Originally Posted by
Tzigone
I've seen a couple threads mention these, so I thought I'd open it up for discussion.
I know why comic companies want to reuse popular villains - they're popular and sell books. But sometimes, a villain just isn't well-designed for long-term use. One arc, maybe two, and it's time to be done with them.
Let me start with the biggies - Bane and Doomsday. Each was created for a specific purpose (break the hero), a specific story/event. Nothing they ever do again is going to top their first outings, IMO. They've already peaked. Both of them, but especially Doomsday, IMO, are doomed to basically rehashing their first stories or getting stories that cannot help be be underwhelming. But Bane's being used right now, so it's possible I'll turn out to be wrong.
Trigon. Being only trapped, not killed the first time was okay. But after he died, he needed to stay dead. The tainted souls were bad enough, but then they brought him back....with sons. No. It was an epic battle, a big sacrifice, a satisfying conclusion to the Trigon storyline. It needed to stay concluded. I personally feel the same about the conclusion to the Church of Blood in NTT #31, but I'll grant that one is iffier.
The one that made me start the thread: Victor Fries - specifically the version using the B:TAS inspired sympathetic backstory. He can be used for one story, maybe two, if you want to maintain audience sympathy. After that, it falls apart. Sure, he has a tragic backstory. We can understand he desire for revenge. But, for me at least, sympathy goes out the window when he starts hurting innocent people (though, of course, he's a bit unstable and has a skewed version of innocent). Remember, he's not acting in some capacity to save Nora when he first appears - he's getting revenge on the company that took her from him and made him this way. If he can be brought around relatively quickly, that's one thing. But if he can't, he's just another villain. If she is actually not killed by experiment interruption, it just gets messier. If you don't care about audience sympathy, he's totally reusable, though.