Over the past few years, a growing number of Marvel Cinematic Universe stars have openly campaigned for a movie about an all-female Avengers team, A-Force. While there's no guarantee that will happen, it could still offer a new way to bring some of Marvel's brightest heroes together again for a massive, universe-spanning adventure.
However, every group of heroes needs a set of villains to give them an adequate challenge. While Marvel's male villains usually get all of the attention, the Marvel Universe has plenty of female villains who are just as threatening on an existential level, even if they don't get as much attention as their male counterparts. Now, we're going to take a closer look at some of Marvel's most menacing villains to see just how unimaginably powerful they really are.
CASSANDRA NOVA
First appearing in Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's New X-Men, Cassandra Nova is one of the most dangerous mutants ever, even if she was technically never born. A parasite from the Astral Plane that would go on to become Charles Xavier's twin sister, she first fought Xavier in the mother's womb. After Charles seemingly destroyed her, the non-corporeal being survived this however and slowly learned how to create a physical body.
Driven mad by her hatred for Charles, she dedicated herself. She's one of the world's most powerful telepaths, able to even control other powerful figures like Emma Frost into doing her bidding. She was responsible for the Sentinel attack that killed 16 million mutants and wiped Genosha off the map.
Most recently, she became an enemy of Jean Grey during her time in X-Men Red, trying to turn public opinion against mutants - at least until Jean Grey forcibly introduced her to empathy, which brought the monstrous Cassandra to her knees in guilt and set her on the more noble path she's shown in the X-Men's "Here Comes Tomorrow" alternate future.
SELENE
Created by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema, Selene is the single oldest mutant on the planet Earth. Thanks to her ability to draw life-force from other beings, she has been able to survive for over 17,000 years, older than the modern human race. After spending centuries trapped in the Amazon, she joined an immortal group of influential mutants called the Externals and frequently fought the New Mutants, who included Selene's direct descendant Magma among their number.
She became the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, formed the villainous Upstarts and menaced the X-Men and the greater world as a whole with her plans. She was at the core of the Necrosha event, which saw her resurrect fallen mutants from the massacre of Genosha and the rest of X-Men history. While she was eventually defeated and seemingly killed, she resurfaced during the events of Secret Empires as one of the allies of the Hydra-corrupted version of Captain America.
Sin/SKANDI
Sin, or Sinthea Schmidt, is the daughter of Red Skull. Introduced by J.M. DeMatteis and Paul Neary, she wouldn't become a truly major player in the Marvel Universe until the events of Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America in the 2000s. While she caused trouble as the leader of the Serpent Squad, she was found the Hammer of Skadi during the Fear Itself crossover. This transformed her into Skadi herself, a terrifying warrior who proceeded to release her master Cul Borson, Odin's long-imprisoned brother who was known as "The Serpent."
Essentially serving as Cul's answer to Thor, the hammer gifted Skandi great strength, speed, endurance and the ability to channel lightning. Working as his champion, she rallies an empowered army that proceeds to cause untold destruction around the world, specifically the United States of America. During an attack on Washington D.C,. she was even able to mortally wound Bucky Barnes, who at that point was Captain America. She took part in the final battle of that story, ultimately losing her powers when Cul was (at least briefly) killed by Thor, which returned her to human form.
MORGAN LE FAY
As a character from Arthurian legend, Morgan Le Fay has appeared across multiple mediums in a number of different forms and has been a major villain in both Marvel and DC Comics. Marvel's version of the character was introduced by Stan Lee and Joe Maneely all the way back in 1955, years before much of the Marvel Universe as we know it would be created.
The Marvel version of the character is an immortal sorceress thanks to her half-faerie lineage. She's also a master of the Dark Arts who lived into the modern day and still tries to use her powers to take over the world. She's been an enemy of Sir Percy of Scandia and an ally of Doctor Doom, who traveled back into the past to gain her help and would one day even form something of a romantic relationship with her.
In the modern day, she became an enemy of Spider-Woman, Doctor Strange and many Avengers teams. She's most recently appeared in Doctor Doom, where it's revealed that she's slowly adapted to the modern world and has even set up a safe house in the heart of New York for whenever she needs to hide and grow her power and in Excalibur, where she's come up against the newly formed mutant state of Krakoa.
HELA
Hela is the traditional Asgardian Goddess of Death who was brought into the Marvel Universe by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. As the daughter of Loki and a giantess, she is the ruler of the dead in the realms of Niflheim and Hel, which has led her to clash with Marvel's other demon lords.
As an ambitious queen at heart, many Hela stories have seen her try to spread her influence across the cosmos. She's corrupted a number of the Valkyrie into becoming her own champions and has tried to claim Valhalla as her own on multiple occasions. She's also been killed or seriously hindered multiple times, only to restore herself upon each battle.
She took part in many schemes to destroy the universe and bring it into her kingdom of death, although she was often thwarted by her uncle, Thor. Eventually, however, Hela would be dethroned by Odin's daughter Angela, who made Balder ruler in her stead. A weakened Hela entered into an alliance with Thanos, and the pair even seem to find some semblance of love for one another. She was last seen trying to restore him to life following his death at the hands of Gamora, although she (and the rest of the Black Order) were sucked into a Black Hole.
GOBLIN QUEEN
Mutant X is one of the most bizarre comics in Marvel history, and that's saying something. The series, created by Howard Mackie, Tom Raney and Andrew Pepoy, saw the 616-version of Havok sent into an alternate reality where everything was grimmer. Scott Summers was taken into space with their parents, leaving Alex to become the kind of man his brother could have been instead. Eventually, he met Madelyne Pryor and the pair got married, having a son named Scotty.
Created by the Charles Xavier and Mister Sinister of this world, Madelyne was a genetic clone of Jean Grey who was designed to help make the perfect child with Alex. But things were complicated during a conflict with the demons S'ym and N'Astirh, she made a deal to save her family and the world.
This opened her up to the Goblin Force: a malevolent force that had consumed the Phoenix Force and Galactus, killed Celestials and even fused with the Beyonder. This being used Madelyne as a conduit to escape the prison it had been trapped in by Celestials. Becoming the Goblin Queen, Pryor destroyed most of the heroes of this world while intending to unleash itself across the multiverse.
However, the Goblin Force was eventually separated from Madelyne thanks to Alex (who at the time was something of a conduit for the Nexus of All-Realities) and his son Scottie, who'd begun developing powers not unlike Franklin Richards. Working in tandem with a number of other powerful figures from this universe, Havok was able to seal away the Goblin Queen within the Nexus, causing every version of the Goblin Force from around the multiverse to be caught and erased.
DARK PHOENIX
The Dark Phoenix is one of the most famous figures of the X-Men corner of the Marvel Universe and the core of one of superhero comics' greatest tragedies. The psychic Jean Grey was a founding X-Man, who was exposed to the cosmic energies of the Phoenix Force while on a space mission.
As a revered and feared entity known throughout the universe, the Phoenix Force secretly hid away Jean in a healing cocoon and took on her appearance and created a psionic connection with her, allowing the Phoenix to live out Jean's life in her stead. Unfortunately, this Phoenix clone proved to be immensely powerful and immensely unstable.
Phoenix was eventually swayed against her teammates by the machinations of the Hellfire Club and the illusionist Mastermind. But when the X-Men defeated the group, the Phoenix's true powers were unleashed. She became the Dark Phoenix, quickly flying out into the cosmos, where she killed billions after eating a star.
While the X-Men tried to defend the Phoenix from the Shi'Ar alines seeking justice, the Phoenix Force did what Jean would do in that situation - kill herself to prevent another outburst. The Phoenix Force returned to the cosmos but remains almost eternally bonded in some form to the Grey family.
AEGIS
Aegis was one of two pro medial elders of the Marvel Universe who was created by Keith Giffen and Renato Arlem. She's one of the singularly most powerful figures in the entire cosmos, along with her brother Tenebrous. They were corrupted by Diableri of Chaos, who left a path of destruction across the multiverse. The pair were eventually hidden inside the Kyln (which a prison grew around) by Galactus himself. But when the Annihilation Wave entered the core Marvel Universe, the elders escaped and targeted Galactus.
The pair worked with Thanos and the Annihilation Wave and remained liberated after the events of the Annihilation event. Eventually, however, they were shown going to war to try and protect the universe from a multiversal invasion from the Cancerverse. She was able to hold back the cosmic invasion for a time, but even she wasn't able to destroy the forces attacking, and both her and Tenebrous were killed in the battle.