7. Alexander Pierce (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
Marvel StudiosHere we go - from this point on, all of the villains are excellent. Robert Redford's World Security Council secretary Alexander Pierce is the man behind HYDRA's takeover of SHIELD and Redford brings gravitas to the role, which in a lesser actor's hands would have been far less believable and much more one-note. Alexander Pierce is Nick Fury's mentor, and in the scenes the characters spend together, the audience can tell that Fury really respects Pierce and that Pierce appears to respect Fury right back. This makes it even more jarring when we discover that Pierce is the one who ordered Fury assassinated by the Winter Soldier, and it really makes us realise how villainous Pierce truly is. The only reason Alexander Pierce doesn't place higher on the list is that he never gets his hands dirty. Although Pierce is a malevolent "overlord" of HYDRA, most other villains on this list actually pose a physical threat to the hero as well; Captain America could make good old Alex a smear on the ground in about one second flat, meaning that his pulling of the strings can only get him as high as #7.