While Marvel is known for its heroes, it also has some of the greatest villains in comics. These dangerous and intimidating antagonists have made life very difficult for the heroes, creating memorable conflicts that have captured readers' imaginations for decades. Sometimes, villains can be sympathetic where they have a chance at redemption despite having done some terrible things. Some of these villains have periods where they join the heroes.
Other villains are evil to the core and love what they do. These villains are completely irredeemable, and while heroes have sometimes tried to bring them over to the side of good, it always fails. Sometimes, evil is just evil.
10 Dormammu Won't Rest Until His Darkness Covers The Multiverse
Doctor Strange battles some of the most dangerous foes ever, and one of his worst enemies is Dormammu. Ruler of the Dark Dimension, Dormammu has been trying to conquer the Multiverse for ages, with only the power and ingenuity of the Sorcerer Supreme standing between existence and subjugation at Dormammu's hands.
Dormammu's threat is massive, as even beyond his own mystical might, he has legions of demonic forces to call upon. Few beings in the cosmos are as dangerous, and he has no other desire than conquest and destruction.
9 Mephisto Enjoys Evil Too Much To Ever Stop
Mephisto's whole schtick is that he's a corrupter of innocent souls patterned after the Judeo-Christian devil. There's absolutely no redeeming him because when it comes right down to it, he doesn't want to stop. Even in the few times when he wasn't actively corrupting or destroying the innocent, he only acted that way for his own motives.
Mephisto is a force of cosmic evil, a being who sees no point in being anything than what he is. Redemption is a foreign concept to him, and if given a chance at it, he'd laugh and try to get the person offering it to sell Mephisto his soul.
8 Carnage Loves Killing Too Much To Ever Stop
Carnage isn't a villain who's been corrupted by his symbiote or a misunderstood person who's turned to villainy to help his family or himself. Kletus Casady was already a serial killer when he became Carnage and only got more dangerous and violent with his newfound power. This is exactly the life Carnage wants because he enjoys the bloodshed.
Carnage is another villain who sees no need for redemption because he is doing exactly what he wants. Killing is his greatest pleasure, and he has no interest in stopping or limiting who he kills.
7 Baron Zemo's Whole Life Is An Unending Pursuit Of Power & Revenge
Helmut Zemo is not the type of man to look for redemption of any kind, and even if he were, it would be impossible. The son of Nazi leader Baron Heinrich Zemo, Helmut was raised in Hydra and would become one of Captain America and the Avengers' deadliest foes, stopping at nothing to get revenge for his father's death and gain more power.
To Zemo, everything is a means to an end. He has no problem posing as a hero if he thinks it will gain him something, but he's not redeemable by a longshot. Zemo will use anything and anyone to get his way and laughs in the face of redemption.
6 Annihilus Is A Force Of Universal Destruction
Thanos is evil, but one can look at his life and see the reasons why he's become what he is. Meanwhile, Annihilus has no tragic backstory and no excuses for his monstrous hunger. Annihilus merely exists to control and devour everything in his path, using his Cosmic Control Rod and the fearsome Annihilation Wave to sate his terrible hunger.
There is no negotiating with Annihilus, and there is no way to stop him other than battle. The things he wants in the universe can never be achieved by being other than who he is. His all-consuming hunger and the billions who've died at his hands render any attempt to redeem him impossible.
5 Bullseye Is Living His Best Life & Everyone Else Should Be Scared
Bullseye is one of the most dangerous assassins on the planet, and he loves every single minute of it. Bullseye had honed his skills to such an extent that anything in his hands is a weapon. Even if people weren't paying him to kill, he'd still do it because he enjoys it. Luckily for him, his skills are in high demand.
Bullseye was a "hero" once, but even then, he was basically just Norman Osborn's glorified assassin. Bullseye has ended countless lives, and there's no forgiveness for what he's done. Even if there was, he wouldn't want it. And if he did take it, he would only be doing it as a means to escape and kill again.
4 Norman Osborn Long Ago Decided His Path & Never Stepped Off It
Norman Osborn was long a cutthroat kind of person and a titan of the business world. Taking the Goblin formula drove him mad and turned him into the Green Goblin, one of New York's deadliest villains. Battling Spider-Man, Osborn did horrible things to his foe and the city. Eventually, thanks to being in the right place at the right time, he would kill the Skrull Queen Veranke and be given control of the Superhero Initiative.
Osborn's Dark Reign would see him and his handpicked team of villains commit terrible acts in the name of power. He squandered any chance of redemption and has doubled down since, going back to being Green Goblin and terrorizing all who stand against him.
3 Kingpin Always Has An Angle & It's Self-Aggrandizement
One doesn't become the greatest criminal on the planet without doing terrible things, and that's Kingpin in a nutshell. Working his way up through the ranks of the New York City underworld, Wilson Fisk made ruthlessness his brand. Everything he does is about gaining more power and wealth for himself. Anyone who stands in his way are dealt with in the harshest way he can imagine.
Kingpin has recently been able to go "legitimate," but even that was only for more power. Kingpin is all about himself and after his years of monstrous acts, there's no redemption for him. Even if there was, he wouldn't seek it.
2 Sabretooth Will Never Be Anything Other Than What He Is
Sabretooth is Wolverine's greatest foe, and his entire life has been built around making Logan suffer. Multiple attempts have been made to redeem Sabretooth, and every time, he uses those as a way to get close to his foes and try to gut them. That's just who he is. He's found his niche in the world, and that's how he likes to do things.
Few villains have had the number of redemption chances that Sabretooth has had and gleefully thrown away. Sabretooth knows what he likes, and he'll do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to.
1 Red Skull Is A Nazi
The easiest way to prove that Red Skull is irredeemable is just to say who he is: Red Skull is a Nazi. There's really nothing else to say. One doesn't have to bring up his decades of atrocities or anything like that. Red Skull is an unrepentant Nazi, and there is no redeeming him whatsoever. He has chosen his path in life.
It is simply not possible to redeem the Red Skull or any other Nazi. There is nothing good inside to appeal to, and anything that was good died so long ago in the past that he doesn't even remember having it. He is evil and nothing can or will ever change that.