Marvel has a wonderful cadre of villains and antagonists who run the gamut from henchmen to crime bosses to world-conquering enemies to universal threats. One thing that links some of these villains is ruthlessness. Every villain has to be ruthless to an extent, but many take it to the next level. Marvel villains like Thanos and Ultron are the most ruthless people in the universe, the lives of those around them mattering little.
These villains will sacrifice anything to achieve their goals. Their plans have no place for sympathy, and they see sentimentality as weakness. They stop at nothing and their brutality is well known to Marvel's heroes.
10 Ultron Is Cold Calculation Personified
The Avengers have battled iconic villains, but none of them have the personal grudge with the team that Ultron does. Ultron's hatred of the team comes from when his creator Hank Pym tired to destroy him. This moment created Ultron's homicidal urge towards biological lifeforms, as he coldly calculated that the only life that deserved to exist is mechanical.
Ultron is as ruthless as they come because that's all he is. His AI applies cold logic to everything, and it all comes from the one directive he's created for himself: destroy all biological life on Earth. There is no mercy in him, just cold calculation and ruthlessness.
9 Bullseye Is All About Killing
Bullseye is a mercenary, a job that takes a certain amount of ruthlessness. He takes it to the next level because he loves his job. Bullseye gets joy from killing, and he loves to prolong the whole thing. Bullseye plays with his food, a smiling avatar of death. He's the height of ruthlessness, a killer who lives for the fight.
Bullseye doesn't get paid to injure, he gets paid to kill, and he doesn't care who gets in the way. In fact, even though he's a near perfect marksman, he's been known to hit people in the surrounding area just because. That's the kind of person that Bullseye is and how he works.
8 Kraven The Hunter Lives For The Rush Of The Hunt
Kraven the Hunter has hunted every animal in the world, often with little more than a knife. He decided to go after Spider-Man because nothing challenged him anymore. Killing holds no problem for him at all, and he loves the rush of the hunt. Kraven is an apex predator; the lives of those he hunts don't matter to him at all.
Kraven isn't a mad dog, as his attacks are targeted, but he gives no quarter at all. He wants to test himself against the most dangerous enemies. His ruthlessness even extends to himself, as he's ready to die in battle if he fails in the fight.
7 Kingpin Rose To The Top Of The Crime World
Kingpin is the most powerful crime boss in New York City. Wilson Fisk has worked his way up through the underworld of NYC, getting rid of everything in his way. Kingpin knows there is one rule in his world and that's to win. He doesn't let anything stand in his way, and that's why he's created such a powerful criminal empire.
Kingpin has learned the hard way to be ruthless, as his wife and son have both tried to use his love for them against him. Any weakness in Kingpin has been burned away. Many have tried to beat him and take his empire. All of them have ended up dead.
6 Green Goblin's Madness Makes Him As Ruthless As Possible
Green Goblin has changed a lot, but one thing that's stayed the same is his madness. Norman Osborn doesn't care about anyone because everything is a means to an end. The Goblin formula gave him the power to battle Spider-Man, but it took his tenuous sanity and made it non-existent. Osborn only sees his goals and will break anything in his way to get to them.
His many battles against Spider-Man are an example of this, but his time in the Dark Avengers really shows how dangerous his attitude can be. He was perfectly willing to risk the entire planet by working with the Void to get his way. Nothing mattered to him but power, which shows how ruthless he truly is.
5 Carnage Is A Spree Killer
Many Marvel villains' powers made them worse, taking someone that was bad and pushing them over the edge into monstrousness. Cletus Kasady was already a serial killer before getting the Carnage symbiote, but got much worse with it. The added power and nigh-invincibility it gave him made his rampages terribly bloody.
Carnage doesn't care about anything or anyone. His only joy comes from killing as many people as possible. There is no such thing as mercy when it comes to Carnage. Once he gets started, the only thing that stops him is the power of the superheroes and even that isn't a guarantee.
4 Sabretooth Is A Mutant Monster
Sabretooth is Wolverine's greatest foe and he's battled the X-Men many times. He's as crafty as he is strong, a cunning and nearly immortal foe. Sabretooth's life as a villain has been long and varied, but one thing has linked every phase of his life: the killing. Even when he was ostensibly working on the side of angels during the Cold War, Sabretooth would still kill as many people as he possibly could.
Sabretooth only shows mercy when he thinks that he can use it later. If he spares someone, it's because they have a use to whatever plan he has. Sabretooth is dangerous because not only is he a wild animal, but an intelligent manipulator.
3 Thanos Is The Deadliest Being In The Universe
Thanos's nihilism is his defining trait. He cares nothing for any living being in the universe. His love is only for Mistress Death, which just shows how far his nihilism goes. Thanos lives to destroy as many people as possible. The lives of every other being mean nothing to him. In fact, even Thanos's life is meaningless to him, as death will just unite him with the woman he loves.
Nothing has any meaning to Thanos. His plans are completely ruthless because that's the only way he knows how to deal with the universe. Thanos's ruthlessness knows no bounds because life has no importance to him.
2 Doctor Doom Knows Ruthlessness Is The Only Way He Can Rule
Not every Marvel villains gets to fulfill their destiny, which is what makes Doctor Doom so special. Doom learned that the world was a ruthless place as a child. His mother was stolen from him by Mephisto and his father froze to death to protect him from the Baron's troops. Doom learned that the only way to survive was to be smarter and meaner than the person he was up against, a lesson that stayed with him.
Doom is sometimes swayed by sentimentality and feeling, but it's all a part of who he is. Doom's emotions are a big part of why he's so ruthless. His hatred is so powerful that it overrides everything else in his life, transforming into the ruthless monster underneath it all.
1 Red Skull Is The Nazi Leader Of HYDRA
Some Marvel villains love being evil, but none can match Red Skull. Red Skull took to killing at a young age. His ruthlessness was enough to pique Adolf Hitler's interest, who molded the child into his Red Skull, the most evil soldier of the German Reich. His evil was enough to make the US create Captain America, a light of hope to counter Red Skull's darkness.
Red Skull's ruthlessness has been his defining characteristic. For decades, this monster of a man has worked to bring about the victory of the twisted ideology that he pledged allegiance to in his youth. Red Skull is as ruthless as they come.