The Marvel Cinematic Universe has dozens of comic book villains to its name, ranging from minor ones like Justin Hammer and Aldrich Killian to major, world-shaking antagonists like Kang the Conqueror and the rogue robot Ultron. It’s usually the Avengers who fight these powerful antagonists, but sometimes the Guardians of the Galaxy get a piece of the action, too.
In the three Guardians of the Galaxy movies and the Avengers movies, the ever-evolving Guardians team has fought a variety of foes, some of them truly terrifying and deadly or even downright bizarre. To their credit, the Guardians team nearly always prevails in the end, all so they can protect the beloved galaxy they live in from certain doom.
10 Kyln Prison Guards
In the MCU’s second phase, the newly-assembled Guardians ended up in the Kyln prison, and they urgently needed to break out so they could find a way to stop Ronan the Accuser. So, Rocket Raccoon thought up a plan to escape and fight off all the guards.
The Kyln prison guards were not memorable MCU villains, but they served their purpose in making that jailbreak more difficult. The guards could fight in person with rocket launchers, and they also had flying, well-armed robot drones to shoot any escaping prisoners dead.
9 Orgocorps Security Forces
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the rag-tag Guardians team broke into the Orgocorps headquarters to find the right codes to save Rocket’s life. At first, the Guardians passed themselves off as maintenance crew and got along with the guards, which included a cameo from Firefly star Nathan Fillion.
Halfway through the mission, things turned violent, and the Guardians had to shoot their way out of Orgocorps’ HQ. The goofy guards turned deadly serious and nearly defeated the Guardians, but shutting off the artificial gravity did the trick, and the Guardians fled.
8 Korath
Korath was a minor antagonist in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, and he was the first to appear, too. In Guardians Vol. 1, Korath and his men cornered the witty rogue Star-Lord on the planet Morag, and for humor’s sake, Korath failed to recognize the name Star-Lord.
Korath fought fiercely with his high-tech weapons along with his crew to capture that orb, but Star-Lord escaped. Korath and his men even used a heavy turret to shoot down Star-Lord’s ship, only to fail. Later, Korath ran into Star-Lord again, and this time, he knew Star-Lord’s name right away.
7 Taserface
The MCU’s third phase introduced the oafish villain Taserface, who led a mutiny against Yondu Udonta to become the ship’s new captain. Taserface thought he was a cool pirate king, but Rocket Raccoon found it impossible to take such a villain seriously.
Taserface was completely unlikeable and didn’t last long as a villain, but he did amuse Guardians viewers with his bizarre antics. Then, when Kraglin helped Yondu, Rocket, and Goot escape, Yondu got the last laugh as he blew up his ship with Taserface trapped aboard.
6 The Abilisk
When Guardians Vol. 2 started, the Guardians were already gearing up to fight one of the biggest foes yet: an abilisk. These creatures are Lovecraftian beasts who have a tough hide that not even Drax’s knives can easily slice open, so it takes some creative thinking to take one down.
The first abilisk was an entertaining and off-beat antagonist for the Guardians to fight, but Vol. 3 handled things differently. In that movie, Mantis used her empathy to soothe three abilisks and convince them to help her, Goot, and Nebula escape, riding them as beasts of war.
5 Ronan The Accuser
Ronan the Accuser was the primary antagonist of 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, a Kree warrior who was determined to use the Power Stone to destroy Xandar once and for all. He was just a pawn of Thanos, but he felt bold enough to claim that Infinity Stone for himself and go rogue.
Ronan was a deadly and scary foe for the Guardians to face, and he easily defeated them on Knowhere, nearly killing them in the process. He appeared again during the climax, where he tried to act impressive until Star-Lord interrupted with his dance-off challenge.
4 The Sovereign
In Vol. 2, the gold Sovereign race hired the Guardians to retrieve some batteries, but after Rocket stole them, the Sovereign turned hostile. The Sovereign proved to be formidable and unusual villains, being prideful and wrathful beings who treated space fights like an arcade game so they don’t have to risk their own lives.
In particular, Ayesha vowed to destroy the Guardians, so she created Adam Warlock to finish them off. Adam was an antagonist at first in Vol. 3, but then he became a loose ally of the Guardians when fighting the High Evolutionary.
3 The High Evolutionary
The High Evolutionary aimed not to destroy or conquer the universe, but to populate it with perfect life forms of his own design. The High Evolutionary put a lot of stock in advanced science, even at the cost of countless tortured test subjects, including Rocket Raccoon.
The High Evolutionary stood out because of his relatively original aims and methods, and he was also scarily intense about it. Unlike some sympathetic MCU villains, the High Evolutionary was brutally dedicated to his mission, and he would shout in rage anytime something went wrong.
2 Ego
Star-Lord’s Celestial father, the prideful Ego, was the main villain of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, though he didn’t seem that way at first. Played by veteran actor Kurt Russell, Ego presented himself as a wise, benevolent being who just wanted to create and protect life, but he was actually a monster.
By all standards, Ego is a powerful and memorable villain as a small, living planet with a glowing brain for a core. He could be scary when provoked, and he could use formidable psionic abilities and his own planet-sized body to fight and protect his mission at all costs.
1 Thanos
The archvillain Thanos is primarily an Avengers villain, but the Guardians of the Galaxy played a supporting role in 2019’s The Avengers: Infinity War, so he also counts as a Guardians villain. Thanos wielded the power of the Infinity Stones, but the Guardians challenged him anyway—and almost won.
On the planet Titan, the Guardians had Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and Iron Man to help them, and they briefly captured Thanos before the battle turned against him. Thanos also had a personal connection to the Guardians, being Gamora’s and Nebula’s foster father and sacrificing Gamora to obtain the Soul Stone.
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