IronManFan
03/13/2003, 16:46
I've been thinking a lot lately about Iron Man. Specifically Iron Man's villains. A couple of months ago in Wizard they rated super heroes Rogue's Galleries and they had a little sublist of villains that just didn't quite fit the bill. Well it occurs to me that there are a lot of Iron Man villains in Heroclix and a lot of people probably don't even realize that these characters are "Iron Man Villains". Here's a list of characters that are in Heroclix now that I would consider Iron Man Villains:
Blizzard: whether the Blizzard in the game is supposed to represent Donnie Gill or Gregor Shapanka, this guy is definitely an IM villain. Gregor Shapanka made his debut as Jack Frost in the pages of Tales of Suspense which was largely an Iron Man book at the time. He later become the first Blizzard. Donnie Gill was just a street thug who got outfitted in Shapanka's old gear following the first Blizzard's death at the hands of Scourge. The gear was bought and given to Gill by Justin Hammer who was Tony Stark/Iron Man's arch foe there for a little while.
Controller: another character that made his debut in the pages of IM. Back when Infinity Challenge first came out a lot of people wondered where exactly Controller fit into the grand scheme of things. Well for anyone who's still wondering he's an Iron Man villain. Always has been and always will be, even if he has butted heads with the Avengers or Captain America from time to time.
Crimson Dynamo: one of Iron Man's spectacular armored foes. There have been six or seven guys to wear the CD armor. The first was Anton Vanko who built the armor and used it to destroy Stark's factories and make him look like a pinko. After he was defeated he betrayed Mother Russia and became one of Stark's employees. He died helping IM defeat the second CD who was a Russian KGB agent that stole Vanko's armor. All of the other Dynamo's were Russian KGB, more or less, and all went toe-to-toe with IM except for maybe one or two who fought Captain America.
Madame Masque: Madame Masque is like the Typhoid Mary to Iron Man's Daredevil. Their relationship has been pretty up and down. There were in love and then she wanted to kill him and then they were in love again and then he accidentally killed her father and then her father came back and she went crazy, etc. etc. etc.
So I would consider those four Iron Man Rogues straight up, the same way I would consider Joker, Riddler, Mad Hatter and Harley Quinn Batman Rogues. But there are a bunch more that certainly came up against Iron Man on more than a few occasions. Boomerang and Constrictor were both hired by Hammer on a few occasions to either protect him from Iron Man or actively attack IM/TS. Iron Man and Dr. Doom have traveled in time twice together. Iron Man has had confrontations with Hydra and AIM so many times that I've lost count. And how many people know that both Hawkeye and Black Widow started as villains facing off against Iron Man in the pages of Tales of Suspense.
But I digress. What I'm getting at is that there are a lot of great Iron Man Rogues who have yet to see Clix form. The Ghost, Count Nefaria, Titanium Man, the list goes on and on. So along with this Iron Man Villain history lesson you also get the announcement of my starting a series of threads detailing what some of IM's greatest villains should look like in Heroclix. Search my user name here to find my Character Speculation: Mandarin thread to see what you can expect from me. And look for my first Speculation from this new series, Living Laser, in the next couple of days.
Frank
Blizzard: whether the Blizzard in the game is supposed to represent Donnie Gill or Gregor Shapanka, this guy is definitely an IM villain. Gregor Shapanka made his debut as Jack Frost in the pages of Tales of Suspense which was largely an Iron Man book at the time. He later become the first Blizzard. Donnie Gill was just a street thug who got outfitted in Shapanka's old gear following the first Blizzard's death at the hands of Scourge. The gear was bought and given to Gill by Justin Hammer who was Tony Stark/Iron Man's arch foe there for a little while.
Controller: another character that made his debut in the pages of IM. Back when Infinity Challenge first came out a lot of people wondered where exactly Controller fit into the grand scheme of things. Well for anyone who's still wondering he's an Iron Man villain. Always has been and always will be, even if he has butted heads with the Avengers or Captain America from time to time.
Crimson Dynamo: one of Iron Man's spectacular armored foes. There have been six or seven guys to wear the CD armor. The first was Anton Vanko who built the armor and used it to destroy Stark's factories and make him look like a pinko. After he was defeated he betrayed Mother Russia and became one of Stark's employees. He died helping IM defeat the second CD who was a Russian KGB agent that stole Vanko's armor. All of the other Dynamo's were Russian KGB, more or less, and all went toe-to-toe with IM except for maybe one or two who fought Captain America.
Madame Masque: Madame Masque is like the Typhoid Mary to Iron Man's Daredevil. Their relationship has been pretty up and down. There were in love and then she wanted to kill him and then they were in love again and then he accidentally killed her father and then her father came back and she went crazy, etc. etc. etc.
So I would consider those four Iron Man Rogues straight up, the same way I would consider Joker, Riddler, Mad Hatter and Harley Quinn Batman Rogues. But there are a bunch more that certainly came up against Iron Man on more than a few occasions. Boomerang and Constrictor were both hired by Hammer on a few occasions to either protect him from Iron Man or actively attack IM/TS. Iron Man and Dr. Doom have traveled in time twice together. Iron Man has had confrontations with Hydra and AIM so many times that I've lost count. And how many people know that both Hawkeye and Black Widow started as villains facing off against Iron Man in the pages of Tales of Suspense.
But I digress. What I'm getting at is that there are a lot of great Iron Man Rogues who have yet to see Clix form. The Ghost, Count Nefaria, Titanium Man, the list goes on and on. So along with this Iron Man Villain history lesson you also get the announcement of my starting a series of threads detailing what some of IM's greatest villains should look like in Heroclix. Search my user name here to find my Character Speculation: Mandarin thread to see what you can expect from me. And look for my first Speculation from this new series, Living Laser, in the next couple of days.
Frank