Settling on the best villain of the entire Marvel Studios era is proving a tough nut to crack

Any long-term Marvel Cinematic Universe fan knows fine well (and is hopefully completely open in admitting) that the stigma of the franchise’s so-called “villain problem” took a long time to shake off, and rightfully so.

We saw too many antagonists who were simply twisted mirror versions of the heroes, and while that’s something you can get away with every week in comic books, it gets old real quick in a live-action blockbusters. Thankfully, the quality of big bad has improved exponentially, but trying to name the cream of the corrupted crop isn’t exactly an easy or straightforward task.

True to form, then, widening the playing field to include any character from the Marvel Studios era and not just the big screen has only served to create more debate, even it’s hard to argue with the majority of the names being put forward.

Thanos and Loki are obviously riding high in terms of upvotes, but David Tennant’s Netflix-only terror Kilgrave is without a doubt one of the best Marvel villains to haunt a superhero. Cutting even deeper into the expanded lore, Cloak & Dagger‘s season 2 nemesis D’Spayre overcame is silly-on-paper moniker to deliver a frightful force that the title duo struggled to contain.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s Aida, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, and even Corey Stoll’s Yellowjacket of all people are mentioned at least once, which just goes to show how wide of a net has been cast when it comes to maniacal MCU villainy.