Standards Are Dropping Everywhere These Days

I think King in Black might finally be over. I saw some scans from issue 5 of Venom, amped up on Captain Universe powers shoving Knull into the Sun.

Of course, that was after Venom was somehow able to call Mjolnir to him and combine it with Knull's stupid sword into a battle-axe somehow. Really, I'm just hung up on the notion of Venom - loves talkin' 'bout eatin' brains Venom - holding Mjolnir. Captain Universe powers or no, Venom has murdered kind of a lot of people in his lifetime. Brock and the symbiote both, whether together or separate. Why not just let the Punisher swing it around next?

I shouldn't say that. Donny Cates will probably do it. That man has made remarkable time in landing on my "never buy anything he writes list" alongside such luminaries as Mark Millar. I get the feeling he read a lot of the same comics in the '90s I did, but we came to very different conclusions about what we liked.

I can't decide whether Venom being considered "worthy" is more annoying than HYDRA Captain America being able to use it during Secret Empire. Probably not, if only because with Venom I can at least make the argument it's the Enigma Force doing the heavy lifting on the worthiness. Don't have that out with Nick Spencer's mess.

I feel like this all Jason Aaron's fault, though. He did that whole bit in Original Sin about Thor being unable to lift Mjolnir after Nick Fury whispered in his ear. It turned out what he told Thor was that he wasn't worthy, and that was all it took. Thor no longer felt worthy, so he wasn't. Which I guess means you just have to think you're worthy to wield it, and there you go. Because one thing I can believe is a fascist Captain America thinking he's still worthy.

But it sets kind of a shit precedent. I know Marvel likes to argue that grandiose villains like Thanos and Dr. Doom always lose their ultimate power because on some level they won't admit, they know they don't deserve it, but not every villain can be like that. Some of these guys have got to fully believe they deserve it. I could see The Hood absolutely believing it. Or the Mad Thinker. Norman Osborn in his less lucid moments, where he's not aware of what a piece of garbage he is. Magneto, probably. You get the point. 

Hell, if all it takes is having a stupidly high opinion of yourself, Tony Stark should have been picking it up years ago.

I get needing to go big for your finale, but I feel like positioning the Enigma Force as the counter to whatever Knull represents - the void, or something I think - and giving that to someone using the symbiotes ought to have been enough. Leaning on the "Now this character can use Mjolnir!" for cheap pop is just kind of annoying.

Or maybe I'm just sick of Eddie Brock and symbiote-related stuff. Like I said, Cates and I clearly came away from the '90s with different experiences.