Marvel's most iconic villains have been making a splash for years. They've challenged the heroes in imaginative and entertaining ways, giving readers decades of great stories to choose from. While everyone loves the icons, there are also loads of other villains out there, ones who have the potential to be just as great as the big names.
These underrated villains have starred in lower-profile stories, but that makes them no less great. Many of them are rather well known, but they aren't counted among their heroic foe's upper echelon of villains. They deserve so much better than what they've gotten over the years and are always ready for a chance to shine.
10 Lady Deathstrike Is A Top Tier Mercenary
Lady Deathstrike is most known for battling Wolverine and the X-Men. Her cybernetic enhancements and martial arts skills make her a formidable foe, but she's been pigeonholed in the mutant side of things for way too long. This is a shame since she could work as a villain for so many other heroes. As a mercenary, she's the perfect villain to show up in all kinds of books.
Lady Deathstrike would be perfect in a Spider-Man or Daredevil story. She's always been one of Wolverine's more interesting foes, and putting her out into the greater Marvel Universe to shine would spread her legend even more.
9 Morg Was One Of Galactus's Most Dangerous Heralds
The Heralds of Galactus are all quite powerful, but Morg took the cake. An executioner on his homeworld, Morg was chosen by the World Devourer and relished his role picking out worlds for his master to consume. He even enhanced his Power Cosmic derived powers by bathing in the Well of Life and was more than a match for Silver Surfer, Terrax, Firelord, Air-Walker, and Nova before Galactus intervened.
Although he's dead, he's still one of Marvel's greatest cosmic threats. Death has never kept a good villain down, and it's only a matter of time before someone remembers him, bringing him back to terrorize the stars again.
8 Doctor Midas Never Got A Chance To Shine
Doctor Midas was introduced in Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones's Marvel Boy. A collector of superhero oddities, he battled the Kree soldier Noh-Varr before gaining the powers of the Fantastic Four and being defeated. He showed up again in Original Sin but has been gone ever since. Doctor Midas is an interesting villain, one that could do well against any hero.
With his voluminous arsenal and assassin daughter Oubliette, Midas is the perfect villain to battles foes like the Avengers or the Fantastic Four. He's a Morrison take on a classic Marvel villain, and the fact he's been so underused is a tragedy.
7 Moonstone Is Way Tougher Than She Seems
Moonstone has been around the Marvel Universe for a long time. She's been in the Masters of Evil, Thunderbolts, and Dark Avengers and is an underrated powerhouse. She's vacillated between heroism and villainy throughout the years, but she's still a criminal to her core, as evidenced by her most recent stints with the Thunderbolts.
She's pretty much the perfect foe for Captain Marvel. She's super strong, can fly, fires power energy blasts, and can phase through attacks. While Moonstone is mostly known for being on teams, she'd work as a solo villain as well, and she has always been one of Marvel's more interesting antagonists.
6 Batroc The Leaper Doesn't Get The Respect He Deserves
Captain America's villains range from lame to awesome, and one who has been unfairly lumped into the lame column is Batroc the Leaper. A master of the French martial art of savate, Batroc works for the highest bidder and has been able to keep up with the super-soldier enhanced Captain America, which is pretty impressive.
Batroc isn't a world-conquering titan, but he's a lot of fun. He has a zest for life that comes out in his every appearance, and he's always an entertaining villain. He's the perfect mercenary villain for any hero out there and deserves more respect than he gets.
5 Ogun's Status As A Magical Ninja Makes Him A Great Foe
Wolverine has fought a lot of formidable villains, and one of the most frightening was Ogun. The ninja master taught Wolverine how to fight before bonding his soul to an oni mask, one he used to take control of new bodies and torment his former pupil. The Marvel Universe is full of magical ninja villains, but Ogun's body possession schtick makes him much better than most of them.
Ogun can be so much more than a Wolverine villain, possessing more powerful bodies that make him a force to reckoned with. Imagine the Hulk possessed by a ninja master, and that's the kind of potential Ogun has as a villain.
4 Morlun Has Beat Spider-Man To Death, No Easy Feat
Morlun is one of Spider-Man's most terrifying villains, a multiversal energy vampire who has succeeded where many villains failed. He's killed multiple Spider-Men from around the multiverse and was even able to kill Spider-Man himself. That's a pretty impressive feat, yet he's still a B-lister among the Wall-Crawler's villains.
While he specializes in spider-powered heroes, Morlun would be a grave threat to any hero he battled. He has a classic vampire appearance that makes him look great, and he's one of the most threatening foes Spider-Man ever faced.
3 Shadow King Is A World-Class Threat
Shadow King is one of the X-Men's most dangerous foes, but to any other team, he'd be their death. Shadow King is a telepath of the highest order; he doesn't fight his foes physically but in their minds. This would make him devastating to any other Marvel team, which is the main reason he's so underrated.
While the X-Men have been fighting him for years and pretty much have a method for dealing with him, he'd trounce just about any other team that's never faced him. He's the essence of an underrated villain; he seems easy to beat when he's up against those he always fights, but against other teams, he'd wreak havoc.
2 Hobgoblin Gets Overshadowed By Green Goblin
Hobgoblin is an interesting villain. Several people have taken up the mantle over the years. Hobgoblins like Ned Leeds and Roderick Kingsley tried to get revenge against Spider-Man, while Jason Macendale used the mantle to become a mercenary. This is part of the problem, as the character has never really had a concrete identity.
That doesn't make Hobgoblin any less great, as each different Hobgoblin brought something new to the mantle. That is part of what makes the villain work so well. Spider-Man never knows who is going to be Hobgoblin and never knows how to approach the fight.
1 Kraven The Hunter Would Make The Perfect Arch-Nemesis For Spider-Man
Kraven the Hunter is one of Spider-Man's most well-known foes, but he's also never really gotten his due. His biggest story is still "Kraven's Last Hunt," where he killed himself. Even though he's returned to life, he's never gotten the chance to be one of the Wall-Crawler's A-list villains. This is unfair to Kraven, as he's done a great job of tormenting Spider-Man over the years.
Kraven deserves another big story that will put him back in the upper echelon of Spider-Man's foes. He has all the tools and works as a multi-faceted threat for Spider-Man or really any other hero he battles.