I don’t mean obvious joke villains like Angle Man or Paste Pot Pete–Why, exactly, is Baron Mordo considered a serious threat? Or the ninjas of The Hand? While various writers tell us that these are scary dudes, the Hand is regularly trounced by even minor superheroes, and Mordo, though pretty much exclusive to Dr. Strange, has never had a successful villainous experience I’m aware of.
I know the Comics Code requires that bad guys get beaten and punished, but some of them (Joker, Bullseye, Kingpin) are frequently depicted earning their fearsome reputations. Who are some other comic book villains who, if the writers didn’t tell us they were master criminal badasses, we’d never suss it ourselves?
The Faultless Four (Sieur Satan, Serge Orloff, and Duriel – yes, they didn’t even have counting skills) in the Golden Age Flash #1 are by far the most ineffectual villains ever.
They kidnap the father of the Flash’s girlfriend and try to get him to reveal his secrets by putting him in room with mirrored walls to make him insane. They send a henchman (well, maybe he’s the 4th, but he doesn’t have a name) to shoot Joan Williams (the Flash catches the bullets). Then, they send him back disguised as an undertaker to inquire about Williams’s death. Naturally, the Flash immediately realizes he had something to do with the murder attempt and follows him back to their secret lair and rescues Joan’s father.
But Sieur Satan tries to kill Flash by electrifying their headquarters. This electrocutes the others in the not-so-Faultless Four. Satan manages to escape, but is so embarrassed that barely shows his face in the DC universe again.
I know that Golden Age had lower standards of villainy, but these guys are the Three Stooges. Luckily, the character of the Flash was good enough to survive this.
Some of the lame villains are undone by time. I remember reading some old Spider-man and seeing a villain called the Big Boss. When it came to the final confrontation, the writers worked hard to create a sense of threat by having Spider-man worry about following the fleeing villain because he was a crack shot with a pistol! It was hard not to yell at the pages “Your Spider-Man,dammit! You can doge bullets before they even fire! You beat the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom both just a few issues ago! At one point in your run punched the Hulk into orbit! How can you be afraid of a normal human with a gun” But at the time the issue was released, it made sense. Or the original Jackel. How could a middle aged college professor spend a semester hitting the gym, put on a costume with needles in the boots and gloves and suddenly be a threat for Spider-Man?
Other villains are ineffectual due to plot or editorial requirements. Take {note if in your world the only Spider-Clone was dropped in a smokestack in the 70’s, skip this portion} Kaine. He was flawed clone of Peter Parker who besides being deformed and in pain, had every one of Peter’s powers, except magnified. He easily beats Venom and casually kills Doctor Octopus. But when a new editor takes over and wants to clean up the clone mess, he is taken down by a bunch of Osborn’s lackeys in goofy costumes(in the issue in question it appears that Kaine is rescuing Peter and Mary Jane’s baby, but it is later changed to him losing the fight in another issue). Judas Traveler was another example from the same period of Spider-Man who became lame retroactively.
Hey, they revamped Paste pot Pete and turned him into a real villain – The Trapster. He was a member of the Frightful Four and everything. He only made one appearance as PPP, IIRC.
There was also the Kangaroo, who had super hopping powers. Even the writers thought that was lame, especially when he went up against Spider-Man, so they made sure Spidey couldn’t let loose by having him unknowing have a fragile vial of deadly virus or deadly radioactive materials in his pocket somewhere. Spider-man thus couldn’t just knock the guy senseless and get on with things. Eventually, he was killed off.
The Hand is definitely a good choice. Do those guys ever win a fight?
Toad used to be, but i think he’s largely been forgotten as a character. TOo bad, though. Towards the end of his appearances he was learning to use his paralyzing palms and super-agility and leaping to become a very effective martial artist, which could have upgraded him to be a bit more of a threat. He had good powers, but his minor deformity and “can’t catch a break” personality made him pretty ineffectual, not to mention comic.
By the way, Baron Mordo is IIRC a villain only for kicks. He apparently has no evil schem, he just wants to play, having an eternity to mess around and nothing much to do with his time otherwise. I think some writers forgot this and tried to write him as yet another evil magic user of incredible power, but that always happens.
My contribution to threads like these: Turner D Century. He dressed like some foppish dandy from the early 1900’s, flew around on a tandem bicycle, and used a large horn to kill everyone under the age of 65 so life could return to the old-timey ways. But it didn’t work right and only rendered everyone unconcious.
Not hardly. Carl Banks (the guy who created Scrooge McDuck and is responsible for the lions share of stories about him) is a legend among serious comic book fans.
