Every great Hero has their defining Villain.
Batman has Joker, Superman has Lex, Cap has the Red Skull, The Fantastic Four has Victor Von Doom, etc.
But some heroes don't really have that antagonist that defines their existence. Spider-Man used to have the Green Goblin, but he died a long time ago and even though they brought him back a few years ago, he'd lost that A-List arch villain vibe. Then he had Venom for a good long while, but Eddie Brock died of cancer and the symbiote is kinda just meandering ( I think it's attatched to Scorpion right now). Spidey needs a good new arch nemesis. I don't think the husk-filled-with-spiders from the Other is gonna cut it.
Iron Man? When I think Iron Man, I think Mandarin, but really, thats not a very good pairing. He had Obadiah Stane back in the day, but not for too long. And Justin Hammer was a solid foe, but neither of those guys springs to mind in a BATMAN/JOKER! kind of way. IM needs a good new arch villain.
Wonder Woman. The strongest arch villain vibe I get from her is Cheetah and theres no way she's an indelible foe in WW's life. I think that's why WW is always touted as one of the big three, but she doesn't have 3 of 4 books like Supes and Bats. No good rogues gallery.
So who else? I know I have at least a dozen iconic characters without a strong nemesis, but I'd like you to throw out a few.
Nemeses
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Eternal Padawan
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Spidey should battle Dell Rusk. Sales would probably drop, due to annoyance, though.
I'm having a tough time finding too many. I think it's because I just woke up.
All I can come up with is The Punisher. The reason is pretty obvious - he kills 'em all. Many of his targets seem to formidable enemies, but they never last long enough. Hell, even his best friend (Microchip) took a shotgun blast to the face from Frank.
Years ago there was Jigsaw, but I never really got into him as a villain. Plus, he hasn't popped up since The Punisher returned (he may be dead - I'm not sure). You might be able to count Bullseye, since they've tangled on occasion.
He did tangle with the Russian twice in the MK series'. He was an interesting bad guy, but he's dead now.
Also, some of Frank's enemies (and I use the term loosely) are heros - Spider-man, Daredevil, and Wolverine. But it looks like they won't be making any appearances in the MAX series. Might be interesting if they did, but it would take away from the reality of the series. The only standard "hero" that has made an appearance was Nick Fury.
I'm having a tough time finding too many. I think it's because I just woke up.
All I can come up with is The Punisher. The reason is pretty obvious - he kills 'em all. Many of his targets seem to formidable enemies, but they never last long enough. Hell, even his best friend (Microchip) took a shotgun blast to the face from Frank.
Years ago there was Jigsaw, but I never really got into him as a villain. Plus, he hasn't popped up since The Punisher returned (he may be dead - I'm not sure). You might be able to count Bullseye, since they've tangled on occasion.
He did tangle with the Russian twice in the MK series'. He was an interesting bad guy, but he's dead now.
Also, some of Frank's enemies (and I use the term loosely) are heros - Spider-man, Daredevil, and Wolverine. But it looks like they won't be making any appearances in the MAX series. Might be interesting if they did, but it would take away from the reality of the series. The only standard "hero" that has made an appearance was Nick Fury.
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anarky
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Greatest comic book showdowns
There's a poll going on at comicbookresources.com about greatest recurring rivalries/match-ups. I thought it might be fun to start a thread here that should last about three posts before dying. 
I'd like to propose a candidate that will seem insane (especially since I joked about it in another thread a while back):
Ratchet vs Megatron
This seemingly one-sided match occurred four times over the course of the original series. Each time, Ratchet outsmarted the most treacherous Decepticon of all, usually involving a level of self-sacrifice that should have been suicidal.
Match 1
New to Earth, the Transformers are low on energy. (Unlike the cartoon, they don't just turn oil into energon by pouring it into clear boxes that pop out of Soundwave.) The Decepticons kidnapped Sparkplug Witwicky to develop a process by which they could process Earth fuels. The Autobots weren't as lucky. When Sparkplug is rescued, they give him a tongue-lashing that results in him suffering a massive heart attack. Being an ambulance, it's up to Ratchet to get him to a hospital.
The fully-powered Decepticon army attacks, and all the Autobots pool their energy into a small handful of warriors to defend the Ark. The Decepticons are beating their still-underpowered foes, when they all buckle over in pain. Sparkplug has fooled them, making Earth fuel even more poisonous to them! Prime comments on this, but Shockwave appears out of nowhere and deactivates all the Autobots with one massive blast.
See, Ratchet had been investigating the disappearance of five warriors (the Dinobots) and sent a probe to find them. It found Shockwave instead. Though buried for millions of years, Shockwave has an internal nuclear reactor and returned to full power almost immediately. He uses his brains to fix the Decepticons and develop a functional fuel-processing system for them. But, being a traitorous dickweed, he leaves Megatron at a fraction of his power so he can kick him around. Megatron is left to basically guard the Ark while the other Decepticons go cripple Josie Beller and have real fun.
Ratchet comes back to the Ark and is a bit surprised, to say the least. Megatron beats the shit out of him, until, in a desperate attempt to save his life, Ratchet promises he can revive the Dinobots, who defeated Shockwave once. Megatron promises the Ark and the deactivated Autobot bodies in exchange for this. After all, he's Megatron--once he's back to full power, what's a handful of Autobots?
Ratchet knows that he'll be double-crossed. So he engineers a double-cross of his own. After reviving the Dinobots, he shows Megatron footage of them defeating Shockwave (and getting buried in the process), only from four million years earlier. When they meet, Ratchet springs the Dinobots on Megatron. But Megatron is a badass. Even at low power, he whomps the Dinobots in short order (raising the question of why Shockwave is so much more powerful than depowered Megatron, who beat the Dinobots so quickly, but had so much trouble with them himself). Megatron prepares to kill Ratchet, who charges him with all his might. Megatron, literally, does not budge, and begins to laugh at this weak foe. However, as luck would have it, Megatron is standing on an embankment. The force of Ratchet smashing against him causes a small avalanche, and he falls (no Transformer but Shockwave could fly in robot mode at this point) and is buried under the earth. Since the other Decepticons have abandoned the Ark, Ratchet is free to fix everyone.
Match 2
Years later, Ratchet is alone in the Ark, surrounded by corpses of Autobots who died during the Underbase Saga. He's woefully short on resources, and is unable to fix everyone on his own. And who should show up via a space bridge but Megatron, long believed dead himself. Megatron kidnaps Ratchet (and, for some reason, the bodies of Jazz, Bumblebee, and Grimlock come along for the ride). He's been planning his re-taking of the entire Decepticon army, and wants to send a Decepticon warrior clad in a supercharged Pretender shell to beat the forces of Optimus Prime and Scorponok on Earth. He thinks it's beautiful irony that he chose the dead Starscream to be rebuilt into a nonthinking weapon of mass destruction, and needs Ratchet's expertise. (I think he'd maybe stolen the shell or something, and didn't understand it.)
Ratchet knows his usefulness is short-lived, so secretly uses three prototype shells (which I guess had the same healing properties, but not the superpowers) to revive the three dead Autobots with him. Starscream is dispatched to Earth, and is beating the shit out of everyone. But then, suddenly, he seems to realize he's outnumbered, sheds the shell, and begs for his life. Ratchet secretly left his personality intact. Megatron is pissed, but the three revived Autobots are bringing the base down. He opens a wormhole to the now unoccupied Ark, but Ratchet tackles him an instant before both are seemingly vaporized in the explosion.
Match 3
Nightbeat has examined the remnants of Megatron's base, and, about a year or so later, presents an interesting possibility to Prime: There is no trace whatsoever of Ratchet. He's determined a space bridge wormhole had been opened, but nothing materialized on the other end, and theorizes that perhaps Ratchet was stuck in limbo mid-trip when the generator was destroyed. He dispatches a probe, which finds Ratchet, only not as they expected. Megatron and Ratchet have been melted together into this hideous monster. Prime speaks to it, appealing to Ratchet... but Megatron's mind takes over. The thing rampages through the Ark, causing damage and injury everywhere. It's clear it will destroy the Ark if Prime himself doesn't do something. Prime tracks it down, prepares to shoot it Old Yeller-style, and stops himself. If he devalues the life of a friend, he reasons, he is no better than the Decepticons. As he resolves to tell his comrades that this thing must be saved because Ratchet is still inside, Ratchet's arm grabs his and forces the gun to its own head, mumbling a request for Prime to kill him to take out Megatron. Prime doesn't, but Megatron's loss of control allows him to subdue the thing.
Match 4
Grimlock has returned from his source for a legendary energy source called Nucleon, with amazing healing powers. But the Ark is empty. Almost all the Transformers have been mystically summoned to Cybertron by Primus to fight Unicron. (He missed Grimlock and the revived Dinobots since they were so far from other Transformers at the time.) Grimlock determines they're on Cybertron and sets a course for there. And, as a bonus, he floods the repair bays with Nucleon, reasoning there would not be any Decepticons there, right? The mass casualties from the Underbase Saga are revived, as is Sunstreaker, who was killed 71 issues earlier and apparently forgotten. They arrive as Unicron is ransacking the planet, and Grimlock orders everyone out to fight.
Shockwave, who is working with Starscream at this point in a rebellion against Scorponok, steals the Ark. Galvatron (from an alternate timeline, who'd been brought into this world by Unicron, since Unicron is a god and can do shit like that when he needs badass warriors) sneaks aboard to escape what he is certain will be carnage, and to plot against Unicron.
As Shockwave and Starscream head for Earth, which is now ripe for the plucking, Megatron and Ratchet revive in the repair bay. (Evidently the Nucleon took longer because of the severe damage caused to both of them.) Trouble is, they're physically restored, but still telepathically sharing one mind. Galvatron comes across Megatron and brashly decides to kill him in the hopes that killing an alternate version of Megatron might eliminate his own insanity. Megatron cannot effectively fight back, since he's seeing things through Ratchet's eyes, and Ratchet is busy being beaten up by Shockwave.
Galvatron suddenly changes his opinion (he's schizo--he can do that) and comes to the realization that he doesn't understand all this cross-dimensional stuff, and killing any version of himself in the past could destroy him. He proposes to Megatron, as both Megs and Ratchet are coming to their proper senses, that they join forces. Even though Megatron has no idea who Galvatron is, he senses some connection to him, and the two set off to kill Shockwave and Starscream, and protecting but containing Ratchet for Megatron's sake.
As total domination of Earth by these two versions of Megatron seems inevitable, Ratchet suddenly beats the shit out of Starscream and self-destructs the Ark, crashing them at full speed into the ground and killing everyone aboard (except Galvatron, who is severely damaged and dealt with by Fortress Maximus in the next issue).
Unfortunately, in Generation 2, which sorta picks up where the first series left off (only two issues after Ratchet kills everyone, including, this time, himself), Megatron is revealed to have lived, despite the connection with Ratchet not being addressed. Ratchet never shows up again (Weirdly, when he first shows up, he's talking to a Decepticon in shadows who's clearly neither Galvatron nor Shockwave, but he doesn't revive Starscream until a few issues later.
I'd like to propose a candidate that will seem insane (especially since I joked about it in another thread a while back):
Ratchet vs Megatron
This seemingly one-sided match occurred four times over the course of the original series. Each time, Ratchet outsmarted the most treacherous Decepticon of all, usually involving a level of self-sacrifice that should have been suicidal.
Match 1
New to Earth, the Transformers are low on energy. (Unlike the cartoon, they don't just turn oil into energon by pouring it into clear boxes that pop out of Soundwave.) The Decepticons kidnapped Sparkplug Witwicky to develop a process by which they could process Earth fuels. The Autobots weren't as lucky. When Sparkplug is rescued, they give him a tongue-lashing that results in him suffering a massive heart attack. Being an ambulance, it's up to Ratchet to get him to a hospital.
The fully-powered Decepticon army attacks, and all the Autobots pool their energy into a small handful of warriors to defend the Ark. The Decepticons are beating their still-underpowered foes, when they all buckle over in pain. Sparkplug has fooled them, making Earth fuel even more poisonous to them! Prime comments on this, but Shockwave appears out of nowhere and deactivates all the Autobots with one massive blast.
See, Ratchet had been investigating the disappearance of five warriors (the Dinobots) and sent a probe to find them. It found Shockwave instead. Though buried for millions of years, Shockwave has an internal nuclear reactor and returned to full power almost immediately. He uses his brains to fix the Decepticons and develop a functional fuel-processing system for them. But, being a traitorous dickweed, he leaves Megatron at a fraction of his power so he can kick him around. Megatron is left to basically guard the Ark while the other Decepticons go cripple Josie Beller and have real fun.
Ratchet comes back to the Ark and is a bit surprised, to say the least. Megatron beats the shit out of him, until, in a desperate attempt to save his life, Ratchet promises he can revive the Dinobots, who defeated Shockwave once. Megatron promises the Ark and the deactivated Autobot bodies in exchange for this. After all, he's Megatron--once he's back to full power, what's a handful of Autobots?
Ratchet knows that he'll be double-crossed. So he engineers a double-cross of his own. After reviving the Dinobots, he shows Megatron footage of them defeating Shockwave (and getting buried in the process), only from four million years earlier. When they meet, Ratchet springs the Dinobots on Megatron. But Megatron is a badass. Even at low power, he whomps the Dinobots in short order (raising the question of why Shockwave is so much more powerful than depowered Megatron, who beat the Dinobots so quickly, but had so much trouble with them himself). Megatron prepares to kill Ratchet, who charges him with all his might. Megatron, literally, does not budge, and begins to laugh at this weak foe. However, as luck would have it, Megatron is standing on an embankment. The force of Ratchet smashing against him causes a small avalanche, and he falls (no Transformer but Shockwave could fly in robot mode at this point) and is buried under the earth. Since the other Decepticons have abandoned the Ark, Ratchet is free to fix everyone.
Match 2
Years later, Ratchet is alone in the Ark, surrounded by corpses of Autobots who died during the Underbase Saga. He's woefully short on resources, and is unable to fix everyone on his own. And who should show up via a space bridge but Megatron, long believed dead himself. Megatron kidnaps Ratchet (and, for some reason, the bodies of Jazz, Bumblebee, and Grimlock come along for the ride). He's been planning his re-taking of the entire Decepticon army, and wants to send a Decepticon warrior clad in a supercharged Pretender shell to beat the forces of Optimus Prime and Scorponok on Earth. He thinks it's beautiful irony that he chose the dead Starscream to be rebuilt into a nonthinking weapon of mass destruction, and needs Ratchet's expertise. (I think he'd maybe stolen the shell or something, and didn't understand it.)
Ratchet knows his usefulness is short-lived, so secretly uses three prototype shells (which I guess had the same healing properties, but not the superpowers) to revive the three dead Autobots with him. Starscream is dispatched to Earth, and is beating the shit out of everyone. But then, suddenly, he seems to realize he's outnumbered, sheds the shell, and begs for his life. Ratchet secretly left his personality intact. Megatron is pissed, but the three revived Autobots are bringing the base down. He opens a wormhole to the now unoccupied Ark, but Ratchet tackles him an instant before both are seemingly vaporized in the explosion.
Match 3
Nightbeat has examined the remnants of Megatron's base, and, about a year or so later, presents an interesting possibility to Prime: There is no trace whatsoever of Ratchet. He's determined a space bridge wormhole had been opened, but nothing materialized on the other end, and theorizes that perhaps Ratchet was stuck in limbo mid-trip when the generator was destroyed. He dispatches a probe, which finds Ratchet, only not as they expected. Megatron and Ratchet have been melted together into this hideous monster. Prime speaks to it, appealing to Ratchet... but Megatron's mind takes over. The thing rampages through the Ark, causing damage and injury everywhere. It's clear it will destroy the Ark if Prime himself doesn't do something. Prime tracks it down, prepares to shoot it Old Yeller-style, and stops himself. If he devalues the life of a friend, he reasons, he is no better than the Decepticons. As he resolves to tell his comrades that this thing must be saved because Ratchet is still inside, Ratchet's arm grabs his and forces the gun to its own head, mumbling a request for Prime to kill him to take out Megatron. Prime doesn't, but Megatron's loss of control allows him to subdue the thing.
Match 4
Grimlock has returned from his source for a legendary energy source called Nucleon, with amazing healing powers. But the Ark is empty. Almost all the Transformers have been mystically summoned to Cybertron by Primus to fight Unicron. (He missed Grimlock and the revived Dinobots since they were so far from other Transformers at the time.) Grimlock determines they're on Cybertron and sets a course for there. And, as a bonus, he floods the repair bays with Nucleon, reasoning there would not be any Decepticons there, right? The mass casualties from the Underbase Saga are revived, as is Sunstreaker, who was killed 71 issues earlier and apparently forgotten. They arrive as Unicron is ransacking the planet, and Grimlock orders everyone out to fight.
Shockwave, who is working with Starscream at this point in a rebellion against Scorponok, steals the Ark. Galvatron (from an alternate timeline, who'd been brought into this world by Unicron, since Unicron is a god and can do shit like that when he needs badass warriors) sneaks aboard to escape what he is certain will be carnage, and to plot against Unicron.
As Shockwave and Starscream head for Earth, which is now ripe for the plucking, Megatron and Ratchet revive in the repair bay. (Evidently the Nucleon took longer because of the severe damage caused to both of them.) Trouble is, they're physically restored, but still telepathically sharing one mind. Galvatron comes across Megatron and brashly decides to kill him in the hopes that killing an alternate version of Megatron might eliminate his own insanity. Megatron cannot effectively fight back, since he's seeing things through Ratchet's eyes, and Ratchet is busy being beaten up by Shockwave.
Galvatron suddenly changes his opinion (he's schizo--he can do that) and comes to the realization that he doesn't understand all this cross-dimensional stuff, and killing any version of himself in the past could destroy him. He proposes to Megatron, as both Megs and Ratchet are coming to their proper senses, that they join forces. Even though Megatron has no idea who Galvatron is, he senses some connection to him, and the two set off to kill Shockwave and Starscream, and protecting but containing Ratchet for Megatron's sake.
As total domination of Earth by these two versions of Megatron seems inevitable, Ratchet suddenly beats the shit out of Starscream and self-destructs the Ark, crashing them at full speed into the ground and killing everyone aboard (except Galvatron, who is severely damaged and dealt with by Fortress Maximus in the next issue).
Unfortunately, in Generation 2, which sorta picks up where the first series left off (only two issues after Ratchet kills everyone, including, this time, himself), Megatron is revealed to have lived, despite the connection with Ratchet not being addressed. Ratchet never shows up again (Weirdly, when he first shows up, he's talking to a Decepticon in shadows who's clearly neither Galvatron nor Shockwave, but he doesn't revive Starscream until a few issues later.
*--For behavior unbecoming anyone, perpetrated in real time over an extended--AH, FUCK IT! MORE MALIBU, BITCHES!!