55 years ago, legendary Marvel founder Stan Lee established a golden rule for villains that many in the MCU perfectly adhere to. The MCU has earned widespread acclaim for its comic-accurate adaptations of Marvel Comics' most popular characters, and more still for its compelling array of villains. Aside from Marvel Studios' expert casting decisions, thrilling narratives, and stellar acting, it's impossible to overlook the fact that Marvel's villains were written that way to begin with.

This is largely thanks to Stan Lee's golden rule, which stipulates that Marvel Comics' villains should never be "all bad" just as Marvel's heroes should never be "all good." Lee argued that everything is a matter of perspective and that every villain should have a redeeming trait. This isn't too hard to spot in most of Marvel's arch-villains as so many can be easy to sympathize with. However, there are some that meet the criteria a little more than others.