Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), the first villain the Guardians of the Galaxy faces, gets a grand entrance. He’s introduced rambling on about the horrors the people of the planet Xandar inflicted on his people, the Kree. This creature’s first sequence isn’t all talk and no action, though. Ronan declares his refusal to cooperate with a peace treaty between the Xandarians and Kree by slaughtering a member of the Nova Corps. From there, Ronan rarely appears without killing somebody, even Thanos’s powerful right-hand man, the Other.
Ronan’s penchant for murder is enough to make him a memorably powerful foe, but then he opts to wield the might of an Infinity Stone for his own plans at the start of “Guardians of the Galaxy’s” third act. He does this to defy his master, Thanos (Josh Brolin), bellowing out a plan to viciously murder the purple alien once he’s laid waste to Xandar. Pace’s passionate line deliveries make it believable that Ronan could go toe-to-toe with Thanos as a formidable threat. Ronan doesn’t get to convey that intimidating aura for long, as the Guardians of the Galaxy eventually defeat him. However, in the screentime he does have, Ronan the Accuser has no problem registering as a commanding cosmic threat.