The Hood

[your_name_here]

Okay - so I know The Hood is pretty hated on these boards from what IÂ’ve seen. But I personally pin it on Bendis and the fact he wouldnÂ’t leave him alone (even though that whole story was and shouldÂ’ve been wrapped up with New Avengers: Finale.)
There is some part of me, though, that feels The Hood just hasnÂ’t reached his potential yet. ThereÂ’s good stories there but they havenÂ’t been applied.

What are you thoughts?

[Michael Watkins]

totally Bendis' fault. he was a great character in his original series. the mistake was in the character's promotion. if he had been taken under the wing of someone like Count Nefaria or some other crime figure (who would be killed off leaving a power vacuum), it might have made sense for all of those supervillains to fall in line. but his ascendancy wasn't earned. and the choice of his individual gang members was nonsensical. Wizard's motivations don't align with the Hood's. same with the Controller and a lot of the others. in that case, it might have made more sense to use newbs or knockoffs (like the recent crop of low level criminals purchasing used villain identities from Hobgoblin). the Hood works as a hungry young upstart. he's less convincing when the writer just makes long term villains act like losers to justify the Hood leading them. he would have faced wayyy more opposition to his leadership. Bendis wanted everyone to buy that they fell in line because he shot the Owl. uhh, hello. why wouldn't someone like Crossfire do the little amount of research it would take to find the Hood's wifey and leverage him? or shoot him from a distance? Parker could be careful all he liked. his cousin or Madame Masque could have been tortured until they give him up. and what the hell did Living Laser need or get from Parker? did they not read Iron Man: The Inevitable? that's my two cents.

i do like his relationship with Madame Masque. and i did like the Illuminati series. i was probably the only one to purchase it monthly.

[Pav]

Yeah, I loved the Hood in his original miniseries, and I even liked seeing him display some positive characteristics in Beyond! But Bendis did no favors for him, because all the time in the spotlight he got in Avengers made a lot of people hate his guts.

If I were in charge of the character, I'd put him in charge of a new Skeleton Crew, and I'd have him acting like more of an anti-villain at times. Oh, and I'd DEFINITELY establish the link he has to Nico Minoru via the nisanti.

-Pav, who liked the Hood's friendship with Gravity...

[Snoop Dogg]

Man with Dormammu hood should be retooled as a Doctor Strange villain.

Also, he needs a redesign. He looks like a dweeb.

[Shadowcat]

The mystical gangster route was destroyed because Bendis was using concepts he couldn’t properly work out. He further messed it up by adding the Infinity Gems.

[Tendrin]

The Hood, like the Sentry before him, was another new, underutilized character that Bendis tried to elevate and wound up destroying.

[The Negative Zone]

I feel like I'm the only person who liked what Bendis did with Hood. I always thought he was awesome because he had a never give up attitude whenever he lost his powers. Goes from nothing to grabbing Infinity stones. I like that type of character. Kind of like a reverse Spider-Man.

[your_name_here]

I liked how “slippery” he was in the first New Avengerz. But as I said earlier, I think he was done when they finally caught up to him in Mew Avengers: Finale (personally, Bendis’ run should’ve ended there but that’s a conversation for elsewhere.)

Do we really think The Hood is “ruined” beyond repair? Would there be a way to bring him back to those original routes while somehow respecting what Bendis tried to do with him?

Personally, I’d love to see a book where The Hood is a low-level gangster (not quite Kingpin level but respected). A story all about a man wanting nothing but to be in control of his own life would be interesting, especially with his demon cloak whispering in his ear.

[Tendrin]

I liked how “slippery” he was in the first New Avengerz. But as I said earlier, I think he was done when they finally caught up to him in Mew Avengers: Finale (personally, Bendis’ run should’ve ended there but that’s a conversation for elsewhere.)

Do we really think The Hood is “ruined” beyond repair? Would there be a way to bring him back to those original routes while somehow respecting what Bendis tried to do with him?

Personally, I’d love to see a book where The Hood is a low-level gangster (not quite Kingpin level but respected). A story all about a man wanting nothing but to be in control of his own life would be interesting, especially with his demon cloak whispering in his ear.

Beyond repair? No. But it's going to take some time for memories to dim and a writer who has the interest in finessing their way out of the mess Bendis left him in to get there. I mean, if the Sentry can be salvaged, so can the Hood. It's just the Sentry took, what, the majority of the decade to recover with barely being used and the Hood was just in Infamous Iron Man.

[Killerbee911]

Comics fans are weird, You kill B and C characters list you will see fans moan about them being able to do more with that character. Yet you see also threads where people are saying that this writer ruined a character.

There is nothing wrong with The Hood,The biggest problem with the Hood is that he isn't associated with a hero. That is it. And it is beautiful problem to have because you have an arch nemesis worthy character sitting and waiting to be used and Marvel has characters like Miles Morales ,Kamala Khan and other new characters who don't have definitive villains . Basically he sitting waiting for anyone who needs Rogue Gallery to use him. Someone street level is the best choice but The hood can be used someone higher. Once he is someone rogue gallery to be used he can shine in stories

[Sutekh]

I wanted to see him get his hands on the Coat of Tiboro (although in such a way that doesn't require killing it's current wearer, Coat of Arms), and go nuts with *six* magical guns, instead of two, or use some evil invocations (a la Dr. Strange's old Crimson Bands of Cytorrak or Winds of Watoomb, but drawing on evil powers, like 'Lies of Loki' or 'Chasms of Chthon' or 'Serpents of Set' or 'Tinders of Tolomaq').

I think that, like Bendis' promotion of Luke Cage, good things could have come of his promotion of the Hood. Sadly, it was not the case, and he got pushed a bit too far, from 'D-grade nobody you never heard of' to 'hangs with Dr. Doom and Loki, and got a powerup from Dormammu.' No.

Earn your way to that company. Hang with Dr. Octopus or the Wizard or other lower-tier criminal masterminds, first.

It wasn't quite 'Aunt May, Herald of Galactus!' levels of elevating a character implausibly, but it was still too much, too fast, IMO.

[Tendrin]

The idea of characters having to 'earn their way' is ridiculous, anyway. Now, whether the /characters/ feel that way is another matter.

[your_name_here]

Does The Hood need to be someone’s arch-nemesis? I think I’d like to actually see him as the protagonist of the story. Let’s see how the criminal underworld works from his eyes and watch as he grasps to get to the top (or just to stay alive)

[Michael Watkins]

The idea of characters having to 'earn their way' is ridiculous, anyway. Now, whether the /characters/ feel that way is another matter.

why wouldn't the characters feel that way?

[Michael Watkins]

Does The Hood need to be someone’s arch-nemesis? I think I’d like to actually see him as the protagonist of the story. Let’s see how the criminal underworld works from his eyes and watch as he grasps to get to the top (or just to stay alive)

That was the point of the Illuminati book. it just needed better writing and maybe better art (although I didn't mind either). he needs a mission, imo. he's a mission-oriented guy/a schemer. I find him playing Kingpin kind of boring. maybe the backdrop of his book/his daily bugle for lack of a better description could be someone else's criminal empire. i'd pick Count Nefaria as his boss for the sake of convenience. it would keep Parker as the underdog figure of the story. he would have experienced greatness, hit rock bottom, and decided that he can gain more from being the second hand man instead of the one with all of the responsibility. but he'd still have his side gigs which would be most of the action in the book. and, of course, he'd still be involved with the boss' daughter.