Over the past 15 years and counting, the Avengers have saved the world, the universe, and occasionally all of reality again and again and again. And yet it’s not like even Earth’s Mightiest Heroes can save every single life, try as they might. The most dangerous and formidable villains the protectors of Earth-616 and beyond have faced over the years have been marked out by just how many lives they have been able to take before the heroes finally bring them down, usually at a high cost to themselves, too.
The MCU‘s rogues gallery includes military dictators like Red Skull, one-man killing machines like Gorr the God-Butcher, and mutant royalty like Namor, and yet the death counts of some of their fellow foes has been so enormous that these guys look as dangerous as Howard the Duck next to the following 10 antagonists from Marvel Studios’ movies and TV shows. But before we start the countdown, first an honorable mention must go to the Avenger who broke bad…
Honorable mention: Scarlet Witch
Wanda Maximoff might be best known as a hero, but her turn towards the dark side in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ensures she deserves some recognition on this rundown. In terms of most on-screen kills in a single project, Scarlet Witch is right up there, thanks to her impressive 114 kill count in the movie sequel. When adding to her previous kills, mostly accrued in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, Wanda has killed a total of 251 lifeforms across the MCU so far.
10. Gravik
Gravik’s impetuous behavior proved to be his fatal flaw as a villain, but the Skrull insurrectionist leader still managed to rack up a surprisingly high death count across Secret Invasion. Specifically, over 2,000 people are noted to have died during his terrorist attack on Moscow’s Unity Day celebrations in episode one. For context, only 79 people died during the Battle of New York in The Avengers, so Gravik leaves Loki — the Avengers’ very first foe — in the dust.
9. Erik Killmonger
They don’t call him Killmonger for nothing. As Everett Ross explained in Black Panther, Erik Stevens was the most brutal executor in the U.S. Navy Seals, earning the highest kill count of his entire unit. In fact, Killmonger was so proud of the lives that he took that he tattooed a tally mark into his skin for each death racked up. Based on this visual evidence, it’s estimated that Stevens killed approximately 2,200 people… And that’s not counting the events of Black Panther.
8. Hela
Hela is the Goddess of Death, so naturally she has to nab a spot on this list. During the events of Thor: Ragnarok, Odin’s bloodthirsty daughter killed 371 people alone, including the entire Einherjar army and the Warriors Three. However, it’s Hela’s ancient past that really sends her kill count skyrocketing. As her father’s general, she must’ve slain thousands upon thousands on the battlefields as she caused the Nine Realms to bow down before the might of Asgard.
7. Ego
Ego’s Expansion might’ve been averted, thanks to the efforts of his wayward son Star-Lord and the Guardians of the Galaxy, but no doubt many (dozens? Hundreds?) still lost their lives across the universe when his seeds started spreading. Aside from that, Ego had a habit of fathering children and then using them up as batteries in failed attempts to fuel his Expansion. Going by the horrifying mass of skeletons that Gamora discovers, it looks like Ego killed thousands of his own progeny.
6. Ronan the Accuser
Ronan the Accuser might’ve ultimately been defeated by a dance-off, but don’t let that distract you from the fact the Kree extremist was one seriously dangerous guy. As an underling of Thanos, he was tasked with wiping out half the population of the planet Kylos, the home world of Drax, personally killing Drax’s wife and daughter in the process. The total lives lost of Kylos is unknown, but we can surely assume it was in the millions.
5. Thanos
Thanos’ kill count is difficult to quantify. For starters, Heimdall tells us the Nine Realms comprise 10 trillion souls, meaning the Mad Titan wiped out well over five trillion lives from existence with The Snap. But then all these beings were ultimately restored five years later, so perhaps we shouldn’t count them. Nevertheless, even before The Blip, Thanos halved the population of numerous planets across the galaxy, such as Zen-Whoberi, likely putting the number of unequivocal deaths he’s responsible for in the billions.
4. Strange Supreme
A major player in What If…? season one, this variant of Doctor Strange became obsessed with trying to resurrect his lost love, Christine Palmer, after she died in a car-crash (the same crash that cost his variants the use of their hands). Strange pushed himself to become a master of dark magic and was corrupted by the power, eventually destabilizing reality so much that he destroyed his entire universe, thereby wiping out — we can estimate — over 10 trillion lives.
3. Sinister Strange
Much like his fellow corrupted variant, Sinister Strange is likewise responsible for destroying his own universe. In his case, heartbroken when Christine married someone else, Sinister dreamwalked through the multiverse to find a variant who got together with Christine, although all he succeeded in doing was creating an incursion that eradicated his reality, and probably the other one too. Not to mention all the other variants of himself he came across. So, using Heimdall’s figures as a basis, that’s at least 20 trillion deaths on his conscience.
2. Infinity Ultron
Like the two Stranges before him, Infinity Ultron also destroyed his own universe, but gets the jump on them both as he is also implied to have eradicated multiple other universes too. An Ultron variant who acquired the Infinity Stones, Infinity Ultron successfully wiped out all sentient life in his reality, as part of his twisted scheme to bring about universal peace. Once he gained control over the Nexus of All Realities from The Watcher, he also presumably attacked other realities, until the Guardians of the Multiverse defeated him. The exact extent of his crimes have not been revealed, but we can guess Infinity Ultron killed well over 20 trillion.
1. Kang the Conqueror
Kang has sadly yet to prove this to us on screen, but from what we’ve been told the Conqueror has to rank as the deadliest MCU villain we’ve yet seen. He’s known to have erased who knows how many timelines, surely removing an incalculable number of lives from existence — 10 trillion multiplied by however many realities he’s removed. Likewise, he’s also boasted of killing various Avengers variants from across the multiverse. Plus, we’re not just at the beginning of Kang’s dynasty, so expect his death count to keep on rising as the Multiverse Saga deepens.
