The "Character Hall of Shame" pic thread

[The Lizard]

Greetings, fans of comic geekdom---

Those of us who have favorite comic book characters that we've been following for a long time have often had to bear witness to those characters being misused and abused in the very pages of the comics we love so much. This thread is a place to catalog and commemorate the times when one of your favorite heroes or villains suffered needlessly at the hands of bad writing or poor artistry.

Scans of pages from the offending comics are suggested, since the humilitation depicted in a single panel can be worth a thousand words of fanboy complaints.

So I will start off with a predictable character choice on my part and begin the mighty, explosive, senses-shattering...

COMIC CHARACTER HALL OF SHAME

[SSJ4_Mikael]

Shame on you Galactus...

[The Lizard]

The Lizard's top 10 most embarrasing moments

10. Amazing Spider-Man #77 - The Lizard is defeated by dehydration.

Good old Stan Lee apparently got confused about the differences between reptiles and amphibians in this story, and the Lizard gets taken out by a faceful of dehydrating powder. Too bad Lizzy didn't have a squirt bottle of Gatorade handy.


9. Spidey Super Stories # 36 - The Lizard drinks the wrong cure and turns into a tortoise.

Yes, I realize that Spidey Super Stories was meant for little kids, but there's a difference between simplifying a character for children and having them turn into Tippy Turtle.


8. Gus Beezer with Spider-Man # 1 - Gus's annoying sister plays the role of the Lizard.

Another kid-oriented Marvel comic, this one featuring the poor-man's Calvin minus Hobbes, Gus Beezer. The Lizard's ponytail is what pushed me over the edge.


7. Spider-Man: The Manga # 6 - The Japanese version of the Lizard is killed by crocodiles.

If you're going to adapt a character, at least do a little research. Someone should have told the writer of this 1970s manga that the Lizard controls reptiles and doesn't get eaten by them.


6. Prime # 2 - The Lizard II (AKA: Lizard-clone) has a bonding moment with a naked 13 year-old boy.

Long, stupid story short: In this Marvel/Malibu comics crossover from 1995, the bestial Lizard is sent to the Malibu universe, where the 13 year-old alter-ego of the superhero Prime tries to stop his rampage in the jungle. Here we see teenaged Kevin, butt-naked due to his Prime-powers dripping away, trying to get the Lizard-clone to grab hold of a magical Spider-totem. Yes, that's right - a magical Spider-totem. Maybe that's where JMS got the idea in the first place.

[The Lizard]

Originally Posted by SSJ4_Mikael

Shame on you Galactus...

Exactly. You've got it.

[Darthphere]

I dont see how any of those Lizard scans are bad writing.

[KevanG]

Just cheesey

[The Lizard]

Lizard's top 10 embarrasing moments, continued---

5. Marvel Knights Spider-Man #11 - The Lizard joins the "Sinister Twelve".

Never mind that the very concept of taking the 12 most famous Spidey villains and putting them on a big team together reeks of fanboy silliness -- but what exactly is supposed to be the Lizard's motivation here? Lizzy hates all humans, not just Spider-Man, so he's not going to team up with a bunch of them just because Norman Osborn says so. Note the kick in the chops that Black Cat is somehow able to give the Lizard on this page...a sad omen of things to come later.

4. Spectacular Spider-Man vol 2, # 13 - Curt Connors is apparently a big lying bastard.

Here writer Paul Jenkins decides that 40 years of continuity needs to go out the window because it would be dramatic to reveal that Curt Connors has consciously been in control of the Lizard's villainous personality from day one. Fortunately, it looks like this story will be retconned by virtue of being ignored by all future writers.


3. Secret Wars # 8 - The Lizard takes part in a game of patty-cake with Ben Grimm, Hawkeye, and Klaw.

It's bad enough that poor Lizzy never really got to take part in any of the cool battles in the Secret Wars mini-series, but this is just adding grievous insult to injury. Apparently the effects of being transported to Battleworld rendered the Lizard temporarily retarded.

2. Spider-Man: Quality of Life 4-issue mini-series - The Lizard gets shot in the arm, bleeds green blood, gets almost strangled to death by a newbie villain....oh, and did I mention he's naked and looks like a puppetoon character?

This is what happens when mini-series writers and artists are unsupervised by any editors that give a crap about the material. The sad thing is that since the character of Martha Connors was actually killed off in this mini, it will have to continue to be acknowledged in future stories.

[The Lizard]

And, the predictable finale...

1. Sensational Spider-Man # 24 and #27 - The Lizard gets his ass handed to him by the Black Cat.



Sure, there was a weird meteorite that made all the animal-villains go crazy in this story, but is that any excuse to have a Catwoman-wannabe with no super-strength tear up a monster villain who's stronger than Spider-Man? Well, story writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacsa said that Black Cat was his favorite Spidey character, so I guess that's all the excuse that's needed. I'm eagerly awaiting an upcoming story to be written by a big fan of the Grizzly, so we can see the Grizzly put the smackdown on Venom.


Oh, for shame.

[The Hero]

[The Hero]

[The Lizard]

^ Ah, good old Spidey Super Stories.

[Spike_x1]

Cheese and crackers!

[The Question]

Originally Posted by The Hero

Hey, every immortal, nihilistic, mass murdering alien serial killer who worships Death and possesses god like powers has their off days.

[rigel7soldiers]

Finally, I get the chance to use my photobucket account.
That's one of my favorite pictures of Invincible. No, it never actually happened, but it'd still make Mark a suck character.

[Phoney Bone]

Originally Posted by The Hero

Oops indeed, Thanos. What a butterfingers. Oh gosh I laughed at that. He's just so nonchalant about dropping it.

And what did they call Hellcat if it was a kids book?

LOL... Thanos is badass.

[Spike_x1]

Originally Posted by Phoney Bone

Oops indeed, Thanos. What a butterfingers. Oh gosh I laughed at that. He's just so nonchalant about dropping it.

I don't know why, but just the way your response is phrased has me laughing my ass off.

[Mee]

Originally Posted by Phoney Bone

Oops indeed, Thanos. What a butterfingers. Oh gosh I laughed at that. He's just so nonchalant about dropping it.

Would you have prefered something like this?

[Phoney Bone]

That picture sucks.

[yenaled]

Originally Posted by The Hero

Hahaha. I think that's my favourite thing ever. It's just hillarious.

Cheese and crackers!

Now someone find the Thanos Copter.

[MyPokerShirt]

I think the Lizard complaints aren't very valid. If anything they show that from the very beginning - Stan's run -- that the lizard has sucked. Being Curt would have made him an evil genius. That would have been brilliant for him, but nooooo

[The Lizard]

Originally Posted by MyPokerShirt

I think the Lizard complaints aren't very valid. If anything they show that from the very beginning - Stan's run -- that the lizard has sucked. Being Curt would have made him an evil genius. That would have been brilliant for him, but nooooo

Now you're just trying to start something.

[The Question]

Originally Posted by The Lizard

10. Amazing Spider-Man #77 - The Lizard is defeated by dehydration.

Good old Stan Lee apparently got confused about the differences between reptiles and amphibians in this story, and the Lizard gets taken out by a faceful of dehydrating powder. Too bad Lizzy didn't have a squirt bottle of Gatorade handy.

That doesn't seem very bad. I mean, some Lizards do dehyrate easily.

Originally Posted by The Lizard

8. Gus Beezer with Spider-Man # 1 - Gus's annoying sister plays the role of the Lizard.

Another kid-oriented Marvel comic, this one featuring the poor-man's Calvin minus Hobbes, Gus Beezer. The Lizard's ponytail is what pushed me over the edge.

It's not even the Lizard. It's just a kid's fantasy sequence.

Originally Posted by The Lizard

7. Spider-Man: The Manga # 6 - The Japanese version of the Lizard is killed by crocodiles.

If you're going to adapt a character, at least do a little research. Someone should have told the writer of this 1970s manga that the Lizard controls reptiles and doesn't get eaten by them.

Again, I don't see the problem here. They were going for an irony thing. It wasn't a direct adaptaion.

Originally Posted by The Lizard

6. Prime # 2 - The Lizard II (AKA: Lizard-clone) has a bonding moment with a naked 13 year-old boy.

Long, stupid story short: In this Marvel/Malibu comics crossover from 1995, the bestial Lizard is sent to the Malibu universe, where the 13 year-old alter-ego of the superhero Prime tries to stop his rampage in the jungle. Here we see teenaged Kevin, butt-naked due to his Prime-powers dripping away, trying to get the Lizard-clone to grab hold of a magical Spider-totem. Yes, that's right - a magical Spider-totem. Maybe that's where JMS got the idea in the first place.

Again, I really don't see the problem.

[rigel7soldiers]

I actually liked the Lizard eten by crocs thing- that's a very atypical manga death.

[Phoney Bone]

The manga Spidey is just hilarious. The close up on his face, and then the body shake, I'm sorry, makes me crack up every time.