Secret Society of Super-Villains and Mephisto (And More!)

 

For this Anniversary Issue, I thought I would go with a theme of villain team-ups.  I was delighted to see Frog-Man appear in the trailer for Disney's She-Hulk: Attorney at Law series. I can't wait to see how he is realized and I love that Marvel is digging deep into their character files for the show.  I can't help but laugh that Frog-Man will show up in the MCU before Mephisto, who remains a no show after multiple rumors.

Spider-Woman and Supergirl

Does Marvel have the rights to use Spider-Woman independently in their movies, or is she included in the partnership deal like Spider-Man and his villains?  Either way, I'd love to see her show up on  the big screen.  I would of course prefer her classic look depicted here, rather than the more movie-friendly outfit she has been sporting in the comics for the past few years.  If they can't use her, maybe we'll at  least see her show up in an animated Spider-Verse sequel?

The Doppel Gang

Many great heroes have a "dark reflection" type of villain, so this is a team that I have been meaning to assemble for a while. I can understand why it is such a common trope in comics and fiction in general.  What better way to portray how heroic your character is than by presenting a version with the same attributes used for nefarious rather than altruistic purposes?

Bizarro Vs. The Hulk

I never understood why in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, the writers missed a perfect opportunity to include Bizarro.  Imagine how much cooler the film would have been if  Lex Luthor created Bizarro out of Superman's strand of hair instead of Mark Pillow's Nuclear Man!  It's not like they didn't have the rights!

Bizarro and The Impossible Man

Today's comic book villains are generally very serious and even more deadly.  While there is certainly a place for that, from time to time I kind of miss the antagonists that were more of the pest variety.  Being a mischief maker rather than a homicidal maniac did not have to mean that the stories featuring them would be missing any tension or action... especially when they were as powerful as these two.

The Thing and Bizarro

Bizarro was always interesting to me in that even though he was usually treated as a comical character, there was usually a healthy dose of peril when he was around as well. He was as powerful as Superman, but without his moral compass or common sense. It's a nice twist on the "dark reflection of the hero" archetype.

I thought that the fourth Christopher Reeve Superman film missed a great opportunity to bring Bizarro to the big screen. They had a plot involving Luthor creating a life form based on Superman's DNA and instead of using Bizarro, they decided to make up a new character with Nuclear Man? I never understood that. Of course that was just the tip of the iceberg as far as the problems that the film had. Maybe now that DC is ramping up a new Superman franchise, we will finally see Bizarro in theaters one day.