The worst human rights abusers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
25 April 2019
Amnesty International
Today sees the release of Avengers: Endgame, the 22nd instalment in a 22-film franchise that started more than a decade ago with Iron Man. Based on the comic books created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the most successful film franchise of all time and the final film is expected to be the biggest release of this year.
But it’s not a major pop culture moment unless an NGO has tried to jump on the bandwagon and use it as a learning opportunity. We consulted with our in-house Marvel experts to examine the human rights records of the shows biggest villains according to real-life concepts of international justice.
Below, we offer our take on the worst human rights abusers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Get your popcorn at the ready and if you’ve not seen any of the previous films be warned, this post is full of spoilers.
The Kree
Human rights abuses: Genocide and mass murder.
Throughout the Marvel films we see repeated acts of crimes against humanity. These are crimes committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians during peace or wartime. They include torture, enforced disappearances, killings, enslavement, deportation and certain crimes of sexual and gender-based violence including rape.
The final instalment of the film deals with the aftermath of one of the gravest crimes portrayed: the mass murder of half of all living creatures in the Universe by Thanos.
While this atrocity committed by Thanos is by far the worst in terms of its sheer scale, his act of destroying half the universe with a snap of a finger was in fact an act of indiscriminate mass killing – it did not involve targeting or singling out specific groups.
And while genocide is a crime against humanity that will usually involve mass killings, not all mass killings amount to genocide.
That is because genocide means certain acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Like other crimes against humanity, genocide is considered to be one of the gravest human rights violations it is possible to commit. That is why the Kree, one of the most powerful races in the Marvel universe, are among the worst human rights abusers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In the film Captain Marvel, we learn that far from being the peace-keepers that they portray themselves to be, the Kree are in fact a war-mongering group intent on wiping out another group known as the Skrulls – a war that amounts to genocide because of their intent to destroy the entire group.
Through the film the audience are taken on an important arc through Carol Danver’s discovery that the Kree have scapegoated and paint the Skrull as a dangerous foreign enemy, when in fact they are a community trying to find safety.
As we have seen repeatedly throughout human history, this tactic of othering, dehumanising and scapegoating a group of people based on a part of their identity often precedes acts of genocide.
Thanos
Human rights abuses: crimes against humanity, mass murder, torture, war crimes including targeting civilians and murder and ill-treatment of prisoners of war.
Thanos turns out to the ultimate villain in the films, giving a bad name to environmentalists everywhere. The Infinity gauntlet-wearing strong-man manages to commit mass murder on an unparalleled scale by killing half of all life in the universe, and outrageously tries to justify it on the grounds that he wants to ease the burden on natural resources.
Thanos turns out to the ultimate villain in the films, giving a bad name to environmentalists everywhere. The Infinity gauntlet-wearing strong-man manages to commit mass murder on an unparalleled scale by killing half of all life in the universe, and outrageously tries to justify it on the grounds that he wants to ease the burden on natural resources.
But while Thanos can probably go head to head with the Kree for the sheer volume of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed, we cannot overlook the other gruesome human rights violations he commits, including the brutal emotional and physical torture of his daughters Gamora and Nebula.
Under human rights law we all have the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. We often think of torture as a physical act, but as we learn from Thanos, those in power often use psychological torture as a way to inflict intense mental suffering on others. This kind of psychological abuse can be so extreme that it too amounts to a human rights violation.
Odin
Human rights abuses: enforced disappearance, possible war crimes.
While Odin is not portrayed as a villain in any of the movies, there is no getting around the fact that the King of Asgard has committed grave human rights abuses with total impunity in his time.
While Odin is not portrayed as a villain in any of the movies, there is no getting around the fact that the King of Asgard has committed grave human rights abuses with total impunity in his time.
We find out about his chequered history in the film Thor Ragnorak, when it is revealed that Odin had a first-born, Hela, with whom he carried out a bloody and violent war to conquer the Nine realms and establish a new empire. It is unclear from the film whether these wars were fought directly with other armies, or if they included the targeting of civilians.
When Hela’s appetite for destruction outgrew her father’s, he decided to imprison her and wipe out any record of her. But while it is unclear whether Odin committed any human rights abuses during the conquest of the Nine realms, we know for sure but he did carry out the enforced disappearance of his own daughter.
Under international human rights law, enforced disappearances are an arrest, detention, abduction or deprivation of liberty by agents of the state or with the authorisation of the state, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person.
Odin’s actions effectively placed Hela outside of the protection of the law, which is exactly why enforced disappearances are such a grave human rights violation.
Though Odin’s inclusion on this list may appear controversial, in reality he, as a head of state, carries the primary responsibility to protect and uphold the human rights. That is why Amnesty International places a greater emphasis on scrutinising the actions of states in upholding human rights, rather than looking at the actions of specific individuals or groups.
