Ulysses Klaue is a minor antagonist in the 2015 Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Avengers: Age of Ultron and the secondary antagonist of the 2018 film Black Panther. A variant of him appears in the 2021 Disney+ animated anthology series What If...? as a major antagonist in the sixth episode "What If... Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?".
He is a notorious black market arms dealer and smuggler infamous for smuggling vibranium out of the isolated African nation of Wakanda, also a former member of the Intelligencia. For a long time, Klaue has been the archenemy of the Wakandan Royal Family. He was an associate of Erik Killmonger until his betrayal.
He was portrayed by Andy Serkis, who also played Gollum.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
In General/Background[]
- Began his criminal activities by operating as an arms dealer and assassin-for-hire primarily in South Africa. Throughout the course of his life, Klaue had an increasingly unstable hatred for Wakanda, as his great-grandfather was killed by a Black Panther in the 19th century. At one time, he was working as an enforcer for a group known as Intelligencia.
- Was paid ten million dollars to assassinate King T'Chaka at the Bilderberg Conference when he refused to negotiate about Wakanda's resources. When the attack failed, Klaue was then placed on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar as a potential threat to world security.
- He killed many people, including the family of W'Kabi (the head of Wakanda's Border Tribe and best friend to T'Challa). Unable to recover from this trauma, W'Kabi developed a deep hatred towards Klaue and swore to hunt him down until his death.
- Successfully stole a large quantity of vibranium from Wakanda. He escapes alive but scarred, becoming one of the few people outside of Wakanda who knows the truth of the country's wealth and technological advancement.
- He has no genuine loyalty to anyone and his associations with others are strictly professional.
- While he does have comedic moments, his crimes are treated seriously and he lacks redeeming qualities.
Avengers Age of Ultron[]
- While onboard his own ship Churchill at the Salvage Yard, Klaue was on the phone with one of his buyers, threatening him for a poor deal, noting that he did not care about all the man's excuses that he was swindled as Klaue had sent six short range missiles and was not satisfied with the result. He then threatened the man's life before hanging up.
- When ambushed by the Maximoff twins, Wanda and Pietro he starts mocking them and taunts them over the death of Baron von Strucker. Despite apologising for Strucker's death, this is insinscere and although Strucker was brutally killed by Ultron, he deserved to die as he was a ruthless leader of HYDRA.
- He refuses to deal with the Maximoffs, stating he only deals with the man in charge, until Ultron reveals himself by throwing Klaue from his office window and told him that there was no man in charge.
- His brief alliance with Ultron is transactional as Ultron needs Vibranium to upgrade his body and later fills his bank account with billions of dollars, which he hacked from financial databases.
- Knowing he stood no chance in a battle with Ultron, Klaue made his escape. When the Avengers then arrived to confront Ultron and the Maximoff twins, Klaue escaped the scene, clutching the remainder of his amputated arm.
- He ordered his own soldiers to kill both the Avengers, Ultron and the Maximoff twins, leading to a battle in which Ultron had escaped with all the Vibranium and Klaue's soldiers were quickly defeated by the combined efforts of the Avengers.
Black Panther[]
- Some time later, Klaue reappears working with Erik Killmonger to steal artifacts from a museum in London in order to sell them on the black market.
- He gleefully kills multiple people during the heist and reveals what he calls "just a taste" of the power of his prosthetic hand, which he has implanted himself following Ultron's death.
- As Killmonger went to aid the poisoned the museum director, both Klaue and Limbani then pulled out their firearms and executed all but one of the security guards.
- Despite initially sparing one of his guards and promising he could go free, he immediately shoots him in the back of the head just while he had tried to flee. He justifies this by telling Killmonger that spreading out the crime scene would make them look like amateur thieves instead of professional mercenaries.
- Now seeking to make a large profit off the vibranium axe he had successfully stolen with Killmonger's assistance, Klaue contaced a potential buyer interested in purchasing it from him and later traveled all the way to Busan, South Korea with the intention to then trade the Wakandan artifact in exchange for his suitcase full of diamonds. He also hired several bodyguards to accompany him and buyer is revealed to be Everett Ross.
- While he does seem to get along with Ross and their deal initially went smoothly, it was soon sabotaged by the presence of the Dora Milaje, as Klaue's bodyguards were ambushed by Okoye wielding her Vibranium spear. Realizing the deal was a set-up, Klaue furiously opened fire on Ross, who then used the briefcase of diamonds as his shield to deflect the shots before taking cover behind a table while Klaue demanded that his men get the diamonds to run before they could be captured or killed by the Wakandans.
- As he made his escape, Klaue shoots several guards coming to stop him while avoiding Nakia, before he charged up the stairs and found himself cornered by T'Challa. Realizing he was out of bullets and cornered, he taunts T'Challa stating he looked like his father and activates his prosthetic arm's sonic cannon, shooting T'Challa who used a table as cover and was knocked off the balcony. Due to the blast from his prosthetic arm causing money to explode across the casino, he takes pleasure in the destruction caused stating he just "made it rain" before hysterically laughing and is excited even after leaving.
- Regrouped with his henchmen and escaped from their Jagalchi Market Casino, excitedly yelling about how awesome the events had been before getting into his car and driving away with his men.
- Seeing that Nakia and Okoye were catching up with him, Klaue got onto the radio and ordered his men to split up as they drove through Busan, hoping to lose the Wakandans in all the chaos.
- He leaned out of his car window and fired an energy blast using his sonic arm cannon at Okoye and Nakia's car, which had completely obliterated it as they barely survived. However, Black Panther continued chasing down Klaue, who then furiously gave his driver directions in order to escape.
- He fires another blast at T'Challa, aiming to kill him again only for T'Challa to destroy his car by ripping the wheel off.
- He taunts T'Challa who angrily reminds and confronts about the Attack on Wakanda, before furiously assaulting him and asking where he got his prosthetic arm from. Klaue later claimed that the Wakandans never deserved such technology, calling them savages, which provoked T'Challa further.
- Seeing that T'Challa was ready to kill him, he hypocritically begged for mercy as he saw crowds of people gathering around to watch the confrontation. While T'Challa spares him it was Ross, Nakia and Okoye showed up to remind him the world was watching them.
- Knowing that he had survived, Klaue smiled at T'Challa before he was then taken into CIA custody.
- He glibly mocks Ross and T'Challa during his interrogation, while revealing how advanced and powerful Wakanda truly is given their use of Vibranium. However, he is eventually freed by Killmonger.
- He yelled out in delight as he watched Killmonger mortally wound Ross who had attempted to save Nakia's life.
- He refused to take Killmonger to Wakanda, due to his personal history with them.
- After Killmonger betrays him by shooting Limbani through the back of the head. Seeing the betrayal, Klaue then quickly retaliated by taking Linda, Killmonger's girlfriend, hostage as he threatened to execute her, though Killmonger shoots through her to get to him.
- Sneers at Killmonger's supposed stupidity for wanting to go to Wakanda, showing him a brand they gave him while he was there as a sign of what happens to outsiders and asks Killmonger what makes him think he can get in. Once Killmonger shows him the hidden markings under his lips (his true name, N'Jadaka), revealing that he is the son of Prince N'Jobu, the very same Wakandan who was in league with Klaue before his death.
- In his final moments and despite being played he is amused that he thought Killmonger was "just some crazy American", and laughs maniacally before the latter executes. His death is also played for satisfaction. Killmonger later brings his Klaue's body to Wakanda and delivers it to W'Kabi in order to be allowed to enter the country as part of his plan to overthrow T'Challa.
Why He Doesn't Stand Out?[]
- His personal villainy towards Wakanda and his alliances with Ultron and Killmonger allow him to pass the baseline, but he fails the MCU's heinous standards to other human villains such as Obadiah Stane, Red Skull, Alexander Pierce, Killmonger, Zemo, Crossbones, Mysterio and Dreykov, whose crimes exceed his with similar, more or less resources and have higher kill counts. Plus Stane was the interim CEO the heading figure of arguably the world's leading weapons development company that uses his power to sell weapons to terrorists.
- While he had a major impact on the MCU as the Vibranium he sold Ultron nearly destroyed humanity and forced the government to draft the Sokovia Accords that tore the Avengers apart, leaving them unable to stop Thanos and resulting in half the universe being dead for 5 years, he had no way of knowing any of these events would happen. He was also unaware he was helping Ultron destroy humanity.
- Although his actions are too horrible for him to be considered tragic, he cares about his great-grandfather as he is motivated to avenge his death by the hands of a Black Panther from a 19th century.
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