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Post by Jeddak on Dec 17, 2022 18:45:11 GMT -5
8. Baron Mordo and Dormammu The Eternity Saga, Strange Tales 130-144  Despite my love for the Fantastic Four, I wasn't buying the Torch's solo series in Strange Tales, even when Ben joined him. So when I started picking the book up for the Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. series, I was jumping into the middle of an ongoing story. I knew the basics, who Strange was and how Mordo was his opposite number. Dormammu was new to me, but they quickly made it clear just how desperate Strange's situation was. Deprived of his mentor's aid, he was on a quest travelling all over the world, always with the minions of Mordo at his heels. He knew that Baron Mordo had a new source of power. And when he learned that the ruler of the Dark Dimension was behind Mordo, the stakes went even higher. Mordo he could fight on a fairly even plane. Mordo with help made it more difficult. But the demonic Dormammu, a god-like being so powerful that sorcerers called on his very name in their spells? Game over, man; game over.  Seriously, they cranked the tension up hard in this one. The Dr. Strange strip was soon one of my favorites, and it was only a couple of months before I was buying this book for the Master of the Mystic Arts, and reading Fury because he was there. Yeah, the alliance didn't last. And yeah, the defeat of Dormammu, while cool, still felt anti-climactic. But the idea of Strange being so out of his league made for a great story. |
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Post by Jeddak on Dec 17, 2022 18:47:51 GMT -5
And just for the record, I've pretty much tossed my original list. I'm mostly winging it from here on, except for the #1 slot.
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Post by commond on Dec 17, 2022 18:55:10 GMT -5
Baron Mordo and Dormammu is a good one. Totally skipped my mind.
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Post by Jeddak on Dec 17, 2022 18:58:41 GMT -5
Baron Mordo and Dormammu is a good one. Totally skipped my mind. Yeah, mine too until yesterday. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 17, 2022 18:59:11 GMT -5
Mind control doesn’t make you a villain in the comic world. What say you , Kurt ?  Yeah, that was pretty much my thinking. Sorry, Ben, I'm ruling thumbs down on the Lady Liberators.
Cei-U! Hates being the bad guy!
It's because they're women, isn't it? |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2022 19:00:42 GMT -5
Baron Mordo and Dormammu is a good one. Totally skipped my mind. Yeah, mine too until yesterday. It was on my short list of my original brainstorm. Will likely see it later unless I go completely pear shaped in my list. -M |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
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Post by shaxper on Dec 17, 2022 19:17:45 GMT -5
Baron Mordo and Dormammu is a good one. Totally skipped my mind. This was initially in my 12 until I decided that all I really liked about that teamup was Dormamu. |
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Post by DubipR on Dec 17, 2022 21:49:26 GMT -5
And just for the record, I've pretty much tossed my original list. I'm mostly winging it from here on, except for the #1 slot. My Top 2 are still where they are, the rest have been whatever catches me at the moment. Your selections have been great. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2022 22:11:34 GMT -5
I can sum up my choice in one sentence: punching above their weight. Even as a kid, I couldn’t quite understand why relatively ordinary guys like the Enforcers were giving Spidey a rough time. He could defeat a dozen or so hoods before breakfast, but this team gave him many problems. I felt the same way when watching the live-action Spidey series: how could a guy with the proportionate strength of a spider consistently be given trouble by regular bad guys? I mean, in that series, we could watch Spidey rip off a car door, tackle wild animals and do various feats of strength, yet a regular hood gave him problems. But logic be damned. I like it when folk punch above their weight. Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson (a major shock for me, given Tyson’s dominance). Football teams might beat a superior team in an FA Cup match. Seeing Spidey defeat Firelord in the 80s was a lot of fun. So for being a fun team that often punch above their weight, the Enforcers have to be on my list. This is a really nifty write-up. You and Slam both nicely captured that "why does this oddball thing work so well", so to speak, with the Enforcers in your own ways, and I love your tagline "punch above their weight", it's so true. I'm sure I'll think of those words every time I see them in a story going forward. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 17, 2022 23:09:32 GMT -5
8. Vandal Savage
Miss Fear
Major Kung
The Residents of Dragon (Dinosaur) Island
"Shadows of the Past"*
  I knew this crew would make it somewhere on this list, and it maybe should be higher. I really wasn’t buying many comics regularly in 1998, but I went every week to Newbury Comics to see if I might be pleasantly surprised, and every so often I was. When I found Guns of the Dragon 1, the first of a four-issue series, I knew I would be pleasantly surprised for the next three months. You all know about this, I’m sure; if you don’t, try to find it and savor the pulpy aroma wafting from its pages. Not because it was printed on newsprint the way comics used to /ought to be, but because it captured the spirit and excitement of the pulps as very few comics did. Tim Truman brought together a group of then neglected, unused and dormant DC heroes and anti-heroes (Biff Bradley, possibly our Slam’s grandpa, visiting the Far East from Idaho; Hans von Hammer; Bat Lash; to 1927 China to go up against Vandal Savage (who lives up to the meaning of his name, one of the great villain monikers); Major Kung, a minor foe of the All-Star Squadron; and one he created, Miss Fear (maybe a descendant of Captain Fear), tossed in the fog-shrouded Dragon Island (later the Dinosaur Island of Star Spangled War Stories fame) and let s**t happen. And happen s**t did. Aerial combat, Chiang Kai-Shek, swordfights, Mao Tse-Tung, dinosaurs, a pre-Blackhawks Chop Chop, double-crosses, ninjas, aerial dogfighting, Vinegar Joe Stilwell, saloon brawls, fistfights, and on and on. The villains are nasty, treacherous and most dangerous, and they push the heroes to the brink most believably. Well, for a pulpy action-adventure saga, anyway. * Flash 13, January 1941
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Crimebuster
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Making comics!
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Post by Crimebuster on Dec 17, 2022 23:10:05 GMT -5
8. The Tetrarchs of Entropy8. Red Skull, Arnim Zola, Doctor Faustus, Crossbones, and SinFor me, the Red Skull works best when he has a squad of weird villains to bounce off of. He's put together a couple of really good teams over the years, but this particular group, which came together during the Brubaker run, was elevated by the presence of Doctor Faustus. Add in Red Skull trying to reign in the unhinged Sin and Crossbones, plus the always wackadoodle Arnim Zola, and you've got a winning team.   |
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Post by foxley on Dec 18, 2022 0:40:31 GMT -5
Tim Truman brought together a group of then neglected, unused and dormant DC heroes and anti-heroes (Biff Bradley, possibly our Slam’s grandpa, visiting the Far East from Idaho; Hans von Hammer; Bat Lash; to 1927 China to go up against Vandal Savage (who lives up to the meaning of his name, one of the great villain monikers); Major Kung, a minor foe of the All-Star Squadron; and one he created, Miss Fear (maybe a descendant of Captain Fear), tossed in the fog-shrouded Dragon Island (later the Dinosaur Island of Star Spangled War Stories fame) and let s**t happen. Actually Miss Fear was old Blackhawk ally/foe from back in their Quality days (and a fairly obvious Dragon Lady knock-off). Her last appearance before Guns of the Dragon was Blackhawk #22 (Dec. 1948).
It doesn't rule her out as being a descendant of Captain Fear, though. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 18, 2022 0:55:23 GMT -5
Guns of the Dragon was great; just pure pulpy goodness, page after page. Truman was doing the whole Terry and the Pirates riff, with Chop-Chop as a sort of Connie and Miss fear as the Dragon lady (since that's who she was). Really wanted more from Truman on that front, as he did it well (see The Spider and Scout).
Re: Force of July. Barr was doing a lot of politically and nationalist team stuff in Outsiders, as I believe he also had the People's Heroes. Force of July was very much that dark underbelly of Reagan Era patriotism, with questionable involvement in Latin America and arms sale scandals. Barr isn't exactly what I would call a raging lefty; but he is a pretty keen observer of things. His Ra's al Ghul also makes some rather pointed commentary about the people running things in the world.
There was actually a lot of commentary going on, on multiple fronts, if you look around 80s comics, a bit. Airboy, Scout, The American, Outsiders, Captain America, Jon Sable, American Flagg, Grendel........not to mention outright political stuff in indie comics.
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 18, 2022 3:37:55 GMT -5
Baron Mordo and Dormammu is a good one. Totally skipped my mind. I’m ignorant to the Doctor Strange history but I always thought Mordo was one of Dormammu’s henchmen. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 18, 2022 5:11:08 GMT -5
Baron Mordo and Dormammu is a good one. Totally skipped my mind. I’m ignorant to the Doctor Strange history but I always thought Mordo was one of Dormammu’s henchmen. Baron Mordo is basically Strange's opposite number, as established in the latter's origin story (he decides to learn the mystic arts to foil Mordo's plot to kill the Ancient One - because Mordo cast a spell on Strange making it impossible for him to simply tell the Ancient One of Mordo's intentions). However, I would agree that in the quite excellent long-running story Jeddak mentioned, Mordo seems like little more than a toady for Dormammu, which is why it never really occurred to me to consider their alliance for this year's theme.
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