Villains Marvel Isn't Taking Advantage Of

As rich and weird as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, the company's comics universe had a head start of several decades, and the MCU hasn't even really scratched the surface of the amazing stories the company's told on the printed page — and that goes at least double for the bad guys who've made their way to the movies. For every Thanos and Ultron we've been given on the big screen, there are a dozen equally exceptional villains that have either never made it to the MCU — or even worse, have made pitiful appearances in films we don't really talk about. Which Marvel bad guys aren't being used to their full big-screen potential? To give you an idea of who's still waiting in the wings, we've rounded up a truly despicable rogues' gallery to offer an in-depth look at some of the greatest villains Marvel isn't taking advantage of.

Arguably the dopiest Marvel villain of all, MODOK is a giant head in a floating chair, with some moderately useful arms and a pair of vestigial legs. However, what he lacks in body, he more than makes up for in brains: he's a genius of the highest caliber who can even unleash crippling mental attacks on his enemies.

He made his first appearance fighting Captain America in 1967, and he's grappled with countless Marvel heroes since then... but he just may be too ridiculous to appear on the big screen. Still, he's one of the Avengers' most formidable foes. And with a Captain Marvel film on the horizon, MODOK and his evil organization, AIM, may yet make an appearance. After all, the brainiac has a mega-crush on the superheroine.

Comics are lousy with snake-themed villains, but Constrictor is probably the best of the nest. SHIELD agent Frank Payne is sent to infiltrate a criminal organization as the electric-reptile-themed bad guy, but loses his mind once inside and turns to villainy for real. After years of battling Avengers, Constrictor again returns to the side of good, giving his story a solid arc of betrayal and redemption.

Since Agents of SHIELD isn't shy about using offbeat, low-ranking heroes like Yo-Yo, the introduction of Payne to the world of the MCU doesn't seem impossible, or even unlikely. Especially since Agents of SHIELD has more twists than a pit of vipers.

Technically part of the Thor universe, and therefore available to the MCU, Ego the Living Planet would make an incredible presence on the big screen. He's pretty much exactly what he sounds like: a giant planet who can talk and mess stuff up on a cosmic level. Early rumors for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 mentioned Ego as a possible player, and there would be no better place for the ominous orb than that weird corner of Marvel's movies.

And even in the event that Ego falls under the Fantastic Four license owned by Fox (the team has tangled with Ego before), it really can't be long before the studio drops the ticking time bomb that is comics' first family and returns them to Marvel central. That's a dry well, guys.

Marvel has already introduced the blue-skinned Kree into their universe, both as juicy alien corpses on TV and as technologically advanced aliens in Guardians of the Galaxy. But every Marvel nerd knows that you can't have the Kree without their arch-enemies, the green-skinned, bumpy-chinned shape-shifter aliens known as the Skrull. To date, we've only seen a hint of Skrull stuff, during Rise of the Silver Surfer when Johnny Storm absorbed all of the Four's powers and took on Doctor Doom.

The Skrull are a pretty vital part of the Marvel Universe, especially after their colossally upsetting role in Secret Invasion. We won't spoil it for you, but everything you know may be wrong.

He's the most powerful dude in the universe... but he usually just wants to be left alone. Owen Reece, a.k.a. Molecule Man, can manipulate matter and energy with his mind, which means he can do just about anything: teleport, make unbreakable barriers, fly, or just kill you with a thought. He's so powerful that if he dies in any Marvel Universe, he'll take that entire universe with him. Fortunately for reality as we know it, bodies are just more molecules that he can manipulate.

So forget about Thanos. Here's a guy who doesn't even need Infinity Gems to reconstruct everything in this or any reality. He's the ultimate threat... if only he could get his head on straight. Is he too powerful for the MCU? Who cares—this character is sci-fi at its best, which would be refreshing after a movie season all about heroes crying about how hard their lives are.

Marvel is making big money off films about the darkness inside our favorite heroes. Ant-Man is an ex-criminal, Hulk is a green mountain of rage, and Iron Man... well, he's probably just a world-class ass. It wasn't until relatively recently that the hero the Sentry was introduced to the Marvel Universe, via a retcon that made him one of Marvel's greatest heroes from the start—even if every other hero, and reader, had totally forgotten about him.

But within this Superman-class golden god lurked the Void, a deeply malevolent darkness that threatened to consume everything and everyone. There are a lot of competing evils in Marvel, but the Void is probably the absolute worst. It may be a biblical evil, it can take down Thor without a problem, and it may actually be Death itself. The Avengers vs. Death... how awesome would that be?

Unlike the other villains on this list, the Leader has actually appeared in a Marvel film before, although he was promptly forgotten. In The Incredible Hulk, Tim Blake Nelson played Sam Sterns, the scientist responsible for turning Emil Blonsky into Abomination. We even see Sterns begin to transform into the huge-headed bad guy during an accident, foreshadowing some brain-based troubles in Hulk's future.

Following his Incredible Hulk introduction, we haven't seen Sterns since. Almost everyone in the Avengers has a pretty awesome villain to themselves except the green giant, and with Hulk's eventual return to the MCU after a prolonged absence, the Leader would be the perfect baddie to summon him back.

What better villain for the Avengers than the Avengers...but evil? While we may not want to see the team battling yet another android villain, it's disappointing that Marvel isn't taking advantage of Super Adaptoid. As a villain who can mimic any superpower, he's pretty much the ultimate hero test. We can even drop the android part of his comics origin when we bring him to the big screen, along with the all-green collage of weird hero parts that make up the original.

Adaptoid once got a sentient Cosmic Cube to come to Earth, just so he could copy its insane powers, so it's not hard to imagine what he would be able to do with a fully-assembled Infinity Gauntlet. And since Super Adaptoid was created by AIM, just like MODOK, putting either character in the MCU opens up the possibility for one of the greatest super-villain team-ups ever. HYDRA is getting a little stale, after all. Time to bring in some new bad guys with acronyms.