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Subj: Re: The arch-enemies of the Parodyverse... Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 at 05:37:57 pm EDT (Viewed 525 times) | Reply Subj: Re: The arch-enemies of the Parodyverse... Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 at 05:23:54 am EDT (Viewed 4 times) | ||||||
Quote: In serial comics, "the opposite" has to take lots of forms because there needs to be some variety from month to month. But if you want to look at this doctrine in action take a look at early Iron Man adversaries. They were mostly either: (a) Armoured enemies - Titanium Man, Crimson Dynamo - or else tech-based villains, some with specific counters to Iron Man - the Melter, the Unicorn, Hawkeye (b) Different non-science threats - Dr Doll (voodoo), Black Widow (espionage), the Scarecrow (horror) or even races of aliens - all taking Stark and/or Iron Man on in different kinds of battlegrounds (c) Manipulators, mostly corporate - the Mandarin, Count Nefaria, Doctor Strange (not the sorcerer supreme version); remarkably lots of these manipulators tend to have beautiful daughters. Iron Man is an interesting case to me because despite his rise in prominence to the center of the Marvel Universe in the last decade or so, his rogue's gallery has mostly been left behind. I'm not sure what the status of the Mandarin actually is, but it does seem like he's a casualty of outdated concepts that have not yet been successfully reinvented. As for the rest of his rogues gallery, none really seem to do a good job of breaking out of the title book to become recognizable beyond Iron Man fans. Contrasted with Cap/Red Skull, Thor/Loki, FF/Doom, X-men/Magneto, Spidey/Osborne, and more, Iron Man feels like he's lacking an arch villain that's on his fame level... Quote: On a team-wide basis the LL tends to take on its evil counterparts - the Scourge, the Purveyors, and of course the Anti-League - it's opposites (often one very powerful adversary vs a group) - Ultizon, Count Armaggedon, the Confiscator - and its manipulator archvillains. Indeed. I'm looking forward to the next version of the Scourge that HH puts together. And I note that Thugos is putting together a team out of what would be "opposites", beings that seem strong enough to stand alone against the LL. It interesting to me that being on a team doesn't diminish the standing of a hero, but a villain who is on a team is automatically dropped down in "threat level" standing. Of course, villainous teams tend to lose to fit the story needs, so I guess logically once they've had a bunch of help and still been unable to take down the heroes, nobody is going to expect them to be able to do it alone... | |||||||
