Ulysses Klaue (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

"I only deal with the man in charge..."

- Klaue

""What is love? Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more!""

- Klaue singing "What is Love" by Haddaway during his interrogation.

"Bingo!"

- Klaue during his interrogation

Ulysses Klaue is a major antagonist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie series. He serves as a minor antagonist in the 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the secondary antagonist of the 2018 film Black Panther.

He is a nefarious black market arms dealer, smuggler and gangster obsessed with gaining Vibranium metal at any cost, which led him into conflict with the Avengers and made Ultron chop off his arm. He is operating from South Africa and was once an acquaintance of Tony Stark from the latter's weapon dealing days. Later, he comes into conflict once again with Wakanda and acquaintances with Wakandan exile Erik Killmonger.

He was portrayed by Andy Serkis who also played Gollum, Mr. Grin, Supreme Leader Snoke and Capricorn, Spike and the Witch-King of Angmar.

Early Life
Nothing is known about Klaw's early life other than that he was born in South Africa. It is known however that before the events of Age of Ultron, he had been in Wakanda in order to steal vibranium. He got a scar from it but ultimately came out alive. Being one of the few people in the world, if not the only person who knows the truth of Wakanda's wealth and power, Klaw is now desperate to expose the truth to the rest of the world.

Deal with Ultron
Klaw receives a call from one of his buyers, who is angry at him for not doing the mission the way he wanted. Klaw doesn't take anything from him and threatens to kill him until the call ends. He gets another call after this, from someone else he had previously had a deal with. The lights go out though before their conversation ends, so Klaw takes a gun just in case something happens. Quicksilver comes out of nowhere and disarms him, with Klaw being unable to defend himself because of how fast Quicksilver was.

After discussing with and mostly provoking the Maximoffs for a while, Klaw meets the man in charge, Ultron. Ultron wants to rebuild his body with vibranium, which Klaw is known for having alot of after his travel to Wakanda. Klaw accepts everything Ultron says pretty much purely out of intimidation, which was well-appreciated by Ultron. In response, Ultron gave Klaw billions of dollars.

However, this relationship didn't last long. Klaw hears Ultron quoting something that Tony Stark once said, and he says that Ultron is similar to Tony Stark. Ultron goes berserk over this comment, and he grabs Klaw's arm and slices it off. Ultron quickly apologizes, but his rage isn't fully over and he kicks Klaw down the stairs viciously. Angry at everyone for what Ultron did, Klaw takes advantage of the Avengers confronting Ultron and the Maximoffs and manages to escape and come out alive last second despite also ordering minions to kill Ultron and failing.

Teaming with Killmonger
When Erik Killmonger is in a museum after the owner unexpectedly faints, he says that he will call an ambulance. Instead, Klaw comes with another criminal, dressed up as somebody who works at an ambulance. He kills multiple people in the museum with a gun. He tells his final victim to run away, as long as he doesn't say anything about that he let him escape. Obviously, this is a lie, and Klaw shoots him anyway and laughs about it.

When T'Challa and his teammates are in Korea, they enter a club where Klaw is supposedly gonna be. Eventually he enters the club, and kills everyone there. He attempts to kill T'Challa and reveals his new gun that he has on his hand, but misses. Yet he manages to escape from the club untouched, and escapes once again with a taxi, ordering the driver to drive as fast as possible. Klaw doesn't have an easy time, and eventually despite having the obvious upper hand in the battle gets caught by Ross.

While in interrogation, Klaw appears to have a very charming facade. He constantly jokes around with Ross and everyone involved in the interrogation. Killmonger is waiting outside and is preparing to blow up the walls and free Klaw. Klaw manages to escape in time. However, Killmonger wants to go to Wakanda, Klaw doesn't, so Killmonger grabs a gun and prepares to kill him. Klaw takes Killmonger's associate and seeming girlfriend and holds her hostage which Killmonger sees and promises that everything will be fine. This is a lie, and Killmonger kills his her just before killing Klaw.

Personality
"So if you're going to fiddle with my brain and make me see a giant cuttlefish, then I know you don't do business and I know you're not in charge, and I only deal with the man in charge."

- Klaue to Wanda Maximoff, describing himself Ulysses Klaue is an extremely powerful, confident, devious, manipulative, greedy and horrifyingly ruthless individual, with an incredible obsession to gain more and more Vibranium. In addition to his chaotic and evil personality, Klaue seemed to be a tyrannical individual towards his soldiers, as he commanded them with a strong iron fist. More than that, he is extremely loyal when making deals only when he deals with the man in charge. He's not always loyal though, as seen when Killmonger wants to go to Wakanda, but Klaw just wants to run away, which actually leads to his own downfall eventually.

Ironically, despite his ruthless and dark personality, Klaue is terrified of cuttlefish.

Abilities
Klaue had possessed many abilities, such as:
 * Exceptional Intelligence: Klaue is an extremely intelligent individual, knowing how to make deals right and how to deal with situations of danger as well as outsmarting his enemies.
 * Great Physical Strength: Despite not showing that Klaue has an incredibly great physical strength which allows him to fight against his enemies any time.
 * Speed: After his arm was sliced off and after the Avengers invaded his base of operations, Klaue seemed to show great speed as he escaped the scene at once.
 * Reflexes: As Wanda and Pietro came, Klaue used his physical reflexes in order to load his gun and to prepare himself for what's coming.
 * Firearm Skills: Klaue is greatly skilled in firearms and shootouts. When he was hired by an unknown man to kill T'Chaka, and when he prepared himself against the Maximoffs, Klaue was shown to be extremely skilled at gunship.
 * Leadership: Klaue is a really great leader for his army, controlling them with great power.
 * Vast Resources: As an arms dealer for the Black Market, Klaue had many resources of finance and more in order to act well as a businessman.
 * Vast Wealth: Over the years, Klaue had gained an incredible wealth and net worth of billions of dollars, allowing him to use this as a vessel of payment.
 * Master Tactician: Klaue always knew how to deal with situations of combat, danger, and assassinations, and knew how to make the right moves.
 * Master Strategist: In addition to his exceptional intelligence, Klaue used his abilities as a strategist in order to cover his traces and hide right inside the Salvage Yard without any individual of the police or FBI following him.
 * Expert Assassin: He is an incredibly skilled individual at executing assassinations when getting paid.
 * Expert Thief: When he arrived in Wakanda, Klaue knew how to steal some amounts of Vibranium in a smart way; enslaving the citizens.

Weapons

 * Beretta 92: This gun was Klaue's favorite weapon of choice and he used it as his own personal sidearm, despite that this gun was eventually disarmed and broken by Pietro.

Family

 * Great Grandfather †

Allies

 * Intelligencia - Former Employers
 * Baron Wolfgang von Strucker † - Acquaintance
 * Klaue's Army - Subordinates
 * Klaue's Mercenaries - Subordinates and Right-Hand
 * Erik Killmonger - Employer and Killer

Enemies

 * T'Challa - Archenemy
 * T'Chaka † - Former Target
 * Ultron †
 * Quicksilver †
 * Scarlet Witch
 * The Avengers
 * Steve Rogers/Captain America
 * Tony Stark/Iron Man - Former Acquaintance
 * Thor
 * Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
 * Clint Barton/Hawkeye

Quotes
"Klaue: Shoot them! Mercenary: Which ones? Klaue: ALL OF THEM!"

- Klaue's last words to his mercenary before he escaping.

"Ultron: Upon this rock I will build my church. Vibranium. Klaue: You know, it came at great personal cost. It’s worth billions... Ultron: Now, so are you. It’s all under your dummy holdings. Don't sell you friends rich, in order to find which is which."

- Ultron and Klaue discussing on their deal

Trivia

 * In the comics, Klaue was once a chemist and a scientist and not a criminal.
 * In the comics, Klaw was T'Chaka's killer. However, in the MCU, it was Helmut Zemo who caused the death of the latter.
 * All the Phase 2 movies featured a scene where someone loses an arm or hand, in reference to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. In this movie, Klaue is the one to suffer that fate. Those Star Wars references are Kevin Feige's ideas, as he himself is a fan of Star Wars.
 * Klaue claims to be terrified of cuttlefish. He even stated that a documentary on cuttlefish terrified him.