By Ben Morse

Over the holidays, while most of you enjoyed your time off with friends, family and food, a secret cabal of Marvel staffers gathered and picked the ten nastiest bad guys of 2007. Check out who we came up with, including why each guy or gal made the list, their defining moment of the year, and a key comic you can read for yourself courtesy of Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.

10. VULCAN
Where He Showed Up: UNCANNY X-MEN, X-MEN: EMPEROR VULCAN
Why He Makes the List: Having caused plenty of damage to the X-Men's lives on Earth, what with killing Banshee and perhaps driving a permanent wedge between his brother Cyclops and former mentor Professor Charles Xavier, Gabriel Summers headed to the Shi'ar galaxy in search of more chaos and revenge. He ended up with more than he bargained for, falling in love with and marrying the black sheep of the Shi'ar royal family, the deadly Deathbird, and then claiming the vast alien empire for his own, sowing turmoil and death along the way, just how he likes it.
Biggest Move of the Year: Vulcan scored a two-for-one shot dealing with his daddy issues, charbroiling both his birth father, Corsair, and the man who killed his mother, D'Ken, in one fell swoop. He missed the hat trick as old teammate Darwin saved Xavier in the nick of time, but there's always tomorrow.
Comic You Gotta Read: X-MEN: DEADLY GENESIS #1, first appearance of Vulcan

9. MR. FEAR
Where He Showed Up: DAREDEVIL
Why He Makes the List: After regaining his secret identity and finally putting to rest (for now) his lengthy personal struggle with the Kingpin, Matt Murdock thought he could finally rest a bit easy—but Larry Cranston said otherwise. Mr. Fear has slotted himself into Wilson Fisk's old role nicely, making Daredevil's life miserable on all fronts, cutting himself a nice big slice of Hell's Kitchen in the process thanks in no small part to hired goons like the Enforcers and new fear drugs that whip the local toughs into a terror-induced frenzy.
Biggest Move of the Year: Cranston took the supposed Man Without Fear off the chessboard early, poisoning Matt's wife Milla with a fear drug, causing her to lose her mind and accidentally push a man in front of a subway, killing him.
Comic You Gotta Read: DAREDEVIL #6, first appearance of the original Mr. Fear

8. THE PHALANX
Where They Showed Up: ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST
Why They Makes the List: These extraterrestrial techo-organic terrors undid all the hard work the Kree empire had done since the devastating attacks by Annihilus in mere moments, conquering the warrior race and subjugating them to their will in the name of their new leader, Ultron. Enslaving would-be cosmic saviors like Gamora and Drax while imprisoning Kree space in an impenetrable bubble, the Phalanx seem to have removed all roadblocks to their total domination.
Biggest Move of the Year: Kicking the Kree while they were down in every sense of the word, the Phalanx enthralled the empire's ruler, Ronan, making him their Phalanx Select puppet. While the Accuser would break free thanks to Wraith, the wound to his pride and that of the Kree remains fresh.
Comic You Gotta Read: EXILES #20, the Exiles land on an alternate Earth overrun by the Phalanx

7. MIEK
Where He Showed Up: INCREDIBLE HULK, WORLD WAR HULK
Why He Makes the List: Chip away the monstrous slugfests, massive invasion fleet and metric tons of rage, and at the heart of World War Hulk you'll find this creepy little bug, who instigated the Hulk's invasion of Earth by blowing up most of the population of his native Sakaar, including the Green Goliath's wife, Caiera, then framing the Illuminati for the crime. Countless lives lost and two planets nearly destroyed because Miek thought in order for the Hulk to be the destined "Worldbreaker" he had to, y'know, actually break a world.
Biggest Move of the Year: His genocidal actions on Sakaar can't be forgotten, but to longtime Marvel fans, Miek's most unforgivable crime has to be stabbing longtime Hulk—and Avengers and Captain America and Captain Marvel and so on—sidekick Rick Jones, one of the most beloved supporting characters ever, at the apex of WWH, possibly killing him.
Comic You Gotta Read: INCREDIBLE HULK #92, first appearance of Miek and the beginning of "Planet Hulk"

6. MYSTIQUE
Where She Showed Up: X-MEN, "X-Men: Messiah CompleX"
Why She Makes the List: Just when she finally had us believing that a blue-skinned mutant shapeshifter with a history of murder and terrorism really could make a change that went more than skin deep, Mystique went and proved her detractors right, betraying
the X-Men in spectacular fashion and becoming the new field leader of the Marauders.
Biggest Move of the Year: Stringing poor Iceman along and then de-powering him during a makeout session was pretty rude, but no question Mystique crossed back over that point of no return when she shot her "daughter"—and X-Men leader—Rogue point blank! Mystique seems to have reasons for her actions that have yet to be fully revealed, but…damn.
Comic You Gotta Read: UNCANNY X-MEN #142, Mystique leads the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants against the X-Men

5. THE MARAUDERS
Where They Showed Up: X-MEN, "X-Men: Messiah CompleX"
Why They Makes the List: The X-Men's worst nightmare returned this year, as the group responsible for killing scores of Morlocks in the infamous "Mutant Massacre" and forcing Charles Xavier's students to grow up fast came back on the scene in a big way. Now boasting former X-Men like Gambit, Sunfire, Mystique and more in their ranks, the Marauders have never been more dangerous and won't rest until they've added the likes of Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm and the rest to their trophy case.
Biggest Move of the Year: The Marauders' comeback caught the X-Men completely unaware, as they simultaneously took out Cable and Rogue on separate fronts, corrupted Omega Sentinel thanks to a new and improved Malice, and buried Cyclops and half the team under a house—as their opening act!
Comic You Gotta Read: UNCANNY X-MEN #213, X-Men vs Marauders in "Mutant Massacre"

4. ULTRON
Where He Showed Up: MIGHTY AVENGERS, ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST
Why He Makes the List: The premiere killer robot of the Marvel Universe came damn close to destroying humanity with a scheme that saw him kill the Sentry's wife (temporarily) and turn Tony Stark into a hot chick (temporarily), and while he may have failed thanks to the Mighty Avengers, he certainly left Earth's Mightiest Heroes with scars they'll feel for awhile. So what do you do when your play for conquering Earth comes up short? You keep right on trucking up into outer space, taking control of the Phalanx and going after the entire Kree empire!
Biggest Move of the Year: Creepy looking mechanoid monster or no, you can't help but be impressed with Ultron's resilience, in this case bouncing straight from a thrashing by the Avengers to a new agenda with even grander ambition. Ultron's troops took out the Kree in about five minutes, so we're still not quite sure what chance Quasar and friends have against this robot's rampage.
Comic You Gotta Read: AVENGERS: ULTRON IMPERATIVE, an all-star creative team pits Ultron against the Avengers

3. THE HOOD
Where He Showed Up: NEW AVENGERS
Why He Makes the List: Coming from so far off the radar he didn't even get cable, Parker Robbins emerged as a leader the likes of which the super villains of the Marvel Universe have never had in this post-Civil War world. Organizing the street level baddies like an army crossed with the toughest union ever, the unheralded Hood has made himself a force to be reckoned with in less time than it takes Luke Cage to floss and changed the game forever when it comes to villains staying down after they get beat.
Biggest Move of the Year: You won't find too many experienced baddies who can say they went toe-to-toe with Wolverine and got to at least a stalemate, but the Hood pulled it off in his very first encounter with the ol' Canucklehead. And blasting off Wolvie's "little Logans" with his handguns? Healing factor or no, that's insult added to injury big time.
Comic You Gotta Read: AVENGERS #6, the original gathering of super villains, the first ever Masters of Evil

2. MR. SINISTER
Where He Showed Up: X-MEN, "X-Men: Messiah CompleX"
Why He Makes the List: As you've probably figured out by now, the X-Men have had a devastating year, and at the end of the day, they owe Mr. Sinister the rotten fruit basket. Re-organizing the Marauders and Acolytes, engineering betrayals galore within the X-Men's ranks and slaughtering any innocents unfortunate enough to get in his way, the immortal geneticist has been the demon pulling the strings of one tragedy after another for the Children of the Atom.
Biggest Move of the Year: In a rare of instance of Mr. Sinister stepping out from behind the curtain and getting his hands dirty, the pasty faced one personally led his Marauders into battle after the X-Men got the drop on them during the first act of "Messiah CompleX." While Emma Frost's telepathic interference handicapped him to begin with, Sinister and his team sent their foes home likcing their wounds and gave Nightcrawler a one way ticket to the infirmary.
Comic You Gotta Read: UNCANNY X-MEN #239, Mr. Sinister kicks off "Inferno"

1. THE RED SKULL
Where He Showed Up: CAPTAIN AMERICA
Why He Makes the List: Aside from ruling the world, most super villains have but one goal: take the hero that eternally vexes them and foils their every scheme out of the picture. You could count on less than one hand the number of bad guys who actually accomplish this task…until now. Because in 2007, the Red Skull did the impossible: he killed Captain America! And while most fright mask-wearing Nazis would settle for offing the symbol of American democracy, the Skull barely shrugged after snuffing out the Sentinel of Liberty, continuing to move forward on plans to follow up his coup de grace with an even bigger encore, the destruction of America itself! Now that's just evil.
Biggest Move of the Year: Kind of a no brainer here: he killed Captain America! But the Red Skull gets bonus nasty points aplenty by choosing not to end Cap's life with his own hand, opting rather through a byzantine scheme to have the Star Spangled Avenger's longtime lover Sharon Carter pull the trigger and not even realize what she had done until it was too late.
Comic You Gotta Read: TALES OF SUSPENSE #66, the origin of the Red Skull

Come back tomorrow as we celebrate the new year with the Top Ten Heroes of 2007!