The wicked of the Marvel Cinematic Universe often pale in comparison to their comic counterparts in terms of power, Missing some of their most incredible abilities from the source material. The MCU is often criticized for their supposed Marvel villain problem, often struggling to create meaningful antagonists outside of a handful of standout characters. One small aspect of the issue was the overall power level of Marvel villains, which ranges from pious to laughably inconsequential.
Throughout the MCU movies, Most Marvel villains don’t possess outright superpowerswith most relying on technology or meticulous planning to threaten heroes instead. In the rare cases they have superhuman abilities, they typically start and stop with typical enhancements like super strength, super speed, and enhanced reflexes, indicative of the MCU’s many copies of Captain America’s Super Soldier Serum. Meanwhile, the extended history of the comics allows for a greater exploration of villain power in Marvel stories.
10
The hand of honor
hello
The Goddess of Death, Hela is admittedly one of the most intimidating the MCU has ever shown. Even the mighty Thor is unable to take her down at the end of his journey in Thor: Ragnarok, Need to rely on the storm of the fire giant Surtur to have a chance. Although The MCU focuses mostly on Hela’s ability to summon and throw powerful magic bladesIt also takes the time to show her earned title as the Goddess of Death with her use of necromancy and death manipulation lifted directly from the comics.
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however, Movie Hella missing one of the most famous abilities of the comic versionThe so-called “hand of glory”. This special technique occurs when Hela channels her latent magical energy into one of her hands Use it to land a divinely devastating blow on a given target. The potency of this enhanced strike is enough to take down even deity-level beings like Thor and Odin.
9
Super strength
The Vulture
Super strength is as generic as they come as a power in the MCU or the Marvel Comics as a whole, but the film series neglected to give the ability to one of the few characters who needed it the most. The vulture is One of Spider-Man’s flying villains who, in the comics, invented a special flight harness That allows him to fly through highly advanced physics.
In addition to simple flight, the Vulture’s suit also gives him a degree of super strength and durability, making it more believable that he could step into the ring with Spider-Man’s enhanced physiology. Meanwhile, the MCU completely re-invents the Vulture to be an overlooked blue-collar worker who turns to the illegal salvage and balance of alien technology after the Battle of New York in The Avengers.
Michael Keaton’s Vulture’s flight suit and wings are actually quite impressive, but don’t give him any real super strength or durability, beyond the cybernetic grip of his foot-mounted claws. In this way, the MCU Vulture is easy pickings for Spider-Man once he manages to stick to it, being limited by a normal level of human strength.
8
Energy projection
Thanos
Thanos is a tricky character to balance in a comic book adaptation, with his baseline power having to be balanced against his pious strength after collecting the Infinity Stones. In the MCU, the base Thanos is still quite impressiveBeing a world-conquering tyrant, who could throw down the Hulk and overcome him with raw power alone. After collecting the Infinity Stones, he obviously rises to an absurd power, threatening the entire universe with his will.
In the MCU, Thanos is simply the last member of an extinct race, but in the comics, Thanos is actually an Eternal.
In the MCU, Thanos is simply the last member of an extinct race, however In the comics, Thanos is actually an Eternal. Not only that, but Thanos has a rare gene mutation that gives him an even more staggering allowance of power, giving him impressive abilities like energy projection. On the same level of power as Captain Marvel, Thanos’ comic counterpart is much stronger without the Infinity Stones, able to release enough pure energy to blast entire spaceships to pieces.
7
Compact healthy body
Ulysses Claw
Ulysses Klaw, known as Klaue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, probably did One of the biggest gulfs in power between its film and comic counterparts Of any Marvel villain. In the films, Klaue is a simple mercenary with a prosthetic arm capable of disintegrating into a high-tech cannon, making him a dangerous criminal, but not a particularly threatening supervillain.
While Klaw starts off in a similar place in the comics, he soon gains a dramatic jump in danger levels after an experimental device transforms his body into a sort of living health wave. in this form, Claw’s body is superhumanly strong, fast and semi-intangibleAlthough he is able to interact with solid objects.
The unique anatomy also allows Claw to recover from almost any injury, returning to consciousness as soon as his soundwave form is able to begin propagating again through a proper medium. Using a sonic converter, Klaw is also able to use his body in the comics to fire deadly sonic blasts. Killing Klaue before he could start the transformation was such a missed opportunity for the MCU, even Black Panther Director Ryan Coogler regrets doing so.
6
The encephalo-ray
Ultron
If there’s one Marvel villain with an undefined number of possibilities for powers, it’s Ultron. A computer program capable of splitting its consciousness between multiple bodies, ironing out the details of the powers of the MCU Ultron is not easy to do. At the very least, his technomancy, army of drones, stacks of weapons and vibranium body all make for an intimidating foe.
There is one power particularly unique to Ultron that the Marvel Cinematic Universe sadly neglected, however; His signature ranged attack, the Encephalo-Ray. This unique energy beam sends human opponents into a sort of near-death coma when they are struck by itEvidence of Ultron’s staggering technological prowess. It would be interesting to see such a device used in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Although Scarlet Witch’s mind control fulfills a similar narrative niche in the story.
5
Organic body manipulation
Cassandra Nova
Of all the villains of the MCU, none have been given quite as much freedom to use as many of their comic book powers as possible. Deadpool & WolverineS Cassandra Nova. The forgotten twin sister of Charles Xavier that somehow escaped the womb and survived as a bundle of cells before forming her own body, Cassandra Nova has many of Charles’ same psychic giftsOn top of her own staggering mutant powers.
Many of these are shown in the movie, including telekinesis and a disturbing ability to place her hands directly into the heads of others to read their minds. unfortunately, Deadpool & Wolverine Didn’t have time to show the full potential of Cassandra Nova, leaving powers like her desire to manipulate her own body.
In more or less complete control of her own genome, Nova is able to shapeshift at will, appearing as whoever she wants to and even copy their speech well enough to bypass sensitive voice recognition software. It’s rare that Cassandra needs to use her creation shift, but this would be a great way to go Deadpool & Wolverine To squeeze in more cameos than it already is.
4
The traditional rings
The Mandarin
The Mandarin was another character to be completely re-invented by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although The concept of the Mandarin was first introduced in Iron Man 3, He himself does not fully enter the picture Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten RingsWhich promised the appearance of the titular rings of power, the Mandarin’s signature magical weapons.
However, the way the Rings worked in the MCU is quite different from the Mandarin’s comic counterparts. In the film, the rings of power are a set of identical rings bound together by energy, typically worn on the wrists and forearms as they are wide enough to do so.
Meanwhile, the Mandarin’s rings in the comics are ten literal pieces of jewelry, each worn on one of his fingers. In addition to having their own semblance of sentience, each ring has its own name, and grants the Mandarin a different unique power. The powers include A frost ray, darkness generation, blasts of lighting, wind manipulation, and even psychic powers.
3
Slow aging
Baron Zemo
Despite his status as one of the Avengers’ most successful villains, Baron Zemo has no real powers to call his own. Zemo seeks revenge for the death of his family, instead using his powers of deception and manipulation to get the superhero team to destroy each other for him, essentially succeeding with the team fractured by the end of Captain America: Civil War. dangerous though he may be, Zemo is not a threat in a physical fight, being more of a mastermind type of villain.
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This is mostly true in the comics as well, with one glaring exception. Thanks to a mysterious concoction known as the Compound X Serum, also used by Zemo’s predecessor and father, Zemo is able to slow his aging to an indefinite degree, functionally immortal As far as natural human death is concerned. This longevity allows him to persist in the modern day as a villain despite being one of Captain America’s original enemies in World War II before he went into the ice.
2
The divine symbiote
Erik Killmonger
For the most part, Killmonger is pretty faithfully adapted to the MCU in terms of powers. Ingesting the mystical heart-shaped herb of Wakandan fame, expat Erik Killmonger gains All the same powers as T’HalaThe Black Panther took his place as the ruler of the fictional African nation.
Similar to the likes of Venom or Carnage, Erik Killmonger becomes host to a parasitic symbiote in the comics
After his death in the comics, Killmonger goes on a rather incredible journey of revival that gives him a unique new power. Similar to the likes of Venom or Carnage, Erik Killmonger becomes host to a parasitic symbiote in the comicsBeing brought back to life thanks to the intervention of the divine symbiote of former Emperor N’Jadaka.
The experience gave Killmonger a sleek new costume that combined the likes of Venom and Black Panther, as well as a host of fantastic new abilities. These included creation shifting, manipulation of matter, magical portal creation and the ability to raise an entire army of clones known as the Joined. It would be fascinating to see the MCU revive Killmonger with this premise.
1
Expert-level cooking skills
Taskmaster
In the comics, Taskmaster is a completely different character than the MCU version. Except with similar powers of combat mimicry, the comics taskmaster is not Antonia Drykov, born of the Black Widow program. instead, The identity of Taskmaster belongs to the clever villain (and later anti-hero) Anthony Masterswhose natural affinity for photographic recall provides his powers rather than cybernetic enhancements in the MCU version.
Masters not only use his ability to unerringly mimic body movements just by seeing them for combat alone, indulging in his unique gifts for more trivial pursuits at times. One of these included some master-level cooking skills he was able to pick up simply by watching Food Network, using them to impress a date. It would be incredible to see more Marvel Cinematic Universe Villains use their powers in more hilariously practical ways like this.