The Hood

So. You've found a suit of clothes that give you superpowers. Will you use them for good? Will you become a Superhero and fight evil, even if it means sacrificing your own life, health, and happiness in the process?

Hell no! You're no Peter Parker. Your name is Parker Robbins. Your mom is crazy, your father is dead, your girlfriend is pregnant, your only cousin is an alcoholic and you have to pay your favourite Russian prostitute. You need money, and you will do anything to get it. And this nice hood and shoes that give you superpowers, stolen from a strange demon, could come in pretty handy.

The Hood was a six-issue limited series (July-December, 2002), from Marvel Comics' MAX imprint, written by Brian K. Vaughan, the same man who created Runaways and Y: The Last Man. After years of being a part of the Marvel Universe, the Hood became a really lucky villain - Brian Bendis, current writer of Avengers titles, took him under his wing, and turned him into a first-class villain, king of New York's underground. After Civil War, Hood became a secondary Big Bad for the New Avengers -- while he's not their only, or even greatest, threat (that title was claimed first by the Skrulls and later by Norman Osborn), he's certainly a legitimate menace. Originally his powers came from an unknown demon, later revealed to be none other than the Dread Dormammu himself; since then he has gone up and down the power scale as he gains and loses "patrons."

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Tropes used in The Hood include:

• Ascended Fanboy: Parker was a fan of supervillains since childhood.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: He made one in order to get White Fang off of him.
• Anti-Hero: In his first series.
• Anti-Hero Substitute: Norman Osborn tries to turn him and his gang into this for the Initiative.
• Badass
• Badass Normal: Once or twice he's proven that he can take care of himself, even without his powers. He just needs a gun.
• Better Living Through Evil
• Body Horror: Dormammu's possession twisted him into a nightmarish being with More Teeth Than the Osmond Family.
• Clothes Make the Superman
• Cruel Mercy: At the end of Dark Reign, Tigra corners the Hood and talks at length about how she wants to kill him... and then doesn't. Instead she simply brings in his wife so she'll know who he is and what he's done and never let him near her or his daughter again.
• The Dark Side: When you see the lengths Parker is willing to go after new power sources whenever the previous one is cut off from him, you can safely say he is addicted to power. He even mentions that he spent half a billion dollars in an expedition to the now-abandoned Attilan just to recover one of the Infinity Gems. Also, when he turns to Count Nefaria (just after the end of the Siege on Asgard, where he lost the power of the Norn Stones), you can see how much of a wreck he is (though that might have been hesitation because Nefaria wanted every last penny of his in return for empowering him).
• Demonic Possession: His relationship with Dormammu later turned into that.
• De-Power: Several times.
  • First in Marvel Zombies 4, when Dormammu ditched him for somebody else.
  • Secondly after the new Sorcerer Supreme destroyed his connection with Dormammu.
  • Athird time when Loki took the Norn Stones back & used them to grant a power boost to the Avengers & Secret Warriors to stop Sentry/The Void from destroying Asgard.
  • And a fourth time when he lost the Infinity Gems.
• The Dulcinea Effect: White Fang told Hood she would abandon her campaign against him after he threatened to kill Force - a superhero she had known less than one day!
• Enemy Mine: Happened when he has to team up with superheroes against Marvel Zombies.
  • And when he lead his crew into battle alongside the Avengers, Thunderbolts and every other superpowered being that happened to be in Central Park to fight the Skrulls in Secret Invasion
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Parker cares about his crazy mother.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Before Parker got his powers, he and his cousin John King beat up a guy who tried to recruit them in Hydra, because they don't like terrorists. Then Parker stole his shoes.
• Eviler Than Thou: Mr. Negative, a Super-Powered Evil Side who strongly believes in the Balance Between Good and Evil (which he enforces by corrupting all good deeds done by his good side) told Hood that he would fail because he forsook all the good that was in him.
• Gotta Catch Them All: He nearly obtained all the Infinity Gems.
• I Have Your Wife: White Fang threatened him with the fact that she knows about his wife and daughter.
• In the Hood: Mostly, depends on the artist.
• Motive Decay: At first he wanted power because he legitimately needed money. Now he just wants power.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Happens a lot. Justified when his backer was Dormammu, who is one of the most powerful demons in the universe and a Dimension Lord.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After Dark Reign, The Hood broke out of prison and was about to give up villainy (since he lost his wife and daughter). However, three members of Avengers Academy broke into his apartment because the video of Hood beating up Tigra had gone viral (which wasn't his fault: the villain Slug sold it to a celebrity gossip site without his knowledge). Not only does that almost get them expelled from the Avengers Academy (Tigra wasn't happy that they paid evil unto evil), but this also spurs the Hood to go after the Infinity Gems.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He gave one to superheroine Tigra because another villain asked him to do so in exchange for his advice.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: He seems to consider himself as the only one allowed to defeat the New Avengers, while White Fang has that same feeling about him.
• Save the Villain: Doctor Strange has tried several times to show him what he's gotten himself into and offer help. It never works.
• This Is Your Brain on Evil: When his relationship with Dormammu got worse.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Dormammu had a bad habit of replacing Parker's reflection in the mirror.
• Took a Level in Badass: First when he gets powers. Later at the end of his second mini.
• Unskilled but Strong: He's had access to world-shaking power, but he doesn't know how to fight except as a street thug, so he can never use it to its full advantage.
• Villain Protagonist: In both of his limited series, especially in the second.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Osborn tries to give this status to all his gang members.
• Wolverine Publicity: Let's see... Hood regularly appears in New Avengers and the new The Punisher ongoing. Took a part in the Beyond mini-series and appeared in a few issues of Daredevil. Thanks to being a member of The Cabal, he appears in every comics that shows their meeting and gets a second solo mini. Osborn turned him into the new boss of the Initiative alongside Taskmaster. He has a major role in Marvel Zombies 4 and Dark Reign: Mr. Negative. And the list of his appearances still seem to be going up. People are starting to bet if he's going to appear as often as Wolverine before or after Deadpool will.
  • He even showed up in a recent issue of Moon Knight! I think poor Moonie could use some of this publicity.
  • Let's not forget the House of M tie-in book! You know, the one that took place four years after the original storyline...
• You Killed My Father: White Fang, Action Girl in Powered Armor blames him for killing her husband.
  • Funny thing is, that was an accident. She also doesn't know her husband was cheating on her.
    • Also it was his cousin.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Dormammu convinced him that he could be Sorcerer Supreme if he killed Doctor Strange. Strange insisted that it doesn't work that way, but Hood was in no mood to listen.