Who has the best rogues gallery? I've seen the villains of Batman, Spider-Man and The Flash mentioned most often in this discussion. Personally, I'd give Batman's foes the edge - they may not be as powerful as the others, but their personalities make for interesting stories.
Based on that thought balloon, Hawkeye has either been trained by Yondu on how to use a yaka arrow...or that compound bow is (somehow) about to become the biggest batarang in history!
ReplyDeleteNicely done, Ross! Is this a light-hearted, round-about jibe against that old detraction about Green Arrow being nothing more than Batman with a bow?,
Hawkeye's somehow pulled off multiple-ricochet stunts with his usual arrows before, I don't think he'd need one of Yondu's arrows. Of course, those are usually the shots that are so difficult that he's actually not sure he can make the shot- as shown here.
DeleteI tend to think of Batman and Spider-Man as tied for "best rogues gallery".
ReplyDeleteSince Batman's batarang has a motor of sorts & a computer(as in the movies), WHY NOT!!
ReplyDeleteThat concept was popularized in the 1989 Keaton flick. Prior to that, they were just regular boomerangs customized to have a bat-winged shape (both in the comics and the 1960's TV show).
DeleteI figure there's a target that when hit, will trigger a sonic attack to fell the Bat rogues, while Hawkeye's adjustable Hearing Aids (he does wear them after all) protects him from harm.
ReplyDeleteWhat's compelling about Batman's foes is that about half of them are psychotic. Of those here, at least Joker, Scarecrow, and Two-Face clearly belong in Arkham, and Riddler in Blackgate with mandated psychotherapy.
ReplyDeleteAs for Hawkeye in the current situation, I'd predict less of a series of ricochets than a Rube Goldberg-style affair that sends eight apparently-random objects flying to deal with these villains -- though a little luck and/or creativity might be needed to deal with Mr. Freeze and Killer Croc. (At least, I think that's Croc.)
Say, for some future cover, how about Ra's al Ghul vs. Doctor Doom?
Has the DC version of the Scarecrow ever crossed paths with Marvel's blink-and-you-missed-him '70s horror-type character of the same name? Now, that could be an interesting bout:
ReplyDeleteDC SCARECROW: "BOO! I just scared you! Hah! How d'you like *them* apples, huh, buddy-boy?"
MARVEL SCARECROW: (*smirks*) (*summons thunderstorm*) (*summons lightning*) (*summons EMTs to pick up the body*) ;)
To the best of my knowledge, no. Ross has never had Jonathan Crane make the mistake of trying to scare the crow-crap out of He-Who-Is-Now-Called-The-Straw Man.
DeleteOne could also have one of the live-action takes on DC's Scarecrow (I'd go with Cillian Murphy from the Dark Knight trilogy) with the title character from Disney's The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. It'd be a time-travel story, of course, but that's nothing new for this blog.
ReplyDelete@Bob Greenwade: see Ross' reply @ 12:07PM.
DeleteUnrelated team-up suggestion: 'Sorry, I'm a Stranger here myself' starring Marvel's 'Stranger' and the Phantom Stranger. I'm rather surprised that they haven't already met here, but I just checked the index for Phantom Stranger appearances and apparently that's the case...
ReplyDeleteNo a bad idea! That way, Ross could entitle it: "An Unkindness Of Strangers."
DeleteI have never seen the Marvel Bowman so worried of perplexed, where did you find the story behind this? I'd like to read it, has to be a great story with a darn good explanation.
ReplyDeleteScarecrow met the Marvel Scarecrow in 2013: https://braveandboldlost.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-scarecrow-and-scarecrow.html, and met the Romney Marsh Scarecrow in 2015: https://braveandboldlost.blogspot.com/2015/07/doctor-syn-alias-scarecrow-vs-scarecrow.html
ReplyDeleteYou asked who has the better rogues gallery, in my opinion Batman has the best, but the Flash has a more colorful one.
ReplyDeleteBatman's villains are theater majors that flunked science. Spidey's villians are science majors flunked theater.
ReplyDeleteWaylon "Killer Croc" Jones flunked both.
Delete@Anon1210: oh, I don't know about that. Isn't pro-wrestling a form of acting? ;-)
DeleteDick Tracy has a pretty good rogues gallery too.
ReplyDeleteI came here to say this. Batman's rogues are modelled in the style of Dick Tracy. Few of the silver and bronze age villains are as memorable as the Golden Age ones but some like Dr Deth are forgettable. Hugo Strange is more interesting than he is.
DeleteAnd, yes, the Flash's are amazing. Aquaman's are bland. Early Fantastic Four are wild and I think so are the Doom Patrol and Challengers of the Unknown.
Superman and the Justice League have to take on overwhelming odds - the big villains that no one else can take on. Though the Joker always beats Superman in a trade.
I can't think of any other villain for Wonder Woman other than Cheetah.
Sherlock Holmes is stuck with Moriarity, though both characters are based on real people - Mr Holmes being a composite.
Captain Nemo was the original Bond Villain and one of the first antiheroes. There's only a couple of actual Bond villains that are memorable though: Blofeld, Oddjob, and Jaws.
The Golden Age version of Hugo Strange was based on Moriarty.
DeleteAnd Dr. Death was Batman's first recurring foe not to be a mere gangster. So, definitely _unforgettable_ in that context!
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