Is Marvel's "Power Creep" getting out of hand?

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Jabroniville
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Is Marvel's "Power Creep" getting out of hand?

Post by Jabroniville »

Everyone who knows me knows that I'm a bit annoyed by endless "Power Creep" and "Feats-Based" stories, but I really feel like this has infected Marvel way too much over the past decade-plus.

* They used to have Thor as the top-tier guy, along with the Hulk. Nowadays, there are about 4-5 active superheroes who are in the "Superman" Weight Class.

* Hyperion in Squadron Supreme was explicitly given as being a Class 100 guy in terms of strength, and it was a plot point that because he was so strong, he never had to learn to be a good fighter. Nowadays, Hyperion is WAY above what he used to be.

* Gladiator used to be used as a "Guy who fights Top-Tier Opponent and has a good fight before going down" kind of guy. Now, he can fly through planets and generally seems MUCH mightier than before.

* Annihilation featured more than one character who could detonate entire Space Battleships just by flying through them. Things absolutely no superhero could have done in the 1970s or '80s.

* The Hulk & Thing used to have knock-down, drag-out brawls that lasted entire issues, and The Thing could be said to be near the Hulk's strength level. Nowadays, that seems like a silly joke- Ben is so far beneath the Hulk as to make this ridiculous.

* In Iron Fist's debut, his "Big Power Showing" was using his "Iron Fist" technique to vaporize a piece of metal about the size of a human fist, thus beating a street-level martial artist. In a semi-recent issue, he was showing using the technique to TIP OVER A SHIELD HELICARRIER.

* In the current Monsters Unleashed event, the heroes are rather easily defeating gigantic monsters the size of buildings- Thor, Hercules and others are shown taking them down SOLO, and teams of heroes can beat them after a few pages' worth of fights. In my older comics, any ONE of these things would occupy a super-team for an entire issue, and require a well-thought-out solution that didn't involve strength. Now, the heroes just beat them to death.

Has this stuff gotten out of hand? Feats-based, "BattleBoards"-style writing gone to the extreme? Or do you prefer it like this- the ever-escalating series of bad-ass feats from guys?
bsdigitalq
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Re: Is Marvel's "Power Creep" getting out of hand?

Post by bsdigitalq »

I think it's just pure storytelling and intellectual laziness on the part of writers nowadays. I think guys like Brian Michael Bendis is a hugely influential part of this, with his "fighting game" style logic when it comes to superhero fights.
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Ken
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Re: Is Marvel's "Power Creep" getting out of hand?

Post by Ken »

I was under the impression that there were something around 17 versions of Hyperion around, now too.

Hyperion and Gladiator (along with the Squadron Supreme and the Shi'ar Imperial Guard) should be used sparingly. As both are Supermanalogues, and both teams are deliberate pastiches of DC teams, the occaissional NudgeNudge WinkWink story is fine. But if used frequently, then it makes look like the well for the House of Ideas have run dry.

Do Benjy and Banner ever interact anymore?
Last edited by Ken on Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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L-Space
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Re: Is Marvel's "Power Creep" getting out of hand?

Post by L-Space »

What I don't get is why Marvel feels the need to have a Supermanalogue at all anymore. Is it to bring in non-comic book readers? They'd just be confused and wonder why Marvel is copying him. Is it to pull in DC readers? That doesn't make sense since Superman hasn't been DC's top seller in a while. I understand how iconic Superman is, but it's not like Marvel doesn't have iconic heroes. Hell, Spider-man is (arguably) just as iconic and well-known. It just constantly baffles me.

As for the actual subject at hand: power creep. I think for Marvel it has gotten a bit out of hand. It's not a deal breaker for me, but I sure do miss the days when Marvel's heroes were all within a certain range of each other.
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Ken
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Re: Is Marvel's "Power Creep" getting out of hand?

Post by Ken »

L-Space wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2017 9:50 pm As for the actual subject at hand: power creep. I think for Marvel it has gotten a bit out of hand. It's not a deal breaker for me, but I sure do miss the days when Marvel's heroes were all within a certain range of each other.
Hey, DC's heroes are in a certain range of one another. Just because that range goes from Jimmy Olsen to Superman, doesn't mean it isn't a range. It's just a BIG range.
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MacynSnow
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Re: Is Marvel's "Power Creep" getting out of hand?

Post by MacynSnow »

the way i understand the "Power Creep" Issue is this:
In order to keep income coming into Marvel Comics(Marvel Studio's is itself it's own Company now,far as i can tell),they Hired a Bunch of Writer's they thought could make their Comics "Kid/New Reader Friendly" and these Moron's just threw all of Marvel History out the Door saying "We could do better ourselves!" and are running Marvel Comics into the Ground with a Jackhammer and Nails....

That being said,i'm of the opinion that Marvel's doing this to make people want to read their Comics and doesn't care about their Continuty anymore(Kind of like DC has sadly started doing)...

But all this is just the opinion of an Old Man sitting on his Porch in his Rocker Drinking a can of Soda Pop(yes,i even use Old Man word in RL!) :)
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