Yeah, but Spider-Man was really really determined and angry.
Around this time, Daredevil beat Spider-Man in a battle that tried to use the same justification in reverse - because Spider-Man was angry, he swung wildly, allowing the more controlled Daredevil to land his punches.
And there was that story where Spider-Man took out Iron Man 2020, which I thought was a pretty good tale overall even if the climactic battle was dubious.
It was about the same time. Having not read the Cage and Fist story, I can see how, using teamwork. Fist can slow him down enough, and he can’t do much against Cage.
In his debut, Sabretooth got his ass handed to him by Iron Fist.
Who was blind at the time.
And didn’t bother powering up the iron fist.
Only because he doesn’t really care. He is a prankster, not really a villain. Yes he can defeat most everyone in the DC Universe without a problem, but where is the fun in that? And when he does go evil, you get a story called, “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow”
Spider-Man against Firelord? Bah, easy to explain. But Daredevil beating the Hulk? That is just stupid.
Well, that makes some sense. Yes, Sabertooth is a master of combat, but Iron Fist is more or less the best, period, and fighting blind is fully in keeping with mystic kung-fu tradition. And while Sabertooth does regenerate, they’ve shown that it’s possible to simply beat him into unconsciousness.
I think in terms of sheer power vs weak heroes, it’s got to be galactus.
but in terms of just badly made, overpowered villains, I would go with:
Darkseid (always got his butt handed to him by Mister Miracle, who has no powers)
Kang (got beat by Squirrel Girl)
Ultron (giving a bad name to adamantium)
The borg. Eons old, consisting of thousands of species, amazing technology and innovation ability.
But if you hit one with a rock, for some reason they go down.
Plus they always get beat by Picard and Janeway, which is bullshit.
Squirrel Girl has also beaten Doctor Doom-- twice.
Hmm… I can’t think of a direct confrontation between Scott Free and Darkseid. Even if they were to fight Darkseid would have his own reasons for manipulating his adopted son…
I chalk that one up to bad writers. Doom’s like the Lex Luthor of the Marvel Universe, and he’s kicked plenty of butt.
I don’t know. Squirrel Girl’s teeth, cheek pouches and ability to communicate with squirrels are all pretty useless. But squirrel jumping, squirrel climbing and especially squirrel agility are nothing to sneeze at. Think about it- wallclimbing, super jumps, and super agility both Spiderman and Nightcrawler have those abilities and put them to great use.
IIRC, part of the win against Doom came from having a swarm of crazed squirrels go for his eyes.
A number of villains have suffered from being overbilled, touted as pan-cosmic menaces only to get pwnd. Dormammu and Mephisto are probably at the top of that list.
Graviton is a special case, because he sort of has this goal of ruling the world, etc. etc., but he mostly uses his godlike powers to try to score pussy. Just about all of his villainous schemes – such as stealing an entire Macy’s department store and offering it as a prize for any woman willing to become his queen – are obvious punani-obtaining plots. We’re not exactly dealing with Reed Richards or Magneto-level intellect and ambition, here. All you really need to defeat Graviton is to get Tigra to kiss him, resulting in mass blood migration from his brain, and instant unconsciousness.
I thought about them too before nominating Galactus, but what put the G-man over the top was that at least Dormy and Mephy had Dr. Strange as an enemy, who is supposedly one of the strongest heroes in the marvel universe, so even if Strange temporarily lost his powers, had his magical artifacts taken away, and beat them by tricking them with his astral projection, it’s still Dr. Strange.
But for Galactus, his main enemy is the Fantastic Four, and they could probably get beat by Spiderman by himself.
No it was complete crap. Firelord flies through suns and an exploding gas station is supposed to hurt him? It was a terrible fight.
The Surfer routinely levels both heros and villans it’s just that he usually doesn’t care that much.
Doom also took over the multivrese (before the retcon) in SW I.
My vote would be for Magneto. He constantly gets his arse handed to him.
Red Sonja, Conan, and Shang- Chi always kicked vampire butt… Micronauts made fools of the Louisiana State Police.
I think that was in a Man-Thing teamup-- an, at the time, popular Dukes of Hazard carryover theme, to get the best of the Roscoes (P. Coltrane).
I don’t know where the inept Southern Sheriff stereotype came from? Maybe the '60’s and the civil rights movement. Buford T. Justice.