A hero is only as good as its villain, right? Well, not necessarily. We’re now 23 films and one TV series deep into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and while it’s true that the MCU is the most consistently successful franchise maybe in history, it’s definitely not true that every villain is equal. There are those who stick with us long after the credits have rolled like Thanos and Killmonger and Loki, and those we forget like Laufey and Kaecilius and Aldrich Killian. But there’s a method towhich villains are memorableand which aren’t, one thatKevin Feigeand the folks at Marvel Studios hit upon with their very first feature: it’s better when it’s personal.
WhenIron Manwas released in 2008, it laid the foundation for what an MCU movie would become. Fun, colorful, charming, and not overly self-serious but serious enough that you’re invested. But it also set the stage for memorable baddies withJeff Bridges’ Obadiah Stane. Indeed, I can remember watchingIron Manfor the first time in the theater and really digging whatRobert Downey Jr.was doing, but finding the villain plot – which appeared to center on a character named Raza (Faran Tahir) — a bit rote. And then you hit that mid-movie twist where it’s revealed that Stane is the one who tried to have Tony Stark killed in the first place, leading to their double-suit showdown in the finale.
TheIron Mantwist adds emotional stakes to the story because, up until that reveal, the film is telling you how important Obadiah has been to Tony all his life. In the absence of his father, Obadiah has been a mentor and father-figure to the uber-rich playboy. Aside from Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) and maybe Rhodey (Terrance Howardin this one), Obadiah feels like the only other person Tony can be himself around. So when it turns out that Stane tried to have him killed, it’s an incredibly personal betrayal that cuts deep.
The same is true of Loki, one of the MCU’s most iconic characters.Tom Hiddlestonturned heads as Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) brother in the firstThorfilm, but that storyline set into motion events that made Loki the Big Bad of 2012’sThe Avengers. Finding a formidable foe that brought the Avengers together for the first time was no small task, but the brilliance there was making Loki not only a force to be reckoned with, but a personal one. Through it all, Thor made clear that he didn’t want Loki killed, and Loki’s betrayal once again cut deep because it was so personal. Complexity = drama.
But personal doesn’t always mean friend, and 2017’sSpider-Man: Homecomingmade the genius decision to pegMichael Keaton’s villain Vulture as the father of the girl that Peter Parker (Tom Holland) was dating. Not only did this make things incredibly uncomfortable, but it also tied the villain’s story thematically to the hero’s –Spider-Man: Homecomingis all about Peter struggling to balance his personal life as a high school student and his professional life as a masked superhero. And making the villain the father of his crush put those two worlds on a collision course.
Themostpersonal villain in MCU history thus far, and I’d argue the most successful one, isMichael B. Jordan’s Killmonger inRyan Coogler’s brilliant 2018 filmBlack Panther. With that Best Picture-nominated feature, Coogler was telling a story about what it means to be African-American, and considered the morality of Wakanda – an African nation – keeping its scientific and technological advances secret while Black people around the world suffer injustices.Chadwick Boseman’s character T’Challa has ascended to the throne at the beginning of the story and must decide what the future holds for Wakanda, while Jordan’s Killmonger is revealed to be the Wakandan-born cousin of T’Challa who was left to grow up in America when T’Challa’s father King T’Chaka murdered Killmonger’s father N’Jobu.
The brilliance ofBlack Pantheris that it stops to consider Killmonger’s point of view, and when he confronts T’Challa in Wakanda and challenges his throne, Killmonger is not met with complete opposition from the Wakandan people. He advocates using Wakanda’s resources to ship weapons to African descendants and operatives around the world, instead of maintaining the country’s isolationist stance thus far.
When Killmonger is finally defeated by T’Challa, his final words hit like a punch to the gut:
“Bury me in the ocean, with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage.”
Here Coogler and Jordan bringBlack Pantherto a dramatic, emotional conclusion with a villain’s defeat that’s just as heartbreaking as any hero’s, thanks to its deeply personal nature. Of course it also works incredibly well because it’s so intimately tied to the thematic DNA of the film, which is a testament to Coogler’s storytelling capabilities.
Of course, just because a villain’s connection to the hero is personal doesn’t mean it’s necessarily memorable. TechnicallyThorintroduced us to Loki’s biological father in Laufey (Colm Feore), but the character failed to make a lasting impact. And Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) inAnt-Man and the Wasphas a personal connection to Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) but similarly doesn’t leave a tremendous impact. The story around the villain and hero must also connect in a meaningful way for this to work, and there are certainly notable exceptions. Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) inCaptain America: Civil Warisn’t related to the heroes (yet has a tragic connection) but leaves a tremendous impact on audiences, andHugo Weaving’s Red Skull inCaptain America: The First Avengeris a formidable and compelling foe. And of course there’s also Thanos (Josh Brolin), the biggest bad of them all, who has no specific beef with the Avengers. He’s just really, really passionate about population control.
This is basically a long way of saying not every great MCU villain has a personal connection to the hero, but by and large the best and most memorable baddiesdohave a story that is somewhat intimately tied to the hero’s journey. Getting audiences to emotionally invest in the villain’s storyline has varied in terms of its priority in certain Marvel movies, but as the MCU has become more refined and filmmakers have been allowed to take bigger swings (see:Thor: Ragnarok), the villains are getting more interesting too.
And yet, while we’ve come a long waysinceIron Man, the blueprint was always right there.
