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Man out of all the things you can have as a supervillain gimmick, juggling could be the one that translates to static images the least well.
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Aug 25, 2017 07:27
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Why didn't they just throw things at him?
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Aug 25, 2017 11:02
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goatface posted:Why didn't they just throw things at him? Like this guy?  Ringer was actually sort of right-on for a one-off villain; I get the feeling his dialogue was specifically intended as a jab at Batman:     I like that Nighthawk eventually comes back with the "nuh-uh, you're just jealous" line, and then ends up having to admit to himself that it's pretty hollow.
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Aug 25, 2017 11:31
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so Nighthawk is definitely intended to be Marvel's Judge Dredd, right? cause if not, uh
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Aug 25, 2017 11:39
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Nighthawk is Marvel's evil Batman.
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Aug 25, 2017 13:26
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X-O posted:I just went back and read Captain America 317 on Marvel Unlimited. It's worth it. I love how they don't even have a plan. "Let's see if any of his enemies want him? I'll just walk away and...oh..." And A+ for the dripping with sweat, Like they don't look at all like they can last 21 minutes there. "The longest we've done this is for 21 minutes...buuuut we all just ate a ton of pork rinds and drank a six pack each..."
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Aug 25, 2017 13:46
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Pigbuster posted:Can you imagine being an expert in explosives and getting assigned to the crime team with 4 jugglers. And you have no clue how to juggle.
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Aug 25, 2017 13:50
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Day 72: Devastator Ah, you gotta love a good Red Scare Soviet Spy from the '80s. Unfortunately today the Red Scare villain we're looking at is Devastator. This is one goofy looking bad guy. Whereas a lot of villains literally wear their gimmicks on their sleeve this guy isn't covered in hammers and sickles. I guess that shows a bit of restraint, but after seeing this design one might think something a bit more overtly screaming Soviet Union at you might have been in order. At least it might have looked cooler.  
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Aug 26, 2017 00:55
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That headpiece and the power shoulders say bat to me. Also, what the gently caress is "blue" agility?
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Aug 26, 2017 01:07
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goatface posted:That headpiece and the power shoulders say bat to me. Looks like a copy & paste of his eye color. I'm trying to figure out how many shoulder-armor plates he needs to lose to be acceptable. I think he could get away with only losing one if he trashed the helmet.
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Aug 26, 2017 01:57
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delfin posted:Mark Gruenwald was a complicated man. 1) Don't just create redundant characters willy-nilly, if you need a teleporter or fire guy or ice guy or bird guy and there's one already established and there's no compelling storyline/character reason not to use the established character, just use them, there's no point in having twenty different ill-drawn Freeze Ray Guys Who Rob Banks. 2) Try not to job out established characters for what amount to filler pages to set up your real story, having [your character] beat up the Absorbing Man or the Wrecking Crew or Rhino in two pages doesn't make your character look badass, and it cheapens the established characters. So the result in "create totally unique characters that can afford to get jobbed out" and thus: Death Throws. And the Power Tools. And the 8th-13th most prominent members of the Serpent Society. And all of the Skeleton Crew that aren't Crossbones. My Lovely Horse posted:so Nighthawk is definitely intended to be Marvel's Judge Dredd, right? Though technically speaking that issue came out the summer of 1977, a few months after Judge Dredd debuted in 2000AD. Odds are slim that the creators would have been reading (or even able to obtain) the then-new import magazine, but if there's some other parallel I'm missing it's possible they picked it up. Edge & Christian fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Aug 26, 2017 |
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Aug 26, 2017 16:43
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There's also the fact that the rich guy that the Ringer there is trying to steal from - and constantly badmouthing as a worthless drain on society - is Nighthawk's secret identity, so there's a bit of self-defensive "but the law says it's okay for me to have all that money that I totally worked for, you shut up" action going on there as well. Nighthawk is a really interesting dude, as he was written to actually struggle with the ethics of being a rich dude superhero and ask questions like "maybe my immense wealth could be put to better use than beating up bad guys?" and working hard to establish the Defenders as a team even though basically no one wanted them to be an established team in the way that the Avengers were; he got them a headquarters and everything and the rest of the team basically went "meh."
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Aug 26, 2017 17:44
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Another fun thing about Nighthawk is that he's way better at being a businessman than at being a superhero, and he's kind of a stick in the mud because his personality is better suited to boardrooms.
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Aug 26, 2017 18:36
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Lurdiak posted:Another fun thing about Nighthawk is that he's way better at being a businessman than at being a superhero, and he's kind of a stick in the mud because his personality is better suited to boardrooms. Actually he's sort of poo poo at being a businessman and as soon as he became a superhero delegated all of his business dealings to his trusted right-hand man who funneled a bunch of his company's money into the white supremacist Sons of the Serpent. Not because he was a racist - hell, he was African-american - but because he thought it would (somehow) be good for business.
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Aug 26, 2017 19:21
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:Actually he's sort of poo poo at being a businessman and as soon as he became a superhero delegated all of his business dealings to his trusted right-hand man who funneled a bunch of his company's money into the white supremacist Sons of the Serpent. Not because he was a racist - hell, he was African-american - but because he thought it would (somehow) be good for business. The Serpent Society was basically an old executive who stole some supervillain tech and was like "The government should be run.... like a business! Wait no, not a government, an evil supervillain organization!" and he brought collective bargaining agreements and benefits and stuff to supervillainy. Then eventually he almost got killed by the original crazy nihilist who hijacked his well-functioning organization and tricked them all into helping her in a plot to turn Ronald Reagan into a snakeman to destabilize humanity and wipe the planet clean of life. In short, snake themed villains are a study in contrasting philosophies.
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Aug 26, 2017 21:52
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goatface posted:Also, what the gently caress is "blue" agility? Edge & Christian posted:Which because it comes up a lot, the white supremacist Sons of the Serpent are wholly unaffiliated with the previously mentioned Serpent Society, which itself was an offshoot of the nihilist Serpent Squad. This is why I always liked Sidewinder. He was a guy with a cool power just trying to run a supervillian union. No big world dominating ideas, just business.
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Aug 26, 2017 22:06
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Edge & Christian posted:Which because it comes up a lot, the white supremacist Sons of the Serpent are wholly unaffiliated with the previously mentioned Serpent Society, which itself was an offshoot of the nihilist Serpent Squad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUw8cN6R8o0
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Aug 26, 2017 23:36
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Doesn't Nighthawk show up in Runaways? Or is that a different character?
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Aug 27, 2017 13:55
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A Strange Aeon posted:Doesn't Nighthawk show up in Runaways? Or is that a different character? you're thinking of Darkhawk, THE EDGE AGAINST CRIME
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Aug 27, 2017 16:40
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I was never 100% clear on how the original '70s Nighthawk from the Defenders managed to come back to life, or why anyone thought it needed to happen.
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Aug 27, 2017 18:44
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Wanderer posted:I was never 100% clear on how the original '70s Nighthawk from the Defenders managed to come back to life, or why anyone thought it needed to happen. So Jim Krueger, co-writer of all that insanely convoluted Earth/Universe/Paradise X got tapped to do a three issue mini-series where Nighthawk was resurrected by an angel Mephisto and given NIGHTHAWKVISION to see crimes before they happened in a convoluted plot to get Nighthawk to kill Daredevil, at which point it was revealed Nighthawk was in hell and was a pawn to get Daredevil down into hell but then they somehow fought their way out of hell because of Nighthawk Vision and Daredevil's Radar Senses or something or other. Then this was promptly forgotten and he kind of pops up every 2-3 years with a new status quo, then disappears again.
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Aug 27, 2017 18:55
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Edge & Christian posted:Then this was promptly forgotten and he kind of pops up every 2-3 years with a new status quo, then disappears again. There are so many C and D list characters this gets applied to and it's the best. I always love pointing to DC comics' awkward period post-Crisis but pre-Zero Hour where a bunch of RPG materials got produced and in some cases have ridiculous backgrounds for characters totally unfamiliar today.
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Aug 27, 2017 22:05
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Edge & Christian posted:It was in the late 1990s and probably someone decided they needed to do something to keep the Nighthawk trademark and they'd sort of put the alternate-universe Squadron Supreme off-limits after Gruenwald died. The best was in that late 2000s "Last Defenders" mini series where he was bound and determined to put together and lead the Initiative group of Defenders. The whole premise was he could never find the right mix and no one wanted to really work with him except out of pity, and Tony Stark was pretty much all "look, give it a rest Kyle" the entire time. Nighthawk was always my favorite in the Defenders in the 70s because he wanted SO BADLY to make them into the Avengers but no one else gave a drat. He ran the thing out of his family ranch and spent most of his time trying to convince everyone they were legit. Didn't he get crippled at one point and could only walk when he was Nighthawk, but he could only be Nighthawk at nighttime? That was a weird twist, then he finally died and no one cared 
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Aug 27, 2017 22:51
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Devastator: Significantly less interesting than Nighthawk.
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Aug 27, 2017 23:49
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HitTheTargets posted:Devastator: Significantly less interesting than Nighthawk. Well, Nighthawk is pretty interesting, to be fair. Having said that, Devastator did appear in Iron Man #255, where Crimson Dynamo and Iron Man inadvertently switched bodies. So that happened.
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Aug 27, 2017 23:58
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:Well, Nighthawk is pretty interesting, to be fair. I think you're forgetting a little character named Freak Quincy....
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Aug 28, 2017 01:00
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GPTribefan posted:I think you're forgetting a little character named Freak Quincy.... He also appeared in that issue, and was the mechanism for the body-switch! Having said that, it was also his only appearance and Crimson-Dynamo-as-Iron-Man blew his arms off so I don't think he's going to be the Nexy Big Character Revival, just sayin'. Anyways. Devastator was there too. For some stupid reason.
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Aug 28, 2017 01:34
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GPTribefan posted:The best was in that late 2000s "Last Defenders" mini series where he was bound and determined to put together and lead the Initiative group of Defenders. The whole premise was he could never find the right mix and no one wanted to really work with him except out of pity, and Tony Stark was pretty much all "look, give it a rest Kyle" the entire time. Yup! Nighthawk falls into one of my favorite themes: good intentions and trying your best sometimes aren't enough (I've gone on at length in defense of D-Man as a really good exploration of both that idea and as a criticism of fandom). The original plan was to have Nighthawk end up in prison more or less indefinitely on tax charges, again as a consequence of his sort of "hands off, who gives a poo poo" approach to the businesses and fortune he inherited. The Defenders was just so dang good. In its entire first volume, I can't think of a bad stretch, and I don't think David Anthony Kraft really gets enough credit in general but especially for his work on Defenders; the "Who Remembers Scorpio?" storyline is one I go back and re-read a lot. Poor ol' crazy Jake Fury. He's got a great writeup in OHOTMU #17 (1987), but it's three pages, and the scans I have on this computer are drat near illegible, so here's a link.  Also, I've read various Zodiac stories probably a hundred times and I still have no loving idea what the Zodiac Key actually does or is 
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Aug 28, 2017 12:29
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Oh man, Miserably Losing His poo poo Scorpio was the best. "Here. Have the beer. It'll do you good." Just a fantastic exploration of what it must be like to be a failure as a supervillain. David Anthony Kraft's Defenders was really, really good. He doesn't get enough credit because he's overshadowed by Gerber, but drat.
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Sep 4, 2017 15:50
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Holy poo poo, Keith Giffen Marvel work. (Looking at his Wikipedia page, okay, it's more likely than you'd think, but still.)
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Sep 4, 2017 16:41
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Among other achievements at Marvel, Giffen was co-creator of Woodgod, who really deserves to be mentioned in this thread.
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Sep 5, 2017 01:53
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Selachian posted:Among other achievements at Marvel, Giffen was co-creator of Woodgod, who really deserves to be mentioned in this thread. Holy poo poo yes X-O, post Woodgod
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Sep 5, 2017 02:03
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I'll do it, just for giggles. This is from OHOTMU 1987, though, so god only knows, he probably turned up somewhere later because lol obscure characters The main dude that pursed Woodgod was named "Del Tremens" and Woodgod himself referred to pain as "the scream" so all I can say is that it's gorgeous, weird 70s Marvel.
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Sep 5, 2017 03:07
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 Li'l homie didn't take to booze.   Scream was a thing.
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Sep 5, 2017 03:13
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That really looks like Kenshiro.
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Sep 5, 2017 03:19
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Day 73: Woodgod All I can say about this guy is, request filled DivineCoffeeBinge.  
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Sep 5, 2017 04:57
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Thank god for Quasar; you could always count on some obscure dude that no one else cared about showing up in his book. "Oh, um... the Stranger picked him up and put him on a spaceship, that's why you haven't seen the dude for a decade." Repeat for every obscure character you want to cram in there. poo poo, they had Barry Allen show up in Quasar, that's how few fucks that creative team gave. EDIT: Jesus I love wiki summaries sometimes. "Woodgod returned to the Pace farm and learned to read from the books he found there. He then traveled to an uninhabited valley in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. There he matured and taught himself genetic engineering from David Pace's notebooks. Using this knowledge, he created beings like himself, whom he called Changelings." Just, you know, your average self-taught half-literate genetic fuckin' engineer. DivineCoffeeBinge fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Sep 5, 2017 |
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Sep 5, 2017 05:08
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I think part of my love for lower tiered characters is that I read Quasar and Captain America pretty regularly and Mark Gruenwald shoved all kinds of characters in those books. I think Gruenwald probably influenced my taste in comics just as much if not more than Starlin did.
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Sep 5, 2017 05:10
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A comprehensive guide to Woodgod's post-1987 non-guidebook appearances: Quasar #14: He shows up, unnamed in a couple of panels showing all the weirdos that Mark Gruenwa-- I mean the Stranger has given sanctuary to on his Laboratory Planet. Quasar #20: Alongside Gargoyle, Diamondhead, and some other even more obscure character, he shows up on Earth in an ship that escaped from the Stranger's Laboratory Planet. Again, no name or dialogue. Marvel Comics Presents #76: An eight page story STARRING Woodgod by veteran inker Robert Campanella in one of his only writing credits, with art by Dave Cockrum. He's back in the hidden Changeling town, and we join him in media res as he's dumping Dovninia his half-deer girlfriend, which catches the attention of town rake Leonius, who is jealous that all of the Changeling ladies want to gently caress Woodgod, not him. I am not exaggerating. His plan for revenge is to lure all of the female Changelings one by one into the woods by telling them that Woodgod sent him to bring them to a rendezvous, then capturing them in nets Ewok style. Then he sells all of the women to DR. MALACHI OZ of Roxxon to experiment on. He plans to convince all of the remaining male Changelings that Woodgod has sold off their women. But Leonius decides he'd rather sneak off with Dr. Oz and get drunk as he experiments on all those women who won't gently caress him, so everyone assumes Leonius kidnapped them and track him to Dr. Oz's lab. He bursts in right as Dr. Oz starts contemplating that maybe *he* wants to gently caress some of the Changelings, kills Dr. Oz for being an evil scientist, and frees the women. They all thank Woodgod for saving them, and still want to gently caress Woodgod, but he tells them "I must remain ever apart... watching... protecting... alone..." and the story ends with Dovinia crying as she turns away from Woodgod, her desire to be with him unfulfilled. This all happens in eight pages. Nick Fury Agent of Shield #37: Nick Fury stumbles upon the Changeling town and they're all dead. Turns out they were killed off panel by people from Tranquility Base (repeatedly called "Trinity Base") and Fury arrives as they're trying to kill Woodgod too, but he's Hulked out and looks like he's going to kill them, so Nick Fury decides the right thing to do is shoot and kill Woodgod.  But don't worry, he shot him with tranquilizer bullets, and he set him free in another part of Colorado where I guess no one from T______ Base will ever find. This is probably his last in-continuity appearance, from 1992. Namor #44: I don't know what the gently caress this is, it's a one-shot called The Rime of the Ancient Sub-Mariner, which is all told in (kind of) verse about Namor and some Atlanteans getting attacked by a supervillain named The Albatross, and then his ship gets lost in the Arctic he plays dice with Thanos and Death and then he's turned into a ghost who fights Mephisto and Sattanhish, and is eventually is saved by Woodgod who is playing a pan flute and rows him to shore. I'm not entirely sure this counts as an appearance of Woodgod, or an in-continuity story, or a story in general. Hulk #30: The Impossible Man kidnaps Hulk and Red Hulk, makes them fight a bunch of goofy monsters, from Xemnu to ZZazxx to Woodgod to kluH, who is a well-spoken, overthinking Bizarro Hulk. Hulk and Red Hulk get merged into Composite Hulk. They beat up everyone. Lots of winks to the camera. I am also not certain this counts as in-continuity, but at least it's a clearly delineated story. Strange Tales II #3Dean Haspiel does a story where Woodgod hits on Alicia Masters, plays some stickball with Ben Grimm, and is then transformed in a mute sentient ball of gas and sent out into deep space as punishment for hubris by the Celestials. I swear that Warren Ellis wrote a jokey blogpost about how he wanted to revamp Woodgod about ten years ago, but I can find no trace of it.
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Sep 5, 2017 05:33
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"Transportation: Galloping under own power"
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Sep 5, 2017 08:45
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