Every Major MCU Villain Ranked Worst To Best

2. Thanos

After a slow start in the MCU, Thanos announced himself in style with Infinity War and made himself the most effective villain this franchise - and indeed any comic book movie - had ever seen.

It helps that the Russos knew they had to make him arrive in style and had him kill both Loki and Heimdall in his very first scene in Infinity War and the decision to focus on him as essentially one of the main characters meant there was no escaping the complexity of his character, which was always going to be his chief selling point.

As the online response to him after Infinity War proved, Thanos' draw was partly down to the perverse, dark charm he held over others (how appropriate then that he had almost religiously devout followers in the Black Order). And yet, as the Russos qualified later, he was still a malignant, malevolent monster with a messiah complex.

When Endgame came around, he was necessarily hamstrung a little, but you have to admire his achievement in pulling off the Decimation first time round. And we can all forgive the decision to make him slightly weaker because it meant we got that Tony Stark moment at the end of things.