Ultimate Super-Villains
DAMN YOU, La P’tit Folie! Your gorgeous French cuisine meant I missed the start of Ultimate Super-Villains on Sky One.
This was the sort of program that describes Bullseye as “the hired hitman enemy of sightless superhero Daredevil” and informs us that “Syndrome sets out to slay all the caped competition”. There’s some much alliteration here that Stan Lee must have been one of the scriptwriters.
However, it was surprisingly accurate and fused a large amount of comic source material with the more accessible Film and TV personae of the characters. Their treatment of Lex Luthor is a good example of this. They described his reinvention in the comics as a “machiavellian industrialist, white-collar criminal and even President of the United States”. As comic book source material they used a number of Golden Age, Silver Age and more recent comics, including to my surprise the cover of “Lex Luthor: The Unnauthorised Biography”. Also of note was use of the phrase “DC Universe”, which brought joy to my heart.
As you’ll see from the list below they have juxtaposed comic and non-comic villains, which I enjoyed seeing. I have often thought that if people realised the fiction they love (Star Wars, The Matrix, The Bible etc) contained elements identical or not far removed from the comic book world they would show greater love towards the medium. Sadly the intended audience of this program will not be the sort who will make this link, but we can still hope.
An eclectic mix of celebrities and comic insiders added their sound-bites to this thoroughly entertaining and well-produced program. They included (in no particular order) Stan Lee, Lou Ferringo, Avi Arad, Ian McKellan, Todd Mcfarlane, Ben Affleck, Mark Hamill, Dan Gould, Vivica A. Fox, Roger Englund, Hal Sparks, James Cameron, Linda Hamilton, David Hayden, Suzan Colon, Cesar Romero, James Earl Jones, Michael Uslan and Joe Quesada (I did mean soundbites!).
What confused me was that Joe Quesada appeared at the end of the show talking for 10 seconds about Darth Vader, yet had no thoughts (or, more probably, none were broadcast! No scratch that, I meant no thoughts!) on any of the Marvel villains. Similarly Michael Uslan (Executive Producer of Batman Begins) was an expert on Darth Vader but not the Riddler, Penguin or Joker.
Here, for your perusal and discussion, is the list of the top 18 Ultimate Super-Villains:
18. The Clown (Spawn)
17. Bullseye (Daredevil)
16. Syndrome (The Incredibles)
15. The Mummy (err… The Mummy)
14. Magneto (X-Men)
13. The Bond Villains (James Bond)
12. Dr. Evil (Austen Powers)
11. Chucky (Child’s Play)
10. Doctor Octopus (Spider-Man)
9. Doctor Doom (Fantastic Four)
8. Freddy Krueger (Nightmare on Elm Street)
7. Batman Villains (Riddler and Penguin)
6. Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs)
5. Green Goblin (Spider-Man)
4. Lex Luthor (Superman)
3. The Terminator
2. The Joker (Batman)
1. Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Any disagreements?
This was the sort of program that describes Bullseye as “the hired hitman enemy of sightless superhero Daredevil” and informs us that “Syndrome sets out to slay all the caped competition”. There’s some much alliteration here that Stan Lee must have been one of the scriptwriters.
However, it was surprisingly accurate and fused a large amount of comic source material with the more accessible Film and TV personae of the characters. Their treatment of Lex Luthor is a good example of this. They described his reinvention in the comics as a “machiavellian industrialist, white-collar criminal and even President of the United States”. As comic book source material they used a number of Golden Age, Silver Age and more recent comics, including to my surprise the cover of “Lex Luthor: The Unnauthorised Biography”. Also of note was use of the phrase “DC Universe”, which brought joy to my heart.
As you’ll see from the list below they have juxtaposed comic and non-comic villains, which I enjoyed seeing. I have often thought that if people realised the fiction they love (Star Wars, The Matrix, The Bible etc) contained elements identical or not far removed from the comic book world they would show greater love towards the medium. Sadly the intended audience of this program will not be the sort who will make this link, but we can still hope.
An eclectic mix of celebrities and comic insiders added their sound-bites to this thoroughly entertaining and well-produced program. They included (in no particular order) Stan Lee, Lou Ferringo, Avi Arad, Ian McKellan, Todd Mcfarlane, Ben Affleck, Mark Hamill, Dan Gould, Vivica A. Fox, Roger Englund, Hal Sparks, James Cameron, Linda Hamilton, David Hayden, Suzan Colon, Cesar Romero, James Earl Jones, Michael Uslan and Joe Quesada (I did mean soundbites!).
What confused me was that Joe Quesada appeared at the end of the show talking for 10 seconds about Darth Vader, yet had no thoughts (or, more probably, none were broadcast! No scratch that, I meant no thoughts!) on any of the Marvel villains. Similarly Michael Uslan (Executive Producer of Batman Begins) was an expert on Darth Vader but not the Riddler, Penguin or Joker.
Here, for your perusal and discussion, is the list of the top 18 Ultimate Super-Villains:
18. The Clown (Spawn)
17. Bullseye (Daredevil)
16. Syndrome (The Incredibles)
15. The Mummy (err… The Mummy)
14. Magneto (X-Men)
13. The Bond Villains (James Bond)
12. Dr. Evil (Austen Powers)
11. Chucky (Child’s Play)
10. Doctor Octopus (Spider-Man)
9. Doctor Doom (Fantastic Four)
8. Freddy Krueger (Nightmare on Elm Street)
7. Batman Villains (Riddler and Penguin)
6. Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs)
5. Green Goblin (Spider-Man)
4. Lex Luthor (Superman)
3. The Terminator
2. The Joker (Batman)
1. Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Any disagreements?
posted by Bat-Mac at 3:14:00 pm
3 Comments:
hannibal is only #6 - !?!?!?
and thanks for calling me rheiny over there- i LOVE that name. still have no clue what i'm reading here:)
Brace may well have been 19 or 20 in the chart – we’ll just never know.
Rhein(y), your comment made me LOL!
In terms of what you are reading, it’s in a state of constant evolution. It’s definitely a comics blog, with a few irregular forays into other nerdy things, but I wanted to make it more personal than some. It provides a forum for me to record my thoughts about comic books and their interaction with the real world. At first I didn’t expect others to read it, but to my surprise people are finding it quite entertaining! I’m just going to keep putting stuff out there which is important to me and if people like it, that’s cool. If not, it’s a free country!
Doom is way too low. WAAAAYYY too low.
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