GOTHAM HEROES versus BLOCKBUSTER, METALLO & GORILLA GRODD
Seduction of the Innocent (DC)
Where: Underworld Unleashed #3 When: Late December 1995 Why: Mark Waid How: Howard Porter
The Story So Far...
Hell has a new ruler and his name is Neron. This powerful devil comes baring a simple offer to those who will take it: great power in exchange for their immortal soul!
The demon's temptation lures many whose heart is darkened by desire. Roland Desmond receives the power of Blockbuster with the retention of a brilliant criminal mind; John Corben accepts the ability to summon a new Metallo body from nearby metals so he'll never be crippled again; and Gorilla Grodd enhances his powerful mind with the knowledge to take control of Gorilla City.
While the most powerful members of the Justice League enter the underworld on a mission to stop Neron -- his army of villains spread chaos and terror across a troubled Earth. The remaining heroes of Gotham City must scramble to stop the enhanced villains as they attempt to hijack nuclear weapons!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Metallo 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Batman 5 (Professor)
Speed: Gorilla Grodd 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Metallo 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Robin 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Batman 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Metallo 4 (Arsenal)
Total: Batman 29 (Metahuman)
The Gotham City heroes are: Batman, Robin, Black Canary, and Huntress.
A formidable foursome for the streets of Gotham, but today they face a trio of freshly supercharged super-villains who sold their souls to the demon Neron in exchange for greatly enhanced super-powers!
Blockbuster is Roland Desmond: criminal mastermind and brother of Mark Desmond. Like his brother, Roland possesses greatly enhanced super-human strength, but thanks to his pact with Neron, he no longer suffers the reduction in intelligence associated with the Blockbuster formula!
Metallo is John Corben: mortally injured criminal turned into a cyborg powered by kryptonite. Along with super-human strength and durability, his cyborg body could fire radiation beams from his kryptonite heart. Neron's offer granted Metallo the added ability to adapt and construct a body from any metallic objects in his vicinity -- meaning he could never be stopped!
Gorilla Grodd is an ape of Gorilla City who possesses incredible strength, intellect, and vast telepathic abilities. His deal with Neron restored lost psionic powers and granted him knowledge of the whereabouts of an ancient talisman that would allow him to challenge King Solovar for rule over Gorilla City.
All three villains possess strength levels that put them in a weight class above their mortal opponents. They usually contend with the likes of Superman and The Flash, but their enhanced durability also means the Gotham City heroes can utilize some of the most powerful weapons in their arsenal!
Batman used high explosives to defeat the robotic menace of Amazo in Batman #637, and slow a possessed WayneTech Rescue OGRE in Batman Confidential #2. We saw Metallo inadvertently destroy one of his post-Neron bodies in Steel #21 when he absorbed plastic explosive into his body.
Gorilla Grodd used The Heart of Darkness talisman to bring Supergirl into his ape-tribe in Supergirl #3, and telepathically turned the entire Ultramarine Corps against the Justice League in JLA: Classified #3. The latter issue also showed that Batman was able to overcome Grodd with guile and bat-weaponry!
With their combined strengths and intellect, the bad guys should have the advantage here, but all three have shown a propensity for losing in the end.
All four Gotham heroes have acrobatic abilities that should keep them out of harms way. Black Canary is arguably the ace in the hole, with her sonic canary cry shown to be powerful enough to vex the Marvel Family [Crisis on Infinite Earths #6], and Shadow Thief & Giganta [Justice League of America #13]!
The Tape: Gotham City Heroes Ranking: Batman (#1)
What Went Down...
A Gotham City bridge plays host to nuclear warheads while city-wide gridlock interrupts the government convoy. Their position was expertly predicated and planned by Major Disaster, whose associates are on site to topple the truck!
Blockbuster, Gorilla Grodd, and Metallo appear moments from success when Batman and Robin descend upon the bridge to spoil their plans!
Robin drops onto Blockbuster with a boot to the back of the head, sending him hurtling towards the waiting feet of a grounded dark knight. Batman lets momentum and gravity do the work, launching Blockbuster off the bridge!
While that's happening, Black Canary joins the battle with a swift flying kick to the face of Gorilla Grodd! Its a short-lived advantage, lost as Grodd unleashes a violent telepathic assault that sends her recoiling with a cry of agony!
Huntress swings across the bridge, surprising one of the convoy drivers by snatching his belt of grenades. She glides above the battle and pulls the pin, sending half a dozen explosives plummeting towards the villains!
Metallo spies the heroine swinging overhead, but fails to take her attack seriously enough to avert disaster. The grenades hit their target, blasting Metallo and Grodd -- and catching Black Canary in the shockwave!
Robin has Black Canary's wellbeing covered, calling for her to go limp so he can catch and break her fall. No such luck for the bad guys, who were blown clean off the bridge and disappeared into the waters below!
The Hammer...
It was a risky play on a populated bridge, but Huntress' grenade gambit won the day for the heroes in the end. It was even good enough to get a rare compliment out of Batman!
The battle is an otherwise easily overlooked, quick three-page episode that shows some of what's happening on Earth while the Justice League are descending into the depths of Hell.
Underworld Unleashed #3 more famously contains a battle between the corrupted JLA and Captain Marvel, as well as the ultimate confrontation with the arch-villain Neron. Nice battles from a mid-nineties DC event, but sometimes it's the small, forgotten moments from these big crossover events that can be the most fun to revisit!
Underworld Unleashed was an event with a grand purpose. Neron was essentially the demonic personification of the publisher's intent to revamp and refurbish some of their pantheon for the extreme nineties. Branded crossover issues turned a spotlight on jazzed up foes who'd sold their soul for new and improved powers, setting them loose on unsuspecting opponents.
By keeping the core event title to a tight three issues, and letting concise tie-ins exploit revamped villains in sometimes unexpected match-ups, Underworld Unleashed had some of the charm that made Acts of Vengeance a good time.
Gorilla Grodd didn't change too much, but the featured trio are a nice sampling for what it was all about. Metallo and Blockbuster were a couple of the updates I remember enjoying at the time. Both found their way into unlikely interactions with Steel, who was a character I was pretty enthusiastic about. We've covered Metallo's appearance in Steel #21, and I'd like to get to Blockbuster as well.
This is the first time the Roland Desmond incarnation of Blockbuster has found his way onto Secret Wars on Infinite Earths. Thanks to Neron, he fulfills the question of what it would be like for Blockbuster to retain strength and intellect.
Mark Desmond served a purpose as a super-strong villain who could run into Batman for cheap thrills. He was a serviceable stand-in for Marvel's Hulk, but it was fair to say the character was running its course. Using his brother to change things up gave DC a surprisingly fun twist, unleashing a powerful mastermind who'll be best remembered as the Kingpin to Nightwing's beleaguered vigilante.
Today's fight also marks the ranking debut of Huntress, who herself is a twist on an old idea. Helena Wayne made sense as the daughter of Batman & Catwoman in a pre-Crisis Earth-Two that showed the second generation coming into their own, but once DC rebooted there was cause to retool.
Helena Bertinelli is undoubtedly my preferred Huntress. Daughter of Gotham City mobster Franco Bertinelli, she witnessed her family's murder by hitman as a child, and vowed to dedicate herself to the fight against organized crime as an adult. She's a semi-inversion on the Bruce Wayne story with her own quirks.
Huntress would become a frequent collaborator with Black Canary as part of the Birds of Prey, who you'll probably know are headed to theatres on February 7th.
With any luck we'll be talking more about Huntress and the Birds of Prey in upcoming featured fights. For now, we record a debut win for the purple bird.
If you'd like to find more from the characters featured today you can follow links throughout this post, or dive into the Secret Archive for a complete index of featured fights ordered by publisher, series, and issue number!
You can also subscribe on Twitter and Facebook to get daily links to superhero smackdown inspired by the topics of the day. If you like Secret Wars on Infinite Earths and want to see it prosper you can now support the project via Patreon.
Winners: Huntress, Batman & Robin (w/ Black Canary)
#331 (new) Huntress
#1 (--) Batman
#23 (+10) Robin (Tim Drake)
#38 (--) Black Canary [+1 assist]
#400 (-10) Gorilla Grodd
#896 (new) Blockbuster (Roland Desmond)
#936 (-18) Metallo
Where: Underworld Unleashed #3 When: Late December 1995 Why: Mark Waid How: Howard Porter
The Story So Far...
Hell has a new ruler and his name is Neron. This powerful devil comes baring a simple offer to those who will take it: great power in exchange for their immortal soul!
The demon's temptation lures many whose heart is darkened by desire. Roland Desmond receives the power of Blockbuster with the retention of a brilliant criminal mind; John Corben accepts the ability to summon a new Metallo body from nearby metals so he'll never be crippled again; and Gorilla Grodd enhances his powerful mind with the knowledge to take control of Gorilla City.
While the most powerful members of the Justice League enter the underworld on a mission to stop Neron -- his army of villains spread chaos and terror across a troubled Earth. The remaining heroes of Gotham City must scramble to stop the enhanced villains as they attempt to hijack nuclear weapons!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Metallo 6 (Invincible)Intelligence: Batman 5 (Professor)
Speed: Gorilla Grodd 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Metallo 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Robin 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Batman 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Metallo 4 (Arsenal)
Total: Batman 29 (Metahuman)
The Gotham City heroes are: Batman, Robin, Black Canary, and Huntress.
A formidable foursome for the streets of Gotham, but today they face a trio of freshly supercharged super-villains who sold their souls to the demon Neron in exchange for greatly enhanced super-powers!
Blockbuster is Roland Desmond: criminal mastermind and brother of Mark Desmond. Like his brother, Roland possesses greatly enhanced super-human strength, but thanks to his pact with Neron, he no longer suffers the reduction in intelligence associated with the Blockbuster formula!
Metallo is John Corben: mortally injured criminal turned into a cyborg powered by kryptonite. Along with super-human strength and durability, his cyborg body could fire radiation beams from his kryptonite heart. Neron's offer granted Metallo the added ability to adapt and construct a body from any metallic objects in his vicinity -- meaning he could never be stopped!
Gorilla Grodd is an ape of Gorilla City who possesses incredible strength, intellect, and vast telepathic abilities. His deal with Neron restored lost psionic powers and granted him knowledge of the whereabouts of an ancient talisman that would allow him to challenge King Solovar for rule over Gorilla City.
All three villains possess strength levels that put them in a weight class above their mortal opponents. They usually contend with the likes of Superman and The Flash, but their enhanced durability also means the Gotham City heroes can utilize some of the most powerful weapons in their arsenal!
Batman used high explosives to defeat the robotic menace of Amazo in Batman #637, and slow a possessed WayneTech Rescue OGRE in Batman Confidential #2. We saw Metallo inadvertently destroy one of his post-Neron bodies in Steel #21 when he absorbed plastic explosive into his body.
Gorilla Grodd used The Heart of Darkness talisman to bring Supergirl into his ape-tribe in Supergirl #3, and telepathically turned the entire Ultramarine Corps against the Justice League in JLA: Classified #3. The latter issue also showed that Batman was able to overcome Grodd with guile and bat-weaponry!
With their combined strengths and intellect, the bad guys should have the advantage here, but all three have shown a propensity for losing in the end.
All four Gotham heroes have acrobatic abilities that should keep them out of harms way. Black Canary is arguably the ace in the hole, with her sonic canary cry shown to be powerful enough to vex the Marvel Family [Crisis on Infinite Earths #6], and Shadow Thief & Giganta [Justice League of America #13]!
The Tape: Gotham City Heroes Ranking: Batman (#1)
What Went Down...
A Gotham City bridge plays host to nuclear warheads while city-wide gridlock interrupts the government convoy. Their position was expertly predicated and planned by Major Disaster, whose associates are on site to topple the truck!
Blockbuster, Gorilla Grodd, and Metallo appear moments from success when Batman and Robin descend upon the bridge to spoil their plans!
Robin drops onto Blockbuster with a boot to the back of the head, sending him hurtling towards the waiting feet of a grounded dark knight. Batman lets momentum and gravity do the work, launching Blockbuster off the bridge!
While that's happening, Black Canary joins the battle with a swift flying kick to the face of Gorilla Grodd! Its a short-lived advantage, lost as Grodd unleashes a violent telepathic assault that sends her recoiling with a cry of agony!
Huntress swings across the bridge, surprising one of the convoy drivers by snatching his belt of grenades. She glides above the battle and pulls the pin, sending half a dozen explosives plummeting towards the villains!
Metallo spies the heroine swinging overhead, but fails to take her attack seriously enough to avert disaster. The grenades hit their target, blasting Metallo and Grodd -- and catching Black Canary in the shockwave!
Robin has Black Canary's wellbeing covered, calling for her to go limp so he can catch and break her fall. No such luck for the bad guys, who were blown clean off the bridge and disappeared into the waters below!
The Hammer...
It was a risky play on a populated bridge, but Huntress' grenade gambit won the day for the heroes in the end. It was even good enough to get a rare compliment out of Batman!The battle is an otherwise easily overlooked, quick three-page episode that shows some of what's happening on Earth while the Justice League are descending into the depths of Hell.
Underworld Unleashed #3 more famously contains a battle between the corrupted JLA and Captain Marvel, as well as the ultimate confrontation with the arch-villain Neron. Nice battles from a mid-nineties DC event, but sometimes it's the small, forgotten moments from these big crossover events that can be the most fun to revisit!
Underworld Unleashed was an event with a grand purpose. Neron was essentially the demonic personification of the publisher's intent to revamp and refurbish some of their pantheon for the extreme nineties. Branded crossover issues turned a spotlight on jazzed up foes who'd sold their soul for new and improved powers, setting them loose on unsuspecting opponents.
By keeping the core event title to a tight three issues, and letting concise tie-ins exploit revamped villains in sometimes unexpected match-ups, Underworld Unleashed had some of the charm that made Acts of Vengeance a good time.
Gorilla Grodd didn't change too much, but the featured trio are a nice sampling for what it was all about. Metallo and Blockbuster were a couple of the updates I remember enjoying at the time. Both found their way into unlikely interactions with Steel, who was a character I was pretty enthusiastic about. We've covered Metallo's appearance in Steel #21, and I'd like to get to Blockbuster as well.
This is the first time the Roland Desmond incarnation of Blockbuster has found his way onto Secret Wars on Infinite Earths. Thanks to Neron, he fulfills the question of what it would be like for Blockbuster to retain strength and intellect.
Mark Desmond served a purpose as a super-strong villain who could run into Batman for cheap thrills. He was a serviceable stand-in for Marvel's Hulk, but it was fair to say the character was running its course. Using his brother to change things up gave DC a surprisingly fun twist, unleashing a powerful mastermind who'll be best remembered as the Kingpin to Nightwing's beleaguered vigilante.
Today's fight also marks the ranking debut of Huntress, who herself is a twist on an old idea. Helena Wayne made sense as the daughter of Batman & Catwoman in a pre-Crisis Earth-Two that showed the second generation coming into their own, but once DC rebooted there was cause to retool.
Helena Bertinelli is undoubtedly my preferred Huntress. Daughter of Gotham City mobster Franco Bertinelli, she witnessed her family's murder by hitman as a child, and vowed to dedicate herself to the fight against organized crime as an adult. She's a semi-inversion on the Bruce Wayne story with her own quirks.
Huntress would become a frequent collaborator with Black Canary as part of the Birds of Prey, who you'll probably know are headed to theatres on February 7th.
With any luck we'll be talking more about Huntress and the Birds of Prey in upcoming featured fights. For now, we record a debut win for the purple bird.
If you'd like to find more from the characters featured today you can follow links throughout this post, or dive into the Secret Archive for a complete index of featured fights ordered by publisher, series, and issue number!
You can also subscribe on Twitter and Facebook to get daily links to superhero smackdown inspired by the topics of the day. If you like Secret Wars on Infinite Earths and want to see it prosper you can now support the project via Patreon.
Winners: Huntress, Batman & Robin (w/ Black Canary)
#331 (new) Huntress
#1 (--) Batman
#23 (+10) Robin (Tim Drake)
#38 (--) Black Canary [+1 assist]
#400 (-10) Gorilla Grodd
#896 (new) Blockbuster (Roland Desmond)
#936 (-18) Metallo
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