20 Vicious Facts About The Villains From The Marvel Universe

Magneto’s real name is Max Eisenhardt, and the name we may be more familiar with is an alias Magneto was created after his first wife, Magda, died.

2. Bullseye is one of the few human Marvel villains whose full name has yet to be revealed. Bullseye uses the alias “Benjamin Poindexter” in a 1976 Daredevil comic, and Daredevil calls him “Lester” in 1998 comic, which may have been a continuity issue due to a new writer.

3. Mysterio might actually hold the title for the man who’s caused the X-Men the most pain, based mostly on his appearance in Old Man Logan. In one of the most brutal and horrifying moments in comics history, Wolverine wakes up one day to find the X-Men mansion overrun with enemies. He kills scores of supervillains before Mysterio reveals that it had all been an illusion—Wolverine had in fact been killing all of his fellow X-Men, as well as the mansion’s young students, as they begged for him to stop. Afterward, Wolverine left the mansion and didn’t unsheathe his claws for 50 years, living as a shell of his former self.

4. Loki, the God of Mischief, knows how to make life difficult for Thor and anyone else he views as a threat. At one point Loki used his shapeshifting abilities to turn himself into Sif, Thor’s ex-lover. This switch also accompanied some time traveling, which Loki used to kill his grandfather Bor. Loki also convinced Asgard that their ally, Beta Ray Bill, was a villainous Skrull. Thor caught on eventually, but by then, the damage was done.

5. On Wolverine’s birthday, he keeps an eye out for Sabretooth. The villainous mutant has the pesky habit of stalking Wolverine every year on his birthday, or the day Wolverine thinks is his birthday. Sabretooth never attacks but he’s there somewhere when Wolverine is blowing out his candles.

Reverend William Stryker, the man crusading against mutants in the X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, has drawn comparisons to Mike Pence for his appearance. Artist Brent Anderson is aware of the comparison and confirms Stryker’s look was based on Alexander Haig, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state.

7. Bonebreaker was one of Donald Pierce’s Reavers, an army of cyborgs. Bonebreaker also has a cannon in his torso. Many of the Reavers were people Wolverine left for dead, who needed metal replacements for parts that the feisty Canadian chopped off.

8. Doctor Doom recognizes that a villain needs to be powerful to overcome his nemesis, so why not sacrifice his estranged wife in exchange for power? Doom allowed a pack of demons to tear his wife apart and give him new magical armor crafted from her skin.

9. Wolverine is infamous for his tragic past and the misery that follows him throughout life. Most of his love interests die and most of his attempts to lead a normal life get upended when his loved ones are in danger. One of Wolverine’s love interests, Itsu, was murdered by The Winter Soldier while she was pregnant. The unborn baby survived and became another one of Wolverine’s enemies, his son Daken. Daken eventually joined the Avengers and the X-Men, but not before nearly killing his dad by eviscerating him.

10. You might remember Donald Pierce, the metal-armed villain from Logan. In the comics, he joins The Hellfire Club as a way to get closer to mutants. By this point in the comics, evil mutants have infiltrated the group, and Pierce’s real intentions are to kill its leaders.

Killgrave is arguably the best villain in the Marvel Universe, brought to creepy and charismatic life on Netflix by David Tennant. In the comics, Zebediah Killgrave is known as The Purple Man, due to his skin color—a side-effect of his powers. Like the comics, Killgrave uses his hypno-pheromones to keep Jessica Jones a prisoner for months.

12. Marvel faced a wave of backlash when Captain America was revealed to be a Hydra agent all along. The full story is still unfolding, but the basic explanation is that a sentient Cosmic Cube, as seen in Avengers, rewrote Captain’s history, changing him into a young soldier raised by Hydra.

13. Omega Red is a Russian murderer who was later experimented on by the Soviets, gifting him with carbonadium tentacles. Omega Red has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in Deadpool 2 but may have more screen time in the bonus Blu-Ray footage, since there is a scene titled “Chess with Omega Red.”

14. X-Men villain Mister Sinister was born in the 19th century and was actually a scientific peer to Charles Darwin. He became a pariah among the scientific community later though, as they looked down on some of his methods like experimenting on homeless people.

15. During the ‘60s, Sabretooth met and fell in love with Leni Zauber, who was actually Mystique in disguise. The two had a month-long fling while they worked together as government operatives, but things soured a bit when Sabretooth found out about Zauber’s true identity. Either way, they got back together decades later and had a human son, Graydon Creed, who would go on to become an anti-mutant activist.

Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, was stomping around before The Big Bang. Galactus was originally a humanoid explorer from the planet Taa, but the Big Bang wiped out his universe. Afterward, he became the world devourer we all know and love today.

17. One of the newest additions to the Marvel rogues’ gallery is American Kaiju. Corporal Todd Ziller volunteered for a program that was meant to replicate the success of the program that led to Captain America. However, the program filled some of its gaps Jurassic Park-style with Pym particles and gamma radiation, leading to a giant reptilian creature.

18. Mojo is a yellow-skinned, robot-legged creature living in his own world. On Mojoworld, Mojo has enslaved the population to be an audience for his shows, which typically involve younger versions of Marvel heroes. Mojo turned the X-Men into X-Babies but wasn’t able to keep them loyal to him.

19. Marvel introduced the Mental Organism Designed as America’s King (M.O.D.A.A.K) in 2016. The character bears a certain resemblance to a contemporary political figure, and it also hates foreigners. M.O.D.A.A.K is defeated by a black female Captain America after threatening to crush her in “my powerful hands.”

20. The villains are getting some love with X-Men Black, a series of five one-shot stories that each focus on a different villain: Magneto, Emma Frost, Mystique, Juggernaut, and Mojo.