When Iron Man first hit theaters in 2008, moviegoers had no idea about the cultural landmark that had just begun. Over the next four years, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the Hulk were all introduced to Tony Stark’s world, culminating in a groundbreaking crossover event in which Earth’s Mightiest Heroes teamed up to take on a Norse god and his cosmic overlord.
In the earliest days of the MCU, the franchise wasn’t yet getting the “villain problem” criticisms that it gets today, because its first round of movies had surprisingly strong antagonists. Of course, they weren’t all fantastic.
Laufey
While the primary villain of Thor is the titular god’s adopted brother Loki, it has a secondary antagonist in the form of Laufey, the King of the Frost Giants and Loki’s biological father.
Laufey’s lack of development may be a result of his limited screen time, but there was a lot more potential in the Frost Giant who fathered the trickster god.
Abomination
Since The Incredible Hulk features an entirely different incarnation of Bruce Banner played by Edward Norton and it’s barely been acknowledged by subsequent movies, many fans don’t even consider it to be a part of the MCU. Tim Roth plays the villain, Emil Blonsky, a needlessly evil soldier who becomes the Abomination, essentially a white version of the Hulk, for a predictable smash-‘em-up showdown in the third act.
Some fans have been hoping that the Abomination will return if the MCU assembles its own Thunderbolts team. Maybe if that does happen, Roth can be given a role worthy of his talents.
Arnim Zola
Toby Jones is a great actor, but he’s relegated to the role of Red Skull’s lackey in Captain America: The First Avenger. Arnim Zola is a mad Nazi scientist, but he’s characterized like Jeff Fungus from Monsters, Inc..
Zola would later play a more interesting role in The Winter Soldier when he was resurrected as a supercomputer and came darn close to ordering a ton of assassinations across the globe based on an algorithm he devised.
Whiplash
Aside from his cool electrified whips, whose visual spectacle wears thin after their first appearance on the Monaco racetrack, there’s not a lot about Whiplash that’s very exciting. Tony and Rhodey easily defeat him in the final battle, and it’s not a plant-and-payoff triumph — it’s just something they try in the spur of the moment that happens to work out.
Mickey Rourke seems to be trying out a different Eastern European accent in every scene, and for most of the movie, Tony doesn’t even realize he’s out there, so there’s no tension between hero and villain.
Justin Hammer
Justin Hammer isn’t a particularly well-written character. He’s pretty obviously characterized as a less cool version of Tony Stark. He’s a guy who desperately wants to be Tony; he has the money but not the charisma. As expected, this wore thin pretty quickly.
Fortunately, Marvel managed to land Sam Rockwell for the part. His performance as Hammer elevated the character above his poor writing. He leans into Hammer’s failed attempts at Stark-ian flash, like his dance onto the convention stage, and it’s a lot of fun.
Red Skull
Steve Rogers faced his most iconic foe from the comics in his first solo movie. The First Avenger, and the comics it’s drawn from, tiptoe around depicting Hitler and the Nazi Party by using Red Skull and Hydra as a stand-in. As a snarling, power-hungry, hate-mongering egomaniac bent on world domination, Red Skull is a perfect counterpoint to what Captain America stands for.
Hugo Weaving already had plenty of experience playing bad guys, like Agent Smith in The Matrix trilogy, and comic book characters, like the title character in V for Vendetta, when he was cast to play Red Skull. He unsurprisingly knocked it out of the park.
Obadiah Stane
The first villain that Iron Man faced established the trend of Tony Stark’s envious business rivals trying to take him down in his solo movies. What makes Obadiah Stane so special is that he’s also the guy who raised Tony. After Howard Stark died suddenly, Obadiah acted as Tony’s father figure between his reckless adolescence and his equally reckless adulthood.
Tony really thought that he could trust Obadiah, so he was shocked to discover that the guy tried to have him murdered by terrorists. Jeff Bridges, who usually plays likable protagonists, did a stellar job of making Obadiah’s evil seem tangible.
Loki
Loki became the first MCU villain to have a multi-movie arc. Thor introduced his jealousy of his brother and Odin’s neglectful parenting, establishing Loki's motivations as a villain. Then The Avengers saw him launching a full-scale alien attack on New York City. Even after multiple deaths, Loki is still around, because fans can’t get enough of him. He’s Marvel’s very own Bobby Ewing.
In Thor, the trickster god’s characterization was a little smarmy, but Joss Whedon balanced his personality traits deftly in The Avengers’ script and Tom Hiddleston settled into the mustache-twirling villainy of the role by the time his second appearance rolled around.