Does Cannon Fodder need to be upgraded?

You know, back when I first started reading comics, I used to find a single hero fighting a host of soldiers, thugs, or whatever to be awesome, and exhilarating.

However, the worst of the mix, is when a type of character is introduced and seems to be a team buster. However, by the time they appear next, they are amassed into a whole army, and all of a sudden, even a common street leveler can kill them effortlessly.

Then we have people who are supposed to be trained soldiers, cops, hitmen, ninjas, martial artists, marksman, etc. And even with a thousand of them present they can't hit a single jumpy individual. What I'm getting at, is do comics seem to underplay the hard training that many individuals have gone through? I don't see any reason why several cops couldn't tag a single peak human person. Realistically, there are a lot of police officers who are well practiced marksman in top physical condition, and even some of the less physically fit police officers are still usually very accurate shots (to say the least). Then there are militia members, sharp shooters, etc.

Maybe it's just me, but somehow homo sapiens seem to be drastically underplayed as inferior and helpless these days. Something like Doctor Octavius is well protected, that's for sure. But Police have tear gas, pepper balls (for paint ball guns, look em up, they're sick), flash-bang grenades, and so much more. Then we have the army who has technology capable of shattering a person's ear drum from half a mile away, we have a technology that emits a frequency of light that when observed can cause instant nausea, and so much more.

I see all this future tech that SHIELD supposedly has access to, and then so much modern tech that seems to surpass them in so many ways. Yet even with this "future" tech, they can never seem to take so much as 1 single peak human individual, regardless of how much of an army they bring. Then we have AIM, HYDRA, Sentinels, League of Shadows, etc. etc.

I'm honestly looking for opinions here, am I the only one who thinks that maybe comic military, police officers, and other organizations should be downplayed less, and start being established as a legitimate threat to even the toughest super hero or villain? To me, if they started establishing human beings with human tech as being less of a joke, and them having a much higher success rate in capturing, subduing, and maybe even killing their targets, and only occasionally losing when they are fully let loose on a target, wouldn't that make evading them, beating them, or outsmarting them that much more impressive? These days if someone beats 200 trained soldiers it's meaningless, regardless if whether or not they are super soldiers, because realistically they are just cannon fodder anyway. Personally, I'd like to see it impressive for a single person to take on 2 well trained soldiers, and to take on more than that to be a nigh-impossible feat.

Thoughts, opinions?

Thanks for reading,

Floopay

I don't know. I agree that they should probably be shown as more of a threat to street-level guys like Batman or Daredevil, maybe even to mid-tier guys like Spider-Man. But if by "legitimate threat to even the toughest super hero" you mean you want to read comics where Hulk or Superman get taken down by a couple of cops, then I'd have to say no. If you start doing that then these supposed high-end characters just wont seem very impressive anymore.

In fact, I think that's part of the appeal of comic book characters to begin with, certainly when we start talking about the higher tier characters. They are basically god-like characters with abilities far beyond the capabilities of anything we could hope to touch with our current technology.

I do think that the more exotic (IE non-human) cannon fodder should be shown as more of a threat. For example, the Kree and the Skrulls are both suppose to be masters of vast inter-galactic empires; each with technology millenniums more advanced the Earth, yet I don't recall the last time either of them were shown as a threat. In fact, in "Secret Invasion," the Skrulls just came across as hilariously incompetent.

@Moonchilde:

Well, on the one hand I agree, on the otherhand I actually disagree, and quite strongly.

In modern era we have a lot of access to all kinds of information. The military has satellites that can track things from space, as well as cameras, etc. etc.

Realistically, any weakness displayed by someone in an Earth bound fight would be common knowledge and readily available to dang near anyone. I see no reason why the military wouldn't have access to kryptonite, Lex Luthor seems to have unlimited access to it, I don't see why the military and all their technology couldn't produce something capable of replicating the energy a red sun puts out (in fact, I'm pretty sure we can already do that).

Then we have Hulk, there are several catalysts and chemicals that can break down gamma radiation.

I know you were just throwing out examples, but I just want to point out that much of the technology to potentially take down these power houses exists. I'm not saying EVERY power house has a weakness to exploit, or would be easy for mankind to conquer purely with our technology. Darkseid would be dang near impossible (well, there is Radon), Galactus, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, etc.

However, there are a lot of heroes with a lot of weaknesses that modern day society could take advantage of to put up a reasonable fight. Same goes for villains obviously. And then we have comic book militia that is supposed to have futuristic tech that doesn't even compare to much of modern technology really. With the exception of your occasionally hero or villain who gets a single piece of technology that for some reason can't ever be replicated for whatever reason, the "future tech" presented in comics is lacking really.

Any other opinions on the subject?

Thanks for reading,

Floopay