In the 2008 movie Iron Man, the biggest, baddest villain was Obadiah Stane, played by Jeff Bridges. Originally business partners with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Obadiah betrayed Tony by hatching a plot to kill him while he was in Afghanistan. When Tony survived and became Iron Man, Obadiah responded by taking on his own iron identity: The Iron Monger.
That led to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first big boss battle. But while the movie that kicked off the MCU may have built up to a final fight with Iron Monger, there was another villain in the movie that came first, technically making him the official first villain in the MCU.
That villain reappeared in episode 6 of VisionQuest in a return that no one saw coming.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for VisionQuest episode 6.
Why Raza is the MCU’s first true villain
Technically, the first villain Tony Stark faced as Iron Man was not Obadiah Stane, but Raza Hamidmi al-Wazar, played by Faran Tahir. Raza was the leader of the Afghan division of the Ten Rings, a terrorist organization that would be explored more in future MCU films like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Raza launched the attack at the beginning of Iron Man and captured Tony Stark. Raza then kept Stark in an Afghan cave and forced him to build a missile, but Tony instead built a means by which to escape.
It was in that cave in Afghanistan that Tony built his very first Iron Man armor, the Mark 1. Once the suit was completed, Tony Stark, with the help of Ho Yinsen (Shaun Toub), escaped the cave hideout, killing several members of the Ten Rings. Raza survived, but his face was badly burned in the encounter.
Later in the film, we learn that Raza had been hired by Obadiah Stane and the plan was for him to kill Stark immediately, but Raza was not told who he was killing. Once he realized it was the famous, genius weapons manufacturer Tony Stark, Raza decided to have Stark build him a missile before killing him, which, of course, backfired.
When Stane visits Raza in Afghanistan, he finds out that Raza has recovered the Mark 1 armor as Stane requested. Stane then incapacitates Raza with a sonic taser, paralyzing him and making his ears bleed, though he assures Raza that the effects only last 15 minutes. Following that, Stane commands his men to collect the suit and “finish up.” We then hear Stane’s men shooting the Ten Rings members.
It would be safe to assume that Raza died here, but, as we learned on episode 6 of VisionQuest, that was not the case.
Raza’s role in VisionQuest, explained
The bounty hunter Paladin (Todd Stashwick) has spent every episode of VisionQuest trying and failing to capture Vision (Paul Bettany) for an unseen, mysterious villain. The contract the shadowy figure had with Paladin was revoked in episode 3, but Paladin is still determined to take Vision in. This leads to a confrontation between Vision and Paladin in Madripoor, the fictional Southeast Asian island that is a hub for criminal activity.
While Vision and Paladin are arguing in a bar, Raza and a small team of gunmen shoot up the establishment. Raza reminds Paladin that his contract is terminated and to hand over Vision so that he can take him in instead. Raza also makes clear that, like Paladin, he has adamantium bullets which can do some serious damage to Vision.
Upon hearing Raza’s voice, Paladin recognizes him and says, “Between Stark’s old partner and the occasional Ten Rings torture chamber, shouldn’t you be dead or in chains?” This suggests that, since the events of Iron Man, Raza has fallen out with the Ten Rings, most likely because of his failures in that movie, or perhaps for going rogue by making a deal with Stane in the first place. Regardless, Raza is no longer a member of the terrorist organization and is now operating as a bounty hunter just like Paladin.
Since the MCU is still set a couple of years ahead of our own time, this means that this is Raza’s status quo 20 years after the events of Iron Man. While his reappearance is a bit perplexing, it’s pretty cool to see VisionQuest reach so far back into MCU history, even if it’s not explained how Raza escaped Stane’s firing squad.
The appearance was brief, as Raza was pretty quickly bested by Paladin in a sword fight after the standoff, but he’s definitely left alive this time. Hopefully, that means we’ll be seeing the character again sometime, and, ideally, his return won’t take another two decades.