As Captain America, Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson have faced an impressive number of villains across their respective careers in the MCU. Beginning with 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger and most recently 2025’s Captain America: Brave New World, Rogers and Wilson have fought all kinds of foes. That said, not every MCU villain is created equal when it comes to their overall threat level.

It’s remarkable to think about how Steve Rogers first fought the Nazis and Hydra in WWII, and then ended in superhero career fighting a cosmic conqueror who’d wiped out half of all life in the universe. Likewise, while Sam Wilson’s Captain America career is still fairly new, he’s also faced some pretty powerful and unique foes. Keeping that in mind, here are all 16 MCU villains fought by Captain America, ranked from lowest to highest threat level, determined by factors including overall physical threat, level of influence, and impact.

16

Batroc

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Batroc was an Algerian mercenary who first debuted in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. While he and his men had stolen a ship owned by SHIELD, Steve Rogers’ Captain America took on Batroc with relative ease. Batroc later reappeared in Falcon & The Winter Soldier where he crossed paths with Sam Wilson, before he was sH๏τ and killed by Sharon Carter’s Power Broker. Compared to other Captain America villains, Batroc is certainly a lower-level threat.

15

Crossbones

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Once an agent of Hydra turned independent terrorist, Crossbones was fought by both Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and in Captain America: Civil War. While he nearly succeeded in securing a biological weapon to sell to the highest bidder, he ultimately blew himself up with a suicide vest to try and kill Rogers as an act of revenge, only for the explosion to be redirected by the Scarlet Witch (inadvertently killing a group of Wakandan relief workers in the process, which kick-started the UN’s pᴀssing of the Sokovia Accords).

14

Sidewinder

Captain America: Brave New World

Debuting in Captain America: Brave New World, Sidewinder is the leader of the criminal organization known as SERPENT. In the employ of The Leader, Sidewinder was hired for multiple jobs and ultimately a hit on Sam Wilson’s Captain America. This resulted in a brutal street fight with Sidewinder employing multiple firearms, though Wilson ultimately gained the upper hand, placing Sidewinder in custody. However, Sidewinder and his organization could easily make future appearances in the MCU.

13

Karli Morgenthau & Flag-Smashers

Falcon and the Winter Soldier

In the aftermath of The Blip, Karli Morgenthau and the Flag-Smashers rose as an anti-nationalist group, protesting the return of borders and the displacement of those who’d made lives for themselves during the Snap. Taking a newly developed Super Soldier Serum, Karli and her followers became a force to be reckoned with, and caused quite a bit of global damage. In Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the Flag Smashers tried to stop the pᴀssing of the Global Repatriation Council’s Patch Act by capturing its members and forcing them to agree to their terms.

While they were ultimately all killed, the Flag-Smashers’ message was still globally heard and recognized. Likewise, Sam Wilson got officials to at least start listening to the legitimate parts of their argument as the brand-new Captain America. That said, Karli was still headed down a darker path, so much so that she was likely on the precipice of becoming an even bigger threat as a full-on villain, no longer holding any sympathetic motivations as she drifted more and more toward revenge and violence.

12

Proxima Midnight

Avengers: Infinity War

Proxima Midnight was a member of the Black Order aka The Children of Thanos. One of the Mad тιтan’s trusted lieutenants, Proxima and Corvus Glaive were sent to take the Mind Stone from the Vision in Infinity War, representing a significant cosmic threat considering the worlds they’d helped Thanos conquer and “balance”. However, Vision and the Scarlet Witch were saved by Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, and Natasha Romanov. While Natasha critically wounded Corvus with his own staff, Steve and Sam worked together, taking on Proxima until the two alien warriors were forced to flee.

11

Winter Soldier

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Bucky Barnes’ dark period as the brainwashed Hydra ᴀssᴀssin known as the Winter Soldier positioned him as both a physical and personal threat to Steve Rogers. Likewise, the second Captain America movie confirmed that Bucky’s Winter Soldier had been their ᴀssᴀssin for over 70 years, shifting the course of history in Hydra’s favor. As such, The Winter Soldier should absolutely be considered one of the more formidable threats Captain America ever faced, at least before Rogers was able to break through the brainwashing and get his friend back.

10

Baron von Strucker

Avengers: Age of Ultron

A key leader of Hydra during the modern era, it was Baron von Strucker who was central in using the Mind Stone to give Wanda and Pietro Maximoff their powers. Working in secret within the shadow of SHIELD, Strucker’s level of influence as a global threat and the forces at his command was significant, even if he was beaten by Captain America and killed by Ultron incredibly quickly after his MCU debut in the second Avengers movie.

9

Arnim Zola

Captain America: The First Avenger

The scientific right hand of the Red Skull during WWII, Arnim Zola was a genius MCU supervillain who managed to upload his entire brain and consciousness into an array of secret supercomputers prior to his death. In this way, Zola lived on digitally and created a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly predictive algorithm for Hydra, allowing them to target all present and future enemies to their cause all at once via SHIELD’s Project Insight. While he was destroyed in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the threat Zola posed to the entire world when he was “alive” in the shadows is significant.

8

Alexander Pierce

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Secretary Alexander Pierce of the World Security Council was another secret leader of Hydra during the modern era as well, operating within SHIELD itself. One of the most powerful men with SHIELD’s entire apparatus at his disposal, Pierce certainly deserves his place on the upper half of this list, having been a sizable threat to the entire world before he was killed during Captain America and his allies’ mission to stop Project Insight before Hydra killed millions in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

7

Red Hulk

Captain America: Brave New World

In Brave New World, US President Ross transforms into the monstrous Red Hulk. Had Sam Wilson not been able to reason with Ross, Samuel Sterns would have gotten what he wanted with Ross becoming an unstoppable monster, causing untold levels of damage that perhaps not even Bruce Banner could have stopped with his current “Smart Hulk” status. While Ross ultimately de-Hulked and surrendered, the Red Hulk still represents a major threat, one that could one day emerge in the MCU again. The level of influence and power he had as President Ross (and the skeletons in his closet) shouldn’t be discounted either.