Ranked: All The Characters Of The Marvel Cinematic Universe

40. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross

A longtime adversary for the Hulk in the comics (and, not coincidentally the father of Betty), General Ross hasn’t yet ventured into the wider Marvel universe outside of his mostly antagonistic appearance in “The Incredible Hulk,” the black sheep of the Marvel movies. William Hurt did a solid job, bringing nuance and control to a character who could have just been a caricature (and kind of was, as played by Sam Elliott in Ang Lee’s 2003 entry) but not enough to render him truly memorable.

39. Ivan Vanko/Whiplash
The comeback of Mickey Rourke seemed complete when after the success of “The Wrestler,” he was picked to play the villainous Ivan Vanko, aka Whiplash, in “Iron Man 2.” Covered in “Eastern Promises”-style tattoos, straggly hair and brandishing massive electro-whips, he made for a striking figure, but aside from a gloriously random parrakeet, the actor’s eccentricities weren’t really let out to play, and the villain ultimately proved to be a negligible threat, dying swiftly in Marvel’s most underwhelming conclusion so far.

38. Aldrich Killian

The real Mandarin in “Iron Man 3,” Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian gives the great actor a relatively rare chance to play a Hollywood villain. He clearly relishes the opportunity, but aside from his “I used to be nerdy and ugly” motivation, there isn’t all that much to differentiate him from Sam Rockwell’s bad guy in the second movie. Well, he does breathe fire! Killian does the job well enough, but feels just a touch too generic after the more distinctive touches of much of the rest of “Iron Man 3.”

37. Obadiah Stane

Earning consideration for this list almost solely because he was the first Marvel Cinematic Universe villain, it’s not that Jeff Bridges‘ Stane, the double-crossing ex-business-partner of Tony’s Dad Howard, was necessarily a terrible character, although it’s a trope that anyone who’d ever watched a film before could see coming a mile away. It’s just he was substantially blown out of the water in that first “Iron Man” film by the establishment of the fizzy, irrepressible Tony Stark persona, so much so it would be difficult to pick him out of a lineup today, except that he was played by a fabulously bald Bridges.

36. Howard Stark
Joining the Hulk and Rhodey as one of the few characters in the Marvel universe to have been played by different actors, Tony’s dad first appeared (and will again in “Ant-Man”) in the form of “Mad Men” actor John Slattery, as a sort of lightly hammered Walt Disney figure, before returning in the more youthful playboy form of Dominic Cooper in the first “Captain America” (and subsequently the “Agent Carter” show). Cooper’s accent is a little wavy, but it’s a fun foreshadowing of the friendly/tense dynamic between Cap and Tony Stark that’s proving increasingly central to the mega-franchise.

35. Helen Cho

An ambitious and motivated scientific genius (because the Marvelverse don’t got enough of those) who is a specialist in tissue repair in ‘Age of Ultron,’ Cho is a welcome Asian character, played by Kim Soo-Hyun and given the canny “she’s always been here”-style mid-action introduction that Whedon rightly favors, and even gets a very humanizing moment suggesting her crush on Thor. Problem is *MILD SPOILER* as with every time the Chitauri sceptre is used for hypnosis, for some of her already short screen time, she’s Ultron’s puppet and so *SPOILER ENDS* she remains little more than a cipher. With a crush on Thor.

34. Maria Hill

Aside from Nick Fury, Maria Hill, played by “How I Met Your Mother” star Cobie Smulders, is the most visible face of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the movies at this point (at least now that Agent Coulson’s gone to TV). Unfortunately, the movies haven’t given the actress much of a chance to have fun so far: she’s mostly projected a sort of humorless bureaucrat vibe, though the brief flashes of badassery have been enjoyable when they’ve come. And hey, she gets to go to the “Age Of Ultron” party!

33. The Collector

Benicio Del Toro historically doesn’t do much in the way of blockbusters (he turned down the role of  Khan in “Star Trek Into Darkness,” among others), so it was intriguing to see what it was that lured him to “Guardians Of The Galaxy,” as space-hoarder The Collector. It seems that the answer was mostly “limited screen time” or “a love of exposition,” as the character didn’t quite live up to the high hopes we had with the Oscar-winner’s attachment, with only one major scene that featured him. That said, it was still fun to see Del Toro fly his freak flag as a sort of space Liberace-with-Jarmusch-hair.

32. James “Bucky” Barnes/The Winter Soldier
Those who only knew actor Sebastian Stan by reputation from “Gossip Girl” were duly impressed when he turned up as Cap’s best bud Bucky in “Captain America” —it was a nice little performance that suggested talent beyond teen drama. But both movies, including the sequel in which he’s the (sub)title character the Winter Soldier, underuse him: his “death” in “The First Avenger” doesn’t have that much impact because he’s not been seen much, and he’s a brainwashed blank (Hawkeye Syndrome, as it’s known in Marvel movies) in the second, even if he’s much more badass. Third time’s the charm?

31. Erik Selvig
Stellan Skarsgard is always worth the price of admission, and the “Thor” movies allowed him to play a neat twist on the scientist/mentor type: bonding with the title character through boozing in the first film and being all naked and crazy in “The Dark World.” He’s not fared as well outside those two films unfortunately, being reduced to an exposition delivery device in the “Avengers” films, when he’s not a blank-eyed zombie under mind control. Still, a little dry Scandinavian wit in these films is always worthwhile.