Monday’s Tropic Of Conversation got you all nice and chat-tastic again - keep it up, and keep posting those hero choices too. Comments so far:
Christian - Good call. I had completely forgotten about Dominic Fortune and how much I like him.
Mob - Both Iron Fist and Union Jack are just outside my top five. Iron Fist and Warlock are characters who have featured in two of my all-time favourite single pages in comics. I’ll dig out the issue references sometime. And why is Wanda Maximoff such a big surprise? I love magic characters, and when I was a kid she was my first comic book crush.
lendosan - Yes, Nick Fury, if it’s classic Steranko.
narratavium - Funny, funny, funny, funny, funny.
Anonymous - I love wine, though I can’t drink it anymore because of my epilepsy. The offer is appreciated, however, as is the information.
Ambrose - Thanks for supporting your choices with such good commentaries and spreading the word. 616 Cap (who would make my top ten) would, however, wipe all kinds of floor with Ultimate CA ;)
HiWayRobry - Sleepwalker? Really? I don’t know if that’s crazy or genius. I think it’s probably cranius. Or gezy.
Mr Swallow - Damn you, nice list. We’re men of a certain demographic, I feel. Hawkeye, Captain Britain, Rom...mmmm....hero-y...
BigWill - I want to see a story where a drunk Iron Man voms with his visor down.
Very cool comments all round. So here’s the inevitable follow up Tropic Of Conversation for Thursday: “Top Five Marvel Villains”.
Mine? Given the Thanos Imperative series I’m working on for Marvel right now (what do you mean, you haven’t seen the advance publicity!?), we can take Thanos and Adam Magus as read. After them:
a) Kang
b) Mysterio
c) Bullseye (Frank Miller era)
d) Proteus
e) The Abomination
Your turn. Gentlemen and ladies - start your list-engines!
29 comments:
Zingalinga.
Now on to actually reading the post.
Ok top 5 marvel bad guys *ponders*
1: Kingpin
2: Bullseye
3: Mystique
4: Venom
5: Dr. Doom
there are more but those are the ones i loved to root for.
I always enjoy bad guys that used to be good guys and have fallen somehow. I usually find they have the most interesting story lines as to what can cause such a drastic change in opinions/motivations.
what do you enjoy most about writing villains Dan?
1. Dr Doom
2. Ultron
3. Magneto
4. Batroc (okay, not a great villain per say, I just like the guy, he's a fun goofball)
5. White Wolf (obscure Black Panther villain, hooray!)
Hmm.
Tempted as I am to go for biggies like Doctor Doom or Magneto...
Nimrod.
Ultron.
Kinpin.
Annihilus.
Taskmaster.
How could I forget Ultron?
And SERIOUSLY how could I forget Batroc??! I LOVE Batroc... him and the original Tarantula! Clearly, I like bad guys who kick. Literally kick.
Stiltman, anyone?
1. Baron Mordo
2. Maximus
3. Zarathos
4. Mr. Sinister
5. Arnim Zola
I thought the last list was favorite characters.
My top 2 were Villians
1.Apocalypse
2.Mr.Sinister
3.Kraven(From the Death of a Hunter storyline)
4.Red Skull
5.Sabastian Shaw the Black King
1. Count Nefaria-- that first fight when he was powered up by stealing the other villains energy was awesomely good.
2. Absorbing Man -- just kind fo funky.
3. Namor -- works much better as a villain.
4. Doctor Doom.
5. Obligatory jab at the editorial team for the whole Spiderman's wife dealing with the devil storyline.
Ooooohhh! Absorbing Man!
I've always thought that a clever writer, say one who was quite capable or doing some radical yet perfectly in keeping character development with an element transmuting last survivor of a murdered race, could do some cool stuff with the character. Being able to turn into ANYTHING you touch is pretty awesome really. Say he got his hands on some "solid" dream essence from Nightmare, or was able to touch "raw" magic... there's all manner of stuff you can do with the character. We don't need another scene where he turns into rock/metal etc etc .
Wow, that turned into a real rant, apologies. :)
Bullseye, Mojo, Loki, Typhoid Mary, Kraven.
Not in any particular order.
Mojo, Venom, Nimrod, Infectia, and I'm going to cheat and roll all three of the Old Soldiers into one because wow, five entries get used up quickly, don't they?
Tangential note: the Book of Ratings on Marvel villains here: http://www.bookofratings.com/marvelvillainsrating.html
Second tangential note: While we're on comics, I'm well overdue to give you a huge thankyou for Warlock's appearance in Nova: Annihilation. One of my favourite ever characters. Was so good to see him again.
Oh, and a special honourable mention to Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, whose death scene gets my "chutzpah I can't not applaud" nomination.
1. Dr. Doom. I mean really, how can a list NOT include this guy? Through all the eras, he's been the epitome of dastardly villain with a noble streak that you just had to admire.
2. Equinox. Yeah, B-list villain, at best, but I remember reading Marvel Team-Up as a kid with Spider-Man and Yellow Jacket and Wasp teaming up against him and I was utterly convinced he'd killed Yellowjacket dead by the end of the first installment, which blew me away at the time.
3. Yellow Claw. I just can't help but love this guy in all his horrific stereo-typed villainy.
4. Bushman. Moon Knight's first enemy, essential to his origin (unless it's been retconned since I stopped reading comics), and all around BMF for a guy with no real powers. What's not to like?
5. Dire Wraith. Okay, not a "single" villain, per se, but as the enemy ROM fought from issue to issue, they've got a special place in my heart. ;)
V
E
N
O
M
That's five. 'Nuff said!
LOL. Thanks Dan. I've never been accused of being genius so I'd have to go with crazy :)
Sleepwalker is just such a cool concept. An alien that can only manifest itself when it's vessel is asleep, and the vessel has no idea what he's been doing while he's asleep except as some sort of dream-like faint memories. Plus, he's a big spindly purple dude with a giant red cloak, what's not to love? :)
Love to see know those Iron Fist and Warlock issues, sometime. I'm probably treading on thin ice with this comment, but I wouldn't have guessed Wanda as I don't automatically think of her as a 'strong' female character, while I think that something you do well is strong female characters.
Can't believe I forgot Rom.
- Dr Doom
- Bullseye
- Hobgoblin (I got into Spider-Man when he was the big bad)
- Arno Stark (Iron Man 2020)
- Black Tarantula
(okay, I guess those last two are kind of anti-heroes rather than proper villains...but it was either them or cheesy Cage/Fist bad guys like Chemistro)
brood
apocalypse
nimrod
Doctor doom
Beyonder
I actually don't know that much about comics, but the ones I've seen and liked are:
Venom, Magneto, Red Skull, Sentinels, annnd.. Sandman, I s'pose.
Top 5 Marvel Villains
1: The Hood
2: The TaskMaster
3: Ronan the Accuser
4: Galactus
5: Ghost
These are the villains i always root for
After overdosing on all the Nova and Guardians trades and a host of other Marvel titles all I seem to be dreaming about this week is multicoloured, flying superheroes. Still a DC boy at the heart, though. So, bearing in mind that Batman beats anything at Marvel, my:
Heroes:
1. Spider-Man
2. Gamora
3. Nova
4. Silver Surfer
5. Nightcrawler
Villains:
1. Magneto
2. Jean Grey as the Black Queen
3. Dr. Doom
4. The Church of Universal Truth
5. Hobgoblin
The Church of Universal Truth, with their starship Tancred.
Tancred Endures.
Batroc the Leaper. he he he.
Ok, bad guys:
1. Doctor Doom
2. Mephisto
3. Taskmaster
4. The Badoon
5. The Purple Man
1. Sentinels
2. Apocalypse (Age of Apocalypse is still a great story)
3. Dr. Doom (especially in Marvel 1602)
4. Mandarin (Ultimate Mr. Spooky)
5. Magneto (pre-mentor years)
I didn't weigh in on the last one, simply because I'm an idiot and didn't take the time. However, gotta get in on this one.
5) The X-Cutioner (Carl Denti) - Sure, typical of early 90's Marvel, but he's also one of the first villains I really saw, in one of the first comics I ever owned. He had an interesting backstory and was someone new and exciting, and had the high technology that made me gawk at the book in wonder, being the Trekkie that I am. While he's not appeared in over a decade, far as I know, he's still one of my favorites.
4) The Kingpin - Just like you have to respect Hawkeye for keeping up with the rest of the Avengers, you have to hand it to Wilson Fisk. His only superpower is that he literally runs all crime in New York. He uses his people and all his clout in order to make the supers - both heroes and villains - fear him. Still, he's just a man, and deserves some respect for keeping up with the likes of Spiderman and Daredevil.
3) The Liberators (Ultimates 2) - Sure, 'evil versions of the heroes' have been done to death, and the Colonel's backstory has some holes in it, but still, I enjoyed the concept. The fact that this team was specifically created and designed to exploit the Ultimates' weaknesses was a step in the right direction, but the nod of having Loki be the one manipulating the team's creation makes this evil Avengers group just that much better.
2) Loki - and speaking of. Loki has one of the hallmark traits of a top-tier villian - he rarely does anything himself. He manipulates everyone around him so expertly that they believe that it's actually their idea. He made the original Avengers believe that Hulk was evil. He convinced Asgard that Thor had turned his back on them. He got Norman Osborn to literally declare war on the gods themselves - okay, that one probably wasn't terribly difficult, but there are still limits to what that nutcase will do by himself. And the entire time, Loki gets to stand back and watch, letting others take the fall and the blame.
1) The Red Skull - He's here for many of the same reasons as Loki. His plans can take years to come to fruition, slowly manipulating piece after piece into position, letting the heroes run around with no clue what he's on about until it's too late. He's of the German school - a plan for everything, every contingency planned in exactitude before the first move is ever made. However, he also suffers from the arrogance that school of military thought is prone to - believing that you truly have thought of every contingency. And that ultimately proves to be his downfall every time. He spends fifty issues and a miniseries trying to bring a plan to fruition, only to have it fall to pieces at the last minute because he refused to believe that something was possible.
1. Doctor Octopus
2. Magneto
3. Zombie Fantastic Four
4. Red Skull
5. Electro
1) Doctor Doom. I especially liked the future elederly Doom depicted in X-Factor. Even wizened in a wheelchair with his marbles gone, he's still incredibly dangerous.
2) Loki - I always enjoy villains who can't just overpower the hero. It makes them more interesting in my opinion.
3) Magneto - depends how he's written but another trait I like is a 'villain' who genuinely believes they are a hero.
4) Venom - A dark reflection of the hero is a bit cliche but McFarlane Spiderman was my intro to comics and I always thought Venom presented a genuine threat to Spiderman. Something a lot of villains never seem to manage.
5) The Maestro. Peter David Hulk run at it's best. The character posed so many interesting questions. Is the hero predestined to become the thing he fights etc.
I’ll let my choice of villains speak for themselves.
Thanos: “Am I not Thanos?! Did I not butcher the woman who gave me birth, who force-fed me into this hell called life?! Is not the wake of my passing crimson with the blood of my enemies and allies alike?! Death is with me every second of the day! My every moment is spent in either dealing out death or worshiping it!”
Dr. Doom: "Pain? Pain is like love . . . like compassion! It is a thing only for lesser men. What is pain to Doom?"
Magneto: "I am Magneto, this is my home. I am rapidly losing interest in whatever you choose to do on the Earth's surface - despoil the environment, slaughter yourselves to the last child, I no longer care - But I refuse to allow you to export your penchant for violence to my very doorstep."
Sabertooth: “’Happens boy. ‘Specially to squaws uppity enough to say no.”
Juggernaut: “I’m UNSTOPPABLE”
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