Captain Marvel: Main Comic Book Villains Ranked Lamest To Coolest

Arguably the most important legacy identity in Marvel Comics, the name Captain Marvel has been used by many heroes in the publisher’s history. While Carol Danvers, the current Captain Marvel, has amassed her own eclectic collection of villains and is the most recognizable hero in this role today, her rogues’ gallery is littered with villains inherited from previous wielders of the iconic title.

Some of these are well-known villains whose reach overlaps multiple Marvel heroes. Others are specific to the Captain Marvel legacy, or Carol herself. While these combined legacies have produced many fearsome foes, not all of Captain Marvel’s comic book villains have aged as well as the heroic identity.

10 Doomsday Man

Created by the United States military for “aggressive space exploration,” the Doomsday Man is a remote-controlled humanoid robot, heavily armored to withstand the rigors of the cosmos. Highly advanced and nearly indestructible, it has been commandeered for villainous means on occasions.

The first to utilize the automaton was the military scientist Dr. Kronton, who went rogue shortly after finalizing his creation. Years later, it was salvaged and repurposed by the terrorist organization AIM, only to be decommissioned after a battle with Carol Danvers, then operating as Ms. Marvel. In both instances, the difficult to control robot was defeated when the heroes lured it into falling into a conveniently existing hole in the ground.

9 Titannus

A member of the shape-shifting alien Skrulls, Titannus was cursed to be one of the very few members of his species who did not possess the metamorphic mutant gene. To compensate, he submitted himself to his planet’s military “Super Skrull” project, which imbued him with enhanced strength, durability, reflexes, and flight.

While most versions of Captain Marvel have close ties to the alien Kree, sworn enemies of the Skrulls, and view the species as inherently dangerous, this is mostly because of the Skrull’s ability to assume multiple forms and wage subversive guerrilla campaigns. Lacking this ability, Titannus is an easily identifiable threat who can be seen coming from miles away.

8 M.O.D.O.K.

An acronym that stands for “Mental Organism Designed Only For Killing,” MODOK originated as a scientist named George Tarleton who worked for the terrorist organization AIM, a frequent antagonist of Captain Marvel. After volunteering for a procedure designed to increase his intelligence and maximize his brain’s computational ability, he was transformed into the massive-headed, tiny-limbed MODOK, and subsequently usurped control of the organization.

Although possessing incredible mental powers, such as increased intelligence, thought processing, and limited telekinesis, his deformed body, and gigantic head hindered his physical mobility, requiring him to forever utilize a specially designed hovering apparatus that he dubbed “the doomsday chair.”

7 Controller

Basil Sandhurst was a sickly child who spent much of his formative years bedridden and friendless; frequently buried in his studies. As an adult, he utilized these years of accumulated knowledge to become a brilliantly minded scientist, but his lack of social skills and erratic personality often prevented him from obtaining long-term employment. After blackmailing his way into a position at an experimental research facility, his carelessness and hubris eventually led to his accidental exposure to a bath of experimental chemicals, leaving him deformed and bedridden once more.

Encasing his crippled body within a high-tech, super-strong exo-suit of his own design, he would set about attempting to conquer the world, to prove his superiority over a population he deemed intellectually inferior. Sandhurst’s primary weapons are his “control discs,” which when attached to his opponents allow for limited mind control. He has fought four versions of Captain Marvel, including the original Kree hero Mar-Vell and most recently Carol Danvers. In each encounter, his ego-driven sense of superiority has been his ultimate downfall.

6 Yon-Rogg

Commander of the mission that brought the original Captain Mar-Vell to Earth, Yon-Rogg, jealous of Vell over the affections of a shared love interest, intended to strand the hero on the “backwater planet,” to be left for dead. When Mar-Vell instead became a celebrated champion amongst Earth’s superhero population, which the Kree empire deemed useful for intelligence gathering, Rogg was infuriated and determined to eliminate him personally.

Capturing Vell’s human ally Carol Danvers, Rogg’s machinations would ultimately result in the activation of Danvers’ hidden Kree lineage, leading her on the path that would eventually culminate in her own adoption of the legacy of Captain Marvel years later.

5 Deathbird

The eldest child of the royal family of the alien Shi’Ar empire, Deathbird is feared amongst the cosmos for her sadistic lust for power. When her ruthlessness and refusal to adhere to royal tradition resulted in her removal from her rightful inheritance of her people’s throne, she set about building her own personal army to wage war upon the civilizations united under Shi’Ar rule, to instead attempt to take her birthright by force.

Alternating between alliances and betrayals of many of Marvel’s space-faring species as it suits her needs, Deathbird has battled Carol Danvers on multiple occasions and has proven to be an unexpected match against her in combat.

4 Moonstone

A renowned psychiatrist turned career criminal, Doctor Karla Sofen was empowered by an ancient Kree artifact discovered on Earth’s moon, thus her adopted moniker. As the villain Moonstone, she regularly used her gravity manipulating abilities to battle Captain Marvel and the Avengers as a regular member of Baron Zemo’s Masters of Evil.

When she experienced fame and public adoration for the first time as the Masters of Evil disguised themselves as the heroic Thunderbolts, she briefly entertained thoughts of reformation. She would ultimately be lured back into her villainous ways, however, when she was given the opportunity to publicly serve amongst the “Dark Avengers,” another team of disguised villains who had secretly taken control of Earth’s superpowered community. While serving on this twisted version of Earth’s mightiest heroes, Sofen adopted the former identity of her long-time foe Carol Danvers, becoming the team’s evil Ms. Marvel.

3 The Brood

An insectoid race that reproduces by infecting the living bodies of other species, the Brood exists solely to consume and propagate. With her close ties to Marvel’s cosmic pantheon, Carol Danvers has encountered the parasitic alien monsters on numerous occasions.

While traveling through space alongside the X-Men, Carol first encountered them while battling alongside the mutant heroes during the original Brood Saga, her cosmic powers playing a pivotal role in the conflict. Much later in her heroic career, Carol intercepted and dispatched a Brood Queen which had landed on Earth, establishing her as one of the few known beings to ever defeat a Brood Queen single-handedly.

2 Nitro

A human who was captured and experimented upon by the alien Kree, Robert Hunter became the villain Nitro after gaining the ability to explode and reform himself at will. He was first defeated by the original Captain Marvel while attempting to steal a top-secret military nerve gas, the exposure to which led to a cancer diagnosis that eventually ended the hero’s life.

While this tangential legacy was enough to gain him notoriety amongst Marvel’s heroes and villains, he would later eclipse this with a detonation that leveled an entire neighborhood, including sixty children at a nearby elementary school. It was this heinous event that directly led to the Super Hero Registration Act, the controversial legislation which ignited the Super Hero Civil War, irrevocably changing the entire landscape of the Marvel Universe.

1 Rogue

While she has long since redeemed herself as a member of the heroic X-Men, Rogue began her super-powered exploits as a part of Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. It was while operating with this villainous team that she first battled Carol Danvers, an encounter that would affect both women for years after. Young and inexperienced at the time, Rogue attempted to use her mutant powers to absorb Carol’s alien attributes, but would accidentally assimilate not just her powers, but a portion of her psyche.

This lingering portion of Carol within Rogue’s mind would haunt her for years after and was the catalyst for her joining the X-Men in a desperate quest for help. Carol, meanwhile, would temporarily be placed into a coma, waking up years later lacking all emotional attachment to her past persona, the first instance in a now character-defining history of amnesic episodes. Although both women are now on the same side amongst Marvel’s heroes and have teamed up on occasions, their enmity toward each other stemming from this initial encounter remains a constant elephant in the room.

About The Author

Drew Beaty
(53 Articles Published)

Drew Beaty is a third-generation superhero fan who was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. He began his collection with hand-me-down comic books from a used book store owned by his father and grandfather in the late 1980s. Today, Drew owns and has read over 50,000 individual comics. He was once ranked “Best In The World” in the Marvel Comics category of the mobile trivia game Quiz-Up and still has the screenshots to prove it. When he’s not reading or writing about masks and capes, Drew spends his time with his wife and cats, or rubbing elbows with Portland’s music scene, where he has performed in the hip hop group Bad Habitat since 2008.

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