Painful Villain(s) #5

All right, I'm going to "open" things up a bit here, and pick on an entire class of villians. A type of villian that it seems that every hero has run into at one time or another. People must think that they make for interesting stories, but in all the years I've read these, I can remember exactly one storyline that I found remotely diverting.

What are these villains of boredom? These pointless malefactors? Well, can you smell the brimstone? Yes, it's demons. (Sabbac being just one example of the horde of them that are out there).

You either get this gigantic powerful thing that goes burning/thrashing everything in sight (see Sabbac's recent appearance in Outsiders. Or, else you get these overused Faustian plots where the demon comes along and starts making offers to villains who are always willing to make a deal. Um, guys, hasn't anyone heard, "never trust a demon?" On occasion, you'll get a Silver Surfer esque storyline where the demon is trying to devour some pure soul for their own fiendish purposes. Now, those stories make the theologian in me cringe. No pure souls out there for the demons to play with... but that's another topic for my regular LJ, not a comics blog.

I mentioned that there has been one "demonic" storyline that I found at least interesting, and that was the long ago limited series about Illyana Rasputin's time in Limbo. That was wierd, and almost enjoyable. That said, as I hinted back in Villian #10, I did enjoy the "fall" of Illyana, but as the story got more "demonic" it annoyed me more and more. I mean, her armor growing, and having more trouble restraining her more troublesome impulses? That was working great. Then they started giving her goat's legs (and worse). That storyline went downhill from there. Of course, considering how little use I have for demons as a whole, I consider Inferno to be one of the most painful X-storylines I ever read.

I'll admit, that in some books (like something with Dr. Strange, or Dr. Fate), the demonic fits better. Of course, I don't actually read those books.

You show me a demon story, and you'll be lucky is if all I do is yawn. Cringing is far more likely.

Tomorrow.... Painful Villain #4... and he's another loser from the pages of Fantastic Four


ETA: Yes, I finally realized that I've been making a moron of myself by misspelling "villain". *sigh* I've gone back and edited some, but it's not complete.