Well, they're trying with Chasm. Let's see if it sticks.
Well, they're trying with Chasm. Let's see if it sticks.
Last edited by Sr. Bungle; 09-20-2022 at 09:32 AM.
The idea works much like those mass phising emails or telemarkerters. Where 98% of the time you get ignored or hung up on.
However, when that 2% clicks your link or answers the phone you've got a payoff.
While it was stated that only 2 newer created villains have caught on the past two decades, they haven't even really been "BIG".
BIG in the sense that Venom and Carnage were 30yrs back.
It is just hard to find the right mix of character/writer/editor leeway etc to allow a character to take root oftentimes.
I firmly believe there is a loose end point to the Chasm, at least as Ben Reilly, experiment.
"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" - Optimus Prime
I mean the supporting cast always got new members joining in compared to the rogues gallery
That's actually the issue with several of Spider-Man's villains. Guys like Electro, Sandman, or Hydro-Man come to mind. It's either they have the potential to be SUPER powerful but writers have to constantly make them job to Spidey to them to keep them in the same ball park, or writers have to tone SPIDEY'S powers and abilities down for guys who he should be able to easily beat, like Kingpin, Kraven, or Vulture.
Last edited by Uncanny Mutie; 09-24-2022 at 08:23 AM.
Come to think of it, in the cases of Electro and Sandman, their animated adaptations made them incredibly more dangerous than they were often portrayed in the comics. 90s TAS Electro actually brought down all of S.H.I.E.L.D. with nothing but a gesture and nearly intimidated all the world leaders into surrendering their countries to him. Sandman in Ultimate Spider-Man, the animated series, had it explicitly stated that if he made it to land in New York . . . well, that would be it for New York, he could just absorb all of that landmass into himself and utterly destroy an entire city of that size, to say nothing of the catastrophic death toll that would imply. Even Hydro-Man in 90s TAS was at his scariest and most effective, albeit as Mary Jane's high school ex-turned-superpowered stalker, and Spider-Man couldn't beat him, only slow him down at best. Hell, the Carnage symbiote killed Hydro-Man and the Spot in the first arc of the current Carnage ongoing to absorb their powers and put them to much deadlier use, so even Marvel itself is aware of their potential threat level.
As for the likes of Kingpin, Kraven, or Vulture, Kraven is usually enhanced through serums derived from exotic jungle herbs, though not to the level that he should be a physical challenge for the web-slinger, even if he evens the odds with hallucinogenic toxins. Vulture's flight harness is occasionally said to also drastically augment his strength through gravimetric forces, at least enough that he doesn't or shouldn't automatically go down in one hit despite his advanced age. Kingpin, on the other hand, has none of those excuses, even if with his resources, he really should be looking into some kind of enhancements should he go up against the likes of Spider-Man, especially after the beatdown he got during Back in Black.
The spider is always on the hunt.