5 Inherent Problems That Explain Why Every Marvel Villain Is Boring

3. There's No In-Built Iconography (Which Makes Them Only More One-Dimensional)

The problem Marvel has with villains is only accentuated by the fact that the comics are practically bursting with iconic baddies. Magneto, Dr. Doom, Green Goblin, Galactus, Venom - they're distinctly menacing creations that put the nefarious denizens of the MCU to shame.

Of course, those are all owned by different movie studios. In fact, pretty much every one of Marvel Comics' iconic supervillains originated in the likes of X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, meaning they can't (or in the case of the latter, couldn't until recently) appear in the shared Marvel universe.

There are some interesting villains that Marvel does have the rights to - Loki, Red Skull, Thanos - but it's a much thinner base; once you start mining obscure characters you get noticeably more obscure villains. Malekith? Ronan? Abomination? They're unknowns, with no real mainstream definition. From an adaptation standpoint not having to adhere to pre-existing ideas is freeing (even if it does lead to character's convenienced into the narrative), but it means that the brief time they are afforded in the films is spent simply setting them up on a base level, rather than going deeper into what makes them tick.

This is something DC have found a rather smart way around, bringing together several lesser known baddies together in Suicide Squad, although even there you have the more recognisable Joker and Harley Quinn (as well as Deadshot, played by Will Smith) leading the roster.