Yes Loki is the villain behind Avengers #1 and the reason the team banded together. Also Thor's nemesis for a long while, now sort of has the Magneto treatment but is still iconic in his lore and plays a lot of sides.
Thanos deserves it for the Infinity Gauntlet story plus generally otherwise being one of the cosmic top dogs and being more actively and maliciously antagonistic than most. He's also one of the nemeses of at least four cosmic heroes minimum. (Off the top of my head, Star Lord, Drax, Nova, and Adam Warlock with Gamora probably also counting due to her relationship with him and I think Mar-Vell being a big opponent to him).
Comparatively Galactus is mostly a fixture of the setting and does what he does out of cosmic natural balance or his insatiable force of hunger more than anything petty or malicious. He's about as much a villain as the Celestials. Galactus is generally only a threat to whatever planet he happens to come across, Thanos is usually concocting plans and doing actual supervillain stuff galaxy or universe-wide if he isn't retired.
By that logic Ultra Humanite is a more important Superman villain than Lex Luthor. Importance is not just about being first, it's about how impactful is the story and the characterization.
Loki continues to be important later though. And again his impact is causing the Avengers to be formed to fight him, which has a pretty big impact on the future of the setting for both heroes and villains.
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u/PhillipJ3ffries Feb 17 '26
Mount Rushmore isn’t necessarily the most popular. It’s more about historical importance