When I have free time with nothing to do, I usually like to go over to Wikipedia and browse through their lists of comic book-related lists (one example link provided, but there’s many.) Yesterday, I followed an extremely interesting series of threads starting with one minor character, then another, then another. Usually, these B-listers, for whatever reason, never become major nemeses, but they’re interesting all the same. Which ones have you found?
Couple examples: Anti-Venom Arsenal (battle robot designed by Howard Stark, never used, stored under the Avengers mansion) Vance Astro (a futuristic hero who fought a variety of interesting villains, like the Stark.)
Y’know, I think I actually have a few of these guys bookmarked, here and there…
The closest ones I can find at the moment are Lynn Church (who I think I saw in the first actual Spider-Man comic I ever read. With her face-tearing finale, too), and the more marketable Tyrannosaurus Reich.
Satanna, a formerly horribly obscure Hawkman foe, brought to semi-prominence again by Justin Grey and Jimmy Palmiotti - they’ve used her in their Hawkman run, Terra, and Power Girl - is one of my favourites.
She’s…odd. She has a tendency to put human brains in animal bodies…in her original story, those were tigers, and left unaltered otherwise…now…it’s a broader range of animals, and they’re further anthropomorphized. She had a romantic relationship with fellow brain-swapping villain the Ultra-Humanite…a really creepy romantic relationship. She’s currently obsessed with Peeg, who rather thoroughly trounced Humanite (accidentally almost killing him). She also has a mad (as in angry…but it’s angry to a level that turns into insane) scientist in the body of a badger as a sidekick. She’s also insanely hot… And has an anthro-cheetah arm.
Speaking of PG…there’s also Vartox…originally an enemy-turned-ally of Superman - and visually based on Sean Connery’s character Zed from the hilariously bad movie Zardoz - he’s now a good natured, funny as hell, annoyance to PG. Originally coming to Earth with the intent of seducing her (in order to save his people), his general smarminess - and the fact he attempted to use an indestructible eating machine in his seduction, but lost control of it (don’t ask…just…don’t ask) - fairly obviously turned her off. Then he started acting like a sane (if…incredibly 70s-tastic) person, explained the situation, and grew on her…but not enough that she didn’t get kind of twitchy when he showed up again.
In any case, I vote for the original Terra-Man. The combination (a super scientific villain who based his weapons on old west archetypes) was wonderful.
Different Satanna. The Hellstroms are Marvel, Satanna the Tiger Girl is DC. And not actually satanic, except in some of her behaviours, unlike Ms Hellstrom.
Invented by the Mad Thinker? Yep, certainly. Stooges are always B-listers…when they ascend to A-list status it’s rare and usually they do a heel turn as well and have their own comic (Venom, Silver Surfer, etc.)
Got any cool Dazzler villains? Imho, the main entry for heroes always leaves out the little (yet interesting) stories. Finding the b-lister usually means finding a story that wasn’t important enough to make the main wiki page.
I’ll have to think about it. I’m sure I’ll come up with something.
Unfortunately, Marvel killed off many of it’s lesser villains in the 80’s with a vigilante known as the Scourge.
OTTOMH
Molecule Man. He can control matter and energy with his mind. He goes from wall flower to virtual god hood. Then, he decides super villainy is not for him and settles down in Jersey.
Professor Power- Rich scientist guy has a son. Son ends up in coma. Guy pays telepathic villain to fix son’s mind. Battle between Professor Xavier and villain fries son’s mind. Guy has tons of cybernetics implanted in son’s body and transfers his own mind into it. The writers have never really delved into all the weirdness that must be going on in dad’s mind.
Blackout- Many villains by that name. This one is a 90’s Ghost Rider Villain. He has the mutant power to radiate darkness in ( I forget how far). He’s a huge Anne Rice fan. He’s had fangs permanently implanted. He loves killing people and drinking their blood. He’s all hardcore, all the time. If he had more powers, he’d be an A lister.
Mad Cap- MC was a fundamentalist Christian on his way to a retreat. The bus crashed and everybody else was killed. The crash activated Mad Cap’s mutant powers. He feels no pain. He has a healing factor better than Wolverine or the Hulks. Meeting his gaze causes people to behave in random, chaotic ways (This can be funny or scary depending on the writer. His power made She Hulk hallucinate, eat garbage, and juggle people. In another comic, his power made one man shove a pencil through his own nose and cause a cop to start shooting random people). Mad Cap now believes that there is no G-d and no meaning to life. He goes about dressed as a clown trying to spread the message that nothing matters.
Don Whiskerando- The arch foe of the Flaming Carrot.* DW has vast arcane knowledge and unknown powers. He can fly (IIRC “You can fly?” “Fly?! I drink so much coffee I haven’t slept in seven years.”) He has deduced the secret identity of the Flaming Carrot. Whiskerando’s sidekick is a flying dead dog. The dog enjoys hissing at people and eating mail.
Though left out of the film, FC is a member of the Mystery Men. If you look, you can see a bar sign that says Flaming Carrot’s.
Stooges are always B-listers…when they ascend to A-list status it’s rare and usually they do a heel turn as well and have their own comic (Venom, Silver Surfer, etc.)