HARDAWAY versus MUTANT LIBERATION FRONT

Liberation Through Subjugation (Marvel)
Where: X-Force #27 When: October 1993
Why: Fabian Nicieza How: Matt Broome

The Story So Far...
Sprung from the Roanoke Maximum Security Federal Penitentiary -- The Mutant Liberation Front has returned to serve the whims of a mysterious new revolutionary called Reignfire!

The first mission under their new leader is a demonstration of power and intent! The United States government has begun development of a new anti-mutant elimination program dubbed Project: Wideawake. The MLF will strike at its heart by kidnapping and assassinating program director Henry Peter Gyrich -- they just need to get to him first!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Forearm 5 (Super-Human)
Intelligence: Draw 2 (Average)
Speed: Tempo 5 (Super-Human)
Stamina: Forearm 4 (Athlete)
Agility: Hardaway 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Moonstar 4 (Trained)
Energy: Locus 5 (Lasers)
Total: Moonstar 20 (Champion)

Basketball fans of the era might remember Golden State's Tim Hardaway for his killer crossover -- but this Hardaway is a golden killer of a very different kind!

He's basically the answer to what if the T-1000 came from the early nineties instead of the future? A prototype cyborg working for Henry Peter Gyrich; he was intended to be the first in a series of mutant-slaying "biosentries" that never eventuated.

Hardaway is fast and agile, despite a bulky torso encumbered by metal housing, and tubes that supply various cybernetic enhancements. He can evade sensory attacks with automated scanners, while shape-shifting liquid metal limbs offer him diverse offensive options including various blades and bludgeoning configurations.

The Mutant Liberation Front are: Wildside, Tempo, Reaper, Forearm, Moonstar, and Locus.

Although he is still human, Hardaway's cybernetics should negate the psychic weapons used primarily by Wildside and Moonstar. Their telepathically induced visions are easily seen through by circuits and electronic sensors.

Forearm might be able to outmuscle Hardaway's enhanced strength, while a well placed swing of Reaper's scythe could potentially cut through very prominent tubing extending from Hardaway's helmet and arms. That could presumably interrupt some of his cybernetic functions.

The real aces in this deck seem to be Tempo and Locus.

Flight and energy blasts give them equal maneuverability and ranged potential, but its their unique mutant powers that are the most compelling.

Tempo's ability to manipulate time in a focused area was usually used for speed and could severely slow Hardaway's processors. If that doesn't work: Locus could simply teleport him somewhere perilous -- or parts of him!

The Tape: Mutant Liberation Front Ranking: Moonstar (#609)

What Went Down...

Wildside mocks the lifeless flesh & bone of the freshly killed security guard he's holding in his hands. Even his own teammates Tempo and Forearm react with scorn, but Reaper would rather his bloodlust be sated by someone other than him.

Forearm is settled by the relief of only finding human security guards standing in their path. He doesn't notice the shadowy figure watching from the treetop above.

Observing from his own vantage point in a surveillance room: Henry Peter Gyrich orders the activation of his prototype killer -- a cyborg called Hardaway!

Hardaway bares his long talon-like claws and leaps into action -- slicing through Forearm's exposed back just as the so-called liberator is remarking on expecting better security.

Reaper is the first to react, but he doesn't even see who hit him!

Hardaway announces himself as the first of an army of biosentries who will end mutant life. His metallic cyborg limbs shift and twist, reshaping themselves into a giant fist and long scythe! Reaper drops, narrowly avoiding the blade's swing!

Tempo activates her temporal flux in an effort to slow the cyborg down, and orders Wildside to attack his senses. Psionic assaults Hardaway can adapt to by switching to machine-controlled cybernetic systems!

His bearings restored: Hardaway extends a liquid-metal arm high into the sky and snares the airborne Tempo with a massive hand! It proves a temporary measure.

The cyborg's metallic skull erupts with energy as a neural arrow suddenly pierces his mind! An attack that signals the arrival of Moonstar and Locus!

The perfect timing saves Tempo from being crushed by the cyborg's discomforting grip.

Hardaway drops face-down on the ground, wracked with the horrifying agony of reliving his wife and son's deaths. The torturous living nightmare of Moonstar's neural weapons!

Locus steps in to end the suffering in the most violent way imaginable.

Hardaway screams a bloodcurdling duet only possible of a being who is both part man and machine, his body and cybernetics sliced in twain as Locus teleports part of him to another location!

The Hammer...
If it seemed like Hardaway might be an exciting new find you'd never heard of -- I'm afraid I have some bad news...

By teleporting the lower half of his body someplace else: Locus ended the "biosentry" program before it ever really started. A textbook one hit wonder who made his first & last appearance in X-Force #27.

I didn't really expect to find myself talking about the Mutant Liberation Front, but Marvel's recently announced X-Men Vote got me enthusiastically rummaging through back issues for something a little bit different.

The fan survey will decide the final member of a new Krakoan Age X-Men team based on the most popular choice from: Banshee, Forge, Polaris, Cannonball, Sunspot, Boom Boom, Marrow, Strong Guy, Armor, and Tempo.

There are a few characters there we haven't featured at the time of this writing, but of all the options on the poll: Tempo ranks as the most unusual.

The image they used is what I presume to be a more recent design. It kinda looks like one of Moonstone's old castoffs - a tight gold helmet with fin. A pale shadow of the joyously absurd buckethead from her original appearances!

My clearest memories of Tempo have always revolved around that helmet. I didn't even fully realise the nature of her powers. It almost seemed to be she could fly and move fast. Like a human bullet. I didn't realise she was manipulating time.

The bullet-like helmet reminds me slightly of the ridiculousness of Juggernaut, but its flat base gives it even more clunky charm.

For a while it seemed like it existed purely to be crumpled. As if every artist was keen to render a human head inside geometrically dented metal. That kind of thing seemed to reoccur in X-Force a lot, but maybe I'm exaggerating.

I wasn't a faithful reader, so it might be coincidence that every time I found an issue accidentally in my possession, it involved one of the MLF -- usually Reaper -- losing a body part. A Liefeldian trope presumably held over from the boyhood trauma of seeing Luke Skywalker's hand severed in The Empire Strikes Back.

By 1993 Rob Liefeld had long since departed for the co-founding of Image Comics, but the first page credits of X-Force #27 promise "AN X-F 911 IYF JAM" that feels very indebted to him.

Even a new creation, like Hardaway, seems like it would be right at home in any Extreme Studios Rob Liefeld series. It kinda smacks of something you might see in Silvestri's CyberForce too, though.

Locus is one of the only other characters in X-Force #27 that hasn't been directly touched by Liefeld. She's another new creation, making her first appearance not only in this issue, but in the fight featured in today's article.

She isn't given any special introductory consideration. She just shows up with Moonstar as if an already established character. That might imply a frivolity to the action and a general indifference to storytelling, but it also speaks to the wild and fast-moving times of the early nineties. It's kind of a nice way to do it. Pair the newbie up with established characters and sort out the detail later.

Locus might not feel particularly Liefeldian as a design or concept, but her abrupt introduction does. The original MLF kinda showed up out of nowhere, too. A late afterthought to an out-of-place Vulture appearance in New Mutants #86.

I kinda like Locus. She's an upgrade from the MLF's previous teleporting transport character - the blank-faced Zero. She also provides a distinguishing flourish for a new era of the MLF: re-formed under the directive of new mastermind Reignfire.

I like the general idea of a "Mutant Liberation Front", but in any of their incarnations they seem to largely function as a stock-standard troupe of sadistic super-villains. The idealism seems lost beneath the carnage and eviscerating, even when their target is a notorious mutant-hater like Gyrich.

At some point in the future we'll return to look more closely at the MLF and their extreme brand of mutant mayhem. With introductions out of the way, we can see how they perform against X-Force themselves!

This unlikely spotlight has brought us racing to the major milestone of ranking our 1000th character! You can see where all of today's players finished a little further down. You can also see more from last year's Countdown to 1000 by becoming a supporter on Patreon!

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured over 650 fights and ranked 1000 comic book combatants! You can become a patron for $1 a month to support the cause and gain access to extra updates and polls. Higher tiers will unlock your choice of custom articles and generally help keep myself and the site infinite.

If you'd like to see more from today's battle you can check out this issue collected in X-Force: Toy Soldiers via the Amazon link provided. By doing so you'll not only get a good deal delivered to your door -- you'll also be supporting the site at no extra cost to you!

Explore links throughout this post to discover more from your favourite comics and characters. Or deep dive into the Secret Archive for a complete index of every featured fight in order of publisher, series, and issue number!

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Winners: Locus & Moonstar
#207 (new) Locus [+1 kill]
#358 (+251) Moonstar
#602 (new) Wildside [+1 assist]
#603 (new) Reaper [+1 assist]
#604 (new) Tempo [+1 assist]
#605 (new) Forearm [+1 assist]
#947 (new) Hardaway

NEW MUTANTS versus HELLFIRE CLUB

King of the Hill! (Marvel)
Where: New Mutants #75 When: May 1989
Why: Louise Simonson How: John Byrne

The Story So Far...
When an attack on the X-Men's home turf led to the inevitable defeat of The Marauders -- an explosive device planted in the X-Mansion allowed Mister Sinister to strike the ultimate revenge against his enemies!

Unaware of the events that transpired; the New Mutants return from battling an alien called Gosamyr to make the shocking discovery that their school is in ruins!

A brief skirmish with an injured Sabretooth gives them a taste of what transpired, but there's no time to dwell on the past. A new threat arises when former Headmaster Magneto returns with The Hellfire Club at his side!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Sebastian Shaw 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Magneto 5 (Professor)
Speed: Cannonball 5 (Super-Human)
Stamina: Sebastian Shaw 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Warlock 6 (Malleable)
Fighting: Mirage 4 (Trained)
Energy: Selene 6 (Mass Destruction)
Total: Magneto 28 (Metahuman)

The New Mutants are: Cannonball, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Mirage, Warlock, and Illyana Rasputin.

This is a young team, facing the challenge of a once trusted mentor, but that doesn't mean we should count them out. They'll all go on to great things, and already show signs of their future promise -- even at this early stage. On their way here they dealt with a short-lived challenge from a weakened Sabretooth.

The Hellfire Club are: "White King" Magneto, "Black King" Sebastian Shaw, "White Queen" Emma Frost, and "Black Queen" Selene.

The Inner Circle clearly have experience on their side - none more so than Magneto. His admission as White King comes with his intimate knowledge of the New Mutants, having served very recently as their Headmaster.

We've seen Magneto withstand the coordinated powers of the adult X-Men in X-Men #113. He's clearly a major threat all on his own, and even the telepathic assault that took him out in X-Men #25 is covered by his Hellfire Club support.

Emma Frost hasn't developed her diamond form yet, coming to the fight strictly as a powerful telepath. Sebastian Shaw offers super-human muscle, able to absorb any impact against him and convert it into strength. Selene rounds out the group with mastery over inanimate objects and life-draining.This one really comes down to team dynamics and execution of strategy. For the New Mutants to have a real chance they'd need to clearly identify the strengths and weakness of themselves and their opponents.

This is long before Emma Frost will develop an invulnerable diamond form, so taking her telepathic powers out of the battle early with a frontal assault could be a good use of Cannonball or Wolfsbane. Removing Sebastian Shaw without powering him up could be a job for Warlock, who could eject him similarly to Nimrod in Uncanny X-Men #209. Wolfsbane could claw Selene, while Mirage's empathic image casting is free to attack Magneto at his core.

The New Mutants could also try to turn Magneto against his new teammates. Will the perfect scenario play out for them? Let's see how it went...

The Tape: New Mutants Ranking: Cannonball (#115)

What Went Down...
Hovering above the ruins of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters: Magneto and The Hellfire Club survey the damage. Angered by their former headmaster's return, Sunspot grabs a massive hunk of damaged machinery and hurls it!

The steel equipment is effortlessly deflected by The Master of Magnetism, who also holds his clubmen afloat. He allows Black King, Sebastian Shaw, to descend and match Sunspot on the ground. He attacks with a devastating left hook!

Cannonball leaps to his teammate's defense for the second time this day, but finds his path to Shaw suddenly cut off by a rising wall of wreckage. A defensive measure courtesy of Selene, she who commands all that is inanimate!

Cannonball smashes into the wall and falls to his hands and knees!

He's too stunned to resist The Black Queen, who lingers over the fallen firebrand with sinister intent. She traces her hand over the back of Cannonball's neck, preparing to drain his life-force -- when she suddenly becomes a decrepit hag!

The transformation is a mere illusion plucked from Selene's own psyche by the empathic powers of Mirage! The young mutant makes her inner most fear a tangible reality, but she's soon undone by a psychic assault from Emma Frost!

The White Queen mentally forces Mirage to release Selene from her influence, inciting Warlock to bare massive fangs in defense of his teammate!

The techno-organic creature notes his imperviousness to Emma Frosts' telepathic bolts, but fails to consider his absolute vulnerability to the Master of Magnetism! His cartoonishly distorting body is swept toward the rest of the new Mutants, who find themselves collectively surrounded by twisting metal!

Tired of their rebellious opposition, Magneto holds his former students encased in a ball of metal to end the battle.

The Hammer...
With the New Mutants at his mercy: Magneto quizzes them about the young mystery girl in their company and their missing member. He's surprised to learn his once promising student, Illyana Rasputin, has chosen to become a child to avoid succumbing to her own darker impulses.

Despite their defeat, the New Mutants defiantly refuse to return to their former headmaster's tutelage. The team has simply seen the former villain make too many compromises to ever accept him as their teacher again.

This effectively concludes Magneto's four years as New Mutants Headmaster, and a member of the X-Men. He'll return to villainy shortly thereafter, rebuilding Asteroid M, and joining the cabal of conspiring villains in Acts of Vengeance. We saw how that led him to battle Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #327.

The split from the New Mutants has immediate consequences within the pages of New Mutants #75, where Sebastian Shaw seizes the opportunity to challenge Magneto's position as White King. In the end it always comes down to in-fighting and power struggles with these people.

Shaw claims Magneto was elected into the Inner Circle as a leader of both the X-Men and New Mutants -- but now controls nothing. Magneto takes that about as well as you'd expect, and the two throw down for the main event battle hinted at on the cover of the issue [see; top]. You can be certain we'll return to take a closer look at that fight some time in the future!

Today was supposed to mark the long-awaited wide release of New Mutants in theatres, but FOX's final X-related film was once again delayed, by the closure of cinemas, and unprecedented measures to curb global spread of COVID-19.

These are strange days, but I figure Secret Wars on Infinite Earths can do its small part by continuing to feature some of the characters who would've been in theatres around this time. It's been a good time to do some extra reading while we're all self-isolating, and hopefully it provides a fun distraction.

As I've mentioned before, even as a young reader, I was never one to buy-in to kid heroes. That meant the New Mutants weren't really on my radar until a year later, when they got a major overhaul from the style guide of Rob Liefeld.

The revamp did a good job of shaking off the impression these were the geeks of the X-Men universe. I appreciate the effort to present them as authentically youthful and in training, but I've never been a big fan of this iteration of their matching black & gold uniforms. The update was well timed.

I appreciate that today's featured fight showed the New Mutants coming into their powers, but ultimately outclassed by their opponents. It moved necessary storylines forward, and avoided the dubious trope of kid-heroes overcoming unfathomable odds. This time the bad guys won and that feels credible.

Star pupil Cannonball did manage to violently kayo Sabretooth on the way to this fight, after Sunspot withstood a full rake of his claws. That was another well weighted way to give the team a win before they took a loss. It also set up a future rematch that we can officially add to the To Do list.

You can discover relevant past, present, and future fights by following links throughout this article, or by diving into the Secret Archive. That's where you'll find every battle indexed by publisher, series, and issue number! Or subscribe to Twitter and Facebook for daily links to battles inspired by the day's topics!

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured well over 600 battles and counting! If you like superhero smackdown and want to see the service continue you can contribute via Patreon. Patrons gain insider access to the schedule, and can get involved with special feature articles and polls. Not to mention fostering my eternal gratitude and continued survival!

If today's battle has whetted your appetite, you can get the full story collected in Epic Collection New Mutants: Curse of the Valkyrie. Shop using the Amazon purchase link provided and you'll find yourself a good deal at a safe distance -- while Amazon supports the site at no extra cost! Nice!

Winners: Magneto & Hellfire Club
#81 (+60) Magneto
#182 (+288) Emma Frost
#390 (+508) Sebastian Shaw
#391 (+506) Selene
#128 (-13) Cannonball
#341 (-187) Sunspot
#353 (-156) Magik (Illyana Rasputin)
#357 (-128) Warlock (Phalanx)
#589 (-44) Mirage
#907 (new) Wolfsbane

X-FORCE versus IRON MAN

The Gathering (Marvel)
Where: Contest of Champions II #1 When: September 1999 Why: Chris Claremont How: Oscar Jiminez

The Story So Far...
A race of aliens known as The Coterie have abducted Earth's greatest heroes for the purpose of hosting a Contest of Champions!

The seemingly benevolent species hopes only to honor and pay tribute to the renowned fighting heroes by basking in their prowess through organized competition. Behind their pleasant demeanor lies a more sinister intent, evident in their use of airborne nano-technology to influence the minds and aggression of the heroes.

Iron Man's armor protected him from infestation, allowing him to stay clear headed in the opening round. Alas; his hosts have identified the absence of their mind altering machines, escalating a plan to manipulate the contest and eliminate the problematic Avenger. Now it's an 8-on-1 mismatch as X-Force challenge Iron Man in Round 2!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Iron Man 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Iron Man 5 (Professor)
Speed: Cannonball 5 (Super-Human)
Stamina: Iron Man 6 (Generator)
Agility: Domino 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Domino 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Iron Man 5 (Lasers)


Here we are back for another round of Contest of Champions II!

When last we left the action, Iron Man was victorious in his first match, defeating ninja telepath: Psylocke! In that fight he had to overcome a single X-Woman, but in his next match he finds himself against an entire team!

X-Force are: Cannonball, Moonstar, Sunspot, Meltdown, Proudstar, Siryn, Jesse Bedlam & Domino.

If you're wondering why an entire team is submitted into a fighting tournament as a single entry, the simple answer is: The organizers are secretly bad guys. They've become aware that Iron Man is unaffected by their mind-influencing nanite technology, and are just looking for a way to take him out.

To the credit of the bookers, they've chosen a young team that could plausibly fail. Iron Man's diverse arsenal puts him in good stead against most opponents, and adequately addresses most of the specialist skills of the young mutants.

Proudstar, perhaps better known as Warpath, possesses high level super-human strength that isn't quite at Iron Man's level, but could pose a serious problem if combined with team attacks. Team leader Cannonball is a perfect example: an aerialist whose high speed plasma field achieves invincibility - but whose mastery of the sky may not aim as true as the nimble Iron Man!

Sunspot also possesses super-human strength, as well as the ability to project intense heat blasts, but may not have sufficient solar exposure to maintain his powers on the space station. Sonic vocalist Siryn is also impaired, carrying an injury to her larynx inflicted by the villainous New Hellions.

Moonstar's telepathically reliant constructs are another threat in the vein of some of Psylocke's attacks, but we did just see how Iron Man was able to identity and resolve that type of assault. Meltdown (aka; Boomer) and Domino aren't normally at a level that would trouble Iron Man's armor, either. As a team, however, their abilities could add sufficient stress.

Intriguingly, we don't have a lot of useful data for Iron Man fighting a foe with superior numbers. His affiliation with The Avengers has usually meant the team advantage is working in his favour. Our only prominent case on record is Iron Man #159, where the alchemy of Diablo forced him to fight his own armors!

That said, there are plenty of examples to demonstrate the high level Iron Man always fights at! He's beaten Hulk [Iron Man #2], outwitted The Mandarin [Iron Man #312], endured Sub-Mariner [Invincible Iron Man #12], and stopped the Juggernaut [Thunderbolts #150]! All in a day's work!

It's worth noting just a couple of years prior to this story, Cannonball had a famous, defining victory against Gladiator (during a stint with the X-Men). There's an even bigger x-factor than that working in X-Force's favour, though, that will play out in the following fight. Let's see how it effects things...

The Tape: Iron Man Ranking: Iron Man (#3)

What Went Down...
By virtue of the speed of their attacks, or respect for their opponent; Iron Man finds himself defending against the members of X-Force individually. The first to strike is the team's co-leader and fast-moving human rocket: Cannonball!

On board files help Iron Man understand his young mutant enemies, using intel to counter their unique attacks. Cannonball may be invulnerable while he flies like a human missile, but Iron Man's suit has him beat for maneuverability! He avoids the attack, leaving Cannonball to hurtle past him on a wide arc.

Danielle Moonstar makes the next move, reaching for the bow through which she can channel psychic arrows. A disorienting sonic blast neutralizes her before she can even think, leaving her too dizzy to fight.

Solar powered Sunspot tries his luck, blasting the armored Avenger with a focused beam of energy. Rather than run, Iron Man turns to absorb the blast - using it to recharge his armor's power cells!

Meltdown's plasma timebombs take the Iron Man test next, but are easily shut down with a few creative bursts from the shellhead's pulse cannons. A tactic that disrupts the kinetic matrix of the timebombs before they detonate!

Ordinarily team powerhouse Proudstar might not concern Iron Man too much, but with the constant threat of nano-tech infestation surrounding him, he can't afford the slightest breach of his armor! He blocks a left cross with his forearm gauntlet and goes airborne to put distance between himself and the strongman!

As he jets in the direction of Siryn, Iron Man's armor alerts him to recent tracheal and larynx trauma that has drastically reduced the mutant's naturally produced sonic scream. Empathy distracts the man inside the armor -- a costly mistake in the arena of combat!

The mutant called Jesse Bedlam possesses the natural gift of disrupting any electrical or mechanical system. Iron Man doesn't even see it coming as the perfect attack seizes his armor in an electrical storm!

Skilled martial artist Domino takes the liberty of striking the finishing blow, leaping through the air with a flying kick she's confident will ring his chimes, armored or not. A KO victory that sets the young mutants celebrating!

The Hammer...
Nobody said the Contest of Champions was going to be fair - and it sure as heck ain't! With numbers on their side, and a much needed precision strike: X-Force eliminate Iron Man from the tournament!

One again I'm reminded of the debate that raged within the letter pages of Wizard Magazine: Could Iron Man single-handedly take down the X-Men?

Wizard editor Doug Goldstein certainly seemed to think so. He was a major proponent for the (apparently) controversial opinion, warring with indignant X-fans in the early years of the comics magazine.

Keep in mind, this is the early nineties, when X-fandom was at its most rabidly fervent! Schooled fans may've known to have a healthy respect for Iron Man and The Avengers, but the popular vote was overwhelmingly in favor of anything with an X! A pretty ballsy stance for a fanzine editor, even if it was all in good fun, and readers were less inclined to run from an opposing opinion.

I really got up to speed with this particular feud thanks to G. Kendall's 2015 articles on Comic Book Resources. "The Guide To The Guide To Comics" was a slightly self-conscious nostalgia trip through the magazine's enthusiastic decade of influence. A fun read that should compliment most retro superhero reading!

Writing about Wizard #27 (November, 1993), Kendall referenced an addendum to Goldstein's original stance. He clarified the X-Men could beat Iron Man as a team, but their members would mostly lose one-on-one. His noted exceptions were telepaths Professor X, Phoenix, and Psylocke, and maybe Kitty Pryde.

For the most part, that's pretty reasonable, and I don't think there'd be too much argument from fans today. I can't help but wonder if Chris Claremont had the debate in mind when it came to writing Contest of Champions II in 1999.

We've been tackling the mini-series slightly out of sequence on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths, but if you paid attention to earlier sections in this post, you know the first fight saw Iron Man defeating Psylocke. That fight confirmed Goldstein's theory of psychic weakness, but also showed how Iron Man may be able to counter a telepathic attack, at least from a lesser threat such as Psylocke.

The final fight of issue #1 set out to eliminate Iron Man from the tournament, but rather than use one of the more powerful X-telepaths, (Phoenix does appear later), or even another A-list hero -- Claremont opted for a secondary X-team!

I'm not aware of anything linking Contest of Champions II to the Wizard debate, but it certainly addresses the matter, one way or another!

This obviously isn't the final word on Iron Man's match-up against mutants. Marvel built an entire event around a similar concept as recently as 2012: Avengers vs X-Men! We may yet get to that saga, or others, some time in the future. For now, take the examples supplied and let the debate rage on. You can even post your opinions in the comments section below!

All eight X-Force heroes may've shared glory within the tournament itself, but we here on The Comic Book Fight Club answer to a different standard of measure. Jesse Bedlam and Domino specifically executed the win, while the rest of the team can only be credited with an assist. See how that effects their individual standings in the updated site rankings below!

While you're down there, why not hit the G+1 button? It's a great way to help keep the site! You can also share all articles by hitting the applicable social media icons. Looking for something in particular? Follow links throughout posts to discover more, or dive in by publisher, series, and issue in the Archive Index!

Winners: Bedlam & Domino
#3 (--) Iron Man
#298 (new) Bedlam
#299 (new) Domino
#134 (+5) Boom Boom (Meltdown) [+1 assist]
#154 (+53) Sunspot [+1 assist]
#313 (+21) Cannonball [+1 assist]
#379 (+20) Siryn [+1 assist]
#507 (new) Moonstar [+1 assist]
#522 (+195) Warpath (Proudstar) [+1 assist]