Villians you can set a crossover around?

[JulianPerez]

One of the things that was so astonishing about the original Secret Wars was how it was so totally dominated by the personality of Dr. Doom. "Secret Wars" was basically a Dr. Doom story.

I'm also intrigued now with what is going on with Dark Reign, which features Norman Osborn in a way that is many things, but is definitely not out of character: one thing I always liked about the Green Goblin is how unlike other super-villains, he actually had (and kept!) a secret identity.

For a crossover, you'd have to have a villain that fits three criteria: 1) They have to be threatening and powerful, 2) they have to be reasonably well known, 3) have to have well developed motivations (because their motives and actions take center stage).

A poor choice for something like this would be Galactus: sure, he is threatening and scary, (#1), he is reasonably well known (#2) but being so remote and unknowable, his thoughts and feelings are entirely opaque to everyone. For that reason, despite the very high-stakes nature of the Celestials, they too would make poor choices for a crossover villain.

Likewise, I think part of the reason Secret Wars II wasn't received quite so well is because it was the story of the Beyonder and the Molecule Man...and that's a clear-cut violation of seniority! No wonder the Red Skull seemed so cranky in the years following that.

By contrast, crossovers can have non-senior or traditional characters take center stage. That's just more proof that if you're a slacker, you can ignore your hero as long as you focus the attention on the villain. I always liked how Captain Marvel and Starfox seemed to have such important roles in the Thanos War. Likewise, all the Infinity Gem series were centered around a character like Adam Warlock, who is a good character but a very strange choice to be the central figure of a huge company crossover.

It's intriguing how Magneto hasn't been tapped to do a crossover...well except for House of M, which was an alternate universe story so it doesn't really count. Magneto is famous, has a well defined motive and personalty, and is so powerful and threatening that he's a one man nuclear nation, treated as a fact of life in international diplomacy.

I'd like to think the Red Skull, too, could be a big crossover villain, as he is an insane master-plotter and mastermind.

[bigbluntz]

Hmm I'd probably add The High Evolutionary & Apocalypse to the Galactus list. Even though I like both villains.

I agree the Red Skull, Magneto and maybe even Mr. Sinister would be good examples.

[Whitster]

I dunno they managed to get 14 issues out of a Galactus crossover in the Ultimate universe, and it has even less personality there.

[Expletive Deleted]

I dunno they managed to get 14 issues out of a Galactus crossover in the Ultimate universe, and it has even less personality there.

That was less a hero versus villain story than a hero versus nature story, though. The comic book equivalent of a disaster movie, as it were.

[Gryphon]

Hmm I'd probably add The High Evolutionary & Apocalypse to the Galactus list. Even though I like both villains.

didnt they have the evolutionary war

[JulianPerez]

didnt they have the evolutionary war

I think what the poster meant was he didn't think the High Evolutionary was the kind of villain you can set a crossover around, and so Evolutionary War was perhaps not the best choice for a company wide crossover.

[ThePhenom]

I've always thought Namor could hold himself as a big crossover villain. As a character he could easily be given the intent and his role as Monarch of Atlantis makes it easy to present him as a widespread threat.

[chrissstopher]

But there is no more Atlantis... Namor is a kingdom-less king

I'm liking that Selene is gettting her time to shine and will get to be the big bad in the upcoming Necrosha story.

I think The Hood, if given the right resources, could be a great villain in a crossover story

[Blind pugh]

I think a Kang based crossover has legs.

[JulianPerez]

I think a Kang based crossover has legs.

I remember a while back reading a Kurt Busiek pitch for a crossover. The only thing I can think of is that it was proposed around the same time as Thunderbolts, and the plot of it was, on New Year's Eve, 2000, Kang began an attempt to take over the world.

[Kurt Busiek]

I remember a while back reading a Kurt Busiek pitch for a crossover. The only thing I can think of is that it was proposed around the same time as Thunderbolts, and the plot of it was, on New Year's Eve, 2000, Kang began an attempt to take over the world.

That was "Y2Kang"!

On New Year's Eve, Kang caused a time glitch that causes the world to tick over from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 1900, and for a month or two we get to see 1900 versions of the Marvel Universe, as they figure out what's going on and fight to fix it.

The PTB at Marvel decided they liked it and wanted to do it, but the earliest it would have been able to fit into the schedule was April 2000. By which point any interest in Y2K would have been completely over, so doing an event around it would be stupid. So, uh, no.

kdb

[XPac]

An event centering around a fully powered Juggernaut might be fun.

[streator]

An event centering around a fully powered Juggernaut might be fun.

he had that "eighth day" crossover in the 90s. i remember iron man, the avengers, spider-man and i think thor being involved (at least).

[Ogrebear]

Don't overlook Molecule Man's ability to be a good villian he is immensly powerful and in the right writers hands could be a superb threat. Someone like Ellis or Peter David could do a great cross over using him I bet.

Mole Man could possibly be a credible threat - esp if his threat was presented on a global scale. Mole Monsters breaking up dams, tunnelling under cities and collapsing them, destroying mines, holding the worlds diamond/gold/oil supply to ransom perhaps?

Though not one character perhaps a Badass Brotherhood actually taking the mutant fight direct to world leaders with a hard core terrorist campaign. I'm talking Mystique, Sabretooth, Pyro, Juggernaut, etc really going for mass panic, natural disasters, and assassination. Forget high profile people Sen. Rob Kelly- what happens when all the Sen. and Congressmen from backwards States turn up dead? or Fort Knox is infiltrated and destroyed? or a plague is threatened or actually released?

[Whitster]

Though not one character perhaps a Badass Brotherhood actually taking the mutant fight direct to world leaders with a hard core terrorist campaign. I'm talking Mystique, Sabretooth, Pyro, Juggernaut, etc really going for mass panic, natural disasters, and assassination.

So what you want is effectively Ultimatium for 616?