The Marvel Cinematic Universe has always done a phenomenal job in developing its characters, yet in the early years of the franchise, it was often cited as having a villain problem. While the heroes were often well-developed, early villains like Iron Monger, Whiplash, and Maleketh the Accursed had a lot to be desired. Yet as the franchise went on, they started to develop more complex villains, some with some truly tragic backstories.

Update November 7, 2023: In honor of the upcoming release of The Marvels and the season 2 finale of Loki, this article has been updated to include even more sympathetic MCU villains.

As the franchise continued, more villains populated it. While there are those that can be described as evil, like the Nazi-associated Red Skull, genocidal titan Thanos, or the cruel High Evolutionary, the franchise also has plenty of villains with tragic backstories that make them a bit more complex. These are the most sympathetic MCU villains ever. We will exclude the various Spider-Man villains from Spider-Man: No Way Home since those were villains from other franchises that migrated into the MCU.

Loki (Thor)

Loki has to be one of the villains with more character development in the MCU. Currently playing the role of a sympathetic, reformed villain after being forced to work for the Time Variance Authority, Loki was always in the shadow of his brother Thor, despite being told he was his equal in terms of heritage. Loki would discover the lies regarding his origin that he was, in fact, a Frost Giant, and how he was taken from his people after Odin defeated them in combat.

Bitter at the realization, Loki would follow a downward spiral to villainy, first by teaming up with Thanos, who granted him control of the Chiaturi army to conquer the Earth. After being defeated, he would stand by his brother's side, although not unconditionally. Loki proved his worth when he tried to save the last survivors of Asgard after the events of Ragnarok and died in the process. Thanks to hiring Shakesperian actor turned director Kenneth Branagh, he gave Loki plenty of nuance and pathos to make him a tragic figure that audiences have been following for over a decade.

Taskmaster (Black Widow)

The introduction of Taskmaster into the MCU proved very polarizing among the fandom. While the character is a mercenary who can mimic any skill from his opponents, the character was changed for the Black Widow film. In the story, Taskmaster is Antonia Dreykov, the lead operative of The Red Room and the daughter of General Dreykov, who was severely wounded by the bombing in Dreykov's quarters in Budapest.

The damage was so extensive it forced the general to lace his daughter's brain with machinery, turning her into the perfect killing machine. Antonia is not meant to be a villain. She is a casualty of Black Widow's past sins. Antonia is released from her programming at the end of the story. She will soon return in the MCU in Thunderbolts, which will unite her with another sympathetic villain on this list.

Vulture (Spider-Man: Homecoming)

With an incredible performance by Michael Keaton, Spider-Man: Homecoming moved away from the classic anti-aging comic storyline of Adrian Toomes and instead built his character from the destruction caused by the final battle in The Avengers. Indeed, Toomes was just your normal middle-class everyman who had his livelihood stripped away in the aftermath of the Battle of New York by SHIELD.

In order to continue providing for his family and make up for money already spent on construction crews, Toomes turned to weapons theft, manufacturing, and distribution and became The Vulture. He had no real villainous motivation other than the financial care and protection of his family, but Spider-Man found himself in Vulture's crosshairs when he interfered with that. Of course, Toomes' nonchalant reaction to accidentally murdering Shocker as well as his apathy to selling dangerous weapons in other neighborhoods, takes away from his sympathetic motives. However, upon Vulture's capture, he has the opportunity to give up Peter Parker's name to Scorpion but keeps it a secret. That has to count for something.

Karli Morgenthau (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier)

So far, the only villain from a Disney+ series is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's Karli Monrgenthau (Erin Kellyman) is a teenager who leads an anti-nationalist terrorist organization known as The Flag Smashers. They are an organization that looks to restore the world to the way it was before the Blip when people shared their resources. Karli's motivations are notable, so much so that even Sam Wilson agrees with her fight to an extent, just not her method.

What is frustrating is that Marvel pushes her over the line in an extreme way, to where she kills innocent civilians that leaves her own people shocked, as a way to show she is a villain and make sure the audience roots against her. Yet until that point, she is a relatable but also tragic figure who was one of many people who were displaced and had their lives changed for the worse after the events of Avengers: Endgame. She is a reminder that even heroic actions will still have consequences, and the heroes need to make sure that the fight does not stop when the big purple monster is defeated.

Wenwu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings)

Despite being a warlord for a thousand years before the events of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Wenwu (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) ultimately found love that pulled him from the darkness of war and crime. Upon his marriage to Ying Li and the eventual birth of his children, he left behind a life of villainy and violence, including putting the magical rings to rest. It wasn't until his wife was murdered because of his past mistakes that Wenwu regressed into a villainous role.

Most of his evil-doing in the film came from his desperation to be reunited with his deceased wife. Wenwu believed his wife was alive and was kept captive in her magical village of Ta Lo. In a world where magic exists, death isn't always final, and resurrection can happen with the snap of a finger, it's no wonder that Wenwu did everything in his power, dark as it may be, to be reunited with one of the only people he ever truly loved. Wenwu was a man who thought he had put evil behind him, only to fall back into old habits as he believed it would have kept his family safe. Yet in the end, it pushed his two children further and further away from him.

Namor (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)

Namor, the legendary Marvel character, finally made it to the big screen with the release of 2022's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The character is the ruler of the underwater city of Talokan, and his primary goal is to look out for his people. While his methods are extreme, including threatening the life of a young girl, Namor's backstory informs his entire worldview.

His people had been slaughtered and enslaved by colonizers, and with the massive amount of power he wields, he wants to make sure that never happens again. He is a king burdened with leadership but also an understandable fear of what will happen to those he loves if the world finds out about their underwater civilization. Even the film acknowledges Namor as a complex character as the movie even shows Shuri having sympathy towards his plight, and she is only pushed to conflict when he kills her mother.

Ghost (Ant-Man and The Wasp)

Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) was one of the more underutilized and sympathetic MCU villains. As a small child, Ava Starr watched as both of her parents were killed in a horrible scientific accident, which not only left Ava with quantum-related powers but also put her in an unbearable amount of pain. At an early age, her powers were taken advantage of by SHIELD, and she was thrown into dangerous situations as a stealth operative.

Although it's thought that Ghost's primary motivation is revenge in Ant Man & The Wasp, being that Hank Pym was the one that fired her father and drove him to test quantum experimentation on his own, the more understandable motive is that her molecules were breaking apart one-by-one, and with the help of Bill Foster, she had find a way to stop her inevitable and extremely painful death. In short, she was just trying to survive, and she was suffering from the aftermath of tragic events she had no control over. The heroes extended a helping hand and spared her pain, setting up her future in the MCU with Thunderbolts.

Sylvie Laufeydottir (Loki)

Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) may be the most tragic variant of all the Loki variants. She was abducted as a child by the TVA (Time Variance Authority) for the predicted Nexus event that she would cause, and her timeline, including her life and everyone she ever loved, was reset. Unlike many other variants, Loki never showed that Sylvie would become the warmongering and devious ruler that the others would.

She escaped the TVA and hid during traumatic Nexus events in the timeline for years, constructing her plan of revenge. The only love Sylvie ever knew was taken from her by an organization that played God, and the audience feels for her every step of the way. It goes to show what she valued most, as after being freed from He Who Remains rule, she found a simple life in a McDonald's where she felt safe. Whereas the mundane nature of fast food would be a nightmare for most, for her, it was safe and stable, a life she never knew.

Killmonger (Black Panther)

In Black Panther, Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) is not wrong in his motives of wanting to correct the systemic oppression of race in his country; he just goes about his reparations in the wrong way. In his eyes, Wakanda has the wealth and technological ability to help the oppressed, but ultimately turned a blind eye in order to keep their secrecy.

His ideas of weaponizing and militarizing the people in hopes of taking over an oppressive system may be going a little too far, but from his perspective, and as we've learned throughout history, seldom does systemic change come when violence isn't included. Add that to the fact that his father was murdered by his own relatives, which set Erik on a path of personal vengeance.

Baron Helmut Zemo (Captain America: Civl War, Falcon & The Winter Soldier)

Zemo's (Daniel Brühl) tragic backstory probably makes him the most sympathetic villain in the MCU, as his motives were strictly tied to the wreckless creation of Ultron by Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. Zemo's family was crushed to death when Ultron attempted to use Zemo's homeland of Sokovia as a catastrophic, world-ending missile. Zemo fed on his own grief and hatred to manipulate the Avengers into fighting each other in Captain America: Civil War and to use the Winter Soldier as a killing tool.

Obviously, his terroristic actions can't be justified. Yet, at the end of the day, this is a man motivated by the loss of his family and his quest to destroy the heroes who not only did not save them but whose actions indirectly led to their death. Many villains in the MCU try to justify their actions by saying heroes "pushed" them into it, but oftentimes it feels rather petty, like Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home, but Zemo is justifiably angry, and once he accomplished his goal, he did not seek more retaliation. He got his revenge, but it did not bring back his loved ones.