From Champ To Chump - Marvel Characters On The Job

[HaveAtThee]

The "street-level character overcoming the uber-powerful one" has been overdone to death, resurrected and beaten to death over and over.

[Doctor Know]

The "street-level character overcoming the uber-powerful one" has been overdone to death, resurrected and beaten to death over and over.

I thought things couldn't get worse than Jason Aaron having Moon Knight job Thor with his own hammer.

Then I remembered Bendis and how he hypes Luke Cage to punch WAY above his weight class.

New Avengers vol 2 #34 2012 - Cage launches Thing and KO's Vision with one punch.




Avengers vs X-Men #2 2012 - Cage fights Namor underwater and holds his own until the Thing rejoins him.




Uncanny X-Men vol 2 #12 2012 - AvX tie-in by Kieron Gillen. Cage and Namor fight a second time. Once again, underwater but this time Cage draws blood from a hydrated Namor. How?




While they have no trouble jobbing Thing and Vision. No one at Marvel has had the stones to fully job Namor. To my knowledge. I'm sure there are panels out there.

[Guy_McNichts]

Thor seems to be a popular go-to jobber for a lot of writers. Even before Moon Knight, the Red Hulk beat his ass with his own hammer. Thor's sole purpose in Avengers vs. X-Men was to get wrecked in humiliating fashion by everyone he faced.

Others have pointed out Black Bolt gets this treatment...particularly against Thanos. I'm pretty sure his tanking Black Bolt's scream isn't the first or last time he's punked him out. It's like whenever they want to establish Thanos is still bad-ass or deadlier than ever and they don't want to sacrifice one of the A-listers, they throw Black Bolt under the bus.

Maybe not overall, but I remember Mark Millar used Elektra as a jobber in his Wolverine run. She shows up just to get demolished by Gorgon in three seconds (pretty sure the narration specified it only took three seconds). She comes at him again later, fully armed and ready, just to get destroyed with ease again...having her neck broken in the process. She's revived by the Hand, and she claims this was her plan all along...then gets bitched out by Gorgon yet again.
But I think this turned out to be Skrull Elektra, so maybe it doesn't count.

Speaking of specific writers with particular characters, Brian Michael Bendis seemed to enjoy jobbing Carol Danvers out when she was still Ms. Marvel. I'm recall she would lose a LOT whenever he wrote her...and then he'd have the villains comment that she's fat for some reason.

Ultimate Jessica Drew turned into this once Miles Morales showed up. She'd been established as pretty competent when she was introduced, but once Miles became Spider-Man, she was only there to get her ass kicked so he could save her. I remember one villain rendered her completely helpless just yanking her hair. And then there was a later story where she gets her ass kicked by two henchmen, and then spends the entire following issue unconscious while Miles fights more of the same henchmen and hold his own.
Pretty steep downturn once the new guy arrived.