PRIME SENTINELS versus X-MEN

First Blood - Operation: Zero Tolerance Prologue (Marvel)
Where: X-Men #65 When: June 1997
Why: Scott Lobdell How: Carlos Pacheco

The Story So Far...
En route from a mission to wrest the cure for the Legacy Virus from the clutches of both Sebastian Shaw and The Kingpin -- the X-Men find themselves under assault from yet another lurking threat!

Operation: Zero Tolerance has stoked the fires of anti-mutant sentiment in the wake of the devastating attack by Onslaught that seemingly cost the lives of Earth's Mightiest Heroes - The Avengers and Fantastic Four!

The X-Men are primed to become public enemies once again as they find their plane under attack from Operation: Zero Tolerance -- with TV cameras capturing the battle -- and Henry Peter Gyrich on hand to brand it an act of terrorists.

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Wolverine 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Cyclops 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Cannonball 5 (Super-Human)
Stamina: Wolverine 6 (Generator)
Agility: Storm 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Wolverine 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Cyclops 5 (Lasers)
Total: Wolverine 26 (Metahuman)

The Prime Sentinels are a unique breed of cybernetic soldiers created by Bastion for Operation: Zero Tolerance.

Unlike traditional Sentinel robots; Prime models are actually human sleeper agents outfitted with nanotech implants, which can be activated remotely to turn them into heavily armed, armored attack agents.

They possess greatly enhanced strength & durability, concussive force blasts, flight, and some ability to impede mutant powers, with the added benefits of being able to blend in with humans when not activated.

The X-Men are: Cyclops, Storm, Phoenix, Wolverine, and Cannonball.

All of these X-Men are well versed in battling mutant-hunting Sentinels. We saw Cyclops and Phoenix do some damage during a Christmas attack, with Storm making a vital save when things got a little out of hand.

Cannonball, who is a still recent call-up from X-Force, fought the Sentinels as a member of the New Mutants. His invincible blast-shield generated while in flight makes him a good hand against the classic robots, and he's still riding the high of a proving-moment against Gladiator shortly before this issue.

We don't have any of those moments recorded at time of writing, but we have seen Cannonball join X-Force against the armored Iron Man during the second Contest of Champions. Results were mixed.

Sentinels have a bit of a mixed history when it comes to combat: The Tri-Sentinel super-charged by Loki was no match for a cosmically powered Spider-Man, but when a malfunctioning model sprung out of a scrapyard -- Falcon was caught by surprise!

In an alternate future, we saw scrapped Sentinels become instruments of death for Magneto, and yet another possible future produced the deadly Nimrod: a time-travelling Sentinel that forced the X-Men and Juggernaut to team-up, and later resurfaced to overwhelm both the X-Men and Hellfire Club!

How will the X-Men fare in their first encounter with the Prime Sentinels? Let's find out!

The Tape: X-Men Ranking: Wolverine (#5)

What Went Down...

Over a previously undisturbed wooded Colorado valley -- a sophisticated Operation: Zero Tolerance aircraft is more than a match for the loaner jet it unleashes its hi-tech weaponry upon!

A direct impact blasts open the cabin, and snaps one of the passengers -- Jean Grey, aka; Phoenix -- out of an unexpected psychic episode that briefly communed her with the believed-dead, sub-dimensionally lost hero: Iron Man!

It seems Operation: Zero Tolerance's weapons have had an unexpected effect on Phoenix's telepathic abilities, making it even more difficult for her to assist the X-Men as Storm battles rapid decompression with her command of the winds.

Things are going from bad to worse as Cyclops discovers the controls of the plane almost completely unresponsive. It's up to Phoenix & Storm to keep them aloft!

In desperate need of a clean landing and facing further assault from two fast-moving aircraft -- Cannonball leaps from the cabin to take them on!

His kinetic forcefield keeps him safe as he rips through the outer hull of the attacking vessels, but from within springs two human-shaped bogeys!

Cannonball finds himself joined in the air by three strange, man-sized Sentinels!

The young X-Man is so startled by their unusual appearance -- he doesn't even realise they're steering him towards an attack from one of the airships! 

Fortunately, he has Wolverine and Cyclops watching his back! Cyclops unleashes an optic blast -- nailing the aircraft before it can attack!

Unfortunately, there's nobody to save Cyclops when the jet is hit from another aircraft and he's thrown from the opening in the cabin!

The irony of ironies is that Cyclops' life is saved by the Prime Sentinels that catch him unconscious in mid-air, to be flown to future internment.

Wolverine can see the X-Men are being picked off, one by one.

This time Storm takes the initiative, leaping from the plane to take the fight to the Sentinels, but she was expecting more energy blasts -- and completely failed to anticipate the deployment of a rapidly expanding polymer!

The substance slowly twists its way along Storm's body until she's completely encased in the translucent substance -- helpless in a grip of claustrophobia and the inescapable encasement!

With the situation growing increasingly desperate -- Wolverine steers the shaking jet towards the trees and mountains below, urging the Operation: Zero Tolerance aircraft to follow as he takes Phoenix by the hand and plays for a hasty exit.

A holographic display shows the spectacular explosion of the crashing plane to Bastion, who relishes "... the X-Men's final flight from justice..."

While the Prime Sentinels carry a polymer-encased Storm back to their craft, more of their agents discover Cannonball unconscious in the nearby river, while others clasp a hi-tech cradle over Cyclops' head & eyes, and descend to retrieve Wolverine and Phoenix from rubble near the crash site.

The Hammer...

A shocking defeat for the X-Men as Operation: Zero Tolerance kicks off the full scale threat of Bastion and his Prime Sentinels!

As you might have noticed at the top of this entry -- we're back in 1997. A year I generally look back upon very fondly, and has come into vogue again thanks to the just-concluded first season of Disney's X-Men 97 animated series -- a revival of the classic X-Men cartoon.

I was still buying occasional X-Men issues from the newsstands around this time, and probably rewatching Season 1 videotapes of the cartoon as well, but the presumed grind of constant X-over events meant I was a little less focused on what was going on around this time. The end of the cartoon likely contributed.

It was probably another year or so before I really started to feel like X-Men's time had passed, and questioned their enduring place at the top of the monthly sales charts, but after the blockbuster of Onslaught, my focus was already transferred to the Heroes Reborn titles, most enduringly Fantastic Four - a perennial fave.

In 1997, the return to a meandering Sentinel-based danger, and purple-clad arch-villain, felt a little bit passe and "samey", but in hindsight, I think I'd be much more complimentary now. It was easy to be flippantly disinterested back then -- there were exciting things going on across pop culture, competing for time & dollars. There was a disposable exchange and we didn't always get it right.

Looking back on Operation: Zero Tolerance now -- it strikes me that it's a vibrant return to classic X-Men. A welcome centering after a couple of years of disruption, most notably with 1995's Age of Apocalypse, that moved things forward well after the drawn out mystery of Onslaught, and consequences of Heroes Reborn.

Artists like Carlos Pacheco and Salvador Larroca were giving tremendous energy to pencils amid the exit of Joe Madureira, and I'm also inclined to compliment the computer-assisted colours of Chris Lichtner, Aron Lusen, and Liquid!, however those duties might be divided. This work really pushes the nineties style to its apex, and is still very appealing.

The nano-tech twist on the classic Sentinels formula is also a fresh and topical of-the-time detail I overlooked. It would come back into focus brilliantly when Grant Morrison breathed new life into the whole thing with his 2001 New X-Men -- a welcome evolution of the X-Men that, at least as far as Nano-Sentinels are concerned, also further validates what was done here. A similar idea also consumed DC in 2006 with Project OMAC. If only I'd paid more attention in '97!

Then, and now, I have mixed feelings about the technology and concepts bridging the gap to Nimrod. At the time, the vague techno-connection was played up as a bit of a bigger deal than it really wound up being. A symptom of another push for a mystery identity ala Onslaught, with the trickiness of moving us closer to a future that was always presented as a bit more distant.

Here in 2024, that time crunch has been concluded, with Nimrod playing a big role in the recent Fall of X that has once again given us a re-centering moment, after a few years of the very niche Krakoa era. A moment that seems to have been rapidly overtaken by a slightly nostalgic revival, led by X-Men 97, and the influx of related merchandise into a market starved by Marvel Entertainment execs.

I have some slight misgivings about nostalgia, these days. It's been a steady few decades of inescapable, often vacuous, retreads of eighties and nineties pop culture icons in multiple mediums. We're starved for genuinely enjoyable, exciting, enduring things, but some of that comes from the tedium of post-millennial movements away from vibrant, colourful, enduring icons. In comics, this type of centered reset has felt overdue amidst the many deaths and distractions.

Whatever may come next -- I'm having a great time digging out those old X-Men back issues that have notoriously been neglected here on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths. The To Do List is always longer than the road, but I do feel like I especially left my X-Men fandom out in the cold for far too long.

If you'd like to help make it possible to dedicate more time to classic X-Men battles and curiosities - consider becoming a supporter on Patreon. I always appreciate seeing you hitting up our extensive back catalogue of articles, and it would help me tremendously to have your support for all that work.

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured well over 700 fights and ranked more than 1,000 characters! You can find them all by diving into the Secret Archive for a complete index of battles in order of publisher, series, and issue, or by hitting up links to your favourites things found throughout each entry.

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Winners: Prime Sentinels
#368 (new) Prime Sentinels
#162 (-2) Jean Grey
#5 (--) Wolverine
#36 (--) Storm
#92 (--) Cyclops
#160 (-1) Cannonball

SUPERMAN/BATMAN versus GREEN ARROW
Absolute Power Chapter One: "I Pledge Allegiance..." (DC comics)
Where: Superman/Batman #14 When: January 2005
Why: Jeph Loeb How: Carlos Pacheco

The story so far...
In a world where the fates of the world's greatest superheroes have been manipulated, Superman and Batman serve as dictators to the world's greatest super power.

Though the Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen and Cosmic King preemptively extinguished most of the rebellious powers that may rise, some inevitably emerge as though time and space was fighting their will. One such resistant is Oliver Queen, known to the world as the bow carrying vigilante -- Green Arrow!

Though he was killed once before, the Green Arrow seems unwilling to perish.
His return from the dead remains a thorn in the sides of the world's finest, but even as a resurrected symbol of hope, Green Arrow is just a man. A man fighting would-be gods...

Previous Form:
Batman (#2): Has victories over overwhelming odds, including Superman & Amazo.
Superman (#9): Single-handedly decimated the Freedom Fighters in this universe.
Green Arrow (#10): Victories against Superman, Brick and Red Hood.

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Superman 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Batman 5 (Professor)
Speed: Superman 6 (Speed of Sound)
Stamina: Superman 6 (Generator)
Agility: Batman 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting Ability: Batman 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy Powers: Superman 5 (Lasers)


Even though this is a battle exclusive to the top ten, the tape paints a pretty telling picture of the situation we have before us.

When you pair up two of the world's most iconic superheroes, evil better beware.

When you travel back in time to twist and destort their origins, so that you may raise them as your own little dictators -- everyone better watch it!

Green Arrow and Batman draw a lot of parallels between them. While GA tends to stand as the quasi-knock-off of his counterpart, they and their families have grown in tandem in ways that have made them even more similar than before.

The defining link between GA and Batman is the fact that, in a world of legends, they are two of the more prominent and successful humans.
While they accomplish fantastic feats, and overcome impossible odds, they are forever distance from their fellows, who can shoot lasers from their eyes, turn invisible, move at staggering speeds, or shatter eardrums with their voice.

Even of these two, Batman tends to top GA in most of their common fields.
Batman is more wile, he's richer, he's a better fighter, he's got a bigger arsenal, he plays dirtier, he has more sidekicks. He just generally one-ups Green Arrow in all but the most green of areas.

When you pile on the man of steel, it's overkill. Green Arrow is history.
Even a Superman who is somehow being manipulated [Batman #612] into fighting, and can be seen resisting, towers over the Green Arrow.

He has a couple of assists to his name with Batman against Superman [Dark Knight Returns #4, Dark Knight Strikes Again #1], both which include the use of kryptonite arrows -- which are a valid argument for neutralizing the threat of Superman, but at the end of the day, it just isn't enough to sway the argument.

The Math: Superman & Batman
The Pick: Superman & Batman

What went down...
Having rescued a couple from an armored trio of soldiers, Green Arrow grimaces as they speak the phrase, "Look... Up in the sky..."

Green Arrow turns to find Superman and Batman looming over him. He draws an arrow from his quiver instantly, preparing for the birthday battle that Batman has gifted his adopted brother. GA sends his present early.

At first Superman mocks the simple arrow, but as the head explodes in an array of green particle dust, he quickly realises the potency of the weapon.

Batman leaps from his fire escape perch, promising to kill Green Arrow if Superman has been at all hurt. Gee, he's falling from the sky because of an arrow fired at him. Might be a little late for if he was hurt, Bruce.

Though the leap would surely have earned him a high score from the judges, Batman lands perfectly to eat some bow wood, as Green Arrow sacrifices his weapon for an early edge.

Batman wipes his mouth and explodes, nailing Green Arrow with a backhand to the ribs, before rising into a devestating right-left combination.

He nails his bearded counterpart with a roundhouse kick, but remains unsatisfied. Still in a rage over the attack on his brother, he calls for Green Arrow to get back up.

Ever the rebel, GA pulls one of the arrows from his quivver and buries it into the ribs of the Dark Knight detective!

Though it delivers a suitable amount of pain, the arrow doesn't slow the Batman in the slighest. He returns the favour with an almost instinctive kick to the face that sprays GA's blood, and sufficiently distracts as he rips the arrow from his own body.

Before either of the fighting pair even knows what's happened, the alley in which they're fighting suddenly turns red with light.

Green ARrow is reduced to ash by two precision beams from above, fading before the caped crusader.

Descending from above, a stone-faced Superman bares a twinkle of red in his eyes, and coldly delivers his command: "Obey or die."

With the vigilante thwarted, Superman and Batman return to their moonbase, where they share cake for Superman's birthday with their metro contempo-liberal trio of parents. The end.

The hammer...
Superman and Batman win! Fatality!

So, there's an age old argument that Superman could beat just about anyone, because if he really stopped holding back he would either fling them into space/the sun at super speeds -- or he would obliterate them before they could blink with heat vision.

Absolute Power seemed to cause a bit of a stir, as most Jeph Loeb stories tend to do these days, but there remains one undeniable truth about the entirety of his work on Superman/Batman: It was fun!

Granted, some times it was more fun than others, but on the whole, it was a lot of fun. It's time travel/reality bending antics provided an opportunity to play around with a lot of common place concepts, like what it would be like to have The Ultimates fight DC characters, or what would happen in a world where Superman just uses his heat vision to kill people with silly beards!

Unfortunately irrelevant to the review of the fight is the conclusion to this issue, which also makes brilliant use of Wonder Woman's lasso of truth as a lead-in to the following issue. [Superman/Batman #15]

Having survived an assault from the military police; a stealthy Wonder Woman lurks her way into the depths of the abandoned White House, where a raggedy old hobo in a dirty trenchcoat is sleeping amongst some boxes. He tries to run, crying for help, but is quickly snagged in the glowing enchanted Amazonian ropes.

Somehow aware of everything this hobo was, and stands for, Wonder Woman compells him to remember the truth, and under the vow of the rope, he is transformed into the patriotic symbol of American freedom: Uncle Sam!

It's a great scene, and really another fine example where a playful idea that would otherwise be difficult to come across gets a chance to air. It's not a revolution, but it's a nice little story, none the less.

Speaking of birthdays, July marks mine, and I was supposed to be doing a few extra entries during this month. As I'm writing this it's the sixth, so even though I'm making up some ground, we might have a small gap for the beginning of July.
I was going to use the free schedule to try to do more spontaneous updates, but for the time being it'll be the buffer to catch up. More of that in the Punch-Up!

The Fight: 5 The Issue: 5

FREEDOM FIGHTERS versus SUPERMAN & BATMAN
Absolute Power Chapter Two: "What Price Freedom...?" (DC comics)
Where: Superman/Batman #15 When: Early February 2005 Why: Jeph Loeb How: Carlos Pacheco

The story so far...
In a world without freedom, the intervention of Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen and Cosmic King is unchallenged.
The time travellers from the 31st century use their hindsight to capture and raise Kal-El and Bruce Wayne through their formative years, sculpting them into the ultimate dicators.

With their knowledge, they preemptively prevent the birth of the greatest heroes. Extinguishing any flame that may potentially rise against their 'sons' and the utopian they believe they have created.

Some flames cannot be extinguished, and lost in the sea of humanity is one such individual, who, once discovered by the Amazonian Wonder Woman, is reborn once more as Uncle Sam. Once in possession of the lost Green Lantern ring of Abin Sur, Uncle Sam and Wonder Woman go about starting a revolution.

Previous Form:
Wonder Woman (#130): Wonder Woman was defeated by Storm during DC v Marvel.
Superman (#6): Superman has victories over Hulk, Metallo and the Mole Man.
Batman (#1): Batman is the first ranked character to reach ten victories, having defeated the likes of; Superman, Captain Nazi, Captain America, Bullseye, Two-Face, Amazo, Slam Badley and The Joker.
Uncle Sam & The Freedom Fighters: None of the charter members of the Freedom Fighters have been featured on the site.
The Legion of Superheroes: No member of the Legion has yet been featured on the site.

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Superman 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Batman 5 (Professor)
Speed: Superman 6 (Speed of Sound)
Stamina: Superman 6 (Generator)
Agility: Batman 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting Ability: Wonder Woman 6 (Warrior)
Energy Powers: Superman 5 (Lasers)


You ever get that feeling you've done something before you've done it?
Yes, not only am I running a couple of days behind again, but I'm catching up by doing a post that I wrote a week ago! If you missed out on that, scroll back to see a big giant picture of Galactus...

Anyway, taking a look again at this one I can tell you straight up that it really comes down to the two major players on either side: Wonder Woman & Uncle Sam versus Superman & Batman.

Sam's in possession of what, in the regular universe, would have been Hal Jordan's ring, given to him by Abin Sur. He's a character who's all about chanelling the people's spirit and will, so he's pretty well in the driver's seat with the ring en tow.

That said, if you think Batman is scary in the regular universe, what about a world where he's willing to kill and has access to an entire world's technology and arsenal! Set your phasers to pee yourself, because that's bad news bears.

Some folks are a little uncomfortable with the addition of super strength and flight to Wonder Woman's array of skills and abilities. Personally I'm pretty fond of it, and think it slots her suitably into that top three echelon, so I'm quite willing to entertain the idea that she'll go toe-to-toe with Superman.
That said, I still lean toward Supes when it comes down to a knock down, drag out fight between these particular two super powers. He's got a wider margin for flight, the heat vision, and all those other wacky powers that come and go.

In the mid-card, the Legion of Superheroes will provide strong numbers against the Freedom Fighters. However, the distinct lack of personality and/or fashion sense will leave the future-kids up the creek with the Human Bomb for a paddle.

The Math: Batman, Superman & The Legion
The Pick: Batman, Superman & The Legion

What went down...
The Freedom Fighters launch their attack in the shadow of the looming Superman/Batman New York monument, a symbol of the liberty absent.
There they are confronted by a number of members of the Legion of Superheroes from the 31st century, all brainwashed to do the bidding of their adult counterparts who have orchestrated this entire world.

The Freedom Fighters are swift and uncompromising.
In the interest of the future and liberty they slay all who cannot be subdued without lethality. The distraction does, however, prove sufficient enough, and Superman and Batman soon teleport to the scene.

The Ray is the first to take the bold responsibility of stopping the world's dominators, and he pays for it. Batman fires a clunky gun, blowing a hole through the Ray's head with a spray of blood and brain matter.

While the Human Bomb does his best to blast into the base of the monument, Wonder Woman launches herself at the Batman with a warrior's fury!

While Wonder Woman engages Batman, Uncle Sam uses the Oan energy of the Green Lantern ring to do battle with Superman. He creates a mighty eagle with the energies, channelling the will of the people, despite Superman's objective claims that the people bow before him.

Wonder Woman and Batman wage a war of words while they battle.
The Amazonian deflects an onslaught of razor-edged batarangs, whilst deflecting Batman's notion of a world where humanity desired only war, and needed to be protected from itself.

She takes a chop to the throat, but dishes it back, striking Batman across the face with the edge of her shield. He finds himself on the back foot, phsycially and philosophically as Wonder Woman speaks of a great age of heroes foretold by the Amazonian fates.

With a clear conscience, she strikes the deciding blow. Her sword plunges deep into his chest, and the would-be dictator dies then and there.

The blow is enough to inspire Superman's rage, giving him the maddened strength to shatter Uncle Sam's green projections, and thunder through him at lightning fast speeds to come to the aid of his adopted brother.

At the base of their monument, Superman cradles the frail human body of Bruce Wayne, and cries to the heavens for his mother and fathers. They hear, and teleport their sons to their space station high above the Earth.

Wonder Woman tends to Uncle Sam, but the bone shattering speed at which he was hit has already taken it's course. Like a flickering beacon of justice, Uncle Sam again ceases to be, no matter the strength of the people's resolve.

Cosmic King and Saturn Queen mourn the death of their pawn, and Lightning Lord approaches his emotional son. He directs his pain to vengeance, and with that, the Superman leaps away from the Watchtower, and hurtles back to Earth.

A streak of red and blue trails behind the Superman as he bursts through the atmosphere back to New York, and directly into the Amazonian warrior woman.
She pleads for him to remember a time when he was a great hero, but her words fall on deaf ears as he pounds his mighty fists like piledrivers.

Superman had been taught to be emotionally distanced in his rise above the mere mortals of Earth, but this battle is oh-so different. This battle is personal.
He snatches the broken Wonder Woman's lasso, and coils it viciously around her neck.

This time it's Wonder Woman's turn to die.

Meanwhile, within the depths of the monument below, the Human Bomb has penetrated the hidden fortress below, where the means to travel through time are held under maximum security.

Doll Man goes to work on the controls, with the Phantom Lady en tow, programming them for Smallville, Kansas, in a time before Superman was snatched from the Kent's farm and corrupted.

Shrinking Violet appears on the scene to prevent them, but the arrival of the Superman quickly dwarfs her. He pounds through the ground, furious at the audacity and ungrateful actions of his subjects.

He sprays Phantom Lady with his arctic ice breath, blowing her until her icey visage cracks and shatters. "Obey. Or die."

The Human Bomb warns the angered Kryptonian off attacking him, fearing the potential results of his explosive atomic energies should they interact with the activated time bubble. Superman does not take kindly to the advice.
Heated laser beams penetrate Human Bomb's costume and brain, resulting in an explosion that shatters not only the statue, but the entire world around them.
Superman condemns the world to death.

The hammer...
Well, despite destroying the entire planet, I'm going to give this one to Superman in the end on points. No bonus for killing the planet.

So, here we are, and here I am, at the conclusion of this entry for a second time. I can only imagine how many of you out there have felt the bitter sting of typing away for a lengthy time, only to impatiently go straight for the publish button without paying mind to a cautionary save. You can rest assured that I've reverted to over cautious saving every few paragraphs since then.

As I mentioned, and as you no doubt noticed, I am again running a bit behind.
Apart from being unwell for a little while, there's a slew of convenient excuses. I've got family returning from some time overseas, it's Easter, and I've been hard at work putting the finishing touches on my own comics work, which for all intents and purposes is print-ready. So, hopefully there'll be news on that in the coming months.

In the mean time, what about this comic?
If you can imagine it, the last time I did this entry it was one of my laboured efforts, where maybe I lingered a little long on the one subject, and pushed through various ideas without really articulating them well. Hey, when I'm running behind, sometimes the Legion of Superheroes are enough to sap me of strength.

One of the points I did want to revisit, because I find it fascinating, is the closing stages of the battle between Wonder Woman and Superman.
Apart from being ironically topical off the heels of International Woman's Day last month, it's probably one of those things that has an air of controversy. Although, I don't remember there being any major rumblings about this particular issue, and I didn't use this extra week to polish up my research. [Someone light the Ragnell symbol!]

Superman fairly brutally beats on Wonder Woman, culminating in the full page splash pictured above. The scene where Wonder Woman, already bruised and battered, is choked with her own lasso, whilst exposing just the right amount of alluring waist and thigh. Disturbing, but still a little bit sexy!

Assuming this didn't cause a furor amongst the wacky fan community, I'm going to say I'm pleased. No, I don't indulge in the battery of women (or men), and I certainly couldn't condone any crime of the sort, but this is one of those situations where it's delightful to see reality and fiction suitably separated.

The world in which these heroes live is one of regular violence. Though we may not like to see the subject considered, assault of female heroes would surely be common place, and perhaps to fairly heinous degree.
For whatever reason, innocence has been a theme for comics for a very long time, and stories like Identity Crisis, which dared to breech the subject in a fairly flippant manner have cause phenomenal outcry from fans and commentators alike.

I'm not about to say injecting rape into regular comics is a healthy thing for the industry or reader, but what does please me about this fairly brutal depiction of violence [in Superman/Batman #15] is that it's honest, and it's real.

There seems to be a tendency to want to restrict the fisticuffs to the male characters, particularly if it's going to go beyond cartoony sound effects, but this simply doesn't ring true. Perhaps one of the greatest calls of precedent is the infamous Daredevil #181, where Elektra suffers the perils of being a costumed ninja in a world of criminals and adamantium bones.

From that point, certainly in the Daredevil title, there was a threat of violence to the characters that has rung true even to this day. Few characters have been as realistically battered as Daredevil, and we see that even in the most recent take on the character, with Ed Brubaker taking the stakes to imprisonment.

Superman/Batman seems to have it's share of detractors, as does writer Jeph Loeb. On this particular title much of that seemed to be directed toward the light hearted throwback style of the story telling, and the nature of stories with minimal consequence to the long term canon of the characters within.

Personally, I'm comfortable with that, and I'm going to go the other way.
Even if only in an alternate reality, I'm going to commend Loeb (and Pacheco), for their depiction of realistic violence inflicted upon a character who is a pledged warrior. She just also happens to be a woman.

The Fight: 5.5 The Issue: 5