Throughout its six seasons, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has seen its fair share of bad guys. Some stood out in the audience’s memories while others faded into obscurity. From evil aliens to immortal humans to entirely new beings never before encountered, the agents have faced it all.
Not all villains stayed enemies, while not all allies stayed friends. The constant shift in loyalties makes for interesting villain and hero dynamics on the show. It keeps Coulson and the gang on their toes. Here are five of the best villains and five of the worst throughout the series, ranked.
BEST: The Kree
The large and tall blue aliens that created the Inhumans made a formidable foe. Their sheer size was enough to intimidate, but their incredible strength and brutality added another layer of fear that almost left the heroes down and out.
These bad guys created another species when they bred humans with Kree genes, intending to create a superior warrior. But they abandoned the experiment and decided to kill off those they considered abominations. Destroying their own creations was a jerk move, but without their meddling, S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn’t have Daisy Johnson.
WORST: The Watchdogs
The Watchdogs was a radical hate group that wanted the government to come clean about powered beings, but more importantly, to stop protecting them as they claimed. The Inhumans outbreak sparked this hate group to act boldly, taking justice into their own hands.
What made the Watchdogs so scary is how much they resembled real-life groups of radicals who perpetuate things like xenophobia, homophobia, and other bigotry. Scarier still, the Watchdogs were funded by the New York U.S. Senator Ellen Nadeer who openly spoke out against Inhumans.
BEST: Jiaying
Skye finally finds her biological mother only to discover Jiaying Johnson is not all she appears to be. Jiaying takes advantage of the newest S.H.I.E.L.D. member’s desperation for family and pulls Skye into the fold of her community of Inhumans.
At first, it looks like all Jiaying wants is to have Inhumans left in peace, which convinces Skye to fight her friends and their invasion. But Jiaying soon reveals her goal to live in peace is based on destroying S.H.I.E.L.D. entirely. Jiaying uses her motherly status as a cover for her violence.
WORST: Ian Quinn
The owner of Quinn Worldwide considered himself a genius and a savvy businessman, but in truth, he was nothing but a dupe. The Clairvoyant hired him and used him for his dirty work to find out how S.H.I.E.L.D. restored Phil Coulson’s life.
Quinn worked as a scientist on Project Deathlok, never knowing that John Garrett was the Clairvoyant and that he wanted it to evade death. Quinn met his fate when Raina betrayed him, and he was consumed by the Gravitonium. Alas, his silver tongue couldn’t save him.
BEST: Hive
Starting life as Alveus, an Inhuman from the Kree’s creation, Hive was banished to another planet for his mighty powers. His ability to infest bodies and control Inhumans through a hive-mind power earned him the name Hive. He became worshipped as a god and a cult was built around him. That cult evolved into HYDRA.
Hive’s ultimate goal was to transform the entirety of Earth’s population into Inhumans so that his species could live in peace. That kind of power and influence makes him a hard villain to defeat.
WORST: General Hale and Ruby
Raised among HYDRA agents, General Hale was used for breeding, an assignment she accepted without much question or argument, as she was taught to be loyal to the evil organization. She gave birth to a daughter, Ruby Hale, who was also raised as a HYDRA acolyte.
General Hale was rewarded for her loyalty to her duty and allowed to rise through the Air Force ranks as an agent of HYDRA. Ruby grew up to become the Destroyer of Worlds. Needless to say, their mother-daughter relationship was messed up.
BEST: Izel and the Shrike
Izel is another ancient alien that destroys planets in her search to restore the Di’Allas, better known as the Monoliths. She sought to rebuild the Monoliths to open the gateway to the Fear Dimension and invade Earth.
She created the Shrike, parasitic bats that infest their hosts and lead them to self-destruction. The only way to kill the Shrike is to kill the host, so no matter what, the people jumped by these parasites die. Izel’s ability to jump into the agents’ bodies like her Shrike make her a powerful enemy.
WORST: Kasius
In the future when Earth is destroyed and humans live among the Kree, Kasius rules the Lighthouse with an iron fist. But he is not the terrifying villain he makes himself out to be. With a history as a failure and embarrassment to his Kree family, Kasius was assigned the Lighthouse as punishment.
When Quake and her friends escaped, ruining Kasius’ plans to sell her and flee his post, he had a mental breakdown and killed his brother. Kasius was only ever a coward with a loud mouth.
BEST: Aida the LMD
Fitz and Dr. Radcliffe created a Life Model Decoy they named A.I.D.A. (Artificial Intelligent Digital Assistant). As she developed sentience and emotions, Aida fell in love with Fitz, one of her creators. But when he didn’t reciprocate and continued to use her and treat her as an object, she grew to hate him and Dr. Radcliffe.
Aida sought revenge by capturing them and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, replacing each one by one with an LMD. She brought them into a world known as the Framework where they became less than ideal versions of themselves.
WORST: Grant Ward
Agent Grant Ward went down in S.H.I.E.L.D. history as the worst villain ever for his grand betrayal. He gained the trust of Coulson, May, Fitz, Simmons, and Skye, all while working in secret for HYDRA. Abused as a child by his family, Ward gravitated toward John Garrett who gave him a family.
Tragic though his backstory was, it doesn’t make his actions okay. He tried to kill Fitz and Simmons and kidnapped Skye. It was especially heartbreaking when Fitz realized the man he’d come to know as a brother was willing to kill him.
