Thanos has always been poised to be the penultimate villain for a set of Avengers movies.  He's big, he's bad, he's crazy. When the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) first came to be, it seemed like forever until we would actually see Thanos.  We had to endure some Chitauri, some Ultrons, and a bunch of others in between.  Now we are coming up to an End Game (get it?!) of sorts for Marvel and that leaves us speculators sitting around scratching our heads when what we should be doing is speculating... What's next?  Who's next?  So why not examine some of the possible options for the next big baddie in the MCU.

So, who's next?  Threatening the Earth is one thing, but a grand villain has to threaten existence itself.  Looking terrestrially, the Mandarins and Zemos of the world seem to be one-off villains with selfish motives and little desire to take over the entire universe.  Which means we may have to go more celestial to find a contender.  Galactus might be caught up in some legal issue with Fox or perhaps he really is getting his own movie that doesn't feature the Fantastic Four, either case doesn't bode well for him being the next big MCU villian.  Same with Annihilus as pointed out in Matt Tuck's blog here.  So who is left?  I have some strong thoughts about Kang the Conqueror (that I will soon share) but I wanted to start by prodding a villain that may have some basis in the upcoming movies...Korvac!

Korvac is mostly famous for the storyline saga that bears his name: The Korvac Saga, which ran in Avengers #167-#177.  The character of Michael Korvac (often just Korvac) made his first appearance in Giant-Size Defenders #3 in 1975.  Current listed Fair Market Value (FMV) for this book, in 9.8, is listed at $1850.  Frankly, not many copies of this book have sold, only 2 recorded 9.8 sales have occurred, in the past several years.  These giant-size books were plagued with issues that cause higher grades to be unattainable...thick square spines that damaged easily, newsstand date stamps, and all the other common condition-breakers.  Of the 176 graded copies there are only 6 graded at 9.8.  This ratio is similar to that of Killmonger, with an extremely low number of higher grades, who had an unbelievable pop after Black Panther.  Rarity can help compound value on a book, especially if the character is popular.

So why Korvac?  Well...he has all the check marks of a great villain that can drag the brand thru another multi-movie cycle.  He is from an alternate/parallel Earth along with being from the future.  He is a human, however, he is a traitor to the human race and is altered, as punishment by the Alien Brotherhood of the Badoon, to become a cyborg.  They could have him wander the cosmos building his story and end with a fantastic climax on Earth for control of the MCU.  Korvac has a complex story-line in the comics that could be reinterpreted in many ways by a daring director with a solid vision.  Captain Marvel will help us explore more of the universe and the Kree-Skrull relationship.  End Game may have time-travel and alternate realities.  These are both great places to plant the seed of Korvac.

Who are you hoping will be the next threat to humanity?  Do you expect a multi-movie build up for a villain like phase I-IV?  Which actor would you cast as the villain Korvac?  Drop us your comments and join in the speculation!