I know that Spidey is Class 15. But after THE OTHER his strength might be enhanched. Personally I think it is okay to make him stronger.
Class 25-30 would be fine to me.
pretty much every single one of his enemies have been upgraded in recent years..... and his newer baddies all seem to be vastly more powerful than his older rogues gallery
frankly if he doesn't get some kind of upgrade soon they aren't going to be able to explain how he survives people like Morlun and Shathra
The thing about characters with over-the-top power levels is this...
First of all, they "inspire" over-the-top one-upmanship. This tends to lessen the quality of storytelling because, too often, "bigger" is seen as "better," with everyone trying to outdo the story before. Frequent hyperfeats also have a feat-cheapening effect: been-there-done-that-yawn-next. "Damn the torpedos, full steam ahead, to blazes with any contradictions and ramifications down the line!" Which brings me to #2...
Contradictions abound, all kinds of PIS and CIS. An obvious example of this is the ol' If-the-Surfer-is-so-powerful-Why-does-he-need-a-board-to-fly? The way around these things is usually just to ignore them, otherwise, as someone once posted, Flash can have everyone beaten in 1 page, end of story/comic issue. It becomes especially ridiculous when power levels are not kept consistent, Superman being the best example of this.
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Last edited by Mindship on Jan 14th, 2006 at 06:02 PM
Agreed .... I think A.C. tried to convey this in my 'Best Debators Forum' thread on the GDF. More is better, although it can lead to Power Inflation, which can potentionlly ruin a character !
I think the key difference (sorry if someone else already raised this point) is that in Marvel the cosmically all-powerful demigods aren't headliners. Think of Marvel's big, best known characters: Spider Man, Wolverine, Captain America, DAREDEVIL.... with the possible exception of The Hulk, Marvel's biggest characters are either street-level or only marginally above. (I say "possible" because Hulk's power levels seem to bounce up and down depending on the needs of the story.)
Silver Surfer, Genis-Vel, the Sentry, Dr. Strange.... these "cosmic power" guys are much less prominent. None of them seem to be able to hold a continuous series. I doubt we'll be seeing them in a movie anytime soon.
DC, by contrast, has its most powerful characters in the most prominent roles. Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash are all household names. This goes a long way to giving the impression that the DC Universe is home to the strongest heroes.
That's my two cents. It's all about impression, atmosphere, not fact.
The great thing about Hulk is that, unlike, say, Superman or Surfer, he has a form that is very ordinary, very mortal and vulnerable, believably so, w/o PIS or CIS. There is even "logic" behind his varying power levels (ie, level of anger). He is almost the perfect character: Ordinary Joe (or Bruce) on one hand, wherein one doesnt have to invent all kinds of GAB circumstances to get a story; and yet, when you want the action to get stratospheric, well, just piss him off and awwaaayyyy you go.
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Last edited by Mindship on Jan 14th, 2006 at 09:38 PM
Marvel still rules. I agree on the aspect that (while Batman rules) Marvel's core characters are a lot more realistic and compelling then Dc's smash-em-ups. I also never liked their teams. The Avengers are constantly changing and never consist of more then 8 members; the Fantastic Four share an origin; the various X-teams all have different pilosophies and fight among themselves; other teams don't last...
Then you have the Justice League. It's like every superpowered individual on the side of righteousness or whatever in some business corporation, loved by everyone, able to overcome every obstacle...
Marvel rules. Gods are boring. Except when Captain America tries to take them down signlehandedly.
Does anyone think the "Marvel characters are weaker" argument is at least slightly weakened by the fact that "street level" Wolverine has been at ground zero of a nuclear explosion and survived? Furthermore, didn't Spiderman beat Firelord? Characters like Wolverine and Spiderman may be street level in theory, but I'm not sure it holds up in practice.
__________________ "Men curse the Communist Party, but eventually it may release them. If hell were endless, then God would be worse than our Secret Police."--Pastor Valentin
Yes, but those same fans will generally discount such instances as "bad writing," or "misproper representation..." I agree that in extreme circumstances (like the two you mentioned) such things should be discounted as circumstances of flawed writing. On the other hand, too many fans use this nebulous division to throw anything they don't like, including entire runs of a character, out the window as "non-canon."
To cite other examples, people who don't want to believe Wolverine has above-human abilities (although he'd need them just to move with that skeleton of his) discount many instances from Larry Hama's run. Such as Wolverine throwing a matador's sword through the cockpit of a Stukka Divebomber in mid-flight and impaling the pilot. Or Wolverine being clipped in the back with the prow of a stealth-bomber and getting up to fight just moments later. Nevermind that Larry Hama has had the longest tenure on Wolverine of any writer to date, or that this level of durability corresponds to the classic days of the character (when he quite eagerly took full-power punches from Colossus and sprang right back to his feet.)
It's a real trick to decide what separates canon and non-canon and abuse is rampant. Unfortunately at this point it really isn't possible to draw a clear line, and inclination might be as good a guide as anything.
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Jan 14th, 2006 03:49 PM
