Monday 21 November 2011

The X-Men's greatest ever foe!

Giant-Size X-Men #1, the new X-Men make their debut. Wolverine, Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler burst through the cover as the original X-Men look on in shock
After a distinctly shaky start, the X-Men went on to dominate Marvel Comics' output to such a degree that the various X-titles practically became a comics company in its own right, and long-standing readers had to suffer the sight of even venerable old scrappers like the Sub-Mariner and Spider-Man suddenly being labelled mutants in an attempt to cash in on that success.

But, of course, no matter how mighty those mighty mutants might be, they'd have been nothing if they'd had no one to smack in the gob.

So it is that the likes of Magneto, Apocalypse, Juggernaut, the Shadow King, Deathbird, Dark Phoenix, the Sentinels and, erm, Unus the Untouchable were foisted on an ever-eager public.

That means it's time for Steve Does Comics to discover just who is the X-Men's greatest foe. And that means I'm inviting you to nominate your all-time favourite X-Men villain.

As always with these things, once the nominations are in, I'll use them to post a poll, in a couple of days' time, and the world can at last decide the issue once and for all.

Or at least until the next lunch-time.

13 comments:

Dougie said...

1) The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants(I'm including mutates like Lorelei but not Sauron.)

2)The Living Monolith

3)Kukulca'an.

Kid said...

Nae bother. Magneto.

Steve said...

Juggernaut, great in his simplicity.

MikeD said...

I can't really see past Magneto - the first and the best!

spiderkev said...

Magneto,Duh.

Doug said...

Chris Claremont, for making the X-Universe so dense and convoluted. Layer upon layer kept getting added to the point that it became impenetrable.

Or maybe it was just me...

Doug

Ade Salmon said...

The Hellfire Club.

dbutler16 said...

Apocolypse
Sabretooth
Callisto
Dark Phoenix
Erik the Red
Proteus
Count Nefaria
Mr. Sinister

Super-Duper ToyBox said...

it's Magneto, of course! It's not your alternative favorite, Kids- Steve asked for the GREATEST.

Boston Bill said...

Magneto. Not all went right with the early issues of the X-Men - but unlike Spidey, the FF, the Hulk, Thor, et., they faced their greatest foe the first time around! I mean, the Chameleon? The Mole Man? The Gargoyle? And let's not forget the Stone Men from Saturn! Nope, the X-Men faced their best baddie right from the getgo!

R. W. Watkins said...

I've never been a great fan of the X-Men, and own just a handful of issues from the myriad of X- titles; still, there's always been something about the Hellfire Club that grabbed me. Maybe it's just the name--which has been used in other comics over the years, and, of course, has actual historical origins; I'm not sure.

While we're on the subject, Steve, may I suggest another poll--or line of questioning? I'd be interested in knowing what you and your army of followers consider to be the 'cutoff point' for classic Spider-Man. In other words, at what point did Spider-Man stop mattering and become 'something else'. Was it a particular issue of Amazing Spider-Man sometime in the '70s or '80s? Is it marked by the changing of an artist or writer? A horrible story arc? Do the later Todd McFarlane years and resulting renewed interest of the late '80s / early '90s ultimately mean anything today? Why not throw it out there, Steve, and discover if there's any semblance of unanimity.

Steve W. said...

Thanks for the suggestion. RW. I shall get cracking on it, right away.

Steve W. said...

Oops! PS. I should mention that the X-Men poll's now up, so thanks for everyone's nominations.