Breakout Villain / Marvel Universe

Marvel Universe

Breakout Villain in in this franchise.

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Comic Books

Comic Books

• Daredevil: Bullseye. DD had a fairly extensive Rogues' Gallery, but it was considered a pretty poor one. Then Bullseye, the assassin who never misses debuted in issue #131, 12 years after DD himself appeared, and the great rivalry was on.
• Fantastic Four:
  • Doctor Doom is this to the Fantastic Four; appearing in their fifth issue, he took over their second annual, getting a Death by Origin Story background for him and his parents, and has since then had his own book, own team-up series, and antagonized most of the Marvel verse by power-hoarding MacGuffins and being The Chessmaster Magnificent Bastard with Powered Armor. Lampshaded in Doom's third appearance: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby spend some time discussing how good of a villain Doom wound up unexpectedly being and lament killing him off so fast. Doom promptly storms in, very much alive, and berates them for doing the same.
  • You may find it hard to believe, but Galactus, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby during the early run of the Fantastic Four, was never meant to be a major villain in the Marvel Verse and was intended to simply be another world-ending threat for the Four to defeat. However, not only did he become one of Marvel's most powerful figures (and in fact he's often depicted as the greatest threat to the Marvel Universe), but his popularity soared beyond anything Stan Lee or Jack Kirby ever imagined, so his history was heavily expanded upon and he grew to be on par with Thanos and Doctor Doom, ranking just behind the latter as Marvel's most iconic villain period.
• Ghost Rider: Mephisto arguably counts as this. While there's a considerable roster of demonic characters (includng Dormammu, who may be more iconic than him), ask most Marvel fans who their favorite demon in the Marvel-verse is (or even just name a demon from the comics) chances are they'll say his name. It's not really surprising, as he's been depicted as an Ancient Evil and has been woven into many big storylines, coming into conflict with Ghost Rider, Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom, Black Panther, Doctor Strange and even Spider-Man. He's also been one of the only demonic entities in Marvel (besides Dormammu) to cross over into other media.
• Iron Man: Early in his professional career, comic book writer/artist Jim Starlin was offered to pencil and co-write an issue of Iron Man. Starlin didn't think his career would last very long, so he took the chance to introduce a couple of new characters for his one-off issue. One of those characters was the issue's villain, Thanos. Starlin would go on to write many more comic books, and Thanos would become one of the Biggest Bads in the Marvel Universe.
• The Mighty Thor: Gorr the God Butcher of Thor: God of Thunder (2012) certainly qualifies. He was only meant to be a Arc Villain and gets killed off by the end of the run and even the concept of his Rage Against the Heavens character had been done before with Desak the God Slayer. Yet Gorr’s good writing, unique design, sympathetic backstory and Villain Has a Point nature boosted his popularity immensely with him joining Loki, Absorbing Man and Hela as the most popular villains of the God of Thunder. Not only did he get resurrected for a time, but also managed to make the jump to live action being the Big Bad of the fourth MCU Thor film, which (aside from the Black Order) is largely unheard of for a villain created in the 2010s.
• Spider-Man:
  • The Green Goblin was originally a fairly average villain, with possibly the only thing which made him stand out being the fact that his identity wasn't revealed and he kept escaping. Then he found out Spider-Man's identity... then he killed Gwen Stacy. He's also an unusual case in that he was dead for quite a long time by comic book standards, but after he was brought back he tends to have some hand in almost every major plot against Spider-Man. Thanks to Dark Avengers he’s reached the level of Doctor Doom and Thanos when it comes to antagonising the greater MU, not just his Arch-Enemy Spidey. His film portrayal (see below) also greatly helped boost him well into cultural zeitgeist to the extent it’s not hard to find people who consider him the Alternate Company Equivalent to the Joker.
  • As a result of Venom's success ruining his original plans, Michelinie created Carnage in order to serve as a fully evil symbiote villain in their place that he could kill off. Once again, his plans were foiled when his debut issues quickly sold out despite lack of marketing and the character went on to become extremely popular, rivaling even Venom's fame and prompting Marvel to follow the story up with a 14-issue crossover event centered on him.
  • Mysterio was just initially a minor gimmick villain introduced and defeated in the same issue. However, he quickly struck accord with readers, owing to his striking design and potent gimmick, and as a result started getting more and more appearances. Soon he started appearing in other comics such as Daredevil and then he made a particularly memorable and chillingly appearance in Old Man Logan the latter of which increased his notoriety among Marvel’s villains even further. After appearing in numerous cartoons and games (being the Big Bad of both Spider-Man: Friend or Foe and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions) he finally got a cinematic debut in the MCU and proved to be one of the most well-liked villains.
  • The Shocker was yet another gimmick villain who was only a threat to Spidey when he had a broken arm and was dispatched in the same issue he appeared in. Yet his C-Lister Boisterous Weakling Memetic Loser status has actually endeared him to many, especially since he’s had numerous appearances in cartoons and especially games where’s often the Starter Villain.
  • J Michael Straczynski's run has Morlun - he was an antagonist only in the first JMS story, but was the only one to be brought back, usually as a part of a big event, as his mere presence shows things are getting serious.
  • Spidey's Brand New Day era of comics introduced a large slew of forgettable C and D-list villains, but one of them - Martin Li, otherwise known as Mister Negative - had enough staying power to be a consistently recurring foe since, owing to his interesting design and concept. He even got to star as one of the main villains in the high-profile PS4 Spider-Man game, with the producers at Insomniac studios citing that Mr. Negative is a villain that really emphasizes what Spidey's life is about: His civilian and vigilante life colliding when he really doesn't want it to.
• Ultimate Marvel: While the Ultimate Universe would never really fully recover from its Seasonal Rot, and would for all intents and purposes end in 2015, there were a number of Canon Immigrants. While Miles Morales was transplanted and remains popular, especially due to his presence in media outside of comics, within Marvel's comics themselves, a character who has had more and more appearances is The Maker, the evil Fallen Hero version of Reed Richards. Ultimate Fantastic Four is the least talked about comic from the Ultimate line, but its former protagonist has gained newfound popularity as not only a foil to Reed Richards but also as a Mad Scientist supervillain in his own right.
• X-Men:
  • Magneto, as created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, was just one of many villains facing the X-Men. He wasn't even their most frequent foe. Magneto actually spent a lot of time during his early years teaming up with Doctor Doom, The Submariner, and others as co-villains. It wasn't until Chris Claremont reimagined the X-Men that he became the former friend of Xavier who went separate ways due to philosophical differences. This is when Magneto became the antithesis of Xavier's dream of mutants existing in peace with humans.^note Today many fans will liken Xavier and Magneto to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, but this didn't happen until the 80s when mutants became an explicit stand-in for minorities
  • The Juggernaut, while treated as a big deal within his debut, being Xavier’s evil stepbrother, still wasn’t supposed to have much staying power or be anything other than a brute villain of the X-Men. Yet his sheer unstoppable Love to Hate big red meathead bully character quickly won him over to Marvel readers to extent he appeared in Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Avengers, Hulk and Thor comics. Then there’s Juggernaut appearances in the cartoons Marvel vs. Capcom games and internet memes (mostly famously My Way Entertainment’s videos) all of which cemented Juggernaut into the mainstream as one of the most iconic Marvel villains.
  • Deadpool, the Merc with the Mouth, one of Marvel's most popular characters, with his movie franchise being even more successful than the X-Men themselves. With his massive following, merchandise, sales and surrounding culture, it might be hard to believe that when he was introduced, he was not the famous Anti-Hero we know him for, but rather a villain. Furthermore, Rob Liefeld created him as nothing more than a Captain Ersatz of Deathstroke, being a run of the mill Gun And Sword-wielding Super-Soldier mercenary who tangled with the New Mutants and had practically none of the personality we know him for now. It was when other writers like Joe Kelly began diversifying his characterization that he became as popular as he is today. Back then, no one could've expected how popular Deadpool would've ended up being, considering he's now bigger than all the New Mutants put together. Even Cable himself, who was intended from the start to be a big deal to the X-Men franchise and ended up as an even bigger deal than Liefeld ever imagined, ultimately got eclipsed by Deadpool's popularity. The 2004 Cable & Deadpool series started out with Cable as the lead character and Deadpool as his sidekick, but by 2008 it was Deadpool who was the undisputed main character, and the book was cancelled in favor of a new Deadpool solo book.

Films

Films

• Spider-Man Trilogy: The Green Goblin as played by Willem Dafoe is most assuredly this. Despite dying at the end of the film, his presence and performance was so iconic he made multiple appearances across the trilogy through hallucinations from his son Harry. There’s was plans to bring to him back for the cancelled Spider-Man 4, but he still managed to return in all his glory in Spider-Man: No Way Home (essentially immigrating into the MCU) and stole limelight away from the rest of the villains (something Doc Ock and Electro actors Alfred Molina and Jamie Foxx touted and accepted themselves). There’s more than a few fans who outright consider him the best cinematic Marvel villain rivalled only by Thanos or Loki.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Loki Odinson / Laufeyson played by Tom Hiddleston has exploded in popularity as the villain in both Thor and The Avengers, becoming probably the most popular character in the universe after Tony Stark. In a poll published by USA Today on March 28, 2018, Loki was voted as the most popular MCU character.
  • Much later, Avengers: Infinity War had Thanos come along and steal the show. It's pretty much his movie with the Avengers themselves reacting to his plans, and the story focusing on his journey to achieving his goal. He's now widely considered to be one of, if not the best MCU villain.
  • Nebula, Gamora's antagonistic sister from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), started out mostly as an obstacle for the team to overcome who overall wasn't very important story wise. However, her complex circumstances and the performance by her actress lead her to have increasingly larger roles until she has one of the biggest primary arcs in Avengers: Endgame over characters who are full-on Avengers.

Live-Action TV

Live-Action TV

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
  • Raina was originally intended to be a minor villain, but the writers and fans found the character so entertaining that she was given a greatly expanded role in the plot, until pulling off a memorable Redemption Equals Death.
  • Grant Ward is an unusual case in that he was on the show as a regular from the pilot, but ostensibly as one of the heroes. Then around two-thirds of the way through the first season, it's suddenly revealed that he was a member of HYDRA and The Mole on Coulson's team. By Word of God, the point of the character was to add weight to the reveal HYDRA had taken over S.H.I.E.L.D. by having a close and personal betrayal amongst the main cast, there were no long-term plans for the character and as originally scripted he would have died in the season 1 finale. However, after seeing the impact the twist had on the show, the character's newfound popularity, and Brett Dalton's Creepy Awesome portrayal of Ward post-turn, they decided to keep him around as a recurring antagonist for season 2. Eventually he was killed off in season 3... Only for his body to come back possessed by the Greater-Scope Villain. And then in the S3 finale, his possessed body was blown up in orbit, finally stopping him from ever reappearing in the show... until in S4 the characters venture into a virtual alternate reality, and guess who's back again.
• From the Marvel-Netflix era, specifically Daredevil (2015), The Kingpin. Vincent D’Onofrio’s terrifying performance was lauded as one of the best on the show, and his absence from most of season 2 was a point of contention for many, so he was brought back to act as the main antagonist for season 3, once again to widespread acclaim. He was so popular in the role that he was the first character to appear in the MCU proper, gaining a role as the surprise villain in Hawkeye (2021). To date, only his enemy Daredevil (as played by Charlie Cox) has followed him into the main MCU.

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