gasarch@harvard.ARPA (W* I* Gasarch) (07/31/85)
Natural Matchups Most superheroes have a `natural' counterpart, to list a few: Captain America - Red Skull Superman - Lex Luthor Criteria for being the natural counterpart are roughly, in my humble opinion 1) Appears in alot of issues 2) Appears in anniversary issue 3) Well Matched in terms of abilities 4) Has been involved in at at least one rather interesting plotline 5) Really deeply despises the hero 6) Has not appeared in other comics, or at least not often Using these as a guide, thought not rigorously, I give a partial list. Those marked with a (?) are characters I don't know that well, though I can't really say I know the others that much better. Any commentary or addtions please mail to me at gasarch@harvard.arpa or gasarch@harvard.uucp. I will post a more complete list and commentary later 1) Superman - Lex Luthor 2) Captain America - Red Skull 3) Fantastic Four - Dr. Doom 4) Daredevil - Bullseye 5) Iron Man - Mandarin (?) 6) Thor - Loki 7) Hulk - Leader 8) X-men - Magneto (up until issue 150) 9) New Mutatants - Hellions (Too early to tell, but is a logical choice) 10) Giant Man/Wasp - egghead (?) 11) Flash - Reverse Flash (All members of the Rouge Gallery would be about tied) I'm having a hard time with Spiderman, Batman, and the Avengers. With the Avengers its tempting to say Ultron, but aside from his origin, he really isn't that interesting. Spiderman might have Doc Ock, but he's fought Captain America and Iron Man. Batman has fought so many villians its hard to say, maybe the Joker.
jaffe@topaz.ARPA (Saul) (08/01/85)
1. I would guess that a good matchup for Spiderman would be...The Green
Goblin. As far as I know, he only appears in the Spiderman comics
and is a perfect match in terms of abilities. The worst thing is
that the Green Goblin also knows Spidey's secret identity.
For those who have never heard of him: there have been two goblins,
first was Norman Osborn. He was the father of Peter Parker's
friend Harry. When he died, Harry underwent some sort of mental
instability and took on the identity of the Green Goblin. He is
supposedly cured now.
Marvel has seemingly replaced the Green Goblin character with The
Hobgoblin who is stronger and more ruthless than the Green Goblin
ever was.
2. As a candidate for the matchup with Batman, I would vote for
catwoman. Especially since in one of the parallel worlds (that are
being destroyed currently in "Crises") Bruce Wayne marries Selina
Kyle, the catwoman.
3. I would have to disagree with your choice of Doctor Doom for the
matchup with the FF. I think Galactus is a much better choice.
Doc Doom also doesn't fit your definition because he appears in
many of the other comics as well.
If you don't like Galactus, how about Annhilus(?) or Blastar, from
the negative zone? Or maybe the Skrulls?
4. The avengers are a very difficult group to find a single matchup
for. The problem is that their membership has changed so much
over the years that no single supervillain that I can think of
has fought the different memberships, except for Ultron. In
fact, I think Ultron is the only one that even comes close to
meeting your criterion.
--
Saul Jaffe
Systems Programmer
Rutgers University
ARPA: Jaffe@Rutgers
UUCP: ...{harvard,seismo,ut-sally,ihnp4!packard}!topaz!jaffe