Villain Profile: MODOK

 Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, and Comedy.

I had a long day, so let’s talk about something incredibly silly. The Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, MODOK and his history. The grotesque floating head rides the line between being grotesque and terrifying, to being just too damn silly to be taken seriously. Sometimes he’s a homicidal maniac that’s barely able to contain himself. Other times, he’s the butt of every joke. But, who is the man behind the giant floating head? Let’s investigate it.

 

Yeah, he had no chance of being good.

MODOK began life as George Tarleton. George was a technician in the Advanced Idea Mechanics, aka AIM. AIM is a group of scientists and engineers that outfit the Marvel universe’s various evil organizations with weapons, vehicles and other tech. His father, Alvin Tarleton, founded the group in the main Marvel continuity. While not being the most stellar beekeeper in the hive, yes that’s a joke about their silly yellow hazmat suits, George was the one that finally cracked the Cosmic Cube (aka the Tesseract) that could grant the wielder phenomenal cosmic power. In order to better understand and optimize the Tesseract, George was selected to undergo a process to transform him into the ultimate super intelligence. He was put through a mutagenic prosses that basically turned him into a floating head with tiny arms and legs. The process massively increased his intellect and granted him psychic powers, so there were a few upsides. He was originally designated as the Mental Organism Designed only for Computing, MODOC with a C, upon his completion. MODOC spent some time studying the Tesseract and making improvements on it and its containment matrix, before deciding a being of his superior intellect really should be the one running things around here, killed his creators and put himself in charge of AIM, changing the C to K in his name after slaughtering them all.

 

As AIM is in the black market arms business, albeit the crazy, SciFi branch of it, he is mostly a mercenary villain. I use this term for bad guys that don’t have a specific hero that they fight against regularly, the Green Goblins or Red Skulls of comics, and instead fights any hero that they cross paths with. He’s gone up against the biggest names in Marvel, though, like Captain America, the Hulk, and Iron Man. He’ll also cross paths with, and get on the shit list of, other villains. MODOK has a habit of making big promises and reneging on them, or cheating his customers out of money for various reasons. He has had at least one major beef with Dr. Doom himself, when the King of Latveria was interested in getting his iron gloved hands on the Cosmic Cube. But, as far as I’m aware, there’s no one hero that he has a particular beef with. He hates them all equally as inferior intellects to himself. Oh yeah, he’s always going on and on about how damn smart he is and how all other minds pale in comparison to him. He has a love/hate relationship with AIM, in that he loves using the group for their resources, tech and disposable minions, but hates them for failing him repeatedly. The AIM scientists also have love/hate relationship with MODOK, as he’s a fantastic computer when they can make him work right, and a homicidal maniac with no regard for their lives when they can’t. AIM has killed him twice and used his mostly brain-dead body for projects before reviving him on multiple occasions. Basically, if there’s an evil group that needs a lot of complex math done, MODOK is usually on their speed dial. The current MODOK is in fact a clone of the original that dubbed itself MODOK superior upon its activation.

 

This was funnier than people gave
it credit for.

As George Tarleton, he was just an above average scientist and engineer. Sure, he could work on a super Sci-Fi level, but he was no Tony Stark. After being horribly mutated, though, he gained real power. At the cost of significant atrophy to his human body, MODOK gained the world’s largest brain, along with several psychic powers. MODOK’s ability to understand patterns, computation, and gather data gives him a mind that can predict strategies and tactics so well it boarders on precognition. He wears a headband that greatly increases his psychic powers, allowing him to fire telepathic blasts, shoot a deadly beam of energy and generate force fields to protect himself from anything up to a minor nuclear blast. His atrophied body and enormous skull require him to wear an exosuit and remain in his flying “Doomsday Chair” to get around. The Chair can hover and is equipped with a variety of weapons that MODOK can deploy with a mental command. Most adaptations I’ve seen of him have him favor buzzsaws that can extend from the back. When he’s in good with AIM, he also has access to their moderate sized army, intelligence network, and technology to use as he sees fit.  

 

MODOK is a moderately popular Marvel villain. He has appeared in a number of TV shows and most recently was one of the antagonists of Ant-Man in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Like I stated in the opening paragraph, his depictions range from the extremely threatening to down right stupid.

 

MODOK was one of several recurring villains in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. This version is in charge of AIM, or at least of the various cells of the organization. He’s behind the technology of several villain groups, but most often allied with HYDRA. It was him and his team that transformed Simon Williams into the ionic energy being known as Wonder Man. Tony Stark had bought out his company and, while enraged, he’d sought out his brother Eric for help. Eric, aka the Grim Reaper, took him to MODOK. Brother of the year right there. It’s around this point that we learn that AIM is researching the Cosmic Cube for HYDRA. Well, sort of. They’re running the project, but no one believes it'll work and MODOK admits that it’s just a ploy to embezzle funds from HYDRA. That is… until they think it might work. MODOK tries to give the money they’d taken from HYDRA back, saying the project was a failure, but HYDRA doesn’t buy that. Everything comes to a head in “Hail, Hydra!” where AIM and HYDRA start an all out gang war in the middle of New York. AIM is rushing to finish the Cosmic Cube and HYDRA is rushing to steal it. Both groups are ultimately defeated, and the Cube deemed a failure as it didn’t grant villain Wolfgang von Strucker’s wish to conquer the world… but it’s implied that Cap’s touching it at the same time caused the Cube to burn out all it’s energy reviving Bucky Barnes. That’s the last we see of MODOK in the main light but he’s a background character in several episodes. This MODOK actually still goes by MODOC, but the C here stands for Conquest.

 

MODOK had a short-lived Hulu series named after him. This version of MODOK, played by Patton Oswalt, has a family and is trying to balance running AIM after a takeover by another evil corporation, Grumble, and being a dad/husband. His family consists of his wife Jodie, and children Melissa (looks like MODOK but in pink) and Lou (human but with a big head.) The series began with MODOK losing control of AIM to Grumble in an attempt to keep the group from going bankrupt, and with Jodie divorcing MODOK for not being a good spouse/parent. The majority of the shows plots revolve around either MODOK trying to get AIM back, or Jodie back and occasionally both at once. It never works out for him. I thought it was funny, but I guess it didn’t jive with general audiences since it only got the one season. But still, I’d say check it out for Gary alone. Gary is an AIM scientist whom is distinctive because ins the first episode, MODOK blew his arm off in a tantrum, so he’s the one armed AIM guy. He’s extremely chipper despite his severe injury and wants nothing more than to be MODOK’s BFF.

 

Of all the evil floating heads, I want
this one dead the most.

MODOK mad his big screen debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This version is in fact Darren Cross from Ant-Man. Turns out, after Scott Lang shrunk himself down to slip through the atoms and sabotage his Yellowjacket suit, he shrunk down into the Quantum realm. There, he was discovered, deformed, by Kang the Conqueror. Kang outfitted Darren with his armor, hover chair, and weapons, dubbing him MODOK. He serves as Kang’s main attack dog for the movie. It’s revealed that he was the one that picked up Cassie Lang’s quantum realm probe and used it to track her and family down and drag them all into the Quantum Realm. He has an intense hatred for Scott Lang and is hell bent on killing him for most of the film. He’s also routinely beaten by Kang, who clearly sees his usefulness as a minion but could care less about his personality. Basically every character that meets him has the same reaction. They see his face, “Darren? What happened!” and yeah, he’s a joke for most of the movie too.

 

Oh, and he’s one of the newest cards in Marvel Snap. Play him and he’ll destroy your whole hand. It’s a particularly useful combination with guys like Morbius, who gets increased power with discards, and Apocalypse, who returns to your hand but with more power. What? I like Marvel Snap.

 

MODOK is one of the weirdest concepts for villain in Marvel history, and that’s saying something. An evil psychotic floating head with the mind of a supercomputer but the general personality of a man. He’s visually quite iconic, with his head that size of a truck, little arms and legs and floating gold body. And he’s just so… inconsistent with how he’s presented. About half the shows I’ve seen him in have him as a true threat, a being of incalculable power and one that is more than willing to slaughter thousands to get his goals. And the other half he’s an idiot. Like… legitimately stupid. He can make mechanical marvels, technology far beyond what most humans could dream, but falls for a lot of really simple reverse psychology tactics when they’re used against him. Sure, those are usually in comedies like MODOK¸ but few villains could fit into a comedy mold as easily as MODOK does. Having psychic powers would be neat, but I can’t say that its worth it in MODOK’s case. Being turned into a head to get a super brain is just… lame. Folks that are complaining that the Quantumania version is somehow uniquely bad for him being mostly the butt of jokes and occasionally being threaten really need to watch more Marvel. The dude has been far more comedic and stupid than he was the altered form of Darren Cross, all I’m saying. Have a good night!

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Villain Profile: Electro

He's a living Lighting bolt and he's going to strike Spider-Man.

Hey, folks. Sorry to do this again, but I need to postpone my Spider-Man: No Way Home review until next month. I’ve got some real-life issues that took too much of my focus to do that write up. Instead, I’ll be doing the villain profile for one of the villains featured in the film. Who? Why, Electro of course. Electro is one of Spider-Man’s most iconic villains, often battling the wall-crawler, but never getting to bug zap Peter Permanently. Despite this, he’s inarguably one of Peter’s most powerful villains and always bounces back to try again. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Iconic? Yes. Stupid?
Also yes.

Maxwell “Max” Dillion had one of your box standard villain origins, his father abandoned him and his mother when he was a kid, mama Dillion worried that Max would leave her too so tried to keep him close and even sabotaging his dreams of becoming an electrical engineer to keep him close to home before she died when he was in his 20s. He had his own failed relationship, where his wife left him for an engineer who made more ambition than he did, making Max more resentful and angrier. While out repair powerlines one day, Max was struck by lightning. Rather than barbequing him, the strike triggered a mutation in Max, turning him into a living electrical capacitor. Just the simple movement of his muscles generate bolts of electricity. Initially, his powers were weak, but he stole Stark Industries tech to supercharge and enhance himself further. He kept to small crimes until he jumped up to murder, electrocuting a small-time thug he owed money. He dubbed himself Electro, then, and set his sights on the Daily Burgle for his first big crime. He broke into the office off Editor-in-Chief J. Jonah Jameson and stole his safe before Jameson’s own eyes. For some reason, Jameson thought Electro was Spider-Man in disguise, prompting Peter to clear his name for like the 47^th time. Electro was initially hard to defeat, his electrified body effectively making him a bug zapper to Spider-Man’s touch, but Peter eventually got him using a firehose to short him out.

 

Electro returned to battle Spider-Man as a member of the original Sinister Six, working under Doc Ock. He was the first of the Six to battle Spider-Man, leading the wall-crawler to a Stark Powerplant where Electro supercharged himself. Peter, believing himself to have lost his powers earlier, realize this wasn’t the case when he dodged Electro’s lightning strikes. Spider-Man was able to shut down the powerplant, cutting off Electro’s power and defeating him. He handed over a card telling Peter where to go to fight Kraven the Hunter. FYI, the original Sinister Six was Electro, Kraven, Mysterio, Sandman, Vulture and Doc Ock. Yeah, wasting one of your heaviest hitters in the first fight when Peter is at his freshest is very dumb, but Otto obviously wanted to be the one to kill him, and Otto is always willing to sacrifice a plan to get vengeance.

 

I don't think there've been heroes
that have gotten as many kinds of
burns as Peter Parker.

While Electro’s personal beef is with Spider-Man, he often works as a mercenary for other criminal types, so he’s faced off against several MCU heroes. He’s mostly gone up against Spider-Man allies and friends Daredevil and the Fantastic Four. His power has grown substantially over the years, making him a threat to all these heroes. He’s also been approached once or twice to join the Brotherhood of Mutants by Magneto. Apparently, he’s powerful enough that Magneto is willing to overlook the fact he’s not a natural born mutant. He’s joined several iterations of the Sinister Six and is usually the most powerful single member. Despite his immense electrical powers, he’s more of a follower than a leader so he’s more often than not working for someone else other than for himself. Power doesn’t make you smart.

 

Max Dillon was once a normal man with some skill as an electrical engineer. He gained his superpowers after being struck by lightning while holding live high-tension wires. He gained the ability to generate and absorb electrical energy, up to one million volts. While charged, he’s also superhumanly strong and fast. He’s can fly, initially just over electrical wires using the electricity within to give him lift but has since evolved to fly on electrical currents themselves. He can manipulate magnetism to a degree, much like Magneto. If he has an external power source, he can further enhance his powers. His biggest weakness is due to short circuiting. Throw water on him and he’ll overload and be rendered powerless for a short time. But, if he has enough power, he can protect himself from water by generating a powerful enough electromagnetic field to vaporize water. He also has a minor ability to control electronics.

 

Electro is one of Spider-Man’s more powerful and recurring villains. Most shows will include him at one point or another, and he appears sin most games. I’ll focus on the versions that I have some experience with.

 

The first Electro that I was introduced to wasn’t technically Max Dillon. In Spider-Man: TAS, he’s introduced as Rheinholt Schmidt in the multipart episode Six Forgotten Warriors. He worked alongside the Chameleon to manipulate Spider-Man, the Kingpin and the Insidious Six to gather the keys to activate the Red Skull’s doomsday weapon. He’s the biological son of Red Skull and Chameleon his stepbrother. They retrieve the Red Skull from the extradimensional prison he’d spent the last 50 years fighting Captain America in. The doomsday weapon it turns out is a device that turns Schmidt into Electro. Spider-Man, with the aid of the Six Forgotten Warriors and Captain America, recapture Red Skull and throw Electro into the prison as well, defeating him.

 

If I poked his face, would I lose a finger?

Max Dillon appears in the Spectacular Spider-Man. He appears in the episode “Interactions.” He’s an electrician hired to upgrade the electrical filter on a tank of electric eels. Dr.’s Kurt and Martha Connors are running an experiment to try to turn genetically modified electric eels as an energy source. An accident occurs and he’s electrocuted by the eels. He starts emitting a powerful electrical field and put into quarantine. He frees himself and goes on a violent spree. Peter battles him twice before drawing him back to the Connors lab to try to stop him. He’s able to knock Electro into a pool of water that shorts him out and knocks him out. He goes to prison but is released early for good behavior. This turns out to be a ruse in “Group Therapy” where he frees Doc Ock, Vulture, Sandman, Rhino, and Shocker to form the Sinister Six. They’re able to overcome Peter at first but are kind of obliterated by a Venom controlled unconscious Peter a short time later. He returns as part of the Sinister Six in “Reinforcements” and “Shear Strength.”

 

All these years later, I still wonder what
was with that chip in his head.

Jamie Foxx portrayed Max Dillon in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014. This version is a nobody looser that worships Spider-Man, having a little shrine to the webslinger in his apartment. He’s saved by Peter from being hit by a speeding truck which makes him idolize him more. Max is forced on his birthday to fix a powerline at the Oscorp Electrical plant. An accident occurs and he falls into one of the tanks of electric eels that they’re experimenting with for power. Max is seemingly killed, but is revived at the hospital with blue skin and lightning powers. He stumbles into Times Square, where Peter tries to talk him down. But, a sniper shot sets “Electro” off and he starts attacking everyone. Peter is able to stop him by hosing him off and he’s taken to Ravencroft for study. He’s freed by Harry Osborn, who wants to use him to get control of Oscorp back and get payback against Spider-Man. After getting Harry into the building and killing his rivals, Harry lets Max take over the city’s power gird as payment. He faces off against Spider-Man, who with help from Gwen Stacey can trap him long enough to get the grid up and running again, overloading Electro with power. This version, by the way, is designed after the Ultimate Comic’s run, which ditched his Green and Yellow costume for a blue skin look.

 

Name a bigger suit upgrade.

Foxx returns as Electro in Spider-Man: No Way Home. He is one of five villains brought into the MCU from alternate realities when Peter accidentally ruins a spell Doctor Strange was trying to use to make people forget he’s Spider-Man. He’s initially a sort of electrical wraith, but after absorbing enough electricity takes on physical form again. Though now looking like Jamie Foxx and not the nerd caricature he was in his own dimension. He’s captured and brought to the Sanctum Santorum. Upon learning that most of these villains will die upon returning to their home dimension, Peter choses to try to help them rather than send them back to die. Dr. Strange initially disagrees, but Peter traps him in a mirror dimension so he can work. Peter and an in-control Norman Osborn make a device to free Doc Ock from his tentacles’ control and make a device to drain enough of Electro’s electricity to return him to normal. He has a pretty good moment when he and Sandman agree that they need to be careful where they fall. Before the device finishes, Norman switches back to the Goblin and the villains all riot. Electro steals an arc reactor and hooks it up to himself. He and the other villains escape, only to be drawn to the Statue of Liberty to battle Spider-Man (MCU), Spider-Man (Raimi) and Spider-Man (Webb). He’s depowered, and laments that he’s a nobody again, but his Spider-Man tells him that he, Max, was never a nobody. Both are returned to their home dimension in the finale. His inclusion in this story is a bit odd, as the villains that were drawn in were supposed to be people that know Peter Parker is Spider-Man, and Electro freely admits he didn’t even know Peter was white in the finale. But whatever. Oh, and when he’s using the Arc reactor for power, when he unleashes electricity, his face has the Star shaped pattern of his classic costume in lightning to form.

 

He has appeared in nearly every Spider-Man game. He’s the central antagonist of Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro, where he, Shocker, Sandman, Beetle and Hammerhead work to steal a device that powers up him into living lightning. He’s ultimately defeated and imprisoned with his cronies. He also appears as one of the Sinister Six in Marvel’s Spider-Man on the PS4. Funnily, he’s voiced by Josh Keaton, who has played Spider-Man several times. Over the course of the game, Peter dubs him his first real super-powered villain, as up to that point in his career he’d only fought guys in suits. He and Vulture fight Spider-Man together and are ultimately defeated together.

 

Electro is one of my favorite villains of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, mostly for his immense electrical powers. If I could give myself powers right this second, they’d be lightning powers. He’s flashy and flamboyant, and its always a treat to see him give Spider-Man electrical burns. Thankfully for Peter, he’s kind of dumb so Max has never run much risk of outsmarting and defeating Peter. I really enjoyed his return to the MCU, as Foxx is just fun to watch as this villain that is kind of high on living in a new universe. The movie doesn’t confirm if Peter curing the villains did anything, but I hope if it did, that Electro got to keep his sexier look in his home dimension. I’d hate to both lose my powers and my new looks in the same blow. He’s one of Spider-Man’s most powerful villains that he faces on a regular basis, so we’ll probably see him again in more projects. He’s the Lively Lightning Lobbing ‘Lectrician, Electro. Ha, been a while since I’ve done the alliteration thing, I missed it. Have a good night, everyone. 

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Villain Profile: Bloodsport

 Give James Gunn some kind of reward or award for this guy. 

Okay, so James Gunn might actually be a genius. Why? Bloodsport. Gunn took a fairly mediocre character and turned him someone that Idris Freaking Elba wanted to play. Yeah, as it turns out, despite the rather memorable name he’s actually on the same level of Polka-Dot Man or Weasel, where you actually find yourself asking “Is that character actually real?” But I might be getting ahead of myself, let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Robert DuBois’ villain career more or less began when he dodged the Vietnam Draft. DuBois fled to Canada after receiving his letter, as he had the admittedly justifiable fear of dying in combat. Unfortunately, his younger brother Michael (hey!) wanted to help him, and took DuBois’ papers and passed himself off as Robert. Unfortunately, this story of lying to the military didn’t have a Disney’s Mulan ending, with Michael victoriously defeating the enemy army, but he ended up losing both arms and legs in combat. Robert, upon hearing of his brother’s fate, had a mental breakdown. He was eventually tracked down by people working for Lex Luthor, who was looking for a patsy in his latest plan to kill Superman.

 

The man working as Luthor’s agent, going by Kimberley, twisted DuBois’ growing obsession and hatred for the Vietnam War around Superman. They gave DuBois a small arsenal of advanced weaponry, as well as a device that allows him to summon the weapons to him from a distant storage area. The most dangerous of these weapons, to Superman, being a gun that can shoot Kryptonite needles.

 

Minimalist costume, good, not great.

DuBois arrived in downtown Metropolis and started using his moniker of Bloodsport. Due either to his psychological break or in an attempt to gain sympathy, DuBois started claiming that he served with Michael in Vietnam and they bother had been injured there. Seeing Metropolis citizens “waste” the freedom Michael fought for and he claimed to have fought for, somehow made DuBois snap even worse and he started to indiscriminately kill every person he locked eyes on. The wanton slaughter obviously did get Superman’s attention and he flew in to try to stop this lunatic. Bloodsport summoned his needler and hit Sups with the Kryptonite needle. Superman was able to get away and get the needle removed. In round 2, one where even Luthor was cheering Sups on because the needless death was bad for business, Superman was able to damage DuBois teleportation device, stopping him from calling more weapons. Realizing the jig was about up, DuBois threatened to detonate his teleporters battery, which would end up destroying about ten square miles or so. Thankfully, while Sups was dealing with Bloodsport, his camera man and friend Jimmy Olsen was able to learn he was Robert DuBois and tracked down Michael. Michael is brought in and confronts the elder DuBois, causing him to collapse in grief and he was finally arrested.

 

DuBois had a few outings after this, but mostly remained in prison. He ended up feuding with another inmate on Stryker’s Island, a Nazi prick by the name of Alexander Trent. Trent also used the Bloodsport codename, having stolen it from DuBois while the later was behind bars. Racial and prison gang tensions began to swell in Strykers and the warden had the… idea to host a boxing match between the Bloodsports to see if they could alleviate some of the tension. He got Superman to ref, so he’s not a complete idiot. Unfortunately, a riot broke out as the match got started. DuBois was able to grab one of Trent’s weapons and blue a whole in the prison wall. He attempted to escape, but was shot and killed by guards. Trent also died a few days later when his Nazi brothers burned him to death in his cell for appearing weak in front of DuBois. Nazis gonna Nazi, I guess.

 

Robert DuBois aka Bloodsport seems to be an untested metahuman with an enhanced body. Think Captain America, Black Widow, or Batman, pique physical condition, above average reflexes and the ability to shoot on par with fellow assassin Deadshot. He is strong enough to take more-than weak blows from Superman. DuBois also has a teleportation device that allows him to summon weapons from an undisclosed location, provided to him by LexCorp.

 

Massive costume upgrade

Robert DuBois has had only a few appeareances outside the comics. While his name is pretty cool, and while he has critically injured Superman, the man himself is fairly bland. Yeah, he’s a crazy person that acts like he has PTSD, but that’s about it. There are other assassins that can do what he does but better. That said, let’s talk about the one appearance I’ve seen of him that actually made me love a version of this character.

 

Robert DuBois is played by Idris Elba in The Suicide Squad. In this version, he’s doing time in Belle Reve for having shot Superman and putting him in the ICU. Also, he didn’t avoid serving in Vietnam, and instead served in an unspecified tour of duty along with Rick Flag. And, while his brother isn’t mentioned, it is said that he was trained by his father to be the perfect soldier and an expert marksman. He is completely uninterested in joining Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad, until Waller pushes the daughter button. See, DuBois in this version has a daughter named Tyla whom he has done his damnedest to stay away from. It’s heavily implied that this is perhaps to try to break the cycle of abuse and violence that DuBois himself suffered from his own father. He and Tyla have a very funny screaming match at each other before DuBois threatens to kill Waller for messing with her, before agreeing to join the Suicide Squad to keep Tyla out of prison. He’s sent to Corto Maltese to infiltrate Jotunheim research base and destroy project Starfish. He’s sent in along with Peacemaker, who has the same skills as him, King Shark, Ratcatcher 2, and Polka-Dot Man. Despite his best efforts, DuBois does end up bonding with his team, specifically Ratcatcher 2. They are eventually able to infiltrate Jotunheim but accidentally release the subject of project Starfish, Starro the Conqueror on Corto Maltese. Despite being told to fall back, DuBois says screw it and fights to destroy Starro. DuBois in this version doesn’t have the ability to summon weapons. Instead, he wears a suit of armor with pieces that he can detach and transform into weapons. His preference seems to be a pair of pistols he can pull of his pecs. Other pieces can be added to existing weapons, transforming his handgun sized blaster into a rifle and ultimately a cannon. He also has a sword, and a little sling shot thing for smaller work.

 

Yeah, so to finish this as I started, James Gunn is a genius. He took the most interesting aspects of a pretty one-note character, basically his name and his biggest claim to fame, upgraded him, his power, and gave him life via the acting chops of Idris Freaking ELBA to make a solid assassin to lead his version of the Suicide Squad. (Chef kiss) he’s perfect and I hope DC tries to reintroduce this version of DuBois. And that’s all I have to say about that. You are probably asking “Michael, did you really write this character bio just so you could gush about your man crush a little more?” To which I say, yes. This is my platform and if I want to make heart eyes at Idris Elba than I’m going to do it. No cishet man is THAT straight. Have a goodnight, everybody.

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Villain Profile: Kraven the Hunter

He's hunting the most dangerous game, Spider-Men.

I’ve never understood the appeal of trophy hunting. Oh yes, how amazing, you used a high-powered rifle, a machine designed to kill with the minimum amount of effort possible, to kill a lion, a creature that would rip you to pieces if you tried using virtually any other weapon against it. How impressive. <SARCASM> The one trophy hunter I sort of get is the subject of this next post, Kraven the Hunter. This crazy Russian royal hunts things like Lions, Tigers and Bears (oh my) and kills them with his bare hands. And his magically/chemically enhanced strength and reflexes… but mostly his bare hands! Let’s get to it.

Honestly, the only thing holding this look back from greatness
are the paw print spotted leggings.

Kraven was born Sergei Kravinoff, an immigrant from the Russian aristocracy. His father was a duke or whatever the equivalent was in Russian that fled their homeland during the February Revolution and the execution of Tsar Nicholas II. The life of a wealthy aristocrat being denied him, due to that pesky communist revolt, Sergei spent his early life traveling around the world, working as a mercenary. While in Kenya, he got a taste for hunting. Not too shocking, given how rich folks seem to love it. What was unusual was that Sergei quickly grew bored with killing animals with guns or even bows, switching to knives and later his bare hands and teeth. His ability to hunt was then increased by taking an herbal potion from a voodoo witch doctor named Calypso (whom he was also romantically involved with for a time). Her potion gave Sergei strength, speed and senses on par with a big cat. It also made him live longer, which is a special bonus. With these incredible powers, he mostly just hunted animals in a manner similar to our early simian ancestors. Hey, they’re his superpowers, he can use them how he wants.

Over the years, even hunting Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh my) with his bare hands started to bore him. Huh, guess he has something in common with Atticus Finch. … Read To Kill a Mockingbird if that reference is over your head. His boredom ended thanks in part to Dimitri Smerdyakov. Oh, don’t recognize that name? It’s the real name of the Chameleon, the master of disguise enemy of Spider-Man, and Sergei’s own half-brother. Dimitri needed some back up taking care of this pesky neighborhood Spider-Man. Getting the chance to not only hunt the most dangerous game, but the equivalent of an apex predator filled Sergei with a rush he’d never felt before. Sergei, just ask Zaroff how hunting something smarter than a big cat can and will bite you in the ass. What? If you don’t get it, read the Most Dangerous Game, it’s on the public domain now. I’m just pulling classic literature references out left and right today.

The brothers faced off against Spider-Man in Central Park, which the Chameleon disguised as Sergei to disorientate Spider-Man and allow the superior hunter to ambush Spider-Man. Despite the two of them working together and using a poison dart to weaken Spider-Man, the Web Head was able to defeat them both and see them arrested. While this first encounter infuriated Sergei, it formed an obsession in him, and he swore to never stop the hunt until he finally killed Spider-Man. Random thought, but it seems amazing to me that the expert hunter and tracker has never thought to try and follow Spider-Man to his home and attack him when he’s asleep or something. Don’t give me that look, Sergei might want a “fair” fight with Spider-Man, but the dudes not above grabbing someone in their sleep to force a confrontation.

I think Sergei Kravenoff and Gaston have the same interrior
decorator.

He was one of the founding members of the Sinister Six, joining Doc Ock’s little cabal in an attempt to kill Spider-Man. While the group in concept was smart, the execution of their plan was somewhat moronic. What? You get six of Spider-Man’s most dangerous enemies together, and you fight him one at a time? The only one that could possibly benefit is Doc Ock, who obviously would attack last, so he got to fight an exhausted Spider-Man. Anyway, Sergei attacked Spider-Man in Central Park with a trio of tigers while the hero frantically searched for his kidnapped Aunt May, and Betty Brant. Betty being Gwen Stacey/Mary Jane Watson before either character was introduced. Spider-Man over powered Kraven and his big cats, forcing the villain to give him his clue to the ladies’ location.

Kraven battled Spider-Man several times over the years, but was routinely defeated. Sergei began to grow frustrated as the years wore on, knowing that despite his potion keeping him younger and fitter than he should be, he was still slowing down due to his advancing age. Sure, fifty is still pretty young (relatively speaking), but I doubt there’d be a fifty-year-old in history that could wrestle Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh my). He decided to perform one final hunt to defeat Spider-Man. He used a poison dart on Spider-Man, knocking him out and putting him in a coma. He then buried Spider-Man on his estate. After that, he donned a fake Spider-Man costume and impersonated him. In his Spider-Guise, he hunted down a mutant villain called Vermin, an enemy that Spider-Man had never been able to beat on his own. Spidey needed Cap’s assist to stop him before. Kraven captured Vermin and put him in a cage. Spider-Man emerged from his grave about two weeks later. Kraven told Spider-Man why he’d done all of this, released Vermin and bit Spider-Man farewell. Peter went after Vermin, and Sergei recorded a full confession of all of his crimes and then committed suicide.

This wasn’t the end of Kraven, obviously. He was actually resurrected by a dark ritual performed by his wife and children. Somehow, though, their ritual had a weird side effect that made Sergei unkillable, except by the hands of Spider-Man. So, while he might have let go of his grudge in death, it returned with vengeance in his new life. He’s continued to menace Spider-Man to this day.

Other than having me question if a laser spearhead is in anyway
better than a metal one, this is probably his best look thus far.

Kraven the Hunter is a skilled hunter and fierce hand to hand combatant. He’s on par with an Olympic athlete in terms of strength, speed, and dexterity even without enhancement. He also has a working knowledge of pressure points, using precise strikes to nerves to great effect. His own skill and power are improved by his potion, pushing his physical strength, speed, and senses to Wolverine levels. He’s also more durable than average, and can rapidly heal from most injuries. Not on a healing factor level, but much faster than normal. The potion has also greatly slowed his age, while he’s chronologically (in universe) in his fifties physically speaking he’s closer to his mid-thirties. He also has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of poisons and tranquilizers, which he uses to enhance his fighting prowess.

Kraven has appeared in several Spider-Man series outside of the comics. While certain aspects of him are tweaked from incarnation to incarnation, all versions retain his obsession with killing Spider-Man as he views the Wall-Crawler as his ultimate prey. Personally, I’m shocked he never decided to try hunting Black Panther full time, just sayin’.

He’s a recurring antagonist in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. He’s introduced in “Kraven the Hunter.” In this episode, Peter is going to interview a scientist named Mariah Crawford, only to find her at her office being attacked by a crazy man in a lion vest. After scaring the wild man off as his alter ego, Crawford explained to Spider-Man that was Sergei Kravinoff, her ex-lover. He’d been seriously injured protecting her from hyenas. To save his life, she used a “wonder drug” given to her by a colleague. It healed his wounds, and gave him superpowers but sort of drove him insane. Or more accurately turned his mind into something more similar to a predatory beast. Mariah came to America to create a cure for him. With Peter running interference on her unstable ex, Mariah was able to develop a serum that restored Kraven’s mind. They returned to Africa together. He returns in “Duel of Hunters.” In it, Spider-Man’s mutation had gone into overdrive, turning him into the horrid Man-Spider. Dr. Crawford returned to cure Spider-Man, as she owed him at least that much, and force Kraven to help. Kraven was able to Track down Man-Spider, but was sidetracked by an attack by the Punisher, whom had also been hunting Man-Spider. They team up and are able to subdue Spider-Man long enough to return him to normal. He returned one final time in “The Return of Kraven.” In it, Mariah had turned into a horrid monster after Kraven gave her the miracle drug to cure her of a plague. He and Spider-Man are able to restore Mariah’s mind, and the two depart together. This is easily the happiest story to involve Kraven, EVER.

Kraven the Hunter appeared in the second season of Spectacular Spider-Man. He’s introduce in “Destructive Testing” as a famous hunter that had come to New York to battle Spider-Man. Spidey is challenged by Sergei’s hand to hand fighting skills, but he’s able to disable his opponent. Sergei, unwilling to believe that he truly lost, believes that Spider-Man only won because of his powers. He enlisted the help of Professor Miles Warren, whom used a formula based on Curt Connors Lizard Formula to turn Sergei Kravenoff into a monstrous cat creature with a black lion’s mane. Changing his name to Kraven the Hunter, he battles Spider-Man again. He overpowers and outraces Spider-Man throughout their fight, but is stopped by Peter’s webbing. He returns in “Reinforcements,” as a member of the new Sinister Six.

The one version to have a happy ending. Well... happy enough.

A retooled version appears in the Ultimate Spider-Man series. This version, unlike other, uses high-tech old school tools. Think laser-knives, and energy shields instead of his hands, or more mundane knives and shields. He’s also more of Spider-Man’s ally White Tiger’s enemy in his initial appearance, as he had killed her father years before to steal their family amulet and get white tiger powers. He uses a magic drum to drive White Tiger into a fury, in an attempt to kill her while she’s enraged. She and Spider-Man are able to take him down. He returns in “Return of the Sinister Six,” “The Savage Spider-Man” “Contest of Champions” “Hydra Attacks” “Double Agent Venom” “The New Sinister Six” and “Graduation Day.” It should be note that his desire to kill and steal White Tiger’s powers is dropped after that first episode, as White Tiger and the rest of Spider-Man’s initial team are largely dropped in favor of an all Spider-Man themed team in later seasons. They had this same issue with their version of Scorpion, whom was reworked into a rival/enemy of Iron Fist, only to have the character seemingly drop a decades long grudge after only an encounter or two with Spider-Man. Weird.

They’ve tried to put Kraven into several movies, but production issues seem to be Kraven’s greatest enemy. There were plans to have him appear in the Amazing Spider-Man spin off The Sinister Six, and the third film, but those plans were shelved when the series was cancelled. His name is referenced in the new Morbius trailer, in the form of Kraven Pastries and the Kraven National Ballet. He’s got a film upcoming in Sony’s Spider-Verse movies, and has been hinted at possibly appearing in the third MCU Spider-Man film.

Like Rhino, Scorpion, Lizard and Mysterio, he has appeared in nearly every Spider-Man game in one form or another.

Kraven the Hunter is a fun Spider-Man villain. He’s strong, fast, and another of Spider-Man’s visually distinctive enemies. Say what you like about early Spider-Man comics, (the writing hasn’t aged well), but Steven Ditko was a master at making visually amazing characters. Kraven also gets points for being one of Spider-Man’s more honorable foes. Sure, he will repeatedly pick fights with someone that has zero interest in fighting him, but when Sergei promises, say, to release all of his captives if beaten, you never have to worry about him pulling a double cross. And, like I said at the beginning, I kind of get his style of hunting. Instead of using the largely “auto win” button of a gun, he truly pits his strength against that of his prey. If I could wrestle a Lion and kill it, you bet I’d display it in my living room. Though I would never do that, as I am an animal lover and largely pacifistic. Just sayin’. I do hope that Kraven get’s his film soon, especially since he makes significantly more sense to me as a star of a movie than Michael Morbius, just sayin. What? Just pit Kraven off against some fellow hunter or big corporate type like Osborn or Kingpin, boom, done, likeable anti-hero/villain story. And that's all I have to say about that. Have a good night, everybody.

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Villain Profile: Rhino

Russian Rhino rampages recklessly, routinely ruining runs, rallies, and relaxation. Boom, alliteration.

One of the most universally desired powers is that of what I think of as the Strongman. I picked this term up for the Super Powereds series by Drew Hayes. Basically, it’s anyone that has the combination of superhuman strength and endurance that turns a human being into a human shaped tank. Think guys like the Hulk, Luke Cage, or the Thing. Punching through concrete, leaping tall buildings in a single bound, always being able to open pickle jars, it’s a very attractive powerset. I don’t think that the powers per say are what Aleksei has a problem with, it’s the whole freakish hugeness and constantly being beaten up by a weirdo in red-and-blue spandex that’s a pain. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get to it.

Somebody didn't care for their Uber Driver.

Aleksei Sytsevich began his career as a common thug for the Russian Mafia. He was big, dumb, and pretty much all of the other stereotypes you think of when you hear the term Muscle. Life took a slight turn for him when he was offered an obscene amount of money and the potential for a lot of personal power to undergo a little science experiment by some shady science types. Over the course of several months, he was injected with a series of chemicals and exposed to radiation treatments. The results were a massive increase in strength, due to the addition of a few hundred pounds of muscle. He was also outfitted with a suit of experimental armor that was permanently bonded to his skin, making him virtually impervious to harm, and giving him a new weapon in the form of his namesake’s sizeable horn. The scientists believed that the Rhinoceros motif was fitting as they’re one of evolutions most perfectly protected creatures.

The first mission for the newly dubbed Rhino was to kidnap astronaut John Jameson III, son of publisher J. Jonah Jameson Jr. So many Js. Sorry, back on task. He was to kidnap Jameson to bring back to his bosses so they might sell him to the highest bidder. Jameson had been exposed to a hitherto unknown alien spore, making him worth a stupid amount of money to the right people. Aleksei was given extensive, mind-bending training to teach him accent free American English and fake papers dubbing him Alex O’Hirn in order to sneak into the US undetected. Well, as undetected as a seven-foot-tall armored titan can ever be. Rather than go along with their full plan, Aleksei decided to turn on his benefactors, destroying their lab and setting out to capture Jameson on his own. As the Rhino charged his way through New York, he got the attention of a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, who quickly deduced how he could beat someone as apparently impervious as Rhino. The key factors to Rhino’s defeat were that 1. He couldn’t really change direction or easily stop once he began to charge, and 2. He’s about as dumb as a rock. Spider-Man’s agility allowed him to easily dodge Rhino until the big brute passed out from exhaustion. He was kept sedated at a prison hospital for several weeks until he eventually woke up and broke free. He tried to nab Jameson again, but was once again thwarted by Spider-Man, whom with the help of Dr. Connors, had developed an acid that ate through Rhino’s thick armored hide. He was sent to prison once again.

Yes, there was a time where we were expected to take this man
seriously.

Aleksei was eventually freed from prison and was immediately approached by his former benefactors. Guys, this is why you keep tails on former super criminals, all I’m saying. They apparently didn’t harbor any ill feelings toward Aleksei after their last encounter, and actually offered to power him up further. Aleksei, having not learned his lesson, agreed. He was subjected to gamma treatments, based on the work of Dr. Bruce Banner, and a new Rhino suit that was even tougher than before. The next job? Kidnap Banner and bring him to his bosses so they could extract the secrets of Gamma-ray treatments from him. His benefactors were able to track down Banner and sicced their new bruiser after him. Despite his recent powerup, Rhino was laughably outclassed by the Hulk’s nigh unlimited strength, was knocked out and rearrested. He was then freed and used by one of the Hulk’s enemies, the Leader, as his muscle for a short while. He kept getting his butt kicked by the Hulk, though, so he was eventually let go.

Over the years Aleksei Sytsevich has become one of the “Go To” villainous Strongmen in the Marvel Universe. Provided that you pay him well enough, he’s basically a walking tank that will hit what you want when you want him to. Guys like Kingpin or Osborn love to use him then they need something pancaked. In more recent years he attempted to turn over a new leaf. After one of his stays in prison, he met a waitress named Oksana that he somewhat hit it off with. When given the choice between becoming a new and improved Rhino or see where things went with Oksana, he choice Oksana. They quickly married and got an apartment in Yonkers. Their happiness was short lived, however, as the mad scientist that offered to upgrade him had found a new idiot, I mean volunteer to be the new Rhino. New Rhino thought the only way he could be taken seriously was by killing Aleksei. He was initially stopped by Spider-Man, but in true villain fashion, escaped prison and ended up killing Oksana. This drove Aleksei into a blind rage, he redonned his suit (he’d upgraded to a removable model some years ago) and brutally murdered New Rhino as payback.

Much better, this one actually looks like he's in an armored suit.

Most recently, he’d been hired as the muscle for New U Technologies, a company that promised Miracle cures for the terminally ill but in actuality swapped out the sick with healthy Clones. This was all a front by a returned Jackal, one of Spider-Man’s geneticist enemies. He’d bought Aleksei’s, and several other villains, loyalties by cloning their deceased loved ones as payment. So Aleksei got to be with Oksana again for a little while. This ended when one of the Jackal’s fail-safes was activated, a specific audio frequency that caused the clones to rapidly decompose. Aleksei was all but catatonic by her ashes until a quarantine team tried to move him. He went berserk and started to rampage. He was quickly stopped by Spider-Man, who forced him to calm down, and taught one of his oldest enemies his trick to living with grief. Namely, focus the pain of their loss into a desire to be the person their loved one wanted them to be. Aleksei surrendered and said he’d try. Well see if this new leaf turn is the one that sticks.

The Rhino has the standard Strongman suite of abilities. The combination of drugs and later gamma ray treatments made him super strong, unnaturally fast, inhuman stamina, and super durable. Basically, he can hit and get hit like few others can. He’s also been outfitted with his iconic Rhino suit, an artificial armor that renders him all but impervious to damage, and gives him the imposing horn of his namesake. With a running start, he can pierce 2 inches of plate steel with his horn. His really only vulnerable area is his exposed face, which is much harder to hit when he’s moving than you’d think. Originally the suit was fused to his very skin, which was a constant hassle for Aleksei to deal with, and he later upgraded to a removable suit.

The Rhino has been used several times outside of the comics, being one of the physically strongest opponents that Spider-Man regularly faces off against.

He appears in several episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. His part is pretty much down to just being the big dumb muscle that Kingpin regularly hires. I don’t think anything about him is ever explained, not his name, powers, or even the fact that he’s stuck in his armor. He appeared in “The Alien Costume” parts one and three, the “Insidious Six” two parter, and the “Six Forgotten Warriors” two parter.

He’s has a more… fleshed out appearance in The Spectacular Spider-Man, where he’s played by Clancy Brown. You know, Mr. Krabs from Spongebob or the head guard from The Shawshank Redemption? Yeah, same guy. In this version he’s known by his alias Alex O’Hirn and is a petty thug working for the “Big Man,” and was often partnered with Flint Marko (aka the Sandman). He and Marko appear in several early episodes, where they’re constantly being captured and humiliated by Spider-Man. In the sixth episode, “The Invisible Hand” one episode after Marko got his Sand powers, Rhino was put into an armored suit and given the “enhancements” that turned him into the Rhino. The Big Man had decided to upgrade some of his thugs into costumed supervillains in the hope that they’d keep Spider-Man too busy to deal with his more mundane criminal activities. While he was able to smack Spider-Man around in their initial encounter, Spider-Man was able to deduce that this version of the suit is so skin tight that it didn’t even allow Alex to sweat except around his face. Spider-Man was basically able to defeat him by inducing heat exhaustion. It’s from a conversation from the addled Rhino that Peter finally learned who the Big Man is, Alex having heard the name L. Thompson Lincoln from his own superiors. He returns as part of the Sinister Six in “Group Therapy” and “Intervention” and as muscle in “Accomplices” and “Opening Night.”

Honestly, this makes me think that Paul Giamatti is begin carried
in some kind of armored babybjorn.

A teenage version of Rhino, again going by Alex O’Hirn, appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man. In the episode “The Rhino” he’s introduced first in his more hulking form as a new villain that’s attacking and stealing Oscorp chemical shipments. He’s particularly dangerous when it’s revealed his horn can cut even Spider-Man ally Power Man’s supposedly unbreakable skin. He’s later revealed to be an angry nerd that was being bullied by Flash Thompson. To get back at Flash, he started taking one of Doc Ock’s animal-based superpower formulas to turn himself into the Rhino. He’d been hitting Oscorp shipments to prolong the transformation. He attempts to kill Flash, but is delayed by Spider-Man and his amazing friends long enough for his formula to run out. While being taken away by SHIELD, Flash does take a moment to apologize to Alex for being a dick. A little late, but it’s good to see Flash grow a little. He returned in Rhino form in “The Sinister Six” and “Return of the Sinister Six” as the groups muscle, working for more Rhino formula. He has one more character focused episode entitled “Rampaging Rhino,” where it’s revealed that overuse of the Rhino formula has left him in his monster state. The imprisoned Rhino flies into a rage when he learns that his former tormentor Flash Thompson has gone on to be the “hero” Agent Venom and breaks free. He rampages across New York, only being stopped by a combination of Hulk and the Iron Spider in Hulkbuster armor, and Spider-man and Agent Venom appealing to his better nature. Spider-Man then persuades Nick Fury to let him train as a hero at the new SHIELD academy. He rejoins Doc Ock in “Lizards” and is a part of his crew until the end of the series. Though he does turn over a new leaf for reals by the end and truly joins the SHIELD academy.

He was played by Paul Giamatti of all people in the beginning and ending of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. In the opening sequence he’s just a stupid thug that attempted to jack a truck full of Oscorp plutonium. He’s stopped by Spider-Man after a bit of a chase. He returns in full Rhino gear, this time being a full mech suit with machine guns and rockets, attacking police at the films end. He was apparently either trying to draw out Spider-Man, or use his absence as an excuse to cause harm. Peter had been taking sometime off to grieve after the death of Gwen Stacey. Spider-Man swings in to save a kid in a Spider-Man mask who’d tried to face down Rhino, before charging him and beginning to swing a manhole cover at his face before the credits rolled. Giamatti was signed to appear in the third Amazing Spider-Man film, and possibly a separate Sinister Six spin off, but the films were cancelled in favor of the second Spider-Man reboot and being rolled into the MCU. Honestly, I can’t complain. I should note that, despite “Amazing” being in the title, Giamatti’s Rhino battle suit is one of several instances of the Ultimate Universe popping in instead of the Amazing Spider-Man series.

And like the Lizard, Mysterio, and Scorpion, The Rhino has appeared in almost every single Spider-Man game as a boss character.

As I said in the beginning, as a villain Rhino is a fairly standard Strongman type. He’s big, tough, and dumb as a rock. But, like a lot of Spider-Man baddies, he’s visually iconic. I really can’t think of another villain to use the slate gray armor and massive horn combination. And while his plans aren’t ever what someone would call smart, and he’s more often used as an enforcer for worse criminals, he’s still a staple of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery and has been for decades. He’s simple, but that’s kind of part of his charm. Not everyone can be the Norman Osborn/Lex Luthor types, you need the big dumb brutes to do the legwork. Obviously, he’s a fan favorite, given how often he’s appeared outside of the comics. I wonder if that’s just the kind of street cred that a former Sinister Six member gets, or if he’s just that cool to some people. It’s a shame that Giamatti didn’t get more time as the Rhino as he probably would have had a lot of fun with the role. But hey, there’s always next time. I look forward to seeing him buttheads with Spider-Man again, soon. 

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Villain Profile: Ghost

This Ghost will get into any machine, for a price.

Well, considering that I just did a goblin, it seems only logical to do ghost as well, right? And not just any ghost, but THE Ghost. While I mentioned this in my Ant Man and the Wasp review, I feel the need to point out again that the Ghost of that movie, Ava Starr, is an original character of that film. While I’ll go into her background in the character section, the bulk of this will be centered on the Ghost of the comics and most of the cartoons, whom is depicted as male. And that’s like the one concrete fact that we know about him. Let’s get to it, shall we?

The Ghost and Crossbones, a match made in hell.

The Ghost is a man who’s past is largely shrouded in mystery. While large parts of it can’t be substantiated, as the people involved besides Ghost are dead and he has claimed to have had his original identity wiped from public record, he has given us an origin story. I’d be willing to bet parts of the tale will either be revealed to be total lies or facts distorted by hate and anger at some point, here’s what he’s said. Back in the day Ghost worked as a programmer and engineer at a rising IT company called Omnisapient. While he doesn’t give his real name, I’m just going to call him Jacob Marley. What? If everyone else is blatantly showing off Christmas stuff in October, I should be allowed a somewhat subtle joke. Jacob impressed his companies board of directors with his prowess with designing advanced tech and his immense intellect. He quickly received multiple promotions before being put on the company’s flagship project, a new processor that could physically change in reaction to its environment. Basically, the processor would become intangible before it could overheat, allowing for rapid cooling. The Ghost Tech, as they dubbed it, caused the company’s stock to skyrocket. Which was good. But the board also grew ever more dependent on Jacob specifically to run and design their tech. Which was bad. After months of exhausting work, I’m reasonably certain with unpaid overtime, Jacob demanded to get some time off. The board was obviously… upset about the idea of Jacob not completing the project ahead of schedule, which would gain them billions, there wasn’t much they could do, now is there?

Just before Jacob left on his vacation, an attractive coworker… ugh, she doesn’t have a name either.  I’ll call her Jenny, because why not? Jenny came onto him and expressed interest in him. Jacob, whom claimed to be introverted and a tech geek before his transformation, was smitten with her almost instantly. He cancelled his vacation and kept working, but spent a lot of time with Jenny during and after work. Well, isn’t that convenient for Jacob, and his bosses. More and more of Jacobs personal life seemed tied to his job, but he didn’t complain as an attractive romantic partner is an incredible stress reliever. Things ended badly, though, as Jenny was killed in an explosion that destroyed her apartment. Gas leak, I’m sure. Jacob, depressed and needing some kind of escape, plugged his brain directly into his Ghost processor. Not sure if that sciences, but belief needs to be suspended with an origin story. Combining his mind with the processor pushed his consciousness into a hyper aware state, and he was able to piece together some things that he’d subconsciously realized that didn’t add up. Jenny, he realized, had been a Honeypot. The board hired her to seduce him and keep him working on their projects. She’d been killed because she’d demanded they give her more money, or she’d go public with what they did. I can imagine only a few things more heartbreaking than realizing just how badly Jacob had been used. The board had surveillance on him, so they realized what he’d discovered. They hired a hitman to take care of him. Hm… I feel like they’re just making more problems for themselves, but what do I know. The hitman set off a bomb in Jacob’s apartment, killing most of his neighbors. Jacob survived as the Ghost tech processor made him intangible as the heat of the explosion heated up the processor.  Nearly dying and discovering how much of his life was a fabrication, Jacob Marley died metaphorically and was reborn as the Ghost.

The Ghost is always trying to stick it to The Man.

Ghost became a hyper paranoid vigilante, hell bent on killing evil corporations. He killed the board of directors, their assassin and then the records of his former life. Sometime later, Ghost was hired by Carrington Pax, one of the head executives of the Roxxon Oil Corporation, to destroy Accutech Research and Development. The tech firm had been developing a beta particle generator, a potential super energy source, but refused to sell it to the oil company. Probably because folks in the Marvel Universe know their oil companies are evil. Roxxon hired Ghost to drive the company into bankruptcy. Thankfully for Accutech, they’d attracted the attention of Tony Stark, whom bought it within days of Ghost making his move.  Ghost attack, to which Tony sent his “bodyguard” Iron Man to stop. The two faced off, and Iron Man was able to beat the specter back. Ghost swore revenge on Tony, believing the corporate goon was more worthy of his ire than the working-class stiff in the suit. Huh.

Tony, fearing an attack by someone that could literally walk through walls, spent the next few weeks optimizing his armor and waiting. Roxxon, worried that their dealings with Ghost might become public, hired another costumed villain, Spymaster, to deal with him. The two fought in a Stark Enterprises building, which ended with Ghost sticking Spymaster in a wall and making him tangible again. Iron Man set up a trap for Ghost who walked right in. They were both in the beta particle generator room, the beta particles interfering with Ghost’s ability to cloak himself or go intangible. There was a ticking clock element with the fight, as the radiation from the Beta particles can be fatal after prolonged exposure. The floor ended up melting, and Ghost fell through. Iron Man only found the burnt remains of his costume, but he knew Ghost was still out there.

Ghost has since gone up against Iron Man several times, as well as other heroes when he takes contract work. He doesn’t seem to care who he fights, he’ll fight anyone that tries to get in his way. He’s since joined the Thunderbolts. It’s kind of like Marvel’s Suicide Squad, a team made up of anti-heroes and villains that work for the government. While not having sought redemption, he seems to be trying to be a better person than he’d once been.

Despite the supernaturally suggestive name, Ghost’s powers are completely tech based. He’s designed and built a special battlesuit that incorporated his original Ghost Tech. This allows him to go intangible and pass through solid objects, or turn himself invisible, but not both at once. He also has incorporated various gadgets to help him hack or reprogram electronics on the fly, and to intercept and tamper with electromagnetic signals. He’s also a crack shot, using a variety of guns and grenades to help with his work. He’s a genius level inventor and computer hacker.

Why's every song about Love, or Drinking too much? Well,
Maybe it's because, everybody's lonely!
Sorry, that's Jukebox the Ghost.

 Ghost has appeared a few times outside of the comics. They seem to tone down the corporate terrorist angle of his character and usually portray him as a highly skillful mercenary. He’s usually an Iron Man villain, but the Ghost’s biggest appearance was up against Ant Man and Wasp in the film bearing their names.

Ghost appeared in a few episodes of Avengers Assemble. He’s introduced in “The Kids Are Alright” in the third season. In the episode, Captain America and Iron Man are working with a pair of Inhuman heroes, Inferno and Ms. Marvel, to handle a few Ultron robots. After that mess was handled, they give the teen heroes a tour of Avengers Tower. Unfortunately, at the same time Ghost attacked to steal Iron Man’s AI Friday. He’s significantly more dangerous as this version had discovered he was an Inhuman and gone through Terrogenesis to unlock his powers. Thankfully for him, his Inhuman powers were a more powerful form of phasing. The Avengers send him packing in the end. He appeared again in “Avengers No More.” He tried to steal tech from the Stark Expo, but is stopped by the new intern, Jane Foster and Thor.

He appeared in Marvel’s Spider-Man. This version is a former Stark Enterprises employee and that’s why he’s got a personal vendetta against Stark. In the episode “Stark Expo” he crashes said expo, phases into Iron Man’s mark 50 armor and starts causing havoc. Iron Mand and Spider-Man force him from the suit, but he steals the suit’s “inter-connectivity” disks, which let him hack all of the other tech at the expo. He’s finally stopped by Peter, whom used the Venom suit to enhance himself enough to over come him.

This Ghost is hunting Pyms.

A new Ghost, Ava Starr, is introduced for Ant Man and the Wasp. She’s portrayed by Hannah John-Kamen. She is the daughter of a former associate of Hank Pym’s, Elihas Starr. She was the one survivor of the quantum explosion at her dad’s lab. She was left in a state of molecular disequilibrium that caused her to phase through solid object, but caused her extreme pain. She was saved by another former Hank Pym colleague Bill Foster who had her join SHIELD. She was trained as an assassin, given a suit to better control her powers, and the codename Ghost. She left SHIELD when she realized they wouldn’t help fix her. She and Bill Foster attempt to steal Hank Pym’s mobile lab to get his Quantum Realm tech to help Ava. They believe that they could use the quantum energy that Hank’s wife, Janet van Dyne, had absorbed over the last thirtyish years to stabilize her. Once Janet is brought out of the Quantum Realm, she uses her energy to partially stabilize Ava. Scott, Hope, Hank and Janet end the film with a mission to gather more quantum energy particles to stabilize Ava further, but the Pym/van Dynes are Blipped out of existence while Scott was in the realm.  Huh, hope Ava was either blipped too or Bill Foster found another way to help her. Just saying.

The Ghost’s biggest strength, I think, is his look. He’s one of the most visually unique villains of Marvel’s roster. The white suit and largely featureless mask make him hard to forget. I think it also helps that, because he doesn’t have a super specific or well know origin means that he can be whatever a story needs him to be. Sure, that’s true of most characters, but the more popular a character the more you do really need to stick to certain plot beats, if you don’t want to piss off fans. If you want to write a Batman story, he needs to be a billionaire with dead parents. You want to write a story with Magento, you’ll need to include that he’s a survivor of a war and an incredibly angry but charismatic leader. There are no such necessities for Ghost. You need a generic psycho with weird powers? He can do that. Need a skilled mercenary that will keep hounding a target? He can do that. Need him to be a tragic victim of circumstance, and be a woman? She can do it. Plus, his powers are kind of kick ass. Phasing plus invisibility are kind of the perfect combo for a mercenary or assassin. I wonder how he’d handle going up against the X-Men’s Kitty Pryde? It’d be an interesting fight, for sure. And that’s all I have to say about that. 

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Villain Profile: Hobgoblin

There's a new Goblin in town.

So last time we covered Doctor Connors and the Lizard, a Jekyll and Hyde style character where the kindly scientist is transformed into an unstable, unstoppable monster. That’s a fairly standard background story for horror monsters and mad scientist turned monsters. Next, let’s talk about another staple of the Halloween season, a Goblin, a Hobgoblin specifically.

Let’s flashback to 1973. That July, the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, had done the unthinkable and caused the death of Peter Parker’s long-time girlfriend Gwen Stacey. In the ensuing battle, despite being enraged by his nemesis’ actions, Peter didn’t end up killing the psychopath. Norman accidentally killed himself when he attempted to impale Peter from behind with his Goblin Glider. This marked the end of one of Peter’s happiest relationships, which is obviously depressing, but also his long-standing feud with Norman. Unfortunately for Peter, while Norman remained dead for several decades, there are never a shortage of copycat villains in the comic universes. And while there were a few heirs to the Green Goblin legacy, including Peter’s friend and Norman’s son Harry Osborn, I’d argue none was as effective as the villain that appeared ten years after ol’ Gobby’s death, the Hobgoblin.

He does look good on that glider.

I should point out most of the background I’m going to go into didn’t come up until several years after the Hobgoblin’s first appearance. According to his creators, Roger Stern, Mike Zeck and John Romita Jr., they wrote and introduced the character of the Hobgoblin and didn’t have a single idea of who would ultimately be behind the rubber mask. There were a few possible identities, which included a name you might recognize, Ned Leeds, but it wasn’t until 1997 that it was officially revealed to be a man named Roderick Kingsley was the true Hobgoblin. Let’s get into that, now that I’ve had three paragraphs of preamble.

Roderick Kingsley began his career as a fashion designing multi-millionaire. While he presented a kindlier face to the world, like a lot of millionaires in the Marvel universe… and real life if I’m being honest, he harbored a much darker personality behind closed doors. Kingsley had ties to organized crime, which he used to increase his business through corporate espionage and unethical deals. He was also the kind of jerk that strong armed his timid twin Daniel into doing the day-to-day company work. We’ll get back to that point in a minute. Kingsley made a few enemies due to his dealings, the one that started the ball rolling on his fall to supervillainy was a woman named Narda Ravanna. She was a rival designer that he’d ruined that took up the costume criminal identity of Belladonna. She tried to kill him a few times, but he was saved by Spider-Man both times. These incidents made Kingsley begin to search for… alternative means of protecting himself. One of his minions, a fella named George Hill, stumbled upon a solution. He found one of Norman Osborn’s secret lairs, which included all of his Goblin Gear and a cache of weaponry. Kingsley killed Hill and began looking over his new collection of toys.

Kingsley familiarized himself with the gear and some of the data that Osborn kept there. He decided that, since all other previous Green Goblins had (total of 3 at the time, I believe) had been driven insane, he decided to make a new identity model after the original Goblin. He created the orange and yellow costume and the alias of The Hobgoblin. His initial scheme was to use blackmail files that Osborn had compiled to get his hands on Oscorp. He was thwarted by Spider-Man on this and a few other minor crimes. Realizing that he couldn’t battle Spider-Man effectively as he was, Kingsley began trying to recreate the strength enhancing formula that Norman stole from his colleague Mendel Stromm. He eventually was able to perfect the formula. Rather than immediately take it himself, Kingsley did the smart thing and test it on someone else first. He used a mind control device he stole from a former employee and the formula to turn a small-time criminal Lefty Donovan into a Hobgoblin that could take a punch from Spider-Man and send the web-head flying with one of his own. Donovan proved to be a competent opponent for Spider-Man, so Kingsley killed him by forcing the Goblin Glider to crash. He took a hit of the gas himself, and becomes a physical match for Spider-Man.

Did he buy a Spider-Man suit just to rip in half? I don't get
rich people.

Despite his newfound power, Kingsley was still regularly defeated by Spider-Man and got onto the $%^& list of some of New York’s powerful elite, including the Kingpin. In order to keep his identity a secret, Kingsley kidnapped Ned Leeds, a reporter investigating him and brainwashed him into believing he was the Hobgoblin. He used Ned as a decoy for a while, and then had him assassinated so he could retire. He returned from retirement a few years later, to kill the current Hobgoblin, Jason Macendale, to protect his identity and remove an unworthy successor. He then captured Betty Brant, a former Parker love interest and current investigator into the Hobgoblin case. He tried to kill Peter, but in the ensuing battle, his brother Daniel is captured and Roderick is unmasked. See, in order to try to keep his identity a secret, Roderick would often send his twin into locals he’d attack as the Hobgoblin in order to protect his identity. Yes, this was a retcon in order to explain how Kingsley could be the Hobgoblin when he was shown to be in places that the Hobgoblin attacked. Roderick is arrested, Ned is posthumously cleared, and all is made right in the world. For a while anyway.

Roderick Kingsley has since escaped prison and continued to fight Peter Parker. He’s formed a bitter hatred with the returned Norman Osborn, as they both feel the other is the lesser Goblin. More recently, Roderick has gotten into the criminal arms dealing. He’d get his hands on the gear of deceased or incarcerated villains and then rented the gear and names to other would-be villains for a hefty fee. The dude is one hell of a business man.

Initially, Roderick Kingsley had no superhuman powers, but was an intelligent, cunning sociopath with an insane amount of luck. He had the knowhow to learn how to use all of Norman’s old gear and to upgrade them as he went along. He wears bulletproff mail along with an overlapping tunic, cape and cowl. He also wears an incredibly expressive rubber yellow mask to hide his identity. His main weaponry includes the incredibly useful Goblin Glider, concussive and incendiary bombs in the shape of Jack O’Lanterns, smoke and gas grenades, and bat shaped throwing knives. He later figured out how to recreate and improve the Mendel Stromm strength formula to give him superhuman strength, reflexes and stamina. He also improved it to remove the insanity inducing effects of the serum.  

The Hobgoblin identity has only been used a handful of times outside of the comics. I imagine that this is due to the similarities to the Green Goblin, and the other Goblin’s overwhelming popularity means that ol’ Hobgobby is left waiting. Interestingly, Roderick Kingsley has only been used once outside of the comics.

Roderick Kingsley appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man’s second season episode “Gangland.” In this version he’s the owner of a perfume factory and also African American. He’s one of several criminal types, including Doc Ock, Tombstone and Silver Sable, bidding on the blueprints for Rhino’s impenetrable skin. He wins the bid, but this all turns out to be an attempt by Hammerhead to set himself up as the new Big Man of Crime and eliminate his competition. Kingsley escaped unscathed. Showrunners had revealed that had the series gotten a third season, Kingsley would have returned and taken up the Goblin mantle.

The supervillain equivalent of showing up to a party in
almost the same outfit.

The Hobgoblin appeared in several episodes of Spider-Man the Animated Series. He’s voiced by Mark Hamill. Interestingly, in this continuity, he’s the first Goblin, appearing a full two seasons before Norman donned that Goblin mask. I’d read somewhere that this was due to insistence from Fox to include Hobgoblin for toy sales or some such nonsense. He appeared in the Hobgoblin two parter. He’s initially hired by Norman Osborn, irony, to assassinate Wilson Fisk. The Kingpin had recently gained control of Oscorp and regularly threatened Norman to get his way. He makes an attempt on Fisk, but is thwarted by Spider-Man. He makes several other appearances in The Mutant Agenda, Mutants Revenge, Goblin War, and Spider Wars Part 1. He’s also referenced in Enter The Green Goblin, where Norman revealed that he’d found the Hobgoblin’s cache of gear in his lab after an accident and remodeled it for his use. His identity is finally revealed in Goblin War. They used Jason Macendale as the real identity of the Hobgoblin. His identity is only revealed when his fiancé and former Peter Parker romantic interest Felicia Hardy stumbled upon the Goblin gear. I only bring him up in this as the Hobgoblin has only a few appearances, and I don’t see myself going back and doing a Jason Macendale version ever.

As far as villain’s go, Kingsley is probably just in the Okay range. The mystery of who the Hobgoblin was and his antics were good at the time, but the return of Norman Osborn a few years later pretty much solidified him as one of Spider-Man’s lesser enemies. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Kingsley, and against another hero he’d stand out great, but when you’re being compared to the Green Goblin, it’s hard to measure up. I will say he’s probably one of the most visually distinctive villains, though. I can think of only a handful of characters that would think to use orange and yellow as their primary colors. And his more recent plan as being a super-villain identity broker is beyond brilliant. Think about it, you supply the tech and name for some nobody with delusions of grandeur, collect a huge fee, and yet you’re still physically strong enough to kick their asses if they step out of line. Or hit the kill switch on their tech. I’ll be honest, were I a supervillain, this is the sort of racket I’d like to get in on. So yeah, he’s a Good Goblin forced down to an Okay Goblin by the Green Goblin.  

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