The Marvel Cinematic Universe has a villain problem, which is pretty well known at this point. From always killing them off, to making them just plain boring. Though, with what we've been hearing of Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Ego the Living Planet in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, plus all the set-up for Thanos the Mad Titan, it seems Marvel is working their way towards more interesting foes for our beloved heroes. So, once the dust settles from the Infinity War, what should be the Avengers' next big challenge be? Well, aside from Galactus or Skrulls or all those other cosmic threats...

Of course! The Masters of Evil!

Now, I know much people would rather see the previously mentioned cosmic threats, but after the Infinity War, I feel Marvel should take a break from that. It took us all these years to get to Thanos, whatever they have planned next will most likely take just as long. In the meantime, what else would work? Well, imagine, after all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's heroes assemble to defeat this cosmic threat up in space, what could be going on down on Earth?

THE MASTERS OF EVIL

1. BARON ZEMO

I know what we saw in Captain America: Civil War wasn't exactly the same masked super-terrorist we know from the comics, but to me, the Helmut Zemo we see in Civil War is more of a villain-in-the-making. Well... he's a villain already, but you get what I mean.

(SPOILERS FOR CIVIL WAR!)

In Civil War, we see Helmut Zemo as a Sokovian soldier who lost his family in the Avengers' battle with Ultron. Now, the Helmut Zemo in the comics was actually the son of Heinrich Zemo, a WWII foe of Cap who was the original Baron Zemo, but when Heinrich Zemo was killed in battle with the Avengers, that's when Helmut stepped up to take his father's place. This is somewhat of a similarity between them, both having lost family members to the Avengers (albeit in the MCU version it wasn't as direct). At the end of Civil War, Black Panther refuses to let Zemo die, and I saw this as a clear way to set up the villain for much greater things. Perhaps Hydra, seeing how Zemo turned the Avengers on one another, frees the madman from SHIELD's prison, recruiting him in yet another plot. But this plot could be much greater. Honestly... probably something they should have tried sooner. Hydra is now out to recruit their own super-team, in order to destroy the Avengers once and for all, and Helmut Zemo, with his military background, would make a perfect leader. As for his classic costume, it's not too hard to imagine Helmut getting scarred in battle, and Hydra creating a mask to cover his deformed face. I know you're probably thinking the mask would look stupid, but just look at this concept art from when they were originally considering using the mask in Civil War.



You know what, it wouldn't even have to be because he's scarred. Maybe it's some sort of Hydra stealth suit. Or a Vibranium armor like Black Panther's. Either way, if Zemo is to lead the Masters of Evil against the Avengers, the man needs his purple mask.

2. ENCHANTRESS

Now, Enchantress should have appeared in the MCU long ago. The Enchantress and her Executioner are arguably Thor's two most iconic non-Loki villains. Also, she could make a great movie villain. With her ability to entrance any man to do her bidding, and her various magical skills. But, they probably wanted to avoid the whole "Enchantress's sole motiviation is that she loves Thor" story, which I myself rather dislike. As you could probably assume, I love this character, but her motivations? Not a big fan. I'm sure that Marvel Studios could find a much better story for Amora the Enchantress, it shouldn't be too difficult.

As for bringing her into the picture? I'm not sure. If Thor is even still alive post-Infinity War, she could easily be a scorned Asgardian sorceress with a vendetta against him, which is why she would come to Earth. Again, they should avoid just having her be in love with Thor. Because that's dumb. Maybe after a very public battle against Thor, or whatever heroes are around at the time, she gets the attention of Hydra, and they recruit her for their team. Or Hydra are the ones who open a portal to Asgard and go and bring Amora to Earth themselves? I don't know, I'm not the one who writes these movies here.

As for Executioner, he's already set to appear in Thor: Ragnarok, and from the rumors, it seems he'll be serving Hela rather than Enchantress, which is a pity, but I'm sure Ragnarok is going to be great, so it shouldn't matter too much. Since Amora can hypnotize anybody, Skurge shouldn't be too important to her anyways. Acting on her own rather than having to have some muscular henchman follow her around would probably make the character seem even more powerful. She's a freaking sorceress, she shouldn't need some axe-wielding goon to do the fighting for her.

But speaking of super-strong henchmen...

3. ABOMINATION

Now this one is rather unlikely due to the confusion with Marvel and Universal regarding the Hulk film rights, but since General Ross made a return in Civil War, why can't Abomination make a return in an Avengers film? I'm one of the few who enjoyed The Incredible Hulk, for some reason. I thought the movie was great, though I know it had flaws. One of them I'll acknowledge is the design of Abomination, which looks nothing like the comics, but that's really it (regarding Abomination, not the movie in general). That doesn't really matter, the design is still great, just not comic accurate. Oh well.

The Abomination is said in a few places (mainly the Marvel One-Shots and some of the tie-in comics) to be currently held in SHIELD captivity, and since Hydra was said in Civil War to have been in control of SHIELD this whole time, it's not hard to imagine they've had access to the beast, and have probably snuck Abomination off to one of their own facilities long ago. He would definitely be an obvious pick for the Masters of Evil, since he's basically the evil Hulk.

4. ABSORBING MAN

This one would be tricky. I haven't been following Agents of SHIELD very closely, but I do know that Absorbing Man seems to have reformed. But then remember who else we have lined up on the team? Enchantress. Hydra could easily be unaware of Absorbing Man's change of heart (even I was for a while, and I'm an MCU super-fan!), and when he doesn't want to go with them, they have Enchantress work her magic on. Then, in the final battle, the Absorbing Man could turn against Enchantress, and have his heroic moment, possibly sacrificing himself for the greater good. I don't imagine much else he could do in the MCU after the Masters of Evil, anyways. Sorry, Absorbing Man. The purpose to your existence is to entertain Marvel fans. Sucks being a fictional character, huh?

5. BLIZZARD

Another Agents of SHIELD one. At this point this is just a fan-fic anyway, so why not? Yes, the Iron Man villain known as Blizzard appeared on Agents of SHIELD. Albeit a bit different, which is a given. He was a SHIELD tech student brainwashed by Hydra into villainy after he gained the ability to freeze objects. So... Hydra already knows about this guy. Convenient. But he's supposedly dead. Inconvenient. What happened was, he turned against Hydra, yadda yadda, got shot in the chest, fell into the ocean, and froze as he sank. Well, he COULD have survived this. Perhaps this stress triggered a transformation that turned Donnie Gill itno pure ice, seeing as he froze completely while sinking. And that way, he could have survived the shot to the chest. Say he awakens, a man made of ice, and having lost his memory due to the trauma of the whole thing. Hydra easily tracks him down because a frozen man is probably something most people would freak out about, and then they convince him to work for them. But since he's mostly ice now, how do they keep him from, say... melting? Easy! Make him a special containment suit!



See? I always find a convoluted way to bring in the comic book costumes. But really though, the containment suit probably wouldn't look like that.

As a matter of fact, this is all hypothetical, none of this would probably happen. I'm sure after Infinity War, Marvel will be doing New Avengers anyways, but I don't see why the Masters of Evil wouldn't make a good first challenge for the New Avengers? Maybe in the Avengers' absence post-Infinity, the Masters of Evil rise, thus bringing about the need for the New Avengers!

I'm telling you, Marvel, that would be cool. (And no that's not a pun because we just talked about Blizzard)

Anyways, this is my first post on Comic Book Movie, I hope it wasn't too stupid or cringey.

This is BullseyeKills, saying... uh... have a nice week, you guys.

Yeah.

Have a nice week.