should have an interesting power, backstory, relationship to the team, and/or look that could translate well to film. Obviously, you can't discount the "cool factor" either. That being said and without further ado…

10 – The Red Ghost and His Super Apes This might not seem like the most obvious choice, but think about how much potential is packed into this one group. We've got a Russian named Igor Kragoff who can alter his density to walk through walls, Mikhlo the super strong and durable gorilla, Igor the shape-shifting baboon, and Peotr the Orangutan who (depending on what issue you read) can either control gravity or magnetism. With all of these powers in play, think of the complex and compelling plots that can be structured around Igor and his pets. On top of that, imagine the epic fight scenes! All we know is that we would pay top dollar to see Andy Serkis playing three different super primates in one film taking on the heroes from the World's Greatest Comic Magazine. Of course, there is one glaring drawback to this group of villains. Namely, communist villains from the former USSR aren't exactly topical these days; however, origins can always be retooled. As long as there are rumors of gender-bending flying around, I bet most people wouldn't mind if Igor was swapped out for an attractive young Russian woman with a similarly Slavic moniker.

9 – The Frightful Four I know what you're thinking, we've already ruled out Medusa as an Inhuman and Sandman is definitely in Sony's toy box along with the rest of Spider-Man's rogues' gallery. Well, I'm pitching this less for the specific ancillary members depicted above and more for the general concept. A dark reflection of the Fantastic Four created for the sole purpose of destroying them led by a maniacal scientist with an inferiority complex? That sounds like drama to us. The leader of the group Bentley "The Wizard" Wittman could be portrayed as a kind of counterpart to Reed Richards. A brilliant scientist who uses his intellect for fame and personal gain rather than the benefit of the human race as Reed does, Wittman could even be seen as an alternative Doctor Doom without Doom's baggage from the previous films and with his own set of super-powered flunkies. Peter "The Trapster" Petruski is actually a long-time villain with a set of interesting weapons in addition to his paste gun. So long as he isn't referred to as "Paste Pot Pete" he can actually come across as a formidable nemesis. To fill out the roster, one could go with the traditional super-strong female (e.g., Thundra or Titania) and any one of the other oddball characters who have been on the team previously (e.g., Klaw, Dragon Man, Absorbing Man, Blastaar, etc.).

8 – Terrax the Terrible Terrax would be higher on the list but as a herald of Galactus his origin would need significant retooling. That being said, he still has a lot of potential. He's an imposing, rocky powerhouse with a gigantic cosmic axe. That's enough of a hook, but on top of that he controls the element of earth. Imagine Kwame from Captain Planet with the power cosmic, a bloodthirsty attitude, a lack of any concern for the environment and the aforementioned giant axe. He'd be a bigger threat than Don Cheadle!

7 – The Mad Thinker The consummate planner, the Mad Thinker is a brilliant genius with no superpowers. Instead of powers, he uses his brilliant intellect, scientific knowledge, and eidetic memory to create elaborate plans that unfold step-by-step leading to his ultimate success--kind of the way Arrow's Clock King has been described. His ability to read patterns, correlate vast amounts of information, and manage probabilities gives him something that can almost appear to be limited precognition. While the Mad Thinker can sometimes come off as "lame" in his inability to ever account for the "X" or "human" factor in his plans, there is still a great deal of potential here. TV shows such as Fringe have shown that superhuman intelligence resulting in precognition can make for some interesting and engaging plots. The idea of a powerless mastermind repeatedly defeating the FF, possibly with the help of one or more androids, would be an interesting twist. With their powers seemingly useless after being accounted for in the Thinker's plans, it would be up to Reed to stretch his intellect in unfamiliar ways to cope with this intellectual antagonist.

6 – The Impossible Man This indefatigable alien from the Planet Poppup could be a brilliant foil for the FF. He might not end up being the primary villain of the picture, but visually he could be an amazing spectacle. A fun-loving imp with the ability to transform his body in any way imaginable through "instantaneous evolution," there's no end to the situations a talented writer could invent for him to get into. With modern CGI and special effects, we would love to see him transform his way through a fight against the full force of the Fantastic Four one minute and a bevy of comedic references the next. One note though: Fox and Josh Trank, please, just leave out painful pop-culture references that will unavoidably date this film if you do use him.

5 – Psycho-Man A resident of the Microverse interacting with our world through a robotic suit and possessing technology that can manipulate emotions, Psycho-Man's presence could turn the FF reboot into a truly dark and introspective film that explores the psyche of the various characters. The ability to sow doubt, inspire fear, or fan the flames of hate with the press of a button has enormous potential to create discord within the team, foster infighting, and really dig into the characters' demons and insecurities. As long as one of those demons doesn't go by the name of "Malice," we would be thoroughly excited to see Psycho-Man make an appearance. Another bonus to including Psycho-Man is the opportunity to gallivant in the Microverse. A universe located in the space between atoms accessed through extreme shrinking is a concept too brilliant to ignore and could lend itself to some thrilling visuals.

4 – Annihilus There are a number of reasons why Annihilus would be a great villain for a Fantastic Four film. First, he resides in the Negative Zone, probably the trippiest alternate dimension in the Marvel Universe. Like Psycho-Man and the Microverse, Annihilus' inclusion would be an excellent opportunity to depict a dimension of the Marvel Universe hitherto almost exclusively seen on the printed page. As for Annihilus himself, he's a giant, winged insectoid tyrant who can shoot laser blasts from the Cosmic Control Rod at his throat. He's also got a horde of ravenous alien scavenger creatures at his beck and call which he uses to lay waste to planets within the Negative Zone and plans to conquer the main Marvel Universe. Sure, his color scheme needs some work with all that pink, but a little reworking of his design with maybe some Xenomorph thrown in for good measure and you might have some movie magic. He also has the added perk of being tied into some of the darkest moments of FF history. He's the villain who killed Johnny Storm, he almost caused Susan Richards to miscarry her first child, and he proceeded to terrorize Franklin Richards when he managed to break out of the Negative Zone and into the Baxter Building.

3 – The Super Skrull Why the Super Skrull? Because seeing all the powers of the Fantastic Four integrated into one alien body will probably make for an action and special effects bonanza. On top of that, with the Super Skrull comes the entire Skrull Empire. This means the potential for outer space action, alien dogfights with Ben Grimm piloting an FF-branded space ship, and the design and realization of an entire alien culture. There's even potential for some sneaky espionage/thriller action if the Skrulls have decided to use their shape-shifting abilities to infiltrate major earth institutions. What if the clichéd lone, dissenting partisan hack who subtly tries to sabotage the efforts to resist the Skrull invasion turns out to be a Skrull?!?!

2 – The Molecule Man Though perhaps not an obvious choice, we stand by this one. The Molecule Man is the villain who forces the Fantastic Four to ask, "How do you stop someone who can literally do anything?" Bathed in radiation from an experimental particle generator, Owen Reece gained the ability to rearrange and manipulate matter at a molecular level. He can change anything into anything else and move and shape all matter to his whim. Imagine how much more dangerous Magneto would be if he could form metal out of thin air. The Molecule Man is more dangerous. In the comic in which he debuted, he was only beaten by being tricked into thinking his powers were gone and in a moment of weakness he was whisked away by the Watcher. This trick would not even have worked in later years once Reece realized that he was not limited to only affecting inorganic molecules. In terms of film potential, the Molecule Man could make for some spectacular visuals. Just in his first appearance, he manifested ice, made building disappear, created objects from thin air, erected impenetrable shields, threw bolts of lightning, encased New York City in a giant glass cage, and propelled himself across the city on a slide arcing across the sky.

1 – Doctor Victor von Doom As much as we hate to say it, Doctor Victor von Doom is and probably always will be the Fantastic Four's most iconic and filmworthy villain. Not only is he a genius-level intellect with vast scientific knowledge and a huge store of advanced technology, he's also a talented magic user and sorcerer. He rules his own country, he routinely acquires godlike power, his motives are often complex and inscrutable, and he has compelling history with the Fantastic Four. Just about all of the comics reading public and a good chunk of the rest of the pop culture consuming world is aware that he blames Reed Richards for the injury that forces him to wear a mask and resents Richards for being almost universally accepted as the world's smartest man. As thoroughly as Fox failed at its last two attempts to bring Doom to the big screen, it's hard to deny that he is a compelling character and will almost certainly be appearing in Fox's reboot or a subsequent film. Our fingers are crossed that any future appearance by ol' Tin Britches treats him with the respect and dignity he deserves.