The Marvel Cinematic Universe hosts a variety of characters that range in complexity, with even the Mad Titan Thanos having a tragic past and ostensibly well-intentioned goal. There are, however, several exceptions. Ranging from unsympathetic supervillains, to mundane scumbags, there are some characters the audience just wants to see put in their place.
Films
- General Thunderbolt Ross is an Obstructive Bureaucrat who takes joy in punishing and harassing the Avengers during his appearances in The Incredible Hulk (2008) and Captain America: Civil War. In Avengers: Infinity War, he intends to have the Avengers prosecuted while fully knowing that the entire universe is at stake with Thanos' forces. In-universe, none of the Avengers have anything positive to say about him, with even those who initially signed the accords changing their mind later on thanks to his incompetence. [[At the very least, he seems to let bygones be bygones spoiler: at the end of Avengers: Endgame, when he's shown attending Tony Stark's funeral to pay respects to him in spite of their disagreements.]]
- Captain Marvel (2019): The Supreme Intelligence's Fantastic Racism towards the Skrulls upon learning that the Skrulls are just innocent War Refugees along with how it gaslights Carol into perpetuating genocide makes them utterly loathsome.
- Spider-Man: Far From Home:
- Brad Davis's basically Flash without the funny and entertaining qualities or Freudian Excuse. He might be even worse considering how even Flash himself is appalled by him. Even the Faux Affably Evil Beck is presented as more of a Love to Hate villain than Brad's slimy, superficial Nice Guy charm.
- No matter how much charisma he exudes, Beck is still a petty, unstable maniac who will never admit to any fault. He Mind Rapes Peter by piling on his guilt and inadequacy with his illusions and threatens to execute his entire staff, the same people he celebrated with just the day before, for a simple mistake he was also responsible for.
- Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home: Unlike most versions of J. J. Jameson, this version doesn't have any understandable reason to hate Spider-Man in the first place, most of his sympathetic traits are non-existent and his hatred for Spider-Man is not Played for Laughs. Even knowing that Spider-Man is actually a teenager doesn't stop Jameson from hating him even more, and he puts all his resources into ensuring Peter's life and those closest to him are ruined.
- Black Widow: General Dreykov lacks any redeeming qualities whatsoever and is solely portrayed to incite revulsion from the audience. He lacks the sympathetic qualities of previous MCU villains, instead just being a pathetic, despicable man who constantly abuses others so he can feel big. He has no qualms with kidnapping and torturing young girls and turning them into his loyal minions, with no free will of their own.
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has the Earth-838 version of Karl Mordo. While the rest of the Illuminati aren't exactly saints themselves, they at least have good reason to be wary of Doctor Strange and are still willing to hear him out. Mordo on the other hand is biased against Strange from the get-go and it is more out of petty jealousy that Supreme Strange was better than him than it is out of concern for his universe. Even when his comrades are out there getting slaughtered by the Scarlet Witch, Mordo still prioritises executing a defenseless Doctor Strange over helping them.
- Thor: Love and Thunder: Rapu's sole purpose is to give sympathy to Gorr's god-killing crusade.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3:
- The High Evolutionary is an abusive monster who sees his creations as mere products and his claims of creating a perfect world are ultimately just a byproduct of his contempt for all existing life. Whereas the other villains of the films at least had some understandable, if warped, motivations — Ronan wanted to avenge his allies who fell during the war (though he has shown himself in the past willing to kill off his Kree subordinates), and Ego simply didn't want to be alone and seriously contemplated giving up his goals to be with Meredith Quill — there's nothing resembling a redeeming trait with the High Evolutionary, who just wants to play God. James Gunn intentionally didn't give any sympathetic moments to the High Evolutionary as he referred to him as the "cruelest MCU villain" the franchise has ever seen.
- While not as vile as his master, Theel is still a cowardly, abusive scumbag who experiments on and tortures sapient beings without an ounce of remorse, and Quill goes out of his way to make him suffer for it.
Televison Series
- Agent Carter: Agent Ray Krzeminski is a Fat Bastard who slut-shames Peggy, makes fun of Sousa for his missing leg, cheats on his wife, and all-around Dumb Muscle whose attitude even rubs other jerkasses like Thompson the wrong way. This winds up being deconstructed: when he gets killed halfway through Season 1, the other SSR agents (particularly Sousa) are determined to find his killer and avenge him despite the way he acted towards them.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
- Dr. Daniel Whitehall / General Werner Reinhardt is introduced in the first episode of season two as an Affably Evil Benevolent Boss who happens to be a Nazi. As the the series goes on, his affability becomes an obvious façade as he is shown committing atrocious acts.
- Senator Ellen Nadeer has ZERO redeeming or likable qualities. She spends her screentime being blatantly racist toward Inhumans, annoyingly smug toward Team Coulson, killing her own brother for being a Inhuman, and generally getting away at every turn. Even a vehement racist like Tucker Shockley seems to despise her while Ivanov doesn't remotely give a shit. It's really hard not to cheer when she gets blown up.
- Jessica Jones (2015):
- Kevin "Kilgrave" Thompson, the antagonist of the first season, is presented as an immature, misogynistic, possessive creep and sexual predator, as well as a petty, entitled, hedonistic individual who regularly mistreats other people for his own amusement. Any superficial charm Kilgrave has only serves to underscore his unpleasantness.
- Audrey Eastman from "AKA 99 Friends" is a client for Jessica. She turns out to be luring Jessica into a trap to kill her just for having superpowers, mockingly compares such people to the mentally-challenged. She cites her mother dying in the events of The Avengers (2012), despite Jessica having no involvement. She receives a scathing speech from Jessica and her husband decides to divorce her.
- There's something truly despicable about how serial killer Gregory Sallinger has crowned himself the decider of who deserves what they have as well as his hypocrisy, sadism and enormous ego. His gloating as he gets away with his truly monstrous actions makes this even more pronounced.
- Luke Cage (2016): Willis "Diamondback" Stryker. The man is such an asshole to friend and foe alike no one can stand him. Then he is eventually revealed as the force behind everything wrong that has happened to Luke. Defeating him becomes Luke's number one priority, above everything else. Diamondback's decision to crank up the heat on Luke by killing a police officer causes every single one of his criminal associates to turn on him in disgust, with Domingo trying and failing to execute him, and Shades and Mariah trying to strike up a truce with Luke to get rid of Diamondback by any means necessary.
- The Punisher (2017):
- William J. Rawlins III, also known as "Agent Orange", is the main antagonist of season 1. He mistreats and abuses his own men, ordered Frank's family massacred out of petty revenge for his own humiliation at the hands of the former, and gets off on torturing people with his bare hands. When even Billy Russo hates your guts, you know you're a bastard.
- Arthur Walsh is a former worker at the Ray of Hope group home, he molested the boys until he was arrested and had a stint in Sing-Sing. When confronted by former victim Billy Russo, insists that he was a good caretaker, who "loved you kids" and that they were "happy to love me back". He blames the boy who reported Walsh's abuse for his current circumstances. He also mocks Russo for the time that he broke his arm for defending himself, and makes racist comments when asking about Russo's scars. Billy Russo is pushed over the edge and stabs Walsh with a plunger, and when Frank Castle finds out, he is glad he is dead.
- WandaVision: In contrast to the Laughably Evil nature of Agatha Harkness, there is nothing amusing about Director Tyler Hayward, he's just is a despicably slimy Obstructive Bureaucrat piece of work.
- Ms. Marvel: Agent Deever is rude to everyone she meets, and snidely racist towards people of Middle-Eastern and Latin-American descent in a way that makes even her partner Agent Cleary — who was more than willing to threaten and intimidate teenagers — uncomfortable. She also authorizes the deployment of EDITH's drones to capture "Night Light", who is a teenager and has thus far done nothing wrong, leading to Bruno's apartment being blown up.
- Secret Invasion: The finale of Secret Invasion cements President Ritson as this, becoming an Absolute Xenophobe who encourages vigilante violence against aliens. When Nick Fury points out that his actions resulted in innocent humans getting killed on misplaced suspicions, he shows absolutely no remorse for it and basically tells Fury to shove it.
- Loki: While Miss Minutes initially appears to be a cartoony, and cute, Perky Female Minion, her demeanor is an act. She is a psychotic and murderous master manipulator who has no scruples whatsoever, and in acts of defiance, will always talk down to others, such as Loki, Sylvie and Victor Timely. To say nothing of her mass killing of Dox and her loyalists after they pulled a Heel–Face Turn via an unimaginably gruesome and grisly end. There isn't a single redeeming 0 or 1 in her code.
- "What If...?":
- John Flynn is Captain Carter's sexist boss and superior officer during World War II. Flynn is incredibly dismissive and never appreciates anything Peggy does, solely because she's a woman. To top it all off, he's revealed to be a Glory Hound who steals all the credit for Peggy and Howard's heroic actions.
- Unlike his mainstream counterpart, Yondu remained evil to the core in Celestial Peter's timeline, willingly sending thousands (if not millions) of children to their deaths at the hands of a Celestial psychopath, and gets away with his devious deeds.
