Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources » Top 100 Comic Book Battles http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com Comic Book Resources Presents... Comics Should Be Good! Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:09:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 30-26 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-30-26/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-30-26/#comments Fri, 26 Dec 2008 06:58:51 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21393 Here's the last five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!!

30. Thor vs. The Midgard Serpent

In Norse mythology, Thor is destined to fight the Midgard Serpent (also known as Jormungand) and kill it, but die himself soon afterwards.

In the comics, Thor's battle with Jormungand is basically the climax of Walt Simonson's epic run on the title, although there are two issues afterward that serve as the ending of the run.

The dramatic battle happens after Jormungand disguises itself as Fin Fang Foom, and finally, we get to Thor #381, which is the last issue of Thor written and drawn by Simonson (he was not even the regular artist on the title at this point, Sal Buscema was, but he came back for one last issue).

The entire issue detailing the fight is done in full page splash pages.

It is epic and it is amazing, and when it is all over, the impossibly strong dragon is dead, and Thor seemingly is, as well (of course, things aren't always as they seem).

29. X-Men vs. Dark Phoenix

After their battle with the Hellfire Club in Uncanny X-Men #135, Phoenix has officially flipped her lid and become Dark Phoenix.

The X-Men battle against her in Uncanny X-Men #135, but she casts them aside like they're children compared to her might. After the fight, the ex-X-Man, Beast (now an Avenger) comes to help the team out in Central Park where Dark Phoenix left them.

The X-Men regroup and decide to try to get her into a MacGuffin device, but she ruins that plan easily and once again kicks all their collective behinds. Cyclops is left standing, and he tries to appeal to the human essence within Dark Phoenix, and he begins to break through, but Professor X never turns down an opportunity to attack someone, so he begins a telepathic assault on Dark Phoenix which is a major battle of the minds.

Ultimately, with the help of the Jean Grey persona within Dark Phoenix, Xavier is able to shut down Jean's telepathic powers and silence Dark Phoenix...for now!

28. Legion of Superheroes vs. The Forces of Darkseid

The Great Darkness Saga involved the Legion of Super-Heroes fighting against some dark beings serving their dark master.

The Legion eventually learns that the dark beings are reverse-clones of powerful beings of the 20th Century like Superman and a Guardian of the Universe.

There is also a mysterious young boy who is being targeted by the dark beings. The Legion protects the boy and fights against the dark beings.

Mon-El confronts the dark master, who has already defeated Mordru and the Time Trapper and taken power from them (so he's REALLY powerful right now) and the dark master hits him so hard he goes into a coma.

Mon-El recognized the dark master from his time in the 20th Century, but he was knocked unconscious before he could warn the rest of the Legion. Seeing the Daxamite Mon-El, the dark master is hit with an idea. The dark master travels to Daxam where he uses his power to turn the Daxamites into thralls of his power and also takes them to a yellow sun where they are now all Supermen.

Now that he is on the precipice of conquering the universe, we learn that the dark master is Darkseid!

The Legion has its hands full fighting against the brainwashed Daxamites (but Element Lad helps by adding some lead to the game).

Ultimately, though, it is the young boy who saves the day, as it turns out to be Highfather, Darkseid's opposite.

Highfather is not powerful enough now to stop Darkseid himself, but through a series of machinations, lets loose the populace of Daxam (now free of Darkseid's control and none too pleased with Darkseid) on Darkseid, forcing him to retreat from his plans of universe domination.

That's just a VERY brief description - there are a LOT more twists and turns than that - this Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen storyline was so good that it was hard for them ever to meet this level of quality again, although they sure tried!

27. The Final Battle of Civil War

Like the Dark Phoenix battle, Civil War involved heroes fighting against themselves.

The Superhero Registration Act forced heroes to split into two camps - those willing to register and those unwilling. The registered heroes were led by Iron Man, and they were tasked wit hunting down the unregistered heroes, led by Captain America.

Cap's heroes also kept on being superheroes at the same time they were on the run.

Ultimately, after a daring escape from the Registration Camp's prison, the heroes have one final confrontation in New York City, and Captain America's forces actually seem to have the battle won, but then Cap notices something - the people of New York are rooting AGAINST him.

He then realizes that they've been battling in the middle of New York and causing countless amounts of damage. Cap then decided it was time to surrender, so he gave himself up and was arrested (and later, he tragically was killed while in custody).

26. Morpheus vs Choronzon

The final fight of our journey is not a traditional matter of fisticuffs or energy blasts, but rather a battle of wits, between Morpheus and the demon Choronzon.

Morpheus was captured for a number of years, so during this time, he lost his totems of power - a pouch of sand, a helm and a ruby.

He needed to get these items back, but since he was imprisoned for so long, he was too weak to just TAKE them, so when he encountered the demon who had the helm, he had to instead challenge him to a game of wits.

Each person would think of something and the other would name something more powerful until one could no longer name something more powerful than the other.

Here, then, is Neil Gaiman's brilliant piece of writing showing Morpheus defeating Choronzon (Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg do a fine job on the art, too).

Choronzon: I am a dire wolf, prey-stalking, lethal prowler.

Morpheus: I am a hunter, horse-mounted, wolf-stabbing.

Choronzon: I am a horsefly, horse-stinging, hunter-throwing.

Morpheus: I am a spider, fly-consuming, eight legged.

Choronzon: I am a snake, spider-devouring, poison-toothed.

Morpheus: I am an ox, snake-crushing, heavy footed.

Choronzon: I am an anthrax, butcher, bacterium, warm-life destroying.

Morpheus: I am a world, space-floating, life nurturing.

Choronzon: I am a nova, all-exploding… planet-cremating.

Morpheus: I am the Universe — all things encompassing, all life embracing.

Choronzon: I am Anti-Life, the Beast of Judgment. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds… of everything. Sss. And what will you be then, Dreamlord?

Morpheus: I am hope.

Amazing.

Okay, folks, that's it!

Merry Christmas!!

15 Comments

  • At December 26, 2008, Crash-Man wrote:

    Gaiman is capable of great stuff when he's in his element.

  • At December 26, 2008, Mike Blake wrote:

    "Choronzon: I am a dire world, prey-stalking, lethal prowler."

    Are you sure that isn't "dire WOLF"?

  • At December 26, 2008, Wolfsbane wrote:

    civil war was an epic fail for me just because marvel did the whole "you have to read all these ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Matt wrote:

    Wolfsbane, i remember reading somewhere that they wanted Cap to die on his own book, because otherwise Civil War was ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

    slurb.

  • At December 26, 2008, eRIC wrote:

    I have to say I'm surprised that the Spider-Man/Green Goblin battle where Harry dies didn't crack the top 100. That, ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Matt Bird wrote:

    Another fun list. I always have so much fun with these!

    Nice to see that the "Great Darkness Saga" ...

  • At December 26, 2008, The Eye wrote:

    After seeing the entire list It's nice to see Walt Simonson make the list a few times. The sheer number ...

  • At December 26, 2008, The Dude wrote:

    I knew that the fight against the Midgard Serpent had to be here! Nice one

    Still I think it deserved to ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Iron Maiden wrote:

    I agree, I think too many fights are there because they are from the younger readers who weren't around for ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Ortiz wrote:

    Some cool fights here, but I'm amazed there was nothing in the top 100 from Planet Hulk or World War ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Ortiz wrote:

    BTW, the power of hope is incredible. :)

  • At December 26, 2008, Michael wrote:

    The ending to Civil War was so anti-climatic and flat. I had a long discussion with the guy who runs ...

  • At December 27, 2008, Lord Paradise wrote:

    The whole hundred gone, and still no Wolverine vs. Shingen? I expected that to easily make the Top 25.

    I ...

  • At December 28, 2008, Mecha-Shiva wrote:

    Man, no Nextwave? Drop bears, come on!

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-30-26/feed/ 15 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 35-31 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-35-31/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-35-31/#comments Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:14:48 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21392 Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

35. Jesse Custer vs. Jody

To say that Jesse Custer had a rough upbringing would be a massive understatement. Jesse's grandmother, Marie L'Angelle, was upset that her daughter ran away from home, so she sent her two enforcers, Jody and T.C. to go find her. They found her married and with a child. Jesse's father fought Jody bravely, and may have won had it not been for the fact that T.C. held Jesse at gunpoint. Jesse then watched as Josy murdered Jesse's father in front of his eyes, then called Jesse a crybaby for weeping.

While Jesse hated Jody, it was Jody who more or less raised Jesse from youth to adulthood, teaching him everything he knew about, well, everything. Finally, as a young adult, Jesse was given his chance by Jody to take him on - Jody proceeded to beat him severely, breaking his arm and jaw.

Years later, Jesse also ran away from home and began seeing Tulip O'Hare. Jody and T.C. came after him and told him that if he came back, Tulip could live. Jesse came back.

When Jesse gained the Word of God and left home, he came back to his hometown of Angelville, where Jody proceeded to shoot Tulip in the head (God revived her later).

Finally, though, Jesse took on Jody one-on-one and defeated him, breaking Jody's back and strangling him to death (the revived Tulip took care of T.C. and the fire took care of Marie).

Jody's last words were "Prouda you, boy."

Man, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon created some impressively vivid background characters, didn't they?

34. Daredevil vs. Bullseye (Daredevil #181)

Talk about an impressive issue! This is, I believe, the only issue on the entire countdown to get TWO fights on to the countdown!

In any event, this issue is most famous for the fact that Bullseye kills Elektra early in the issue, but Frank Miller and Klaus Janson give us another memorable fight later in the issue when Daredevil gets his revenge on Bullseye.

Miller even works in a big plot about how Bullseye discovers Murdock is Daredevil, but then feels this theory is disproven later on in the story - it's quite interesting.

But then the fight - a typically cinematic fight sequence by Miller and Janson with little to no dialogue and finally, at the end of the battle, Daredevil is triumphant and Bullseye is hanging from a ledge. Will Daredevil save the man who just murdered his lover?

Ultimately, Daredevil is just too nice of a guy and he goes to save Bullseye, but Bullseye is having none of it, and lets go, plummeting to the ground below, suffering a broken neck.

I prefer not to think of the fact that Miller was only 25 when he wrote and drew this issue.

33. Superman vs. Lex Luthor (All Star Superman #12)

In the final issue of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All Star Superman, Lex Luthor has the powers of Superman (for 24 hours) and Superman is near death and powerless (after Solaris turned the sun red - the sun is now turning blue and it is major trouble).

However, Superman is a lot more than just his powers.

So first off, Superman (who seemingly died at the end of All Star Superman #11) comes back to life for one last battle, and his only way to fight Luthor is through a gravity gun and, of course, his wits, which are a lot better than people give him credit for.

While Luthor thinks he is on top of the world, Superman is secretly using the gravity gun to warp the time around Luthor, so that the 24 hour time limit approaches much faster than expected. As the powers run out, Luthor experiences the world as Superman sees it, and it almost drives him mad.

Now, Superman fights Luthor on the same level, and he naturally beats Luthor up badly, as Superman is awesome.

Superman is now almost dead (when he dies he converts to a sort of living solar energy), so his last act (after kissing Lois, of course) is to fly into the sun to fix it.

An amazing final battle for an amazing final issue of an amazing comic book.

32. The X-Men vs. Magneto (in the Volcano Base)

The All-New, All-Different X-Men first faced off against Magneto in Uncanny X-Men #104, where he trashed them badly in a manner of seconds before a distraction saved them.

Now, a year later, he showed up again in Uncanny X-Men #112 to finish what he started. He takes the team apart very easily, challenged only by Phoenix, who he is surprised to find such a formidable opponent. Sadly for her, her powers cut out at a bad time, and she is taken in. Wolverine is the last X-Man standing, but that does not last long.

At the end of #112, Magneto has the X-Men captive and he plans to have them held in captivity for the rest of their lives with a robotic Nanny taking care of them (similar, I suppose, to what happened to him when he was reduced to infancy).

Claremont and Byrne continue the story in the next issue where Storm's pickpocketing experience helps her out as she picks the lock on her chair. When Magneto comes back to the base (which is underneath a volcano in the Antarctic, natch), he discovers that the X-Men are free.

While the first time around, the X-Men tried fighting him one on one (and got beaten easily), this time, Cyclops is coordinating their attacks telepathically through Phoenix, and their hit and run style of attacks are disorientating Magneto enough so that he is having a hard time using his powers.

However, during the battle, the base is damaged, and the lava from the volcano begins to seep in. The X-Men all dash for the exits, with Beast and Jean being the only ones who make it out to the surface alive - or so they think.

31. JSA vs. Dynaman

The Golden Age tells the story of how the Golden Age heroes dealt with the coming of McCarthyism during the 1950s.

This out-of-continuity mini-series by James Robinson and Paul Smith is a strong window into the sort of storytelling approach Robinson was soon to bring into Starman, although this story is perhaps a bit darker than his Starman work.

The main plot of the comic is that Tex Thompson, the Americommando, has returned from the War to become a U.S. Senator. Thompson then puts together a new team of heroes for the 1950s after the Justice Society disbanded. Among the heroes was Dan the Dyna-Mite, the sidekick to the hero TNT, who is a bit lost in the world after the death of his mentor. Dan is experimented on until he becomes the ultra-powerful Dynaman.

The rest of the series catches us up with various heroes and how they're dealing with Post-War society, but also hints at a hidden agenda by Thompson - a sinister hidden agenda. Essentially, Thompson and Dynaman are slowly becoming dictators of sorts in the US.

The actual agenda is fully revealed in the lead-up to the climactic battle in Golden Age #4. We learn that Thompson was actually possessed by the JSA villain, the Ultra-Humanite, back in the war. And the Ultra-Humanite uses his mind-transfer abilities to put someone else's consciousness in the body of Dynaman. That person? Adolf Hitler!!

As the various characters all find this out at around the same time, they all converge upon Dynaman for an epic battle that takes up most of the fourth issue of the Golden Age (and since the book is 48 pages long, that's a lot) as basically all the Golden Age heroes take him on at once.

While they rack up a LOT of deaths, they are ultimately successful in taking him down.

Amusingly, the hero who gets in the last punch is a young Captain Comet, who was the first post-World War II hero created at DC (Comet debuted a good five years before Barry Allen and a good four years before Martian Manhunter).

12 Comments

  • At December 25, 2008, chad wrote:

    once again the list choices top the last ones. for loved Jesse getting some revenge on Jody. and ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Jason wrote:

    Thirty-first? Like I said a while back, the brawl in The Golden Age (with the Ultra-Humanite/Paul Kirk fight serving as ...

  • At December 26, 2008, MJ wrote:

    Glad to see that X-Men/Magneto fight on this list. That came out in the first year that I collected ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

    "I prefer not to think of the fact that Miller was only 25 when he wrote and drew this issue."

    You're ...

  • At December 26, 2008, The Eye wrote:

    It's been so long since I read it that I might be misremembering it, but as opposed to the description ...

  • At December 26, 2008, sononsj wrote:

    Yeah, I just read the Frank Miller Daredevil run a few days ago and the fight ends with Bullseye saying ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Richard wrote:

    X-Men #112 is one of the most memorable comics I ever bought. I had picked up one issue ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Blackjak wrote:

    Is the "Golden-Age" collected anywhere?

  • At December 26, 2008, Gopher wrote:

    Golden Age was collected into a TPB, but I suspect that it is out of print. So write to ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Blackjak wrote:

    Thanks, Gopher!

  • At December 29, 2008, Anonymous wrote:

    I believe The Golden Age is collected both as The Golden Age and JSA: The Golden Age. It's well ...

  • At July 8, 2009, Ike Iszany wrote:

    I don't buy All Star Superman. is that supposed to be Superman or evil Superman or something? Why does he ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-35-31/feed/ 12 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 40-36 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-40-36/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-40-36/#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:15:55 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21391 Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

40. The Battle of Fabletown

Throughout the first year or so of Bill Willingham's Fables, he has established the concept of so-called Fables (people we think of as fictional characters) living in seclusion in "Fabletown" in New York while their homelands are held captive by the evil "Adversary" who has turned the homelands into his evil Empire.

The first two years of the book was basically setting up the concept behind the series, and telling some engaging stories featuring the characters within Fabletown, of course, primarily the Big Bad Wolf (Sheriff of Fabletown) and Snow White (the Vice-Mayor of Fabletown, or whatever her title is). The two had just gotten together when the events of the Battle for Fabletown took place.

The Adversary's forces launch an attack on Fabletown, using magical wooden soldiers (think Pinocchio) who are pretty darn impervious to harm.

The Fables steel themselves for the attack and set up blockades, etc.

Then the battle commences, and many Fables that readers thought would be around for a long time are killed and many more are wounded.

However, in the end, through magic and ingenuity (and don't forget fire!), the Fables fight off the invasion.

39. JLA vs. Avengers

The basic concept behind the beginning of JLA vs. Avengers is that Krona and the Elder of the Universe known as Grandmaster decide to have a little competition, and as part of their competition, the Justice League and the Avengers have to compete to collect a certain amount of items (all notable items from Marvel and DC history, stuff like the Spear of Destiny and the Ultimate Nullifier). Since both teams are after the items, they have to split up and they have conflicts over who wins each item.

Each match-up is handled very well by writer Kurt Busiek and artist George Perez, but none match the coolness of Batman vs. Captain America, where the two spar for a little bit before each man realizes that they are too evenly match, and decide instead to work together and break the news to their respective teams that they are all being played for patsies.

Great scene.

38. Superman vs. Mongul

It's Superman's birthday and Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman are going to visit Supes at his Fortress of Solitude to give him some presents. However, the villainous Mongul has already beaten them to the punch by giving Superman the Black Lotus, a flower that attaches to people and forces them to live their happiest fantasy.

Now, Superman is able to fight the Lotus a little bit, and that is why his dreams of an unexploded Krypton are filled with not-so-happy memories, specifically that he is an ineffectual bureaucrat in this life.

Eventually, the Lotus is taken off of Superman, and boy, is he mad at Mongul!

Writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons (these two would later do some comic about a smiley face that some people think is okay) handle the fight beautifully, particularly Superman's rage.

That "Burn" line is perhaps the most badass thing Superman has ever done.

37. Daredevil vs. Nuke

The battle between Daredevil and Nuke at the end of Born Again is a nice bookend to the beginning of Born Again - Kingpin just did not know when to draw the line.

The basic concept of Born Again is that Kingpin, due to information gathered by the now addicted to drugs Karen Page, knows Matt Murdock is Daredevil. So the Kingpin systematically takes apart Murdock's life (his law practice, his money, everything). However, the Kingpin does not know when to call it quits, so he blows up Matt's apartment - thereby informing Matt that these events are not all just horrible, horrible luck (which it appeared at the time) but an actual attack on Matt by the Kingpin.

After awhile of Matt being on the run and in hiding, the Kingpin just can't live with just sending Daredevil into hiding - he needs to FINISH him, so he pulls strings to get Nuke, America's current "Super Soldier" and has him attack Hell's Kitchen to draw Daredevil out. Daredevil must, for the first time since the beginning of the storyline, return to his costume and stop Nuke, which he does (it is extremely painful, though, as Matt can experience, through his extra senses, all the innocents being killed around him).

After Daredevil captures Nuke, Nuke escapes and this time, Captain America (who is pissed over the idea of Nuke) gets involved as well, and Daredevil and Cap team-up to take Nuke down, who sadly dies in the process. Daredevil takes Nuke to the offices of the Daily Bugle and drops his dead body there, as evidence of the Kingpin's connection to the military.

Obviously, that's not enough to send Kingpin to JAIL, but it sure as hell tarnishes his reputation, so as the storyline ends, Matt (who has forgiven Karen) is happy while the Kingpin is fuming, knowing he went too far and got burned for it.

What an amazing storyline by Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli. It very likely is their finest work together.

36. Ultimates (and friends) vs. The Liberators

In the second volume of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's The Ultimates, there had been a set-up of the Ultimates being set-up, as the evil Loki was helping to manipulate events so that the team would find themselves in disarray, just in time for an invasion of America by a group of super-soldiers from the various countries that President Bush considered the "new Axis" (Iran, North Korea, etc.).

The Ultimates were down and out, but, as they are wont to do, they came back from the dead and put together a defense of America including basically every hero in the Ultimate Universe to save the day.

Loki does not take this well, so he brings down a load of Asgardian bad guys, but Thor responds by bringing in a load of Asgardian GOOD guys and there is an epic (and mostly off-panel) battle and when it is all said and done, the Ultimates are victorious!

However, they do partially agree that their attitude early on in the series, where they were getting involved in foreign countries, WAS over the line, so they split from the United States government and go at it alone (funded by Tony Stark, Iron Man).

16 Comments

  • At December 25, 2008, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

    Man, you're busy today, posting all this.

    Aren't you supposed to be off today?

  • At December 25, 2008, Matt wrote:

    I am surprised to see how much people loved the Ultimates fights.

  • At December 25, 2008, Greg Hatcher wrote:

    Aren’t you supposed to be off today?

    I think he's using the post-date, timer function.

    But I'm working on this week's ...

  • At December 25, 2008, aboynamedposh wrote:

    Yep, 'BURN' made me punch the air the first time I read it, years ago.

  • At December 25, 2008, Black Manta wrote:

    I think the Mongul fight should have included Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin. WW fought long enough for Bats to ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Richard wrote:

    I think "Born Again" was perhaps the best story Frank Miller ever wrote. As much as I liked his original ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Ortiz wrote:

    The Daredevil Vs Nuke was awesome, a great fight, 'Born Again' is one of the few Daredevil stories I really ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Wolfsbane wrote:

    the only Ultimates fight i really loved was the team vs. Hulk cause it wasn't clean, it was a very ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Chris McAree wrote:

    "I think “Born Again” was perhaps the best story Frank Miller ever wrote. As much as I liked his original ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

    What issues is the Superman-Mongol fight in? Superman Annual #13.

    I don't think that number will be forgotten around these parts ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Chris McAree wrote:

    Thanks Brian!

  • At December 26, 2008, stealthwise wrote:

    That Mongul story is the only time where it's acceptable for Superman to cry, because he kicks so much ass ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 35-31 | Digg PhotoBlog wrote:

    [...] Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 40-36 Comic Book Resources ,December 26, 2008 Writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons ...

  • At December 27, 2008, Random Stranger wrote:

    The burn line is great but my favorite moment is that page of Mongul hearing Superman break out of the ...

  • At December 29, 2008, DanCJ wrote:

    We’ve seen a really angry Superman many times since but I don’t recall anything even remotely like it before and ...

  • At December 29, 2008, danjack wrote:

    i agree that this is Jason Todd's greatest moment.

    WW is great in this issue, as she takes a beating ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-40-36/feed/ 16 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 45-41 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-45-41/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-45-41/#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 21:21:14 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21390 Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

45. Heroes vs. Villains (Secret Wars)

I got some general votes for Heroes vs. Villains in Secret Wars, but I'm going with the specific battle that got the most votes (and counting all the votes for that as representative of "Heroes vs. Villains"), which is the fight in Secret Wars #8, which also was the first appearance of Spider-Man's black costume!

Earlier in the War, the Wasp was killed. The Avengers want to go take on the villainous murderers, but Captain America does not think they can stop monitoring Galactus, who appears ready to devour the Battleworld they're all stationed on.

She-Hulk goes it alone, then, and obviously gets beaten badly (I mean, duh, one She-Hulk < a bunch of villains).

The heroes want to go rescue her, but Cap still can't agree to leave. However, the X-Men show up and say they'll watch Galactus. That allows Cap to lead the heroes on an assault on the villain compound, and the heroes proceed to destroy the villains.

Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck handled the creative duties, and there are some notable scenes, but probably my favorite is the bit where Hawkeye takes down Piledriver of the Wrecking Crew (or was it Bulldozer? One of the loser duo of the group) with an arrow.

After the battle, the heroes used a machine to repair their costumes, and Spider-Man uses a machine he THINKS is the clothing repair machine but is actually a (bear with me here) prison holding an evil symbiote that attaches to Spider-Man and becomes his new black costume.

44. JLA (mostly Batman) vs. Hyperclan

So these new superheroes show up on Earth called the Hyperclan.

They proceed to pretty much end all suffering on Earth - fixing droughts, taking care of all the supervillains, etc.

They make the Justice League more or less obsolete.

Of course, they're secretly totally evil (there's this big execution scene where they kill all the villains they've rounded up).

The Justice League then takes them on, and early on, there's a great scene between the Flash and the speedster of the Hyperclan, Zum. Here, writer Grant Morrison vibes the Silver Age perfectly with Wally narrating about the "Flash Facts" that his Uncle Barry used to tell him, and Wally then uses one of them to take out Zum. Great scene. Artist Howard Porter does a great job there (and the cover above is really good, isn't it?).

Finally, though, the League is in big trouble, and it appears Martian Manhunter may even have turned on the League! Superman is captured and held under kryptonite control and Batman is seemingly dead.

Of course, the thing about Batman is - he prepares for everything.

Batman survives the plane crash that the bad guys think kill him (there's even a great explanation for why they do not examine the fiery wreckage to confirm his death) and he breaks into their headquarters and figures out their secret - they're actually White Martians!

In one of the coolest scenes ever, Batman takes out on of the Hyperclan and leaves a note for the rest on the unconscious villain - "I know your secret."

Later, he is surrounded and seemingly screwed, but that's when he reveals he knows their secret and then lights a match and drops it on the gasoline he's spread all over the floor.

Once he frees Superman (and Martian Manhunter reveals he never actually turned on the League), they mop the floor with the Hyperclan really easily and then hypnotize them all into becoming humans.

43. We3 vs. Government

We3 was a group of three animals who were turned into assassins by the government. They were a dog (1), a cat (2) and a rabbit (3). Well, while they were quite effective as killers, the government decided to upgrade the program, and kill off these test subjects (or "decommission" them).

Their trainer could not abide by this, so she freed the three, who then went on a incredible journey to find their "home," something they do not know if they ever will actually find (2 is fond of telling 1 this).

Well, the government naturally does not want these killing machines on the loose, so they send loads and loads of soldiers after them, but We3 kills them all fairly easily.

This leads to a confrontation with the animal that was to replace them - We4 (a bulldog).

4 kills 3, but in the end, 2 and 1 combine to take him out.

It is such a brilliantly executed fight scene by Frank Quitely (hell, the whole book is brilliantly executed by Quitely) and Grant Morrison comes up with some marvelous character moments mixed together, including 2 and 1 coming together as a team in these adverse times.

And of course, the trap for We3 also involved using their trainer, leading to perhaps the saddest comic panel this side of that panel with the grape in Y the Last Man (probably even sadder than that Y scene).

HEART-RENDING!!!

42. Batman vs. Bane (Knightfall)

You really have to give Bane some credit - if your sole purpose is just to beat the crap out of Batman, Bane did it perhaps the best way you could go about doing it.

First, Bane tested Batman for a little while, just gauging what kind of shape Batman was in, etc.

Then he broke almost all of Batman's Rogues Gallery out of Arkham Asylum and forced Batman to capture them all within, like, a week's time.

Then, when Batman was roundly exhausted by these battles, Bane shows up and takes on Batman.

Now, you certainly don't have to admire the fact that this is not honorable in the least bit, but hey, if all you want to do is beat up Batman - this is the way to go.

So in Batman #497, by Doug Moench and Jim Aparo (whose eyes probably popped out of his skull when he saw the royalties from this issue), Bane does just that - beat the hell out of Batman.

And, for the coup de grace, he breaks Batman's spine over his knee.

But as Batman mentioned just this past issue of Batman - that didn't stop Bruce Lee, and it didn't stop Batman (okay, his super-powered girlfriend, Ms. MacGuffin, certainly helped as well).

41. Batman vs. Joker (Killing Joke)

This is the fight that is most notable for something in the fight that had nothing to do with fighting at all.

In this one-shot by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, the Joker breaks into the home of Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbara (who had just recently retired as Batgirl). When Barbara answers the door, the Joker shoots her in the torso, paralyzing her for life. He then kidnaps and tortures Gordon for hours in an amusement park, all in an attempt to drive Gordon insane. Part of the torture involves showing him pictures of his bleeding daughter in various states of undress. Twisted stuff.

Batman shows up, and saves Gordon, and Gordon shows that he has not been broken by the Joker. He tells Batman to bring the Joker in by the book, to show that their way works.

Batman then goes in and, naturally, beats the Joker up and takes him into custody.

Before he turns him over to the police, though, he tries to break through to the Joker and try to get him to stop his madness. The Joker (throughout the story, Moore has been giving the readers a possible origin for the Joker) tells him no, and points out that he and Batman are basically just opposite ends of the same coin - two men turned based on one bad day - basically what he was trying to recreate with Gordon.

Finally, right as the book ends, Joker tells Batman a joke, and the book ends with both men laughing.

The joke, for the record:

See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum...and one night...one night they decide they don't like living in an asylum any more. They decide they’re going to escape! So like they get up on to the roof, and there, just across the narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in moon light...stretching away to freedom. Now the first guy he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend daren't make the leap. Y'see he's afraid of falling...So then the first guy has an idea. He says "Hey! I have my flash light with me. I will shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk across the beam and join me." But, the second guy just shakes his head. He says...he says "What do you think I am, crazy? You would turn it off when I was half way across."

So yeah, this fight is more known for the fact that it was the one where Batman and Joker laugh together more than anything else.

19 Comments

  • At December 25, 2008, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

    Has Bane done anything interesting since the Knightfall/Knightquest/Knightsend mega-arc? It seems like he's the super-villain equivalent of the premature ejaculator; ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

    Well, like I said, it seems his only goal was to beat up Batman, and he did that, so I ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Ortiz wrote:

    WE3 is really a heart-breaking story, it tells a lot about the concept of humanity. Batman beating down the ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Craig M. wrote:

    I never thought about it, but the way the entry about Bane breaking Batman's back reminds me of this character ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

    Good joke.

    One of my favourites.

    I tell it sometimes.

  • At December 25, 2008, Matt wrote:

    Just for the record, We4 was a bullmastiff, not a bulldog.

  • At December 25, 2008, Crash-Man wrote:

    I think We4 was a mastiff...

  • At December 25, 2008, The Mutt wrote:

    Why was 6 afraid of 7?

    Because 7 8 9.

  • At December 25, 2008, Da Fug wrote:

    Has Alan Moore written anything worse than The Killing Joke? It's one of the most disappointing things from my ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Zee wrote:

    I'm still hoping for Jean Paul Valley Azrael vs. Bane in Batman #500.

    Merry Christmas.

  • At December 25, 2008, chad wrote:

    once again the list keeps rising in good choices. most i read we3 i agree was sad. Bane proved ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Wolfsbane wrote:

    isse three of We3 is great and the fight with 4 and the gov't is well worth being on the ...

  • At December 26, 2008, sgt pepper wrote:

    Comic Book Legend: With We3, Grant Morrison inadvertently created lolcats.

  • At December 26, 2008, Tyler wrote:

    Actually, Nitz, you should check out the current Secret Six series. Bane is semi-reformed and refuses to use Venom ...

  • At December 29, 2008, Rusty Priske wrote:

    Bane in Secret Six is hilarious. His over-over-over protective attitude towards Scandal is worth the price of the book alone.

  • At December 29, 2008, Anonymous wrote:

    Has Alan Moore written anything worse than The Killing Joke?

    The lesser issues of Promethea (particularly the final issue). ...

  • At December 29, 2008, danjack wrote:

    i hated Aparo's work on Bane Vs Batman. Ugh. Anyone else?

  • At December 30, 2008, DanCJ wrote:

    Oops - That "Anonymous" post was me. For some reason most of my posts yesterday were either anonymous or ...

  • At January 7, 2009, Danny Potter wrote:

    Bane took a personal quest to destroy all of Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pits. and the killing joke was awesome ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-45-41/feed/ 19 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 50-46 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-50-46/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-50-46/#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:11:53 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21389 Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

50. Jesse Custer vs. Cassidy

A great deal of the plot of Garth Ennis' Preacher deals with the deep friendship between the titular character, Jesse Custer, and his friend Cassidy, the Irish vampire. However, as the series progresses, Jesse (and the reader) learn more and more unsettling things about Cassidy - Cassidy is basically a bastard.

Jesse probably knew that deep down, he just never thought Cassidy would turn on HIM, but he did when he took advantage of Jesse's main squeeze, Tulip, when Jesse was thought to be dead.

So in the penultimate issue of Preacher, Jesse and Cassidy meet up and have a fist fight. It's a great brawl, mostly for the fact that Cassidy has a large power advantage over Jesse, but Jesse is skilled (and Cassidy is a drunk) and he manages to defeat Cassidy easily while insulting Cassidy and putting him down.

Ultimately, when Cassidy is defeated, Jesse can't help but offer him a hand to help. This inspirational faith from his friend leads Cassidy to enter the sunshine and burn to a crisp.

Later, we learned that Cassidy made a deal with God right before he met up with Jesse at the end of the series.

49. Thor vs. Beta Ray Bill

Beta Ray Bill was a member of a race of people called the Korbinites, a people who were driven to near extinction when their galaxy was ravaged by the evil Asgardian creature Surtur. When Bill's spaceship enters Earth's orbit, Thor is sent by SHIELD to investigate. Bill's ship detects Thor as being related to Surtur (they're both Norse) and attacks.

Bill fights Thor pretty well, and in the melee, Thor loses his hammer and reverts back to Don Blake. Bill picks up Blake's cane and accidentally taps it, becoming a version of Thor!

Odin then determines Bill and Thor should fight for who gets to be the wielder of Mjolnir. They have a brutal battle that ends with both being knocked unconscious - Bill wins by being the first to regain consciousness (due to his alien DNA he recovers easier in the circumstances they found themselves in - they were in Bill's neck of the woods).

While he does not make Bill Thor, per se, Odin does create a brand NEW magic hammer just for Bill called Stormbreaker.

Bill has basically been an alien version of Thor from that point on. Walt Simonson (writer/artist on Thor at the time) felt Beta Ray Bill would be just the fresh start the book needed, so he featured Bill in his first storyline on Thor, #337-339. Fans quickly responded favorably to the off-beat new character.

48. Hulk vs. The Superheroes of New York City

The fight in The Incredible Hulk #300 is, in many ways, a precursor to more recent stories involving the Hulk. The comic was written by Bill Mantlo and was drawn by Sal Buscema, and it depicts the Hulk becoming basically what everyone always feared the Hulk would become - an actual mindless brute, as Doctor Strange's earlier work with the Hulk to allow Banner's personality to take over has backfired and now Banner is nowhere to be seen.

The Hulk is on a monstrous rampage in New York and the street-level heroes of New York such as Spider-Man and Daredevil show up, mostly just to keep civilians (and the SHIELD agents trying to slow the Hulk down) out of harm's way.

The Human Torch and Iron Fist both taken down when they attempt to interfere with the Hulk's rampage.

Ultimately, the Avengers show up - one of the new Avengers at the time, Starfox, tries to use his soothing power on the Hulk, but it is no good as the Hulk is pretty much brainless at this point.

The other Avengers have little success either, and ultimately they just get out of the way and let Thor take Hulk on one-on-one, which stalls the Hulk's progress a bit.

Doctor Strange has been frantically trying to figure out a way out of this, and his solution is to trick Hulk into entering a dimensional gateway. In other words, basically what Doctor Strange (as a member of the Illuminati) did to the Hulk later on when he sent him to another planet to get him off of the people of Earth's toes.

47. Flash vs. Professor Zoom (Return of Barry Allen)

Outside of a out of place and dated reference to the 1988 Vice-Presidential debates (and since the comic came out in 1993, well...), the Return of Barry Allen by Mark Waid and Greg Larocque was handled almost note perfectly.

The concept behind the storyline was a way to establish that Wally West really is THE Flash, not just A Flash, and to do so, Barry Allen "returns," only we learn that it is actually Professor Zoom disguised as Barry.

At first, Zoom thinks he IS Barry, and acts as such, but soon his evil personality takes over and, as Zoom, he takes out the other speedsters.

Ultimately, it comes down to Wally truly embracing his legacy as THE Flash so that he can run to his highest capabilities and defeat Zoom.

It's a delightful coming of age story by Waid, who was soon into his acclaimed run on the Flash.

46. Spider-Man vs. Kraven (Kraven's Last Hunt)

Spider-Man and Kraven the Hunter tangled many times over the years, but none like the aptly titled Kraven's Last Hunt.

In this story, Kraven actually SUCCEEDS in hunting down Spider-Man! He tracks Spidey down, shoots him and buries him!!

Kraven then dresses in Spider-Man's costume and proceeds to show how he is, in his mind, better at being Spider-Man than Spider-Man himself. Part of this demonstration was the solo capture of the bizarre creature, Vermin, who Spider-Man was unable to bring in on his own.

When Spidey finally woke up from the tranquilizer dart (the gun that shot Spidey was actually a tranq gun), he was met by Kraven who told him that Vermin had just escaped - Spidey could take Kraven into custody or hunt down Vermin.

Spidey chose the latter, and in the closing of the comic for Spidey, he manages to, for the first time, defeat Vermin by himself.

That is the closing for Spidey, the closing for Kraven, however, comes via the barrel of a gun, as Kraven finally found inner peace upon "killing" Spider-Man, so he "celebrated" by ending his own life - his "last hunt" now over.

15 Comments

  • At December 25, 2008, eRIC wrote:

    It's really a shame the J.M. DeMatties doesn't get more credit as one of the best Spider-Man writers ever. He ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

    Hmph!

    Jesse Custer vs Cassidy should have been in the top ten!

    Hmph!

  • At December 25, 2008, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

    I'm torn; should I be glad that Jesse vs. Cassidy actually placed on a list dominated by superhero genre " ...

  • At December 25, 2008, sgt rawk wrote:

    The whole list could've been about Ogami Itto ... I have a feeling the Top 10 is going to be ...

  • At December 25, 2008, JackKing wrote:

    "Special Abnormally Large Size Issue!"

    I love it.

  • At December 25, 2008, Iron Maiden wrote:

    Great reading throughout the list.... the only thing missing is the writer and artist credits on some of the selections. ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Mars Bonfire wrote:

    "Kraven's Last Hunt" were the last Spider-Man comics I bought after reading his adventures for 11 years. University got in ...

  • At December 25, 2008, jazzbo wrote:

    Man, these are all great entries. I've never been much of a Spider-Man fan, but Kraven's last hunt is one ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Fanboy wrote:

    I've never actually read "Kraven's Last Hunt", but I stumbled across its sequel "Kraven: Soul of the Hunter" (also written ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Matt Bird wrote:

    If those six Kraven/Spider-Man issues can count as one fight, then why can't the those six dreadful Superboy Prime Infinite ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

    If those six Kraven/Spider-Man issues can count as one fight, then why can’t the those six dreadful Superboy Prime Infinite ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Adam wrote:

    I have to say: Incredible Hulk #300 has one of the BEST Thor vs. Hulk fights. EVER. The ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Black Manta wrote:

    I can't remember how Dr. Strange was involved with helping keep Banner in comtrol of Hulk. I remember Hulk returning ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Rene wrote:

    Black Manta -

    If I remember right, Nightmare is causing Banner to lose control of the Hulk again. Doctor Strange ...

  • At December 29, 2008, danjack wrote:

    Love Waid. Love Flash. Love Wally West. Loved the Return of Barry Allen storyline. The art isn't the greatest, but ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/25/top-100-comic-book-battles-50-46/feed/ 15 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 55-51 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/24/top-100-comic-book-battles-55-51/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/24/top-100-comic-book-battles-55-51/#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 04:23:43 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21388 Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

55. Nova vs. Annihilus

Annihilus has always been a rather unpleasant individual, but for the most part of his history, his bad attitude has been restrained to the Negative Zone, and really, who cares about the Negative Zone?

However, in the major Marvel cosmic event called Annihilation, Annihilus gathers that the universe is expanding into the Negative Zone, so therefore, the universe is fair game as far as he is concerned, so he launches the so-called "Annihilation Wave" a large armada of Negative Zone battleships that can reduce a planet full of people to carrion within an hour (maybe faster - I forget).

Annihilus teams up with Thanos (who might have his own motives - we shall see) and along with some other powerful bad guys, he captures Galactus himself!

Annihilus is planning on using Galactus to fuel basically a "Power Cosmic Bomb" which will destroy both the universe AND the Negative Zone, leaving only Annihilus alive.

He is such a little creep, that Annihilus!

Luckily, Galactus is freed by Drax and the Silver Surfer (who had also been a prisoner of Annihilus), and Galactus flips out and, well, annihilates the Annihilation Wave. Only a few beings are left alive in the whole area of the destruction, and that includes Nova and Annihilus. Now, earlier on, Nova was saved from an attack by Annihilus by the heroic intervention of Quasar, who was killed by Annihilus with the cosmic bands being taken in by Annihilus.

Now, dazed by the battle, Phyla-Vell was able to procure the quantum bands from Annihilus, leaving him vulnerable enough for Nova to finish him.

Nova did so, delivering the killing blow - basically just sticking his hand down Annihilus' throat and tearing out his internal organs, killing him (for now).

Cool ending to a cool series.

54. Colossus vs. Juggernaut

You can just imagine the mood Colossus was in after Secret Wars. If you need to remember one thing about Colossus, it is this - if you leave him in any sort of different location than he normally is in, he WILL hook up with one of the natives. That is why the X-Men never take him to the Caribbean, as there would be little Caribbean Rasputins up and down the islands. Well, Kitty Pryde did not know this, so she and Colossus ended their (fairly age inappropriate) relationship when she found out that Colossus had made time with an alien girl during Secret Wars. And this was not long after Kitty was willing to marry Caliban of the Morlocks so that Colossus would get some help from the Morlocks (CALIBAN, PEOPLE!).

So Wolverine wanted to take Colossus out to talk some sense into him in Uncanny X-Men #183 (Chris Claremont handled the words and John Romita Jr. did the pencils), and Nightcrawler came along to make sure it did not become a fist fight. While at a bar, Colossus accidentally bumps into Juggernaut, who happens to be at the same bar just trying to pick up a lady at the bar. Juggernaut may have been willing to let it go, but Colossus was in a foul mood, and so they brawl (Wolverine, of course, was aware that Juggernaut was there the whole time).

Colossus actually holds his own pretty well in the fight, but Juggernaut probably was not trying TOO hard. Ultimately, Juggernaut just quits, compliments Colossus on his skills, pays the bar for the damage and takes off, pissed that he can't get away for one night.

Colossus, meanwhile, is pissed off that Wolverine and Nightcrawler didn't get his back - then Wolverine gets right back in his face and tells him off about how lame he's being - about how he did not even THANK Kitty for being willing to marry Caliban (CALIBAN, PEOPLE!) and the Colossus was being a big ol' egotistical baby.

Good times.

53. Fantastic Four plus Friends vs. Galactus

So Galactus' herald at the time, Terrax, shows up on Earth and actually transports the island of Manhattan into orbit. The Avengers help out those who are left behind in tunnels and such when the island is lifted while the Fantastic Four deal with Terrax. Apparently, Terrax no longer wants to work for Galactus, and Galactus is not having any of that, so he pursues Terrax to Earth to destroy him, well, Terrax figures that if he holds the island of Manhattan hostage, he can get the Fantastic Four to destroy Galactus FOR him.

The next issue, Fantastic Four #243 (this storyline was part of John Byrne's classic run on Fantastic Four as writer/artist), has the Fantastic Four and some of their New York friends (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and Doctor Strange) taking on Galactus, who is in a weakened state, and actually defeating him!!!

However, Reed Richards realizes that they can't let Galactus die - he is too important to the universe, so the next issue, they actually SAVE Galactus' life! In the process, Terrax is stripped of his powers and the Human Torch's girlfriend becomes the new herald of Galactus, Nova!

But for one shining moment, the heroes of the Marvel Universe took on Galactus - and kicked his big purple butt!

52. Superman vs. Muhammad Ali

Remember the Champion from earlier on the countdown? Well, that is basically the plot of Superman vs. Muhammad Ali.

Some aliens want to have Earth's best fighter fight THEIR best fighter or else they will invade and destroy Earth.

Both Superman and Muhammad Ali volunteer to do the fighting, and the alien leader determines that the two will fight on a planet with a Red Sun to determine who will fight the alien champion.

Well, naturally, Ali beats Superman badly (I mean, duh!), and he takes on the champion. Meanwhile, Superman (now recovered due to his healing powers) heads out and wipes out the alien invasion fleet while Ali takes care of the alien boxing champion.

However, the alien bad guy (Scrubb something) decides to back out of his word and still order an invasion, but his own champion turns on the leader for being dishonorable, and the bad guy is overthrown!

51. X-Men vs. Magneto (Fatal Attractions)

So Colossus, ever a bowl of laughs before, gets even more morose when his sister dies of the Legacy virus (his parents were also recently killed, as was his brother - damn, harsh luck). So when Magneto shows up at the funeral and asks for X-Men to join him, Colossus actually gets up and leaves with Magneto.

Later on, Magneto decides to make a big show of force to let the world know not to mess with him (as the world's powers were developing an "anti-Magneto force field around the Earth"), so he smacks around Earth's electro-magnetic fields, killing a bunch of people (but really, while his actions murdered a bunch of innocent people, Magneto is just misunderstood - really).

So the X-Men and particularly Professor X, feel that this has gone on long enough, so Xavier and a small group of X-Men sneak on to Magneto's Asteroid headquarters with the intention of taking him out. You know how you're not supposed to bring a knife to a gun fight? Probably not supposed to bring a dude made out of metal to a fight with a guy who controls metal.

Magneto shows why this is such a bad idea when he yanks the metal off of Wolverine's skeleton, almost killing him in the process.

Xavier has had enough, and uses his vast telepathic power to wipe Magneto's mind clean - a lobotomy, of sorts.

The X-Men leave with their wounded teammate, and Colossus stays behind, dreading the sponge baths that await him in the future.

12 Comments

  • At December 25, 2008, Black Manta wrote:

    You forgot to mention Wasp in the Galactus fight. She flew in his helmet and blasted him until he came ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Chris McAree wrote:

    Love that Ali in the DCU issue! (Even though Spinks was champ by the time it came out).

  • At December 25, 2008, Ant wrote:

    The best part of the Galactus fight is when Doctor Strange shows up and throws the magic acid trip freak ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Greg Burgas wrote:

    Didn't Peter inadvertently save Juggernaut's life? The women he was trying to pick up was Selene, who would have ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

    You are correct, Greg!

    I would have mentioned it, but I figured the less said about Selene, the better. ;)

  • At December 25, 2008, Ortiz wrote:

    Nova vs Annihilus is my Top Ten, really great issue, one of the best events in recent history. Peace.

  • At December 25, 2008, Peedi wrote:

    Colossus did save Juggernaut. Selene picked another dude up instead, and instead of getting lucky, he got his life force ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Mike Blake wrote:

    Black Manta points out something I'd forgotten, the Wasp taking on Galactus. Predating the Atom bringing down Darkseid by years. ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Matt Bird wrote:

    It's nice to see that my copy of FF #243 isn't the only copy that looks filthy. Was it ...

  • At December 28, 2008, Eldric IV wrote:

    "It’s nice to see that my copy of FF #243 isn’t the only copy that looks filthy. Was it just ...

  • At December 29, 2008, danjack wrote:

    When i was a kid and saw the Ali vs Superman cover i thought 'That's stupid! Supes would just push ...

  • At December 30, 2008, Brian wrote:

    "This issue came out the year I was born, but I remember this issue was “copied” by a later issue ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/24/top-100-comic-book-battles-55-51/feed/ 12 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 60-56 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/24/top-100-comic-book-battles-60-56/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/24/top-100-comic-book-battles-60-56/#comments Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:21:58 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21387 Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

60. Wolverine vs. Sabretooth (Mutant Massacre)

This is the second Wolverine vs. Sabretooth fight on the countdown (here is the first one).

After the Marauders slaughter a great deal of the Morlocks during the so-called "Mutant Massacre," the X-Men show up and save a bunch of Morlocks, but suffer great casualties themselves, forcing them to retreat back to the X-Mansion. Wolverine and Sabretooth have their first tangle in the tunnels when Wolverine is attempting to save the Morlock Healer who, naturally, would come in handy in a Mutant Massacre, so Sabretooth is attempting to kill the Healer.

Wolverine manages to drop a wall on Sabretooth and escape with the Healer.

Sabretooth, though, manages to track them back to the X-Mansion. After he takes out Rogue, Psylocke (just a guest of the X-Men at that point in time) has a memorable fight where she takes on Sabretooth and acquits herself pretty well until Wolverine shows up to have a rematch of their tunnel match.

At this point the rest of the X-Men show up and Magneto could obviously end the fight pretty easily, but Psylocke asks him not to, because she can only get past Sabretooth's mental defenses if he is distracted, which he is while fighting Wolverine. Magneto agrees, and Wolverine and Sabretooth have a memorable tussle.

The fight ends when Wolverine reveals that Sabretooth has been conned - the rest of the X-Men show up to capture him, but Sabretooth escapes by jumping off of a cliff to the lake below.

The X-Men then officially make Psylocke a member of the team.

59. Superboy Prime vs. Supermen

As established in a previous fight on the countdown, Conner Kent managed to defeat the plans of Alex Luthor and Superboy Prime in Infinite Crisis #6.

Well, while that basically took Luthor out of play, it did not take Superboy Prime out of the picture, and in Infinite Crisis #7 (by Geoff Johns and a bunch of artists, including Phil Jimenez and George Perez), Superboy Prime decides he is just going to destroy Oa, which is the center of the universe, in a fit of rage (sort of a "If I can't have my perfect universe, no one can have a universe!").

A whole pile of the Green Lantern Corps show up to try to slow him down, but they are mostly unsuccessful (and about three dozen of them lose their lives in the process) but we soon learn that this is part of a risky gambit.

The other two Supermen, Kal-L (Earth-2 Superman) and Kal-El (the "main" Superman), show up and drag Superboy Prime through the place where Krypton once was (essentially now a field of kryptonite) and they then go through the red sun of Krypton. The three land on a nearby planet (the Green Lantern Mogo) where the three are now all powerless.

Then it comes down to a good ol' fashioned fist fight, with Kal-El finally being able to put the kibosh on Superboy Prime, but not before Kal-L dies from injuries sustained during the fight.

58. The remains of the JLA vs. Darkseid (Rock of Ages)

During the Rock of Ages storyline, Aquaman, Flash and Green Lantern find themselves transported fifteen years into the future into their future selves in a world that has long since been conquered by Darkseid (later, we learn, it was due to the events happening back in the present). They team up with the last remnants of the JLA, which is in a sorry state, indeed, as it consists of only Wonder Woman, Green Arrow (Connor Hawke), the Atom, the former Teen Titan Argent, a female Aztek and a reprogrammed Amazo.

Luckily, the tide is already helped a bit when we learn that Batman, who has spent the last eight years being tortured by DeSaad, has won the battle of wills between he and DeSaad, so Batman is there to help lead the attack.

The battle was getting rough, and the Leaguers were getting tossed, if not for the courage of Green Arrow and Atom, the Earth would totally be lost.

After pretty much everyone else is killed, it comes down to Green Arrow and the Atom versus Darkseid and his seemingly impenetrable force field. However, since Darkseid can SEE them, obviously light can get in. So the Atom has Green Arrow fire him on an arrow at Darkseid, then shrink down small enough where he can ride a photon on a beam of light right into Darkseid's eye then to Darkseid's brain, where he enlarges, frying Darkseid's brain but killing himself in the process.

So yeah, Green Arrow and the Atom took down Darkseid.

Awesome.

57. Punisher vs. the Russian

The Russian was one of the deadliest killers in the whole world, able to take down entire Delta Force squads with ease, so when he was sent after Frank Castle, the Punisher, Castle was pretty much screwed.

The Russian showed up and proceeded to more or less mop the floor with Castle, practically beating Castle to death.

Luckily, the Punisher was at least able to move the fight out of his own apartment building and he and the monstrous Russian burst into the apartment of Castle's neighbor, the morbidly obese Mr. Bumpo. It was here that the Punisher finally got some good luck, as Bumpo had just returned home with five pipin' hot pizzas. The Punisher threw the hot pizza in the Russians face - the burning grease distracted the Russian long enough for the Punisher to trip the Russian and, in one of the most absurdly gross methods of killing a man, knocked the 1200 pound Mr. Bumpo on to the Russian's face and kept him there for a half hour, smothering the Russian to death.

For good measure, the Punisher decapitated the Russian.

Of course, that, amusingly enough, was not the last we would see of the Russian, but that's another story (a hilarious one, but still, another one), also from the same creators of this issue, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon...

56. Superman vs. the Elite

"What's so funny about Truth, Justice & The American Way?" was a very popular issue of Action Comics back in 2001 (it was issue #775), written by Joe Kelly with art by two awesome artists, Doug Mahnke and Lee Bermejo.

The issue was a bit allegory for the great popularity of the Authority at the time, who I believe were actually out-selling Superman's comics back then. The Authority were representative of the "modern" superhero, one willing to do whatever it takes to save the day, even if that meant killing.

In this issue, Joe Kelly introduces an Authority send-off called The Elite, led by Manchester Black (a take-off of Authority leader Jenny Sparks).

The Elite were superheroes who, in many ways, were just as bad as the villains they were after, using methods that bordered on sadistic, with little regard to civilians and friendly fire. However, the public were loving them - and Superman, in return, was being treated as though he was no longer cool, because he WOULDN'T kill.

Finally, Superman challenges the Elite to a fight, which is globally televised. At first, it appears as though the Elite have defeated Superman, but Superman then reveals that he has used his powers in sneaky manners to defeat them all, and seemingly kill most of the group.

Superman then uses this opportunity to opine about how easy it is to use great power to kill, but it is more heroic not to, to use great responsibility with said great power.

He then reveals that he actually did not kill (or even really hurt) any of the Elite, but rather that he used his powers to make it look like he did.

The issue was extremely popular at the time, even getting a second printing (very rare for a comic not tied into any crossover), and Manchester Black later returned to have another fight over Superman's ideals (Superman won that one, too), and the rest of the Elite were later redeemed, of sorts, by Kelly and Mahnke in Justice League Elite.

18 Comments

  • At December 24, 2008, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

    Technically, the Uncanny X-Men issue was PSYLOCKE vs. Sabretooth. There was a good Logan/Creed in the prior issue ( which ...

  • At December 24, 2008, karl wrote:

    i still remember being like 14 and every month between morrison's rock of ages storyline seeming like years... it was ...

  • At December 24, 2008, DanLarkin wrote:

    There sure are a lot of Superboy Prime fights on this list. Oh well. Glad to see the Rock ...

  • At December 24, 2008, Teebore wrote:

    There sure are a lot of Superboy Prime fights on this list. Oh well.

    I was just thinking the same thing. ...

  • At December 24, 2008, stealthwise wrote:

    That Superboy Prime fight had to be the worst, most wrong-headed of any Superman fight I've ever seen. It's ...

  • At December 24, 2008, Jeff Holland wrote:

    That issue of Action never sat right with me, because it didn't really answer the question of why Superman's better. ...

  • At December 24, 2008, Jeff Holland wrote:

    But regarding JLA: I think we were all very proud of Green Arrow and Atom that day.

  • At December 24, 2008, Ant wrote:

    I agree th Green Arrow and Atom taking down Darkseid was great but the best battle in Rock of Ages ...

  • At December 24, 2008, Luis Dantas wrote:

    Jeff Holland, the point is that Authority-like antics create as much trouble as they solve. Violence creates more violence.

    Superman, ...

  • At December 24, 2008, Stefan wrote:

    Am I write that the mutant massacre battle was the first fight between Logan and Sabretooth?

  • At December 24, 2008, Tungsten Man wrote:

    Kind of funky to see IC and Prime on here so much, but, hey, it's true.

  • At December 24, 2008, Jbird wrote:

    Hey, wow, I think I still have a Marvel Masterpieces card based on that Uncanny X-men cover.

  • At December 24, 2008, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

    " Superman, at its best, is all about not falling into that senseless trap and instead aiming for higher ideals. ...

  • At December 25, 2008, plok wrote:

    I dunno, Nitz -- but the soldiers and cops totally won't ever kill the Joker either, nor will courts sentence ...

  • At December 25, 2008, Ortiz wrote:

    Three great fights in this pack, the one from the Rock of the Ages is the best, outstanding.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    karl wrote:

    i still ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Ted wrote:

    But if the Atom knew where the photon was, then how could he know it was heading towards Darkseid?

  • At December 28, 2008, Eldric IV wrote:

    Get the hell out of my comics, Heisenberg!

  • At December 29, 2008, danjack wrote:

    Rock of Ages was a great Morrison read, that i will at some point pull out and read again, and ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/24/top-100-comic-book-battles-60-56/feed/ 18 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 65-61 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/23/top-100-comic-book-battles-65-61/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/23/top-100-comic-book-battles-65-61/#comments Wed, 24 Dec 2008 05:55:11 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21386 Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

65. Thor vs. Iron Man

After the events of Civil War (heck, DURING Civil War, even), there appeared to pop up a bit of a cottage industry of comic books devoted just to trashing Iron Man, as a good deal of comic book fans had some real issues with Iron Man after Civil War, so Marvel creators seemed to take that interest in seeing Iron Man "get his" by, well, having comics where Iron Man is either dressed down or, in the case of Thor #3, dressed down AND beaten down.

Thor, of course, has slightly more of a beef with Iron Man than others do, as while Thor was seemingly dead, Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic and the Skrull pretending to be Yellowjacket got together and made a clone of Thor that went a bit nuts and killed the superhero known as Goliath (Bill Foster).

So when Thor came back from the dead and brought back Asgard as a floating city in the middle of the American midwest, Iron Man came a-callin' as a representative of the United States government, and Thor was none too pleased.

Thor #3 consists of Thor basically taking Iron Man apart while at the same time expressing his displeasure with the decisions of Tony Stark.

Artist Olivier Coipel did a marvelous job drawing writer J. Michael Straczynski's story.

64. Superman vs. Batman (Hush)

One of the hallmarks of the Hush storyline by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee was that each issue would guest star a notable character from the Batman mythos, and one of the most memorable early stories of the year-long storyline was Batman #612, where Poison Ivy brainwashes Superman into going after Batman.

Loeb plays about as fair as you're going to get when it comes to Superman vs. Batman fights, as he stresses the fact that Superman is fighting the control of Ivy the whole time, which is why he doesn't just kill Batman right away, and Loeb also has Superman overpower basically every idea Batman comes up with. In fact, the main idea of Batman's fight is that he is just trying to stay alive for a few minutes while he comes up with a way to free Superman from Ivy's control, and he tries every trick in the book to do so (and Superman deals with each trick pretty easily) until Batman endangers Lois Lane's life in an attempt to shake Ivy's hold on Superman - and it works, but that shows just how dirty Batman is willing to play - he's willing to endanger an innocent for the good of the rest of the innocents out there.

63. Batman vs. Ra's Al Ghul (First Duel)

An interesting aspect of the first stories involving Ra's Al Ghul by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams (besides the fact that there really wasn't a "first story" by O'Neil and Adams, as Irv Novick shared the art duties on the first few Ra's stories almost evenly with Adams) is the fact that the Batman within these stories is barely recognizable to the super-competent Batman of today. The Batman of the first Ra's story really needs the help of other practically ordinary people to help bring down Ra's.

Ra's and Talia had been around for a little while before the famous first duel between Batman and Ra's took place.

Batman fakes Bruce Wayne's death and takes on the identity of Matches Malone for the first time (Malone is introduced and is killed in these issues, leaving the identity available for Batman to use). He teams up with a scientist who had worked with Ra's (not of his own volition) and they race to stop Ra's and Talia from unleashing a deadly plague. Through the story, Batman gets aid from some unlikely sources, like a famous skier!!

Ultimately, Batman tracks them down only to discover Ra's dead. He takes Talia into custody but is then confronted by Ra's - this is the first time we see the use of the Lazarus Pit. Batman is quickly subdued and Ra's and his daughter take off.

This is probably the first "wow, Batman is tough" scene, as Batman manages to catch up with them and confront them again in the desert. Ra's is suitably impressed. They proceed to have a sword duel in the desert that Batman perhaps would have won, but a scorpion stings Batman.

As he lies dying, Talia's love for Batman outweighs her daughterly fealty, and she gives Batman an antidote. He then captures Ra's and takes him into custody, winning their first battle, but not in the ultra-capable way we're used to Batman winning battles nowadays.

62. Supergirl vs. Anti-Monitor

The times were looking pretty bleak for the heroes of the multiverse about mid-way through Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Monitor, the big guy that was helping the heroes against the Anti-Monitor, was now dead.

In his death, however, he managed to protect five Earths (coincidentally, the ones with all the coolest superheroes on them). However, that respite did not appear to be lasting too long, as the Anti-Monitor was beginning an assault on these last five Earths and if the heroes did not so something quick, they would not even have a chance to come up with any counter-attacks against the Anti-Monitor.

The situation was getting rough, and the relatively tiny heroes were tossed, if not for the courage of Supergirl, the heroes would all be lost.

Luckily, Supergirl decided to make a stand and take on the Anti-Monitor all by her lonesome, and in doing so, she allowed the other heroes to escape and plan for another day. She did not manage to KILL the Anti-Monitor, but she sure managed to make him know that he had been in a fight. Sadly, he also killed her in the ensuing battle.

The epic fight, masterfully executed by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, led to one of the most iconic covers of the past twenty-five years.

61. Batman vs. Joker (Dark Knight Returns)

We recently discussed this very topic in a Comics Should Be Good mailbag, about the notion that superheroes, by existing, help create super-villains by being the action that draws the natural reaction. It's a popular notion nowadays, but it wasn't so much back when Dark Knight Returns came out, and Frank Miller played with this idea dramatically.

In Dark Knight Returns, the Joker has been catatonic for a decade - the same amount of time Batman has been out of the picture. Once Batman returns to the spotlight, so too does the Clown Prince of Crime.

The Joker fakes sanity so that he could be released - he then gets himself on to a popular talk show where he very publicly kills the entire studio audience (Batman tries to get there in time but is stymied by the police).

He escapes the studio and goes on a killing rampage at a local amusement park, killing a number of Cub Scouts and planting a bomb. Batman defuses the bomb and, in a fit of rage over their continuous dance the two have, Batman snaps the Joker's neck - but stops short of killing him.

In one last attempt at getting at Batman, the Joker twists his head until the rest of his spine snaps, killing him and thereby framing Batman for his murder - one last piece of revenge.

6 Comments

  • At December 24, 2008, stealthwise wrote:

    With the exception of the R'as Ah Ghul fight, all of these kind of depressed me, as they all kind ...

  • At December 24, 2008, ggersten wrote:

    It took me several years to locate the Batman/Ras Al Ghul issue - Back in the days of newstand distribution, ...

  • At December 24, 2008, Ortiz wrote:

    Thor vs. Iron Man was a good fight, I was really pleased with that one. The best of this five ...

  • At December 24, 2008, Max Bialy wrote:

    The DKR is so far ahead the other four that I don't even know how to finish this sente...

  • At December 28, 2008, Jbird wrote:

    Honestly, though, that Thor story was standard, lazy post-CW JMS Stark. Tony hasn't seen his friend alive in years and ...

  • At December 29, 2008, DanCJ wrote:

    The TDKR fight was good, but for me it was behind the Bats vs Superman fight (which was my #1) ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/23/top-100-comic-book-battles-65-61/feed/ 6 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 70-66 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/22/top-100-comic-book-battles-70-66/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/22/top-100-comic-book-battles-70-66/#comments Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:46:54 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21382 Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

70. Wolverine vs. Sabretooth (Right before the Age of Apocalypse)

This fight (written by Larry Hama) is probably most notable for the fact that it was perhaps the first time Wolverine actually popped the third claw after doing the bit where he puts his two side claws around a person's head then says something like "Don't make me give you the third claw" (the third claw being in the middle, so it would go through the person's head, naturally). He used to do that a lot during the 90s, but never actually popped the third claw.

Well, in this fight, he actually popped the third claw!!

In any event, at some point around 1993 or 94, Professor X took Sabretooth in in an attempt to rehabilitate him. Wolverine was away from the team at this point, going through some issues due to his adamantium being pulled out of his body by Magneto. So in Wolverine #90, when Wolverine returns to the X-Mansion, well, as you might imagine, he is displeased at seeing Sabretooth there.

Sabretooth, meanwhile, also wants to fight Wolverine but can't because he is held back by a force field. However, being extremely tough, Sabretooth manages to get past the force field - but Logan is waiting for him.

They tussle, and Sabretooth is talking all sorts of trash.

The comic came with fold-out pages, letting artist Adam Kubert really cut loose on the fight scenes.

Finally, Wolverine had Sabretooth at his mercy with the claw routine, and Sabretooth is mocking him about how Wolverine better kill him, because if he doesn't, Sabretooth will kill someone Wolverine loves (as he has done so many times in the past).

The book ends as Wolverine pops the third claw to the awesome sound effect "SCHLIKT!" as reality falls apart and the Age of Apocalypse begins (we later find out that Wolverine basically lobotomized Sabretooth, but as he has a healing factor, Sabes gets better eventually).

69. Spider-Man vs. Morlun (First Battle)

J. Michael Straczynski began his run on Amazing Spider-Man with artist John Romita Jr. by both introducing the idea of the Spider-totem (did the radioactive spider give Peter powers due to it being radioactive, or was the spider already a super spider?) and also introducing the poweful villain Morlun.

Morlun is drawn to Spider-Man because he needs to feed on Spider-Man and the pure energy within him.

The fight between Spider-Man and Morlun is a great one because it also manages to work in the whole "Spider-Man never backs down from a fight" routine that makes other Spidey stories so good (and, of course, John Romita Jr. is a great artist).

Although, it's interesting that this is a fight where Spider-Man actually DOES try to flee, but he can't because Morlun starts killing civilians until Spider-Man will fight him again. Spidey only gets a respite when an explosion ruins Morlun's clothes. Morlun's powers work in a way that he can always find Spider-Man again, so he leaves to go get new clothes and find Spider-Man again.

Morlun is very powerful, but even worse, every time he hits Spider-Man, he drains some energy from him, making the blows that much worse.

Spidey is in bad shape, and he is only saved from the man, Ezekiel, who told him about Morlun recently. Ezekiel manages to draw blood by a punch to Morlun's nose, but Morlun is able to absorb Ezekiel's energy, leaving him sated for now.

Spidey uses this time to examine Morlun's blood and come up with a way to stop him - when next they meet, Spidey has injected himself with radiation - so when Morlun tries to absorb Spidey's energy - it is no longer pure - it s now "tainted" with radiation!!

This weakens Morlun to the point where Morlun's assistant takes the opportunity to kill Morlun.

68. Doom vs. Beyonder

When the Beyonder called a bunch of Marvel heroes and villains to Battleworld to battle it out for the "ultimate prize," he did not take into consideration the fact that Doctor Doom was not one for taking orders. Doom is all about taking power for himself on his OWN terms, like the time he took the Silver Surfer's Power Cosmic.

Doom decides to do the same to the Beyonder, and confronts him in Secret Wars #10, in a devastating battle where the Beyonder puts Doom through quite a beating - however, Doom knows that if he can just hold off long enough to absorb the power, he can fix himself. And if there's one thing Doom has going for him - it's willpower.

And ultimately, Doom succeeds! He beats the seemingly unbeatable! He has the power of the Beyonder! Of course, the Beyonder secretly puts some of his essence into Klaw to protect himself from Doom, but still, Doom did quite an impressive feat.

67. Magneto vs. Apocalypse

The Age of Apocalypse was based on the idea of what would happen if a powerful mutant killed Professor X in the past before he could create the X-Men? The power display would waken Apocalypse, who would attack the world before it had the proper superhero defenders to stop Apocalypse, and Apocalypse would soon rule the world.

However, with Professor X dead, Magneto would have to be the one who started the X-Men, and in the Age of Apocalypse, we see that Magneto and Apocalypse have had quite a few battles over the year through Magneto's X-Men and Apocalypse's forces of evil.

Magneto had been captured by Apocalypse's forces earlier on in the storyline, and in the final issue of the crossover, X-Men: Omega (by Scott Lobdell & Mark Waid with pencils by Roger Cruz), Magneto has been tortured and is in bad shape. Meanwhile, nukes are falling all over the place in an attempt to destroy Apocalypse. Magneto and the X-Men, however, need to get Bishop enough time so that he can travel back to the past to stop Xavier from having ever been killed. To do so, the X-Men break into Apocalypse's headquarters to free Magneto.

They do so, but suffer heavy casualties.

The weakened Magneto takes on Apocalypse, and things are not going so well, but in one last heroic gesture, Magneto uses all of his power he can muster and TEARS APOCALYPSE IN TWO!

That dramatic scene gives them the opportunity for Bishop to make his move (with a few stowaways from the Age of Apocalypse universe) and Magneto can stand happy as the nukes fall knowing that he has saved the day.

66. Swamp Thing and Friends vs. The Soul of Darkness (American Gothic)

The conclusion to American Gothic deals with the "Soul of Darkness" which is basically a Primordial Shadow, which threatens to change the status quo in Hell by marching upon Heaven.

John Constantine puts Swamp Thing into the position where he can help stop this, in a two-front battle.

Swamp Thing and a host of notable DC magic users (like Phantom Stranger, Dr. Fate and Etrigan the Demon - who is leading an army of demons who don't WANT the status quo to change) into battle with the Shadow and his army of demons.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Constantine leads a group of the most notable magicians in the DC Universe to also stop them. In the ensuing magic battle, both Sargon the Sorceror and Zatara are killed.

Ultimately, it all comes down to Swamp Thing (as Constantine planned it), who convinces the Shadow that evil and good are not necessarily at odds with each other - the Shadow then strikes up a balance with the Light of Heaven, and all is right with the world (except for the casualties, of course).

20 Comments

  • At December 22, 2008, jazzbo wrote:

    Man, that cover and story in Secret Wars #10 are great. Doom essentially fights God and wins. I still love ...

  • At December 22, 2008, Ortiz wrote:

    I like that Magneto - Apocalipse fight in AoA, a great ending for a cool crossover. Peace.

  • At December 22, 2008, Matt Bird wrote:

    I voted for the whole Secret Wars as one big battle, but then I'm a generalist.

    Doom slicing Klaw ...

  • At December 23, 2008, DanCJ wrote:

    As great as Alan Moore's swamp thing run was, issue 50 was one of the weakest issues.

    Luckily he made up ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Matt D wrote:

    Bugged me a lot as a kid why Magneto didn't just tear Apocalypse in two years ago in that story.

  • At December 23, 2008, Martin wrote:

    Great to see that the Magneto/Apocalypse fight in the AoA made it to the list. I don´t recall my votes, ...

  • At December 23, 2008, The Mutt wrote:

    I figured there would be some battles I hadn't read on this list. Maybe even some I hadn't heard ...

  • At December 23, 2008, David M wrote:

    This weakens Morlun to the point where Morlun’s assistant takes the opportunity to kill Morlun.

    But of course, Morlun wasn't really ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Teebore wrote:

    Man, I love that Secret Wars cover...

  • At December 23, 2008, Seanathan wrote:

    Ah, the Magneto/Apocalypse fight which is always cited as the end-all/be-all example of who would win: Magneto or Apocalypse

  • At December 23, 2008, Anonymous wrote:

    Doom invents "prep time". One of my favorite Doom moments ever, and that's a pretty tall order considering how ...

  • At December 23, 2008, stealthwise wrote:

    All of those are awesome.

  • At December 23, 2008, dantecat wrote:

    Man, that Swamp Thing issue - I used it in a talk I gave when I was in college about ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Fisk wrote:

    Two of my votes are here: Doom vs. the Beyonder and Morlun vs. Spidey.

    If Doom defeated the Beyonder himself, who ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Alvin wrote:

    It's been a while so I hope I have the right battle, Spider-Man Vs. Morlun was more then a battle ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Oddzball wrote:

    Donna Troy vs the Mythological Titasn the mini series that just preceded Infinite Crisis

  • At December 23, 2008, danjack wrote:

    All of these are really awesome! i totally enjoyed the AoA stories, as i am a sucker for alternate histories, ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

    " I figured there would be some battles I hadn’t read on this list. Maybe even some I hadn’t heard ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Iron Maiden wrote:

    That Secret Wars cover is one of my all time favorites too. I never would have thought when I ...

  • At December 24, 2008, David B wrote:

    "But I... I am DOOM!"

    Yeah, that is pretty much the epitome of absolute bad-ass right there. Both the battle ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/22/top-100-comic-book-battles-70-66/feed/ 20 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 75-71 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/21/top-100-comic-book-battles-75-71/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/21/top-100-comic-book-battles-75-71/#comments Sun, 21 Dec 2008 22:01:33 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21361 Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

75. Wonder Woman vs. Superman (Sacrifice)

Maxwell Lord had himself a very difficult subject to work with when he attempted to control Superman's mind. It was not so much the taking control of Superman's mind that was the issue so much as it was the "getting Superman to do the things Lord wanted him to do when he had control" thing, as Superman's moral compass is pretty darn strict, so to get him to kill, Lord had to go to some extreme measures.

That was the point of Sacrifice, a 4-part crossover taking place in the middle of the OMAC Project, where we see Lord run Superman through various horrific scenarios in his mind until he finds one where Superman was willing to use lethal force.

Of course, the villains Superman is attacking is actually Batman, who Superman nearly kills.

Wonder Woman has to step in and fight Superman, who thinks she is Doomsday (and has just killed Lois, natch). Her goal is to keep both herself AND Superman alive.

After a brutally vicious battle, Wonder Woman figures that the only way to stop Superman is to stop Maxwell Lord, who gloats that even if she stops him NOW, he'll just come back later to take control of Superman - so she figures the only way she can safely stop Lord is by killing him, so she snaps his neck, ending his threat and his life.

74. Batman vs. Cops in Year One

Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli were practically in another world with their work on Batman: Year One, telling a brilliantly detailed look at the early days of Bruce Wayne as Batman, with special attention paid to how poorly the corrupt Gotham Police Department takes the involvement of a do-gooder vigilante.

Really, in many ways Batman: Year One is about Jim Gordon just as much as it is about Batman, so it makes sense that the police interaction with Batman takes such a major role.

The conflict with the police has its spotlight moment when, after many failed attempts to catch Batman in a trap, Batman shows himself to save an old woman from getting hit by a truck. Gordon's partner, Sarah Essen, has Batman cornered in the street, but loses him when she checks to see if Gordon is all right (Gordon tried to stop the truck by jumping inside, but he was in it when it smashed into a wall).

Batman escapes into an abandoned buidling where the police commissioner orders destroyed by a bomb. In the explosion, Batman's belt catches fire and he has to discard it. He is also shot twice. Luckily, he makes it to the basement which is secure, so he survives the explosion.

Now armed only with a blow gun and three darts, Batman has to take on the Gotham SWAT team that is entered the remains of the building. Batman, naturally, kicks their collective asses, but to aid in his escape, he uses a device to call in a swarm of bats that cover his escape.

He jumps out of the building (carrying a cat he saved) and escapes on a police motorcycle.

Rarely has there ever been a Batman action sequence quite as cool as this one.

73. Superboy Prime vs. Superboy (Final Fight)

This cover is actually for their first fight, but I couldn't find anything good to use for the second fight, so I went with the first cover!

So Superboy (Conner Kent) and Superboy Prime had a fight earlier in Infinite Crisis, but Superboy needed all the Titans and all the Flashes to make it out of that one alive, as he is severely out-classed by Superboy Prime's power levels. And Superboy Prime made Conner think that he (Conner) really WASN'T worthy of being called Superboy.

Now, later in the series, Alex Luthor and Superboy Prime are working together to merge various Earths into one "perfect" Earth, and to do so, they're using a special Tuning Fork Tower thing that is working off of energies from heroes and villains from the various Earths.

Nightwing, Conner and Wonder Girl make their way to the secret headquarters where Luthor is doing this (Superboy Prime is not there), and they try to stop them. They release the prisoners but then Superboy Prime shows up and starts handing out some serious beatings!

He mocks Nightwing by saying when Prime wiped out the Titans, he wasn't even TRYING. Conner shows up and shouts that neither was he!

Now Conner takes on Prime and their battle is pitched but Conner still is not in the same class as Prime, so he likely is not strong enough to defeat Prime outright, but instead, he manages to hang strong long enough to force the pair to crash into the Tower, ruining Luthor's plan to destroy the various Earths in his endeavor to find one "perfect" Earth and instead creates on merged "new" Earth (of course we later learn that there are more Earths out there).

As Superboy lies dying in the arms of his girlfriend, Wonder Girl, he tells her how Prime made him doubt that he was the "real" Superboy, but he showed him. She tells Conner about how he saved the world, and Conner replies with his dying words, "I know, Cass. Isn't it cool?"

72. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vs. Martians

After first introducing the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in the first series, Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill return to tell a massive epic detailing the invasion of Earth from Mars.

In typical League fashion, Alan Moore was extremely detailed in his combination of the various fictional takes on Martians and had a unified race attack London.

There were three main plot points in the battle against the Martians...

1. The Invisible Man's betrayal of the rest of the group to the Martians (which he is punished by being raped and murdered by Mr. Hyde, but his death comes a long time after Hyde is finished with him, as Hyde wants his last moments to be agony.

2. Mina and Quartermain visit Dr. Moreau for a certain device that will help win the war.

3. Captain Nemo and Mr. Hyde single-handedly keep the Martians at bay via the Nautlis and Hyde's brute strength (they are undone when the Invisible Traitor shows the Martians how to take away the water advantage of the Nautilis).

Once Mina and Quartermain return, they need a way to deploy the device against the Martians. Hyde volunteers and personally delivers it to the Martian tripods. They kill him but the device works - it is a mutated virus that is much deadlier than anthrax and it kills all the Martians and a good deal of people in the area, as well.

The cover story was that it was the common cold that defeated the Martians.

Captain Nemo is outraged and vows never to work with the rest of them ever again (Mina leaves, as well). They won the battle, but this incarnation of the League did not survive.

71. Avengers and Justice League vs. Krona

Really, the how and the why of the team-up in JLA/Avengers, the cross-company-crossover written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by George Perez, is not really all that important.

It's the who and the what that is happening, and that you can see for yourself (click to enlarge the image, by the way) on that above cover.

Kurt Busiek and George Perez team up ALL of the Avengers with ALL of the Justice League to fight against Krona and some bad guys. You are not going to screw up an idea that cool!

That said, while it is not important, the HOW of the story is actually handled really well, as we see the Leaguers and Avengers merged together into a "perfect" world by Krona that they have to break free of for the sake of the universe, and that they do so is a testament to their integrity and heroism, because they know that by defeating Krona that they set into motion some awful events (Barry Allen's death, Hal becoming the yellow fear monster, etc.). However, they know that a merged Earth means that some people won't make it - so for those innocents, they must fight Krona!

Of course, not JUST Krona, for the finale is a lot like Busiek's Avengers Forever #12 - there are a LOT of characters mixed in there!

It's hectic - it's frantic - it's frenetic - it is quite cool.

One last image to convince you...

You know you want it.

25 Comments

  • At December 21, 2008, Chris Jones wrote:

    I just noticed that Perez drew Thor twice in that big spread image.

    There's the prominent image of him in the ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Adam wrote:

    Methinks Perez wanted to sneak as many incarnations of characters on there as he could. I see at least ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Kurt Busiek wrote:

    >> My guess is that the Thor at the top right is Eric Masterson, even though Thunderstrike is also at ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Chris McAree wrote:

    Dang. Year: one is another one I should have put in my top ten and didn't!

    Although at the time, and ...

  • At December 21, 2008, comb & razor wrote:

    Although at the time, and I absolutely loved the story, I can remember the letters pages being quite vitriolic in ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Lord Paradise wrote:

    The League vs. Martians was great, but not a "fight" in the way I would qualify.

    =XD <<<< Two ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Jason wrote:

    I've read four out of five of those. And nothing says "kick-ass" than random Leaguers and Avengers popping in and ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Ortiz wrote:

    JLA/Avengers is not just one of the best crossovers in history, is one of the best minis, I've re-read it ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Brian Mac wrote:

    Holy cow, not only do we get to stare at that awesome bit of Perez art, but Kurt Busiek himself ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Matt wrote:

    You know, i've seen that image of the cover JLA/Avengers a bunch of times before, and this is the first ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Matt Bird wrote:

    I had never heard anybody praise that JLA/ Avengers book, but when the trade was re-published a few weeks ago, ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Joey wrote:

    Brian Mac, I think that is Clock King from Justice League Antarctica.

  • At December 21, 2008, Joey wrote:

    Nevermind I see him. Aztek is at 1 O Clock from thing. Then the Clock King at 5 ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Ethan Shuster wrote:

    Ah, nothing like a giant Perez group shot!

    Also, I never realized that the Batman Begins "swarm of bats" routine showed ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Beta Ray Steve wrote:

    I cannot understand why DC doesn't give Perez and Busiek the JLA for a good, long run. I can't ...

  • At December 21, 2008, scott wrote:

    Oh, hey, what about Krona v. Galactus? For that matter, Darkseid v. Galactus in The Hunger was pretty insane.

  • At December 21, 2008, Matt D wrote:

    I'm going to bet that there was more sheer thought put into the Sacrifice fight than any other fight on ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Jbird wrote:

    My favorite moment in that Perez book is when someone shouts "Look out, Captain Marvel!"

    And both of the competing properties ...

  • At December 21, 2008, P_B wrote:

    Yeah, the reason there are multiple versions of the characters in that picture is because there are multiple versions of ...

  • At December 22, 2008, Ant wrote:

    My personal favorite moment in the JLA/Avengers is when Batman and Cap square off and decide, without a single punch ...

  • At December 22, 2008, Mullon wrote:

    I'm not sure the LoEG one really counts as a fight.

  • At December 22, 2008, sgt rawk wrote:

    I dunno ... JLA/Avengers looked pretty and I'm sure Kracklin' Kurt Busiek did his best but ... aw, heck. It ...

  • At December 22, 2008, KMFPL wrote:

    I had that JLA/Avengers battle in my Top Ten, and the one top image in an awesome battle is that ...

  • At December 23, 2008, DanCJ wrote:

    That Batman Year One fight was my #2 vote. I'm really surprised it came in so low.

  • At December 23, 2008, Scavenger wrote:

    "JLA/Avengers was surprisingly quality; exactly what you WOULDN’T expect from such a crazed clusterfuck of characters."

    But exactly what you would ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/21/top-100-comic-book-battles-75-71/feed/ 25 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 80-76 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/20/top-100-comic-book-battles-80-76/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/20/top-100-comic-book-battles-80-76/#comments Sun, 21 Dec 2008 05:51:14 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21360 (Note: I tried to post this last night but the server went down - it didn't even save my last changes! Luckily, I copied and pasted it all to a word document and now I'm finally able to post it! -BC)

Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

80. Spider-Man vs. Venom (First Battle)

Talk about making an entrance!

Both Todd McFarlane (who had just become the regular artist on Amazing Spider-Man with Amazing #298) and Venom made quite the impression on readers in Amazing Spider-Man #299, when Mary Jane came home to find a sinister looking monster wearing what looked to be Spider-Man's black costume!

In Amazing Spider-Man #300, David Michelinie and McFarlane gave readers the full scoop on this dastardly new villain of Spider-Man's - it was made up of the alien symbiote that Spider-Man had brought over from Secret War. It made the user (Eddie Brock) extremely powerful and undectable by Spider-Man's Spider-Sense. Most importantly, the symbiote and Eddie (calling itself, collectively, Venom) knew Peter Parker's secrets from having bonded with it!!!

So Peter's family were in danger from this new monstrous villain who quickly became one of Spider-Man's most prominent baddies. While Venom did nothing to Mary Jane in #299, he left with the clear threat that he COULD have, just like he COULD do bad stuff to Aunt May, as well.

In their first battle, they fight it out in an abandoned building where Spider-Man learns of how Eddie became Venom, and after being fooled into thinking he knocked Venom out, Spider-Man finds himself blindsided and captured.

He awakes webbed up to the bell of the church where Spider-Man first got rid of the symbiote. Venom's plan is to kill him with the deadly sound of the bell. The clapper begins and only Spidey's super-strength is able to keep from being killed the first two rings - but it is clear he can't last very long. So he hold on to the bell and lets it rip him from the webbing and he continues the fight.

The key is when he discovers that Venom's webbing comes from the symbiote itself, so he forces Venom to use up enough webbing that it is weakened and cannot produce any more, at which point Spider-Man knocks Venom off of the roof to the ground below - victory, Spider-Man!

Spidey gets the Fantastic Four to come by and take Venom into custody.

79. X-Men vs. Cassandra Nova

While Venom made a notable entrance, Cassandra Nova was even more impressive, as she first showed herself by tricking a relative of the original Sentinel makers to give Nova access to the Sentinels. At which point Nova launched an assault on the mutant haven of Genosha. The small island nation had 16 million mutants. When the Sentinel attack ended, it had about 100.

And that was not even the most dramatic of Nova's plans!

Her next step was to take control of the body of Professor Charles Xavier, who it turns out, was the twin brother of Cassandra Nova! She died in the womb, but managed to survive as pure malevolent energy, until finally becoming corporeal.

Now in control of Xavier's body, after a bit of mischief at the X-Mansion (like breaking Beast's spirits completely) she travels to the Shi'Ar Empire, where she quickly takes over the entire empire and lays waste to most of it and sets her sights on Earth!

Luckily, the X-Men are able to defeat the invasion as well as trap Nova in a body where she can (seemingly) do no more harm.

A great storyline by Grant Morrison and various artists (most notably Frank Quitely).

78. Thing vs. The Champion

I guess this is another notable entrance!

The Champion showed up in Marvel Two-in-One Annual #7, by Tom DeFalco and Ron Wilson, and declared that he was going to fight the best of Earth in a boxing match, and if they beat him, he would spare Earth - otherwise, he would destroy it!

He collected the most powerful heroes of the world, but most of them are disqualified for one reason or another (Thor, for instance, can't box when he has a hammer at all times, lest he turn back into Don Blake).

Eventually, all of Earth's heroes are eliminated except for the Thing, who, while quite strong, is nowhere near the Champion's league.

However, unlike the others, Ben Grimm knows how to box, and he manages to stay in the game for a couple of rounds while taking a gruesome beating. The Thing, though, refuses to quit and just keeps plugging away until the match is called.

The Thing will have none of it and mocks the Champion. Though the Thing can barely stand, he says he will never stop fighting until he can't fight anymore!

The Champion is so impressed that he declares Earth saved!

The world rejoices as the Thing collapses and enjoys one of the nicest horrible hospital experience you could ever imagine.

EDITED TO ADD:

For GarBut, I've added a picture of the Champion.

GarBut wanted a shot of the Champion getting punched by the Thing, but I don't think that's really what this comic is about - it's not about Thing punching his problems away, it's about his perseverance!

That said, how about a wicked shot of the Thing getting ready to rumble by Ron Wilson?

Thanks to the Leader's Lair for the scans.

77. Mr. Fantastic vs. Doctor Doom (Timeslip)

This story was one of the last ones that Walt Simonson told during his Fantastic Four run (in fact, was it the very last?) and it was perhaps his best one!

Fantastic Four #352 is a battle between Doctor Doom and Reed Richards, only it takes place through the time stream (the story is called Timeslip), so they are constantly going back and forth through time in the issue, so what Simonson does is tell the story by having small notations telling the reader where they are in time. You have to go all throughout the issue to different pages to follow the fight as they leap around in time.

It's an absolutely fascinating idea, and Simonson even works the cover into the fun, as well (note the time stamp on the cover) - that cover counts as one of the fight scenes in the book.

Pretty awesome, no?

Is Simonson's Fantastic Four collected in trades?

76. Captain Britain (and friends) vs. The Fury

The Alans, Moore and Davis, respectively, introduced the Fury in the pages of Marvel UK's Marvel Superheroes #387 in 1982, but soon brought him over to a brand-new title called Daredevils (which was mostly designed to reprint Frank Miller's classic Daredevil run).

The Fury is basically an unstoppable killing machine. In one of its first appearances, it wipes out the entire superhero population of an Earth (one of the many Earths of the multiverse - the "regular" Marvel Universe is 616).

Captain Britain travels to confront the Fury, and the Fury (as shown above) KILLS HIM!

That's how tough the Fury is. Luckily, Captain Britain is revived by Merlyn and sent back to the 616 Earth.

But here's the thing about the Fury - it always adapts to whatever it needs to do to kill someone. Well, when it senses that Captain Britain is still alive, it actually adapts itself to inter-dimensional transport!!! So it travels to Earth-616.

Captain Britain puts together a group of super-humans (the inter-dimensional mercenary group, the Special Executive) to fight the Fury.

The battle was fierce and many heroes lost their lives but the Fury was seemingly immobilized at the end of the battle.

That did not last long and the Fury soon returned, but after another fierce battle, the Captain Britain Corps member Captain UK (each dimension has their own version of Captain Britain) finally succeeded in (seemingly) destroying the Fury after Captain Britain severely weakened the beast (Captain UK struck before it could repair itself, because each time it repairs itself, it upgrades itself and makes itself even deadlier!).

20 Comments

  • At December 21, 2008, E.D. wrote:

    There're two "Fantastic Four Visionaries: Walter Simonson" trades, but they only cover up through #346.

  • At December 21, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

    That's what I was thinking - that they didn't have the Timeslip battle.

    Get on it, Marvel!!!

  • At December 21, 2008, GarBut wrote:

    Can you PLEEZE post a picture of what The Champion looks like? Preferably taking one to the jaw courtesy of ...

  • At December 21, 2008, choirsoftheeye wrote:

    Wow, lot of Marvel on this list.

  • At December 21, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

    Done, GarBut!

  • At December 21, 2008, Matt Bird wrote:

    Hey, there's my #1: Captain Britain. Given how hard it is to find that story here in the states, ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Lord Paradise wrote:

    I think most of the coolness of the Cassandra Nova fight was really the X-Men vs. Imperial Guard, and then ...

  • At December 21, 2008, GarBut wrote:

    The Champion: totally worth it. Look at 'im! And fair enough--I guess ma did actually raise me better, teaching me ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Roman wrote:

    Wow, I'm amazed other people actually voted for Simonson's FF! I think I had it at #4 or so, ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Jbird wrote:

    Just now re-reading that X-Men arc. It's so weird how writers are just now getting back around to where Morrison ...

  • At December 22, 2008, Iron Maiden wrote:

    I am glad that Timeslip battle from the FF made it.... Time magazine even wrote about it a while back ...

  • At December 22, 2008, Iron Maiden wrote:

    Eeeks, wish you could edit these things. Meant to say that it isn't clear at what point Kristoff took ...

  • At December 22, 2008, phil from Germany wrote:

    For what reason was the Hulk barred from figthing the Champion?

  • At December 22, 2008, James wrote:

    Walt Simonson's run lasted for two more issues (up through #354). The final two tell a very funny story concerning ...

  • At December 22, 2008, Pedro Bouça wrote:

    Marvel should do like they did for John Byrne's Fantastic Four and release the earlier stories of such runs in ...

  • At December 22, 2008, Anonymous wrote:

    Lord Paradise, it would have been cool to see what happened between the time Xavier went with the Shi'Ar and ...

  • At December 22, 2008, Scott MacIver wrote:

    I'm shocked that the Champion/Thing fight rated this low.

    It's such a good single issue.

  • At December 23, 2008, Trinten wrote:

    The Fury sounds alot like the Nimrod Sentinel. Adapts to new attacks/situations, and repairs itself each time it's damaged in ...

  • At December 23, 2008, danjack wrote:

    Man, i have read that FF #352 issue several times. i always get confused by it, so i keep re-reading ...

  • At January 26, 2009, latorture wrote:

    nice nice... wait what about venom and the punisher in VENOM - funeral pyre #3 even if PYRE realy isent ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/20/top-100-comic-book-battles-80-76/feed/ 20 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 85-81 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/19/top-100-comic-book-battles-85-81/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/19/top-100-comic-book-battles-85-81/#comments Sat, 20 Dec 2008 05:28:26 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21343 Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

85. Authority vs. Kaizen Gamorra

If you're going to go about things a bit differently, you usually need one major moment to draw people's attention to your comic, and the Authority's initial battle against Kaizen Gamorra was that event.

Kaizen Gamorra had been a major part of the Wildstorm universe basically ever since it began. His island of Gamorra was a major spot for both genetic engineering, cybernetics and, oh yes, terrorism.

When Warren Ellis took over Stormwatch, he revealed that the Kaizen Gamorra we had seen was not the REAL Gamorra, and when Ellis installed the real one, things got even worse.

The first strike by Gamorra was when he used a virus to mutate and kill 233 passengers on an airplane. Stormwatch retaliated by invading Gamorra and killing exactly 233 citizens of Gamorra.

Later, after Stormwatch disbanded, Gamorra revealed he had been spending his time building an army of superhuman clones. He planned to unleash them on the world, destroying three major cities. His first victim was Moscow, which his army of superbeings razed to the ground. The newly-formed Authority, however, managed to stop Gamorra's crew in London, with only minimal casualties.

In the third battle, there were NO casualties - other than the evil clones.

Gamorra hid on his island behind his super powerful force field that no superhero could burst through - not even Majestic!

And it was here that Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch's Authority really began to stand out. Recently, the Authority had gained a gigantic inter-dimensional craft called the Carrier. Well, the Authority member Midnighter decided what they had to do was to just crash the entire thing on the island of Gamorra!

Widespread superhero action had never been THIS vivid before!

Gamorra's last words as he and his cloning plants were destroyed were "I only wanted to have some fun."

84. Punisher vs. Barracuda (Let's count them as one big battle)

People really did not specify which Punisher/Barracuda battle they meant, so since they were so close together, I'll just count it as one fight with two rounds!

Barracuda, introduced in The Punisher MAX #31, is basically what the Punisher would be if he were a big black psychopath.

Barracuda is ruthlessly efficient and able to survive all sorts of terrible situations, at the same time, he also manages to have a sick sense of humor about things, as well.

He was a successful gangster who the government enlisted for special ops when they saw how efficient he was at killing people.

While fighting the Punisher, Barracuda lost an eye and all the fingers on his right hand - but that did not stop him none!

Barracuda was so popular that he was given his own mini-series, filled with violence and mayhem. He then returned to get his revenge on Frank Castle in a storyline where he kidnaps the Punisher's child (who Castle did not even know existed) to lead Castle into a trap. What follows is issue upon issue of maniacal violence as two men who just don't know how to quit lay into each other over and over again.

Garth Ennis and artist Goran Parlov (who handled the art on all Barracuda stories, including the mini-series - save one issue by Howard Chaykin) manage to make Barracuda, through all his insanity, a pretty lovable sociopath, really - in a horrible, twisted way, of course.

83. The Ultimates vs. Thor

There was an air of mystery around Thor for much of the first series of Ultimates which was only intensified in the second volume. Was he really a Norse god or was he just a super-soldier with a fancy hammer designed by the government?

Loki, disguised as a representative from the European Defence Initiative convinced the Ultimates it was the latter, especially as the team was already distrustful of Thor - thinking he was the traitor in their ranks who revealed to the world that Bruce Banner was the Hulk (forcing the Ultimates to kill Banner to avoid bad PR). In fact, he had already quit the team, figuring that they would begin to get involved in foreign countries - something he was firmly against.

Once Loki convinced the team Thor was nuts, they traveled to bring him into custody - the following battle in Ultimates 2 #5 by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch is quite a sight to see.

Thor takes on the entire team and things only get worse when they make him mad. He totally holds his own until Quicksilver manages to jump 50 feet into the air and snare his belt, which supposedly is where his strength came from, artificially.

Surprisingly (including to Thor) this gambit works (all part of Loki's plan), and Thor is taken into custody.

Eventually, he will be freed and help the team beat down Loki.

82. Flash vs. Zoom (First Battle)

The new Zoom was Hunter Zolomon, a criminal profiler who, due to a poor judgment resulting in his wife's father's death, lost his wife, his father-in-law and the full use of his legs. Now in Keystone City behind a desk as a profiler, Zolomon became friends with Wally West, the Flash, as the two interacted often.

Later, Zolomon was attacked by the villain Gorilla Grodd, and in the resulting fight, Zolomon was left fully paralyzed. He turned to his friend Wally to ask Wally to use the Cosmic Treadmill to go back in time and stop the attack before it happens. Wally refuses, saying he is not allowed to mess with time like that.

Infuriated, Zolomon tries it himself - it backfires, but the resulting explosion puts Zolomon out of place within the timestream. He can now alter the effects of time around him, giving him the illusion of super speed.

The now clearly insane Zolomon figures that Wally's problem was that he just wasn't a good enough hero to help out Zolomon. If he was a better hero, he clearly would have done Zolomon the favor he asked. So he tried to think - why WASN'T Wally a good hero? Then Zolomon "figured" it out - Wally had not had a personal tragedy!

Now calling himself Zoom, Zolomon figured he'd fix that by killing Wally's pregnant wife, Linda!

Ultimately, Wally was able to borrow speed from other speedsters to match the effect of Zoom's time travel, and he managed to save his wife, but not before Zoom caused Linda to miscarry the twins she was carrying!

While Wally and Linda grieved, Zoom was trapped in one of the rifts in time and space that he created from his powers - he was forced to re-live the moment where his father-in-law was killed - over and over again.

81. Deathstroke and Terra vs. the Teen Titans (The Judas Contract)

In the first issue of the New Teen Titans, a villain named the Ravager is given the assignment of killing the Titans. He fails, so the next issue, his father, Deathstroke the Terminator, takes the assignment. He, too, appears to fail.

Instead, after his initial failure, Deathstroke decided to place a sleeper agent within the Titans, in the form of the junior grade sociopath, Tara Markov, otherwise known as the superhero Terra!

The Titans eventually open their arms to Terra and she becomes a member.

The famous Judas Contract storyline by Marv Wolfman and George Perez details Terra's betrayal of the Titans, as Deathstroke finally delivers on the contract his son took in the first issue, by delivering to the villainous H.I.V.E. organization the Titans (save Dick Grayson, who escapes).

Dick meets up with Deathstroke's ex-wife, who has with her Deathstroke's OTHER son, the heroic mutant known as Jericho. Dick teams up with them to rescue the Titans. In the process, Dick takes on a new superhero identity (he had just recently quit being Robin), becoming the new hero known as Nightwing.

Nightwing, Jericho and Deathstroke's ex-wife help free the Titans from the deadly grasps of H.I.V.E. Eventually, Jericho saves the day by using his mutant ability, which allows him to possess other people's bodies, and possesses his father and frees the Titans. Terra sees this and not being too bright, decides that Deathstroke has turned on her, so in one last sick move, she brings down the entire H.I.V.E. facility that they were at down to the ground, killing herself in the process (the Titans survive, though, natch).

11 Comments

  • At December 20, 2008, E. Martín wrote:

    The Judas Contract is one of those sagas you hear how good they are for years and when you finally ...

  • At December 20, 2008, Craig MacD. wrote:

    Awesome that the Flash vs. Zoom battle from "Blitz" is on the list. When he was first created, Zoom was ...

  • At December 20, 2008, Matt Bird wrote:

    Some corrections to the origin of the Titans feud:

    The Titans met Grant Wilson (who was just some dude at the ...

  • At December 20, 2008, Matt Bird wrote:

    But, I should add, thanks for the write-ups, which I'm really enjoying!

    You should do a "Top five covers where another ...

  • At December 20, 2008, stealthwise wrote:

    The Judas Contract is one of those sagas you hear how good they are for years and when you finally ...

  • At December 20, 2008, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

    Were it revealed that U. Thor was actually a paranoid schizophrenic human empowered by stolen Kirbytech, and not a Norse ...

  • At December 20, 2008, Bill Reed wrote:

    When they make the Punisher: War Journal movie, I am very very excited to have Dolph Lundgren vs. Michael Clarke ...

  • At December 20, 2008, Rob wrote:

    The best part of the Judas Contract was that Terra remained "evil" through the end. I'm sure a lot ...

  • At December 20, 2008, Ortiz wrote:

    I'm glad the Punisher vs Barracuda is on the list, the first battle was great, but the second one was ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Anon wrote:

    I am a big Punisher fan and hence tend to get disppointed when punisher doesnt figure in any top lists.....

    So ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Annoyed Grunt wrote:

    I specifically voted for the second Barracuda fight. I thought the first arc was one of the worst of ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/19/top-100-comic-book-battles-85-81/feed/ 11 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 90-86 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/18/top-100-comic-book-battles-90-86/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/18/top-100-comic-book-battles-90-86/#comments Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:50:03 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21199 Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

90. Spider-Man vs. Sinister Six (First Battle)

What a notion for the very first Annual in Spider-Man history! For Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, Spider-Man faced almost all of his (at that point) solo villains as a team!!! Doctor Octopus, Kraven, Electro, Sandman, Mysterio and the Vulture combine forces to take on Spider-Man!

The Sinister Six were such a major point in Spider-Man history that they did not even show up again as a team for almost 30 more years!!!

The plan in the issue was not exactly brilliant, but the Stan Lee and Steve Ditko issue made up for the villains' fairly silly plan with the gusto in which Lee/Ditko executed it - especially Ditko, who did a marvelous job on this Annual.

The villains' plot was that each one of them would fight Spider-Man one by one at a location best suited for each of the villains. The hope would be that after facing them all in a row, eventually he would tire and one of the villains later in the line would be able to take him out. Probably not as smart as actually using their numbers advantage to crush him, but hey, at least it is a plan!

The motivation for Spider-Man to follow their plan is that Aunt May and Betty Brant have been kidnapped. He is told he must defeat each villain and if he does, pick up a card telling him which one he has to face next and where.

Of course, complicating matters is that Spider-Man loses his powers early in the issue (he gets them back really quickly, but still - he begins the battles powerless!).

Each of the fights include one splash page by Ditko of Spider-Man fighting each of the villains.

Naturally, Spidey proceeds to beat each one of the villains and save the day, but at the end of it all, the novelty of six of Spider-Man's villains getting together proved so popular that even though it was their only appearance for almost 30 years, people still remember it quite fondly.

89. Superman Prime vs. Ion

During the Sinestro Corps War, Daxamite Green Lantern Sodam Yat is given control of Ion, a powerful energy source that the Guardians trust to special Green Lanterns to guard. In return, Ion gives the user powerful energy powers.

Also during the War, Superman Prime made his way back to Earth for the first time since Infinite Crisis, and this time, it is not just the Teen Titans waiting for him, but pretty much every DC hero there is! Their plan was to take him out before the sun comes out, but they were unable to do so, so Sodam Yat shows up to try to stop him.

Their battle is a fierce brawl in Green Lantern Corps #18 by Peter Tomasi and artist Patrick Gleason (Jamal Igle draws some flashbacks during the issue) that leaves Yat, the most powerful Green Lantern of them all - a bloody mess by issue's end.

Still, he gave a villain who took on the entirety of DC's superheroes a run for his money!

88. Avengers vs. Nefaria (Second Battle)

Count Nefaria was one of the earliest Avengers villains, attempting to take them on sans powers. That did not work out so well for him, and he was a minor character the next decade or so.

He came to preeminence again in Avengers #164-166, a dynamite three-parter by Jim Shooter and John Byrne, where Nefaria reformed the Lethal Legion with the villains Power Man, Whirlwind and the Living Laser, whose powers were increased by Nefaria to fight the Avengers.

We soon learn, however, that Nefaria experimented with their powers only so he himself could gain their powers! He has a scientist do so and once he is powered, he fatally wounds the scientist and takes on the Avengers!

He handles them easily, in a series of great panels by a young John Byrne. What's especially cool is the battle between Nefaria and Thor, where he man-handles Thor (who, to his credit, never gives up) including the awesome scene where he just stops Thor's hammer mid-swing.

Eventually the dying scientist catches up with Nefaria to tell him that the energy transfer is quite unstable (and it is aging Nefaria rapidly), and Nefaria is clearly losing some power, so ultimately, the Avengers just pile on him with all they have until he is very weakened, at which point Vision flies high into the air, turns as hard as diamond and then drops to the ground, crushing Nefaria and finally takes out the man who took on the entire assembled Avengers!

87. Captain America vs. Red Skull (Cosmic Cube)

The Red Skull, Captain America's greatest enemy, returns from seeming death as well in the 1960s in the pages of Tales of Suspense #79-81, which is also the first appearance of the Cosmic Cube.

The Cosmic Cube gives the bearer of the cube basically absolute power, and the Red Skull possesses the Cube (for the first of a few times he's handled the item).

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby tell the tale demonstrating just how heroic Cap is (and this is early Silver Age Cap, too!) that he is able to take on a villain with absolute power and still beat him!

A lot of that comes from the fact that Captain America just does not know how to quit - even though the Skull out-powers him tremendously, Cap keeps at it, and eventually he causes the Skull to doubt himself long enough for Cap to separate the Skull from the Cube, saving the day (and really, the whole world!).

It was one of the earliest classic storyline for Captain America - you could really tell how much affection Kirby had for his co-creation in this tale.

Most of the tale is Cap trying to keep Skull from getting the Cube, but when the Skull gets the Cube finally, the disorientation of the great power is the best asset Cap has, which is how Cap is able to trick the Skull long enough to knock the cube from the Skull's hand (the battle takes place on Red Skull's own island!).

Okay, yeah, there really should have been no way for Cap to last this long with a Cosmic Cube-holding Skull, but darnit, it was still awesome!

86. Spider-Man vs. Firelord

The former herald of Galactus, Firelord, is visiting Earth for some Earth cuisine when he is attacked by some construction workers who think he's a mutant. As he is about to kill the worker for the affront, Spider-Man shows up, and spends the rest of Amazing Spider-Man #269 and 270 fighting Firelord throughout New York.

Writer Tom DeFalco and artist Ron Frenz handle the tale, which is very reminiscent of Spider-Man's battle against the Juggernaut, in that Spider-Man does everything he can to stop Firelord, but Firelord basically shrugs it all off.

Spidey actually tries to steer the battle towards other heroes he feels better suited to stop Firelord, like the Fantastic Four and Avengers, but that does not work out for him.

Ultimately, Spider-Man tricks Firelord into exploding a gas station. The gigantic explosion softens Firelord up enough for Spider-Man to finally really go on the offensive, and begin pummeling the herald with blows until eventually, all of Spider-Man's punches begin to have an effect. Spider-Man won't quit and just keeps at it, constantly punching Firelord until a hand stops Spidey. He turns and sees it is Captain America. The Avenges are here just in time to have seen Spider-Man pummel Firelord into unconsciousness!!

See what you can do when you put your mind to it, kids?

15 Comments

  • At December 19, 2008, Ant wrote:

    Always loved that Spider-Man/Firelord fight.

    Glad to see it made the list.

  • At December 19, 2008, Rusty Priske wrote:

    Agreed.

    I see people complain about it, but this story is one of the reasons that people shouldn't use 'rpg' logic ...

  • At December 19, 2008, Johnny Bacardi wrote:

    They didn't do the Sinister Six again for three decades, but a couple of years later Stan reprised the gimmick ...

  • At December 19, 2008, superactiongo wrote:

    The middle issue of the Avengers/Nefaria fight was the first Avengers I ever read and still holds two of my ...

  • At December 19, 2008, Teebore wrote:

    Yeah, that three issue Avengers story is one of my all time favorites as well.

  • At December 19, 2008, Scott MacIver wrote:

    I have not read any of these. Huh. They look cool enough.

  • At December 19, 2008, Bill Reed wrote:

    That first Spidey Annual is one of the most fun comics ever made.

  • At December 19, 2008, jazzbo wrote:

    I've read all of these aside from the Spider-Man ones, but I've always meant to track down the Spidey vs ...

  • At December 19, 2008, Cully C wrote:

    Ditko's full page panels of Spidey punching out each of the villians in the 1st annual are some of ...

  • At December 19, 2008, Cass wrote:

    I actually have the Sandman splash page from Annual #1 as a T-shirt. It's so awesome and even says like ...

  • At December 19, 2008, danjack wrote:

    i really enjoyed the Spidey Vs. Firelord battle, but the Cap Vs. Red Skull was epic. This has everything that ...

  • At December 19, 2008, Annoyed Grunt wrote:

    That Spider-man annual had one of my favourite moments as a kid where Aunt May is kidnapped but didn't realize ...

  • At December 19, 2008, Pedro Bouça wrote:

    The Nefaria story is my favorite ever! It's essentially Superman vs. The Avengers, back when the team didn't have it ...

  • At December 20, 2008, Jbird wrote:

    Wondered when that Firelord one was gonna come up. The simple truth is that TONS of these involve Spider-Man. Scrappy ...

  • At December 21, 2008, comb & razor wrote:

    Avengers vs. Nefaria really stands out in my mind... and like Pedro Bouça said, i always saw it as "Avengers ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/18/top-100-comic-book-battles-90-86/feed/ 15 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 95-91 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/17/top-100-comic-book-battles-95-91/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/17/top-100-comic-book-battles-95-91/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:40:00 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21176 Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

95. Ogami Ittō vs. Yagyū Retsudō (Final Battle)

Once a guy slaughters almost your entirely family and then frames you for treason, well, let's just say that you are not going to be a fan of that fellow, and that was, indeed, the case for Ogami Ittō and his arch-nemesis, Yagyū Retsudō.

The only surviving member of Ittō's family was his infant son, Daigorō. Father and son proceeded to live the life of the ronin (the masterless samurai). Over time, Ittō killed off all of Retsudō's sons (and clashed with Retsudō, as well, in a dramatic battle) until it was finally time for the final battle between the two - one final duel.

Tragically, though, Ittō's legendary sword was tampered with, leaving Ittō to fight a group of ninjas (sort of the appetizer to the main course of revenge against Retsudō) without a sword, and while he was victorious, he was so injured that he was not nearly in good enough shape to face off against Retsudō, which was made painfully evident when Ittō dies during the middle of the fight - his sense of vengeance just could not make up for the ravages to his body.

Daigurō, however, finishes the battle by picking up Retsudō's spear, and attacking him.

By this point, Retsudō was sick of all the bloodshed, as well, so he offered up no defense, and appeared to die fairly happily - the circle of violence finally complete. Of course, Retsudō COULD have lived and raised Daigurō himself (also thereby ending the circle of violence between the two clans). Commenter Tom Fitzgerald is correct to note that the original ending was left unclear.

A grand finale for Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's epic tale.

Has anyone got a good scan of the fight from Volume 28? I had to go with the cover of 26, which has nothing really to do with the last fight - it's just a cool shot of Ittō and Retsudō together.

94. The DC Heroes vs. the Center

All throughout Darwyn Cooke's instant classic, New Frontier, there is an alien presence making itself felt on Earth.

Ultimately, at the end of issue #5, the Center makes itself evident to the world as a malevolent, island-sized bad guy. Superman goes to deal with it, and he gets taken out with extreme prejudice, leading the rest of the heroes to consider the scope of the situation they've gotten themselves into where they have to take out a creature who just easily beat Superman with ease.

So that is the set-up for the last issue of New Frontier, where pretty much the entirety of the DC hero lineup of the 1940s, 50s and 60s combine to attack the Center.

One of the very coolest parts of the battle is the fighter jets in the battle, as there are a LOT of DC characters who were pilots (Ace Morgan, Hal Jordan, Larry Trainor, Nathaniel Adam and the Blackhawks).

The issue also has an awesome "slow walk" where all the heroes walk slowly together, The Right Stuff/The Wild Bunch style.

It was a great conclusiveness battle to a great series.

93. Spider-Man vs. the Hobgoblin (Amazing Spider-Man #249-251)

This is one of the oddest battles on this list, if only because it is one of, if not the only, battle that was begun by one creative team and ended by another.

The story begins in Amazing Spider-Man #249, by Roger Stern and John Romita Jr., where the Hobgoblin, the mysterious villain first seen in #238, tries out his most audacious plan yet - to blackmail at a club a large deal of city leaders with information the Hobgoblin obtained from the files of Norman Osborn (who is where the Hobgoblin got his gear from).

Spider-Man attacks the Hobgoblin at the club, but the Hobgoblin has developed a gas that can eliminate Spider-Man's Spider Sense (the Green Goblin used it in the past), leading to the Hobgoblin defeating Spider-Man. Spider-Man is saved, however, by the Kingpin, who was one of the club members being blackmailed.

The next issue, Spider-Man strives to find the Hobgoblin without the use of his Spider Sense, and ultimately figures out a way, leading to the discovery of one of the Hobgoblin's lairs and for the first time, it is Spidey that has the element of surprise! Spider-Man attacks, and in the melee, the lair explodes.

This leads into Amazing Spider-Man #251, which is the first issue by incoming creative team Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz.

Their battle continues throughout the issue (the explosion luckily destroyed all of Hobgoblin's blackmail materials) and throughout the city, even! THe Hobgoblin's gas wears off, and with his Spider-Sense return, Spider-Man re-gains the advantage, but ultimately, another explosion leaves Spidey stuck with nothing to show for his battle of the Hobgoblin, except, of course, the destruction of the blackmail materials.

DeFalco and Frenz begin strong in their follow-up to one of the better Spider-Man runs ever.

92. Silver Surfer vs. Thor (Silver Surfer #4)

For years, this was probably THE most famous Marvel comic book battle. Heck, I believe it was included in a trade collection Marvel did in the late 70s (when they did very few collections) called Marvel's Greatest Superhero Battles.

In this issue by Stan Lee and John Buscema (inked by Sal!), Loki is looking for someone he can use to attack Thor. He considers Hulk, Hercules and the Thing, but ends up on the Silver Surfer. After first attacking the Surfer to test his mettle (nice pun, no?), Loki convinces the Surfer that Thor is an evil lout who is threatening the safety of Asgard - in exchange for the Surfer defeating him, Loki will grant Surfer the ability to leave Earth (where Galactus had stuck Surfer back in Fantastic Four #50) and travel in Asgard.

Surfer agrees, and travels to Asgard, where Thor tries to convince him he's not a bad guy. But after some machinations by Loki (boy, is Loki good or what?), Surfer attacks Thor - and soon finds that he has more power than normal, as Loki has poured some of his own power into the Surfer.

The battle is fierce, but ultimately, Surfer is convinced Thor is not a bad guy and the battle ends.

Loki then sends Surfer back to his Earthly prison.

91. Wolverine vs. the Hulk (First Battle)

When Wolverine came flying out of nowhere at the end of Incredible Hulk #180, while readers probably did not realize they were seeing the introduction of one of the most popular characters of all-time, they did likely realize that this Wolverine character was a lot different than most heroes.

In Incredible Hulk #181, we discover that Wolverine has been sent by the Canadian government to deal with the Hulk AND the creature known as the Wendigo. After first attacking the Hulk, Wolverine then determines to trick the Hulk into helping him stop the Wendigo. Once that is done (where Wolverine stabs Wendigo in the neck!), he turns on the Hulk.

Wolverine's brusque manner of acting and the rather lethal powers he had (what hero had CLAWS back then?) really stood out, as did the fact that here was this tiny guy with not exactly thrilling powers, and he was totally hanging with the Incredible freakin' Hulk!!!

The first fight ends in a draw, as Wolverine manages to knock the Hulk out, but not before the Hulk does the same to him.

After they both wake up, the fight begins anew. This time, Hulk delivers a deadly blow - only Wolverine's great skill allows him to roll with the punch and rather than being killed, is only knocked unconscious.

The Hulk is the winner!

12 Comments

  • At December 18, 2008, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

    Umm, I hate to point out, there's no evidence that Retsudo actually died by Diagoro's hand.

    Yes, Diagoro stabbed him, but ...

  • At December 18, 2008, Jbird wrote:

    It is impossible that we'll see Wolverine vs. Hulk in Jackman's new vehicle, but wouldn't that be sweet?

  • At December 18, 2008, Oliver Selby wrote:

    Well, Diagoro stabbed him IN THE HEART which is normally fatal plus the epic final line "grandson of my heart" ...

  • At December 18, 2008, The Mutt wrote:

    Silver Surfer #4 was in my top ten, almost for the cover alone.

  • At December 18, 2008, sgt rawk wrote:

    There is no evidence and the ending of LW&C is deliberately open-ended. I like to think it's up to the ...

  • At December 18, 2008, Mike Loughlin wrote:

    I misremembered an epilogue with Daigoro as a monk writing about his father- that was the ending to LW&C tribute ...

  • At December 18, 2008, stealthwise wrote:

    I wish I'd remembered to vote, because the New Frontier and Spider-Man fights would have likely been my top two.

  • At December 18, 2008, Mike wrote:

    Lone Wolf & Cub only covers 4 years, but the first volume says the Yagyu clan disappears in 25 years, ...

  • At December 18, 2008, GarBut wrote:

    "Wolverine: The World's First AND Greatest Canadian Hero."

    As a Canadian, I've always loved that sell.

  • At December 20, 2008, Cej wrote:

    Does anyone know the story behind why Stern and Romita Jr. left Amz. Spider-Man right in the middle of a ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Anonymous wrote:

    Cej, check out Christopher Priest "why I never discuss Spider-Man" article on his site:

    http://digital-priest.com/comics/adventures/spidey.htm

    Not only is it a decent account, ...

  • At July 21, 2009, mrn wrote:

    That was a great read, on Priest's site, but while it recounted how Tom Defalco and Ron Frenz left, I'm ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/17/top-100-comic-book-battles-95-91/feed/ 12 Top 100 Comic Book Battles: 100-96 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/17/top-100-comic-book-battles-100-96/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/17/top-100-comic-book-battles-100-96/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:35:01 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21141 Here we go!

Here is the Master List!

Enjoy!

100. Superboy Prime vs. Teen Titans (Infinite Crisis)

In Infinite Crisis #4 by Geoff Johns and Phil Jimenez, the Superboy from Earth-Prime (who has been trapped in a sort of multiverse limbo since the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths) travels to the home of Jonathan and Martha Kent to try to make some sense of the modern DC world (and Alex Luthor's plans for it). When there, he confronts Conner Kent, the Superboy of this world. After an awkward interaction, Superboy Prime (being a bit of a chump) decides to take out his aggression on Conner.

Conner is pretty out-classed, but help is on its way, in the form of pretty much every Teen Titan (or Titan-related character, period)!!!

They hope to settle things peacefully, but, well, things go a bit awry.

Prime proceeds to take apart the Titans pretty easily (and viciously, killing another Titan and tearing the arm of one), and the day is only saved by the combined force of the Flashes, who take Prime into the Speed Force basically.

99. Skurge vs. the Forces of Hel

Skurge, the Executioner, had always been a bit of a lackey in the Marvel Universe to the Enchantress.

In the pages of The Mighty Thor #362, by the great Walt Simonson, Skurge got his chance to make a better name for himself.

In this issue, Thor wants to free some mortal souls that Hela has wrongly stolen to Hel, the Norse underworld. Thor, his compatriot Balder and a group of Asgardian warriors (armed with swords and M-16s) seek to rescue the mortals. Skurge, looking for redemption, goes along on the mission.

They rescue the mortals, but are now being chased by the hordes of Hel and they make their way for Gjallerbru, a bridge right outside the border of Hel with Asgard.

Thor plans on staying behind to hold off the forces while the rest escape (because Thor is cool like that). Skurge knocks Thor unconscious from behind. What's going on!??

As it turns out, Skurge wants to do it himself. He stays behind at the bridge, along with a few M-16s and, well...check it out...

Skurge dies in holding the bridge, but that second part is more important - he holds the bridge.

And in doing so, Skurge went from being a pretty minor villain to being an all-time great hero.

How amazing is the panel of him batting away at the hordes of Hel with the empty rifle?

98. Squadron Supreme vs. Redeemers

Mark Gruenwald and Bob Hall's Squadron Supreme maxi-series was a great precursor to a number of modern comics, in that it tackled the subject of what would happen if superheroes just decide to fight crime in a more "realistic" manner. What if they really just tried to, say, end poverty? Starvation?

Well, in this series, the Squadron Supreme decide that is just what they will do, and spend the series doing so.

However, their former teammate, Nighthawk (who was also President of the United States for a time) believes this to be foolhardy - that they should serve the public, not rule over them. For the entirety of the series, Nighthawk searches for help from various sources (including Captain America and the Avengers) until ultimately, in the last issue, he confronts the Squadron himself, along with a group of former villains (who took issue with the behavior modification aspect of the Squadron's plans for making Earth a Utopia).

The battle is a long and bloody one, and Nighthawk does not live to see it end.

Upon his friend's death, the Squadron's leader, Hyperion, ends the battle when he comes to realize that his fallen friend was correct.

97. Superman vs. Batman (New Frontier)

One of the more intriguing parts of the Darwyn Cooke mini-series, The New Frontier, was the quickly referenced fight between Batman and Superman in the early issues.

The fight is only barely shown, so Cooke took the opportunity in his New Frontier Special #1 (coinciding with the release of the New Frontier direct-to-DVD cartoon movie) to show the entirety of the fight, which involves Superman trying to take in Batman for the government.

The fight is about as clever as a Superman vs. Batman fight can be, and there is beautiful artwork from Cooke. It is also quite interesting to see how Cooke fits Batman's methods within the time restraints of the era. The introduction of Kryptonite was a nice touch, as well.

96. Thanos vs. Warlock, Captain Marvel, Avengers, Thing and Spider-Man

Jim Starlin was given the chance to wrap up his Warlock/Thanos storyline in two Annuals of other books, Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2.

In the first story, Warlock is still attempting to defeat the mad god, Thanos, who is trying to destroy the stars to please Death, who Thanos loves. Thanos' armada is right outside of Earth, so the Avengers and Captain Marvel show up to help out Warlock.

While the Avengers battle Thanos, Warlock meets his demise by basically merging with the Soul Gem that he carried on his forehead. At the end of the Annual, while Thanos appears triumphant, Warlock is actually pretty happy in the afterlife with his friends Gamora and Pip the Troll (who both were killed earlier, as well, and had their souls enshrined in the gem).

The Marvel Two-in-One Annual involves Spider-Man and the Thing getting involved in the action, freeing the Avengers and taking the fight to Thanos, for an amazing couple of full-page spreads by Starlin of all out brawling.

Ultimately, Spider-Man frees the Soul Gem from wherever Thanos had it being held, and Warlock (through the Soul Gem) takes out Thanos once and for all (well, so we thought at the time), turning him to stone.

And the day is saved, and Jim Starlin's cosmic epic was an end - for now!

20 Comments

  • At December 18, 2008, P_B wrote:

    Yo, you better have the last Spider-Man/Harry Osborn fight in the top 20. Harry drinks a bunch of super Goblin ...

  • At December 18, 2008, E. Martín wrote:

    Skurge's final battle only rated 99/100? Sigh...

    (btw, the goddess of death's name is Hela)

  • At December 18, 2008, Rusty Priske wrote:

    THat is my EXACT reaction.

    Only 99...

  • At December 18, 2008, Chris McAree wrote:

    "Skurge’s final battle only rated 99/100? Sigh…"

    Yeah, can't remember if I listed it in my top ten, but if I ...

  • At December 18, 2008, The Dude wrote:

    I love these lists but its a shame that no battle from the Walt Simonson run on Thor was in ...

  • At December 18, 2008, The Mutt wrote:

    There's two of my ten right there.

    My favorite part of the Thanos vs Everybody fight is Spidey freaking out and ...

  • At December 18, 2008, Matt Bird wrote:

    Yup, I had that Warlock fight in my Top Ten. Pretty sweet. (It's odd how Thanos seemed so ...

  • At December 18, 2008, badger wrote:

    I'd also stick that Skurge battle much, much higher. I wasn't even a big fan of Thor, or even Walt ...

  • At December 18, 2008, Baron Latos wrote:

    That Skurge scene was one of the first times that I was really, deeply, moved by a comic. I remember ...

  • At December 18, 2008, stealthwise wrote:

    Batman vs Superman in New Frontier should be about 5000 spots above Superboy Prime vs the Titans. They're literally ...

  • At December 18, 2008, Black Manta wrote:

    Argh..I can't believe I forgot MTIO Annual 2, my favorite comic ever!!!!! that's what I get for rushing.

  • At December 18, 2008, Josh wrote:

    I thought it was nice that they reprinted Thor #362 in the "God-Sized" Thor out this week. Man, those ...

  • At December 19, 2008, Luis Dantas wrote:

    The Squadron Supreme cover reminds me a lot of a classic "Legends" scene. IIRC it came after Legends, could ...

  • At December 19, 2008, Oliver Selby wrote:

    Skurge at Gjallerbru is a truly iconic moment in comics. Cheers Walt Simonson for the best written superhero comics ...

  • At December 20, 2008, Doug wrote:

    Glad I'm not the only one who was moved by, enjoyed and still remembers Skurge's last stand. This is ...

  • At December 20, 2008, Ortiz wrote:

    I read the Skurge story just this week, in the Thor God-Sized special, and was awesome, that's the way a ...

  • At December 20, 2008, Max Bialy wrote:

    Skurge at Gjallerbru is one of my favorite comic book moments. And so is Thor vs Jormungand. And Surtur forging ...

  • At December 22, 2008, Dave wrote:

    Seriously???? This is the list??? What did you get your little sister to compile this list???WTF?? Dude, how were you ...

  • At August 7, 2009, Speed Reading: TV, Battles, Run! « Speed Force wrote:

    [...] Should Be Good has started posting the results of the Top 100 Comic Battles poll. #100 is Superboy-Prime vs. ...

  • At September 28, 2009, Do You Have Any Cake, Instead? - Gnome Stew, the Game Mastering Blog wrote:

    [...] is nothing wrong with death, when it’s appropriate (see #99 here). But when the cupidity of dice and the ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/17/top-100-comic-book-battles-100-96/feed/ 20 Top 100 Comic Book Battles Master List http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/17/top-100-comic-book-battles-master-list/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/17/top-100-comic-book-battles-master-list/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:45:42 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21142 Here is the Top 100 Comic Book Battles Master List, as voted upon by you, the readers!

Enjoy!

The Top 25 were revealed a little while ago, so now we're filling in picks #100 to 26, five battles at a time! Check back each day to see which battles were revealed that day, all the way until Christmas Day, when the final battles will be revealed!

100. Superboy Prime vs. the Teen Titans

99. Skurge vs. the Forces of Hel

98. Squadron Supreme vs. the Redeemers

97. Superman vs. Batman (New Frontier)

96. Thanos vs. Warlock, Captain Marvel, Avengers, Thing and Spider-Man

95. Ogami Itt? vs. Yagy? Retsud? (Final Battle)

94. The DC Heroes vs. the Center

93. Spider-Man vs. the Hobgoblin (Amazing Spider-Man #249-251)

92. Silver Surfer vs. Thor (Silver Surfer #4)

91. Wolverine vs. the Hulk (First Battle)

90. Spider-Man vs. Sinister Six (First Battle)

89. Superman Prime vs. Ion

88. Avengers vs. Nefaria (First Battle)

87. Captain America vs. Red Skull (Cosmic Cube)

86. Spider-Man vs. Firelord

85. Authority vs. Kaizen Gamorra

84. Punisher vs. Barracuda

83. The Ultimates vs. Thor

82. Flash vs. Zoom (First Battle)

81. Deathstroke and Terra vs. the Teen Titans (The Judas Contract)

80. Spider-Man vs. Venom (First Battle)

79. X-Men vs. Cassandra Nova

78. Thing vs. Champion

77. Mr. Fantastic vs. Dr. Doom (Timeslip)

76. Captain Britain (and friends) vs. The Fury

75. Wonder Woman vs. Mind-Controlled Superman (Sacrifice)

74. Batman vs. Cops in Year One

73. Superboy Prime vs. Superboy

72. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vs. Martians

71. Avengers and Justice League vs. Krona

70. Wolverine vs. Sabretooth (Right before the Age of Apocalypse)

69. Spider-Man vs. Morlun (First Battle)

68. Doom vs. Beyonder

67. Magneto vs. Apocalypse

66. Swamp Thing and Friends vs. The Soul off Darkness (American Gothic)

65. Thor vs. Iron Man

64. Batman vs. Superman (Hush)

63. Batman vs. Ra's Al Ghul (First Duel)

62. Supergirl vs. Anti-Monitor

61. Batman vs. Joker (Dark Knight Returns)

60. Wolverine vs. Sabretooth (Mutant Massacre)

59. Superboy Prime vs. Supermen

58. The remains of the JLA vs. Darkseid

57. Punisher vs. the Russian

56. Superman vs. the Elite

55. Nova vs. Annihilus

54. Colossus vs. Juggernaut

53. Fantastic Four plus Friends vs. Galactus

52. Superman vs. Muhammad Ali

51. X-Men vs. Magneto (Fatal Attractions)

50. Jesse Custer vs. Cassidy

49. Thor vs. Beta Ray Bill

48. Hulk vs. The Superheroes of New York City

47. Flash vs. Professor Zoom (Return of Barry Allen)

46. Spider-Man vs. Kraven (Kraven's Last Hunt)

45. Heroes vs. Villains (Secret Wars)

44. JLA (with a spotlight on Batman) vs. Hyperclan

43. We3 vs. The Government

42. Batman vs. Bane (Knightfall)

41. Batman vs. Joker (Killing Joke)

40. The Battle of Fabletown

39. JLA vs. Avengers

38. Superman vs. Mongul

37. Daredevil vs. Nuke

36. Ultimates (and friends) vs. The Liberators

35. Jesse Custer vs. Jody

34. Daredevil vs. Bullseye (Daredevil #181)

33. Superman vs. Lex Luthor (All Star Superman #12)

32. The X-Men vs. Magneto (in the Volcano Base)

31. JSA vs. Dynaman

30. Thor vs. The Midgard Serpent

29. X-Men vs. Dark Phoenix

28. Legion of Superheroes vs. The Forces of Darkseid

27. The Final Battle of Civil War

26. Morpheus vs Choronzon

25. Fantastic Four vs. Galactus (First Fight)

24. Batman vs. Mutant Leader (Dark Knight Returns)

23. Invincible vs. Omni-Man

22. X-Men vs. Marauders (Mutant Massacre)

21. Ultimates vs. Chitauri

20. Avengers vs. Korvac

19. X-Men vs. Hellfire Club (Dark Phoenix Saga)

18. Avengers vs. Ultron (Ultron Unlimited)

17. Deathstroke vs. Justice League

16. Batman vs. Guy Gardner

15. DC Superheroes vs. Anti-Monitor (Last Battle in Crisis)

14. Wolverine vs. Hulk (Ground Zero)

13. Hulk vs. Thing (Fantastic Four #24-25)

12. X-Men vs. Imperial Guard (Dark Phoenix Saga)

11. Spider-Man vs. Green Goblin (Death of Gwen Stacy)

10. Bullseye vs. Elektra

9. Avengers vs. Masters of Evil (Avengers Under Siege)

8. Spider-Man vs. Juggernaut

7. Ultimates vs. Hulk

6. Sinestro Corps War

5. Thanos vs. Everyone (Infinity Gauntlet)

4. Miracleman vs. Kid Miracleman (Second Fight)

3. The Final Battle in Kingdom Come (Primarily Superman vs. Captain Marvel

2. Superman vs. Doomsday (First Fight)

1. Batman vs. Superman (Dark Knight Returns)

47 Comments

  • At December 17, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

    The first...hmmm...let's say 10 (#100-91) will be up tonight.

  • At December 17, 2008, Conor E wrote:

    the links for 1-25 just go to the first page of the countdown, not the individual entries.

  • At December 17, 2008, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

    I dunno.

    I still think that # 10 and 14 should be be # 2 and 3.

    But that's just me.

  • At December 17, 2008, houseofjanzen wrote:

    One thing to say: Dark Knight Returns sucked. Having it as #1 is just wrong. #2,3 and 5 are all ...

  • At December 17, 2008, Anon wrote:

    Where Punisher vs Barracuda? and Punisher vs the Russian?

  • At December 17, 2008, tk. wrote:

    Although I slacked off and didn't submit my entry in a timely manner, and I don't read a lot of ...

  • At December 18, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

    the links for 1-25 just go to the first page of the countdown, not the individual entries. Just for you, ...

  • At December 19, 2008, Wolfsbane wrote:

    I hope that the first Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) vs. Lady Shiva (not known at the time but eventually to be ...

  • At December 19, 2008, Craig MacD. wrote:

    Why are entries #26-85 missing?

  • At December 20, 2008, Steven wrote:

    Please dont ignore Fantastic Four # 112 22 pages of thing verses hulk. no one ever lists it

  • At December 20, 2008, hotchocolateBD wrote:

    houseofjanzen thought DKR sucked?

    fuckin idiot.

  • At December 20, 2008, Kilo wrote:

    The first thing I thought of when I started the article was the DKR battle. the grit and determination of ...

  • At December 20, 2008, scott wrote:

    AKIRA v. TETSUO

  • At December 20, 2008, scott wrote:

    I also want to second Batgirl v. Lady Shiva. Seriously classic.

  • At December 20, 2008, Matt Bird wrote:

    Right on, Scott, but I'm afraid the umpteen kick-ass fights in Akira may cancel each other out. I myself ...

  • At December 20, 2008, Medianator wrote:

    [...] Top 100 Comic Book Battles. By Trevor December 20, 2008 [...]

  • At December 21, 2008, DBL wrote:

    Thor versus the World Serpent, bitches!

  • At December 21, 2008, PyroTwilight wrote:

    Where do I go to nominate fights?

    I'd like to nominate the Justice Alliance of America (of Earth-D) along with some ...

  • At December 21, 2008, Eternauta wrote:

    Walt Simonson´s Orion vs. Darkseid !!!!!

  • At December 21, 2008, scott wrote:

    You're right. It was Keneda v. Tetsuo. My bad. I think of it as one huge fight, ...

  • At December 22, 2008, MH wrote:

    What about the Anti-Monitor vs. Supergirl ? they were killing each other and Supergirl was about to win when female ...

  • At December 22, 2008, SlightlyMad wrote:

    No sign of Doom vs. The Beyonder from the original Secret Wars?

  • At December 22, 2008, bbb wrote:

    Wow...if Spidey vs the Original Sinister 6 checks in only at 90, and the FF vs Galactus barely cracks ...

  • At December 22, 2008, redd1 wrote:

    cant believe nothing from world war hulk or planet hulk is listed....wtf

  • At December 22, 2008, Nick Pitarra wrote:

    Where is...

    The Authority VS The Evil Doctor?

    The Authority VS The mock Avenger Team?

    Those were awesome!

    And I'm with Scott too. Akira ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Alexander wrote:

    May i Nominate

    Connor Hawke and Ray Palmer Vs Darkseid..

  • At December 23, 2008, Anon wrote:

    I am a big Punisher fan and hence tend to get disppointed when punisher doesnt figure in any top lists…..

    So ...

  • At December 23, 2008, DanCJ wrote:

    What about the Anti-Monitor vs. Supergirl ? they were killing each other and Supergirl was about to win when female ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Jeff R wrote:

    You know, the pace, it's going to need to be picked up a whole lot to get the 40 remaining ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Matt Bird wrote:

    At this point, it would take a Christmas miracle!

  • At December 23, 2008, SlightlyMad wrote:

    OK Doom vs Beyonder is in, but I second Nick Pitarra in that The Authority vs. Mock Avengers should be ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Grifter wrote:

    I'd love to see Blink vs. Holocaust on the list somewhere. And although it's a little off the beaten ...

  • At December 23, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

    You know, the pace, it’s going to need to be picked up a whole lot to get the 40 remaining ...

  • At December 24, 2008, DanCJ wrote:

    I believe those votes got counted towards entry #15 (though I know it wasn’t the last battle as the text ...

  • At December 24, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

    My guess is a lot of people said DCU Superheroes vs The Anti-Monitor without specifying which battle.

    Correct.

  • At December 24, 2008, DarkAudit wrote:

    DESTROY!!

    It's a *32-page* fight scene!

    DESTROY!!

  • At December 26, 2008, chris wrote:

    I'm surprised that more people didn't list Spidey vs the Green Goblin from Jenkins' run on Peter Parker: Spider-Man, issue ...

  • At December 26, 2008, Lite julvåld « Maela - Populärkultur Orsakar Cancer wrote:

    [...] Publicerade december 26, 2008 Serier Comics Should Be Good ...

  • At December 27, 2008, I AM FeAR wrote:

    So there's THREE Superboy Prime fights on here, but no LOBO VS SANTA CLAUS MACHETE FIGHT???

    What a joke.....

  • At December 29, 2008, Anonymous wrote:

    Now it's all over, my votes that didn't place anywhere (and I'm surprised by all three) are:

    4 - Rorshach vs ...

  • At December 29, 2008, DanCJ wrote:

    Oops - That Anonymous was me. I don' t know why my name disappeared from the box

  • At December 29, 2008, Verdammt wrote:

    A little disappointed that Tony Stark vs. Jack Daniels didn't make the list.

  • At December 29, 2008, WOAH Comics » A Few Follow-ups wrote:

    [...] 10 comic battles – all over again! Comics Should be Good has decided to fill in the rest of ...

  • At January 5, 2009, FSogol wrote:

    You didn't mention one Avengers fight that should have made the list. It could be considered part of the ...

  • At February 7, 2009, Carl J. Maltese wrote:

    You seem to have forgotten Killraven vs. Skar from Marvel's Amazing Adventures #34 (Circa. 1976)

  • At August 26, 2009, daniel wrote:

    granted, the fight was only one panel, but i seriously can't believe superman vs. azmodel from jla #7 wasn't on ...

  • At September 10, 2009, AbdulAziz wrote:

    What gave the battle between Spider-Man & Kraven the right to be in this list? There was absolutely no resistance ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/17/top-100-comic-book-battles-master-list/feed/ 47 Top 100 Comic Book Battles Countdown! http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/16/top-100-comic-book-battles-countdown/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/16/top-100-comic-book-battles-countdown/#comments Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:00:37 +0000 Brian Cronin http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/?p=21114 As a bit of a Christmas treat, starting Wednesday, I'll start counting down the Top 100 Comic Book Battles, as voted on by you, the readers!

The last battles (other than #1-25, which you know already) will be announced on Christmas morning!

Enjoy!

12 Comments

  • At December 16, 2008, Dunc wrote:

    Hey Hey!

    Looking forward to some of the more obscure/older battles making the list.

    I'd been hoping to use the list as ...

  • At December 16, 2008, Verdammt wrote:

    Don't know if this has been done before, but how about a top 100 deaths list?

  • At December 16, 2008, Matt Bird wrote:

    Thanks, Brian! I had just about given up hope on seeing those. Now we'll finally get to find ...

  • At December 16, 2008, Blackjak wrote:

    Ha-ha! Wonder where "Puniseher-roach vs. the Cirinists" came in...

    ...probably 123rd...

    :-(

  • At December 16, 2008, The Mutt wrote:

    There is a Santa Claus!

  • At December 16, 2008, Zee wrote:

    I couldn't think of enough fights to vote last time. I remember the ones I did think of didnt ...

  • At December 16, 2008, Lord Paradise wrote:

    Top 100 deaths is a good idea, but would have unbearable spoilers, particularly for the out-of-continuity series.

  • At December 16, 2008, Jason wrote:

    A while back, Wizard did a similar list, and it was topped by the huge brawl in The Golden Age ...

  • At December 16, 2008, Black Manta wrote:

    Why not a list of characters we hate?

  • At December 17, 2008, Verdammt wrote:

    So.........it's Wednesday. Am I not looking in the right spot for the countdown or has it not started yet?

  • At December 17, 2008, Eric wrote:

    Totally in for top 100 characters we hate (Hal Jordan) and top 100 character deaths (Gert). Of course I'm not ...

  • At December 17, 2008, danjack wrote:

    Still waiting..... 3.45 pm West Coast Time

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/12/16/top-100-comic-book-battles-countdown/feed/ 12