Marvel Villains of The Last Decade:
The new decade brings new promises for the fans of comic books. Marvel Comics has ensured that this new dawn is not just for the superheroes but also has something for the dark side – the supervillains. Many new Super-Villains have also joined in as Marvel Comics’ newest entrants to represent chaos and destruction. Some of them are just too good to be overlooked and you should know about them.
1. American Kaiju
American Kaiju is Marvel’s take on the classic Japanese Kiaju movies that were immensely popular during 1970 to 1980’s period. Tod Ziller is a US Army Corporal who volunteers to be a part of a top-secret US Military experiment aimed at recreating the Super Soldier Experiment. The Program was supposed to take notes from Bruce Banner’s Hulk and Captain America’s Super Soldier Serum and combining it to form the ultimate warrior.
But the program only had a portion of the entire Super Soldier Serum figured out and what came out the other side was a giant reptilian monster that was powered by gamma radiation. For now, the actual alignment of American Kaiju is not known but we all know what happens when a giant hulking monster is born out of Gamma Radiation.
2. Captain America – Agent of Hydra
While introducing new super villains is one thing, making a classic superhero into one of the greatest threats that the world has ever seen is an entirely different subject. Captain America’s history and the origin story are changed by Hydra after they use the Cosmic Cube to change reality itself. Captain America ends up being reborn as a sleeper cell of Hydra that had been working for the same organization everybody thought was his greatest foe the entire time.
What happens next is pure mayhem – Hydra takes over America and the rest of the world is slowly and steadily subdued by Hydra’s forces and Captain America personally leads the charge to kill millions of innocent lives who resisted the Hydra Occupation.
3. Lash
Lash became popular after he made his live-action debut in the Agents of Shield TV Series. His huge physical stature followed by the fact that he was more of an Inhuman hunter than a warrior that fought for his race only added to his popularity. Lash, in comic books, has grander plans than just being a hunter. He is actually planning to take over the Inhuman society and rule them as their new leader.
In the Inhumans vs. X-Men comic book storyline, Lash is actually going for the head of the snake that is Black Bolt. Lash has a huge role to play in the future of the Inhumans, one of the most prominent superhuman communities in the Marvel Comic Book Universe in the near future. He could become the next Maximus the Mad.
4. Dark Carnage
Absolute Carnage gave us the greatest version of Carnage the Marvel Comic Book Universe had ever seen. Cletus Kasady was no longer the host to the Carnage Symbiote because he had been neutralized earlier, ergo he was dead. But in comic books, nobody really stays dead for long if the fans demand them to be back. That was also the case for Cletus Kasady.
A cult of crazy Knull worshippers decided it was time for the second coming of the Symbiote God. They were trying to bring back Knull but needed upbringing Cletus back and this time, he was empowered by the vastly superior Grendel Symbiote. You can guess what happened next. The world saw Cletus with the powers of a Symbiote God wreaking absolute havoc.
5. MODAAK
While people do not tend to take MODOK very seriously, the guy is a total carnage machine. MODOK was created by AIM – Advanced Idea Mechanics, with the primary purpose of leading the evil organization. AIMK itself is composed of mad scientists and evil geniuses that want to use technology to take over the world. And MODOK is supposed to lead them. That gives him some incredibly fine credentials as to his capabilities as a villain. In the last decade, another iteration of MODOK called MODAAK came into the scene.
MODAAK stands for Mental Organism Designed as America’s King. The capabilities of MODAAK were pretty much the same as MODOK with one tiny little difference – MODAAK was incredibly thin-skinned, had orange hair, and was almost always angry. Yes- MODAAK was inspired by Donald Trump.
6. The Maker
The Maker is the Reed Richards of the Ultimates Universe. In Earth 1610, Reed Richards started out as a good guy. He was the same quintessential nerd that had superelasticity but his true strength always came from his genius-level intelligence. And then he transformed. Reed Richards realized that his mind was too good to be wasted. He loses his family and his obsession with increasing his intelligence leads to him severing ties with his few of his friends that stuck around. The Maker is a result of a mad genius having megalomaniacal ambitions.
He has recently jumped ship to the mainstream Marvel 616 continuity where he intends to find a way to jump throughout the Multi-Verse at will and conquer reality after reality. The Maker is the vilest and the evilest version of a superhero you could have ever imagined.
7. Cindy Moon
In the Earth 616 reality, Cindy Moon is a fairly popular superhero who goes by the name Silk. She is a Shield agent who battles for the forces of good and has helped save the day and countless lives on several occasions. But that is not the case with the Cindy Moon of Earth 65. The Cindy Moon of Earth 65 pretty much had the same origin story except a few little turns. She was bitten by a radioactive spider, gained spider powers and became an Agent of Shield like the original counterpart. But then she rebelled against Shield and created her own criminal empire called S.I.L.K. As its new head, she battled Spider-Man, the Avengers, Captain America and a lot of other superheroes.
8. Dark Celestials
The Celestials are cosmic beings that were the first sentient beings to gain the ability to manipulate the Power Cosmic. Over time, they became the judge, jury and executioners of the entire universe. The Celestials had one task – preserve life and destroy anything they deemed detrimental to its sustenance or aimed to corrupt its growth.
The Dark Celestials had a different mind-set. The Dark Celestials, led by Zgreb, wanted to take over the Universe and recreate it the way they wished it to because they thought as the first ones to come into the scene, it was their birthright to be the masters of creation. They infected every other Celestial and corrupted them to join their cause. In the end, the Avengers used the Uni-Mind to defeat the Horde of Dark Celestials called the Final Host and purge the threat.
9. Red Goblin
Norman Osborn is already a villain worthy of being considered as one of the deadliest Spider-Man foes that Peter Parker has ever encountered. In one issue, Norman Osborn loses access to his Green Goblin powers after being injected with a nanite serum that suppresses his abilities permanently. But that will not stop a villain as cunning as Osborn. Using his vast resources and network, he catches hold of the Carnage symbiote. The Carnage Symbiote takes over his body as per Norman’s plans.
It does not stop there though. The nanites that were suppressing Norman’s Green Goblin powers are taken care of. As a result, this new powerful entity called the Red Goblin comes loaded with Norman Osborn’s cunning, the Green Goblin’s powers as well as Carnage’s psychotic abilities.
10. Death Locket
Death Locket is not necessarily a Super Villain. Rebecca Ryker is just a lost soul who still has some time before she is able to find her way back. She is the next person to take over the mantle of Deathlok, a classic Marvel Comic Villain. Rebecca’s father worked in the original experiment that gave birth to the Deathlok program and she also comes pre-loaded with similar abilities.
Fans had been vocal about legacy characters being taken over by cheap remakes but Rebecca carried her-self gracefully in the comic book panels, showing a side of Deathlok never seen before. As Death Locket, Rebecca is vulnerable and vicious at the same time. She can tend to your wounds but also rip your head off at the next moment. She is extremely unpredictable and that is what makes her even more interesting.
