The 10 Most Powerful Threats in the Marvel Universe

The Biggest Threats in Marvel

Who are the heavy hitters in Marvel?

The Marvel Universe has more than its share of universal threats. Most readers and comic book fans aren't aware of most of them. I decided that writing this article was more out of need than out of pleasure when I found that Thanos was a mystery to some of the younger comic book readers.

I'm actually happy that Thanos is now getting the attention he deserves.

Over the last 50 years, Marvel Comics has amassed some pretty powerful villains. Villains are people you should be worried about—but the terms "villain" and "threat" are not necessarily synonymous.

In a real-world example, Osama bin Laden was a villain who was a threat. He was evil and wanted to cause destruction. However, bin Laden at his worst, could not cause the same kind of devastation as a natural disaster or the "threat" of global warming.

Blizzards, hurricanes, and floods are not evil—they just are.

The best title for this is "threat" rather than villain because some of these beings are not evil as we understand them.

Let's begin with the most popular.

Galactus the World Eater

Case in point: Galactus.

Some would argue that Galactus is the worst villain in the Marvel Universe. He's not. Although what Galactus does is incredibly destructive, causes death, and ends worlds, the term "evil" does not really fit. Galactus does what he needs to survive. There is no malice in what he does, just as there is really no malice for any Mcdonald's customer to any cow that was part of his cheeseburger. The death and destruction that Galactus causes are incidental to his survival.

Galactus needs to consume the life-energy of planets in order to survive. If the planet he consumes is inhabited, it is unfortunate.

What we can call Galactus is a universal threat. After all, what would you call someone or something that needs to destroy planets to survive? What would you do about such a threat? All inhabited planets that have been consumed by Galactus have tried to fight back. Unfortunately for them, Galactus is too powerful to be stopped.

The Beyonder: God in Another Universe

Okay, yes, he looks like some kind of glam rocker from the eighties. But don't be fooled; he's all-powerful.

Back in the eighties, Marvel Comics ran a storyline that lasted for almost a year called The Secret Wars. Marvel's big-name heroes (Spider-Man, The Hulk, Mister Fantastic, The Human Torch, The Thing, Iron Man, The Wasp, Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Thor, Spider-Woman, Professor X, Cyclops, Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Wolverine, and Lockheed the Dragon) faced off against a collection of villains (Galactus, Doctor Doom, The Molecule Man, The Wrecking Crew, The Lizard, Klaw, Magneto, The Absorbing Man, The Enchantress, Kang, Titania, Ultron, and Volcana). They were gathered by a bodiless being called The Beyonder.

You see, The Beyonder didn't understand the nature of good and evil, as well as the motivations behind humanity. He told both groups to slay their enemies, and he'd grant the winners whatever they desired. Nothing was impossible for him to grant.

In the aftermath of the Secret Wars, the Beyonder wanted to experience life as a human. Originally he created a body from parts of the beings he observed from the participants of the first Secret Wars. In his second attempt, he modeled a body from that of Captain America, and then later, he changed his hairstyle and clothes based on recommendations from a mob family.

Reality bends at the whim of the Beyonder. In his home universe, he was everything, and everything was him. There is no being or entity in the Marvel Universe (save the Molecule Man) who can challenge his might. This includes Galactus, Mephisto, and Death.

Owen Reece, The Molecule Man

Looks like a 98-pound weakling, doesn't he? Yeah ... don't screw with him.

Owen Reece essentially was irradiated and absorbed the energy of a cosmic cube. The accident put lighting-like scars on his face. Initially, Reece thought he could control all the aspects of inorganic matter. Calling himself the Molecule Man, he is the picture of a disgruntled lab worker in a giant corporation who took revenge on the corporate president that fired him for causing the lab accident.

Not a good idea when the accident gives you power over matter and energy.

The Molecule Man was the frequent foe of the Fantastic Four as the Watcher. An oath-breaking piece of interference alerted the group to Reece's power.

Reece was wrong about his own power and subconsciously thought he only had the power to affect inorganic matter. It turned out he could affect all matter and energy. That made him as powerful as a god.

It is a good thing that, within recent years, Reece sought out therapists to help him with his own inner demons of inadequacy and, more or less, has become psychologically stable. A natural homebody, Reece prefers to be left alone and not to be disturbed unless the crisis calls for his intervention.

Dark Phoenix

This is not Arizona at night.

The dark side of the Phoenix force is something to be feared and dreaded. We know the Phoenix force as the energy that joined with Jean Grey, cloned her, and for a brief time on Earth, lived life as Jean Grey.

Our experience with the Phoenix force is with Jean Grey and Rachel Summers. When it had bonded with Grey, it was subject to all of her mind and emotion. With that being said, it was also vulnerable to her psychological dark side that everyone has. As a high-level psionic energy manipulator, Grey may have eventually been able to work with the force. However, during her time when she was manipulated by the mutant Mastermind while at the mutant Hellfire Club, she may have lost the necessary control she needed.

The Phoenix force, which usually manifests itself in the shape of a great bird of fire, can bond with a high-level telepath. Afterward, it can manipulate time, energy, and matter, and be at one with cosmic awareness, making it omniscient. It is indestructible and is part of the primal energies of this universe. Many have said that the Phoenix force is the second most powerful force in the universe.

The Dreaded Dormammu

Cosmic-level threats come from many places—physical and mystical.

The Dreaded Dormammu reigns over the mystic dark dimension. According to Doctor Strange, the sorcerer supreme in this dimension, the Dormammu is a threat to the life of the universe itself. He has displayed energy projection, matter transmutation, size-shifting and teleportation, body possession, the resurrection of the dead, bestowing of power, and creating demon lords. Within his own dimension, there is no entity that can stop him.

It is only through the Dormammu's own oath, as he is indebted to Doctor Strange for helping him protect his own dimension, that he does not invade this one. While he won't invade Earth or this dimension directly, he is not beyond using pawns to carry out his evil deeds. In the past, he has used Baron Mordo, Nicolas Scratch, and the demon Satanish to do his bidding.

In the brief episodes that Dormammu has made his incursion upon this dimension (through merging the Dark Dimension with this one), his presence has caused humanity to turn into demon-like creatures and the world into a hellish environment.

Mephisto: Pure Evil

The Devil, you say?

All of you know this guy. He is the guy you meet when you say, "For (fill in the blank), I'd sell my soul to the Devil." Mephisto will not only make the deal but will accept all major forms of trade and barter to make this deal come true.

He's bad ... really, really bad. He rules what we'd call Hell—complete with damned souls, fire, brimstone ... you name it. Mephisto pops up anytime there is a character that seems to be incorruptible and has a unique kind of problem that a master of time, space, and dimension can solve.

Normally, his victim is the Silver Surfer. He takes a particular type of joy in the fact that, while the Surfer was trapped on Earth, he could torture and tease him by showing him his true love, Shalla Bal, and denying him when he said, "No."

Like all the stories, any time anyone makes a deal with the Devil, things usually don't quite work out as the bargainer intends. It's all in the fine print. However, there are some times when a hero gets the better of Mephisto. Spider-Man and Mary Jane managed to resurrect Aunt May at the cost of their marriage and continuity—with just the lingering in their subconscious of what they'd given up so that they'd suffer that much. In this deal, however, it is still possible for Peter and MJ to still find each other and find happiness while not breaking the deal.

Thanos the Titan

Thanos has ruled the universe at least three times in the past.

What can you say about a character that starts out with a few mediocre powers and develops his mind and body to achieve his goals of universal domination and destruction? Thanos' goal has always been to woo Death. The more people he kills and the more planets he destroys, the more he believes Death will love him back.