Oooh

So, can Blue Steel have Manticore's stuff? If not... can the Cursed Sorcerer have his stuff?

I dunno. I wouldn't really call Manticore that great of a Defender.

Chimera is already one of the sickest loyalists - he probably wouldn't notice

Who will die? It is obvious...

Our characters will die, hostages in the missions will die. None of the signature heroes will die!

But I bet Manticore is cheesed off about that broken bow I broke as I fell, I'll tell ya!

This isn't aimed at anyone in particular in this thread. There's a sentiment I've noticed across a lot of threads. To be honest, I kind of think people are overreacting when they worry about Arachnos (and Lord Recluse in particular) being "displaced" by other, shinier villains. For a long time, Statesman and Recluse have enjoyed a classic Saturday morning cartoon tug-of-war that dwarfed the legitimacy of other threats, and made Primal Earth less complicated on its face. But this is an area where it's better to be more complicated.

Most of us are adults here, many of us read comics where Doctor Doom isn't the only villain to worry about. Dark Reign is a perfect example, look at how Norman Osborn literally stole the show. Meanwhile, heroes like Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four have their own signature villains to contend with. The Joker is as much a concern for Batman as Magneto is to the X-Men. Magneto could smash the Joker, but that makes the Joker no less threatening to the citizens that Batman has sworn to protect. Similarly, the Hellions and the Skulls are no less a threat to my "street-level" character Time's Arrow, than Lord Recluse is to Captain-Electric. Because of the game's built-in graduation to higher levels of villains, I had no way of expressing this reality for Time's Arrow until Mission Architect came along.

The point I'm making is-- well, to put it a better way, the hope I'm expressing is that the signature story arcs will give Paragon Studios an opportunity to flesh out ALL KINDS of underdeveloped villains, and give them much-deserved attention.

Some enemies (like the Trolls) may not need to be unnecessarily overcomplicated. But on the same token, many people I've teamed with in-game seem to view the Council and the 5th Column as uncoordinated goons who pose no substantial threat to Paragon City. This is absolutely not the case according to the fiction, so I'm hoping the signature story arcs will allow these villain groups to teach our characters a valuable lesson about the consequences of complacency.

Don't even get me started on Nemesis. He's jokingly been reduced to an in-game meme (though perhaps this is by his design LOL). But go read this bit of history on the official website, and you'll see why I think this villain is capable of doing more harm to Paragon City than Lord Recluse.

On top of all this, I'm hoping that the signature story arcs will introduce us occasionally to smaller threats, "villains of the week", the kind you see in comics in-between standard arcs, or who sometimes serve to kick-start bigger plots (think of Tracer). And as I said previously in this thread, I think the signature arcs pose an opportunity for well-known comic authors to do guest work for Paragon Studios. It would be neat. Maybe an IP cross-over could even happen. Hey, I can dream. Certainly not between CoH and "the big two" publishers, but maybe other franchises like Top Cow, who have a positive history with Paragon Studios.

I sometimes think that what they really need is to go back to their roots and reinstate Rick Dakan or else get a real comic book writer to go along with their real comic book artist.

Someone needs to show the world and its signature villains some real TLC. Of course, I say that without having seen anything of the revamped newbie experience or any of the signature story arcs. It may be that they're just waiting to unveil some new content that will make us all sit up and say "Wow!"

I may have gotten jaded but I feel like I really haven't had that wow moment since Croatoa and Faultline. At least one of the red-names seems to be really excited about the signature arcs, so we can hope that it really is that exciting.

The problem with Nemesis is over-exposure. When nearly every major event in the game up to and including the Rikti War turns out to be a Nemesis plot for some inane super-villain motivation that boils down to "Soon I will be Invincible!", he goes from Doctor Doom to Doctor Evil.

It certainly didn't help that Ouroboros is run by yet another Nemesis alt or maybe he's even our Lord Nemesis who finally did become Invincible only to discover that it meant that HE had to turn around and save the world now. Then there's our Super DeeJay...

Instead of making him really subtle and maybe even admirable in some fashion, he's just this pumped up would-be dictator with silly super-villain motives. Worse, we hardly ever see any evidence of his "brilliance". We're just told over and over that he's the most devious and brilliant mind of the last two centuries, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Anyway... I wouldn't be surprised if Shiva turned out to be a Nemesis plot of some kind.

Good point. I think that might be part of the problem. They never seem to decide if he sticks to the shadows or likes to ham it up. I mean, in every appearance he comes across as really wanting to break into a full villainous monologue. Which I'd be fine with. We need more evil monologues.