It used to be a major cliché to suggest that the MCU had a villain problem: right up to Thanos’ real first appearance – aside from perhaps Tom Hiddleston’s Loki – almost every MCU villain was cynically bundled into the “disappointing” grade bracket. Inevitably, that assessment lacked nuance, as tends to be the case these days, and ignored some excellent stand-outs (Obadiah Stane, Ultron, and Red Skull, chiefly), but history is written by the winners, and we’re starting to see a rising tide of the same criticism now that Thanos is gone again. It’s true that some more recent MCU villains have been somewhat forgettable (though I’ll never cosign on the criticism of Christian Bale’s Gorr), but for me, the franchise has a far more concerning problem than some underwhelming villains. It’s that some great villains have been set up, and then the execution has simply not happened.
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Years ago, Captain America: The Winter Soldier promised us Baron Von Strucker, and then killed him off in Age of Ultron’s prologue. The Eternals set up Arishem’s judgement, which presumably went quite well, since absolutely nothing happened. Kang was set up for multiple years in multiple projects, and in Quantumania, he was okay, but then his multiversal war went the way of the Dodo. That one at least wasn’t really the studio’s fault. Hercules is on ice; it took nearly a decade to pay off Scorpion (and he’s one of about 14 villains in Brand New Day, and certainly not the lead one); Shang-Chi set something to do with the Ten Rings up, but who knows what; and No Way Home criminally teased the Symbiote saga, and then Sony apparently retconned it. But worse than all of them, if it doesn’t get some sort of satisfying payoff (even a little tease), is the introduction of – and failure to actually really use – Mephisto in Ironheart.
Mephisto Should Have Been a Far Bigger Deal in the MCU
Ironheart was not a bad show, no matter what revisionism-loving engagement farms on social media might have you believe. But it also wasn’t massively memorable, despite the quality, and that’s almost more problematic. Marvel’s current Phased model and the narrow focus on the next two Avengers movies mean Ironheart was always destined to be driven into a creative dead-end unless a second season or broader follow-up was announced. It’s telling – and a poor testament, in fact – that we currently have no idea where Ironheart will turn up next as a character. She’s part of the Young Avengers potential bracket, but even that isn’t a clear path despite the tease in The Marvels, which – ridiculously – happened THREE years ago. But even if she were involved in a Young Avengers movie, how on Earth could Mephisto even play a part? Why would that be the best option for him?
Mephisto should be a Tier A villain. I’ll resist saying he deserves to be an Avengers-level threat, because that franchise requires scale and spectacle, and Sacha Baron Cohen’s version is the typical Faustian influencer, as opposed to a fire and brimstone devil. We’ve already had that with Surtur, anyway. But he’s still a god-tier villain in terms of powers, and has the potential to be a long-running dark puppeteer, and yet, a year after Ironheart, there’s absolutely no indication that he’ll even be back. At least his bargain for Riri’s soul appears to be a guarantee that he must return whenever she does, but if rumors of a “soft reset” of the MCU after Avengers: Secret War prove to be true, every sub-brand in the franchise will be reviewed coldly as a viable ongoing concern. And is anyone confident that Ironheart would be classed as one?
After Mephisto’s popularity turned WandaVision speculation into a meme almost bigger than the show itself at times, Marvel Studios should be aware of what they have in the villain. They should also recognize that while he was underused a little, Baron Cohen is a very good bit of casting business. And as much as I liked Ironheart, I’m already annoyed that this was where he was introduced and that he has no future. Not currently, and it’s really not clear when he could.
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Image courtesy of Marvel Television
