Michael B Jordan names the two greatest villains in cinema: “It’s a tie”
Although the Marvel Cinematic Universe had seemingly nailed the casting of all of its main heroes, the franchise consistently struggled to develop antagonists nearly as interesting. While the first two phases featured far too many forgettable bad guys, Michael B Jordan bucked that trend when he debuted as Erik Killmonger in Black Panther.
Unlike other MCU villains, he was a character who was justified in his rage; as an abandoned child who saw the abuse and bigotry that his people faced around the world, he felt empowered to do something by taking over the kingdom of Wakanda. Although Chadwick Boseman’s King T’Challa had insisted on a policy of non-violence, he had not seen global racism in the same way that Killmonger had, which fortified his cause more than the necessity of peacekeeping.
In this vein, Jordan highlighted to W magazine that these sorts of empathetic villains “are the most interesting characters”, and even if their goals are ultimately harmful, the actor claimed that audiences can be drawn to a great villain’s perspective.
“They are the ones you can empathise with,” he continued, “They want you to not like them, but you can still understand their motivation. Even though you’re the villain in Black Panther, do people on the street still say ‘Wakanda forever’ to you? They don’t immediately realise that my character is not exactly pro-Wakanda. Midway through saying something, it registers: ‘Oh, he wasn’t really with Wakanda’. But, by then, they’ve already committed.”
Jordan was clearly quite proud of his performance in Black Panther, but he was also deeply inspired by other comic book villains who laid the ground for him. When asked about his all-time favourite screen villains, he said that “it’s a tie” between two other comic book characters: Heath Ledger’s Joker and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto.
Superhero movies may have been popular ever since the release of Superman: The Movie in 1978, but it was The Dark Knight that finally proved them to be worthy of respect. Christopher Nolan’s riveting crime drama touched on existential questions about escalation, obsession, class strife and heroism, but it was Ledger’s terrifying recreation of the Joker that earned the film the most press. Although Ledger sadly passed away months before the film hit theatres, his performance became an instantly popular cultural icon and rightly earned him a posthumous Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor’.
Ledger’s Joker may not have been relatable in the same way that Killmonger was, but he did raise some interesting points about society’s complacency with chaos, whereas Fassbender’s performance as Erik Lehnsherr, the powerful mutant that eventually becomes Magneto, is a much more traditionally tragic character because he begins the story as friends with James McAvoy’s Charles Xavier.
Although Ian McKellen had already played an older version of Magneto in the first three X-Men films, Fassbender added new depths to the character when he took over the role, starting with X-Men: First Class, where it’s revealed that he was a survivor of the Holocaust who began to track down those who killed his mother, all while edging closer to the dark side in his quest for vigilante justice.
Due to the sale of 20th Century Fox to Disney, many of the characters from Fox’s X-Men universe were retired, and Fassbender turned in his last performance as Magneto in Dark Phoenix. However, the upcoming crossover event Avengers: Secret Wars is rumoured to bring together old favourites, including some previously deceased, in an event that could finally allow Jordan’s Killmonger and Fassbender’s Magneto to square off with one another.
