The Marvel Cinematic Universe is known for boasting thrilling action sequences that involve large set pieces, high emotional stakes, and the spectacle of their characters' unique abilities. In recent years, with the success of shows like Daredevil and the introduction of Disney+, the MCU has begun to flex a different muscle in the form of sheer violence.
Just because something is violent doesn't make it good, but it is refreshing to see the bloody consequences of a well-connected hit or feel the chilling stakes of a murderous character on a rampage. Not only does it help ground the story in reality, but it gives audiences more to engage and empathize with.
10 Echo Wanted Revenge For Her Father's Murder
Soon to star in her own Disney+ show, Echo was one of the most compelling new additions to the MCU after debuting in the 2021 series Hawkeye. Primarily an antagonist working with the Kingpin and his Tracksuit Mafia, it is quickly revealed that her true motivation for hunting down the Ronin is to avenge her father's death at the hands of the tragic vigilante.
Ronin himself, Clint Barton, meets Echo at a used car lot, where the two settle their feud with guns, swords, and some of the best martial arts work the MCU has seen to date.
9 It Took Two Super-Soldiers To Stop A Murderous Tony Stark
When Tony Stark follows Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes to Siberia in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, it is revealed that the Winter Soldier was personally responsible for the death of his parents. In a rage, Stark dons his Iron Man armor and attacks Barnes, who does all he can to defend himself against the Avenger as Rogers tries to end the conflict.
The fight has many vicious moments, including Stark blowing off Barnes's arm with a point-blank shot from his Arc Reactor. Ultimately, Rogers rips off Stark's helmet and plunges his shield into the Iron Man armor, shutting him down for good.
8 The Green Goblin Was Spider-Man's Most Brutal Villain Yet
In each MCU Spider-Man film, Jon Watts was never afraid to let the titular character suffer; this suffering found its peak in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. Both melee battles between Peter Parker and Norman Osborn are absolutely brutal, with the villain thriving on a combination of the Goblin Formula and sheer will.
This made him a sponge that absorbed every one of Parker's blows. Norman then started tossing Parker around like a broken toy. Their final fight becomes so intense, Parker nearly murders the Goblin and almost crosses a line he'd never come back from.
7 The Winter Soldier Nearly Beat Steve Rogers To Death
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the titular character not only has to bring down a government conspiracy decades in the making, he has to fight his long-lost best friend to do it.
The Winter Soldier is an unstoppable killing machine that Rogers never truly overcomes in the film. In the film's climax, a nasty brawl on one of Hydra's falling Helicarriers, Rogers refuses to fight. Barnes proceeds to angrily beat Rogers to a bloody pulp until the aircraft finally crashes into the waters below.
6 The Guardians Laid Waste To The Dark Aster
Finally coming together as a team and perhaps even a family 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy saw the team breaching the Dark Aster, a massive spacecraft piloted by Ronan the Accuser.
Their assault on the vessel is total, including a visceral grudge match between Gamora and Nebula, Groot turning a group of Sakaraan soldiers into kabob skewers, and Drax almost understanding metaphors as he rips a man's skull apart. The fact that this sequence is able to maintain the film's trademark sense of humor and fun is one of the many things that makes it so great.
5 The Children Of Thanos Sacrificed Everything To Get The Mind Stone
When Thanos' "Children" arrived in Wakanda in Avengers: Infinity War to extract the Mind Stone from Vision's forehead, Proxima Midnight makes a chilling proclamation: "We have blood to spare." Instantly, their overwhelming number of Outriders, animalistic, mindless brutes, tear each other apart and allow themselves to be incinerated as they attempt to break through Wakanda's force field.
As the battle rages, Proxima Midnight is severed in half by a giant razor, Cull Obsidian is grated against the force field like cheese, Corvus Glaive is impaled on his own spear, and Vision suffers two agonizing deaths.
4 Hela Slaughtered Asgard's Loyalists
Thor: Ragarok is a film with a lot of range, showcasing the comedic potential of both its cast and its subjects, it also takes Thor to some of his darkest moments in the MCU. While the death of Odin and the destruction of Asgard are two devastating moments, one often flies under the radar: Hela's initial assault on their realm.
The scene is brutally succinct, as Hela single-handedly tears through Asgard's forces and coldly murders all three of Thor's closest friends.
3 Marc Spector Was Trying To Stay Out Of Trouble
In the first episode of the Disney+ mind-bender Moon Knight, the protagonist, Marc Spector/Steven Grant, is seen struggling with a condition wherein another personality takes control of his body for extended periods of time. This reaches a climax when Spector awakens in a town he does not recognize, targeted by a group of violent foes he doesn't remember.
Luckily, Spector blacks out momentarily, waking up to find his assailants bleeding, possibly dismembered, and definitively dead. As the fight continues, he continues fading in and out of consciousness as his body count increases.
2 John Walker Was Not A Perfect Soldier
Arguably the most compelling aspect of 2021's The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, John Walker was a man broken by hubris, expectations from within and without, and the haunting legacy of American imperialism and the military-industrial complex. After rashly taking a new form of the Super Soldier serum, Walker's immense strength is matched by his rage and adrenaline, an issue greatly exacerbated when his best friend and partner is killed in action.
Walker decapitates a combatant out of pure vengeance, an act that forces Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson to take him down. The three-way battle is equally ferocious, with Walker behaving like a cornered animal. The battle only ends when Barnes pins him down for Wilson to tear the shield from Walker's arm, breaking the limb.
1 The Scarlet Witch Sadistically Murdered The Illuminati
Quite simply the most violent film in the history of the MCU, 2022's Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness saw the introduction of the infamous comic book team the Illuminati and their subsequent massacre at the hands of Wanda Maximoff.
From the chilling "What mouth?" and subsequent spaghetti-ing of Reed Richards, the fight's trajectory was clear. It didn't make it any less horrifying when she snapped Professor X's neck or severed Captain Carter's torso in half. It's a gleefully bloody scene, one that embraces the bloody roots of the comics themselves.