From ‘Iron Man’ to ‘Secret Invasion,’ ‘The Nun 2’ beats every Marvel movie and show with its most persistent detail

Oh, don’t get me wrong. In terms of profit, the Marvel Cinematic Universe still rules seeing that even its most disappointing entries have not been outright box office bombs. At the time of writing, the total worldwide box office revenue of the MCU is $29.55 billion compared to the $2.2 billion the Conjuring Universe has achieved. Yep, I’m not taking into account the many millions Marvel flushed down the drain in comparison because it’s time to focus on the decisive way The Nun 2 — and almost every other Conjuring film — keeps beating the MCU.

From Iron Man 2 to Secret Invasion, what is the one common thing in all MCU projects? No, smarty pants, the answer is not “they are all adaptations of Marvel comic books.” It is the villains, Johnny! Particularly the fact that they have all been beaten — from the fake Mandarin to the magnificent real one, from the mortal Obadiah Stane to the diligent Titan Thanos to the one who has (claimed to) erase timelines and kill Avengers.

No matter how powerful they were, how big their armies were, how powerful their minions were, the supercharged objects they got their hands on, or the few wins they managed to bag, they were eventually crushed by the heroes, never to come back again to realize their lofty ambitions.

But not Valak, better known as “The Nun,” the ever-persevering antagonist of the Conjuring universe. 

Yes, I know, counting The Nun 2, Valak has been defeated, out-witted, and condemned to hell like a gazillion times already. But the crafty demon has not only made it extremely difficult to subdue him ⏤ he’s also always clawed his way out from the deepest pits of hell. He has two goals in mind: one to regain his powers as an angel (before they were snatched away by God) and to kill the last descendant of Saint Lucy (because Sister Irene and Lorraine Warren are clearly related, and the former has already defeated the demon twice, though it didn’t really have a long-lasting effect).

The Nun 2 alone is enough to show how diligent and devoted Valak is to his mission. He works overtime, killing those in his way with little hesitation or second-guessing and heck, scaring the living daylights out of his opponents, keeping them in a state of constant fear, even when the subjects of Valak’s wrath are far away from each other. The demon does all this with zero assistance from any cronies because Valak doesn’t work like that folks, he manipulates (spirit of Bill Wilkins in The Conjuring 2) and assists other evil spirits (Annabelle) to spread even more terror to ensure no one figures out his real plans in the resulting chaos.

Unlike the villains of the MCU, Valak never jumps into the fray without a backup plan. If we go in chronological order, Irene “banished” Valak to hell not knowing that he had already possessed Maurice.

Though The Nun 2 ended with the demon seemingly defeated for good and Maurice free from his possession, we know that eventually, Maurice will be re-possessed by Valak, who will somehow find his way out of hell again, this time to target Lorraine ⏤ who is clearly Irene’s descendant ⏤ and has not only inherited her abilities, but also the wrath the evil entity harbored specifically for her.

Which MCU villain has ever managed to do any of that, laugh in the face of the heroes, make a mockery of their “victory,” and dash away their wins by returning in full force, eviler than before? I’ll wait, Johnny. I’ll wait.