BATMAN versus SOFIA GIGANTE FALCONE

Peace (DC)
Where: Batman: Dark Victory #13 When: December 2000 Why: Jeph Loeb How: Tim Sale

The Story So Far...
The mystery of a new killer grips Gotham City in the wake of The Holiday murders. The months melt away as The Hang Man stalks the ranks of law enforcement, pinning a crude scribbling of the children's word game to their victims, written on documents taken from the desk of Harvey Dent.

The scarred former District Attorney has gone underground as the walls of suspicion and his enemies begin to close in around him. Former ally, Batman, is on his trail, but the man now dubbed "Two-Face" is busy with his own investigation, and the pair will inevitably reach the same conclusion, leading to a showdown with Sofia Gigante Falcone!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Draw 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Batman 5 (Professor)
Speed: Batman 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Batman 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Batman 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Batman 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Batman 4 (Arsenal)
Total: Batman 29 (Metahuman)

The Batman has had no shortage of run-ins with organized crime figures, but finding a comparison for the heiress to the Falcone Crime Family is no mean feat.

Sofia Gigante Falcone is one of a kind. The daughter of notorious Gotham City crime boss Carmine Falcone, she was much closer to her father than her mother, Luisa. Sofia inherited The Roman's cunning and determination, navigating mob rank with the benefit of a physically imposing stature and demeanor.

It's difficult to do Sofia Falcone's domineering size and aura justice. She is a truly powerful woman in every sense of the word -- but by the time of Batman: Dark Victory, she is carrying the literal & figurative scars of The Long Halloween.

The Holiday Killer's campaign against organized crime pushed Sofia to extremes and ended with her shocking plunge from the balcony of the Falcone Penthouse.

Catwoman's bola inadvertently saved Sofia from falling to her death, but in doing so, swung her uncontrollably through plate glass windows that sheered the right side of her face off, and left her wheelchair bound -- or so it seemed.

Cosmetic surgery, wigs, and a steel frame rebuilt Sofia's appearance, but rumors of her crippling physical injuries were greatly exaggerated. In fact, the wheelchair is a mere cover for her campaign as The Hang Man Killer: a serial murderer whose hanging modus operandi speaks to the physical strength of Sofia Falcone.

She isn't enhanced to the degree of Bane - who combined stratagem, training, and Venom augmentation to famously break the bat - but certainly possesses the natural physical attributes to give Batman a run for his money.

We know he can handle himself against the likes of a Venom-enhanced Riddler, Killer Croc, Fatman & Little Boy, and even Marvel's peak physical specimen, the super-soldier Captain America. How will he handle Falcone? Let's find out!

The Tape: Batman Ranking: Batman (#1)

What Went Down...

Gotham City burns from the inside out as the gas lines ignite, and Harvey "Two-Face" Dent crawls desperately through the labyrinthine sewers beneath.

Dent pulls himself across the stone, emerging from a metal hatch without noticing the dark figure hidden in the flames. A noose drops around his throat and yanks him toward the pipes overhead. On the other end of the rope - a hulking shadow, emerging through the flames as it sheds the metal frame around its head.

His executioner steps into the light -- Sofia Gigante Falcone, The Hang Man Killer.

The seemingly crippled crime boss almost fooled them all. They never suspected the woman in the wheelchair. She towers, completely capable and unencumbered, strong enough to hold a grown man off the ground by a rope around his throat.

Dent spits in Sofia's face. She yanks the rope and buries her right fist in his gut.

A razor-sharp batarang cuts the air and slices the rope. Two-Face drops.

The Dark Knight descends into the burning sewer tunnel, gliding over Sofia Falcone. A short uppercut knocks her back as he works through all the clues in his mind, unravelling and revising the inevitability of her guilt.

The powerful crime boss is disgusted that Batman would protect the Two-Faced former District Attorney. Falcone is more than able to match his blows, scuffling with a leading left that becomes an upward strike.

The Batman delivers a straight kick to her chest to wind the giant.

He follows rapidly with a precision nerve strike delivered with straightened hand.

A stiff uppercut completes the combination to end the Falcone Crime Family.

The Batman appears triumphant, but then --

Suddenly -- a gunshot rings out in the tight sewer tunnel and Sofia Gigante Falcone's grimace goes limp. Her eyes widen, dumbstruck, as blood bursts from her forehead. The Hang Man has been hit.

A noose drops around her neck, pulling the corpse away from Batman and toward those pipes running along the top of the sewer tunnel.

Falcone's body provides counterweight as Two-Face leaps to a lower level of the tunnel system, dangling from the other end of the rope in escape.

"You wanted it to end, Bats. So did I."

The pipe bursts as chunks of the old sewer system begin to collapse and fall away. Fire engulfs the underground. The Hang Man has been stopped, but it's not over. Not yet. Two-Face is still on the loose and The Batman has a cave to defend.

The Hammer...

It's been a while since I've revisited Dark Victory, but I remember a lot of it quite well. Not just through the ripples of its influence in the adaptations of Christopher Nolan, or the recent HBO live-action Penguin series streaming to MAX, but from the impact of that very first read some twenty-plus years ago.

The Long Halloween had passed me by, but I read vicariously through the pages of Wizard Magazine, where the hottest Batman story of the mid-late nineties was the source of much speculation and excitement. It got me excited, too!

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale quickly became a must-read partnership as I reinvested myself in DC's Dark Knight -- a lapsed favourite from earlier childhood. Naturally, a collected edition of The Long Halloween became an instant favourite. I cherish it still. It's on top of a tall stack of comics on my desk right at this moment.

I still consider the two maxi-series to be among the very best Batman stories on offer. Individually, or together, they address the greatest aspects of the character, and his surrounding world. Masterworks ripe for study and enjoyment.

There is the thrilling tour through the iconic rogue's gallery that offers instant amusement and all the action you could want. Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent intersect with the conflict between organized crime and these new "freaks" in Gotham City. Dent's fateful transformation into Two-Face is retold, becoming an actualized transition between the two paradigms, nestled within an unfolding crime caper that fulfills the old fashioned pulp fiction of Detective Comics, while also addressing the oft-neglected mystery-solving of The Dark Knight Detective.

Loeb & Sale's work builds directly on a foundation of Year One, but surpasses it in a great many ways, better reflecting a definitive version of the superhero, while adapting the montage technique of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's four issue classic to create a monthly timeline that plays directly into the story.

The overarching threat of "The Long Halloween" is a veiled antagonist, The Holiday Killer, who strikes but once a month -- just like comic books. In Dark Victory, it's the mysterious Hang Man who terrorizes Gotham by calendar.

The layers are many, and that doesn't even begin to address the immediate appeal of Tim Sale's artwork, complimented beautifully by the colours of Gregory Wright. The collaboration with Sale is impeccable, creating an unrivaled mood for Gotham City and its many haunts. You see it in every gloomy night, grand interior, and stone-walled sewer tunnel.

The penciler's layouts, designs, and expressive characters are on another level. Cinematic, beyond merest reality, yet believably grounded in it.

I recall listening to an interview with Fanboy Radio, where Sale waxed romantically about his real-world inspiration for Catwoman -- a character he and Loeb revisited with the sequel mini-series, Catwoman: When In Rome.

I wouldn't ordinarily skip straight to the conclusion of the second series, but I settled on today's featured fight for its reflection of all of Sale's skills. In particular, I wanted an entry that captured the grandeur of his vision for Sofia Gigante Falcone, who seems underserved by the recent live-action casting of diminutive, slight, and conventionally glamorous, 5'2" Cristin Milioti.

I've already expressed misgivings about the entirety of The Penguin spin-off and its origins in The Batman. Not having seen the show, I wouldn't want to be too outwardly venomous towards Milioti's portrayal, but I think the panels included in today's entry speak to the vast disparity between the originating comic book character, and Hollywood's all too typical choice for females in these projects.

Towering and scarred, wearing that heavy trench coat, there's obviously a lot of dramatic exaggeration going on in this final chapter of Dark Victory, but for anyone who has read both series throughout, you will recognise Sofia Falcone as an archetype that exists in life. A powerful, physically imposing Italian woman, with strong features. A distinct and appropriate choice for the character, whose domineering presence looms literally & figuratively over both stories.

With so much of contemporary cinema caught up in social concerns, it's a little dismaying to see female characters with unique characteristics, be they body-type or age, regularly supplanted in live-action with more standard types.

Marisa Tomei as Aunt May might be the most egregious example of this time, but I also think of DC's Amanda Waller, who is yet to have the robust physicality of "The Wall" seen in classic comics in any of her live-action portrayals.

Put simply: Sofia Gigante Falcone would crush her live-action counterpart in much the way she squeezed Riddler's head to the point of bleeding.

A fantastic character, who like other key figures in The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, is irreversibly corrupted by Gotham City and her own obsessions, driven to becoming one of the very "freaks" her family so detests. Thus, The Hang Man Killer is hung by her own noose. A perfect, ironic end, punctuated with a gunshot to the head to seemingly rule out another miraculous return from the dead.

Of course, this isn't actually the end. There was The Long Halloween Special in 2021, and now Jeph Loeb has collaborated with another excellent Batman artist, Eduardo Risso, to begin Batman: The Long Halloween - The Last Halloween. A final chapter that pays homage to Tim Sale, who passed away in June, 2022.

It still hits me pretty hard to think about that.

I didn't know the man personally, but his work has been tremendously important to me. Having neglected talking about these favourite series all these years, I finally started working on an entry for Halloween 2021, but when I couldn't confidently describe a detail in the story, I wanted to seek clarification from the source. Just over half a year later, I understood how poor my timing must have been. That entry, or any others, just became a little too hard to think about.

We're blessed to have Sale's work adorn Last Halloween covers. His unmistakable hand still a part of the project. I think fondly not just of his work on The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, but also his covers for Detective Comics, which were as exciting at times as the interior issue itself.

One day I will return to that unfinished 2021 entry, and other memorable moments from The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, but for now I'm taking a break.

You can find relevant entries, past and future, by following links throughout this article, or by diving in to the Secret Archive. That's where every featured fight is filed in order of publisher, series, and issue number. Starting with DC, you'll be able to find plenty of Batman right near the top, but I also recommend following the Tim Sale label for some of his other fantastic works, at DC and elsewhere.

If you'd like to see me return to this subject sooner than later, or any other topic that strikes your fancy, you might like to become a supporter on Patreon. This is a fine way to get my ear, but also just help keep us all in the fight. With over 700 battles detailed, and many more subjects covered, Secret Wars on Infinite Earths is determined to be a free resource to anyone who might have use for it.

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Winner: Two-Face & Batman
#152 (+297) Two-Face [+1 kill]
#1 (--) Batman
#1032 (new) Sofia Gigante Falcone

SUPERMAN & BATMAN versus LEX LUTHOR

The World's Finest Part Five: State of Siege (DC)
Where: Superman/Batman #5 When: February 2004
Why: Jeph Loeb How: Ed McGuinness

The Story So Far...
A chunk of the devastated planet Krypton is hurtling on a collision course towards the Earth! US President Lex Luthor has declared Superman public enemy number one as the man he holds responsible for the global threat!

The President sends friends & foes alike to hunt the weakened Superman, but with Batman by his side, they've evaded them all. Not that that has stopped Luthor announcing their successful capture to the world!

Believing their mentors to be held captive in the White House, the heroes' respective protégés stage a daring rescue mission that ends in their capture. Now with the world and their charges lives hanging in the balance -- Superman & Batman storm the Oval Office to confront a President on the brink of insanity!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Superman 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Lex Luthor 6 (Genius)
Speed: Superman 6 (Mach Speed)
Stamina: Superman 6 (Generator)
Agility: Batman 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Batman 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Superman 5 (Lasers)
Total: Superman 33 (Super)

Superman and Batman generally outclass Lex Luthor in most categories, but the genius scientist and businessman has a trump card in 2004 that can instantly render them completely impotent: He's President of the United States!

For a couple of career good guys like the "World's Finest" that presents one heckuva problem. Attacking the President means publicly assaulting the very institutions they've sworn to uphold. Luthor may be a self-serving egomaniac, but the risks of forcibly removing him from office are great and many!

At another time in his life Batman actually defended Lex Luthor, from a rogue WayneTech droid, in Batman Confidential #2. He could probably find a way to dismantle Luthor's trademark powersuit, but if he really wants to take President Luthor down, he's probably best doing it as a detective, using his skills to find the necessary evidence to warrant intervention from appropriate political institutions.

Superman smashed Luthor's armor to smithereens in Justice League of America #15, but his dedication to truth, justice, and the American way isn't likely to include assaulting the Commander in Chief, either. He too may be better suited to using his skills as a journalist to expose Luthor's political misdeeds.

Of course, let's be honest: This is the Comic Book Fight Club and we're here for a battle -- not an investigation! Luthor won't go quietly and he's got the weapons to make sure he doesn't have to!

In Supergirl #3 we saw his malice unleashed with the benefit of that iconic green & purple powersuit, and intimate knowledge of synthesizing kryptonite. That's the kind of thing that can prove a real problem for Superman, too.

In 52 #40, Luthor opted for temporary super-human augmentation to torture John Henry Irons, aka; Steel. Batman might be able to watch Superman's back, but if Luthor goes down this road, he can end Batman's assistance in an instant!

Together they've brought down Bloodsport & Deadshot, tag teamed Darkseid into submission, and helped the Justice League stop the Injustice League, Ultramarine Corps, and Mongul -- but can they bring down a corrupt government? Let's find out!

History: Superman & Batman (1-0-0)
The Tape: Superman & Batman Ranking: Batman (#1)

What Went Down...

Standing over the beaten bodies of his enemies: President Luthor rolls up his sleeves and smiles gleefully. He quotes Macbeth with a green glint in his eye, "Blow, wind! Come, wrack!" A bitter call for chaos and the unravelling of order.

As if to answer: a red and gold blur swirls around him, spiriting away the young defeated heroes at the President's feet.

He stands alone in the darkened Oval Office for a moment before a mighty backlit figure confronts him!

Captain Marvel stands silently as the President quizzes him on the disappearance of two apprehended fugitives. Luthor lords his presidential title like a weapon, warning the Captain he's "nothing" as he strides confidently toward the President.

Hoisted from the ground Luthor at last realises he is not in the clutches of Captain Marvel. He tears the lightning crest from his attacker's chest and exposes the staggering truth: the man before him is one of the missing fugitives -- Superman!

The Man of Tomorrow remembers his youth spent on the farm, and an adopted father who taught him the necessity of killing a fox who enters the chicken house lest you risk the deaths of more chickens. His eyes glow red with restrained heat.

Staring death in the face, Luthor bargains for his life by preying upon Superman's better nature. He warns of grave consequences. Not only a hunt to bring down Superman, but a bitter distrust that will effect all allied super-heroes.

At that moment a shadow separates from the darkest corner of the room.

The Batman will not stop Superman if he chooses lethal force. The weight of Luthor's evil is too great. The Dark Knight Detective even offers an antidote to the President's threats: "There are ways we could make it look like an accident. Or better still -- as if he'd disappeared without a trace."

President Luthor nervously calls it a bluff. Batman sternly suggests otherwise.

Superman asks if their comrades are safe. Batman confirms the youthful heroes and Krypto have been successfully freed and evacuated. That's enough to satisfy the Man of Steel, who hurls Luthor across the tainted Oval Office.

Superman and Batman make a silent exit, but for The President of the United States the battle is not over. He snarls his title with widened furious eyes and indignant entitlement. For him, this is far from over...

The Hammer...

In review this is really more of a prelude to the battle that unfolds in the following issue. President Luthor is poised to blow his stack big time, and this incident is the trigger that finally pushes him past arrogant hubris into all-out insanity.

As soon as the heroes are out of the building he's injecting himself with a glowing green concoction of venom & kryptonite, and suiting up for a very public battle!

Does today's feature really constitute a fight? Yes & no. We clearly see Superman has Lex dead to rights almost immediately, but chooses to walk away just as fast.

It's a relatively passive outcome. Secure in the knowledge that the higher purpose of The Man of Steel's presence has been achieved. Batman confirmed the rescue of their respective youthful charges, who themselves were captured breaching the White House attempting an ill-fated, ill advised rescue of the World's Finest.

President Luthor had prematurely announced the arrest of Superman & Batman in the hopes of drawing them out. At this point Luthor had no way of knowing the duo had turned the tables on their would-be captors -- Captain Marvel & Hawkman -- some time after suffering an apparent defeat in issue #4. This allowed Superman to disguise himself when gaining entry to the White House.

Deceptive in its simplicity: Public Enemies presents a layer cake of priorities and reference throughout, offering bombastic Ed McGuinness action on the surface, in service of more intricate plotlines deeper down.

In total the story is the ultimate endgame to the Luthor Presidency, beginning with a giant kryptonite meteor hurtling towards the Earth, and Luthor's attempt to publicly & officially hold Superman accountable for the destruction it will bring.

Luthor professes to wield the truth, but is lying to the people -- manipulating the situation to pursue his own agenda & self-interests. Savvy readers knew it was always going to end something like this. It was just a matter of how far Luthor would go, and to what extent he would be allowed to abuse Presidential resources. The cost of his corruption ultimately threatens the entire world, leaving Batman & Superman to work towards an actual solution that will eventually call upon Captain Atom, and lead to the Armageddon imprint crossover series.

Nothing about this superhero story seemed overly dangerous in 2004, but when I started writing this entry in anticipation of the United States Presidential Election at the end of 2020, and continued into January, it became shockingly apparent it would take on new relevance after the attack on the United States Capitol.

I was sensitive to the fact that it had become a very serious subject. Although I'm not American, the site has a large base of American readers, so I decided to delay while we all processed what had happened. Midnight entries on a comic book blog about superhero brawls just don't strike me as a very good place for serious political discourse. Accepting that some opinions and forums simply don't matter is the kind of discerning that could probably help us all a great deal.

That said, there's also no denying the political undercurrent that runs through superhero comic books throughout history. Seminal pulp-infused heroes like The Phantom weren't entirely apolitical in their globe-trotting battles against cruelty and injustice, and if there's a single big bang event that gives us the DC and Marvel Universes: it's World War II. It was pretty much a non-stop free for all of punching Nazis from there! In fact, one of the most famous punches in comics was delivered to a very notable politician -- German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Good form, Cap!

By the mid-2000s of Public Enemies, Nazis were still evergreen punching bags, but superhero comics were also looking at contemporary concerns, exploring the political & ethical dilemmas of contentious domestic/foreign policies by President George W. Bush. Essentially 'with great power comes great responsibility' applied on a global geo-political scale.

It was that kind of thinking that informed aspects of Mark Millar's blockbuster millennium comics, like The Ultimates and Civil War, and led Warren Ellis to rather cannily make the simmering tension of domestic terror the primary antagonist of his Iron Man story: Extremis. All of these works later went on to be major influences on the Iron Man films, and Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole.

Lex Luthor actually had to defeat W Bush on his way to becoming President in the DC Universe 2000 election, but by the time it was all unravelling in '04, his efforts to vilify Superman based on a lie, and deploy heroes and villains in pursuit of violent reprisal, infused his broad comic book villainy with the subtext of Bush's war on terror, and invasion of Iraq. Both were broad mood setting influences, and common targets for critique, for a lot of American pop culture at the time.

It's become curiously common for some folks to insist that comics from this recent era, or slightly earlier, weren't "political". An unconvincing argument that usually seems to be acting as a political statement, or nostalgia for the innocence of youthful ignorance. The latter of which, admittedly, isn't entirely wrong.

Superheroes were constructed to be champions of social justice and examples for moral upstanding. Although more modern eras grew entangled in subversions, at its core the superhero is a simple premise. They adhere to selfless standards of good and decency in a world that lacks the complexities and uncertainty of reality.

We can have absolute confidence in Superman & Batman acting as heroes, and Lex Luthor a villain. The evidence for this has been provided monthly for nigh on eighty years by their creators. Our heroes' motivations are largely selfless, lacking self-indulgence or flippant enjoyment in their actions, and presumed to come with a good study of hard evidence and fact. Luthor operates on greed and spite.

Jeph Loeb appeared to dabble in extremes of superhero violence throughout this time, sometimes gratuitously, but ultimately with the thesis, as it is in Superman/Batman #5, that heroes do not kill.

Restraint is a key feature that guides them in their effort to do right. They do not enter the White House lightly. Even Batman, who is shown here flirting with lethal force in the face of dire evil, as he did in Batman #614, accepts restraint. Murder is not how you deal with a corrupt, elected official. Extreme violence is not the choice of the super-hero.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is a pretty decent work of fiction and I'm sure we'll return to some of its less contentious battles some time in the future. I would particularly like to look more at the assembly of military connected heroes, and the captured youngsters who set today's action into motion.

If you'd like to get ahead of me and see the full picture for yourself you can check out one of the available collected editions of the story. By using the Amazon purchase links provided to do any of your online shopping you'll not only find a good deal -- you'll also help support the site at no extra cost to you!

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured well over 600 battles and ranked more than 1000 characters! You can discover them all by following links throughout this post, or by diving into the Secret Archive for a free and complete index of featured fights in order of publisher, series, and issue number!

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Winner: Inconclusive
#4 (--) Superman
#134 (+6) Lex Luthor
#1 (--) Batman [+1 assist]

SUPERGIRL versus LEX LUTHOR

Power Chapter Three: Outsiders (DC)
Where: Supergirl #3 When: December 2005
Why: Jeph Loeb How: Ian Churchill

The Story So Far...
Kara Zor-El was a teenager when the planet Krypton was destroyed, but when her father sent her rocketing towards the planet Earth, she was waylaid -- arriving decades after her cousin had established himself as the last surviving son of Krypton and Earth's greatest protector: Superman!

Granted the same powers by Earth's yellow sun, she adopts the identity of Supergirl and embarks on a quest to become accustomed with her adopted home world. Batman, The Justice Society, and Teen Titans help to prepare her for the challenges ahead, but the brash young hero still has much to learn as she races to confront the watchful eye of Lex Luthor!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Supergirl 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Lex Luthor 6 (Genius)
Speed: Supergirl 5 (Super-Human)
Stamina: Supergirl 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Supergirl 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Supergirl 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Supergirl 5 (Lasers)
Total: Supergirl 30 (Super)

We've seen Supergirl face some heavy duty opponents, but today might just represent her biggest test! Few foes could be quite so motivated to do harm as the notorious Lex Luthor -- arch-nemesis of her Kryptonian cousin: Superman!

Lex Luthor is famous for his scientific brilliance and cerebral approach to battling enemies. He's as likely to manipulate a network of pawns and circumstances as he is to fight an enemy head-on. More's the better to get away scot-free!

His technological genius and financial might means he can build just about any weapon needed to level the playing field. His most famous invention is a green & purple power suit, seen being destroyed by Superman uncharacteristically easily in Justice League of America #15. It's rarely so simple!

Lex is motivated by a well-known hatred for Superman, but that obsession has also fuelled malice toward other heroes, as well. We saw him use artificially induced superpowers to torture Steel during 52 #42!

He also joined Libra and The Society during a murderous ambush of the Martian Manhunter in Final Crisis: Requiem #1. The Martian was defeated by fire-wielding members of the group, but gave them all a run for their money, using telepathy against them, including preying upon Luthor's fear of Superman.

When Supergirl fought Martian Manhunter back in Adventure Comics #450, he was disoriented, and favoured a more physical contest. Never the less, she managed to go toe-to-toe with the senior hero, before they called a truce.

She wasn't so lucky when facing Reactron and his radioactive StarSuit in The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #9. She'd matched the nuclear-powered villain blow for blow until a poorly considered plan literally blew up in her face! You don't get away with those kinds of slip-ups against a foe like Luthor!

We know Supergirl has the strength and will to fight Lex Luthor. Her battles with the Marvel Family in Crisis on Infinite Earths #6 and Final Crisis #6 show that! It's just a question of whether her inexperience will allow Luthor the opportunity he needs to steal victory through any means necessary! Lets find out.

The Tape: Supergirl Ranking: Supergirl (#72)

What Went Down...
A wafting plume of blue breaks the monotony of endless red desert. Smoldering energy - emanating from the gauntlet of a lone armored figure: Lex Luthor!

Supergirl swoops down to confront the villain and is immediately introduced to his deadliest weapon! Kryptonite radiation spews from his closed fist, bathing the Girl of Steel in its power sapping properties!

Immediately suffering its effects - Supergirl careens  toward the earth with a devastating crash! Her body smashes into the rocky surface at Luthor's feet and the young heroine considers that she could be in way over her head!

As she crawls from the impact crater, Supergirl thinks of her cousin -- but quickly shakes those thoughts from her mind, even as Luthor clutches her throat in his metallic gauntlet.

The villain hoists his victim with arm outstretched, holding her with the sky at her back. He speaks spitefully, of her extra-terrestrial origins and a prophecy of his downfall foretold by Darkseid. He wonders where Darkseid has gone - accusing Superman of some murderous rendezvous beyond the eyes of Earth.

Luthor's bitter accusations inspire retaliation! Supergirl breaks the hold with a hovering kick and unloads with heat vision!

Cold and calculating, Luthor calls upon deflective defenses design to handle the same blasts offered by Superman. He verbally prods at the insult while firing back with the deflective force shield. It knocks the Girl of Steel back!

Barely able to stand, Supergirl is held up by the length of her hair while Luthor reminisces over past glories of metropolitan industry and presidential power. Supergirl can't help but think of her cousin's battle with Doomsday as Lex busts her lip with a thuggish punch to the face!

The villain speaks distantly of the way striking a girl reduces him, as if he wasn't a hooligan deep down. He buries his reinforced fist into Supergirl's abdomen with a vile punch, then breaks her nose with a back-handed fist.

Blood sprays from the weakened Kryptonian, all too mortal. All too similar to the pictures she'd seen of Superman's loss to Doomsday. Luthor justifies his attack with the symbol Supergirl wears and delivers an uppercut.

The once brash Supergirl now considers her own mortality as she lies in the dirt.

Luthor's twisted justifications turn to the "blackness" within everyone. The "sins of flesh and power" Superman supposedly denies. A poetic flourish for the final affront: a point blank beam of black kryptonite radiation!

Supergirl feebly pleads for the villain to stop. He only delights at her suffering.

Yet, for all his brilliance, and all his preparation -- Lex Luthor has failed to consider the consequence of his actions. The effects of black kryptonite prove completely unforeseen, spawning the very dark spirit he so vividly imagined!

At first, the black clad Supergirl emerging from Kara Zor-El's beaten body speaks in alien tongues. Then, as Luthor scowls unimpressed, her words turn to English, and he learns of his folly. He just made the worst mistake of his life!

The Hammer...
Woof. I can't say I took a lot of pleasure in describing that one! We've had some one-sided battles over the years, and a lot of villains finding success recently, but nothing quite so brutal! That was downright uncomfortable!

The nearest comparison that comes to mind is Superman/Batman #15: another Jeph Loeb script from 2005, drawn by Carlos Pacheco, depicting the impaling of an alternate universe Batman, and freedom fighting Wonder Woman bruised and choked with her own lasso by a tyrannical Superman.

I wouldn't like to speculate about Loeb's writing process during what was a well publicized difficult time in his personal life. That would be overlooking the fact that the mid-2000s were a generally brutal period in DC Comics.

Some have tended to see Geoff Johns as the lead purveyor of violence around this time. He certainly roughed up Green Arrow and Kyle Rayner during the big return of Sinestro in Green Lantern: Rebirth #4. The bad guys were winning in Infinite Crisis #1 as well, savagely cutting down the Freedom Fighters.

Meanwhile, Loeb's despot Superman also claimed the life of Green Arrow in the first issue of Absolute Power, while the mainline Man of Steel was indulging in light heat vision knee-capping in the controversial pages of Action Comics #824.

To their credit: these depictions of Superman were still regarded as exceptions brought about by unusual circumstance. This certainly wasn't the relentless and fundamentally flawed Superman of Zack Snyder's miserable movie universe.

American geo-politics of the time obviously had some influence. The United States bared its fangs in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy. There was a clear shift in attitude, but the delivery of violence was seeded well before the abstract "War on Terror" upped the stakes of brutality in popular culture.

The style-clash of grim 'n' gritty and xtreme comics popular in the early nineties had familiar moments of blood and guts, but were predominantly frivolous fun & games. Examples like Adventures of Superman #464 show the transposing of surface elements of Dark Knight Returns into less weighty monthly issues.

Curiously enough, the bombastic hyper-violence of the nineties was largely tossed aside at the turn of the millennium: rejected in favour of deeper, darker stories, heavy weight written-driven concepts and concerned characterization.

In shifting towards the stakes of high consequence and long-form storytelling, comics began to focus on the credibility of its villains. Single issue episodes became more scarce as villainous plots were sustained "for the trade" over lengthier period of time. Evil was no longer set up to immediately fail, with the unforeseen consequence that extreme violence would become normal.

Lex Luthor is an interesting study over this period. Here in Supergirl #3 we see him reach an apex of extreme brutality, but for much of the preceding decades he was a villain who didn't get his own hands too dirty. This is an extension of efforts in the eighties and nineties to refine Luthor into a credible adversary removed from the oafish arch-villain of Super Friends or Hostess ads.

To get him here, Luthor became the great evil of our times: a xenophobic, self-invested businessman who put aside mad science to use clout and resources to achieve his ends. He was motivated by hatred for Superman, and an unending lust for wealth and power, which culminated in his successful bid to become President of the United States in another story written by Jeph Loeb.

This all may sound like contemporary commentary, but Luthor's tenure as 43rd President lasted roughly one term in real-time, beginning at the tail end of 2000, and at last unravelling in 2004 with his exposure as a dangerous and corrupt super-villain, and inevitable removal from office. Thus, the return of the green & purple power suit, and a freedom to

The cheap stunts and routine murder of annual event comics have maintained a bloody viciousness that DC Comics has struggled to move on from. The violent credibility of villains - a catalyst for more violent heroes. This cycle: the thesis for 1996's prophetic warning Kingdom Come, and the present day proliferation of evil Superman stories, and moral fluidity in heroes & villains. Dark times.

If you'd like to experience some of this violence first hand, or see the role it played in the belated reintroduction of Supergirl into the post-Crisis DC Universe -- you can find today's featured fight collected in Supergirl Vol.1: The Girl of Steel.

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Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured well over 650 battles and ranked more than 950 characters! You can discover more by following links throughout each post, or by diving into the Secret Archive for a complete index ordered by publisher, series, and issue number. Or follow on Twitter and Facebook for daily links to smackdown inspired by the topics of the day. Be sure to like & share!

Winner: Lex Luthor
#134 (+271) Lex Luthor
#78 (-6) Supergirl

BATMAN & CATWOMAN versus HARLEY QUINN

Hush Chapter Six: The Opera (DC)
Where: Batman #613 When: May 2003
Why: Jeph Loeb How: Jim Lee

The Story So Far...
A mysterious new threat has insinuated itself into the life of The Batman, turning his world upside down with a single shot that sent him plummeting from the Gotham City skyline to the streets below.

Sustaining dangerous injuries, a barely conscious Bruce Wayne is inspired to direct his butler Alfred to childhood friend Thomas Elliot -- surgeon of considerable renown! The reunion of friends is a medical and social success! So much so, Dr. Elliot invites Bruce Wayne to accompany him to a performance of Pagliacci in the company of Selina Kyle.

Bursting in to hysterics - and out of the Pagliacci wardrobe - Harley Quinn makes a dramatic entrance at the opera! She's there to rob the rich glitterati in attendance, and sets her maniac gaze on the man pulling out a cell phone in the balcony: Thomas Elliot! With the stakes rising rapidly, Bruce and Selina excuse themselves, returning to the stage as their alter-egos: Batman and Catwoman!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Batman 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Batman 5 (Professor)
Speed: Catwoman 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Batman 5 (Marathon)
Agility: Harley Quinn 4 (Gymnastic)
Fighting: Batman 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Batman 4 (Arsenal)


Harley Quinn is Dr. Harleen Quinzel: A former Arkham Asylum psychiatrist whose thesis in the psyche of crime and romance led to an infatuation with The Joker. Surrendering to her mind's darker desires, she dons a black and red harlequin suit, beginning her criminal career as The Joker's favourite girl!

Harley's academic insights and elective madness are underscored by her gymnastic athleticism. Where oversized mallets and guns fail -- acrobatics and agility pick up the slack! Speed and mobility therefore become her greatest skills in a physical mismatch such as a battle with Batman and Catwoman!

At this time, The Bat and The Cat have been made unwitting players in a grand scheme just starting to take shape. They've levelled their on-and-off rooftop antagonism to forge a full blown Gotham City alliance. When Catwoman was able to break from the manipulative influences of Poison Ivy [Batman #611]; Batman was there to assist her -- combating a mind-controlled Superman, as well [Batman #612]!

The longer it goes, the more the alliance turns up the heat on lingering romantic tensions. It's difficult to predict if romance strengthens Batman & Catwoman's partnership - or complicates it! It was playful flirtation in the chase shown in Solo #1, but created emotional volatility in another mind-control episode, involving Batman, in JLA #118! When the pair were at odds, Catwoman was often able to use the tone to get the better of Bats [eg; Batman: The Mad Monk #1].

Social dynamics are another way Harley Quinn could try to level the playing field! She tends to favor a ditzy, madcap approach to a life of crime, but her past as a studied psychiatrist can never be completely discounted. Batman's willingness to collaborate with morally ambiguous characters has introduced a lot of uncharacteristic uncertainty into the situation!

Batman and Catwoman have a famous history on opposite sides of the law. She's even maintained partnerships with Harley Quinn! Of course, that fact is a two-way street! Harley's found common ground with Batman in the past too, even choosing temporary alliances with The Dark Knight over her beloved Joker [eg; Batman #663]!

Of course, when psychology is too much work -- there are always henchman to even the odds! That's the case in this scenario, which finds Harley Quinn attempting to rob the rich at the opera. Will she get away with it? Most of our metrics point towards a no, but lets see exactly how it went down...

The Math: Batman Ranking: Batman (#1)

What Went Down...
Pushed from the balcony by Dr. Thomas Elliot -- Harley Quinn and her masked henchmen open fire at the opera box seats! Elliot sprints to reclaim his stolen mementos, while Selina Kyle and Dr. Leslie Thompkins take cover. The other man in attendance - Bruce Wayne - has already left to change for Act II!

The Batman glides toward the stage with wing-like cape fully outstretched! It provides a target for Harley Quinn, who wildly opens fire upon the descending figure -- hitting only the garb trailing behind him!

As he nears the stage, Batman tosses an arsenal of flash, smoke and mace grenades! The obscuring fog serves his priority of protecting the audience. His boot: beginning the offensive as it shatters one of the goons' masks on contact!

Machine gunfire sprays across stage-right as the goon recoils from Batman's devastating kick! Making ground, he throws his right leg at another nearby henchman. Batarangs whipped through the haze take down three more!

Confronting the harlequin ringleader: Batman squats to avoid another volley of bullets! This time Harley's aim is true, finding the sandbags dangling above the stage. Her bullets send them tumbling toward a Batman who is already nursing a serious head injury from a previous battle! The blow leaves Batman on his knees - dazed and grappling with the mistake of choosing a lighter cowl.

Harley refers to a partnership with Poison Ivy and a mysterious "script" she's considering deviating from. Somebody wants Batman alive, but the temptation to put a gun barrel to his head is too great. Good thing for him, somebody else wants him alive for altruistic reasons as well!

Catwoman leaps onto the stage - launching a fly kick into Harley's face!

The harlequin of crime tumbles into the set wall with a thud, mumbling about a Robin understudy. Catwoman takes extreme exception - slashing her talons across Harley's face as she rises from the ground. This time she goes through the set - sent smashing by Catwoman's stiff body kick!

Catwoman's claws slash through Harley's jester-like headdress, lopping one of the floppy limbs clean off! Harley uses the close quarters contact to make an escape - darting through Catwoman's legs, before vaulting off backstage boxes onto part of the stage!

With all the agility of her namesake, Catwoman keeps in step in the acrobatic harlequin. Being one step behind is enough to turn the tables, though. Whoever wants Batman alive had no objections to offing his "boy hostage" sidekick, or the "understudy" who's there in his place! Harley opens fire!

Taking a bullet to the shoulder in mid-flight -- Catwoman can't control her descent! She tumbles wildly through the turreted set and spills toward the stage. There, a Dark Knight waits to break her fall.

The audience erupts into applause, marvelling at Batman's ability to catch the woman. It was all just part of the show to them. As blood spills from her mouth, Catwoman chastises her ally for choosing to rescue her instead of catching the bad guy. She passes out as Dr. Thompkins arrives to offer medical aid.

The Hammer...
Batman may be standing by the end of the skirmish, but his hands are full with his wounded partner. Harley Quinn lost her fair share of henchmen, but she clearly got the better of both heroes. A surprise winner? Not exactly...

In the big picture, we're working backwards. Longtime readers of Secret Wars on Infinite Earths (and Issue Index divers) know we've already examined the fall out from this issue.

While Dr. Thompkins is tending to Catwoman's gunshot wound, Batman is chasing Harley Quinn. This leads him to run into The Joker in an opera back alley: A final page sting that sets up their showdown in Batman #614! All of the players from today's feature fight find their way into that alley - Catwoman included. Follow the link to see how it all went down!

Hush has been a recurring touchstone throughout the life of Secret Wars on Infinite Earths. I'm reluctant to hold the story up in high esteem, but I cannot deny its staying power as an encapsulation of the basic Batman experience.

At the time, it was a re-energizing experience for Batman comics. A back to basics approach that seemed to empower the vision of a quality creative team over broad editorial mandates. Large scale "event" crossovers like No Man's Land had started to overwhelmed the outward impression of what Batman comics were about. As a 12 issue story, Hush was very much a precursor to the overbearing "event" comics steering the past few years - but by containing it within one on-going series, with a simple objective, it felt ironically refreshing.

The appointment of Jeph Loeb as writer really struck a powerful chord! His past work with Tim Sale had been a well crafted revelation - giving us two landmark maxi-series in the Batman canon. The thought that this quality approach might entrench itself firmly within monthly continuity was an exciting prospect!

Of course, the much anticipated return of Jim Lee as a mainstream superhero penciller created a lot of buzz! His approach to rendering characters drew favorably from an iconic past, infusing it with a strong modern sensibility. Previews of his character designs were a tasty entrée! This may have been Lee at his very best. His work was more sharply focused on storytelling, and an intelligent, modern-definitive approach to character design that was permeating superhero comics in the early 2000s. A seemingly writer-driven focus on ideas, without the excesses of unmotivated visual spectacle.

Unfortunately, Hush didn't hit the storytelling highs of the Sale collaborations.

Like The Long Halloween and Dark Victory before it, the story undertakes a twelve issue tour through Batman's rogues gallery. A selection of Gotham villainy, effected together as a concurrent gauntlet with an overarching mystery.

I don't have any real complaints about the basic premise, but it may have been strained by a third go around, impacted by different concerns for where the characters are coming from, and going to. The Sale stories took advantage of the changing of the guard in Gotham's criminal underworld - the rise of the so-called "freaks" to take the city away from old families and mobs. More reactions than Hush, where the rogues are puppets in a more broad plot.

The guessing game of who's manipulating events against Batman certainly isn't as compelling or veiled as The Holiday Killer mysteries. This could be excused for what seems to be a different intent: The creation of a new arch-villain.

Fortunately, the story always has the gauntlet to fall back on, and it's hard not to enjoy an adventure through the super-villains. It slightly overwhelms Batman #613, but giving Harley Quinn a spotlight is certainly a fun prelude to the main event entrance of Joker in the next issue.

Harley Quinn is ultimately the reason we're all here. August on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths is all about the stars of the Suicide Squad movie - now in theatres! Margot Robbie stars as Harley Quinn - one of our recent Heroes of the Week, and today's feature fight winner!

If you'd like to find more pieces of the Hush puzzle, more Harley Quinn, or more of the Suicide Squad characters - check out the Issue Index Archive! If you're ready to read the whole story yourself, take advantage of the Amazon purchase link provided for your convenience! Doing so helps support the site, as well!

Stay tuned for the next Friday Night Fights, which is sure to be an enchanting interlude!

Winner: Harley Quinn
#104 (+224) Harley Quinn
#1 (--) Batman
#30 (-1) Catwoman