Weak Super Villians that you can't help but like.

[daveblackeye15]

 What's a hero without a Super Villian? I'm talking about those villians that don't really seem to have too many powers and yet still be somewhat of a threat. Two months ago I got the "Essintial Spiderman" it's a large graphic novel that has the first twenty issues, Spiderman's first appearance, and the Annual Comic #1. I've finished reading it a while ago and it was here that I discoverd some weak Super Villians (actually these guys aren't excatly super powered)
 The guys I'm talking about are this three man team called "The Enforcers". It's made up of "The Ox" a big guy that's really strong, "Fancy Dan" a small guy that moves really quick and knows Judo (kung fu!) and "Montana" a man that's...really really good with Lassos. Like I said the "Enforcers" don't really posses super powers and it seems like they always have to team up with somebody in order to give Spiderman a hard time. They appeared three times in the book. In their first appeance they fought Spiderman along with a very large gane of gang members (actually it was mostly the gang members fighting but ever once in a while one of the Enforcers would step in for a bit). In their second appearnce they had to team up with the "Green Goblin" and the third time they worked with "Sandman". Each time they lossed and yet I can't help but like these guys for trying so hard, and even though they're kinda weak they're still pretty cool. What are you's guys favorite weak super villians?

[dean]

All the weak super-villains I know of were all really rich and had lackeys to do their work for them, badly, i might add, proving that even the super-rich are reluctant to spend good money on good help.  Cheap scum!

I always love it when really crappy villains decide to become the arch-nemesis of the hero, only to have everyone else go ''and you are...''  

Yes I was up late watching Buffy last night.

[Deej]

Haven't put much thought into lame super villains. But, for the last 20 years, or so, I've been trying to puzzle out a little lame super hero(s) problem. Anyone remember the Wonder Twins? They were like the Cousin Oliver(s ) of the Superfriends cartoon.

They made their appearence late in the series, and really didn't do anything. They could change into animals or water, and they had to be together to activate their powers. Inevitably, they did something stupid, became seperated and had to be rescued by the other super friends(except AquaMan, cause let's face it, he was pretty lame too!). Even as a 9 year old, I wondered why they weren't fired, or banished, or cast off, or whatever the Superfriends do to make you  pack your s**t, and leave the Hall Of Justice.....Frikkin' Pointless, they were!

[dean]

Hehe, Aquaman

I remember an old episode of Dr Katz which had a clip about some superheroes:  

First of all, Wonder Woman would lasso some criminal and demand he tell her the truth [since he can't lie with it on]  Of course he obliges by letting her know how big her knockers are.

Then we have Aquaman.  He goes up to a couple of fish and says "Hi Fish!'  To which they reply "Hi Aquaman"

He then asks them if they have seen any trouble around lately to which they reply:

"Hi Aquaman"

Having a 3 second memory probably doesn't help when trying to get a fish to identify a guy in a line up!  One pretty useless superhero

[Writer]

Well, of course, the Enforcers turned up very early in Spider-man's career (c.a. 1963!), so naturally they weren't the total psycho powerhouses that some of his later villains were. They do serve as symbols for organized crime, albeit the sanitized version of it that was the only kind the comics of the time were permitted to portray.  For that matter, most villains of the time were pretty tame compared to the murderous powerhouses who turned up in Spider-man comics in the 1980s and 1990s, so in the context of their time and place, the Enforcers actually come off looking like competent players.

I think one of my favorite weakling villains in (in Spider-man) was the Looter: he's got super-strength but not much else in the way of powers, so instead of slugging it out with the superheros, he spends most of his time going around stealing stuff. In one of my favorite episodes, he stole a bunch of super-villain gadgets the government had confiscated from other super-villains, used them to knock Spidey out, and stole his web-shooters as well! (If I lived in the Marvel Universe, that's the first thing I'd do if I had someone like Spidey at my mercy: "Gee thanks, web-head! These bracelets I lifted off you are the perfect gift for my wife. It's our tenth anniversary, and I honestly didn't know how I was going to top the Fantastic Four lingerie made of unstable atoms that I got for her last year.") You've got to like an "old school" guy who's in the business for fun and profit, even if he is a total loser.

[BeyondTheGrave]

a villian thats also pretty old but really lame is the red skull. he has zero powers(unless ugly counts as a power) and his face is really a "red skull". but really he is a classic villian. hes very persisent and always a thorn in captain america side. cant help to love when captain america always foils his plans.

"Dont be a fool for ur tool"

[The Shadow]

There was Paste Pot Pete. Just a lame name in a long line of lame Spider Man villians.
I also recall the Purple Man and The Matador in Davedevil comics. Sometimes you really have to wonder WHERE those ideas came from.

[Evil Matt]

Paste Pot Pete eventually became The Trapster, and I think he joined the Frightful Four.  Which means that instead of having Spider Man kick his ass, the Fantastic Four kicked his ass.

And I haven't read it yet, but apparently the Purple Man most recently showed up in Marvel's "Alias" book, and they managed to turn him into a decent villain from what I hear.

The Matador, for all I know, is MIA.  He probably got killed by The Scourge or something.

[The Burgomaster]

Actually, a lot of older comics featured quite a few "weak" supervillains.  A couple of years ago, I went through a comic book buying frenzy.  I bought many, many Silver and Bronze Age comics, including: Amazing Spider-Man #1 - #200, Avengers #1 - 200 (almost), Iron Man #1 - 120, Daredevil #1 - 130, etc.  In addition to some of the villains being "weak," they also spent a lot of time committing very boring, routine crimes (like robbing banks).  It seems like most of the really nefarious plots (like mass destruction and world domination) didn't start to emerge until the late 1960s or early 1970s.  If you read the comics from the early 60s, even the villains with interesting super powers seemed to use their powers to rob banks and jewelry stores.

By the way The Ox also fought Daredevil!



Post Edited (06-03-04 17:20)

[Evan3]

Whoo! what a great thread.

It seems that most groups had a very lame beginning villian until Magneto came along to change the face of villiany. You have to remember though, comics at the time were severely restrained by the Comic's Code which dictated that the bad guys could never win, their names could never be bigger than a hero, stories could have no monsters or drugs etc.

It was Marvel who after awhile first broke the comics code bringing us to where we are today.

In any case, Daredevil's first villain was the Owl, who could I believe fly and looked sort of like the Penguin's younger less evil brother who used canes instead of umbrellas.

One group who rose to prominence is the Wrecking Crew, even taking part in the Secret Wars. They were based on as I can guess construction workers, one who weilded a magic cro-bar and another named Bulldozer with a hard head, and one with impervious skin. They tangled with Thor, the Hulk, and even Spidey. Then poof they are gone.

Also, I think Scarecrow in both Marvel and DC are so lame.



Here is a link you may all enjoy concerning the legion of doom:

http://www.bookofratings.com/legionofdoom.html

[daveblackeye15]

Stupid comic code! I knew it was really harsh (no sex, no werewolfes, no blood) but I didn't know it was THAT really harsh (villian can't win, Villian's name can't be longer than the heros) thank god Marvel broke through that a bit. Spiderman lost a coulple of times but he'd always come back and win however this usually happened in the first issue so I don't know if they broke the rule. I hate the comic code but I still love these early issues of Spider-man.



Wow! What a cool (and strange) website. I found a "Marvel Supervillians" Topic which gave Doctor Octopus a C+. C+!? Doctor Octopus rules! He should get a B+ or a "A". Kraven the Hunter was also a little low (C-) I don't like him that much but when he first fought Spider-man he had this "Nerve Punch" thing so that raises Kraven to a "B". Thanks for the link AndyC

[AndyC]

This thread reminded me of an extremely lame villain who showed up for a crossover issue of Spider Man and Howard the Duck around 1980 or so. Status Quo was just a guy in a suit with dark glasses who hated Madison Avenue, and decided to declare war on fads. He simply made speeches, inciting angry mobs to attack joggers, people with rollerskates and hula hoops, and anybody else engaging in some sort of fad. He was beaten when Howard confronted him publicly and told him that he had become nothing more than a fad himself, using the same methods as the mass marketers. I don't remember if Status Quo was devastated by the realization and gave up, or the people simply abandoned him, but it was a very lame issue.

You really have to love the villains who showed up in the Hostess ads in the comics of that time. All it took to reform some of them was to give them fruit pies. The lamest of the bunch had to be the Roller Disco Devils, who were basically a bunch of guys in sunglasses and rather gay clothing, who rollerskated around with big radios on their shoulders, knocking things over and intimidating small children. Oooo! Scary! The Hulk beat them by picking up the edge of the pavement and rolling them up in it (while grunting a wise-ass pun about "you like rock and roll, here rolling rock"). Then he enjoyed fruit pies with some kids, with a bunch of twisted bodies sticking out of a big roll of asphalt behind them. Seemed like a bit of overkill to me. I mean, anybody could have kicked these guys' asses without getting one of the strongest Marvel heroes involved.

As for the characters getting stronger over the years, it's quite true of heroes and villains. In the old days, the Thing might have lifted a couple of tons and Spidey might have picked up a car, but it's gone up over the years, to the point where some of the biggies are lifting anywhere from 20 to more than 100 tons, and the Hulk can hold up a mountain if he gets mad enough. Probably has a lot to do with just understanding how much things really weigh. If you want your hero to lift anything more interesting than people and cars, or withstand an attack from super-powered villains or even modern weaponry, he's simply got to be that strong. The old-time superheroes did often fight bankrobbers and ordinary criminals, but where was the challenge? Once the villains got tougher, everything escalated. Kind of like the phenomenon that happens on Dragonball Z. The difference is that in the comics, it happened gradually, over many years, and we simply accepted that the characters had always been that strong.



Post Edited (06-07-04 18:02)

[Yaddo42]

It's been years since I read comics, but here goes.

The X-Men's frequent pain in the ass, Arcade. Supposedly a rich kid turned assassin for hire who used to his wealth to torment his victims by running them through his Murderworld amusement park fighting his killer robots, he seemed more of a spoiled brat out for kicks, who pouted and cried everytime his toys didn't get the job done, all while watching his plans fail from his control room . Yet considering his lack of success against the X-Men (he even lost against the reserves and leftovers like a powerless Banshee around #146 and #147 of Uncanny X-Men) who would hire someone so expensive (wealthy or not all that property, gear,  and technology must have some serious overhead) who can't get the job done. I used to roll my eyes anytime I saw a new issue involved him.

Not really weak but badly named at the wrong time - Nimrod. The mutant hunting robot, from an alternate future, like a far removed later version of the Sentinels. Powerful and capable of reforming himself despite massive damage (like the T-1000, wonder if Cameron and crew got the idea from the comics), but still annoying since he tended to lecture anyone he fought on their mistakes and weaknesses as he analyzed them. I know that Nimrod was the name of a great hunter from the Bible (and Marvel also had a minor vampire character named that at one time), but they made the mistake of give the name to the robot around the time calling someone a "Nimrod" became a popular insult Just became hard to take him seriously after that.

The Dreadnoks. Just a silly, incompetent biker gang that Zartan kept around to make himself feel smart when you look back at it. I know Marvel had to use them since they were part of the toy line, but other than the junk car with the jet engine and twin gatling cannons even their gear and weapons were weak and outclassed by almost any Joe vehicle.

I remember thinking that about half of the Serpent Society that Captain America used to tie up with was too silly to exist. Between the sports mascot-style costumes, diggin up old "snake" villains,  and the attempt to make any snake with a cool name (that the writers probably found in the nearest World Book encyclopedia) into a snake villain so the would be a Serpent Society rather than Serpent Squad, it was just too goofy. Puff Adder? The Rattler? Cap tended to knock out half of them within two pages whenever a fight broke out. Diamondback was nice to look at and cute with her conficted loyalty and crush on Cap but she was little more than a watered down female version of Bullseye. Get rid of her throwing diamonds and she'd be the cute babe with pink hair hustling guys playing darts at the nearest bar. Considering her lack of success as a villain (when I was reading anyway) she might have made more money.

The Prowler, who I only remember from a few old stories and his Marvel Unvierse entry seemed more like a second story burgler in a theme costume with his climbing claws and those wrist darts things he must have bought at the Black Widow's yard sale.

[AndyC]

Yaddo42 wrote:
> would hire someone so expensive (wealthy or not all that
> property, gear,  and technology must have some serious
> overhead)

Very few supervillains seem to be capable of weighing costs against benefits. What really amuses me is when their powers and/or technical genius could just as easily (or more easily) make them an honest fortune. How often does a villain invent a technology that could make him the next Bill Gates, then use it in an attempt to get money the hard way?

That was one of my favourite jokes in the Austin Powers movies. The Evil organization has been built into a multi-billion-dollar corporation, pulling in tons of money legitimately, yet the doctor insists on building volcano lairs and submarines from which to hold the world hostage.

[Evan3]

daveblackeye15 wrote:

>
>
> Wow! What a cool (and strange) website. I found a "Marvel
> Supervillians" Topic which gave Doctor Octopus a C+. C+!?
> Doctor Octopus rules! He should get a B+ or a "A". Kraven the
> Hunter was also a little low (C-) I don't like him that much
> but when he first fought Spider-man he had this "Nerve Punch"
> thing so that raises Kraven to a "B". Thanks for the link AndyC
>

Finally, somebody else who agrees with me that Dr. Octopus is one of the greatest super villains of all time.  I was infinitely excited to learn he was helming the next movie, those arms will be awesome.

In any case, not to take anything away from Andy, but I gave the link. That sight always provides me with a lot of entertainment, especially the link on Scooby Doo characters.


A few more I thought of who are completely lame were:
Frogman - think of a Mutantless Toad, he has no tounge and in fact looks like a giant  frog with giant mechanical springs. Needless to say Spider Man wipes him up very quickly. In a recent series that focused on bad guys... I believe it was the .... Tangled Web of Spider Man, Frog Man is ridiculed by all of his town, and when his son dons the costume to gain respect, a local gang beats him up.


King Bowser: I love Mario, but I find every villain, including those walking mushrooms, to be a more powerful threat than this guy. ALl he does is jump and spit out fire. How he keeps capturing royalty is beyond me.