How The MCU Failed One Of Its Most Important Villains

When Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 was first released, MCU fans were instantly obsessed with the new team of superheroes. Starlord, Gamora, Drax, Groot, and Rocket were all instant fan favorites. But the films villain Ronan the Accuser, although stoic and intimidating, was mostly forgettable. Though Ronan's brief role in Guardians of the Galaxy and the MCU as a whole has a deceptively large impact on Avengers: Infinity War, the Accuser's appearances in Marvel comics paint an entirely different portrait.

#guardiansofthegalaxy #starlord #marvel #nerdstalgic

[Volatik]

The first movie didn't really need a villain with personal connections to one of the Guardians to be a good movie. It worked by focusing on the Guardians becoming a team.

[PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworth]

This made me realize Marvel's "death" problem goes both ways. No heroes die, but all the villains do.

They've created an inverse of the comics. Normally each hero has a big collection of villains to fight, making it easy to explain why nobody's around to help during solo adventures. Since the MCU kills off most of its villains directly after introduction, it doesn't have that luxury.

[SirEvilestDeath]

They failed him and us as fans by not having him dance back against Starlord.

[Luciphell]

Lee Pace was done dirty with this writing. Totally agree.

[sttrooper-ltxp]

James Gunn got much better with villains with Guardians 2 and 3

[Tonyhouse]

Hugo Weaving is CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED!

[BoyNamedSue]

Ronan in the comics: Complex antihero.

MCU: Plot device.

[BrendanPappas]

While I will 100% agree with the opinion that no one should consider Ronan to be among the best villains the MCU has had, I’ve personally always felt that he’s been way too overhated. Could the writers have spent more time giving him a deeper and more sympathetic backstory like they’ve done for their superior villains? Absolutely. But I honestly don’t think that the first “Guardians” film suffers at all due to his lack of depth. The intention of the movie was for Disney to show that they could take their superhero stories outside of the typical mold they were following and introduce something refreshing that would be just as enjoyable. And that’s exactly what they did. Ronan is menacing and threatening enough to be a villain that poses a legitimate and intriguing threat to the Guardians. Do we really have to nitpick the fact that we weren’t given more of a reason to somewhat root for him when the movie ended up being fantastic and still holds up just as well today?

[milkiassamuel]

I mean, back in the early days of the MCU, they did have a bit of a villain problem when it came to writing compelling and memorable villains (except for Loki, who was perfect), and even now where the MCU has gotten so much better at giving us interesting and complex villains that stay memorable, I do admit I do think hey could've done a better job with Ronan. Granted, this was James Gunn's first MCU movie, and the man got so much better at writing his villains (just look at Ego and High Evolutionary);. However, I never had the strongest attachment to Ronan the Accuser from the comics; I do kinda wish they made the character a little more interesting than just being a bitter goon for Thanos to build up the Infinity Saga. Nevertheless that dance battle scene still remains as one of the funniest scenes in the MCU

[BoyKagome]

...did he call Hela boring?

- rolls up newspaper.- Bad Nerdstalgic, look what you did.

[flintlockwood]

I will not have Hela slander, she was hilarious

[Zombiesnyder]

Every villain gets overshadowed by a bigger villain that has yet to come

This is why Thanos stands out the most

[gdawgs]

NGL I didn't even remember Ronan the Accuser. I remembered the dude from the walking dead with the whistle arrow thing being the villain 😅

[TapirMask]

It's actually funny how every time a villain returns in a superhero movie it's always such a highlight (Goblin in Spider-Man 2, Scarecrow and Ra's in Dark Knight sequels, all of No Way Home, every Loki appearance, even Lex Luthor in Donner Superman) and yet after 35 years nobody has clocked that maybe they shouldn't be killing these villains off after one movie. Especially in the MCU where they're having to reuse other character's villains or even invent them for The Marvels.

[kylespevak]

6:48 They were building Kang up perfectly, then they ditched him 😅

[JBrotsis]

Nerdstalgic: Hold the MCU failed Ronan

Ultron: Hold my beer!

[DR.slzzzp]

still one of my favorite villains ever, i wish he got more screen time… he showed sm potential & i loved how dark he was. still one of the only people ive ever seen strike any type of fear in thanos even if it was only for a second & had no fear towards him.

[harryanders]

Ronan vs Thanos was the match-up we never got to see. I loved this villain, too bad he was not featured more. Lee Pace was excellent in this role.

[jwanie]

Why did I think this was Doctor Doom as soon as I saw the thumbnail lol. I do wish we could've seen more of Ronan; I haven't liked how the MCU kills off most of its villains after just one movie/show

[youngmelo]

Ronan and The High Evolutionary are so underrated in the MCU