Why aren't there more Lovecraftian villains in cape comics?
Well DC has a few, but the writers don't know what to do aside from punching and energy blasts
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There are a lot already though.
>>146448448Because human drama is more interesting than another "unfathomable alien god that's actually pretty fathomable after all because we can see it right on the fucking page"
>>146448448The Mask got really weird towards the end, huh?
Because if you wanna be true to his work, theres really nothing you can do to beat them.
>>146448448Oversaturation risks diminishing the risks such creatures should realistically pose.It's very tricky to portray monsters as a legitimate madness-inducing threat when squirrel girl punches one out in one hit or some other comedy comic has one show up in a top hat as a one-off gag. They should either be all-hands-on-deck planetary (at least) threat, or so insidious and under-the-surface that even recognizing they're doing anything takes a lot of effort.>>146448982See this is the sort of mindset that hurts Galactus. Actually, Galactus is a pretty good example. Galactus is literally a planet-eater. It supposedly appears differently to different cultures. It's not ACTUALLY just some big dude in a purple helmet. Except it's also Reed Richard's son somehow or something? And sometimes people just dick around with him? Whatever. On an infinite timescale you can only tell so many stories about something before it gets really silly.
>>146449119This. Cape and true eldritch is almost exactly on the opposite side of the spectrum to each other.
>>146449119>>146449178I don't know, Shadow Over Innsmouth was pretty hopeful. You could absolutely kill off all the fishmen if you had a solid army.
>>146449220You can deal with individual cases, but you can't really stop the things that causes those cases to pop up in the first place.The fishmen is not the cause, but merely a symptom of something far larger.At best you can have a story where a hero averts a crisis, but doesn't actually deal with whatever caused it.But true cape where the hero inevitably triumphs over the big bad, is incompatible with true eldritch horror, and vice versa.
>>146449220Yeah, until Dagon shows up.
I'd argue they try a lot. You've got Shuma-Gorath, I think a case could be made that Starro counts too. It really depends on how they're being handled. You can't show them too much, or you have to show them just the right way. I think Hellboy has always been one of the gold standards for that kind of thing. You CAN do unspeakable horrors in visual mediums but you have to do it right.>>146449220I think you'd be better off with the Dunwich Horror since they achieve a decisive victory against the monster there. I mean, sure, it confirms unspeakable ungodly horrors exist, but there ARE countermeasures, to a point.
>>146448448Difficult to write the heroes winning.
Because it's DC, not EC.
>>146448448>King Of Tears>Shuma Gorath>The Red>Empty Hand and The Gentry (pretty much)>Lovecraft gods>Doom Patrol villainsThere's actually a lot though
>>146448484Nah
>>146449119There's also the problem that generally speaking, HP chews up his protags up and spits them out. Motherfuckers are either dead, insane or worse by the end and while that works for a horror anthology it's not ideal for a weekly superhero story with continuity.
>>146449836That too.
>>146449119Unless you hit them in the head with a ship or something
>>146449840That was the equivalent of Cthulu waking up in the middle of the night and stubbing his toe, at best.
>>146448448
>>146450046Wow, I could be in the superman movie.That really is a cosmic horror.
Lovecraftian horror is antithetical to capeshit in so many core conventions of the respective sub-genres.One relies heavily on vagueness while the other basically demands crafted and exact visual designs
>>146450201Abalone. A. Not all of Lovecraft's horrors are vague whosits. Those who focus on them solely have read very little of him.B. Vagueness is not only not incompatible with capeshit but has been used effectively in the past. The Great Darkness is a good example despite the eventual reveal.
>>146448448Too much work.>>146448982Most superhero comics aren't interesting and they do the human drama thing. Why not take a chance?
>>146449119People forget that lovecraft was such a hardcore fan of conan the barbarian he let the guy body dagon just cause
>>146451134Was he? I know he was friends with Howard, but he was anti-barbarism, wasn't he?
>>146448484Mister Mind needs to be evil as fuck but also looks like a children's cartoon character. Like if Dr Mengele was a muppet or something. No edgy shit.
>>146448484Looks like a Mi-Go.
>>146448448Overused in media in general.
>>146448484>no dorky glasses and laughNot my mind
>>146450046Those tits!
>>146449336You also have The King Of Tears in DC
>>146448484>>146451258>>146453074
>>146453625Everyone always forgets about M'nagalah, and sleeps on Dark Destroyer.
>>146451134Not cape as such but marvel's Conan himself has fought a number of low-level lovecraftian horrors.Capes actually fight them a lot though it's usually in the form of a portal to a nameless dimension of incomprehensible horrors with tentacles coming out and the defeat consists of forcing them back and sealing off the portal...for now. Syzygy Darklock from Dreadstar has even used this as an attack.
