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  1. #1
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    Default What are the best and worst moments for your favorite characters?

    The characters in Marvel have stood the test of time for nearly 100 years. We grew up with them, and we have our favorites. However, each character has a great moment, followed by a not-so-great moment.

    Ex: Spiderman beating the crap out of the Kingpin was great for him. However, he also had OMD.

  2. #2
    Astonishing Member your_name_here's Avatar
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    Daredevil pushing his friends away and joining The Hand, with a plan to turn them around from the inside.
    The whole “Shadowland” saga that followed wasn’t quite the good story I was hoping to see come from where Brubaker left things.

  3. #3
    Formerly Assassin Spider Huntsman Spider's Avatar
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    Since Spider-Man has already been mentioned, I'll go with his clone, Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider and (for a time) Sensational Spider-Man.

    Best: Beating Venom in his introduction as the Scarlet Spider and generally being more emotionally stable than Peter was at the time despite having lost his very identity and sense of self.

    Worst: His villainous turn as the Jackal in The Clone Conspiracy and then the fallout from that in his following solo series. That said, if it had to be narrowed down to a moment instead of an era . . . I'd say deciding to kill Peter after Peter invoked Uncle Ben (the very man Ben named himself after) to call him out on what he was doing and then nearly wiping out the human race so he could "reanimate" everyone would count.

    As long as we're on the subject of Spider-Man and clones, though, let's also say Peter Parker's immediate reaction to being told that he was the clone all along and not Ben was probably the worst moment for him if we don't count One More Day.
    The spider is always on the hunt.

  4. #4
    Uncanny Member XPac's Avatar
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    Worst Spider-Man moment for me was undoubtedly when he slapped MJ. Thank god that didn't come back to haunt him the way it did Hank Pym.

    Best moment is tough. There are so many. Him standing up to the Juggernaut is a classic.

  5. #5
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    Surprised nobody's mentioned Hank Pym, a character who is permanently etched and defined by the fact that the best story he ever appeared in happens to feature him at his very worst before reaching his very best.

    Hank: "I did a pretty good job of screwing up my life recently. You just about finished the job for me! You used me, egghead...and you tried to make me a criminal! But you couldn't, you see. I've come to terms with myself in the past month. I know who I am, and who I'm not! I'm not Ant-Man anymore, I'm not Giant-Man...or Goliath...or Yellow-Jacket! I am Henry Pym! And it was Henry Pym who beat the Masters of Evil!"
    - Avengers #229 by Roger Stern.

  6. #6
    Formerly Assassin Spider Huntsman Spider's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by XPac View Post
    Worst Spider-Man moment for me was undoubtedly when he slapped MJ. Thank god that didn't come back to haunt him the way it did Hank Pym.

    Best moment is tough. There are so many. Him standing up to the Juggernaut is a classic.
    Agreed. Best moment classically is him standing up to the Juggernaut, just to protect a friend. As for worst, to be purely technical about it, he was trying to kill Ben Reilly at the time out of the deranged belief that Ben was trying to steal his life, and when Mary Jane tried to reach out to him and get him to stop before he did something he'd regret for the rest of his life, he knocked her across the room, so it was even worse than Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, as he had super-strength and Pym didn't. In that regard, he could have easily turned MJ into red mist, and it was only by a miracle that she, along with their baby, was still alive and physically intact. Of course, since that was then followed by a despairing Peter joining with his alleged creator the Jackal to wipe out human life and replace it with clones . . . well, that was very much the lowest point in the comics and no wonder Marvel tried to strike the whole thing from the record for the longest time.

    That said, Spider-Man had 30+ years (at the time) of enough goodwill and fan and creator favoritism behind him that everyone was willing to move past it for the sake of not tarnishing a great character/brand. Hank Pym? Not so much.
    The spider is always on the hunt.

  7. #7
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    For Spider-Man, I'll also add Amazing Spider-Man #122 by Gerry Conway. It's a comic that shows him at his best and worst. Gwen Stacy as died, but Spider-Man in grief and anger...gets scary and you literally see a new modern Bronze Age peter, who is practically a proto-Punisher (created 7 issues later by the same team in the same magazine), as he goes into a kind of cold rage, lashing out at friends and enemies, but also being effective, capable, competent and magnificent.

    There's also Iron Man where his best stories (Demon in a Bottle, Armor Wars, World's Most Wanted) features him at his lowest point and weakest moments and so on.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Huntsman Spider View Post
    That said, Spider-Man had 30+ years (at the time) of enough goodwill and fan and creator favoritism behind him that everyone was willing to move past it for the sake of not tarnishing a great character/brand. Hank Pym? Not so much.
    It's not comparable for a lot of reasons.

    1) When Hank slapped Janet, he didn't apologize or walk back or anything. After he slapped her, he forced her to pick up, and then forced her to participate in his crazy scheme and didn't realize he had done something wrong until it went bust. Whereas Peter immediately apologized and reacted with horror and backed out and so on. So it's not equivalent.

    2) Clone Saga is a terrible story so people didn't accept it. Unfortunately for Hank Pym, Avengers #211-230 is a great story and the best story Hank Pym ever appeared in and it is his defining moment as a character and on the title as a whole (end of Shooter's and start of Stern's run with some fill-ins by Michelinie).

  9. #9
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    I will never forgive Reed Richards for his actions during Civil War. At least blowing up worlds was a quick and painless death. Torturing people in a dimension which induces suicidal despair is so out of character that I was glad Hulk wanted his head on a pike.

    But at the same time, I loved the moment between Reed and his son at the end of the Mad Celestials Saga. It's really touching.

    I know it's not canon, but Galactus punching out Darkseid was such a great moment. In fact, Galactus punching out Lord Chaos and Master Order was a great moment, too. Wish I could say the same for how Galactus just goes back to being world eater casually in Infinity Countdown.

  10. #10
    Formerly Assassin Spider Huntsman Spider's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
    For Spider-Man, I'll also add Amazing Spider-Man #122 by Gerry Conway. It's a comic that shows him at his best and worst. Gwen Stacy as died, but Spider-Man in grief and anger...gets scary and you literally see a new modern Bronze Age peter, who is practically a proto-Punisher (created 7 issues later by the same team in the same magazine), as he goes into a kind of cold rage, lashing out at friends and enemies, but also being effective, capable, competent and magnificent.

    There's also Iron Man where his best stories (Demon in a Bottle, Armor Wars, World's Most Wanted) features him at his lowest point and weakest moments and so on.
    Definitely agree with this post, and the best part of Amazing 122 was Peter ultimately choosing to rise above his anger in the moment he could have easily killed Norman Osborn . . . and sparing him, even if Osborn took himself out almost immediately afterwards. There was a beautiful line in there from Peter about how empty Osborn's death was for him, given that Gwen was still dead because of him: "Somehow . . . I thought it'd mean more." Probably paraphrasing, but it did get across quite nicely the emptiness of revenge and how little it would mean in the end, as it didn't undo the initial harm that provoked it --- and like you said, it foreshadowed the Punisher's creation and rise.

    As for Iron Man . . . well, his best moments are pretty much the same as his worst moments, like you said, since every single one of those ends with him rising and rebuilding once more. However, I'd go with the original Civil War as his worst. (Yes, I'm still a bit sore about it.)

    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
    It's not comparable for a lot of reasons.

    1) When Hank slapped Janet, he didn't apologize or walk back or anything. After he slapped her, he forced her to pick up, and then forced her to participate in his crazy scheme and didn't realize he had done something wrong until it went bust. Whereas Peter immediately apologized and reacted with horror and backed out and so on. So it's not equivalent.

    2) Clone Saga is a terrible story so people didn't accept it. Unfortunately for Hank Pym, Avengers #211-230 is a great story and the best story Hank Pym ever appeared in and it is his defining moment as a character and on the title as a whole (end of Shooter's and start of Stern's run with some fill-ins by Michelinie).
    Actually, a very good point there. Yes, Peter did immediately react with horror and shame to what he did . . . but then he went and joined the Jackal and nearly wiped out the human race out of sheer despair over being a clone and his life as he understood it being a lie. That said, it was the worst part of a terrible story that, as you've expressed before yourself, was carried out in bad faith --- mainly to reset Peter to "factory settings," i.e. young, single, and not married, utterly and completely missing the point of the original story that allegedly inspired it.
    The spider is always on the hunt.

  11. #11
    The Spirits of Vengeance K7P5V's Avatar
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    Hawkeye

    Best: One of my favorite Hawkeye moments was when he cheated the Grandmaster, and beat him at his own game (Avengers Annual #16).

    Worst: Clint sleeping with an amnesiac Wanda (even though it's revealed to be a "Doombot" in Children's Crusade, it was still a loathsome thing to do).
    Last edited by K7P5V; 08-05-2019 at 09:38 PM. Reason: Corrected grammatical errors.

  12. #12
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    Wonder Man

    Best: His defeat of Ultron in WCA

    Worst: Force Works #1. Killing him off in such a non-event was shameful. Thank God for Busiek bringing him back

  13. #13
    The King Fears NO ONE! Triniking1234's Avatar
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    I think my worst Spidey moment was him having to destroy his own company. I wish they could've just downscaled to a small firm or something so we didn't have to go back to status quo.

    Recent Best is when we Parker gets his body back in Superior Spidey vol. 1 #33 (that's probably the wrong number)
    "Cable was right!"

  14. #14
    Formerly Assassin Spider Huntsman Spider's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Triniking1234 View Post
    I think my worst Spidey moment was him having to destroy his own company. I wish they could've just downscaled to a small firm or something so we didn't have to go back to status quo.

    Recent Best is when we Parker gets his body back in Superior Spidey vol. 1 #33 (that's probably the wrong number)
    #30-31, actually. Still a pretty great moment, though.

    As for the destruction of Parker Industries, as sad as it might be from a certain point of view, it still would have fallen apart at some point, considering that Otto Octavius was the one who established the company in the first place, and with a doctorate that would've eventually been shown to be fraudulent, as Otto plagiarized his past work while in Peter's body. That was a house of cards from the very beginning.
    The spider is always on the hunt.

  15. #15
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    The Sensational She-Hulk

    Worst: Jennifer deciding to transform into She-Hulk on top of a car, with an elderly person still in it. It baffles me as its just a random citizen who gets a terrifying scare of her car roof being compressed toward her. No chaos magic affecting her mind, not an overdose of Gamma making She-Hulk go into a rage, just regular Jen being a jerk for no reason when she is normally a very empathic person.

    Best: Jen accepting all of herself. That both sides of her have benefits weither its the Jade Giantess, She-Hulk, smashing through unbreakable force fields to save the world or Super Lawyer, Jennifer Walters, talking to get through to one person.

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