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If other superheroes had Aquaman Syndrome

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TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
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#26: Aug 30th 2013 at 5:17:53 PM

Green Lantern, before losing his weakness to the color yellow, cannot stop an out-of-control schoolbus filled with screaming children.

He could also get his ass kicked by this.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Tiamatty X-Men X-Pert from Now on Twitter Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: Brony
#27: Aug 30th 2013 at 5:37:54 PM

Didn't he have a nemesis whose gimmick consisted of gold spraypaint? Because that really should've been the easiest fight he could possibly have.

"Haha! You cannot affect me through my gold armour!"

"Oh, look. A blue car." THWACK! "Care to surrender?"

There's also the fact that a guy who can create anything he can imagine usually sticks with big fists.

X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.
Canid117 Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#28: Aug 30th 2013 at 5:51:03 PM

Yeah couldn't he just fly up to the guy and punch him in the face?

"War without fire is like sausages without mustard." - Jean Juvénal des Ursins
LordCrayak Since: Jun, 2009
#29: Aug 30th 2013 at 6:11:00 PM

And there's the original Green Lantern having a weakness to wood.

Tiamatty X-Men X-Pert from Now on Twitter Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: Brony
RedneckRocker First Loyalty: Yourself from None Of Your Business Since: Jan, 2001
First Loyalty: Yourself
#31: Aug 31st 2013 at 7:56:28 AM

Technically, Cable does have several appearances in animation during FOX's X-Men run.

True. But try explaining his origin to anybody who isn't a "long-timer". They'd better bring a chair and lunch with 'em.

Embroiled in slave rebellion, I escaped crucifixion simply by declaring 'I am Vito', everyone else apparently being called 'Spartacus'.
crimsonstorm15 shine on from A parallel universe Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
shine on
#32: Aug 31st 2013 at 8:04:05 AM

And there's the original Green Lantern having a weakness to wood.

that reminds me of a funny conversation i heard in Batman The Brave And The Bold.

Guy Gardner: your weakness is wood? what happens if someone attacks you with a stick?

Alan Scott: the same thing that would happen to you, if it were painted yellow.

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#33: Aug 31st 2013 at 8:38:00 AM

[up][up] There are so many heroes I find myself unable to explain to people just because of how convoluted their origins are or how deeply tied to continuity they are (which is why I think something like Young Avengers would be really hard to do as a movie or cartoon).

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
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#34: Aug 31st 2013 at 9:47:31 AM

This is true.

My best friend likes it when I read comics to her. Every now and then, we'll be reading, and then someone new - let's say, Toxin - pops into the story and she asks who that is, and I'm left going, "...alright, this character requires some background," and settling in for the long explanation since there's no quick answer.

edited 31st Aug '13 9:47:43 AM by TobiasDrake

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indiana404 Since: May, 2013
#35: Aug 31st 2013 at 1:33:34 PM

I still remember watching the X Men animated series, and wondering what was so cool about that one guy whose power seemed to consist of a set of not particularly useful knives in his hands. Since it was a cartoon, and they couldn't show him actually get wounded so as to heal from it, a lot of his appeal was lost.

To complement this, the X-Men 2: Clone Wars game which I grew up with had a few scrappies as well, particularly Beast and Psylocke - slow to attack, easy to hit, with no useful skills whatsoever, especially compared to Nightcrawler or Magneto.

Works in the reverse as well - my first encounter with Electro was in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, where he took out S.H.I.E.L.D. all by himself - so I wondered why they made him so easy to beat in related video games. Ditto the Spot - lame name, horrific potential.

edited 31st Aug '13 2:22:50 PM by indiana404

Canid117 Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#36: Aug 31st 2013 at 1:45:12 PM

[up][up]"Toxin is the symbiote from Spider-man who is actually a pretty nice guy."

Or are we talking about the new Toxin?

"War without fire is like sausages without mustard." - Jean Juvénal des Ursins
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
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#37: Aug 31st 2013 at 1:56:20 PM

"Where did he come from" is often part of the question of "who is that guy?"

To read Toxin's involvement in the current run of Venom requires the following:

  • Who is Venom?
  • Who is Eddie Brock?
  • Why isn't Eddie Brock now Venom?
  • Flash Thompson? That bully guy from the movie?
  • Why is Flash Thompson now Venom?
  • Venom's a superhero now?
  • Who is Toxin?
  • Who is Carnage?
  • Why is Eddie Brock Toxin?
  • Possible requirement of explaining Anti-Venom and Mr. Negative if you go from the beginning.

With all newcomers, this gets easier the more comics you read, but can be very intimidating when just starting out.

edited 31st Aug '13 2:00:23 PM by TobiasDrake

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Tiamatty X-Men X-Pert from Now on Twitter Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: Brony
#38: Aug 31st 2013 at 2:30:03 PM

I find explaining things is only as complicated as you make it. Who's Toxin? It's an alien symbiote, the grandchild of the Venom symbiote. Toxin is currently possessing Eddie Brock, who used to be Venom until that symbiote left him. It used to possess a cop, but that cop is apparently dead now.

Boom. That's all anyone really needs to know. If she wants to know who Eddie Brock is: A journalist who lost his job as a result of Spider-Man ruining an exclusive he'd done. He merged with the Venom symbiote and became one of Spider-Man's deadliest enemies for a while. Then he lost the symbiote and started trying to kill any symbiotes he could find. Then he had the Toxin symbiote forced on him.

Again, more than anyone really needs to know. Really, all you need to know is, "Toxin is a bad guy right now."

X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.
Canid117 Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#39: Aug 31st 2013 at 2:37:33 PM

"Why is Eddie Brock Toxin? "

Thats a perfectly valid question as far as I'm concerned.

"War without fire is like sausages without mustard." - Jean Juvénal des Ursins
Tiamatty X-Men X-Pert from Now on Twitter Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: Brony
Canid117 Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#41: Aug 31st 2013 at 4:43:29 PM

I was thinking from a narrative and editorial standpoint.

"War without fire is like sausages without mustard." - Jean Juvénal des Ursins
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#42: Aug 31st 2013 at 5:49:57 PM

[up] They've been trying to make Venom into a more heroic figure. They gave the Symbiote to Flash Thompson and he's used it to become a superhero (and even an Avenger for about 15 seconds). So to still have Eddie Brock around and keep an evil Symbiote for him, they made him into the new Toxin.

edited 31st Aug '13 5:50:22 PM by comicwriter

Canid117 Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#43: Aug 31st 2013 at 7:09:25 PM

Except Toxin isn't supposed to be evil and that was what made him interesting.

"War without fire is like sausages without mustard." - Jean Juvénal des Ursins
Tiamatty X-Men X-Pert from Now on Twitter Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: Brony
#44: Aug 31st 2013 at 7:13:42 PM

They needed a hero with a symbiote, so they killed the hero with a symbiote. What's so hard to understand?

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TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
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#45: Aug 31st 2013 at 9:54:01 PM

They seem to be setting Eddie up for the possibility of another Heel–Face Turn. The Toxin symbiote may help with that.

Right now, he's in Enemy Mine territory.

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comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#46: Sep 1st 2013 at 7:51:42 AM

[up][up][up] Toxin wasn't terribly popular, and they needed an evil symbiote. It's fairly simple. Not many people remembered or knew much about the Toxin suit, so they just gave it to Eddie.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
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#47: Sep 1st 2013 at 3:09:38 PM

They needed a non-Carnage evil symbiote, specifically, because Carnage doesn't play well with others. "Toxin was mindraped into being crazy" is more believable than "Carnage is willing to follow orders and be a good little subordinate."

Carnage is not a toy. Trying to bring Carnage into the story would have made the story itself about Carnage, with the arc's intended villains just sort of fading into irrelevance because Carnage is a much bigger, meaner, uglier villain than Crime-Master ever could be. It'd be like Random Schmoe Villain of the Arc in a Batman story hiring the Joker to be his enforcer; this is now a Joker story, Random Schmoe ceases to matter.

With the obvious choice off the table and Toxin having already been established as being separated from his host previously, they can kill two birds with one stone by wrapping up the question of what became of Toxin and also having an evil symbiote that isn't going to rip the spotlight away from Crime-Master.

edited 1st Sep '13 3:12:06 PM by TobiasDrake

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Couchpotato20 Will kill you from Hell Since: Apr, 2011
Will kill you
#48: Sep 1st 2013 at 3:16:58 PM

No matter how much Aquaman is played up as a "badass" in comics and other forms of media like Justice League cartoon(2001-2006) it won't change the fact Superfriends established him as a total loser.

The Marvel comics character Hank Pym may have his Never Live It Down moment of being a domestic abuser at least he's not been Flanderized as a failure in any other media incarnation. Family Guy + Robot Chicken parodies also further sink in the blade of his lousiness.

"I don't give a rat's ass about going to hell. I guess it's because I feel like I'm already there." -Mugen
NapoleonDeCheese Since: Oct, 2010
#49: Sep 1st 2013 at 3:21:18 PM

Ironically, Superfriends should have marked everyone as mouth breathing losers. Why Aquaman only got that stigma kinda puzzles me, because everyone there acted like useless idiots at some point or another.

comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#50: Sep 1st 2013 at 3:30:04 PM

[up]Their suckiness wasn't as memorable. Wonder Woman is a feminist/women's lib icon and a lot of people still remember her live action show fondly. Batman had the dark (for it's day) Tim Burton movies that made people take him "seriously" again after the 60's show. Superman is Superman. And the others just weren't as memorably sucky as Aquaman was.


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