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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2021 9:18:43 GMT -5
Who are your two favorite sparring partners for old Webhead? Unlike my Batman poll, I'm not excluding an arch-nemesis this time, I feel that one is a bit more debatable. Some might point to the Green Goblin as the obvious selection, but growing up I felt like Doc Ock was the clear choice. Like last time, I'm focusing on the major classic era characters and just a wee bit of 90's thrown in, so please write in any characters that I have criminally (bad pun sadly intended) left off the list that make your cut for the big 2.
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Post by Graphic Autist on Dec 31, 2021 9:28:12 GMT -5
Electro and Mysterio were my favorites as a kid, so I’ll go with them.
Hobgoblin started strong but ended weak. Would have gotten a vote if they hadn’t made him Ned Leeds.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 31, 2021 9:33:30 GMT -5
Doctor Octopus and the Sandman.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 31, 2021 9:39:41 GMT -5
Green Goblin because of his impact on Peter's life. Menaced him for years, killed the TRUE LOVE of Peter's life, and then his "death" led to Harry's issues, which continued to plague Peter.
Lizard because of his sympathetic nature. Curt Conners wasn't a bad guy trying to get rich or dominate the world, but rather just a scientist trying to solve a problem affecting him and many others, with the Lizard persona being the horrible side effect of his work.
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 31, 2021 10:17:41 GMT -5
The Scorpion and Mysterio, the villains in the first two regular issues of Amazing I ever owned (my first exposure to Spidey was the '64 annual).
Cei-U! I summon my long-ago childhood!
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Post by tarkintino on Dec 31, 2021 10:21:14 GMT -5
The original Green Goblin: one half of the comic industry's most emotionally shattering conflicts because Osborn was the inescapable threat: Parker had no safe harbor from him, whether just trying to live in his true identity or in his "professional" life. The hatred Obsorn had for Parker always felt far more dangerous than say, Dr. Doom's feelings toward Richards; Osborn wanted to not just kill Parker, but to break his soul. TASM #39 was a monumental breakthrough in so many ways, not the least of all in redefining the comic book villain.
The Kingpin: although Spider-Man had faced "gangsters" before, none were as fully realized as the Kingpin--a man who flat-out did not fear anyone--including superheroes, which made him far more dangerous than a random hood or someone trying to climb the mob ladder. The layers behind his arrogance and general disrespect for Spider-Man shot him to the A-list of Marvel villains overall.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2021 10:33:05 GMT -5
My first pick is Electro, he was on one of the first covers I remember as a child and his costume and powers seemed so cool. He had regular appearances on the '67 cartoon that were equally important to my "formative" early Spider-Man years.
My second choice is Doc Ock. I like lots of eras of Spider-Man, but always come back to Lee/Ditko as my favorite. During that time, Doc Ock really seemed to me like the #1 adversary.
Honorable mention to a close 3rd with the Scorpion.
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Post by kirby101 on Dec 31, 2021 10:38:06 GMT -5
The Scorpion and Mysterio, the villains in the first two regular issues of Amazing I ever owned (my first exposure to Spidey was the '64 annual). Cei-U! I summon my long-ago childhood! The Scorpion and Mysterio, The early Ditko stories are great. One of my all time favorite Spider-Man stories is the mind and logic bending #66 - #67.
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 31, 2021 11:34:31 GMT -5
I voted for Rhino and Mysterio, but I really wish I had a third vote so I could vote for Sandman. I'm pleasantly surprised to find to find that Doc Ock and Green Goblin aren't running away with this.
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Post by Graphic Autist on Dec 31, 2021 11:47:54 GMT -5
I voted for Rhino and Mysterio, but I really wish I had a third vote so I could vote for Sandman. I'm pleasantly surprised to find to find that Doc Ock and Green Goblin aren't running away with this. I might have picked Green Goblin had he not died before I could even walk. I’ve never even acknowledged he returned after being dead 2 decades.
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Post by badwolf on Dec 31, 2021 11:50:44 GMT -5
Mysterio and the Chameleon -- two masters of illusion.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2021 12:14:45 GMT -5
I'm pleasantly surprised to find to find that Doc Ock and Green Goblin aren't running away with this. Me too! I voted Ock, but I'm actually enjoying seeing Mysterio (who's a fantastic character) take a nice lead at this point. Anybody else remember the whacky moment when Jameson literally rips Mysterio's cash payment in half? Also nice to see, excluding Venom/Carnage who I added for completeness, almost every classic villain getting at least a vote or two.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2021 12:52:53 GMT -5
When I was a kid, I read more Marvel Tales than ASM, and a bunch of them featured Kingpin. Of the handful of ASM issues I had, among the last I got before my mom decided I was "too into" comics and couldn't read them anymore (which lasted for 2-3 years) was ASM 197-198 featuring Kingpin, so Kingpin was my first choice. Not my first ASM, but one of the earliest I had featured a great Shocker cover so he was my 2nd favorite as a kid, and my second choice here.
Scorpion was on the cover of my first ASM I had, but I never really got into him. Doc Ock was a childhood favorite as well, and was a close 3rd. I liked Green Goblin a lot as a kid, but that was because I had the Mego. I never read an issue featuring Goblin until I was in high school.
-M
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Post by arfetto on Dec 31, 2021 13:04:46 GMT -5
I voted for Mysterio (for his design and illusion gimmick) and
Shocker because they were my favorites growing up. I guess Shocker is a weird choice, but when I was little I was really into his design haha (but it was also funny when characters would make fun of his outfit, like Elektro, no snappy dresser himself, calling Shocker a refugee from a mattress factory).
I can't explain it exactly, but I liked how Shocker could be made a fool of but still be a threat overall (I know that is a weird thing to like, I was just a strange child). My mother made me a Shocker costume for Halloween when I was in 1st grade. The next year I was The Beetle.
A not-so-honorable mention for me has to be Tombstone. I didn't pick him because he was more of a Robbie Robertson villain than Spider-Man exactly (but of course tangled with Spider-Man), but he was one of the only Spider-Man villains to plain out terrify me as a kid.
The way he stalked his childhood "friend" and tormented him was so disturbing and "real" to me as a kid haha. And then when Robbie finally stood up to him, Tombstone acts so incredulous about it haha, like he was emotionally hurt. I think later appearances of him just make him a generic strong villain (who got really buffed up), but his first storyline was creepy and unique. Oh yeah, and his whispering.
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Post by profh0011 on Dec 31, 2021 13:06:30 GMT -5
Me too! I voted Ock, but I'm actually enjoying seeing Mysterio (who's a fantastic character) take a nice lead at this point. Anybody else remember the whacky moment when Jameson literally rips Mysterio's cash payment in half? The Grantray-Lawrence show was MY introduction to Spider-Man, and to my shock & surprise, decades later, having put up with so many highs and far more lows in the comics, the GL cartoons are my FAVORITE version of the character ever done.
In the 3 episodes they did with The Green Goblin, he was changed almost beyond recognition into a humorous baddie, rather than a scheming would-be mob boss.
Mysterio appeared twice in the GL cartoons (and came back in the 3rd season-- I have a suspicion that script may have started life just before GL went bankrupt and shut down). His 2nd appearance seems more inspired by a Johnny Storm solo story, but his first was the ONLY full-length (20 min.) adaptation they did in their run, and after watching it COUNTLESS times over the decades (while only reading the original Steve Ditko story twice), I actually think the TV version was better than the comic.
Doc Ock, on the other hand, appeared in the PILOT, and then again later in the season. It's very odd how-- just like Mysterio-- he had 2 different voices between his 2 appearances (though I'd almost bet it was the same actor doing both of them). But in both stories, Doc Ock came across as a real megalomaniacal madman, and just projected an aura of menace unlike any other villain in the GL run. To me, Ock was ALWAYS Spider-Man's #1 ARCH-ENEMY.
I was so thrilled when he was featured in the 2nd movie, and I felt from the start that Alfred Molina may have done the single most authentic rendition of a super-villain's personality from the comics to the movies EVER seen. Before his accident, they fleshed him out very nicely (more than the comics ever did), but after the accident, he became EXACTLY as he was in the comics-- INSANE and DANGEROUS.
What always gets me, which nobody ever brings up... in the comics, thanks to John Romita, The Green Goblin's origin was a blatent swipe of Doc Ock's origin. Watch the 2 movies and you see this, it's vitrually the same story. But I really doubt that what's Steve Ditko had in mind. It's a shame he left before he got around to writing GG's origin. After, readers were supposed to feel sympathy for Norman Osborn. I find it hard to do that nowadays, knowing that Ditko always portrayed him as a career criminal with ambitions to be a mob boss. Otto Octavius was the tragic one who deserved sympathy... but somehow, that got completely forgotten.
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