The Fall of the Crimson King

When the Crimson King was first introduced, readers were given the impression that he was an almost omnipotent agent of evil. He was so powerful that even Randall Flagg, the primary villain in King's epic The Stand, was a subordinate.

The buildup was really well done.  The way they talked about him in Insomnia and Black House, our intrepid heroes were up against astronomical odds.  This was going to be a battle of epic proportions where reality, all realities, hung in the balance.  One lone gunslinger vs. a Satan like entity, going mono e mono at the edge of the universe; it was going to be so cool.

Yet, when the climax came, the Crimson King was reduced to a cranky old man throwing grenades from a balcony.  In an anticlimax that puts even Super Shredder to shame, the Crimson King is literally erased by a magic artist.  What happened!?

In Black House, Speedy tells Jack Sawyer that a head on assault of the Crimson King would be stupid and that they wouldn't stand a chance.  He goes on to say that Roland and his Ka-tet are doing most of the work, but Jack's job is to provide some back up by destroying the King's huge psychic machine thingy.

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure Jack could handle a crazy guy on a balcony.  Then again, there is the chance that the old man was just a representation and not the King's true form.  It wouldn't be the first time a powerful entity took on simpler shapes.  Pennywise was a shape shifter and even the spider was just an image that our mind could comprehend as opposed to its true appearance.  An entity willing to topple the nexus of the universe would have to be insane, so maybe, despite everything, he was still the Satanic entity that he was originally built up as.

The common theory is that the machine that Jack destroyed fueled the King's power, much like the slime was Vigo's power source in Ghostbusters II.  This is a distinct possibility, nothing was said of it in the Dark Tower book, but as that was told, pretty much, from Roland's perspective, there was  no way he could know if that had an impact as he had no idea that the machine existed in the first place.
Another idea, posited by King himself, is that this is a statement regarding the nature of evil.  It talks big, but is ultimately little more than whining and throwing things.  This may have worked with a different author or if the series were self contained.  However, if everything King has written ties together, we know darn well that evil is quite capable of being a viable threat.  I already covered my list of King's top ten villains, but there's a whole schmorgasboard of great villains to choose from, each of them powerful and intimidating in their own unique way.  The epic stature of many King villains shows that evil is not something to be trifled with.

The Dark Tower comics have done a pretty good job of restoring the Crimson King to the badass villain that he was supposed to be.  He's a puppet master, using those around him to serve his own ends.  Even with this, his quick end taints what could've been a great villain legacy.