When it comes to Marvel Comics, it can be argued that favorite heroes are only as good as their villains. Their goodness is defined in opposition to the villain’s evilness, and their battles with them are often a colossal clash of powers and abilities. But what about the baddies without the powers?
Marvel has some of comics' best villains - from big-screen baddies like the universe-destroying Thanos to ne’er-do-wells like the centipede-loving Kindred - and their roster of non-powered villains is just as impressive. While it’s easy to see why someone like Thanos or Kindred may be a threat to heroes, it’s sometimes harder to see why anyone with powers would be threatened by a “normal,” non-powered person, even if they are evil.
To be a non-powered villain, characters must use what abilities they do have. For some villains, that means loading up on tech. One of the best examples Anton Vanko, aka Crimson Dynamo. As an intelligent inventor, Vanko creates a suit for himself that is just as strong as Iron Man’s. His intelligence means that he presents a deadly threat for Iron Man and any other who may stand in his way. A villain with a mind sharp enough to use their skills and knowledge to build technology to fight a superhero is an immediate threat. After all, heroes can’t out-punch intelligence.
But is a man in a metal suit that much of a threat to another man in a metal suit? Maybe, maybe not. When building evil technological marvels, a level of creativity is required. Otto Octavius, aka Doc Ock, first appeared in comics in 1963 as a foil for the newly minted superhero Spider-Man. As a portly, bespectacled scientist, he seems like an unlikely nemesis, but his creativity, paired with his intelligence makes him a real threat. His many tentacled arms make him that much more difficult to beat and has allowed him to get the upper hand on Spider-Man on more than one occasion. While some readers may consider his mental connection to the mechanical arms a “power,” others argue it’s still just science, albeit comic book science. Plus, Spider-Man fights the tentacles, not Doc Ock’s mind.
Cleverness and creativity are, of course, a deadly combination, but are they the deadliest? Comic books are full of criminals. Criminals who fly, criminals who grow and shrink, criminals who have super-speed. Kingpin aka Wilson Fisk, however, is a criminal with power. His power is not just physical—though his massive body and fight training do make him a real threat—but the power of a massive criminal network at his fingertips and the money to purchase or destroy whatever he desires. Despite this, though, he is not someone who is afraid to get his hands dirty, making him far deadlier than any lone wolf tech nerd with a bone to pick. As a mob boss and a strongman fighter, his power makes him an incredibly deadly villain.
But to be the deadliest villain, it’s not enough to be intelligent, creative, and powerful—one needs to be driven. In Marvel Comics, there is no supervillain with more drive than Red Skull. While baddies like Doc Ock and Kingpin set their sights on taking down a singular superhero and controlling a city, Red Skull set bigger goals: world domination. Driven by rage, he is handpicked by Hitler to lead and given control over money, over scientific projects, over scores of men, allowing him to pursue his goal of genocide and world domination.
Marvel has created many villains over the years. Of these villains, there are plenty without superpowers, and some, like Red Skull, are actually truly deadly. Nazis are evil, and Nazis with a plan and an immense amount of power and technology at their disposal are especially dangerous. Unlike many of comics' gimmicky villains, Red Skull expresses a real, deadly ideology that many equally evil people believe to this day. The realism of Red Skull's threats, plus the power he has to make them happen, makes him the deadliest of Marvel’s non-powered supervillains.