Comics JJJ: Villain? Or Just a ****?

[Hobgoblin]

I've never known how to describe Jonah. He's sent all sorts of loons and criminals after Spider-Man (Electro, Mysterio, the Spider-Slayers, the Scorpion, the Fly, etc) and accused him of every crime under the sun. In no way is Jameson a "good" guy.

But look at it from his POV. Spider-Man is breaking the law by being a vigilante and has caused untold amounts of property damage, for the greater good, of course. (Naturally, Jameson would never admit that part.) He is a jerk to his employees but he does care for them. He did pay for Peter's legal bills during the Clone Saga, when Kaine framed him for murder.

Still, he hires killers to attack or even kill another human being. So whats your verdict on J. Jonah Jameson?

 

[MadVillainy]

He's actually really complicated like you said

If he's a villain he's very misguided on the level that I dont think many other comic book villains are. It's really hard to say which one he is.

Personally I like him as a jerk, but not one who will send people to kill/hurt Spidey

also is Jameson sure that Spidey is human?

 

[Dragon]

It isn't complicated at all. Jonah is a criminal. He's engaged in everything that he accuses Spidey of. He's engaged in vigilantism, damaged property, endangered lives, covered-up crimes. And his reasons have nothing to do with trying to see justice done. He wants to make money and prop himself up as being a crusading public servant. His vendetta against Spidey is purely personal. We know this, because during the very ill-conceived period that he believed his son John was Spidey, (How could he think John was Spidey when he'd seen John battle Spidey as the Man-Wolf, among other things?) he forgave everything that he had been feuding with Spidey over. Of course, Jonah is, like every other character, the victim of bad writing at times and Marvel has never been consistent about his portrayal (Real meance, comic relief, mis-guided do-gooder, etc.) but in the overall his actions are criminal and should be presented as such. This is why I found it ridiculous when he was made Mayor.

It's rumored that one of the really big rifts between Stan Lee and Steve Ditko was that Ditko really wanted Jonah presented as an out and out criminal, while Stan didn't.

Now, I somewhat agree with Stan. But then, with the passage of time, and the mounting number of Jonah's criminal acts, it should have been addressed.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I remember asking Bendis if he planned on introducing the Scorpion in "Ultimate", & he replied that he did but not in the same way as 616, because he couldn't see Jonah being responsible for the Scorpion's existence & not going to jail. It was the first time I ever thought about JJJ's many crimes against Spidey. Didn't he power a Spider-Slayer once?

 

[Hobgoblin]

I remember asking Bendis if he planned on introducing the Scorpion in "Ultimate", & he replied that he did but not in the same way as 616, because he couldn't see Jonah being responsible for the Scorpion's existence & not going to jail. It was the first time I ever thought about JJJ's many crimes against Spidey. Didn't he power a Spider-Slayer once?

Yup, the first one.

 

[The Joker]

Villain for sure:

 

[Donald Thomas]

Aloha,
We had a discussion about this a few years back. I would consider JJJ to be Spider-Man's GREATEST enemy. He has done more to harm both the person and the reputation of Spider-Man than any other villan in Spidey's rogue's gallery.
Spidey rules

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Masterplanner, of the failure caliber
I consider him to be more of a jerk than a villain

 

[Dragon]

Didn't he power a Spider-Slayer once?

Second, third and fifth also:

Plus he hired Electro to kill Spidey in ASM #82 and destroyed a TV studio in the processand hired Luke Cage to bring in Spidey "dead or alive" in ASM #123.

 

[Themanofbat]

And let's not forget about the Scorpion...

 

[Rez]

Good.. bad.. he's the guy with the mustache.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Good.. bad.. he's the guy with the mustache.

Call him Flattop

 

[A Necessary Evil]

I say combination of both. I wouldn't say bad, persay....he just doesn't really know where his heart lies. Ya know?

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Doesn't make much of a sense
These days I tend to prefer his Ultimate counterpart, cause he strongly defends a former employee he respected for being a hero instead of being jealous of

 

[Scourge2099]

JJJ is just a jerk.

 

[Cosmic Humor]

I'd say he's a jerk, but one that still has principles.

he has a clear distrust of vigilantes and in a real-world context this would be reasonable, but this is the Marvel Universe.

However, he's also been seen to be very principled about journalism and ethics. Even in the film, he refused to give Peter's name to the Goblin when threatened with death.

 

[Hobgoblin]

I dont know. I find it hard to discount Jameson's acts. He's hired super villains as hitmen to kill Spider-Man. Isnt that illegal? He's helped to create other super menaces. Doesnt that make him an accessory to their crimes?

Just my two cents.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I dont know. I find it hard to discount Jameson's acts. He's hired super villains as hitmen to kill Spider-Man. Isnt that illegal? He's helped to create other super menaces. Doesnt that make him an accessory to their crimes?

Just my two cents.

And yet none of this stopped him from getting elected Mayor.
What amazes me is JJJ's inability to see his own hypocrisy. Even on the 90's show he said that he created the Scorpion to rid the world of masked menaces, & Robbie poointed out that he had only given it one more.

 

[The Joker]

And yet none of this stopped him from getting elected Mayor.

Lex Luthor became president of the United States over in DC.

 

[Hobgoblin]

And Osborn became the Head of SHEILD. Let's hear it for thorough background checks!

BY the way, JJ confessed to creating the Scorpion years ago in an editorial. Anyone remember how the public reacted?

 

[Oddzball]

JJJ has script immunity from being a villain. He's drawn as a cross between Stan Lee circa 1962 and Jack Kirby circa that era mit ein Hitler moustache thrown in.

That is more comeuppance and humilation for the guy than any mere arrest and conviction could bring down on him.

 

[Hobgoblin]

Yeah, I've heard that Stan is more like Jameson than people know, in terms of being an egotistical tyrant to his employees. He even admitted that he wanted to play JJJ in a movie, back before he got too old.

 

[Chris Wallace]

And Osborn became the Head of SHEILD. Let's hear it for thorough background checks!

BY the way, JJ confessed to creating the Scorpion years ago in an editorial. Anyone remember how the public reacted?

Not at all. I only remember he did it because someone was blackmailing him.

 

[Hobgoblin]

Not at all. I only remember he did it because someone was blackmailing him.

Yeah, I only know about it because that story was re-printed in The Origin of the Hobgoblin.

 

[WolfCypher]

Jonah has really gotten stale to me. I understand how he views Spider-Man as a menace, and wants the guy put out of commision and all that, but JJ's actions in the past to see this realized have been extreme. There are plenty of heroes and vigilantes (of course, there's the villains, too) that Jameson conviently overlooks or pays no attention to, who have done far worse, but when it comes to Spider-Man hes a terrorist. His hatred to Spidey could be comparable to Luthor's hate for Superman; the only thing Jameson's missing is the ego and intelligence.

Now he's the mayor of NY. I was looking foward to seeing some progession with his character, but naturally he goes the route of spending the city's money going out on a Spider-Man hunt. The guy's an Avenger and even has Steve Rogers on his side. Jonah refuses to take his head out of his own ass and move onto something bigger, more important. He has an entire city to run, and all I've seen him do is attack Spider-Man still. For me, he went from a character I loved to hate, or hated to love, to just being a dick I can't tolerate.

Over in the Ultimate Universe, we got the better version of JJ. He started off hating Spider-Man, viewing him as a menace. Over the course of the series, his views lessened, and recently he even came to respect Spider-Man. 616's JJ's obsession over Spidey has driven him into an area where I just plain don;t like him anymore. Haven't cared for his character for years. I actually hoped that Robbie would just become the new offical "Jonah Jameson" of the Spidey cast and JJ die of a heart-attack. We came close.