Variation on a Theme: What Marvel Villains Simply Shouldn't Be Able to Coexist

[DrNewGod]

On another thread a while back, I asked what Marvel villain simply can't be relied on to cooperate with others. That came out of an animated DC show I was watching where in the Joker was a member of a bad guy team, and I thought "No way. He'd crash the whole caper just to watch the pretty patterns of the shatter." In the same episode, however, I saw something else that didn't work for me: two master villains in a cabal that made me think "No way. If these two were each aware that the other existed, they'd probably be more focused on rubbing each other out than the good guys."

I'm curious about your take. Regardless of written history or varying character interpretations, what pair of villains do you think would be unable to tolerate one another's existence in the Marvel Universe?

[Inhuman X]

The obvious answer is Magneto and Red Skull.

[MichaelC]

The obvious answer is Magneto and Red Skull.

Ding! That was the first thought that popped into my head.

The Mandarin and various Communist-loyalist Chinese villains. He's a radical rightwing Mongolian who thinks of China as his slave-plantation. No way he co-exists with various Communist-Chinese or even Chinese loyalist villains.

[Myetche]

Mystique with anybody else, since her partnerships with other villains or heroes usually end with her killing or brutally beating down her allies because they outlived their usefulness to her.

[dvgravity]

Ding! That was the first thought that popped into my head.

The Mandarin and various Communist-loyalist Chinese villains. He's a radical rightwing Mongolian who thinks of China as his slave-plantation. No way he co-exists with various Communist-Chinese or even Chinese loyalist villains.

Agreed on Mags and Red Skull as my first pair. I think the Radioactive Man would be the guy you're thinking about with the Mandarin. I'm thinking MODOK and Ultron. MODOK is still human even though he has cybernetic upgrades and thinks he's better than everyone while Ultron hated humans so I think they'd have a hard time together.

[dvgravity]

Mystique with anybody else, since her partnerships with other villains or heroes usually end with her killing or brutally beating down her allies because they outlived their usefulness to her.

Mystique seems to work well with Sabretooth.

[Myetche]

Mystique seems to work well with Sabretooth.

Because he's essentially dumb muscle while she's the mastermind. I'm talking about pairing her with another major mastermind villain, which usually ends badly for whoever she's working with.

[dvgravity]

Because he's essentially dumb muscle while she's the mastermind. I'm talking about pairing her with another major mastermind villain, which usually ends badly for whoever she's working with.

I see your point, I wasn't thinking of masterminds just major villains. I agree that Sabretooth is more muscle than brains, but he has led groups in the past so I think he could be part of the conversation.

[Omega Alpha]

It's simply not believable someone, anyone, hasn't killed Mystique already. Sinister particularly, since he was punked by her in Messiah Complex.

She's just too low powered to get away with the stuff she does. Same thing happens to the Red Skull.

I also find it ridiculous that Doom would work with the Red Skull as well, or even tolerate his existence.

[Londo Bellian]

Writer's hubris. It's like she got Felicia's luck powers, focusing on giving her luck to always get away with whatever she's doing no matter what.

[Iron Maiden]

It's simply not believable someone, anyone, hasn't killed Mystique already. Sinister particularly, since he was punked by her in Messiah Complex.

She's just too low powered to get away with the stuff she does. Same thing happens to the Red Skull.

I also find it ridiculous that Doom would work with the Red Skull as well, or even tolerate his existence.

Yes, this annoys me since writers don't seem to want to even bring up Doom's Roma heritage anymore. IIRC the last one do this was the Dwayne McDuffie. IMO it's another reason why he and Reed would never have gotten along. Reed came from a privileged family. Nathaniel was wealthy enough to leave him several hundred million dollars when he went off time traveling.

[MichaelC]

Yes, this annoys me since writers don't seem to want to even bring up Doom's Roma heritage anymore. IIRC the last one do this was the Dwayne McDuffie. IMO it's another reason why he and Reed would never have gotten along. Reed came from a privileged family. Nathaniel was wealthy enough to leave him several hundred million dollars when he went off time traveling.

Yeah, I recall an issue where Doom interacts with, irrc, Black Panther and expresses white-supremist views. And I rolled by eyes, because the writer clearly didn't know that Doom is not white. He's a Gypsy, which is to say of Indian decent.

[Darthkostis]

Yeah, I recall an issue where Doom interacts with, irrc, Black Panther and expresses white-supremist views. And I rolled by eyes, because the writer clearly didn't know that Doom is not white. He's a Gypsy, which is to say of Indian decent.

That was in the Hudlin run if I'm not mistaken. Where Storm and T'Challa get invited by DOOM to his castle. But yeah, that was a really bad moment...

[Inhuman X]

Yeah, I recall an issue where Doom interacts with, irrc, Black Panther and expresses white-supremist views. And I rolled by eyes, because the writer clearly didn't know that Doom is not white. He's a Gypsy, which is to say of Indian decent.

I was curious and went and looked up information about the Romani people at Wikipedia as like you I found it wrong to have him tossing white supremacist views considering his line of decent. It seems that Gypsy is considered an ethnic slur by the Romani and academics that study them. I wouldn't have known without looking it up. Nor would I have been made aware of the potential religious issues in Doom's portrayal as likely he would be hunted down by Jihadist amongst his own people for selling out to the devil. The stuff I didn't know... I wonder how aware Marvel is. Considering their reaction to the Mandarin I am surprised this has slipped by.

[Darthkostis]

I was curious and went and looked up information about the Romani people at Wikipedia as like you I found it wrong to have him tossing white supremacist views considering his line of decent. It seems that Gypsy is considered an ethnic slur by the Romani and academics that study them. I wouldn't have known without looking it up. Nor would I have been made aware of the potential religious issues in Doom's portrayal as likely he would be hunted down by Jihadist amongst his own people for selling out to the devil. The stuff I didn't know... I wonder how aware Marvel is. Considering their reaction to the Mandarin I am surprised this has slipped by.

Yeah, Gypsy is the same thing to Romani as the n-word. Same goes for "greek" for us folks but never mind, that's a whole other story...