Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Villain Ranked Worst To Best

5. The Winter Soldier - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Plan: Whatever his HYDRA handlers bid him do.

Status: Currently decommissioned and on ice in Wakanda, recovering his mind.

The best villains tend to have some personal link to the heroes, in order to heavily push the horror of seeing someone they love turned to evil. That's why Hollywood goes with the unexpected heel-turn trope at an alarmingly frequent rate.

In The Winter Soldier, Bucky's transformation into HYDRA's ultimate killing machine is as emotionally brutal as it is horribly effective, and the arc it kicks off completely changes the morality of the MCU. Just imagine the tragedy of Steve Rogers being trapped outside of his own time, seemingly isolated from all of his former friends through death, only to discover that his best friend survived, but is fighting on the other side... It's a glorious story.

He segues from moral ambiguity - when his former self bubbles to the surface - to cold-blooded, archetypal villainy with far less dimensions, which completely sold the disparity between Cap's feelings for him and the public perception of him as an irredeemable killer. And their existing relationship gives the fight scenes between the two old friends a mighty injection of heft too.