cmdrjanjalani said:
Urgh, no. We need stupid goons. It makes no sense that every single villains is a brillant mastermind or an unstpopable force of nature.
In fact, some villains need to be lame in order to prop up the stronger ones. If they are all bada$$, than none of them are really bada$$. They are just all standard.
As an aside, an issue of : Ultimate America's dumbest supervillain would be a hoot. I'm sure there would be show like that, or at least a segment on the subject in America's dumbest criminal in the UU.
It would make a cool mini. You'd have a few stories about the inane antics of the B-villains and then a few of them come to crash the show in revenge but only end up adding to their legacy of ineptitude.
I'd buy that!
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I think nostalgia has set in for some of you.
Some of the first arcs were great, but go back and read everything.
Some Guy (Chameleon) was probably my 2nd favorite. That's 29-32
But IMO the best arc was Hollywood. Loved it. Spider0man with a Santa Claus was just the cherry on the sunday. That's 53-59
After Hollywood was Carnage. 60-65. On the heel of Hollywood, it's weaker. But it's not that weak either. Re-read it. The plight of Connors in that arc is very moving. His back was to the wall academically speaking and all he ever wanted was to do something good with his talent. Then he seemingly gets that chance with Peter Blood but only ends up being responsible for the death of many innocents. Some people don't like that Bendis killed Gwen in this story, but he linked Gwen's death to the actions of Connors and that make it more awful. The guilt will have a face when we see Connors again.
"Hell is paved with good intentions."
Still a good read, IMO.
After that is the 3 mini stories with Wolverine, Strange and Human Torch.
Meh. Not my favorite part of the serie, gotta say. But the part with Johnny was good characterization while the Dr Strange story had some nice creepy moment to it toward the end.
Then it's Hobgoblin. One of the most crapped on arc of the serie. I'm not quite sure I get why. I just re-read it and I enjoyed it.
The mess that is Harry's brain mirror the mess in his life. His final entreaty to Peter to kill him was a high moment as far as I'm concerned. Reasonably tragic within the confine of a comic book.
And the fact that it put a rift between MJ and Peter and opened the door for Kitty. The mentions of Roxxon that keep popping up. And how De Wollf who we now know to be a Kingpin stooge earn some more trust point with Peter. Good planning on Bendis part. This arc really paved the way to a lot of the things that are happening afterward.
I like the ambiguity of Mr Shaw's presence. I'm pretty sure he is real up to the point where he showed Harry the cave. After that... it was a nice touch to turn him into a delusional piece of Harry's mind. I think he was real until he used the Cellar door code again and then he brought him back to his house and just left. Either way, nice.
Bottom line, as far as I'm concerned, that arc was amongst the good one and I never really understood all the complaining.
But most people will agree that Warrior was a good arc.
And that's it since Hollywood.
Hollywood
Carnage
Superstars
Hobgoblin
Warrior
Most agree that Hollywood and Warrior were great. That leaves three block of stories in between that aren't as good but most aren't nearly bad if you take the time to reread it.
So as far as I'm concerned, Bendis is still doing an overall great job on the title and I see no reason for a change.
