[The Australian Panther]

Following on from the current dialogue over in the Reading Group, a bit of fun. We all need a bit of fun occasionally?   

So, fanboy [fanmen?] challenge.
Vader vs Doom vs Darkseid. Who wins? 
Also, just to make it interesting.
Is there a golden age villain who is in this league and how would he/she/it stand up?
cheers! 

[The Australian Panther]

Darth Vader?s Theme - On ukelele and toy whistle.
http://www.aprilwinchell.com/h/mp3/DarthVadersTheme.mp3

[paw broon]

Surely just to show what a wimp Doc Doom is, we have to add The Claw to the mix?
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=41218
Pleased you list Darkseid rather than Thanos.

[The Australian Panther]

The Claw. That's one I hadn't thought of.

[K1ngcat]

The Claw. That's one I hadn't thought of.

The Claw is a good addition to be mix. But I'm not sure if we're comparing comic villains or movie villains. Vader's scarier on screen than Doom, but never having seen a Star Wars comic I don't know how he comes across on the page. Darkseid's good and scary in comics but his only screen appearance is in Zack Snyder's Justice League, where doesn't make such a great impact.

It's hard to find baddies who make enough repeat appearances to be considered. Sivana and Captain Nazi pop up plenty of times but seem a bit lightweight compared to those already mentioned.  Anyone want to consider Magneto?

[The Australian Panther]

Ming the Merciless?

Magneto oscillates between being a good guy and a bad guy. I think he is a good guy at present.

[crashryan]

The trouble with The Claw is that his only superpower is his ability to change size. The early adventures spell out that he can change size at will, but after a while no one seems to notice. In a single battle with Daredevil he could be taller than a skyscraper in one panel, six stories tall in the next, and tall enough to walk in the ocean in the next. Daredevil just keeps punching as if nothing were happening. If you weren't clued in you'd assume The Claw's changes were due simply to bad art. Which is often a fair assumption.

Other than size changing his only major superpower seems to be hypnosis. He does zap lightning from his fingertips at one point, inspired no doubt by the poster for The Lost City. Mostly he relies on machines and gimmicks. To often he fobs his dirty work off onto his thousands of henchmen. They fail miserably. The Claw stomps them to death as a reward.

To be honest, despite his great size and all his bluster The Claw is something of a loser. He smashes a lot of real estate to be sure but he kills as many of his own men as he does "infidels." He never seems to have a plan. He impulsively decides, "Today I'll destroy Manhattan and steal all the valuables," sends out his crew, then wrecks random buildings until Daredevil shows up to drive him off.

Speaking of "infidels," I never understood The Claw's using that term. An infidel is what you call someone who doesn't believe in your religion. Hence the thousands of comic book Muslims who insult non-believers that way. But I see no indication that The Claw is "fidel" to anything. It's not like he's a fundamentalist Bhuddo-terrorist or something. He's more of a giant-sized case of ADHD. Maybe with medication and a good therapist he'd turn out not to be such a bad fellow (though some of his bad behavior might be due to brain damage from all that dynamite Daredevil crammed down his throat).

[Captain Audio]

Speaking of "infidels," I never understood The Claw's using that term. An infidel is what you call someone who doesn't believe in your religion. Hence the thousands of comic book Muslims who insult non-believers that way.

Oddly enough the term is French and based on a medieval Latin term.

[K1ngcat]

The trouble with The Claw is that his only superpower is his ability to change size. The early adventures spell out that he can change size at will, but after a while no one seems to notice.  If you weren't clued in you'd assume The Claw's changes were due simply to bad art. Which is often a fair assumption.

Other than size changing his only major superpower seems to be hypnosis. To often he fobs his dirty work off onto his thousands of henchmen. They fail miserably.

To be honest, despite his great size and all his bluster The Claw is something of a loser.

That's a pretty fair conclusion, crash, he's not awfully successful in his villainy. But he is a megalomaniac bent on total domination, which at least puts him in the same bag as Vader and Darkseid. The habit of disposing of failing underlings is pretty common, even the Octopus wasn't above offing his henchmen if they displeased him. I'm not sure Doom shares these traits, a lot of his plans seem more personal than that, and I wonder if he'd bother fighting Darkseid or Vader unless his own survival depended on it?

Still, the Claw's not entirely to blame, I suspect Jack Cole was drinking too much coffee back in those days. His stuff's full of energy but seems to be made up as he went along.

[crashryan]

The habit of disposing of failing underlings is pretty common

I never quite understood this way of doing business. The Head Bad Guy would send his very best men out to get James Bond or whoever, and when they failed he killed them. So what does that leave him? His second-best men. And his third-best. Pretty soon the only minions he'd have left would be the losers whom the HBG wouldn't even trust to go get some Chinese take-out.

[SuperScrounge]

How many underlings did Vader kill?

I can only think of that underling that Vader force choked, whom, if I recall correctly, questioned/mocked the Force. (So kind of justified.)

Other villains killing underlings tend to be examples of an otherwise smart villain having temper control problems, so the first time we see it, it's probably an exception, but yeah, if it continues through-out the story we should see the minions abandoning ship.

When the modern take on the Joker started killing minions (The Joker's Five-Way Revenge) it was novel, but later writers kept doing it so it's reached the point where one wonders, "Why does anyone willingly work for him?"

Phil Foglio's Girl Genius has the novel idea that minions get caught up in the master's enthusiasm, but whoa to those who disappoint the minions.

[Captain Audio]

How many underlings did Vader kill?

I can only think of that underling that Vader force choked, whom, if I recall correctly, questioned/mocked the Force. (So kind of justified.)

Other villains killing underlings tend to be examples of an otherwise smart villain having temper control problems, so the first time we see it, it's probably an exception, but yeah, if it continues through-out the story we should see the minions abandoning ship.

When the modern take on the Joker started killing minions (The Joker's Five-Way Revenge) it was novel, but later writers kept doing it so it's reached the point where one wonders, "Why does anyone willingly work for him?"

Phil Foglio's Girl Genius has the novel idea that minions get caught up in the master's enthusiasm, but whoa to those who disappoint the minions.

Actually we've seen it all before throughout history, on such a huge scale you really can't see the forest for the trees..