While the Marvel comics, movies and TV shows are full of heroes to cheer for and villains you love to hate, there are a few characters that just don’t hit the mark for some fans.
The question is, is there any other character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that’s more hated than Captain Marvel (Brie Larson)? Captain Marvel isn’t the first MCU character to receive backlash from the fans, and she probably won’t be the last.
The title of “most hated character” is big shoes to fill. While it would seem like the list would be filled with super villains, that simply isn’t the case. Most of these characters are not villainous, just hated for one reason or another.
Warning! There are spoilers for Eternals, Iron Man, Spider-Man: Homecoming, WandaVision, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: End Game.
10. Pepper Potts
She may be Iron Man’s Girl Friday, but Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) just doesn’t do it for fans. While she keeps Tony grounded and isn’t afraid to put him in his place, she comes off as unlikeable, which may be more about the actress than the character.
She suited up as Rescue in Avengers: End Game, but that just felt like a forced way to give her a storyline and have her on the battlefield for the big final battle.
9. Ikaris
He’s a wannabe Superman, but Ikaris (Richard Madden) of Eternals just feels wrong. Was he supposed to be the main star of the movie?
Not only did he betray Earth, but he murdered his team leader, then betrayed and fought against his own team. The best thing he did was to choose poetic justice in the end.
8. Whiplash
While the MCU, as a whole, is now well respected for its characters and villains, that was not always the case. Iron Man 2’s Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) was little more than just a face on the screen. The fault lies with the writers, who created a movie with the sole purpose of giving the backstory on the arc reactor and introducing Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), things that could have been done in way less than two hours.
7. Flash Thompson
Spider-Man’s Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori) is just a high school bully, plain and simple. He comes off as annoying and one-dimensional on the screen because he’s a caricature. There is a lot of narrative potential for the character, considering his comic counterpart’s development, but it’s all wasted.
6. Ultron
What could have been a great villain was relegated to looking like a puppet, cracking jokes instead of being menacing in Avengers: Age of Ultron. For an artificial intelligence created by two of the greatest minds on Earth, Ultron should have been a lot smarter, and devised a plan to fix the world, instead of destroying it.
5. Sprite
Sprite’s (Lia McHugh) story in Eternals is tragic, but her actions and betrayal are completely unforgivable. While Ikaris is partially to blame for Sprite’s downfall, in the end it was her decision to betray the others as she did. The worst part was when she literally stabbed Sersi, her supposed best friend, in the back. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
4. Tyler Hayward
Tyler Hayward (Josh Stamberg), who serves as the director of Sentient Weapons Observation and Response Division (S.W.O.R.D.), displays no redeeming qualities during the events of WandaVision. The man is single-handedly the definition of a corrupt government official. While Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) technically served as both the protagonist and antagonist of the Disney Plus series, fans agree that the real enemy was Hayward.
3. Smart Hulk
Smart Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) is possibly the worst thing the MCU could have done to the Hulk. After creating trainwrecks of Hulk movies, fans often say the MCU must hate the Hulk, but that opinion somewhat changed with the casting of Mark Ruffalo as the big green guy. Unfortunately, the diner scene in Avengers: End Game was like a joke and slap-in-the-face for the actor and fans watching. Not only did they ruin a great character, but they destroyed the spark between Hulk and Black Widow in one fell swoop.
2. John Walker
Viewers shrieked and the fandom just about exploded following John Walker’s (Wyatt Russell) introduction at the end of the first episode of Falcon and Winter Soldier. People weren’t sure if they should laugh or cry at the man donning Captain America’s (Chris Evans) suit and shield.
As the weeks progressed, it was clear John Walker was not the all-American boy-next-door Cap everyone loved. It all came to a head at the end of episode 4, as he used Captain America’s coveted shield, a symbol for all that was good in the world, to murder a man with hundreds of eyewitnesses looking on in horror. It was possibly one of the most brutal murders in the MCU, proving that just because a person is a good soldier doesn’t mean he should be Captain America.
1. Captain Marvel
In the end, no other character is more hated than Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). She’s a superhero, after all, so why does everyone hate her?
First, Marvel is partially to blame for the hate. The MCU already had strong female characters they could have made the star of their own movie, as the first female lead in a Marvel movie, but they chose to go with Captain Marvel out of left field. Many fans felt the Captain Marvel movie was a slap in the face to Black Widow and Wanda Maximoff.
Another major reason fans hate the character is because of the actress who portrays her. As the MCU’s newest star, Larson seemed humorless and disinterested in the character or the fans. She came across as cold and emotionless like her character, and it doesn’t seem to be just fans who notice. While doing interviews with other cast members, the other actors sometimes appear to be rolling their eyes or getting very annoyed by her.
Fans believe the Captain Marvel movie’s biggest flaw was its lack of humor. Other MCU movies do a pretty good job of balancing the action with comedy, which is something Captain Marvel lacked. The character of Carol Danvers comes off as egotistical and sanctimonious. If a character is going to be egotistical and sanctimonious, they need to balance those traits with a little humor, which she doesn’t. Fans even have a petition requesting Marvel replace her as Captain Marvel.
There you have it. Captain Marvel is actually the best – at being the worst character in the MCU.
