10 Dumbest Decisions Ever Made By MCU Villains

10. Justin Hammer Trusted Ivan Vanko

Justin Hammer wanted to be Tony Stark. There are no two ways about that, he wanted everything that Tony had, from the money to the fame to the women. He had the attitude and the self-confidence (though his was completely unearned), but he lacked just about everything else.

With the government at odds with Stark over the Iron Man “weapon”, Hammer saw an opportunity for his company to slither in and mop up the contracts Stark was losing. This included him kitting out the entirety of the USA’s armed forces.

This was a strong plan, utilising his enemy’s weakness, however for his plan to work he had to put a lot of faith and trust into a man that neither deserved it nor earned it. In Ivan Vanko, Hammer found an ally that was never interested in mutual gains, he just wanted revenge on Stark in a different way.

He forced Hammer to waste his money, he destroyed his presentation at the Stark Expo and any chance he had of getting into the Pentagon, and the crushing irony is that had Hammer just done nothing and bided his time rather than trust Vanko, Stark likely would have imploded all on his own and left Hammer Industries to pick up the pieces.