Friday, May 19, 2017

Top 100 Super Palookas Part 4

Hey True Palookas, here's Part 4. 

#85: SUGAR MAN
 
Ugh. Sugar Man.
Created by Scott Lobdell (of course) and Chris Bachalo during the Age of Apocalypse storyline, he managed to transfer over to the 616 (the main Marvel Earth timeline) and fought Generation Next and The New Mutants.
He always bugged me. I think in another universe/franchise he might work better...but as an X-men villain he's kind of a wet fart. But he routineley pops up so apparently he has his fans. 

#84: GREMLIN
 

The Gremlin, real name Kondrati Topolov, was the son of Yuri Topolov, a Russian nuclear scientist known cruelly as The Gargoyle due to his monstrous appearance, a side effect of years of radiation exposure.
His son was born a deformed mutant, with superhuman intelligence, and used that intelligence to became a master in robotics and exo-skeletons.
I always liked the Gremlin. He was a tragic figure, and was an interesting villain for the Hulk. He was a little redundant in the sense that the Leader was already the antithesis of  the Hulk, but I actually think he was MORE interesting than the Leader, and was a far better allegory for genetic mutations. 
Sadly he was killed in the Armor Wars, but I'm sure he'll get revived at some point because, hey, comics.

#83: Crule
There 90s were an...interesting time for comics, where ingenuity and a hip new approach to superheroes very quickly turned into generic, uninspired characters that did not age well. 
Which brings us to Crule (eye roll), a Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld creation that was a minor character in the 90s X-Force run.
His power range was the generic "fast strong tough guy" but also included clawed gauntlet like hands, and a spiked mace at the end of a long braid at the top of his head....but those weren't fabrications, they are actually physical manifestations of his mutant powers.
No, really. 
His origin is also overly complicated, being a member of a race immortal Mutants known as the Externals (groan) and was even a Nazi. 
As a kid I actually thought he looked really cool. In fact, I had his Toy Biz action figure and it was one of my favorites. What'd I know?

#82: MAN-APE
 
M'Baku has been a staple of Black Panther's rogues gallery since his introduction in 1969.
A fierce, capable warrior, whose origins mirror Panther's own, Man-Ape was always portrayed as a legitimate rival, and used consistently throughout the 70s and 80s, but somehow used more and more as comic relief as time has find on.
While I doubt you'd get away with calling a black man Man-Ape these days, I've never seen the ridiculousness in the character. 

#81: RAZORFIST

The man called Razorfist was actually 3 different guys, the first a guy named William Young, who was killed, and then the shared identity of William and Douglas Scott. All of them were adversaries of Shang Chi, but I first remembered the character from fighting Wolverine during his Madripoor run.
Now, while a dude with two foot long blades for hands is an intimidating sight...its impracticality is off the charts. Sometimes comics are just dumb.

 

 

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