25 Worst MCU Characters Ranked

25. Donny Blaze

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law has given Marvel some of its most unforgivably annoying characters. Donny Blaze, a parody of both magician David Blaine and superhero Johnny Blaze. a.k.a. Ghost Rider, may be one of the MCU's worst creations yet. Not only is the idea of going to a magic show when the MCU has aliens and sorcerers incredibly stupid, but Blaze is sued by Wong because he allegedly "abuses" magic. Wong, my man, what else would you call almost everything Doctor Strange does?—Josh Rosenberg

24. Mr. Immortal

I couldn't care less that the once-leader of the Great Lakes Avengers was slandered by the She-Hulk team into becoming some cowardly grifter. This was just a complete waste of a character entirely. It absolutely baffles me why every case handled in the She-Hulk show is just a poorly-crafted joke that resolves itself by the end of the episode. It's almost a disservice to Jen Walters that we haven't even seen her be a good lawyer yet.—J.R.

23. Thena

All of the Eternals are confusing, but Thena tops the list due to her affliction with some sort of space madness. Named "Mahd Wy'ry," the psychological condition forces one of their greatest warriors to lash out and attack her own. Not even Angelina Jolie could fix this one. More like mad weary.—J.R.

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22. Zeus

What was the joke here with Zeus? Did they think that it would be funny to emasculate the Greek god by putting a fat guy in a skirt? Feels very problematic. I also need the story of how Russell Crowe came up with whatever accent that was. Plus, the whole bit was just in service of showing the audience Chris Hemsworth's bare ass. After Thor has fought Thanos, Loki, Hela, and Gorr the God-Butcher, I'm supposed to be scared of Zeus's son next? Please.—J.R.

21. Kingo

Kingo is one of the most disappointing Eternals. He not only gives up an immortal life as one of Earth's protectors to become a Bollywood celebrity, but there's a scene where he flat-out refuses to help the team fight. Sure, Kingo, we don't need your finger guns anyway!—J.R.

20. (Middle-aged) Groot

Of the three iterations of Groot we see in the MCU, the OG middle-aged Groot is the biggest drag. Sure, this Groot gives up his life to save his frens. But he doesn’t even register on the Baby Yoda Cuteness Scale, like his tiny counterpart, Baby Groot. Nor does he have the endlessly entertaining sass of Teenage Groot. This Groot is just kind of Vin Diesel making weird noises through a microphone.—B.L.

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19. Dr. Maya Hansen

Wow, what a real dummy. Rebecca Hall deserved better when she was cast as Maya Jensen, a Tony Stark one-night-stand whose scientific prowess helped give way to Extremis and Aldrich Killian’s plan to arm super-soldiers to take over the U.S. Not only is her presence in the movie an unnecessary hurtle for Iron Man to cross, but she makes matters worse most of the time. She died a dumb, inconsequential death, too. In short, Iron Man 3 probably couldn’t have skated in under two hours if we had just edited Maya out.—J.K.

18. Thanos

Before you rage: Think about antagonists—if you can even call them that—like Erik Killmonger and John Walker. Those guys have legit reasons to mess with our heroes! A good Marvel villain should have you scratching your head, wondering how evil they actually are. Thanos… is not that kind of villain. His first few cameos feature him grumbling about doing it himself, whatever that means. His Infitnity War and Engdame arcs? Thanos is mostly choking Avengers out and rambling about how inevitable he is. If you find a villain who has a hankering for mass genocide sympathetic, you might have a problem.—B.L.

17. Captain America

This is, understandably, a controversial addition, but hear us out: Captain America is the most boring of the Avengers. It’s just the truth. What has made this 21st century wave of Marvel films so interesting is that, in essence, Marvel is a story about a group of antiheroes who have to earn their goodness and struggle with the ramifications of it. The closest we’ve gotten to that with Cap in the MCU is his own reckoning in Captain America: Civil War, but still, he’s nothing more than a hunky bag of grade-A American meat more likely to say “golly whiz!” than he is to have a moral dilemma. Even his dedication to Bucky is noble at its core. He’s plenty fine for propaganda material, but as a character, he’s flat.—J.K.

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16. Karli Morgenthau

To be fair, our flag-smashing friend Karli Morgenthau might’ve drawn the short end of the stick that was a major rewrite on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s script. But Karli, my friend. Why are you here? Who invited you to this superserum-shooting party? The leader of the Flag-Smashers is a drunken mess of motivations: The government’s against her, she hates Sam Wilson, kind of, and also John Walker, plus she needs some supplies… but they all killed Mama Donya! Yes, Mama Donya. How about Mama Donya? Mama Donya Mama Donya Mama Donya. Mama Donya saved my goddamn life, you know. Probably yours too! Can we get a number on how many times Morgenthau says Mama Donya this season?—B.L.

15. Flash Thompson

Sure, every high school has its glowed-up rich dweeb who thinks they’re funnier than they actually are. It’s life! I don’t blame the Spider-Man writers for making the MCU Flash Thompson (usually a roided-out bully) that guy. I blame them for dialing Flash’s smarminess up to a 13. This bro’s obsession with Spider-Man is more than a little weird. And the quips! The quips. Just… read: “Yo, Parker! This is called an airplane. It's like the buses you're used to, except that it flies over the poor neighborhoods instead of driving through them.” Too bad that, in No Way Home, Flash didn't fall through one of Doctor Strange’s portals and never come back.—B.L.

14. Bill Maher

To be fair Bill Maher only appeared in an Iron Man 3 deleted scene, so that’s why he’s not ranked higher. But he deserves to be on this list if only because a few years after he filmed a scene for a comic book movie, Maher critiqued comic book culture in the wake of Stan Lee’s death: “I don't think it's a huge stretch to suggest that Donald Trump could only get elected in a country that thinks comic books are important.” Awful take, my guy! Maybe he was just bitter they cut his scene?—M.M.

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13. Ultron

What a big, genocidal silly boy. Ultron made a worthy enough villain in the second Avengers movie, and sure, he gave way to Vision, but there’s also a lot of stupid stuff about Ultron that makes him a disappointment. It’s important to remember that this whole Avengers film and the mass death that came from it was all, pretty much, due to shitty oversight from Tony Stark. Perhaps Ultron was necessary to have a conduit to do unspeakable things, but I also feel like we could have streamlined this and put Wanda and Quicksilver in the role of Baddest in Town. At the end of the day, Ultron is a pissed off Alexa who got too big for his vibranium britches.—J.K.

12. Trevor Slattery

Apparently, I’m the only editor at Esquire who doesn’t hate Iron Man 3. It’s a holiday movie! How can you hate a holiday movie? There’s some quietly brilliant commentary on living with PTSD. Tony Stark even makes a little friend who shows up at his funeral in Endgame. Aww. But casting Sir Ben Kingsley as a struggling actor pretending to be the Mandarin—an iconic Marvel villain—was a waste of Sir Ben Kingsley. Someday, Feige will run out of legendary actors to put in his movies. On that day, he will regret casting Kinglsey as a pawn in a meh-feeling plot twist. (No, I don't care all that much about his inexplicable return in Shang-Chi, either.)—B.L.

11. Ronan the Accuser

You know which villains are the worst? The ones with bosses. You can’t take a neon-blue alien like Ronan the Accuser too seriously when he’s cowering and whimpering at Thanos’s feet. Also: Who is Ronan accusing? What is he accusing this person (people) of? Help.—B.L.

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10. Whiplash

At the time, it probably seemed like a good idea. Cast Mickey Rourke—who was smack in the middle of a career resurgence, fresh off an Oscar nomination for The Wrestler—as the villain in the mega-anticipated Iron Man sequel. Something went wrong. Marvel gave him electric whips, too many tattoos, and the vibes of a Spider-Man 3 villain. Add Elon Musk and Bill O’Reilly to that mess, and you have a full-blown dumpster fire. We’ll get to those other two winners soon.—B.L.

9. Tony Stark

Even sacrificing his own life doesn’t redeem Tony Stark for his repeated homophobic jokes, constant womanizing, and just general dickishness. This is the guy who profited off of war, then took part in global destruction to prevent war, then profited off of the reconstruction from his own collateral damage. Why are we idolizing this guy?! Why is he positioned as a hero? Let’s also not forget that he is responsible for directly creating most of the conflicts and/or villains throughout the MCU. Plus, his facial hair is awful.—M.M.

8. Red Skull

I could tell you how uninspiring Captain America: The First Avenger villain Red Skull is. Or I could let Hugo Weaving—who played Red Skull in The First Avenger, but didn’t reprise him for Avengers: Endgame—say it. “I actually found negotiating with [Marvel] through my agent impossible,” Weaving told Time Out of why he didn’t show up in Endgame. “And I didn’t really wanna do it that much. But I would have done it.” Encouraging!—B.L.

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7. Star-Lord

Star-Lord isn't even the best member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. He's just sci-fi Andy Dwyer and every other "Worst Chris" character. But he likes '80s music! Let's not forget that it's also his fault the Avengers lose in Infinity War. —M.M.

6. Malekith

Do you remember what a Malekith is? Neither do we!—M.M.

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