Jab’s Builds! (Lawnmower Man! Samus Aran! Metroids!)

[Ares]

SPLICE (Real Name Unknown)
Created By: Gerard Jones & Jeff Johnson
First Appearance: Wonder Man #4 (Dec. 1991)
Role: Jobber Villain
PL 9 (118), PL 10 (118) to Wonder Man & Other Ionic Types

Splice was such a do-nothing villain, and a sign of the kind of trouble Wonder Man's solo series was in when THIS was the kind of original villain for his book. And like I said here, Simon has a lot of potential as a character and could easily work as a solo hero, though he plays better off of other heroes.

But Splice was just a kind of cheeky way to have a Hollywood villain, whose only real chance against Simon was due to Ionic Dampening grenades. Beyond that he's the kind of generic ninja type I would expect Shang Chi or Iron Fist to just walk all over.

The rest of the villains weren't much better. Enchantress was solid, tying back to a Marvel Comics Presents storyline where she tried to use Simon to kill several Avengers and to turn Simon into a god, only for Simon to reject her. She could have made for an interesting foil long term, but she only showed up for one story.

Beyond that, Simon got saddled with losers like Splice and RAMPAGE of all people, a third rate Power Armor guy who really shouldn't have been a challenge to Simon at all. I appreciate them breaking out older villains to re-use them, but Rampage? A mostly forgotten Champions villain? Maybe it could have worked if it had been handled better.

His big villain was an asian crime boss named Lotus who had some mind control powers and apparently served Mephisto,and was part of a long, stupid storyline involving Simon's powers destabilizing, empowering his quirky neighbors into The Crazy 8, Mephisto and Blackheart trying to claim Simon's soul, etc. It was a hot mess that Busiek promptly retconned in a Wonder Man/Beast mini-series.

Ideally, Simon should have tried to be a bit more fun, go with the redemption angle, maybe have the Enchantress try to make his life miserable for rejecting her, include some of his older enemies like Goliath or Arkon, etc. A fun plot line would have been the idea of someone trying to use the Ionic Energizer process to create new superhumans, but since it was designed for Simon in mind, the results wind up being all over the place. It would have been a fun way to create some new villains tied to Simon's past.

Bringing back Count Nefaria (he was dead at the time) as an opponent Simon and Iron Man could work against could have been fun as well, possibly even the Count being the guy behind the Ionic Power Outbreak as he tries to correct some imbalance in his system.

Have Simon go up against some mercenary villains as unscrupulous people in Hollywood try to tank Simon's career, hiring the Juggernaut to kill him or something similar.

In short, ANYTHING but create a loser like Splice here.

[Ares]

TIGRA (Greer Grant-Nelson, aka The Cat)
Created By: Linda Fite, Roy Thomas & Marie Severin (The Cat), Tony Isabella & Don Perlin (Tigra)
First Appearance: Claws of the Cat #1 (Nov. 1972- Cat), Giant-Size Creatures #1 (July 1974- Tigra)
Role: Animal Chick, Miss Fanservice
Group Affiliations: The Avengers West Coast, Avengers Academy
Avengers Grade: C-Level (usually D-Level)

Tigra was kind of an unfortunate case where she could have easily been bigger than what she was (mind out of the gutter, perverts). The idea of her being weak for an Avenger is kind of bonkers when you consider the kind of physical power a tiger actually has. Giving someone the equivalent of Tiger powers should be a nightmare. She really should be some combination of Wolverine and Spider-Man, with similar senses, tracking abilities and claws of the former while having comparable agility, speed, strength and climbing powers of the latter, while having the stealth capabilities of both. That's a solid addition to any team on power alone.

I think the bigger issue is that she didn't really have a solid personality in place beyond a "catty" nature, which early on translated to "slutty". And while I'm a fan of fanservice, that has a lot of unfortunate implications. So naturally the big thing they could come up with was making her a single mom by essentially Skrull rape, put her in a relationship with Hank Pym, and have her get humiliated and then gain revenge against the Hood.

While I'm not normally a fan of "back to basics" unless it's necessary, with Tigra I feel a lot of this should be jettisoned and some efforts should be made to re-define her. With her, I think I'd made her akin to a superhero version of original era Mary Jane Watson, with the same kind of hidden depth to her. Tigra's original deal was that she was a woman who married young to a police officer that was killed in the line of duty. She became a test subject to provide for herself, then became a superhero to avenge her husband.

That's a fairly dark, serious backstory, and is also a reason why Tigra basically acts like a more fun-loving, MJ style heroine in her tiger form. Being Tigra was a liberating experience for her, it made her powerful, gave her confidence, and it helped her realize to some extent what she might have been missing out on. She's living her life and enjoying being herself, having the freedom to be what she wants. She flirts a lot because she has confidence in her appearance, she's playing the field for the first time, and she's embracing that kind of action hero/adventure aspect of her character.

At the same time, she has mixed feelings regarding her husband. She loved him, misses him, avenged him, but at the same time she wonders how different her life would have been if he'd lived. Is she actually happier now than she would have been as a homemaker to a good man, raising a family with him? She's more powerful and independent now, but she isn't sure if she's happier. She also feels some guilt over potentially dishonoring his memory by hooking up with other men. In some ways, her fun, flirty attitude is a coping mechanism for her guilt and grief as she tries to process it.

As such, she's good at recognizing when other people are hurting and getting them to seek help, like she did with the Molecule Man. She's also brave, as she confronted villains while much less powerful than she is now. And she struggles a bit with her powers, as while her cat form doesn't change her personality, her senses and emotions tend to run stronger, requiring her to either embrace said emotions or try to reign them in. As such, she'll often change back to normal to ponder something with a clearer head, but will make a decision in cat mode when she feels she needs to just trust her instincts.

Ultimately, Tigra should be a woman torn between various conflicting aspects of herself. Her human and cat nature. Her past as a house wife vs her present as an independent, adventurous woman. Her love of fun and action vs the guilt and sadness she still feels.

[Goldar]

I feel that writers never had any idea what to do with Tigra.

Greer as the Cat, did have a fun personality, even if the stories were somewhat dark and gritty, which is how I remember them being from my first readings.

What they seemed to do when Greer became Tigra, was to give her Patsy Walker's "fun" outlook and quips, instead of keeping her own personality with some improvements.

Patsy often made those glib comments, mainly from fear of what she was facing but still combating, or surprise at how good she did against a foe. Greer was much more self-assured and comfortable in her Cat powers (mainly because she had those powers herself while Patsy initially relied on the Cat-Suit). So giving Tigra Patsy-type comments just did not work for me. Similar powers yes, but similar personalities---no.

[Ares]

SWORDSMAN I (Jacques Duquesne)
Created By: Stan Lee & Don Heck
First Appearance: The Avengers #19 (Aug. 1965)
Role: The Mole, The Old Mentor, Melee Fighter
Group Affiliations: The Avengers, The Lethal Legion, The Emissaries of Evil
Avengers Grade: D-Level

When Jab originally posted The Swordsman, I had this to say:

It's kind of a shame about Swordsman, because that's such a good superhero codename, and I'm always a fan of weapon users like that. If anything, I'd love if guys like Swordsman or the Black Knight would go up against guys like the Silver Samurai and showcase that Western swordsman who attain enough skill to parry bullets and energy beams can do just as well against Eastern swordsmen.

I'd love to see a good heroic Swordsman get another good push. It was weird as heck when one of the Fenris kids took up that mantle.

I stand by that statement. The Swordsman is a cool name, IMO, and it's always fun seeing weapon specialists like that in a comic setting. Swordman showed himself to be a remarkably dangerous foe, holding his own against people like Captain America and Valkyrie. That sword of his was also impressive, as it not only didn't break when struck by an Ebony Blade backed by Valykrie's strength, but it had a wide assortment of abilities that made the Swordsman great for weakness exploitation.

I'd honestly love for Hawkeye to have had a little side-project of training a new Swordsman to honor the legacy of the original, making them a master of the blade until he gives them the Swordsman's old sword and a variation of his costume. Don't bring the original Swordsman back, but create someone to honor the legacy of a cool concept and conflicted character.

[Ares]

MANTIS (something Brandt, aka DC's Willow, & Eclipse/Image's Lorelei)- written by Steve Englehart
Created By: Steve Englehart & Don Heck
First Appearance: The Avengers #112 (June 1973)
Role: The Scrappy (to some fans and many writers), The Wesley/Pet Character (to Englehart), Martial Artist, The Enigma
Group Affiliations: The Avengers, The Guardians of the Galaxy
Avengers Grade: D-Level (C & B-Level during Englehart's run)

Mantis to me is up there with the other creators who love their pet characters to death. She's to Englehart what Thanos and Adam Warlock are to Jim Starlin, what the Red Hulk was to Jeph Loeb, and in fact matches the love guys like Loeb and Mark Greunwald have for characters like Superman and Captain America.

The problem? No one cares about Mantis outside of her amusing MCU appearances. And I say that as someone who would love for their to be more badass "I can take on superhumans using just martial arts" martial artists in comics in general. Between the convoluted backstory, the constant character shilling, literally talking about how her child will be the most important being in the universe, etc. It's really little wonder why when she next appears, she's lost much of her elite martial arts status and is now mostly used for her psychic powers. And it's also why that version is the one that got into the movies.

Mantis is . . . honestly, I have no idea what I'd even do to try and fix her. She really just seemed to bounce around to whatever Steve Englehart book was working on at the time. She has no real motivation to be a hero.

Honestly, I think I'd just retcon the Guardians Mantis as being a plant body she remotely controlled, explaining its lack of fighting skill. I'd also basically retire her and use her as a means of introducing more high level martial artists to Marvel, where she basically trains them in her martial arts forms.

[Goldar]

Like maybe....Moondragon? After all,she was supposed to be in #2 (from talks way back in '14).

I would like to see Moondragon appear in the MCU.

[Ares]

JACK OF HEARTS (Jack Hart)
Created By: Bill Mantlo & Keith Giffen
First Appearance: Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu #22 (March 1976)
Role: Forgotten Character, Blaster
Group Affiliations: The Avengers
Avengers Grade: D-Level

Jack of Hearts seems like one of those perfect "blank slate" characters that could be re-invented into something fun with a writer that wanted to invest any time into him. He largely seems like a confused young man, just bouncing from one scenario to the next, trying to get some control over his life. Being a flying blaster who also has some decent strength and durability made him a decently powerful hero, and the need for a containment suit and his obvious physical appearance made for a somewhat sympathetic and tragic character.

He seems like he'd make for a perfect character for a team book that needed someone powerful, kind of moody, angry and can be a disruptive force on a team that keeps everyone from getting along. At the same time, I'd see him as one of those "once he's your friend, he's your friend for life" types who would cripple himself trying to help you if you needed him.

So kind of a mix of Post-Character Development Vegita and Wildfire.

And while not a bad costume, it definitely could use some simplification, because that is some serious costume design porn right there. It's so complicated it could only work as a real life costume that could be filmed, or in a video game where you only have to move a pre-existing model. Having to re-draw that thing over and over would drive someone to drugs.

[Jabroniville]

... what’s with the big “M”?

CYCLONE II (Gregory Stevens)
Created By: Sholly Fisch
First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents #97 (March 1992)
Role: Elementalist, Jobber Villain, One-Off Villain
Group Affiliations: None

-The second Cyclone was created for a Marvel Comics Presents issue years after the death of the first one, but this was his only appearance- for whatever reason, Kurt Busiek & Mark Bagley created a NEW one for their Thunderbolts comic, casually explaining that this idiot had died in a SKIING ACCIDENT of all things!

[Ares]

CAPTAIN MARVEL I (Mar-Vell)
Created By: Stan Lee & Gene Colan
First Appearance: Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (Dec. 1967)
Role: Space Hero, Iconic Death Guy
Group Affiliations: The Avengers, The Titanian Eternals

Mar-Vell was kind of interesting in that he was a Cosmic Hero, but operated largely as a mid-tier hero in terms of power. He was never going to be one of those guys who could hang with Silver Surfer in terms of raw power, he was only a little stronger and tougher than Spider-Man and his Photon Blasts were probably on the level of someone like Iron Man or Cyclops.

What was cool was that he made up for it by being incredibly skilled and tenacious as a fighter, making great use of his abilities and using courage and tactics to win the day. And his charisma and leadership could rally people to his cause. In a sense, he was to the Cosmic Scene what Captain America is to the heroes of Earth. So even though he was created initially just to trademark the phrase "Captain Marvel".

Mar-Vell is also one of those deaths I don't think should ever be reversed, but is one of those I do think should be talked about more often. People like Carol, Quasar and Nova should talk more about the example Mar-Vell gave and how they're trying to honor his legacy. Unfortunately, Marvel has recently tried to bury him in favor of promoting Carol, which just isn't cool.

[Ares]

CAPTAIN MARVEL IV (Carol Danvers, aka Ms. Marvel I, Binary, Warbird)
Created By: Roy Thomas & Gene Colan
First Appearance: Marvel Super-Heroes #13 (March 1968) (Carol), Miss Marvel #1 (1977) (as Ms. Marvel)
Role: Background/Forgotten Character, Distaff Counterpart (to Mar-Vell), Pet Character (to Claremont), Flying Brick, Blaster, Resurrected Concept
Group Affiliations: The Avengers, The U.S. Air Force, NASA, S.H.I.E.L.D., The X-Men, The Starjammers
Avengers Grade: A-Level (formerly C & B-Level)

I touched on some stuff with Carol here:

Yeah, that's a bewildering retcon. I think it was an attempt to integrate some of Movie Carol's background into the comics, with Marie taking the place of its female Mar-Vell, but ... that was clever* and I don't understand the mentality of someone who thinks this is an improvement.

* And gave Carol more agency in her own origin than this.

It's one of those bizarre "Putting my STAMP on this character!" origin retcons, it sounds like. Because now the author can say "I"m the one who did _____ to _____!".

But yeah, like... this is supposed to make Carol's powers less dependent on a male superhero... but also having him be the catalyst for her to find them, just not in the same way?

Yeah, this very much felt like a "I'm going to put my stamp on this character" moment combined with some flavor of "Carol getting her powers from a man is a problem". There's a literal line in the story about how Carol's powers "Didn't come from someone else or from some accident, they were inside of you all along". Which reads like "you were special all along". Despite Mar-Vell still being the one to trigger her powers?

The movie tried to do something similar with Carol destroying the Light Speed Engine, and at least there it's something heroic done to fulfill the wishes of her dead mentor in the face of said mentor's murderer. But the film still did Mar-Vell wrong with the gender swap and the complete removal of anything that made the character unique. But it would have gone against the idea the movie was presenting where Nick Fury was the first male character to actually be somewhat helpful/supportive of Carol in her entire life.

The only way the female Mar-Vell could have saved that would have been to make her Mar-Vell's mother, and the actual Mar-Vell is a member of the Kree military, but someone pushing for change. But that's not likely to happen either.

I kind of miss the nuance Claremont gave Carol's dad. He was an old fashioned guy in the 70s with a Feminist daughter, during a time when there were legitimate social barriers that needed to be broken down. Her dad wasn't treated as a bad person, her was hard working, provided for his family, but he was also stuborn and set in his ways. He was someone Carol was originally slowly changing over time, and after her encounter with Rogue and Carol's time as Binary, he was shown being supportive of her and doing his best to help her.

This got retconned into him being abusive towards his wife and daughter completely out of nowhere. Instead of being someone who needed to realize that he'd unintentionally played favorites with his children and that his old fashioned beliefs were hurting his relationship with his daughter and working to change over time, he was made into a worse person who died to give Carol and her mom some closure. To use the Gail Simone term that I don't believe is a real thing, they decided to Fridge him and his personality to give Carol some supposed character growth.

As for Carol herself, I liked her Pre-Captain Marvel days and haven't really liked her since, and her current book is a mess, IMO. I do think the Black outfit is her overall best look, but I'm kind of unsure about the lightning bolt. There's nothing really about her powers linked to lightning, and it looks more like a Storm outfit with it, just missing a cape. I might Photoshop one over her black outfits to have the Mar-Vell star symbol and see how it looks.

If she was going to take the Captain Marvel name (which honestly isn't a bad move, as Carol has the most right to that name, and she could work as "Marvel's Wonder Woman), then she should probably be wearing something closer to her Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes outfit. Or like I mentioned in another thread, give her the Nega-Bands to make her a full on top-tier heroine, and mess with her current color scheme to make her actually honor Mar-Vell's legacy.



Or give her the Avengers: EMH look, just with the Nega-Bands and some red instead of the exposed thighs.

And again, I stand by all of that. I actually support Carol being the "Wonder Woman of Marvel", so long as they don't erase Mar-Vell in the process. They made such a big deal about Carol's powers coming from herself, her mom being a Kree, her dad being this worse person, all in this effort to make it so that Carol has never had to rely on the men in her life, when most heroes rely on both the men and women in their lives. Peter Parker is not a lesser character because he relied on Mary Jane or Aunt May for emotional support, and Captain Britain isn't a lesser hero because they came directly from someone else.

We need to get Carol back to her 2006 solo-series Ms. Marvel days in terms of personalty, as that was the book that actually lasted the longest, had staying power and gave her actual character. I've already outlined how I'd get her back to that here, but ultimately, they need to quit pushing Carol as an icon and push her as a character. And get Kelly Sue DeConnick far away from her as possible.

[Spectrum]

Like maybe....Moondragon? After all,she was supposed to be in #2 (from talks way back in '14).

I would like to see Moondragon appear in the MCU.

Err... we can always do with more bald nearly naked women? Then again, look at what they did to Gamora.

I'll be considering this one for a while.

[Ares]

MONICA RAMBEAU (aka Captain Marvel II, Photon, Pulsar, Spectrum)
Created By: Roger Stern & John Romita Jr.
First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 (1982)
Role: Double Minority, Background Character, Blaster
Group Affiliations: The Avengers, Nextwave, New Orleans Harbor Patrol
Avengers Grade: C-Level

Monica is someone I like, but seems to keep being the victim of poor circumstances. She showcases that comics have largely tried to be inclusive with the creation of new, diverse characters since the 70s, and she bucked a lot of sterotypes by being a confident, competent and collected young heroine. I think Stern's only real mistake with her was pushing her too far, too fast. It's already kind of difficult to have someone else leading the Avengers when Captain America is on the roster. It's also a bit funky when it's a character the current writer created and then took over leadership during his run.

To be fair, Stern spent 50 issues getting Monica to that point, he had Cap decline leadership in favor of Monica, citing his lack of time since he wanted to focus on his telephone hotline (oh the 80s) and doing his best to help the common people of America. That is . . . a REALLY weak justification, but it's at least Stern trying to give an excuse why the obvious leader wouldn't step up to the plate. I honestly would have preferred if Cap would have made it clear he was stepping down primarily to give someone else a chance at leadership. It was important to train new leaders in case something ever happened to him, and since he wasn't going to be around forever.

Ultimately that decision lead to a falling out with Stern and Greunwald, and Monica has bounced around a lot since then. It didn't help when they decided to give the Captain Marvel name (which admittedly never really fit her) to someone else. Linking her to Nextwave and Marvel Divas didn't help her case at all.

Ultimately, I'd give Monica the name Pulsar over Spectrum (too many Dr. Specrtums already), and pulsars do generate all forms of EM energy that she can turn into. I could easily see her leading her own team, and frankly she deserves it. I'd also give her some hybrid of the classic costume and her current one, give her mask and "wings" back but keep the new logo.

[Ares]

Also, a nice little stunt for Dane from the issue where Monica became Avengers leader:

[Goldar]

Like maybe....Moondragon? After all,she was supposed to be in #2 (from talks way back in '14).

I would like to see Moondragon appear in the MCU.

Err... we can always do with more bald nearly naked women? Then again, look at what they did to Gamora.

I'll be considering this one for a while.

Aw, c'mon, Jab.....I myself used to detest Moony and I like everyone , but I have since learned to appreciate her sense of superiority, entitlement and anger.

[Spectrum]

Like maybe....Moondragon? After all,she was supposed to be in #2 (from talks way back in '14).

I would like to see Moondragon appear in the MCU.

Err... we can always do with more bald nearly naked women? Then again, look at what they did to Gamora.

I'll be considering this one for a while.

Aw, c'mon, Jab.....I myself used to detest Moony and I like everyone , but I have since learned to appreciate her sense of superiority, entitlement and anger.

I'm going to go with complimented rather than insulted on that one.
and now back to more consideration...