The various heroes of the Marvel Universe first formed up as the Avengers to take on Loki, and remained together to take on the threats they couldn't handle alone. It worked out pretty well for them, and the Avengers have been protecting Earth ever since.
Of course, it didn't take long for the villains of the Marvel universe to adopt the same strategy and group together as the Masters of Evil, which has seen quite a few different variations over the years. So today we are going to look at a few of the best and worst line-ups we've seen from the Masters of Evil.
10 BEST: THUNDERBOLTS
When the Thunderbolts first arrived on the scene, they were a shiny new team of superheroes in a post-Onslaught world that desperately needed them. but in one of the best comic twists of the last few decades, the new heroes revealed themselves to be Masters of Evil in disguise, led by Baron Helmut Zero as Citizen V.
The team included former Masters of Evil members Moonstone, Goliath, Fixer, Screaming Mimi, and Beetle, who became the semi-heroic Meteorite, Atlas, Techno, Songbird, and Mach-1, respectively. While we love the Thunderbolts, we're ranking them at the bottom of the best because they make lousy Masters of Evil.
9 WORST: EGGHEAD'S MASTERS
Dr. Elihas Starr became known as Egghead both because of his incredibly advanced intellect and the fact that he had an egg-shaped head. He quickly turned to villainy and used his intellect to take revenge on his scientific rival, Hank Pym/Giant-Man.
Eggman assembled a new Masters of Evil that initially included Moonstone, Scorpion, Whirlwind, and Tiger Shark, though he would later bring Beetle, Shocker, and Radioactive Man on to the team in a second appearance. Both teams were mostly used to help Egghead steal tech and frame Pym, and they were both easily defeated by the Avengers.
8 BEST: SHADOW COUNCIL'S MASTERS
The Shadow Council was a secretive organization founded after the American Civil War that served an ancient entity known as the Abyss, which eventually brought a Life Model Decoy of Nick Fury with all of his training and memories named Max Fury into the fold during Secret Avengers.
When Max took over the Shadow Council, he founded the secret island nation of Bagalia and created a new Masters of Evil to serve the Abyss. After Max's destruction, Baron Zemo II took over the island and the Masters of Evil, which featured the largest roster of the team ever assembled, including some of the younger heroes/villains from the Avengers Undercover series.
7 WORST: CRIMSON COWL'S MASTERS
With the former Masters of Evil masquerading as the Thunderbolts, a void was left in the supervillain community that was filled by the second Crimson Cowl, Justine Hammer. Crimson Cowl formed her Masters with Cyclone, Klaw, Flying Tiger, Man-Killer and Tiger Shark.
Crimson Cowl's Masters of Evil would expand to include quite a few members and even attempted to hold the world hostage, but they were mostly locked in battle with the Thunderbolts as opposed to the Avengers, which doesn't rank them high among the Masters' various rosters.
6 BEST: YOUNG MASTERS
During the Dark Reign era, a new team of young heroes emerged that began calling themselves the Young Avengers, though they were soon confronted by the real Young Avengers and began working alongside the team until a rift formed that led the new heroes down the path to becoming the Young Masters.
While most of the initial team like Melter and Enchantress II left after the darker members went further down a dark path, they would rejoin members like Executioner, Coat of Arms and Egghead II alongside other young villains like Excavator, Radioactive Kid, Death Locket and other survivors of Murderworld to work for the Masters of Evil in Bagalia.
5 WORST: LIGHTMASTER'S MASTERS
A new version of the Masters of Evil was formed in the pages of Superior Spider-Man Team-Up by Dr. Edward Lansky, the supervillain known as Lightmaster. He first hired the Wrecking Crew to steal a device from Alchemax, but after their defeat at the hands of Superior Spider-Man and his mind-controlled Superior Six, Lightmaster was forced to recruit additional members.
His Masters of Evil featured the Wrecking Crew alongside classic members like Absorbing Man, Titania, Whirlwind, Blackout and Mister Hyde, though the Masters eventually turned on Lightmaster when Superior Spider-Man revealed he likely didn't have the money to pay for their services.
4 BEST: HEINRICH ZEMO'S MASTERS
Baron Heinrich Zemo was a nazi scientist who fought against Captain America during the war, and his vendetta would continue with the Avengers after Cap joined the team. Zemo was the first one to assemble the Masters of Evil, which consisted of already established villains like the Melter, Radioactive Man, and the first Black Knight.
Zemo's initial line-up would soon include Enchantress and the Executioner and would lead to the creation of future Avenger Simon Williams/Wonder Man. This Masters of Evil would appear a few times until Heinrich's death, when a new version led by Ultron (using the guise of Crimson Cowl) appeared and added new members like Klaw and Whirlwind.
3 WORST: WEST COAST MASTERS
Kate Bishop is the second Avenger to call herself Hawkeye, and she has made a few enemies in her time, which include Madame Masque. So when Kate formed a new team of young heroes that became known as the new West Coast Avengers, Madame Masque assembled her own West Coast version of the Masters of Evil.
Madame Masque had previously worked with the Masters of Evil and other groups like the Hood's criminal organization, but her Masters was filled with an odd mix of laughable and powerful characters like MODOK, Eel, Lady Bullseye, Graviton and Satana Hellstrom that failed to live up to the former Masters of Evil line-ups.
2 BEST: HELMUT ZEMO'S MASTERS
Whereas previous versions of the Masters, including Helmut's father Heinrich, had been assembled to match the various members of the Avengers, Baron Zemo II decided to go for an abundance of raw power when he assembled the first of his many iterations of the Masters of Evil, which included his later Thunderbolts team, the Wrecking Crew, and former members of his father's team.
His first group was assembled to attack Avengers Mansion during the "Under Siege" storyline, where they beat Hercules into a coma, systematically took out a number of Avengers, and even injured the Avenger's long-time butler and ally Jarvis. The worst, but also best line-up of the Masters of Evil we've seen and likely will ever see in the comics.
1 WORST: DOCTOR OCTOPUS' MASTERS
We previously mentioned Otto Octavious/Doctor Octopus and his battle with Lightmaster's Masters of Evil during the time he was the Superior Spider-Man, but Doc Ock also assembled his own ill-fated Masters of Evil team back in the 90s. The members were chosen due to their ability to stay under Ock's control, as his previous work with the Sinister Six ended in revolt.
This team appeared during the Infinity War event in the pages of Guardians of the Galaxy as Ock's team - Absorbing Man, Titania, Oddball, Powderkeg, Puff Adder, Shocker, and Yellowjacket II - attempted to break into Avengers Mansion but encountered the 90s version of the original Guardians and their own evil doppelgangers, though never even faced a team of Avengers.