I like making lists.

I agree to an extent, yeah. I don't think many of Spider-Man's villains (i.e., none) would be fit to duel with the collective forces of the Avengers. But it's too bad we're unlikely to ever see Doctor Doom or Galactus in these films.

I'll probably finish it up tomorrow.

Ah I'll just finish it now.

4. Thanos, The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy (Josh Brolin)



Ranking Thanos fourth breaks my heart a little; to be honest though, as much as I love the character and Josh Brolin's honky-tonk voice for the role, placing him at number four despite the fact he's been on screen for about a collective 4-5 minutes is a gift to begin with. Once we start to see and hear more of him, I'm sure his position here will rise (possibly all the way to the top). For now though, for as little menace from him as we've seen, I feel like this is a good spot for him. That being said, I also almost included Ultron on this list and he's obviously been on screen for zero minutes at this point. That's how lame some of the villains in the MCU are.

3. Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan)



I'm a big Bucky Barnes fan. I think his story in the films (and the comic) is very interesting, and I was really excited when Marvel decided to bring him into the fold in the second film. I think Sebastian Stan probably worked better as Bucky in a smaller role than as the Winter Soldier (and probable future Captain America if Chris Evans is truly going to close the door on the role), but that can be worked on. His performance in The Winter Soldier was solid.

He's spent decades as a merciless and lethal asssassin, but the film still does a good job painting him as a sympathetic villain because we are firsthand witness to the brainwashing he has endured. In that regard, Bucky is one of a kind in the MCU. Every other villain, with the exception of number one (sometimes) is a pretty cut-and-dry bad guy.

I'm not a "fan" of Loki either, but he's the best that Marvel Studios has offered so far. Like I said, all the good villains are owned by other studios. Magneto. Green Goblin. David Banner. William Stryker. Doc Ock. Sandman. Sebastian Shaw. The Sentinels.

And I don't really blame you, but when the alternatives are characters like Whiplash, Malekith or Algrim/Kurse, characters like Ronan will still find a way onto a list like this.

Thanks.

I'll try and start something new over the weekend.

Yeah I was close to putting him and Bucky both over Loki. I really liked Loki in Thor and as I said he made perfect sense in The Avengers, but I think he has been over-exposed now with his leading role in Thor: The Dark World and a heavily rumored appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Maybe I'll update the list after Ant-Man since we'll have seen several new villains by that point's time.

The best Punisher is still Dolph Lundgren.

Jon Hamm is definitely not Punisher material. Superman? Definitely. The Fantastic Four? Sure. But not Punisher. The Punisher is basically Charles Bronson in Death Wish. That's the type of actor you have to aim for.

I didn't mind the Thomas Jane punisher. The biggest problem were the three roommates. I thought he was good in the role however.

9. Adam Warlock and the Defeat of Thanos



I'll preface this by saying that doing everything I want in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 might make it excessively long, and I even have another thing coming up later on this list that I'm hoping to see, but I think introducing Warlock would go a long way in the telling of the cosmic story behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I know a lot of the fans are calling for the introduction of Nova, and while I think Richard Rider is a cool character doesn't he kind of undermine the idea that we already have our "lone human in the cosmos" in Peter Quill? And besides, we're already getting Captain Marvel in a few years and I think the two characters achieve a lot of the same things... the difference being that Captain Marvel can probably do a better job of tying the cosmic and the earthbound characters better than Rider can.

No, I want to see Adam Warlock. We've already seen his cocoon a couple of times now, so I'm hoping that means this might become a reality. He has a lot of ties to the infinity stones and to Thanos, and since I feel like Thanos is going to be wrapped up in the third Avengers films it would be a shame if Warlock isn't introduced before then. It's a complicated story that I would prefer not to dive into, but it was actually Warlock that defeated Thanos by turning him to stone (the first time anyway, Thanos has really been around the block).

To be honest, Warlock is so involved with the ongoing "Infinity War" I really expected him to be the focus of the end credits scene for Guardians of the Galaxy. Instead, we got Howard the Duck. Fan-fucking-tastic.

7. How to Handle the Big Three (Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor) in Phase 3 and Beyond





So… we’re in kind of a situation here. As I’m sure many of you know, the three lead actors of this franchise – Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Chris Hemsworth – signed massive contracts to appear in 4, 5, 6+ films in this franchise. Well, a lot of those contracts are starting to show signs of aging now. Downey Jr. has been convinced to sign additional contracts in the past – the first addition for the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron and a third Avengers film which we now know as Infinity War, the second addition for Captain America: Civil War – but Evans and Hemsworth seem pretty bent on leaving their characters behind when they’re given the chance (Evans wants to quit acting altogether, Hemsworth seems like he wants to do more non-comic book films like Rush or the upcoming In the Heart of the Sea).

Evans and Hemsworth both signed on for six films – three solo films (Evans’ cameo in Thor: The Dark World officially doesn’t count toward his six) and three Avengers films. Well, with Infinity War being split into two films there’s no word on if the contract covers both of them or just one of the two films now. For the purposes of this list, I’m going to assume that it doesn’t really matter and Evans and Hemsworth are free to appear in one or both of the films. I’ll assume Downey Jr. will be in both because he has been pretty willing to add more MCU films to his resume when Marvel/Disney come crawling.

I think they need to make Iron Man 4. For one thing, I think Marvel is really banking on their upcoming new properties like Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther being wild successes… and while I also think they will be, imagine if they’re not all home runs and Marvel still plans to proceed with a Phase 4. This is why I think an Iron Man 4 would be a good idea; it will obviously make a shitload of money, everybody loves Downey Jr., and I think it will help remind the fans that despite the fact that two of the three pillars of the franchise are gone, it’s still Marvel and they will still release a quality product. Plus, I cannot be the only one who still wants to see the true Mandarin. In fact, I’ll take it a step further and say that Tony Stark should face two villains in Iron Man 4 – the Mandarin, and alcoholism. There’s no need for Tony or Iron Man anymore, some of his friends are dead (I’m assuming at least Hawkeye is going to die in all this, if not more people) and Tony resorts to the bottle… classic story. At the end, Tony prevails against both and officially retires.

Captain America needs to be assassinated at the end of Captain America: Civil War. I think this one is very obvious; Crossbones can take him out and he can be assumed dead going forward from that film. I think one thing that will probably happen over the course of the next few films (and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) is that S.H.I.E.L.D. will be rebuilt. Evans can return for his final appearance in the franchise in the second half of Infinity War (after showing up in the end credits of the first half) and help the Avengers defeat Thanos. At the end of the film, Rogers retires and becomes the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Bucky assumes the mantle of Captain America. That way we get the best of both worlds – future Captain America films if Marvel wants with Sebastian Stan behind the mask, and Rogers is still alive if Evans wants to poke his head in and say, “Hello,” from time to time in one of the films or TV shows or whatever.

I’m more undecided about Thor… but I have my thoughts. Personally, I’m of the opinion that the characters should be left in positive places. I would prefer to not see anybody die unless that really is the best route to go, and I don’t think that’s the case for any of these three characters. Ideally, Thor fights the fire demon Surtur in Thor: Ragnarok and prevents the apocalypse from happening. Thor shows up again in Infinity War to help the Avengers defeat Thanos… ideally I think he shows up in the second half and is missing from the first half. It would be more interesting to watch Iron Man lead a team of Avengers such as Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Black Panther in the first half only to see the other two leads return and aid them against Thanos in the second half (more on Hulk later). At the end, Thor returns to Asgard to become King. Again, this leaves Hemsworth’s character in a positive place so he can return again someday if he’s interested but it also takes him completely out of the picture if he’s not. Down the road they can always recast or whatever they want to do. Make Thor a woman like in the comics, I don’t care.