Saturday, December 02, 2006
Comic Art
When it comes to lame Spidey villians the all time lamest in terms of villian name has got to be "Just A Guy Named Joe". You heard me - a villian called "Just A Guy Named Joe" - come on he's begging to be laughed at, just begging - I mean look at this kick over here on the right - does that look like a villian even you are going to be worried about? Let alone some guy with the proportionate speed and strength of a spider. He looks like a 5-year-old throwing a tantrum, you sort of want to take him home and tuck him in for a nap.
Now it is somehow endearing that this hails from the very, very early days, the writing of Stan Lee and the art of Steve Ditko. In some ways, Stan was the king of the lamo villian, he sort of used the "shotgun approach" to arch-enemy finding. "If you throw enough of them up there one is bound to stick." Frankly, that's why this series was born.This guy was so lame, that he really wasn't even the major plot line of the story. This story hails from the early days of the Norman Osborn/Green Goblin lines and the advancement of that major plot is in this book, without costumes ofrpugilistic action; therefore, Stan and Steve came up with what is basically a piece of backdrop to get Peter into costume to do a little web-slinging and punch throwing. Villian as backdrop - maybe that defines lame?
For what it's worth, I think the costume is pretty good, and I could not find an image of the guy doing the patented Steve Ditko two finger salute - which may be a first. But that aside, he's still lame, lame, lame.
Related Tags: comics, comic books, comic art, Spidey villians, Just A Guy Named Joe
