It’s not as though there have been no non-American villains in comic book movies – far from it, in fact. Plenty have been foreign and plenty have been alien - Red Skull, Whiplash, Loki, Magneto, the Silver Samurai, Zod and Lizard, for example, were all non-American villains in their respective movies.
However, even when villains aren’t American, they’re often very Americanised, played by American actors and/or spend most of their time in America.
But the fact remains that there are some truly quintessentially non-American villains in comic books who are yet to be considered for on-screen depictions.
The bulk of characters in general do tend to be American most of time and that does continue to be the way with villains in a lot of cases. Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, The Joker, Sandman, Iron Monger, Aldrich Killian, the Winter Soldier and Electro are just a few that can be named.
With that in mind – and simply for the sake of furthering the multi-cultural nature of comic book movies – here are five absolutely non-American villains we’d love to see on film.
Manchester Black
Manchester Black is a villain/anti-hero in the DC Comics universe who has most commonly been a foe of Superman.
He is the leader of a group of crime-fighting vigilantes known as The Elite – a group whose brutal methods brought them into conflict with the Man of Steel (who obviously prefers to apprehend opponents without killing them).
Although very little is known about Black’s history, it is believed his vendetta towards wrong-doers stems from abuse suffered as a child, and he is certainly quintessentially British – presumably from the city of Manchester – and his style is very reminiscent of the anarchic punk scene of the 1970s and 1980s.
Due to a growth on his brain, he possesses powerful telepathy and telekinesis – allowing him to read minds, control people and move objects without touching them.
Such is the level of his power that he can control armies of supervillains (including the nigh-impossible-to-control Doomsday) with his mind and induce a stroke in Superman by telekinetically squeezing the durable capillaries in his brain.
He would be very different to any antagonist seen in a comic book movie before and would be awesome to see in live action.
