Who Are The Big Bads These Days?

Spinning off from yesterday's post, who would you say are the A-list villains at Marvel these days? Besides the real life people who screw over Kirby's family and Gary Friedrich, obviously. Fictional villains.

There are two problems I've encountered with this almost immediately.

1) So many villains are turning good these days, or at least behaving in a manner which makes it hard for me to stamp "villain" over their picture and move on. For example, I was going to start with Dr. Doom, but oh wait, he works with the Future Foundation now. If he's actually teaming up with the Accursed Richards and his kin, rahter than trying to exterminate them, does he still count? Then I thought Loki, but Little Kid Loki doesn't sound too villainous these days. Magneto's back with the X-Men again, which is fine, I came into comics when Mags' was a good guy, I've got no complaints, but it takes him off the board, too.

2) Is "A-list" a relative thing? Wilson Fisk was a big-time villain for Daredevil and the Punisher, but he'd hardly be a blip on the radar to Thor, who would likely just smash Fisk's skyscraper now (after making sure it was safely empty) and worry about public relations fallout later, if ever. Fisk is in one of his periodic lulls anyway, isn't he?

With all that said, Ultron was the first one who came to mind, after Doom anyway. I considered Galactus, but I look at him as more of a natural disaster than a villain. Which means I've bought into his bull about being a necessary force in the universe, but we can debate it if you'd like. The Mole Man seems like he should be, in theory, but I don't quite see it. Sometimes he comes off as a cranky old guy who just wants the surface dwellers to leave him alone. Like a subterranean Namor. The Hood (ugh) is currently out of commission, I think (good riddance). Cain Marko isn't the Juggernaut anymore, which takes him off the table. The Intelligencia were pretty impressive as a whole, but I'm not convinced any of them are top shelf solo acts. Maybe MODOK or the Leader. Doctor Octopus is certainly making a play for it, and he's definitely on Spidey's A-list so hell, let's count him. Annihilus was helping Johnny Storm last I saw, but that might not have been willingly, and it sounds like Ronan went bad again. Thanks Hickman *rolls eyes*.

What's the Mandarin up to? You know, I've hardly ever seen him tangle with anyone other than Iron Man, besides this old Avengers Annual my dad had where he rounded up a bunch of villains and threw them at the Avengers. Oh crap, I have to count Norman Osborn, don't I? I cannot wait until some writer kills him off again. He's not even in anything I read, it's just this awareness of his continued use that grates anytime I think about it. I'm throwing Fin Fang Foom in, to end my list on a positive note. Or use Zemo if you like, he's back to being evil thanks to Brubaker, right? That makes about a half-dozen or so villains, some of which don't seem very active these days. I guess if you rotate which ones are making noise at a given time, mix the second-tier villains in liberally, it can work.

It was mentioned in the comments on House to Astonish, but with practically every hero being part of a team now, the teams are huge, and the villains have been forced to form their own armies to have any chance. Unfortunately, it's hard for a character to distinguish themselves amongst a mob, and even harder when their mob inevitably loses. This is some writer reaction to the old "Why didn't Hero X call in Team Y to help him with Villain R?" thing, isn't it? I always liked the, "Because that team is off doing something else!" answer myself. Like when Spider-Man had to fight the Juggernaut. He tries to get ahold of the FF, Avengers, or X-Men, but they're all off on their own adventures. Ditto Dr. Strange. Spidey had to deal with it himself, because he couldn't afford to wait. Or it can simply be there's no time. Not every threat is going to move at as leisurely a pace as Juggy did in that story. Sometimes it's about doing the best they can.