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12 Marvel Villains Too Terrifying For The MCU
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn't been shy of walking on the dark side and exploring creepy characters. In fact, some of the strongest Marvel villains have committed despicable acts that would make other pop culture baddies, such as Darth Vader and Voldemort, blush in embarrassment. Yet, in the comics, there is a rogues' gallery of reprobates that might be too frightening to put on screen. Some of them have faces only a mother could love, while others are just plain harrowing even to consider bringing to the decidedly PG-13 realm of Marvel Studios.
Whether it's a villain without skin or one who lives in another human's stomach, these are the Marvel villains too terrifying to be included in the MCU. Don't forget to vote up the scoundrels that give you the heebie-jeebies!
- 12,159 VOTES
The Thousand
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On their own, spiders are creepy, but wouldn't they be worse if, say, they could climb inside our bodies and take over our meat bags? With this in mind, The Thousand is a Spider-Man villain that is pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel and every arachnophobe's worst fear. After Carl King realizes Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider to become Spider-Man, he decides to eat the itsy-bitsy spider to see if he can luck out and gain powers, too.
That doesn't happen, though. His transformation results in his body turning into a cluster of spiders that he uses to get inside of other people and use their bodies like puppets. Honestly, this makes Frank Marshall's Arachnophobia seem like a walk in the park. Now, forget ever reading about The Thousand, and don't even tempt Kevin Feige to include this frightening character in the MCU.
- 21,591 VOTES
Mr. Smile
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What is it with villains who have permanent smiles? A smile is meant to be something happy and joyful, but thanks to villainous rogues like the Joker, it feels more like an omen of what's to come. Marvel's Mr. Smile is another scoundrel who likes to grin and show off those pearly whites before tearing someone's face off.
That being said, Mr. Smile might be more evil than the Joker, as he's actually a literal demon. This beaming bad guy built himself a “Mallet of Entropy” to use on atomic structures, but it's the sheer amount of teeth in his mouth that will harvest nightmares in every child (and parent).
- 31,384 VOTES
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Armadillos are cute, but Marvel's Freak, AKA Armadillo Man, isn't competing for People's Most Beautiful Person on Earth. Introduced in the Spider-Man comics as a person with substance dependencies, Freak turns into a monstrous mess after injecting himself with animal stem cell fluids from Dr. Curt Connors's lab, believing it was another illegal substance.
As a result, he develops a flesh cocoon chrysalis, essentially making him skinless and completely horrifying to lay eyes on. Not only would Freak's appearance be outside of the usual PG-13 standards for the MCU, but his substance abuse origins are also highly controversial, even for a Marvel villain.
- 41,438 VOTES
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Put simply: the Shadow King is Marvel's version of The Exorcist's demon Pazuzu. It's a disturbing and malevolent entity from the deepest, darkest part of humanity's consciousness that bonds with a telekinetic mutant known as Amahl Farouk.
Naturally, the Shadow King is up to no good, hopping from host to host and using telepathic powers for evil purposes. All of his various forms are creepy as all get out, too. While the Shadow King appeared in the maturely themed Legion television series and even X-Men: The Animated Series in decidedly toned-down appearances, it's unlikely the MCU would want to explore this X-Men supervillain that would be more at home in a cerebral supernatural horror film.
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No, this isn't about the rock band perhaps best remembered for "Come Sail Away." Styx is actually one of David Haller's many personalities, specifically Personality #666. Much like the beastly number of the persona, Styx allows Haller to take hold of the consciousness of anyone he touches, making them putty and malleable in his hands.
Oh, but that isn't the most terrifying aspect of Styx, though. This personality manages to split itself from Haller and find a home in a reanimated corpse, which it then uses to try and control Haller while figuring out a way to take over the world. And those teeth…
- 61,034 VOTES
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Imagine this for a second… what if there was a supervillain who has a healing factor to rival Wolverine's and the power to drive everyone who looks into his eyes to the brink of insanity for a short period of time. Well, he exists. That's Madcap in a nutshell, but that's not even the most horrifying version of this villain.
In the Deadpool comics of the late-2010s, Madcap is reincarnated and bonded to Bob, Agent of Hydra's stomach in an extremely gross way. As a result, Madcap controls Bob and makes the down-on-his-luck lackey do his dirty work. Now, doesn't that sound an awful lot like Gabriel from James Wan's Malignant? Not exactly family-friendly entertainment.
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- 71,096 VOTES
The Brood
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Look, let's not beat around the bush here: The Brood are Marvel Comics' version of the Xenomorphs. Not only is their visual design clearly inspired by H.R. Giger's work on Alien, but the sole purpose of these insectoids is to spread their seed in hosts, ensuring the Brood never stops growing! Remind you of anyone?
As a common enemy of the X-Men, these brutal and remorseless creatures have featured in several big storylines over the years. However, their similarity and resemblance to the Xenomorphs all but guarantee they'll never appear in the MCU. Although… Disney does own both Marvel Studios and the rights to the Alien franchise now. If not the true Xenomorphs, could you imagine one of these critters crawling into Thor's body and respawning there?
- 8902 VOTES
Skinless Man
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Leatherface loves nothing more than to wear other people's skin on his face. Against all odds, Harry Pizer doesn't have that particular penchant in common with the chainsaw-loving basement dweller. After losing all his skin, Pizer honestly looks more like poor Frank Cotton from Hellraiser.
Skinless Man is a mutant who used to have elastic skin - which is absolutely no use to him after he had his skin peeled off his body as punishment for all the people he butchered. Fortunately, he teaches his muscles how to expand, which effectively makes him like a skinless version of Mr. Fantastic. Lovely. He sounds like the perfect inclusion for any family-friendly Disney+ Marvel show, right?
- 9903 VOTES
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Most people are familiar with Emil Blonsky's Abomination. In fact, the character even comes across as humorous in the She-Hulk: Attorney at Law series. However, Reginald Fortean's version of Abomination might be too stomach-churning and hideous to ever showcase on screen. That's how gross this villain from The Immortal Hulk is.
So, what's the story behind this version of Abomination? Fortean retrieves Gamma-Activated Tissue that was taken from the corpse of the original Abomination. However, he decides to make contact with it, eventually becoming encased in an Abomination-like shell. The worst part about Fortean's monstrous visage just might be the eight-fingered-hand-crown that sits atop/around his head.
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- 10797 VOTES
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For many fans, Arcade is seen as the Marvel villain equivalent of the Riddler. However, he's more like Jigsaw from Saw than good ol' Edward Nygma. He might look inconspicuous and non-threatening on the surface, but underneath the smiling façade is a stone-cold hitman who designs diabolical, deadly traps to eliminate heroes.
Calculated and devious, Arcade's entire existence revolves around blood and mayhem. It's almost impossible for him to be an antagonist in the MCU (unless there's an R-rated film on the agenda) since his playground is called “Murderworld” and its intention is exactly what the name suggests. People certainly aren't playing Monopoly or Pictionary there.
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- 11844 VOTES
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Green Goblin. Hobgoblin. Demogoblin. If someone is a goblin, chances are high that the Spider-Man rogues' gallery will have a spot for them. In the case of Demogoblin, though, the character might be too much on the dark and frightening side to ever find a place in the MCU.
The origin of Demogoblin starts with Jason Macendale Jr., one of the people who have used the Hobgoblin moniker. Feeling as if he wasn't strong enough, Macendale follows a group of demons and offers his soul to their leader, N'astirh, in exchange for all the power to defeat his enemies. N'astirh didn't accept his proposal but let a demon possess him for the giggles, therefore, creating the Demogoblin.
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- 12691 VOTES
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There have been several individuals who have utilized the Carrion name in Marvel Comics. No matter the incarnation of the villain, his powers are wild enough to make anyone reach for a hazard suit. Basically, Carrion is a walking plague, and if he touches somebody, they'll decay quicker than a banana on a hot summer's day.
While the MCU has included thugs such as Thanos, who snap people out of existence, it's tough to think the shared universe is ready for a Marvel villain that withers enemies with one touch. It borders on the extremely visceral side of villainy. And after the worldwide tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic, it doesn't seem to be in the MCU's best interest to bring an illness-related character to the big screen.
