It’s always fun to imagine fantasy battles between your favourite fictional characters. For instance, who would win in a fight between Superman and Thor? What would happen if Buffy the Vampire Slayer fought Blade? And how would a bout between Ryu and Liu Kang go?

Well that made us think – what would happen if live action villains from different movie and television universes went up against the Avengers from the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Which villains would make great opponents for the like of Robert Downey, Jr.’s Iron Man, Chris Evans’ Captain America, Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk and Chris Hemsworth’s Thor?

We came up with a number of such villains that we believe it would be great to see the Avengers face. Here are ten live action villains who would make great foes for the MCU’s Avengers…

Wolfram & Hart (Buffyverse)

Wolfram and Hart took an immediate disliking to Angel on his arrival in Los Angeles – all because he was fighting the good fight. With that in mind, if they existed in the same universe as the Avengers, they’d definitely want to stop them going about their heroic activities!

They would represent a completely different kind of threat to anything they’ve faced before. For starters, they’re a law firm – a law firm who may well actually be powerful enough to face off against Tony Stark’s lawyers in court!

Moreover, they have an abundance of evil supernatural beings on their side – and it would be interesting to see how the Avengers coped against demons, vampires and otherworldly beast of the supernatural variety.

You can just imagine the Senior Partners sending a huge army from hell to attack the heroes – and seeing giants, dragons and monsters going up against them (like in the final scenes of the Angel television series when the unleashed such an army on Angel, Spike, Illyria and Gunn) would be awesome.

Skynet (Terminator)

Skynet – the computer system created by the Cyberdyne Systems organisation in the Terminator universe – is responsible for the events of the Terminator movies in which machines attempt to kill John and Sarah Connor and take over the world.

Knowing that the Avengers would attempt to save the world in the event that Skynet try to take over, if indeed they existed in the same universe, Skynet would undoubtedly try to eliminate the heroes.

It would be awesome to see Hulk wading through hordes of T-800s, seeing Thor pummelling a T-1000 and being confused when it reformed from a liquid mess, seeing Skynet trying to hack into an Iron Man suit, or seeing Tony Stark and Bruce Banner trying to figure out time travel upon learning that machines had been sent back in time to destroy them.

The Avengers have now already gone up against a robotic foe and his similar-looking drones in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but the sheer variety of different models that would be on show in a battle against Skynet would make for awesome spectacle (the T-1000000, for example – awesome).

Umbrella (Resident Evil)

The Umbrella Corporation’s existence in the same universe as the Avengers would undoubtedly bring them into conflict with each other – and on more than one level.

For starters, they’re a massive organisation whose size – in spite of them operating in different sectors – would definitely result in them clashing commercially with Tony Stark, but there are also two other major ways in which they would come into conflict.

Umbrella’s activities aren’t exactly ethical. They develop biological weapons that include bringing the dead back to life as zombies (evil, superspeed zombie Quicksilver, anyone?), as well as creating terrifying monsters that it would be awesome to see the Avengers face (seriously, imagine the likes of Nemesis, Axemen and Uber-Lickers taking on the likes of Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye!).

Moreover, once the Red Queen – Umbrella’s highly-advanced and self-aware computer security system – found out that the Avengers were against them, it/she would launch an all-out assault on the heroes, which would be awesome to see.

Jasmine (Buffyverse)

Jasmine – played by Gina Torres – would be a very interesting opponent for the Avengers, as she has the potential to turn the entire world against them – and indeed get them under her control.

Her power – in addition to superhuman physical attributes – was that anybody who looked upon her immediately became under her thrall and was subsequently willing to do anything for her or to protect her.

She was also able to shapeshifte into a monstrous, tentacled form, in which she would consume people – something that went against her supposed plight for world peace – and it would be awesome seeing that form going against the Avengers and trying to eat them.

Whether or not she could control the likes of Thor, Hulk and Vision is currently unknown, but it would be cool to see the entire planet turning against the Avengers as they sought to defeat her – and even cooler to see them having to fend off each other if Jasmine got some of their heroic ranks under her mystical thrall.

The First Evil (Buffyverse)

The First Evil isn’t really a character as such – it’s more of an abstract concept, a force of nature and a bodiless, incorporeal entity that uses the power of manipulation to gather its forces in order to take over the planet and gain a physical form. Therefore, it would be something very different for the Avengers to face.

It is said to be the thing that created the very concept of evil and, as such, is extremely malevolent – doing and saying whatever it can in order to both get individuals to do its bidding and/or remove any threats to its existence and plans.

The abilities it does have include being able to possess those who try to carry out magical spells – so if Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange was in the Avengers’ ranks, he might find himself in trouble.

Moreover, it can appear as any deceased individual – using this ability to manipulate the living. For example, it could appear as Howard Stark to Tony Stark, it could appear as Peggy Carter to Captain America (after her upcoming death during the Captain America: Civil War movie) or it could appear as Frigga to Thor – and that kind of thing could have a terrible influence on the heroes.

Sylar (Heroes)

Gabriel Gray AKA Sylar – played by Zachary Quinto – had an ability known as “intuitive aptitude” which, amongst other things, enabled him to understand the brain’s relation to any given superpower, enabling him to immediately replicate that ability and acquire it for himself.

In a world like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that would make him a major threat and, once he had acquired the powers of a variety of minor characters, he would not only come to the attention of the Avengers, but he would also want their powers.

Should he have already acquired lots of powers prior to facing the Avengers in combat, he may well have enough power to pose a physical threat to every single one of them in a fight – and that would be an awesome spectacle.

Moreover, if he could acquire powers like the Hulk’s strength, Hawkeye’s perfect aim, and Scarlet Witch’s telekinesis and energy-manipulating abilities, he would become an absolute beast!

Magneto & The Brotherhood (X-Men)

Now we’re talking! If you’re looking for another live action super-powered group to go up against the Marvel Cinematic Universe Avengers, you could do a lot worse than the Brotherhood of Mutants from Fox’s X-Men movie franchise.

Ian McKellen’s older version of Magneto (who is both more villainous and leads a larger group of mutants than Michael Fassbender’s younger version of the character) would find the Avengers protecting humans to be annoying and would undoubtedly oppose them – which would lead to an almighty battle of epic proportions.

Magneto himself would be in a strong position in the fight – able to manipulate things like Iron Man’s suit, Captain America’s shield and, quite possibly, affect Thor’s usage of Mjolnir – and with the likes of Pyro, Juggernaut, Multiple Man and Callisto amongst his ranks, it would be one hell of a challenge for the heroes.

You’d be hard-pressed to choose a winner here, but if the Avengers could overcome Magneto, you’d certainly fancy them to beat his henchmen.

Godzilla (Godzilla)

Come on – who wouldn’t want to see the Avengers taking on the enormous monster that is Godzilla (or any giant monster for that matter)?! Believe it or not, this has actually happened in the comic books before (in 1979’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters #23), but it would be absolutely awesome to see it on film.

Of course, Godzilla is often depicted as “the good guy” in his movies, but if he appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and started stomping the hell out of cities, Earth’s mightiest heroes would undoubtedly stand together against him.

It’s hard to see exactly what the likes of Black Widow, Hawkeye, Falcon and even Captain America could do against the gargantuan Kaiju, but seeing characters like Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and Vision fighting against him would be quite the visual spectacle.

We’d like to think the Avengers would come to realise that Godzilla meant no harm and that the battle would come to as amicable a conclusion as it’s possible to have between a team of super-powered heroes and a giant radioactive monster, but it would be great to see the scenes leading up to that conclusion actually happening.

The Master (Doctor Who)

A completely different kind of threat – but a very interesting one at that – for the Avengers now, in the form of the rogue Time Lord known as The Master from the Whoniverse.

The Master is an individual without any real superpowers to speak of (aside from some vaguely explained mental abilities). His threat would come solely in the form of his intellect. He is a diabolical genius who manipulates others, forces others to make mistakes and lays traps for them – traps which often work due to his ability to anticipate his opponent’s every move.

As The Doctor himself has shown time and time again against the likes of the Daleks, the mind of a Time Lord is often enough to overcome the physical might of an opponent – so The Master would definitely pose a challenge for the Avengers.

With technology like his own TARDIS and a laser screwdriver at his disposal – gadgets that even the likes of Tony Stark might struggle to understand – The Master could have the Avengers at their collective wits end trying to bring him to justice.

General Zod & His Henchmen (Man Of Steel)

The idea of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor taking on Henry Cavill’s Superman in battle is often discussed between fans of comic book movies – but what if all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Avengers took on Cavill Superman’s only foes to date?

Michael Shannon’s General Zod brought a crew of Kryptonian henchmen to Earth to retrieve Superman – AKA Kal-El – and, while there are no Kryptonians to retrieve on MCU Earth, if Zod arrived looking to terraform it into resembling his home planet of Krypton, he and his forces would definitely face opposition from Earth’s mightiest heroes.

It’s hard to imagine anyone at Iron Man’s level or below being any kind of threat to the Kryptonians amongst the Avengers’ ranks, but seeing the likes of Thor, Hulk and Vision battling it out with Zod and his henchmen would be pretty epic.

So we think Avengers versus Kryptonian villains would be the best live action battle for the Marvel heroes. There could be some better options though!

What do you think? Would you like to see these villains facing the Avengers? Which other live action bad guys would give them a good match? Have your say below!