The MCU shows on Disney+ have been well-received by fans. These series have used TV's long-form episodic story structure to showcase some great existing characters while also introducing new ones, including quite a number of villains.
In the past, the MCU's villains have been rather polarizing. Some of them, such as Thanos and Killmonger, are truly iconic, but many of the MCU's villains have been criticized as lackluster. This trend has continued in the Disney+ shows. Some of the antagonists are truly underwhelming, but quite a number of them definitely are worthy of the heroes they fight.
10 Best: US Agent’s Patriotism Manifested As Violent Nationalism
John Walker (aka US Agent) believes wholeheartedly in serving his country. For this reason, he took up the shield and mantle of Captain America. However, his patriotic love of country quickly turned into a nationalist hatred of others, and he used his status to commit numerous war crimes.
One of the most infamous scenes in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showed US Agent beating someone to death in a public space using the iconic Captain America shield. The symbolism is not subtle, but it makes for a powerful statement about his priorities.
9 Worst: Kang Was An All-Time Disappointment
Kang the Conqueror is one of the coolest and most enigmatic villains in all of Marvel comics. He is a despotic time traveler from the future, and is considered one of the Avengers' most dangerous enemies.
The version of Kang depicted in the Disney+ Loki series was enigmatic, but lacked the same pathos and cruel calculating ambition of the original villain. After six episodes to build up the hype, when the show's protagonists finally met Kang, it was a colossal disappointment.
8 Best: Karli & The Flag-Smashers Reject Nationalist Oppression
Karli is the tactical leader of the Flag-Smashers, a group of resistance fighters who use the Super-Soldier Serum to fight against unjust power structures. They saw how humanity came together as national borders disintegrated after the “Blip.” Now that those killed by Thanos have been restored to life, the Flag-Smashers are committed to stopping the world's governments from bringing back the old practices and borders used to oppress people across the globe.
While the Flag-Smashers espoused the philosophy of anarchism, they were responsible for random acts of violence that undermined their objectives. This hypocrisy served to remind audiences that they were villains, since the talking points are widely popular nowadays. The series ended with Sam Wilson defeating the group, then basically agreeing with them while condemning their methods.
7 Worst: The Time-Keepers Turned Out Not To Exist
The TVA is a group committed to preserving the time stream by eradicating anyone who might cause time paradoxes or alternate timelines to emerge. The organization serves the will of three powerful beings known as the Time-Keepers, who insist on brutal displays of force and oversee the murderous bureaucracy of the TVA.
Except the Time-Keepers turn out not to be real. They are just animatronic constructs being controlled by Kang. While this revelation made for a nice twist, it basically rendered the original villains of the show completely meaningless.
6 Best: The TVA Embody The Banality Of Bureaucratic Evil
The main plot of the Loki series involves a variant of Marvel’s Asgardian trickster being forcibly recruited to work for the TVA to hunt down another variant of himself. This makes the TVA central to every aspect of the series.
The organization is the epitome of an evil government bureaucracy, where the use of force is overshadowed by the far more mundane evil of paper-pushing clerks at their cubicles following their bosses' orders. The group commits horrible atrocities, but most of their members are well-meaning people just trying to do their jobs. In fact, many believe they are making a positive difference.
5 Worst: Alioth Was A Literal Cloud
Alioth is not a particularly well-known Marvel villain and it is cool to see obscure characters like this get adapted into the MCU. However, Alioth is just a cloud. A sentient cloud that eats people, but still, a cloud nonetheless.
Marvel can get away with a lot of weirdness. Sentient trees with limited vocabularies and wise-cracking kleptomaniac raccoons are now mainstream characters that fans just accept. And to be fair, Alioth was handled in a way that conveys how epic it is. But there is no silver lining to be had to how mediocre a villain it is.
4 Best: Agatha Harkness Was The Secret Villain Behind WandaVision
WandaVision is easily the most experimental of the Disney+ shows, as the series framed each episode to emulate tropes from different periods of TV history. This was a manifestation of Wanda's powers as she used her reality-altering powers to create her very own picture-perfect family like the ones she saw on TV as a girl.
The real villain of the show was eventually revealed to be the witch Agatha Harkness, who manipulated Wanda from the start. Part of why Agatha is such a great character is that she spent most of the show as a funny (and sometimes tragic) supporting character who was easily underestimated. She is catty, sardonic, and seemingly loyal, but all of this charm hides her predatory intent and dark powers.
3 Worst: Tyler Hayward Was A Generic Military Officer
Wanda and Agatha were the two main villains of WandaVision, but they weren't the only ones. The other one was the Director of SWORD, Tyler Hayward, who was interested in stopping Wanda due to her being a threat to national security.
Tyler is not a particularly bad character. He has clear motivations, while his narrow-minded focus and callous disregard for both his allies and his perceived enemies make him a clearly defined villain. The problem is that he's just not very interesting when it comes down to it. He's a bland stereotype of a military officer who wants to hunt down a well-liked character. There are at least a dozen similar characters already in the MCU, most of whom are completely forgettable.
2 Best: Valentina Allegra De Fontaine Helps Set Up Future Villains
For over a decade, the MCU built up a single long-form story that finally culminated with the events depicted in Avengers: Endgame. This wrapped up most of the major plot threads, tying them in a nice neat bow. Thanos was defeated, those who died in Infinity War were resurrected, and most characters came to a satisfying end to their journeys. If the MCU were a conventional movie series, that would be the end of it. But it's not conventional. It's a franchise, and so long as Disney owns the Marvel properties, the company will continue to make more content.
The villain Valentina Allegra de Fontaine was introduced in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. So far, she has done very little besides manipulating US Agent into joining her, but it appears that she is trying to create a team that can stand up to the heroes of the MCU, as evidenced by the fact that she also tried to recruit Yelena at the end of Black Widow. Valentina has a lot of charm and wit, making her quite memorable, while she appears to be the next mastermind who will need to fight the Avengers.
1 Worst: President Loki Was An Underwhelming Variant
The Loki series introduced several variant versions of Marvel's Asgardian trickster, each one presumably coming from their own alternate timeline. One particularly villainous variant has been dubbed President Loki.
The President made a dramatic introduction where he led an army of nefarious variants to take over Kid Loki's base. However, President Loki appeared on screen for less than three minutes altogether. What's more, he was betrayed by his men and had his hand bitten off after only speaking a few lines of dialogue. The rest of the time was engaged in an all-out brawl between the different variants where audiences quickly lost sight of him amid the chaos. This would-be President does not exactly inspire a vote of confidence in his abilities.