Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Villain Ranked Worst To Best

2. Red Skull - Captain America: The First Avenger

Plan: To rule the world.

Status: Presumed deceased - at least teleported away somewhere unknown by the Tesseract.

Red Skull is a good old-fashioned comic book villain - like an exaggerated Bond villain, intent on world domination on a scale usually reserved for cartoons. There's something almost 1980s Disney about him, right down to his horrific character design.

He elevates the first Captain America film from an endearing period human piece into a theatrical action romp, never simply being another pantomime Nazi. It helps that his look is so disturbing - thanks to exceptional effects work - and that Hugo Weaving has previous playing delightfully menacing characters.

He works not only because of the monstrosity and the scale of his plans, but also because he is the perfect antithesis of what Captain America could have been. He's the answer to why Erskine wanted a good man as the foundation of his super soldier programme and an abomination who works for the same reasons the other dark mirror characters - Stane, Ultron, Loki - all work.

Hopefully, we'll see him again.