Top 20 Worst Supervillain Introductions

“Thor: The Dark World” (2013)
This “Thor” movie is widely considered one of the worst in the MCU, and unfortunately, Christopher Eccleston’s Malekith is a big part of it. In the comics, Malekith is a charismatic and fiendish villain, but you wouldn’t know that if you only watched this film’s opening scene. The exposition-heavy and colorless battle doesn’t translate his charm from the comics to the screen. The evil elf’s dull introduction ultimately paints a poor picture of a generic bad guy with little interesting powers and little personality. Sadly, the rest of the movie isn’t any better.

“Suicide Squad” (2016)
When Amanda Waller pitches her Suicide Squad initiative over dinner, audiences get debriefed on just who June Moone and her supernatural other half called the “Enchantress” are. Nothing spells spooky quite like wacky title cards and monotonous voice over. Seeing the archaeologist meet and get possessed by a powerful demon sounds really cool. But the problem is that by burying everything in tedious amounts of Waller’s narration, they just tell way more than show. While they later set her up as the movie’s big bad, both the giant info-dump at the start and the pointless romance with Rick Flag really kill all of the hype.

“Hulk” (2003)
When Bruce Banner’s dad David is revealed to be this film’s version of the Absorbing Man, it’s a surprise just to say the least. The scene when he supercharges himself into his new dangerous form and fights his own son is admittedly cool but also super chaotic. In terms of an adaptation it’s just not quite what we were expecting. The Absorbing Man from the comics is hardly someone with a legion of passionate fans. But the radical departure from the source material is a surprising creative choice regardless. Absorbing Man’s a cool villain, but making this iteration be the Hulk’s psychotic electrical wire-eating father was something we had trouble absorbing.

“Doctor Strange” (2016)
Facing down a gigantic transdimensional being should be scarier than this! Admirers of Doctor Strange were probably excited to see one of his most notorious baddies on the big screen. What they got, though, was a brief cameo that barely tapped into the diety’s potential. In order to save Earth, Strange confronts Dormammu in the Dark Dimension, using the Eye of Agamotto to trap both beings in a time loop. Strange then repeats his bargaining and death with no end in sight, wearing down on Dormammu’s sanity. In the source material, Dormammu is an ancient all-powerful force that exists beyond the full comprehension of our universe, but here he’s apparently defeated by simple irritation. Can we use a time loop on this one, please?

“Venom” (2018)
Serial killers are known to be eccentric, and Cletus Kasady is no exception, but his truly odd grand debut in the mid-credits for “Venom” was kind of a comedic trainwreck. Seriously, what is this? It’s like a minute or two of Woody Harrelson trying to be meta about the whole sadistic killer trope thing, but he’s rocking such a horrible wig that it’s kind of distracting. It gets laughably bad later when Kasady says a clunky line of dialogue that’s meant to set up the sequel. We get it’s hard to be overly critical of just a short mid-credits scene but this introduction just looks like it borders on parody.

“Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (2023)
It’s no secret that M.O.D.O.K. is a comic-relief character, but beyond the goofy design is a fun villain who fans have long adored. So essentially ignoring all of his backstory to make him actually just a deformed Darren Cross who got stuck in the Quantum Realm was a huge fumble. It also doesn’t help that the CGI of him is utterly horrendous. Sure, M.O.D.O.K. is an odd-looking character, but when did bootleg Mr. Electric suddenly find his way into the MCU? Given how much of a joke this genuinely fun supervillain became it’s no wonder “Quantumania” sucks.

“Iron Man 3” (2013)
When fans caught wind that the Mandarin would be introduced in the MCU’s final “Iron Man” movie, they were eager to see Ben Kingsley’s portrayal. He was everything they could’ve wanted: stoic, menacing, and downright heinous. But then came the reveal that the guy who we thought was the Mandarin was actually just a paid actor. The bumbling idiot Trevor Slattery wasn’t really a character who needed to be introduced. His whole purpose was essentially to trick the audience as comic relief. Even if you liked the twist (and some did) it robbed us of any interaction between Iron Man and the real Mandarin. Not being able to actually explore the dynamic between Tony Stark and his greatest enemy from the comics just feels criminal.

“Green Lantern” (2011)
After several individuals stumble onto a planet imprisoning Parallax, the nefarious entity is awakened. And after killing the aliens, he’s set free. To the scene’s credit, it establishes Parallax as a threat. But any tension goes away once you get a better look at the villain. He’s like a disproportionate head that morphs into a cloud for the rest of the movie. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest idea to use Parallax as the main villain for this critically-panned film. Even if they went completely comic-accurate, they’d be adapting a giant yellow space bug instead. Needless to say, they probably could’ve used better designs rather than introduce a giant floating head.

“Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022)
“Love and Thunder '' character-assassinated Gorr pretty much right from the jump. As he and his daughter trek across a barren landscape in search of food and water, she tragically dies. Thanks to the acting caliber of Christian Bale, he’s able to expertly convey Gorr’s pain. However, it falls flat when he finds an oasis shortly after and is treated like a punching bag by the god Rapu. Throughout the rest of the movie he hardly slays any other major gods and ends up another disposable character by the end. For somebody who butchers gods, Gorr would ironically be the villain who was butchered the most in this movie.

“Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” (2007)
Speaking of ominous clouds, Galactus turned out to be nothing but a huge dud in “Rise of the Silver Surfer”. If you were expecting to see a forty foot tall behemoth of a man chomping away at planet Earth, we’ve got news for you. Instead of anything resembling the Devourer of Worlds, we got a giant sentient smoke cloud. The visually stunning Marvel character was reduced to nothing more than a dark and gloomy weather anomaly. You know, at least Parallax had a face, Galactus had virtually no discernible features. And this lack of a significant presence made his live-action introduction a serious bummer.

“X-Men: First Class” (2011)
Emma Frost is a powerful mutant that can read minds, cast illusions and turn into a diamond form. Unfortunately, she lacks the power to care about anything. When Frost encounters Colonel Hendry at the Hellfire club, she barely shows emotion and speaks in a monotone way. Even when both Shaw and Hendry talk about a potential nuclear war, she looks completely disinterested. With Frost’s insane range of powers, she could easily command the room. But instead, she just takes orders and looks bored. Frost is a glorified henchman rather than her own independent character. And January Jones’ performance leaves us cold.

“Ghost Rider” (2007)
In “Ghost Rider”, a demon named Blackheart arrives on earth to find a cursed contract that would grant him supreme power. However, he looks like the frontman of a ‘90’s emo band rather than a powerful being of darkness. After he murders a bar full of people for no reason at all, his dad Mephistopheles shows up and tells him not to pursue the contract. Blackheart responds by trying to act tough before whining to his dad. He acts like a teenager going through an angry goth phase. And honestly, Nicolas Cage’s transformation sequence into Ghost Rider is scarier than this whiny demon.

“Daredevil” (2003)
This one really missed the mark. When crime boss Wilson Fisk needs to kill a businessman, he hires the accurate Bullseye. We then cut to the assassin showing off his insane accuracy by hustling a random guy at darts. After the same patron insults Bullseye, the assassin kills the unlucky man with sharpened paper clips. And did we mention that the assassin only communicates in grunts throughout the entire scene? We can only guess that Colin Farrell’s interpretation of Bullseye is supposed to be unhinged, but instead it comes off as childish. His cartoonish actions are completely out of place with the darker tone of the movie.

“Suicide Squad” (2016)
Our first extended introduction to the Joker takes place at a nightclub where a gangster tries to praise the clown but is ignored. When the generic gangster compliments Jokers girlfriend Harley Quinn, the clown prince of crime randomly offers her to him as a “gift”. When the gangster rejects that offer, the clown makes playful threats all before shooting him dead. We get that Joker is supposed to be manic, but his constant mood swings gave us whiplash. Leto tries to embody several versions of the clown but doesn’t actually settle on any one defined personality. As a result, it feels like there’s no actual method underneath the onscreen madness.

“Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” (1987)
If you’re going to take down Superman, you’ll need a powerful villain. Nuclear Man certainly fit the bill. Created when Luthor combined Superman’s DNA with a nuclear explosion, this ripped villain looked frightening and seemed pretty formidable. And then he spoke. For reasons that are never adequately explained, Nuclear Man introduces himself with Lex Luthor’s voice. To make matters worse, it’s revealed that the villain is completely powerless when he’s not in direct sunlight. In theory, Superman could just defeat him in the shade. With bizarre character traits like these, is it any wonder why Nuclear Man was never introduced again?

“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (2014)
At the beginning of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”, the webhead faces off against Paul Giamatti’s overdone Russian accent, ahem, we mean the Rhino. The Rhino recklessly hijacks a truck of radioactive canisters all the while Spidey and two gangsters desperately try not to drop any of the canisters. When he faces Spider-man, it’s clear within seconds that Rhino doesn’t stand a chance. In fact, he’s so non-threatening that Spidey has time to take a phone call. Considering that he’s in the movie for less than ten minutes, this idiotic villain could’ve been left on the editing room floor.

“Batman & Robin” (1997)
We could’ve picked any villain introduction from “Batman & Robin” for this list. For example, Poison Ivy’s origin was both badly explained and extremely campy. But as terrible as her intro was, Mr. Freeze’s entrance was another level of awful. Freeze needs to steal a diamond to power the cold suit that keeps him alive. For some reason, he also feels the need to speak entirely in ice puns. And despite being smart enough to build a cold gun and suit, he fails to kill Batman, even when the hero is literally immobile. Freeze may look cool, pun intended, but underneath his icy exterior, there’s not a capable villain to be found.

“Spider-Man 3” (2007)
Supervillains can have tragic backstories that make audiences sympathetic–or they can be like photographer Eddie Brock. After Peter Parker exposes Eddie for photoshopping a picture of Spider-Man, Brock loses his job and girlfriend. We later see Brock at a church asking God to kill Parker. In an unbelievable coincidence, he encounters an alien parasite made from Spider-Man’s suit and becomes Venom. The CGI is pretty decent, but when it’s peeled back, Topher Grace’s performance fails to intimidate. In addition, Brock’s motives for revenge are extremely petty and mostly his fault. “Spider-Man 3” already had two compelling villains. The underwhelming Venom proves that three’s a crowd.

“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016)
Lex Luthor is usually conveyed as a cold and imposing genius who is a master of complex schemes. In this iteration however he is introduced as a brainy millennial that likes pickup basketball. In his opening scene, Luthor tries to manipulate government officials into giving him access to alien materials. But his eccentric mannerisms and speech patterns are extremely distracting throughout his pitch. When Luthor gets his way and wants to show dominance, he uses a jolly rancher of all things. Eisenberg’s manic intelligence could’ve made for an interesting Riddler or Joker, but he feels way too quirky to be Lex Luthor.

“Fantastic Four” (2015)
When a group of friends use a teleporter to travel to an alternate dimension called “Planet Zero”, the intelligent and driven Victor Von Doom fails to make it back to earth. A year later, scientists find him alive. Doom's new appearance looks a lot rougher than his 2005 movie counterpart and his motivations are also a major letdown, as he wants to destroy the earth to prevent scientists from visiting “Planet Zero”. Ignoring the fact that he could just destroy the teleporter, his plan is so generic that it comes packaged with the clichéd superhero movie sky beam. Doom’s transformation ultimately strips away most of his personality, intelligence and any hope that he’d be a memorable villain.