Who has the Worst Rogues Gallery in the Marvel Universe?

[The Overlord]

Who has the Worst Rogues Gallery in the Marvel Universe?

 

[lozzy.94]

Iron Man,IMO he only has one good villain and that's The Mandarin.

 

[Anubis]

There are no bad characters only bad writers.

 

[blalex620]

^^^ I don't think that's entirely true. Some of the characters really are just horrid characters. Though I will say that in the case of Iron Man (who I voted for), Fraction was able to take his rogue gallery and actually make great stories with them which is a hard thing to do.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Iron Man.

X-Men & Spider-Man have the best

 

[The Question]

Iron Man's villains are fine. The Stane family are great characters, and Mandarin and Crimson Dynamo, while not the most consistently written characters in the history of comics, have both had fairly noteworthy moments of not-suck. The problem is that Iron Man comics in general haven't really been the best things ever for most of their run. Sure, there are some absolutely phenomenal Iron Man stories, but Iron Man hasn't had any consistent streaks of greatness like Thor, Daredevil, Spider-Man, or any of the other big Marvel characters until very recently, and that's largely due to Robert Downey, Jr.

 

[Green Goblin]

I misread and thought it meant best, I voted Spider-Man >_<

 

[runawayboulder]

There are no bad characters only bad writers.

This

 

[The Overlord]

Iron Man's villains are fine. The Stane family are great characters, and Mandarin and Crimson Dynamo, while not the most consistently written characters in the history of comics, have both had fairly noteworthy moments of not-suck. The problem is that Iron Man comics in general haven't really been the best things ever for most of their run. Sure, there are some absolutely phenomenal Iron Man stories, but Iron Man hasn't had any consistent streaks of greatness like Thor, Daredevil, Spider-Man, or any of the other big Marvel characters until very recently, and that's largely due to Robert Downey, Jr.

Well there is a difference between an interesting concept and an interesting character, Iron Man has some interesting concepts in terms of villains, but they are often not realized.

Iron Man constantly upgrades his suit, but his tech villains never seem to upgrade their tech, so Iron Man left them in the dust a long time ago. Why can't Iron Man's villains upgrade their tech to compete with him? I like Controller as a concept, he has a good gimmick, a creepy personality, everything you need for a good villain, but the writers rarely write him as a menacing character. At this point he doesn't seem like a threat to Iron Man himself, Maria Hill was able to rip off one Controller's slave discs and escape his thrall on her own, how he is supposed to menace Iron Man, when members of his supporting cast can beat his mind control. It seems like he should really upgrade his tech, maybe use mind controlling nanobots as well as slave discs to control more people over greater distances, etc. Really Controller could provide a great intellectual challenge to Tony, with a few tech upgrades and a little better writing.

Also guys like Titanium Man and Crimson Dynamo should reflect the Russia of today, not the Russia of the 1960s. Also just pick someone to be the Crimson Dynamo and stick with that guy, there has been 11 Crimson Dynamo, its really care about him, when he always dies and gets replaced by someone else. Maybe have the Crimson Dynamo be a loyal servant of the current Russian regime, who is sometimes Iron Man's enemy and sometimes his ally. While Titanium Man is working with one of the factions to overthrow the government and replaced it (he could be working with the Ultra Nationalists or the Neo Marxists or something else.)

Mandarin needs more consistent writing, move to him from archetype to actual character, is Mandarin just an evil monster or does he have sympathetic traits? What kind of dynamic does he have with Iron Man, why does he make for a good foil for Tony, why does he want to take over the world?

Iron Man potentially has a good rogues gallery, but the writers need to put more effort into make these guys interesting and menacing.

 

[blalex620]

The best thing to come out of Iron Man's rogue gallery is when Mandarin and Stane brought them all together and upgraded them and actually gave them a plan during the last couple arcs in Fraction's run.

 

[Vartha]

I'd say the Mid-West Avengers have the worse Rouges Gallery lol

 

[Dread]

To be fair, Hawkeye has some real losers. Crossfire for the longest time looked like a spokesman for a Swiss Army Knife, without the knife. And his gallery literally includes an entire gang of evil, criminal jugglers. Need one circus act to fight another, right?

 

[Majik1387]

Without selecting other, I'd say Hulk has the worst.

 

[The Question]

Well there is a difference between an interesting concept and an interesting character, Iron Man has some interesting concepts in terms of villains, but they are often not realized.

Iron Man constantly upgrades his suit, but his tech villains never seem to upgrade their tech, so Iron Man left them in the dust a long time ago. Why can't Iron Man's villains upgrade their tech to compete with him? I like Controller as a concept, he has a good gimmick, a creepy personality, everything you need for a good villain, but the writers rarely write him as a menacing character. At this point he doesn't seem like a threat to Iron Man himself, Maria Hill was able to rip off one Controller's slave discs and escape his thrall on her own, how he is supposed to menace Iron Man, when members of his supporting cast can beat his mind control. It seems like he should really upgrade his tech, maybe use mind controlling nanobots as well as slave discs to control more people over greater distances, etc. Really Controller could provide a great intellectual challenge to Tony, with a few tech upgrades and a little better writing.

Also guys like Titanium Man and Crimson Dynamo should reflect the Russia of today, not the Russia of the 1960s. Also just pick someone to be the Crimson Dynamo and stick with that guy, there has been 11 Crimson Dynamo, its really care about him, when he always dies and gets replaced by someone else. Maybe have the Crimson Dynamo be a loyal servant of the current Russian regime, who is sometimes Iron Man's enemy and sometimes his ally. While Titanium Man is working with one of the factions to overthrow the government and replaced it (he could be working with the Ultra Nationalists or the Neo Marxists or something else.)

Mandarin needs more consistent writing, move to him from archetype to actual character, is Mandarin just an evil monster or does he have sympathetic traits? What kind of dynamic does he have with Iron Man, why does he make for a good foil for Tony, why does he want to take over the world?

Iron Man potentially has a good rogues gallery, but the writers need to put more effort into make these guys interesting and menacing.

How is any of that not what I said?

 

[Lord]

Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four have a great and diverserse rogues gallery, Daredevil has some good villains but it still leaves something to be desired out of some of the characters. Iron Man has it the worst, his villains are terribly used, even the Mandarin who Stan Lee obviously wanted to make 3 dimensional and interesting like Dr Doom had a terrible design originally

 

[StreetWarrior]

Iron Man's villains are fine. The Stane family are great characters, and Mandarin and Crimson Dynamo, while not the most consistently written characters in the history of comics, have both had fairly noteworthy moments of not-suck. The problem is that Iron Man comics in general haven't really been the best things ever for most of their run. Sure, there are some absolutely phenomenal Iron Man stories, but Iron Man hasn't had any consistent streaks of greatness like Thor, Daredevil, Spider-Man, or any of the other big Marvel characters until very recently, and that's largely due to Robert Downey, Jr.

Lol, WTF!? Like actor's in hollywood adaptations have any influence on the quality of their comic counterparts at all! I like RDJ as much as the next guy but let's keep from giving him undue praise - he gets enough as it is. And Iron Man's quality has ranged from decent to amazing since 2004, a few years before the first movie. There may have been some pretty huge flops over the last 50 years but IM has been solid for almost 10 years now (excluding the current relaunch).

Regarding his rogues gallery, Iron Man's villains may be lacking but there have been a few winners here and there. Mandarin has been turned into a real threat in recent years. Everyone else is pretty forgettable but at least they're not embarassingly bad. The Owl? Griffin? Crossfire? Mandrill? Stiltman? Iron Man could be doing a lot worse.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

Figured most would vote Stark so I threw my name in the Fantastic Four ring. Besides Doom they have maybe one or two worthwhile personal threats.

 

[The Question]

Lol, WTF!? Like actor's in hollywood adaptations have any influence on the quality of their comic counterparts at all!

In Downey's case, yes, absolutely. I really don't see how that's even debatable. His performance breathed new life into the character, generated new popular interest, and made Iron Man a household name when he wasn't before. Subsequently, in the comics, Iron Man has gotten a lot more attention and care put into his books than he ever did before and the writing of his character has taken a lot of cues from the RDJ films.

 

[StreetWarrior]

In Downey's case, yes, absolutely. I really don't see how that's even debatable. His performance breathed new life into the character, generated new popular interest, and made Iron Man a household name when he wasn't before. Subsequently, in the comics, Iron Man has gotten a lot more attention and care put into his books than he ever did before and the writing of his character has taken a lot of cues from the RDJ films.

Stark was the driving force behind Civil War, arguably Marvel's biggest event in years. Following that, Stark appeared in nearly every comic published at the time. This was all years before Iron Man hit theaters. In comic terms, Iron Man has ALWAYS been a key player in the MU. All the movie did was give the character exposure with the general audiences.

Additionally, while RDJ's portrayl makes for great cinema, he shares very little personality with the comic Tony. To say that the comic version of Stark is the same sarcastic, funnyman as in IM3 shows a huge ignorance of the comic world. The tone of the films (especially the third) and the comics could not be more different.

While great for what they are, the MCU may be the worst thing to happen to the comics. This obsession with RDJ is the weirdest case of fanboyism I've ever seen. And people say comic loyalists are the worst ones!

 

[Lord]

Figured most would vote Stark so I threw my name in the Fantastic Four ring. Besides Doom they have maybe one or two worthwhile personal threats.

Galactus, Anihilus, Mole Man, Skrulls, Mad Thinker, Red Ghost, Ronan the accuser, wizard, etc.

Half the cast from post-FF 1 Marvel Universe came from the pages of Fantastic Four

 

[StreetWarrior]

Galactus, Anihilus, Mole Man, Skrulls, Mad Thinker, Red Ghost, Ronan the accuser, wizard, etc.

Half the cast from post-FF 1 Marvel Universe came from the pages of Fantastic Four

Agreed. While I'm not a FF fan, you can't deny the impact that their rogues gallery has had on the greater MU. I mean, Dr. Doom, Galactus, and the Skrulls alone have been some of the most important villains shaping Marvel past and present.

 

[The Question]

Stark was the driving force behind Civil War, arguably Marvel's biggest event in years. Following that, Stark appeared in nearly every comic published at the time. This was all years before Iron Man hit theaters. In comic terms, Iron Man has ALWAYS been a key player in the MU. All the movie did was give the character exposure with the general audiences.

I was never talking about Iron Man being a major player in crossover stories. I was talking about his solo title, and that had gotten a lot more creative attention since the movies became a hit.

Additionally, while RDJ's portrayl makes for great cinema, he shares very little personality with the comic Tony. To say that the comic version of Stark is the same sarcastic, funnyman as in IM3 shows a huge ignorance of the comic world. The tone of the films (especially the third) and the comics could not be more different.

I was never saying that Downey's portrayal perfectly captures the character as-written up until the movies. I said that his portrayal has had an influence on how the character is written since the movies came out.

You seem to be arguing against a lot of points I never made.

While great for what they are, the MCU may be the worst thing to happen to the comics. This obsession with RDJ is the weirdest case of fanboyism I've ever seen. And people say comic loyalists are the worst ones!

Yeah, none of that really describes what I was saying at all. All I was saying is that Iron Man's a bigger thing since the movies came out and people, both writers and readers, care more about his solo series than they used to as a result.

 

[StreetWarrior]

I was never talking about Iron Man being a major player in crossover stories. I was talking about his solo title, and that had gotten a lot more creative attention since the movies became a hit.



I was never saying that Downey's portrayal perfectly captures the character as-written up until the movies. I said that his portrayal has had an influence on how the character is written since the movies came out.

You seem to be arguing against a lot of points I never made.



Yeah, none of that really describes what I was saying at all. All I was saying is that Iron Man's a bigger thing since the movies came out and people, both writers and readers, care more about his solo series than they used to as a result.

I'm not denying that the Iron Man films boosted the comic character's popularity. They definitely did. What I'm saying is that they had little to no impact on the creative direction of the comics themselves (other than some movie details shoe-horned in here and there). Iron Man's solot title has gotten better in the last decade but to give that credit to the movies rather than the comic writers seems really unfair.

Iron Man became a key player in the MU due to an iniative from Marvel to push the character that predates the films. Who's to say that Marvel is now assigning the best creative teams to the title because of the character's newfound popularity? The current Iron Man run would suggest otherwise as many newer and longer term fans are flocking away from the title due to questionable writing and plot decisions. Everything goes through cycles. Iron Man was great from 2004 - 2008, good from 2008 - 2013, and (objectively) poor from the 2013 relaunch forward. The future could go either way. Thankfully, Marvel is allowing the comics to do their own thing for now. It will be a sad day when the films completely determine the direction of the comics from which they are adapted. What little shoe-horning is happening now is too much.

 

[The Question]

I'm not denying that the Iron Man films boosted the comic character's popularity. They definitely did. What I'm saying is that they had little to no impact on the creative direction of the comics themselves (other than some movie details shoe-horned in here and there). Iron Man's solot title has gotten better in the last decade but to give that credit to the movies rather than the comic writers seems really unfair.

But I'm not doing that.

Of course it's thanks to the writers that the book is well written. My only point is that there wouldn't have been the incentive or inclination to bring that level of talent and care to the book if it weren't for the movie.

Iron Man became a key player in the MU due to an iniative from Marvel to push the character that predates the films.

That doesn't mean it wasn't because of the films. The knew the films would be a thing way in advance.

Who's to say that Marvel is now assigning the best creative teams to the title because of the character's newfound popularity?

That's how the publishing business works.

 

[Slick]

Lol Iron Man