Whoever wrote The Crossing is the Avengers biggest adversary, but if we’re talking villains I’d say Kang or Ultron. Personal favorite is Gravitron or Morgan Le Fey.
Baron Helmut Zemo and/or the Masters of Evil
Count Nefaria
Dormammu
Grandmaster
Immortus
Kang the Conqueror
Kree Empire
Loki
Michael Korvac
Scarlet Witch
Skrull Empire
Squadron Supreme
Thanos
Ultron
Zeus
Whoever wrote The Crossing is the Avengers biggest adversary, but if we’re talking villains I’d say Kang or Ultron. Personal favorite is Gravitron or Morgan Le Fey.
This is so hard. The Avengers is my favorite Marvel franchise, and I have some love for loads of Avengers villains. The Korvac Saga is my favorite Avengers epic ever, unfortunately future writers were never able to write a story that lived up to that one. Honestly, he’s a character ripe for a 21st century reinvention. I don’t want to say Kang or Ultron though, just because those choices seem like a cop out.
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From what I’ve heard (second hand, years ago at a con when I was pretty young. Not sure how accurate this story was), it was more Kavanaugh than Harras, who was segueing into his EiC position. Originally a plot idea from Harras and Gruenwald, before his death, it was fleshed out by Kavanaugh, and plot assists from Abnett & Lanning.
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Thanos is only so high up on the list due to one over encompassing story arc. He's not had that many non-gauntlet related appearances, especially before the MCU came around. So I definitely think not him.
Ultron might be easy to paint as the definitive villain, and he's got those personal connections and is a sizable threat. But as much as really enjoy Ultron related stories, they tend to be sort of one note, it's all the same basic idea or an offshoot of that idea: eradicate humanity or transform it. There's definitely some planning in his schemes, but still, compared to my number 1 pick it's simplistic.
I vote Kang. This is a master conqueror, he's willing to bide his time and play the long game as time is literally on his side. While his ultimate goal may be conquest, his ways of achieving that are multi-faceted, and intricate compared to almost any other villain. Quite honestly I don't know Kang has not solidly taken the #3 Marvel villain spot. No, he's not as fleshed out and complicated as Doom or Magneto, but he's damn close.
I remember back around the turn of the century thinking about what an Avengers movie would look like, and I had imagined using Kang as the introductory villain and the one who continued to stay with the storyline, sometimes behind the scenes but ultimately always in play.
Ultron, IMHO.
"So you've come to the end now alive but dead inside."