YMMV / Polarity

• Complete Monster:
  • The extradimensional conqueror Dormammu is one of the two beings responsible for the zombie outbreak, and the ultimate Big Bad of the story. In his latest bid to conquer the Marvel Universe, Dormammu has his lieutenant Grim Reaper sacrifice his former servant The Hood in order to unleash a zombie plague from another universe, causing the deaths of billions of men, women, and children alike, all of whom are cursed with a state of undeath that turns them into feral monsters fueled by a never-ending, painful hunger for flesh. Devastating most of the world, Dormammu has Grim Reaper launch an attack against a SHIELD refugee camp housing the survivors of the New York City zombie attack, seeking to use the survivors' life energy to manifest on the physical plane. When Shocker wipes out all of the zombies and Grim Reaper is forced to summon Dormammu using their less-potent Death Energy, an enraged, weakened Dormammu disowns Reaper for his failure and has Electro shock him to death before attempting to kill everyone at the SHIELD site himself. As arrogant and cruel as always, Dormammu is every bit the monster that he is in canon.
  • Eric Williams, aka the Grim Reaper, is a smug sociopath and Dormammu's number two. Having sold out humanity to The Dread One to slake his lust for power, Grim Reaper helps his master usher in the zombie plague, and shares culpability in the death and undeath of billions. Enforcing his master's will on Earth, Grim Reaper seeks to eliminate those who would pose a threat to his plans by ordering Electro and the Vulture to murder the Shocker, and forcing a zombified Hulk to kill a bus full of people in order to lure out and slaughter the Avengers. All the while, Grim Reaper tries to tempt people to his side with promises of power and pleasure beyond their wildest dreams, and viciously tortures those who blow him off, such as the Punisher, who he has crucified and left to slowly bleed to death, and the Shocker, whom he allows Electro to brutalize to his heart's content. At the climax, Grim Reaper leads hordes of the undead in an attack on SHIELD's Central Park refugee camp in the hopes of slaughtering everybody inside and using them as sacrifices to summon Dormammu onto the Earth.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Most of the characterization can come off as this when The Superior Foes of Spider-Man is taken into account. For example:
  • Here, Boomerang and Shocker are close friends and depend on each other throughout the story. In Superior Foes, Boomerang locks him in a car trunk and drives it off a pier.
  • In the comic, Abner Jenkins is viewed with a lot of resentment for joining the heroes, and Boomerang hates him. In this fic:
  Shocker: [MACH-IV's] one of the few people I know who can hang with the heroes and still has cred with the bad guys.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Learning of Dormammu's involvement with the apocalypse nearly causes Boomerang to outright get the hell out of dodge. In Superior Foes, he's obsessed with the Dread Lord to the point of, imagining Dormammu as the best man at his wedding.
  • Fridge Horror / Harsher in Hindsight: Herman would've wound up fighting two of his friends if this characterization had carried over. And unlike Aleksei, Fred would've probably willingly given up on humanity.
• Ho Yay: While they're both straight, Shocker and Rhino have a very close bond, which amusingly leads to Shocker calling out Yaoi Fangirl readers in the narration for insinuating that he views Rhino as more than a friend.
  • Also present as a one-sided variation with Electro, who loves to get up close and personal with Shocker while making suggestive comments, much to Herman's disgust.
  • Blizzard and Speed Demon are also prone to bickering like an old married couple.
• Moral Event Horizon: Electro gleefully leaps over the line, between admitting to murdering his own mother (admittedly she was abusive) and then willingly asking to be Dormammu's new chief agent so that he can destroy Earth and go on to kill other worlds alongside him. He cements it by then brutally murdering the Grim Reaper to prove himself.
• Tear Jerker: The death of Rhino, who after spending chapters establishing himself as a lovable character, gets offed by Norman Osborn and his pal Trapster.