Oh, I lurves me the villain redemption, semi-redemption, and failed-redemption arc. And that Flash ep of JLU was great for that scene (and so much more). As was the Rogue arc, which I delighted in reading all in first release, including the original Avengers Annual#10 intiial appearance, where she largely mops up the floor with the Avengers, after having permanently drained Ms Marvel of her powers (and personality):
In Uncanny X-Men 171, Rogue, finding herself driven insane by Carol Danver’s mind mixing with hers, and when Mystique is unable to help her, turns to the X-Men. A number of pages of that particular encounter, drawn by Walt Simonson – and a further interaction of character closure – are here.
Jason is, at the moment, a bit less flexible than I am, a bit more black and white – or a bit more cartoonish. There’s room for “redemption” there, too.
I was mostly amazed at the sheer number of Avengers who started out as bad guys. I felt I had to pay tribute to a couple of those moments too - Flash’s Rogues and Catwoman are those great “friendly enemy” spaces in comics.
That’s actually a good observation about the early Marvels. It was a trope that Stan Lee hit on again and again – the heroic figure diverted by love and poor upbringing into temporary villainy (Hawkeye), or misplaced patriotism (Black Widow), or the whole feared-and-mistrusted alienation theme (the X-Men lightly, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch more heavily). Hulk plays into that, too – the misunderstood monster, the true threat who’s as much victim as villain – as is Spider-Man – branded a villain by the media and even his arachnophobic Aunt May. Even the Thing had his bad days. It was part of the more sophisticated texture of Marvel back in the day.
Oh, I lurves me the villain redemption, semi-redemption, and failed-redemption arc. And that Flash ep of JLU was great for that scene (and so much more). As was the Rogue arc, which I delighted in reading all in first release, including the original Avengers Annual#10 intiial appearance, where she largely mops up the floor with the Avengers, after having permanently drained Ms Marvel of her powers (and personality):
In Uncanny X-Men 171, Rogue, finding herself driven insane by Carol Danver’s mind mixing with hers, and when Mystique is unable to help her, turns to the X-Men. A number of pages of that particular encounter, drawn by Walt Simonson – and a further interaction of character closure – are here.
Jason is, at the moment, a bit less flexible than I am, a bit more black and white – or a bit more cartoonish. There’s room for “redemption” there, too.
I was mostly amazed at the sheer number of Avengers who started out as bad guys. I felt I had to pay tribute to a couple of those moments too - Flash’s Rogues and Catwoman are those great “friendly enemy” spaces in comics.
That’s actually a good observation about the early Marvels. It was a trope that Stan Lee hit on again and again – the heroic figure diverted by love and poor upbringing into temporary villainy (Hawkeye), or misplaced patriotism (Black Widow), or the whole feared-and-mistrusted alienation theme (the X-Men lightly, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch more heavily). Hulk plays into that, too – the misunderstood monster, the true threat who’s as much victim as villain – as is Spider-Man – branded a villain by the media and even his arachnophobic Aunt May. Even the Thing had his bad days. It was part of the more sophisticated texture of Marvel back in the day.
