10 Potentially Great Marvel Movie Villains (That Were Grossly Underused)

It's practically a staple view of MCU films that most of their villains range from okay to bad, with only a handful really standing out as truly great. Because of this, the idea that Marvel has more bad villains than it does good has become more prevalent than the reality: Marvel has more good villains than bad, but most of them just didn't get the screen-time or love they deserved.

These are the villains that had tons of potential to be truly great, but failed not because they were plain awful, but because they had to play second fiddle to a threat much bigger than them, or were simply not given the time to shine or build on their already interesting backstories and motivations. These are the bad guys who were wasted with some bad or lacking writing, despite having some of the best and most interesting groundwork laid out for them, and backgrounds that varied wildly from their villainous peers.

Villains that, if framed differently, if given just one more scene to express the emotion and nuance seen in great villains like Loki and Killmonger, instead of being given an over-long fight scene and a big science, magic, or magic-is-science-we-don't-understand-yet super-gun to shoot lasers into the sky, could have changed the landscape of an entire film or franchise.

Though often ranking lowest on most Marvel villain lists, Malekith and Algrim from Thor: The Dark World had a lot going for them, design and backstory-wise, making their wasted potential all the more egregious.

In what little time audiences got to spend with the Dark Elves, Algrim's loyalty and Malekith's heartfelt appreciation of his sacrifice (rather than the cold entitlement of an uncaring leader) added some much-needed humanity and emotional depth to their inexpressive, prosthesis-laden features. If more screentime had been dedicated to their history and Malekith's devotion to making his people a home, as well as his war with Asgard and other realms, instead of Thor and Jane's inevitably failed relationship, fans could have gotten a more nuanced and interesting villain and right hand, instead of a one-note world-ender and slightly more interesting grunt.

What little of the Dark Elves audiences saw hinted at a much bigger, more interesting plot than Dark World cared about showing, with the kind of fantasy-film potential seen in films like Lord of the Rings. Despite the lacking final product, the Dark Elves are one of the most visually stunning races in the MCU, and deserve more depth to match their evocative creative design.