2015 Will Go Down As The Year Marvel Solved Their Villain Problem

Spoilers for Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

One complaint lobbed at the Marvel Cinematic Universe on a constant basis is that their villains ain't up to par. I'm not sure if that's applicable to all their films (Alexander Pierce in The Winter Soldier was a chilling adversary and Ronan The Accuser in Guardians Of the Galaxy gets waaaaayyy too much hate), but compared to layered heroes like Iron Man, Captain America or Star-Lord, yeah, I agree that foes like Whiplash, Malekith or The Abomination don't stack up very well. But 2015 brought three very different villains to life that proved that this recurring problem with creating extraordinary enemies might be a thing of the past.

"Don't Be The Hero With Me": Jessica Jones Season 1 Episode 1 "AKA Ladies Night" Review

It's fairly obvious that, in translating Hal Jordan to the big screen in the 2011 motion picture/abomination Green Lantern, someone involved in the project saw how successful Tony Stark had become and decided that some of Tonys most distinctive character traits (namely that of his snark and cockiness) should be implanted into Jordan. This, of course, didn't work, for one simple reason; Stark uses his wisecracks as a defense mechanism of sorts, a way to combat the forces around him that he's all too aware he can't control. Plus, underneath all his flippant remarks is a good person, one who, in the first Iron Man movie, plainly says that protecting people with his Iron Man technology needs to be his only purpose in life.