12 MCU Villains That Were Wasted

In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the titular characters encounter the Flagsmashers - a group of terrorists who lost their homes following the fallout of Avengers: Endgame, when half the world's population were brought back to life.

The faction's leader, Karli Morgenthau, makes people feel like they are unappreciated by society to encourage them to join her ranks. Slowly but surely, she uses manipulative rhetoric to encourage her subjects to commit atrocities to further her agenda.

Because Morgenthau functions like a cult leader, you'd assume she would be charming and charismatic, especially if she's urging civilians to perform acts of terrorism. However, Morgenthau is dull and quiet, making one wonder how she managed to become the leader of a resistance group that's supposedly taken the world by storm.

Even though Morgenthau is often depicted as a sympathetic figure, she will suddenly say something like "I'll kill who I have to," making her sound like a by-the-numbers baddie. Even though she was compelling at first, she acts more and more like a supremacist as the series progresses, making her feel derivative and cliched.

Although Morgenthau had all the workings of a memorable villain, she was let down by bad dialogue and an underwhelming performance.