Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Science Against Magic, Villain Style

So I was re-watching Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and thinking about how Kang is treated as the mid-season threat, but Loki is the end boss of Season 1. Setting aside that I don't know if I buy Loki as a bigger threat than Kang, it got me thinking about science villains versus magic villains.

What I was trying to think of was times where the heroes are caught between a science-based villain and a magic-based one. Fights between villains aren't that unusual, especially the gang boss types, but those are like against like. Guys with guys and knives against other guys with guns and knives.

But it doesn't seem like you see it as much with the bigger, top-tier threat villains, where there might be more variety in their approaches. Lex Luthor doesn't throw down against Mordru. Thanos doesn't decide to make Shuma-Gorath look like a total chump.

Maybe that's because the respective goals of villains like that are dissimilar enough they don't end up at cross-purposes. Or their goals are the same, but the routes they take leave them unaware of each other. Or that magic villains, while less numerous, tend to be treated as bigger threats, partially because their powers are treated as strange and mysterious, even to other villains.

The closest I could come to of a big fight between magic and science villains was really only referred to in passing during Abnett and Lanning' Guardians of the Galaxy run. When it turns out the Kang (and a bunch of Starhawks from across universes) are in a war against the Magus and the Universal Church of Truth. Even then, I'm not sure the UCT qualified as magic-users. All their powers and weapons seemed powered by "faith", but is that just an alternative energy source?

I feel like Captain Marvel (the Shazam! one) would have the rouge's gallery for that kind of battle. You have the science types like Sivana or Mister Mind, and the magic types like Black Adam or the Seven Deadly Sins. Sure, they could just team-up and fight the Big Red Cheese, but these guys all have egos. It doesn't seem that out of the question one of them would decide the others are in the way and try to crush them.

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