User blog comment:20thCentFopp/Is Loki Marvel's Joker?/@comment-1895174-20140424014411


 * Jeff Bridges' Obadiah Stane - I'll admit, I didn't know too much about this character before the movie. He's probably the best version of Lex Luthor in a movie. Tony Stark becoming Iron Man was more fun than Iron Man fighting bad guys.
 * Tim Roth's Emil Blonsky - The Incredible Hulk is the forgotten chapter of the MCU.
 * Mickey Rourke's Ivan Vanko - It was a smart move to blend two different villains together. It compensates for Iron Man's relatively weak Rogues Gallery, and is a workaround to avoid the "too many villains" problem superhero movies face. But there was still too much going on in the movie, and Vanko comes off as an afterthought.
 * Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer - Comic-relief villain
 * Hugo Weaving's Red Skull - Easily could have been the MCU's #2 Big Bad after Thanos, but Hugo Weaving doesn't want to come back. Maybe the Red Skull will make a surprise return for Cap 3 or A:AoU.
 * Iron Man 3's A.I.M. - Poorly developed villainous team with a nonsensical plan. Too many fanboys got pissed at the film's version of the Mandarin for not being truer to the comics' Cold War-era stereotype based on what your grampa thinks of China.
 * Thor: The Dark World's Dark Elves - Undeveloped villain. Practically just a MacGuffin.

Loki's the MCU's best villain, but he's no Joker. Loki is a quick-witted, would-be conqueror with delusions of grandeur. The Joker is a lunatic whose motives oscillate between criminal mastermind and anarchic terrorist. Loki messes with people to commit his crimes. The Joker commits his crimes because he likes to mess with people. It's not too much of a difference, maybe, but an important one.

It's not happening in the movies any time soon, but the closest thing Marvel Comics has to the Joker is the Green Goblin. *Not* Norman Osborn. Not like they need one, anyway. Crafting a strong villain doesn't mean imitating one particular character.