Marvel has created some of the greatest supervillains of all time. From the first Marvel comic way back in 1939 to today, Marvel has been making villains who are as compelling as they are dangerous. These powerful foes have battled the heroes of the Marvel Universe, their fiendish plots testing them like no one else. Comic readers have known for decades that Marvel’s villains are amazing, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought many of them to the general population. Now, the MCU definitely has its problems with villains, but that’s not always the case. Over the years, the MCU has done something rare — they’ve improved upon multiple villains.

Comic books are a great storytelling medium, but there have been times when live-action portrayals of villains have made them much better than they were before. There have also been times when the MCU has fleshed out a character even more, opening up new sides to them. Sometimes, the MCU reimagines these villains, making them into newer, better versions of themselves. These five villains were improved upon by the MCU, using the clay of the comics to create masterpieces.

5) Ravonna Renslayer

(L-R): Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes (voiced by Tara Strong) in Marvel Studios’ LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2023 MARVEL.

Ravonna Renslayer in the MCU is very different than her comic version. In the comics, Ravonna is the object of Kang’s greatest affection. The two of them work together at times, while other times, they are trying to tear each other apart. Kang and Ravonna always pull each other into their orbits, and sparks fly. However, as a character, Ravonna is more a villainous love interest that will betray her paramour than she is a character with any kind of agency or power of her own.

Ravonna in the MCU goes in another direction entirely. This version of the character has agency from the beginning. She’s a high-ranking member of the TVA and one of their most successful agents. Ravonna has an air of power to her; she has done terrible and wonderful things over the years in her stewardship of the sacred timeline. While she still had something of a relationship with a Kang in the form of He Who Remains, it was not as defining to her character and stories as the one in the comics. Ravonna feels more like an actual person rather than the stereotype she is in the comics. Ravonna was a highlight of Loki, and hopefully, Marvel Studios will continue to use her even though they’ve abandoned their Kang plans for now.

4) The High Evolutionary

The High Evolutionary is an interesting type of villain. He’s an extremely powerful threat, his control over genetics and evolution allowing him to create the most powerful lackies imaginable, as well as giving him great power. The High Evolutionary is the kind of villain who can fight an entire team on his own, and his battles with Adam Warlock are the stuff of legend. However, even as powerful as he is, even with all the ways he can be used, the High Evolutionary never reached the levels of Thanos, Magneto, or Doom. He’s a C-list villain with A-list powers; something has always been missing.

Apparently, that something was James Gunn writing him and Chukwudi Iwuji playing him. The version of the High Evolutionary in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has the “it” factor that the comic version doesn’t. It’s the way his madness and genius are portrayed that truly make the MCU version pop, beautifully brought to life by Iwuji’s stellar performance. The High Evolutionary is the worst kind of monster, a god who can and will do anything he wants, not caring about how it affects his victims. This has always been a facet of the character, but the MCU High Evolutionary is able to nail it and really get across the chilling pragmatism of the villain, as well as the wild swings in mood that are the hallmark of his insanity. It’s a masterful rendition of the character.

3) The Vulture

The Vulture in the comics is an older inventor who created his special wingsuit and harness, able to increase his physical attributes, making him superhumanly strong and fast. His life of crime came after a business partner took advantage of him, taking everything he had, with Spider-Man always standing in his way. Over the years, The Vulture learned to hate Spider-Man and has battled him many times. All in all, the Vulture has always been a fantastic villain, and yet, somehow, Spider-Man: Homecoming made the character even better.

Of course, a huge part of this is Michael Keaton. Keaton is one of the best actors working in Hollywood, and he’s able to imbue the character with the kind of menace and pragmatism that makes a villain stand out. The Vulture is also sympathetic in a lot of ways; his business of salvaging super-technology from the Battle of New York was taken from him, and suddenly he was responsible for his entire crew and had to do whatever he could so he could feed his family and theirs. You felt bad for him at times and, at other times, were afraid of him. It took everything about the Vulture from the comics and turned the dial up, with a top-notch performance making the whole thing work.

2) Ego the Living Planet

Ego the Living Planet played by Kurt Russel in th MCU's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Ego the Living Planet has something of a standard sci-fi origin. The scientist Egros discovered that his solar system’s primary star was going to go nova. He did everything he could to save his people, creating underground bunkers so they could possibly survive the blast. However, the star went nova earlier than expected. Egros tried to get to the bunkers with his people, but it was too late. However, as the shock wave hit, Egros bonded with the dying energies of every living thing on his planet, becoming a powerful cosmic being: Ego the Living Planet.

Now, obviously, that’s a cool origin, but it has been done many times. After that, Ego was mostly a generic, powerful cosmic being, traveling the universe and causing trouble. The MCU Ego, when everything is taken together, is a way cooler version of this character. His Celestial origins and mission to create more of himself to take over the universe make him a much more active villain. The fact that he mostly appears in humanoid form makes a lot of difference, as it allows him to interact more with the people of the universe. Finally, Kurt Russel’s performance was able to take all of the elements of Ego and present them perfectly on the screen. He was charming and he was monstrous in equal measure, taking a sort of interesting idea from the comics and making it so much better.

1) Loki

LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. © 2023 MARVEL.

Loki isn’t technically a villain anymore, which is a big part of why the MCU version of the character is so great. In the comics, Loki was often something of a cliche; the vengeful sibling who used his magic and trickery to battle his much more physically powerful brother. He was a cackling villain of the highest order, a mainstay of Silver Age Marvel comics. Loki was always great when he showed up, but readers knew what to expect with him. In the 2000s, all of this began to change as Loki was modernized for the audience. Loki soon became more of a full character, something helped along by Tom Hiddleston’s performance of Loki in the MCU.

MCU Loki was able to jump past the more clichéd parts of the character quickly. His performance in Thor: The Dark World, an otherwise mediocre movie, expertly used Hiddleston’s roguish charm to take the character to the next level. During his time with the character, Loki was funny, Loki was dangerous, Loki was a god filled with pain, and Loki loved his family. The character kept getting more and more complex, to the point where his death in the opening scenes of Avengers: Infinity War, when his past caught up with in the form of Thanos, was a genuine tearjerking moment for fans. Loki’s growth in the MCU allowed the character to move past the more standard parts of his origin, becoming more of a fully realized character as time went on.