For some reason I’ve just never liked Spider-Man. He comes off as a whiney, ignorant child that never seems to grow up or mature despite everything he goes through. I love a good coming of age story, but he just never seems to become an adult.
Tony Stark - oligarchic propagandist for normalizing the myth of exceptionalism
I like him because he would loudly agree with you, then let you pick one of his sports cars for having the balls to call him out.
Stark was literally written to be a character that people should by all rights despise but was nonetheless a hero. That was entirely the point of him.
The thing about his movie is that he was like, almost okay. Iron Man I was about him learning that selling weapons = bad. He could have continued his moral development.
Instead, we got him fighting Captain America over a very stupid implementation of ‘oversight’ (coming from the guy who refuses to let gov. oversee his iron man development), being creepy to some random boy he just met (actually twice - first Peter and then some kid I don’t remember; in a better set of movies I don’t think Peter would be very thrilled to realize Iron Man was advocating for Peter to get outed in a national registry), and having a snit fit about how he doesn’t want to help Unsnap people who died because he personally is OK with his future with his daughter who may or may not be a robot he built to mime having humanity.What makes him really insufferable for me is his fans who think Captain America is EVIL for daring to snub poor Tony, and that Tony should go date Loki (no I’m not kidding; while I am happy with Loki being queer, I really can’t see the Marvel Universe Tony being a good date for, well, anyone ever, nor Loki being a good date until he works out his genocidal tendency issues at which point he threatens to become alas a much less interesting character).
his daughter who may or may not be a robot he built to mime having humanity
First time I’ve ever heard of this. It it alluded to in the film? My initial reaction is that it couldn’t be true, simply because Pepper wouldn’t be willing to play along.
They made that up to be edgy
Eh, people only fawn over him because RDJ is just perfect in the role, and in a way marked his comeback from some really public struggles.
Chris Evans is great (and a huuunk!) but he’s was/is much younger and plays the role of Government-BrandedHeroWhoIsBasicallyJustSoldierWhoAteHisWheaties.
Chris does the job well, but I mean, RDJ kills, and IMHO is a massive reason marvel got to continue making movies.
Iron Man.
The guy supported Yellowjacket joining the Avengers.
Not sure about iron man but I can’t stand Robert Downey Jr.
Jane Foster when she was the wielder of Mjolnir. Not for anything about her personally, but the fact that Thor was treated as a codename. It’s the dude’s actual name, it’d be like if Sam Wilson went around introducing himself as Steve Rogers when he took the Captain America mantle. It’s happened a few other times like with Eric Masterson, but at least he had the excuse that for most of the time he used the name he and the actual Thor were sharing a body.
Excuse me, but that’s always been the case. The first ever appearance of Thor is in Journey into Mistery #83, that’s before he had his own comic, in that comic a guy called Don Blake finds a cane, and when he grabs it this happens https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/journey-into-mystery-83-thor-debut-1.jpg
So Thor has always been the title of the person in possession of the Hammer, he converts himself into Thor by grabbing the hammer, the movies then changed that because in the Marvel Ultimate universe it’s different, but Jane Foster is from the original comics, where holding the hammer made you Thor, and she did exactly that in the 70s, just a couple of decades after Don Blake.
The thing is that, as you said, it’s happened several times before. Beta Ray Bill, Red Norvell, Eric Masterson… it’s been established for a long time that in the Marvel universe the title of Thor, God of Thunder, may be held by people who aren’t Thor Odinson (and that he might occasionally lose it, though so far only temporarily, at least in the main continuity).
I think it’s both, his name and his power. In Thor 1 when Odin sends Mjolnir to earth he whispers to it something like “May he who’s been worthy possess the power of Thor”.
Yeah, I don’t mind it. Thor is a name and a title/power. God (presumably) is a name, and Thor has the power of a god.
Prince is a title. It’s also a name. And, to some musicians, Prince is a god.
It’d be rare to win an argument by invoking Prince, but there you go.
I can’t think of the name, but that one superhero that wears the funny outfit.
Do you have any idea how little that narrowed it down?
Sorry, I was being facetious. Probably was drinking at the time.
Hulk. He’s an angry green guy with muscles, created with gamma radiation, nothing special. After a while, he feels less like a super hero and more like a Super Smash Bros fighter.
For this same reason, he’s one of my favorites.
Yeah, out of all of the superheroes that have the spotlight, Hulk’s is one I just don’t find as special as others. His stories are all bland and limited. His rogue gallery of opponents aren’t even challenging because he easily defeats all of them and there are so few that were memorable.
And the way his powers work is laughable, because the only way he ever gets strong is just by being angrier? It’s totally unimaginative and soundingly lazy. Like it sounds thought of by some angry internet user who dreams of getting angry and strong to “git back at them internet bullies!” kind of deal.
It’s a great premise, but he shouldn’t be a “superhero.”
Superheros need villains and a reason to “save the world” Hulk would be a great story of someone who struggles with every day life trying to keep his internal monster at bay, but stuffing him into the superhero role just turns a psychological allegory into “Who we smashing today?”
That’s the other thing too - who is this guy even saving? Most of the times, his stories are about saving himself from himself. He’s achieved that at least a couple times but they were all non-canon yet did make for interesting arcs for a while.
Then there’s Betty but she long has stopped being a main factor.
All that Hulk has turned into now is just that - “Who we smashing today?”
Deadpool. He’s not funny, he’s just obnoxious.
Fuuuuuuck…
I hated how he became the symbol now of people who’re desperately quirky. You couldn’t throw a damn rock without it hitting some average person who closely associates with Deadpool because “he’s like me! I say and do random shit for the lulz and so does he and that’s all foonay!”.
And yes he is fucking obnoxious to the nth degree, he isn’t creatively written or crafty with his wits. People just think “oh Deadpool is totally the guy who’d ride a unicorn into battle…BECAUSE IT’S DEADPOOL! HAW HAW HAW!!”. Like I don’t think I want Deadpool to be overly serious or edgy, I just want him to be written not in the way he is now. I just feel there could be more there because he’s not a character anymore - he’s noise. Loud and obnoxious noise.
I’m kind of annoyed by most superheroes as characters because of the costume thing.
The spandex thing that’s a pretty-common convention was because the Comic Code Authority disallowed nudity. Solution? Skintight outfits.
Now, I’ve got no problem with nudity, or salaciousness, or outright adult comics for that matter.
But we’ve got all that historical baggage of just about everyone running around in skintight outfits. So a lot of the genre winds up with having to come up with elaborate explanations as to why they’re wearing the things.
The CCA is long dead. You can have nudity or salaciousness in comic books if you want. But the convention is still with us because of designs that date to that era, and it’s just senseless. I feel like it kinda restricts the genre and doesn’t help the immersion.
There are comic characters who don’t do the spandex thing. John Constantine or Dick Tracy wear trenchcoats. Dream in Sandman doesn’t have fixed garb, but doesn’t do spandex.
The Parahumans series – Worm and Ward web serials, not comic books but certainly superheroes – are what I’d call some examples of modern superheroes that don’t have a design dating from an era where there were CCA constraints. Granted, they aren’t graphic novels or comic books, so there are different incentives, but even so.
Are you claiming that Batman wears spandex because originally he was supposed to be naked but the CCA wouldn’t allow that?
Superman.
He’s just a dude that was made of perfection. Nothing can go too wrong for him. Perfectly strong. Perfectly sound. Perfectly everything.
Yes I know and am aware of the arcs he’s been in where writers have tried to give Superman internal challenges and struggles about who he is as a superhero. But it’s like he’s going to bounce back from it all anyways because he’s walking perfection.
And a lot of over-compensating guys idolize that.
All of them. Can’t stand the superhero-dominated media market.
