Relating to Villains
Occasionally, when I come home from work or a friend comes over to
visit, my son will jump up, smile, yell "Daddy!" or the person's name,
run over, and give a big hug.
visit, my son will jump up, smile, yell "Daddy!" or the person's name,
run over, and give a big hug.
When this happens, I am instantly reminded of a sequence of comic book
panels where the same thing happens between an adopted son and
villainous father. I see the little boy yelling "Papa!" and running
into the arms of that masked metallic evil genius.
I'm not sure if I should thank or curse John Byrne or Jim Shooter for
turning a stock villain into one of the most sympathetic, relatable
characters of the 1980's.
I don't know what else to say about this. I'm laughing at the
absurdity. I'll leave it at that.
I know Damian knows what I'm talking about.
posted by Skew | Friday, September 12, 2008
3 Comments:
hahahaha!!
"Damian!"
You know it. You know it.
It's true. It's true.
***
Thanks, John Byrned.
You know what's sad? If they had Spiderman adopt a kid back then, and the boy yelled, "Daddy!" and hugged the webcrawler ... that would not have had the same affect.
It's b/c it's the good Doctor that those comic book panels are so compelling! It's so incongruous, and yet it makes sense! Genius. Genius.
What issue was that? Did I read that in the 1980's, or did you show me that comic in the 90's?
The first FF issue I bought was the famous Hitler cover. When I saw that cover at the corner drug store ... wow. I couldn't believe it. How was such a thing possible?
Marvel comics had the best eye-catching covers back then.
FF ... X-Men (Wolverine slashing down, #207) ... Spidey ("Even a Ghost Can Fear the Night!" ... Cry of the Wendigo ... Web of Spidey #17 -- "This is it ... THE END OF THE RED SUIT" with Magma)....
Check your e-mail- I sent you what I think it may be! FF 258.
**
The Hitler cover- I actually cut it out and used it for a book report. I, too, was so curious about how they'd do that time travel story, since Nick Fury was going to kill him on that cover.
**
Indeed Marvel covers rocked back then. In many ways, the team ups and battles were still unique, or at least had some variables changed to appear fresh (like when grey Hulk fought Wolverine).
Even the X-Men covers had battles which felt like Main Events- Wolverine vs Sabertooth, Juggernaut vs everyone.
**
Based on how you describe the covers that really MADE you pick up a comic:
FF covers took a nose dive after Walt Simonson left (1991).
Amazing Spidey #350 was the last good one, Eric Larsen's last issue (1991)
Iron Man #268- last Romita (1991)
Hulk seems to have lasted longer thanks to his steady artists. It could be argued the covers were still decent until #427 (1995). However, the style did change in the early 1990's as well.
Avengers- kinda hard to say. I remember being sooooooo let down that issue #300 was BLAH (1988). The roster SUCKED after that for a while. There were some good covers once in a while, but not like before #300.
Web of Spider-Man always had over the top and wordy covers. Always seen as the "3rd most important Spidey book" I would say good covers lasted until #70 (late 1990). After that the covers still were melodramatic but featured too many C-List villains and supporting casts members.
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