Alright everyone, here's a Pure Evil proposal for a villain I'm sure maybe not many of you were expecting. I give you Malekith from Thor: The Dark World.
What is Thor: The Dark World?[]
Thor: The Dark World is a sequel to the original Thor film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It revolves around Thor trying to cast the Aether from his girlfriend Jane Foster, who has been infected with it on Earth, before the leader of the Dark Elves, Malekith, can use the Aether to destroy the universe so only his world can remain.
Who is Malekith? What does he Do?[]
Malekith is the leader of the Dark Elves, an ancient race said to exist a millenia ago before even our universe. Born on Svartalfheim, Malekith set out for the Aether to destroy the 9 realms, which would destroy various planets including our own. This results in a war against the Asgardians, led by king Bor. When Bor's army has the upper hand and casts the Aether away, Malekith sacrificed at least half of his own people to the Asgardians just to save his ass and escape. He justifies this to his right-hand man, Algrim that their deaths will mean their survival.
Thousands of years later, Thor's girlfriend, Jane Foster, finds the Aether and becomes infected with it, which awakens Malekith. They track her down to Asgard, and Malekith curses Algrim, turning him into the dreaded monster know as Kurse so he can take on the Asgardians. Kurse pretends to surrender to the Asgardians under Malekith's orders. Once he's arrested, he fully transforms in his cell and murders some of his cell mates, setting free other prisoners and murdering several guards. As Malekith's ship arrives, it crashes into Thor's castle, endangering several innocent Asgardians in the process. Malekith then has his soldiers kill several Asgardian warriors to get to Jane so he can obtain the Aether.
As Thor's mother, Frigga, is protecting "Jane", she manages to have the upper ground against Malekith, until Kurse takes her hostage. When Malekith realizes the Jane he saw was just an illusion by Frigga, he is enraged and demands to know where Jane is. Frigga states she'll never tell. Believing her, Malekith has Kurse stab her dead. An enraged Thor then damages the left side of his face with his hammer and they escape.
As Thor, Jane, and Loki find Malekith on his planet, he ends up having the advantage and takes the Aether from Jane and tries to have his army murder them all while he leaves. His ship lands in London, where it splits a part of the city in half, endangering several innocent civilians. Malekith engages in a fight with Thor and his friends, which results in mass destruction and once again endangers several innocent lives. Malekith comes dangerously close to using the Aether to destroy the 9 realms and suck out their light. Thankfully, he is ultimately defeated by Thor and Eric Selvig.
Heinous Standard?[]
Malekith's actions in unleashing the Aether to destroy the 9 realms are perfectly on par with Ego's plan to assimilate all of life into himself. The 9 realms hold up various planets, and Malekith was willing to destroy all of them, which would obviously result in the deaths of trillions. And like Ego, he plans to destroy all of life solely because he sees himself and his kind as superior. He also does allot with the resources he has. We see him sacrifice several of his men and have many Asgardians murdered, and comes very close to killing many innocent people in London once his ship arrives. He also seizes his moment in nearly unleashing the Aether until Thor and Eric Selveg stop him. Basically he's an opportunist.
Miltigating Factors? Tragic Backstory?[]
None. One of the main things that kept him from counting amongst us users is that he comes off as a Generic Doomsday villain. I don't agree. At least not anymore. Very much like Dormammu, he establishes a sadistic personality, even if he is somewhat boring as a character. He tells Thor that his kind was never meant to prosper and even taunts him about how he's "come to see his world end". I could understand the argument that he's Made of Evil due to coming from the darkness, but again, his sadistic personality would suggest otherwise. There's also the fact that he tries to use the tragedy of his men dying as justification for going against Asgard, proving he does understand the difference between right and wrong-as well as the fact that he even tries to justify their deaths for his own survival, as well as that of the rest of his kind.
Speaking of which, let's talk about the death of his men. Malektih is seen briefly mourning their loss, and Algrim comes to comfort him. This moment however is extremely brief and what makes this "tragedy" very shallow, is he uses their deaths as an excuse to go against Odin, putting the blame on the Asgardians for their deaths. But here's the thing, the Asgardians did what they did because Malekith was planing to destroy the universe. Also, the fact that Malekith sacrificed them himself just so he can escape makes it even more shallow. Sure he also saved his other men, but that's only because he wants to leave a legacy. Hell when Algrim comforts him, he reminds him of the legacy they will still be able to built with their own survival-further proving that that's all Malekith cares about. Malekith's not mourning the deaths of soldiers he loved and cared about, he's mourning the loss of his legacy. He even says that himself: "Look upon my legacy Algrim". So yeah.
As for his relationship with Algrim, he's not shown being outright abusive towards Algrim, but he's not shown to be very loving or caring either. I mean he does curse him, but that was because Algrim told him to. However, even then, Malekith does so without hesitation and doesn't show any remorse for having done so.
Conclusion?[]
While he may be a villain with a boring personality, he still has a personality, and a bloodthirsty one at that. I say he counts.