Over the years, Venom has gone from Spider-Man’s arch enemy, to anti-hero. The two became one, and fuelled with hatred became more powerful than Spider-Man. It then joined with disgraced journalist Eddie Brock who also hated Parker for discrediting him. He’s certainly not your “Friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man!”Įssentially two merged beings, the symbiont used to be joined with Peter Parker until it began to take control and was forcibly removed with the assistance of the Fantastic Four. While he resembles Spidey in general, he has enormous muscles and a huge jaw full of razor-sharp teeth and a slobbering tongue.
Venom is the nightmarish mirror-image of Spider-Man. While she knows this, she can’t ever get away completely and is often drawn into his madness. He used her issues from her childhood to get inside her head and then literally destroy her, re-creating her as he saw fit and turning her into a twisted version of herself.
Far from affectionate or loving towards her, when he was her patient in Arkham, he told her whatever he needed to in order to gain her compliance. Her relationship with The Joker is one of spousal abuse. When it comes to madcap comic book characters who have gone far beyond their creator’s expectations, she’s in a league of her own. Her moral ambiguity has seen her go from bad-guy, to reluctant hero, to anti-hero, to hero… and back again several times. Unlike The Joker, Harley isn’t a full-tilt bad guy. Far from being simply the Joker’s stunningly-hot sidekick, Harley Quinn is a force of nature in her own right. Harley is an excellent character, with so much more going on than is immediately obvious. Sure, he was later revealed to be unstuck in time and later revived, but still, let’s give him credit for coming close. His agent, Crossbones, and a hypnotised Sharon Carter assassinated Cap on the steps of the Capitol Building. Besides swapping bodies with him and leaving him to die, orchestrating Cap’s downfall via proxy agents, and numerous attempts to kill or maim Cap, he did get closer to killing Cap than anyone else. While not yet successful, he has inflicted many terrible things upon his nemesis, Captain America. He’s also a megalomaniac and is obsessed with gaining ultimate power by way of the cosmic cube, with which he seeks to re-shape reality into a twisted dystopia of his own design. There’s no twisted version of making the world better, there’s no moral ambiguity, he’s a flat-out monster of a human being and represents the very worst humanity has to offer. In terms of sheer evil, few can match the Red Skull. If there’s any way to make a villain seem more evil, it’s simple: make them a Nazi. Such godlike power, without the desire to serve, it’s no wonder the government stockpiles Kryptonite. He’s Superman unbound by his morals, he’s the embodiment of what Lex Luthor and many other fear about Superman himself. On the face of it, Zod is a mere invader from outer space. In most incarnations, he demands that his foes “Kneel before Zod” which has become parodied across popular culture. Zod has sought to rule Earth many times, and is always thwarted by Superman. Kal had since taken the identity of Superman on Earth, and Zod fixated to taking his revenge on Kal. Blaming Jor El for his exile, when he is freed he is dismayed to learn Krypton has perished and the lone survivor is Jor El’s son, Kal. He believed that Krypton should pursue a military course of action to survive and was eventually banished to the phantom zone. Unlike Superman’s father, Jor El, Zod was a warrior not a scientist. While there have been several incarnations of Zod over the years, much remains consistent. So far, he has been unsuccessful, and was last seen being taken to them with the promise of great suffering to come. His goal was always the same, to provoke conflict so that the weak would die and the strongest survive, therefore making humanity stronger.Īpocalypse is beholden to the Celestials and has sought to attain godhood to escape them.
He bonded their technology with his own body, increasing his power tenfold and giving him his familiar armoured appearance.Īpocalypse took several identities over the centuries, often assuming the names of gods, or becoming the inspiration for myths and legends. He conquered much of the world until he came across a starship constructed by the cosmic beings known as Celestials. His tribe believed him to be a freak due to his facial markings and threw him into the desert to die while still a child.Įventually, his powers manifested and he became fast, strong, and most importantly, immortal. Often erroneously referred to as the first mutant (that's actually Selene) En Sabah Nur was born in ancient Egypt at the time of the Great Pyramids construction. With a name like Apocalypse, you know he’s not going to fall into the ‘cute and cuddly’ category of comic book characters.