The Marvel Cinematic Universe is flooded with amazing abilities and weapons, as it reaches to the depths of outer space and the most advanced civilizations, to earth’s most precious elements, to the most brilliant scientific minds imaginable. With great power comes great responsibility, as they say, and lots of these powerful minds and tools have been used and wielded by villains which has turned into some of the most powerful weapons. In the hands of the good guys, these weapons are elements of protection, saving civilizations and warding off terror, but in the hands of villains, they’re weapons of destruction, ready to shred armies, towns, cities, floating and otherwise, planets, and sometimes half of all living things.
Weapons in the MCU have served as a lot of story, and have connected films to each other as they get passed around. With the Infinity Stones floating around, and no shortage of weapons creators, the MCU has put out some of the most unfathomably powerful weapons that have changed hands through space and time. Without these tools of destruction, Loki would not have been able to control the minds of earthlings, space would not have opened to summon the Chitauri army, and heroes like Captain America would have remained unmatched. The heroes in the MCU rise for their incredible abilities, and in order to take them down, villains have had to rely on a bevy of tools, be they from their home worlds, stolen, or created.
25 EBONY MAW’S MICRO NEEDLES
The whisper of a villain that was Ebony Maw finally showed up in Infinity War and is the most loyal of Thanos’ adopted children. Though the full gamut of his abilities remains unknown, we did get to see the powerful way he weaponized his telekinesis.
Ebony Maw used micro-needles, controlled by his ability to move matter with his mind, to penetrate the skin of his foes. They seemed small, but they were able to torture Dr. Strange enough to have him consider giving up the time stone.
24 GRANDMASTER’S CONTROL DISK
Jeff Goldblum’s appearance as the Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok, was well received by the MCU fandom that often overlaps with Goldblum fans. The hallmarks of the character are his eccentric ways and desire to control the uncontrollable for a means of entertainment.
So, how does an eccentric space man control beings as powerful as Thor and the Hulk? His control disks. With the installation of these annoying little discs, the Grandmaster is able to wield some of the most powerful beings in the universe. For a time, anyway.
23 YELLOWJACKET’S SHRINK GUN
Once Ant-Man was able to shrink to a tiny version of himself, it was all the rage, and everyone wanted to be shrunk. Such are trends. Darren Cross, later known as Yellowjacket, wanted to, himself, find a way to use a shrink gun.
He fashioned a version trying to get a new form of Pym particles, but his test runs were unsuccessful, causing bodies to collapse on themselves and morph into gelatinous blobs. But as all good tech does when it doesn’t immediately succeed, Yellowjacket pivoted, and turn the gun into a weapon.
22 CROSSBONES’ TACTICAL WEAPONS
Brock Rumlow is a Hydra agent who penetrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and was part of the team tasked with taking down Captain America. Though he didn’t ultimately live long enough to get snapped from existence, he was certainly a fly in Cap’s ointment and put up a good fight against some Avengers.
A toy of Crossbones would have so many accessories, since he used a host of tactical weapons from a Desert Eagle Mark XIX to an MK19 Grenade Launcher. His deep military access gave him a host of tactical weapons to put up a fight against the good guys.
21 KAECILIUS’ SCYTHE DAGGERS
Dr. Strange’s baddie, Kaecilius, is incredibly powerful and able to move matter through space and time, allowing him to even throw space shards with his dark magic matter manipulation. But a man of such pomp and circumstance would not stop at pure magic, and Kaecilius wields a pair of daggers.
Though analog weapons seem off brand for a magician such as he, Kaecilius choses dagger for up close and personal kills, like he did to take out a librarian and steal the necessary pages from the Book of Cagliostro.
20 IVAN VANKO’S ARC REACTOR POWER WHIPS
Iron Man was the official usher of the MCU, so Iron Man 2 had to bring the noise to keep up with what had started, and it tried to do so with villains like Justin Hammer and Ivan Vanko. Ivan and Tony’s fathers were once partners, and after building the arc reactor, their relationship was shattered when Howard Stark learned that Anton Vanko was attempting to sell the reactor, and marooned Vanko in Siberia.
Blaming the Stark’s for his family’s downfall, Ivan Vanko harnessed the technology of their fathers, this time, to build electric whips to attach Tony Stark.
19 YONDU’S YAKA ARROW
Batman might never leave the Batcave without his Bat-Credit Card, but Yondu never goes anywhere without his arrow made of Centaurian Yaka. The Yaka metal responds to different sounds and frequencies, and Yondu has a perfect handle on how to move his arrow with his very specific whistling.
The flying arrow and Yondu’s style of torment result in Yondu using the arrow to threaten his foes, lining it up close to their heads to pressure them to give him what he wants. The arrows are extremely sharp and invulnerable to forces like gravity, and Yondu is a master wielder.
18 RED SKULL’LS HYDRA WEAPONS
Red Skull is quite literally the leader of a sinister weapons division, and is dedicated to collecting, creating and wielding the most powerful weapons in the universe. As he says in Captain America: The First Avenger, "My weapons contain enough destructive power to decimate every hostile capital on Earth. Quite simply, gentlemen, I have harnessed the power of the gods."
Armed with Hydra Pistols and a tesseract powered Canon, Red Skull has been able to deliver a lot of damage with his ‘hostile’ hunting Hydra weapons.
17 BLACK HOLE GRENADES
The dark elves, with whom Asgard is often at war, used black hole grenades on multiple occasions to attempt to leave Thor’s home planet in the dust. Unlike a typical grenade, these tiny bombs go off and create a singularity, like a black hole, that absorbs the matter of the target, effectively eradicating them from existence.
These dangerous weapons were one of the targets for theft by the Vulture, and remain an incredible threat. We guess they’re not the most feared, considering you just need to be our of range to remain unscathed.
16 OBADIAH STANE’S SONIC TASER
Obadiah Stane, who would later take on the moniker, Iron Monger, was hellbent on taking down Tony Stark by any means necessary. He carried with him a sonic taser which he used to incapacitate anyone who stood in his way.
His choice use of the weapon is to incapacitate someone with something he wants, to then rip it from them while they’re powerless to stop it. He used this against Raza, but, more of note, against Tony Stark, to make him watch while he ripped away Tony’s Arc Reactor right out from his chest.
15 KILGRAVE
Though more of an ability than a weapon, there’s no question that Jessica Jone’s villain, Kilgrave, weaponized his mind control. With a strong power of, let’s call it, suggestion, Kilgrave was able to control the minds of anyone around them.
In doing, so, he was able to force them to self-harm, but worse, to weaponize certain powerful people. Kilgrave used his mind control to lure and capture Jessica Jones, turning her, the super strong woman, into a weapon for his personal use. And to Jones, the mind control was no doubt a weapon used on her.
14 SURTUR’S TWILIGHT SWORD
Surtur’s contribution to the introduction of Thor: Ragnarok set off the style of humor coupled with high stakes that would define the rest of the film. The giant glowing demon man made for great joke payoff played against Thor, who was tiny (like humans) by comparison. But his weapon, the Twilight Sword, is no laughing matter.
This fiery melee weapon isn’t just a stylistically cool sharp-edged accessory, but it was ultimately used to take down Thor’s homeworld, Asgard, in fulfilling of the Ragnarok prophecy.
13 THE DESTROYER
The automaton known as the Destroyer was owned by Odin, and used to guard the weapons vault on Asgard. Often used as an offensive weapon, not just as a defensive one, the automaton is controlled by whomever is wielding the Asgardian spear, Gungnir.
The powerful beast is intended to match Asgardian warriors, so its power is almost unmatched. When it’s sent to earth, controlled by Loki, it threatens to take down an entire populace, along with Thor. The Destroyer ultimately succeeds in taking Thor’s life, but the magic of the demi-god doesn’t leave him down for long.
12 HELA’S NECROSWORDS
Hela is one of the better MCU villains, and managed to go toe-to-toe with a villain like Loki as the exciting fan favorite. Armed with impeccable talents, powers and abilities, Hela is a true force, and able to bring the destruction she dreams about.
But one of her more powerful abilities is how she is able to conjure up melee weapons. Like a T-1000, she is able to conjure up Necroswords from her body to throw, or use a up close battle weapons, like, well, swords.
11 EGO’S MATTER MANIPULATION MELEE WEAPONS
Another villain with the ability to conjure up melee weapons is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 addition, Ego. Star-Lord’s biological father, and living planet, Ego has almost boundless powers, and is able to manipulate the matter of the planet that he both is and lives on.
Ego has the power of matter manipulation, so, in battles like the one he ultimately had with his son, he is able to have melee weapons materialize. He was also able to make a giant version of himself for the fight which is also a pretty dangerous weapon.
10 KILLMONGER’S WAKANDAN SWORD/ SPEAR OF BASHENGA
Vibranium is an incredibly precious and powerful element, the hunt for it which has lead to a host of drama for the MCU. One of the more notable uses of the powerful element is in the Spear of Bashenga, used and wielded by Bashenga who would become the first Black Panther.
But a spearhead like Killmonger was not going to let this one elude him. Killmonger, who otherwise had access to guns, leaned into the Wakandan spears, using the Bashenga, other spears, and a Wakandan sword in his battles against the Black Panther.
9 VULTURE’S CHITAURI GUN
Vulture, Michael Keaton’s villain that came to us in Spider-Man: Homecoming, isn’t always the rich dad type, he’s sometimes the arms dealer type. After the events of the Chitauri attack in The Avengers, Vulture collected the space weapons to both sell and use.
One of the more powerful was the Chitauri gun, a standard issue weapon that the entire army seemed to have when they attached New York City. Vulture used this vaporizing weapon on friend and foe, and also to slice the Staten Island Ferry in half.
8 RONAN THE ACCUSER’S COSMI-ROD
Ronan’s power in his Mjolnir comparable hammer is incredible. The hammer, better known as the Cosmi-rod, is not just a melee weapon, but it able to create massive and destructive blasts.
The Rod contains within it one of the Infinity Stones, the Power Stone, that Ronan removed from the orb being chased by Star-Lord. Ronan was able to use the rod to destroy an entire Nova Corps fleet, but Drax was able to destroy it with the Hadron Enforcer, so the Stone’s power wasn’t limitless.
7 THE GODSLAYER
The Godslayer is a powerful sword wielded by both Gamora and her sister, Nebula. The sword is able to cut through almost anything, and gets its name for its ability to slay literal gods, and notably, Asgardians.
Gamora’s weapon of choice does not always remain in her hands, and is confiscated when she is captured. But in a battle on Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gamora loses her sword to her sister, who attempts to use it to kill her. But, ultimately, Nebula chooses not to take her sister’s life with the powerful weapon.
6 THE WINTER SOLDIER’S ARM
It’s easy to forget that Bucky Barnes was once a villain. After he was presumed dead, Hydra rebuilt him into a powerful assassin, and gave him his prosthetic metal arm. The strength and power of the arm make The Winter Soldier a match for Cap and Iron Man, and to do some pretty fancy sliding across concrete.
Though this arm made him the formidable and mythical assassin he is, it was not without limit, and Black Panther and Spidey were able to thwart its strength. Playing for the good team, Bucky has a brand new Vibranium arm courtesy of Shuri.