All Of The MCU's Minions Ranked By How Much They Deserve To Be Beaten Up

Who Leads Them: Johann Schmidt, AKA the Red Skull, led HYDRA as a scientific research branch of the Nazi SS, but Arnim Zola and others lead the organization in the decades after WWII. Baron Wolfgang von Strucker leads HYDRA during its overthrow of S.H.I.E.L.D. and conflict with the Avengers.

What Do They Want: No less than world domination. An ancient alien cult that evolved into a subversive paramilitary organization, HYDRA's goal is to infiltrate and overthrow governments around the world.

Why Do They Deserve A Beatdown: Innumerable lives have been crushed beneath the boot heels of HYDRA agents in their centuries-long quest to rule the world. During WWII, HYDRA planned to blow up New York City with a Tesseract-powered bomb and nearly succeeded. In modern times, the organization took the lives of hundreds when sleeper agents within S.H.I.E.L.D. were activated. HYDRA planned to use SHIELD Helicarriers to terrorize the world into submission by wiping out 20 million people around the world.  

How Soundly Are They Defeated: HYDRA was defeated during WWII by allied forces and the Howling Commandos, but not without cost: Captain America was lost in the Atlantic Ocean. The organization continued on after Red Skull's disintegration, and worked to consolidate its power in secret for decades before overthrowing S.H.I.E.L.D. When their hijacked Helicarriers were destroyed, many of HYDRA's soldiers, scientists, and leaders were lost, but remaining members consolidated under Strucker. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Baron plans to use the Scepter containing the Mind Stone to create an army of super soldiers, but the Avengers shut down his HYDRA base. Strucker is later taken out by Ultron (but other HYDRA agents continue to cause problems for Phil Coulson on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).

Who Leads Them: The genocidal maniac from Titan, Thanos.

What Do They Want: Genetically related to the mindless Outriders, the Chitauri are technologically advanced hybrid reptilian-cybernetic creatures. They communicate through a "hive mind" and use their technologically advanced weaponry and Leviathans as Thanos's infantry. His wish is their command.

Why Do They Deserve A Beatdown: The Chitauri help massacre millions of beings, including half of Gamora's home species, for Thanos before arriving on Earth. During The Avengers, they are loaned out by Thanos to Loki to aid in his conquest of the planet. Their invasion devastates New York City and wipes out untold numbers. They invade Earth again during Avengers: Endgame with the same goal of world conquest.

How Soundly Are They Defeated: After nearly overrunning the Avengers in New York City, Iron Man diverts a nuclear device into the Chitauri Command Center, destroying it. Without its signal to command and control them, the Chitauri collapse and their invasion ends. They return to Earth as part of Thanos's invasion armada in Avengers: Endgame and are snapped to dust when Iron Man gains control of the Infinity Stones.

Who Leads Them: The most powerful and dangerous threat the MCU has ever faced, Thanos of Titan.

What Do They Want: Also known as the "Children of Thanos," the Black Order is comprised of Corvus Glaive, Cull Obsidian, Ebony Maw, Gamora, Nebula, and Proxima Midnight. Each was adopted as a child by Thanos from planets he conquered and trained to be brutal slayers. They live only to serve.

Why Do They Deserve A Beatdown: They have wiped out billions of sentient beings fighting alongside Thanos as he goes planet by planet halving populations in his quest to bring balance to the universe. Their efforts aid Thanos in acquiring the six Infinity Stones, which he uses to snuff out half of all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers. 

How Soundly Are They Defeated: When the Children of Thanos (minus Gamora and Nebula) begin their final push to gather the Infinity Stones during Avengers: Infinity War, they are pretty evenly matched against the heroes initially, but end up falling one by one: Corvus Glaive is skewered by his own glaive by Vision; Cull Obsidian is smashed by Bruce Banner wearing Hulkbuster armor; Ebony Maw is blasted into the vacuum of space by Iron Man; and Proxima Midnight is shredded by Scarlet Witch. 

During their second attack on Earth in Avengers: Endgame, the Black Order fares even worse, especially once the Infinity Stones fall into Tony Stark's hands. Cull Obsidian is stomped into paste by a gigantic Ant-Man before his three brothers and sisters are snapped out of existence, along with Thanos and the rest of his army, when Iron Man snaps his fingers.

Who Leads Them: The mad warlord of Titan, Thanos.

What Do They Want: Mindless, genetically engineered blind creatures with four or six appendages and an extra row of teeth, Outriders live only to serve their master.

Why Do They Deserve A Beatdown: Fast, strong, and with no sense of self-preservation, Outriders are terrifying creatures responsible for untold deaths, including hundreds of Wakandans.

How Soundly Are They Defeated: They perish in the hundreds to thousands in battle with Wakanda and Captain America's faction of Avengers in Avengers: Infinity War. When they invade Earth again during Avengers: Endgame, they are all snapped out of existence by Tony Stark and his version of the Infinity Gauntlet.

Who Leads Them: The mysterious, seemingly ageless warrior-king known as the Mandarin.

What Do They Want: An international terrorist organization with centuries-old roots as a chaos cult, Ten Rings is dedicated to ending world peace.

Why Do They Deserve A Beatdown: Ten Rings cultists hide in plain sight as deeply embedded sleeper agents and take lives indiscriminately, with no regard for civilian lives. If their ultimate goal is achieved, the number of casualties worldwide will be catastrophically high.

How Soundly Are They Defeated: Tony Stark manages to outsmart a faction of the Ten Rings by building his first suit of armor and blasting out of their cave fortress in Iron Man. They prove to be ineffective against Tony's Mark I armor and fall even more easily against his Mark III armor in subsequent confrontations.

The Mandarin has not made another significant move in the MCU since first encountering Iron Man, but Ten Rings is not defeated. Ten Rings cultists pop up in Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, and Ant-Man, and will feature in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Who Leads Them: The malevolent, immortal leader of the Dark Elves, Malekith the Accursed.

What Do They Want: The Dark Elves are the oldest living species in the entire MCU. They thrived in a realm of absolute darkness that existed before the present universe was created and wish to return to the darkness. Malekith created the Aether (the Reality Stone) to achieve this goal by extinguishing all light from the universe.

Why Do They Deserve A Beatdown: Dark Elves are devoid of compassion or remorse and will take out anyone who gets in the way of their scheme to plunge the universe into darkness. They wiped out countless Asgardians during their first attempt 5,000 years ago and hundreds more during their second attack on Asgard. If their plan succeeds, trillions or more living creatures that depend on light would perish without it. The devastation to the universe would be even more profound than Thanos's "snap."

How Soundly Are They Defeated: Asgardians led by King Bor and his son, Odin, barely managed to stop Malekith from using the Aether the first time, but Malekith's actions doomed his people. In order to facilitate his own escape, Malekith sent his own warships filled with Dark Elves crashing to the ground to crush the Asgardians. Malekith and the Dark Elves that were aboard his ship are the only survivors of their species.

Malekith attacks Asgard to retrieve the Aether from within Jane Foster in Thor: The Dark World, but is again defeated, this time by Asgardians led by Thor. Loki seems to perish in the battle (a ruse he used to take Odin's place in Thor: Ragnarok), but Malekith and the last of the Dark Elves are wiped out.