Should Marvel do more to raise the profiles of their villains?

[Hostile Kangaroo]

In Amazing Spider-Man #697... something happens to fit this bill

[SamSpade]

Yeah, I'm getting tired of the heroes beating the hell out of eachother in every other event, be it a skrull imposter, civil war, or the X-Men duking it out with either the Avengers or the other X-Men. Make some hardcore villiany shape up. Dark Reign had it going in the right direction, I want more of that. Let the bad guys win and shake things up. A hero is only as good as his villian.

[The Master Meglomaniac]

I liked it. Because it took Dormammu from trying to conquer Earth to manipulating the weak to serve as his agents
to reek havoc on Earth in Dormammu's name. I would have liked to have seen Dormammu play that up further with various people
using his powers manipulating them to twisting their previous goals to suit his interest.

I think its a story with a lot of wasted potential, I thought with Dormammu being the source of the Hood's power, that he use the Hood and by extension the Hood's gang for some greater purpose. That never happens and the connection between the Hood and Dormammu doesn't go anywhere as a story.

[The Fist of Goa]

Problem is, raising profile just means "Kill a random hero"

It's dull.

This is so ridiculously wrong, it's really quite comical.

Come on. I'm sure you can't actually believe that? Are you just being cynical and assuming that any attempt at focusing on a villain would amount to nothing more than pointlessly killing someone off in an empty attempt at shock, or something? Even that would be silly, but not quite as bad.

[Neutrino]

I think the whole villain spit-polish was done well in the Gauntlet stories for Brand New Day. Pretty much all of Spidey's traditional rogues came out scarier and more intimidating than ever before. Waid's work with Spot has also been good, but I don't really get why he's changed his name to Coyote and turned all serious. He was fine the way he was, I think.

The character most in need of a villain restructure is Wolverine. He defeated all of his villains at once in the final issue of Aaron's run. That's... not good. That needs fixing. Iron Man's villains are much the same, though I really think many of them could be souped-up without too much trouble since they're generally technology based. A writer only needs to think of some new, unique application of a technology and then use it to make them a greater challenge.

[tigerkaya]

I think its a story with a lot of wasted potential, I thought with Dormammu being the source of the Hood's power, that he use the Hood and by extension the Hood's gang for some greater purpose. That never happens and the connection between the Hood and Dormammu doesn't go anywhere as a story.

Pretty much. Just another of Bendis's great idea terrible execution.

[aNamored]

they are using them and well. ex. the Spot

I really, really need to play catch up on DD now that this has been revealed. Figures not long after I stop reading something amazing like that is revealed.

[Melab]

I think the whole villain spit-polish was done well in the Gauntlet stories for Brand New Day. Pretty much all of Spidey's traditional rogues came out scarier and more intimidating than ever before. Waid's work with Spot has also been good, but I don't really get why he's changed his name to Coyote and turned all serious. He was fine the way he was, I think.

The character most in need of a villain restructure is Wolverine. He defeated all of his villains at once in the final issue of Aaron's run. That's... not good. That needs fixing. Iron Man's villains are much the same, though I really think many of them could be souped-up without too much trouble since they're generally technology based. A writer only needs to think of some new, unique application of a technology and then use it to make them a greater challenge.

How about the ghost of someone he killed. He won't be able to kill them again.

[jphamlore]

Gillen's take on Sinister was quite well received by fandom it seems to me.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

I really, really need to play catch up on DD now that this has been revealed. Figures not long after I stop reading something amazing like that is revealed.

It really helps to cement how dangerous a guy like the Spot can be.

[The Master Meglomaniac]

Here is a a problem I think a lot of villains in Marvel are suffering from: I think back in the 60s Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and the other big writers were more focused on making interesting heroes then interesting villains, with a few big exceptions like Doom, Red Skull, etc. Back then heroes with real flaws was revolutionary and so that was the focus, I don't blame Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and the rest for focusing more on making interesting heroes and having some of the villains be one note. Plus I think people tended to see villains as just "the bad guy" rather then their own characters, back in the 60s.

The problem is, at this point the heroes have been well established and a lot of villains have never progressed beyond their one note characterizations from the Silver Age. I like Stan and Jack, but respecting their legacy is the way to go, not being so slavish devoted to it, that we can't have any change.

I usually don't like big retcons, like Spidey no longer being married, but I don't mind smaller ret cons, like ones that give villains a better back story or more characterization. Or even have an event that changes a villain, like what happened with "Coyote" in the Daredevil book. I think you can take a kinda of lame villains and try to make him interesting with a little effort. I think there are tons of B-list and C-list villains you revamp either by giving them more interesting back story or having an event happen to them that changes their outlook. Also if you make a change, you have to stick with it and more then one writer has to stick with this change. Hickman had Wizard go through a mental break down recently, but we haven't gotten a good explanation of why Wizard had a mental break and every other writer besides Hickman seems to be ignoring it.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

I usually don't like big retcons, like Spidey no longer being married, but I don't mind smaller ret cons, like ones that give villains a better back story or more characterization. Or even have an event that changes a villain, like what happened with "Coyote" in the Daredevil book. I think you can take a kinda of lame villains and try to make him interesting with a little effort. I think there are tons of B-list and C-list villains you revamp either by giving them more interesting back story or having an event happen to them that changes their outlook. Also if you make a change, you have to stick with it and more then one writer has to stick with this change. Hickman had Wizard go through a mental break down recently, but we haven't gotten a good explanation of why Wizard had a mental break and every other writer besides Hickman seems to be ignoring it.

Here's what I love about the Coyote change. Waid did that without adding any needless background drama or without making the character become the worst kind of criminal. He didn't become a rapist or pedophile. Waid just hardened the tone of character, made him...smarter about the way he approached his business. He just took the character more seriously and that's exciting.

[jphamlore]

Too bad nothing has been done with the idea of the Beyonder as a mutant. Shouldn't he at least be enrolled in Wolverine's school?