GUY GARDNER versus BLACK HAND

Book One Of Three (DC)
Where: Guy Gardner Reborn #1 When: July 1992
Why: Gerard Jones How: Joe Staton

The Story So Far...
As Green Lantern, Guy Gardner had the cosmos in the palm of his hand. He was an intergalactic space-cop and idol to millions - the Justice League of America's take no prisoners powerhouse. He had it all! Then he lost it...

Having gambled his power ring in a showdown with an Earthbound Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner is now a super-hero without super-powers! Not that that will stop him!

Back on the beat of New York City, Guy Gardner is going to clean up dirty streets - starting with Times Square! Possessing only his fists and a bad ass attitude, he begins a grass roots fight for justice starting with a smut peddling hero-hater he's handled before: Black Hand!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Guy Gardner 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Black Hand 5 (Professor)
Speed: Guy Gardner 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Guy Gardner 5 (Marathon)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: Guy Gardner 4 (Trained)
Energy: Guy Gardner 7 (Cosmic Power)


Here on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths we use The Tale of the Tape to compare, contrast, and summarize the characters appearing in a featured fight. A popular shorthand has always been the tape stats [above], using an independent metric to highlight the strategic advantages of one character over the other(s).

These stats take from a standardized impression of the character - but sometimes circumstances have it that a character isn't fighting at peak condition. That fact plays a major role in today's featured face-off!

Guy Gardner has been better known for much of his career as one of several Green Lanterns designated to Sector 2814. Legend has it he was very nearly the first man of Earth to be chosen for the honor, but proximity to a fatal crash site of Green Lantern Abin Sur led daredevil test pilot Hal Jordan to receive the ring.

In later years, Guy Gardner became a reservist for the Green Lantern Corps, taking responsibility when Hal Jordan was forced away from his duties. In time, this led to full deployment as a Green Lantern, and even amendments by The Guardians to allow for multiple representatives from a single space sector. No such luck at this point in Guy's career, though!

Hal Jordan's return from a lengthy stay in space led to a showdown for patrolling rights on Earth. Refusing to give up his ring without a fight, Guy challenged Jordan to a powerless fist fight. The cocksure Gardner lost his fight, and we find him today shortly after he'd surrendered his ring.

Not having a power ring obviously lessens Gardner's offensive arsenal, but when it comes to fighting Black Hand -- it also diminishes the threat of the villain!

William Hand would eventually come to be known as the death obsessed scion of the Black Lantern. Long before that, he was merely a pathological hero-hater with a penchant for proverb, cliché, and crime! This profile led to inevitable conflict with local hero Green Lantern, who he battles with a device of special design that can drain a power ring of its energy - turning it against the wearer!

In a past feature we saw Black Hand wave his energy wand at Green Arrow and Speedy [Green Lantern: Rebirth #1]. They don't have super-powers to drain, but their archery gave them the edge against a feverish Hand. Will Guy Gardner be able to produce the same result with his fists? Let's find out...

The Math: Guy Gardner Ranking: Guy Gardner (#95)

What Went Down...
Like a human battering ram -- Guy Gardner ploughs through Black Hand and his gang of rubes! A right hook sends the ringleader flying, leaving his mooks to do the fighting in a descending five-on-one flurry of fists!

Black Hand commentates the action from the sidelines with an assault of applicable proverbs. Gardner takes his lumps from all sides and explodes out of the pack with an extension of muscle. He comes from Black Hand, but the villain uses his position to throw a leg at the stalking hero!

Gardner absorbs the kick to the gut and compliments his foe for scoring an impressive hit. It inspires the hero to strike back with another right hook, and an improvised adaptation of an old cliché: "A fist in the mouth..."

Black Hand's head snaps back from the blow, but is caught with another two-prong assault of mangled wordplay and a mangling left cross!

The big bad is on the ropes and his goons are getting antsy! It won't be long now before the Green Lantern tires of toying with his prey and scoops them up in a big green net of justice. Or will it?...

As the moustached mook tries to run, an observant goon points out a certain power ring absent from the Green Lantern's swinging, white gloved fists. With a twisted grin the meagre muscle rejoins the game, clutching a nearby desk lamp.

Unaware of the conspiracy around him, Gardner continues to sink his fists into Black Hand's waiting stomach. His nose bleeds and his body quivers, but still Hand manages a smile: "The... The... The light that burns twice as bright..."

This time quip serves a distraction gambit that pays off! A desk lamp rockets across the back of Guy Gardner's head - knocking him out cold!

The Hammer...
As commander of the nameless crooks who work for him, Black Hand claims a surprising victory over his arrogant nemesis!

With the former Green Lantern out cold in their midst, Hand and his boys toss him to the gutter, to resume their disreputable trade. It's a harsh lesson in adjustment for the now powerless hero, but as Hand would say, you've gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette! Or scramble some brains, as it were.

If you thought Hal Jordan was the first Green Lantern to be reborn - surprise! Guy Gardner was doing it a whole decade before it was cool! He even kicked off his mini-series with a fight with Black Hand -- something Hal Jordan did twelve and a half years later in Green Lantern: Rebirth #1!

The comparisons between GG Reborn and GL Rebirth taper off pretty quickly after that. There's whole a lot of ring slinging in both - naturally, and a face-off (or two) with Sinestro, but the intent of both stories is binary in difference.

When Hal Jordan was coming back in 2005, DC Comics were correcting course on a mid-nineties twist that turned their Silver Age icon into an arch-villain. The goal was to restore the character to his definitive identity as Green Lantern.

In 1992, Guy Gardner was heading in the opposite direction - ousted as Green Lantern, and in need of a new identity all his own. That identity would come at the end of Reborn through the acquisition of Sinestro's yellow power ring of Qward. A story I'm sure we'll look closer at some time in the future.

Ironically, the definitions of all of these details would be changed significantly by Green Lantern: Rebirth, and the extensive reign of Geoff Johns as writer and creative engineer for the entire Green Lantern mythos.

Rebirth restored Guy Gardner to the Green Lantern identity he was famous for as well, stripping him of Vuldarian powers he'd acquired a few years after Reborn as "Warrior". Guy's Qwardian ring returned to Sinestro, and eventually spawned an entire Yellow Lantern Corps. All the colors of the emotional spectrum would follow shortly thereafter, leading to Black Hand's rise as the first of the death wielding Black Lantern Corps.

I don't know that I'd called Guy Gardner Reborn ahead of its time, but it's certainly an interesting time capsule in the sprawling modern history of the characters involved. It taps into some interesting parody of trends of the time, while also indulging in them. Guy has misadventures as gun-covered vigilante, and doubles down on the bad taste violence in a tenuous team-up with another icon of parody gone straight: Lobo. If you were wondering how a smut peddling Black Hand factors into that - it's actually a callback to an issue of JLA!

If you're a Guy Gardner fan, rest assured there'll be plenty more opportunities to revisit his Rebirth, and other stories. In the mean time, we press on...

As you may know, the entire DC Universe is presently in the process of another line-wide "Rebirth", which is the theme running through all of our feature fights this July! Since we talked about it so much today, next week's feature fight will come from the pages of Green Lantern: Rebirth!

If you're reading this sometime in the future - you'll be able to find that fight and many more by scouring the Issue Index Archive! There you'll find even more superhero smackdown and comic book review!

Winner: Black Hand
#334 (+297) Black Hand
#105 (-10) Guy Gardner

HERO OF THE WEEK: IBIS (DC)
Real Name: Amentep
First Appearance: Whiz Comics #2 (February, 1940)
Fight Club Ranking: #DNR

Featured Fights:
- Yet To Be Featured on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths.

Usually Hero of the Week borrows from something topical going on in the world of superheroes, but this week I'm dipping exclusively into self-indulgence! There's nothing in comics or movies that can overwhelm the brimming positivity I feel for today's retro inspired spotlight: Ibis!

I was fairly sick in recent weeks. It was an ungodly hour, freezing cold, and the power had just gone out. Unable to sleep, and with few options at that hour, I decided on a whim to read a few issues of The Power of Shazam! by torchlight. It was exactly the unadulterated joy the doctor ordered!

There's a lot to like about the mid-nineties reboot of Captain Marvel and the Marvel mythos, but starting my reading deep into the first year, I was particularly taken with Ibis!

He's the type of character you used to see a lot. A well dressed man in a suit, with a turban, and mastery over the mystic arts! In the case of Ibis, his origins date back to Ancient Egypt -- another standard trope of fiction in the process of being forgotten. His limitless powers are owed to the Ibis Stick - a talisman granted to him by the god Thoth, when he was a Prince.

In the retelling of The Powers of Shazam!, Ibis never wanted much from life and grew bored, opting to sleep as though dead to awaken in more exciting times. A thousand years later he got his wish in the 1940s, joining the adventures of a Golden Age of heroes! The rest is history, but so was Ibis, since he decided to take another long nap. It's the intervention of Mary Marvel that brings him back for a fresh spin in heroics and boredom.

Disinterest is one of the traits that separates Ibis from his various equivalents. As the world bends to his effortless influence, he greets nearly every request and reaction with a sigh. A good man, but bemused. Unfathomably, after a couple of issues he's single-handedly restored key pieces of the Marvel mythos, defeated The Seven Deadly Sins of Man, and agreed to replace the Wizard Shazam at his post on The Rock of Eternity. A whirlwind of action crammed into forty-odd pages!

I can imagine an uninitiated reader seeing Ibis as a mistake. A character whose powers are so vague, all encompassing, and instantaneous - he shouldn't exist. There's certainly a frivolity to how he helps resolve problems and create fiction in a matter of panels. Placing him in the seat of The Rock of Eternity strikes me as the perfect way to have it both ways. He's more than an adequate replacement for The Wizard -- better than retiring Captain Marvel himself -- but remains out of the way.

In some ways, this encapsulates what leaves me disenfranchised about today's DC Comics. The New 52 dedicated so much energy to laying waste to was built up in the messy decades following the Crisis on Infinite Earths. It even repeated some of the same mistakes! In the end, the only plan was to leave DC Comics with less, until their new world accumulated its own baggage.

In the rush to appease new readers supposedly crippled with fear of history, the publisher forgot that you don't really need to worry about it. Sell the strength of the past, write modern issues in modern ways. Let sleeping dogs lie, ripe with potential to be awoken when the time suits. Have it all!

Perhaps Rebirth will bring back Ibis, or at least elements of his time. Perhaps not. Either way, I got a lot of enjoyment out of reading those issues by torchlight. I'm feeling much better now, too.

<< Hero of the Week 07/11: Dr. Doom       [Home]       Hero of the Week 06/27: Cable >>

FIRESTORM versus BRIMSTONE

Once Upon A Time...! (DC)
Where: Legends #1 When: November 1986
Why: John Ostrander & Len Wein How: John Byrne

The Story So Far...
No one could have believed the universe was saved from certain extinction less than a year ago. On Earth, life carries on as it always has - its people blissfully unaware that their reality has been remade to contain an entire multiverse of good and evil!

Across the gulf of space, the evil New Gods of Apokolips ponder the fortunes of a humanity protected by super-human defenders. While the dread lord Darkseid surveys his kingdom of misery, vile Desaad draws plans against the meddlesome heroes!

On the other side of the universe: The Hudson Nuclear Facility manned by STAR Labs is to be the birthing place of a new evil! The first strike in Darkseid's Operation: Humiliation is a techno-seed that will cleanse the world of heroes with the fire of Brimstone! Professor Martin Stein cannot believe the madness his designs have brought forth. Reaching out to Vandemeer University he summons a champion to confront the evil: Firestorm, The Nuclear Man!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Brimstone 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Martin Stein 5 (Professor)
Speed: Firestorm 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Brimstone 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Firestorm 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Draw 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Draw 6 (Mass Destruction)


Another classic hero joins the ranks of the Secret Wars on Infinite Earths as we explore life after the biggest rebirth of the DC Universe!

Firestorm is the uncanny fusion between high school student Ronnie Raymond and Nobel Prize winning physicist: Professor Martin Stein! Combining to become an incredible "nuclear man", they are Raymond's piloting physical presence, supported by the internalized voice of brilliant scientist, Stein.

Stein's scientific knowledge is invaluable in guiding Ronnie Raymond to exploit Firestorm's powers over atomic and subatomic composition to their fullest. With the right knowhow Firestorm can manipulate and reassemble particles to transmute inorganic matter, pass through it, or effect destruction. On a base level he can also use his powers to: fly, enhance his own strength, project energy blasts, absorb and manipulate radiation, and generate heat.

Although this is the first time we'll see the original in action, we have witnessed the fury of Firestorm through another possessor of the Firestorm Matrix! Jason Rusch helped defend Earth during the Sinestro Corps War [Green Lantern #25], and more memorably faced down the Injustice League in a fight that included: thwarting Lex Luthor's attempt on Superman's life, and battling classic nemesis Killer Frost in a fight of fire and ice [Justice League of America #15].

Fighting with fire is something Brimstone knows all about! Birthed from a techno-seed planted at the heart of a nuclear generator: he is an avenging giant sent from the dominion of Darkseid to destroy Earth's greatest heroes!

Brimstone is the first shot fired in Operation: Humiliation -- a plot to rid the Earth of its so-called "false gods" by physically and philosophically undermining them! Brimstone is a burning false prophet whose words assault their legend, while he uses intense heat, flame, super strength, and gigantic size to incinerate and destroy any who would dare stand against him!

Given Brimstone's birth occurs directly in front of Professor Martin Stein, you can be sure Firestorm is the first hero on the scene! This means no existing intel on the threat, but some encouraging basic presumptions.

A nuclear borne, fire wielding threat is right in Firestorm's wheelhouse! Will he be the hero to snuff the Apokolips monster's flame? Let's find out!

What Went Down...
Feeling a familiar molecular twinge; university student Ronnie Raymond knows his lazy day is about to be rudely interrupted! Summoned from the warmth of a relaxing shower, he's thrown into the fire by a spectacular transformation that places him hovering above the New York skyline!

Exploding from the Hudson Nuclear Facility below him, Firestorm witnesses the flaming giant: Brimstone! Clued in by the disembodied voice of Professor Stein, the Nuclear Man springs into action -- firing nuclear energy to cut the burning behemoth down to size!

Firestorm is stunned to find his powers cannot manipulate the towering inferno - unable to effect change upon living organics! The young hero learns his lesson the hard way as Brimstone notices his flying presence and judges him harshly.

Before he can act - Firestorm finds five giant fingers closing around him!

The phenomenal speed of the giant's clutch catches Firestorm by surprise! Were it not for his quick thinking, he surely would've been incinerated by the beast's intense heat. Instead, he is protected by an encasement of fire retardant asbestos created last minute from the air surrounding him!

The defensive manoeuvre is cold comfort as Brimstone tosses the helpless hero into the building below!

Firestorm crawls from the wreckage with the bitter realization that Brimstone is out of his league! Lucky for him - he knows exactly which League to call!

The Hammer...
It's a harsh induction for a classic hero as Brimstone walks away the victor! Not necessarily the outcome you'd expect, but a result that makes a good deal of sense when you know the full context.

This was the first appearance of Brimstone, who was conceived as a villain for the six issue Legends mini-series.

Brimstone isn't the only menace to emerge over the course of the story, but he provides an immediate threat, taking down Firestorm in the first fight of the series -- a strong start to establish a new villain!

Legends deals indirectly with the consequences of Crisis on Infinite Earths, launching a sprawling adventure into the new status quo. It tells a story of heroes fighting disparate threats, while the minions of Darkseid plot a multi-pronged central attack. In the past, we've seen some of the other skirmishes from this first issue: Flash vs Deadshot, and Captain Marvel vs Macro-Man. Both are significant in their own ways, the latter for inducting "The Big Red Cheese" into the core DC Universe with confronting results.

The media blitz by "Gordon G. Godfrey" (aka; Glorious Godfrey) is one of the particularly memorable moments from "Operation: Humiliation". He works to turn public opinion aggressively against the very super-heroes protecting them. It's the modern weapon of politicized scaremongering harnessed in the arsenal of evil Darkseid. It's a concept of perverting human perception through fear that seems as topical as ever thirty years later.

The story also plays with themes of totalitarian registration seen concurrently in 1986's Watchmen, X-Men before that, and many stories since, albeit in simplistic terms that are only concerned with sympathy for the good guys.

Legends may not be the most significant follow-up to Crisis '85, but it has its place, creating the circumstances around which two modern teams assembled: A refreshed Justice League of America, and the covert operated Suicide Squad!

The Suicide Squad march on theatres this August, before the Justice League take centre stage in a 2017 follow-up to this year's controversial blockbuster: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. As in Legends; it seems the League will come together to fight the minions of Darkseid -- something they also did in the comics of 2011's hard New 52 reboot! It remains to be seen how deeply Suicide Squad will tie in with bigger DC movie plans.

DC Comics certainly have grand plans, currently in the process of yet another "Rebirth". This time they're working to repair some of the damage caused by the aggressive New 52 relaunch. We've already discussed the reintroduction of elements in recent entries into Hero of the Week [Dr. Manhattan, Flash]. Throughout the month of July we'll be coming at it from the other angle, venturing back through some of the other Rebirths DC has published in its recent, and once again convoluted past.

For a prequel to the July theme, you might like to flash back to last week's feature fight from Crisis on Infinite Earths #2! You can also find many more entries by browsing the alphabetical file of the Issue Index Archive, or by following links throughout this post, or the labels below.

We'll be revisiting Legends sometime in the future. You can get the full story by using the Amazon purchase link embedded for your convenience! Doing so helps keep the fights infinite with no additional cost!

Next week: Somebody gets Reborn!

Winner: Brimstone
#288 (new) Brimstone
#792 (new) Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond)
#490 (new) Professor Martin Stein [+1 assist]

HERO OF THE WEEK: CABLE (Marvel)
Real Name: Nathan Summers
First Appearance: New Mutants #87 (March, 1990)
Fight Club Ranking: #99

Featured Fights:
- vs AHAB: X-Men Annual #14 (1990)
- vs BARON ZEMO & MODOK: Captain America #6 (Apr 1997)
- vs THE AVENGERS: Civil War #3 (Sep 2006)

After a couple of big weeks in the world of comic books, the moving image is pulling focus back with news a Deadpool sequel is on track to start filming early next year! Comic Book Resources ended the week with a report via Collider, where X-Producer Simon Kinberg spoke positively about progress at the script level in an expansive interview.

Speculating how FOX will follow-up their surprise 2016 mega-hit has been a fun pastime, in part due to the overwhelming uncertainty of where they'll go next. After an all around disappointing outing with Bryan Singer's X-Men: Apocalypse last month, the sense that a change could do everyone good is strong. The question is - can FOX make that change without damaging their new cash cow?

Deadpool was every bit the breath of fresh air it purported to be, even if it was an imperfect exercise in a basic variation of the superhero formula. A sequel demands a fresh angle, if not outright improvement. The potential for connecting to the next phase of X-Men cinema - a temptation that should be handled with extreme caution.

All of this is to say: developing the next piece of the puzzle isn't such a bad idea!

A Ferris Bueller parody isn't exactly a contract, but by promising classic frenemy Cable at the end of the last movie, they've already created natural connective tissue between Deadpool and several rumored projects!

Cable, like Deadpool, made his first appearance in New Mutants: a comic series about a new class of young mutants, reportedly in pre-production for a feature film adaptation. In the comics, Cable introduces a military sensibility that eventually leads to a rebranding as X-Force. That name has been floated as a potential project for a couple of years now, and with modern influences, could be a way to refresh the X-Men formula with new and existing characters (and actors), including Deadpool.

Actors have been the biggest question when it comes to the cinematic debut of Cable. Who do you get to play the musclebound, cyborg soldier of the future? It seems every actor in Hollywood over fifty has an interest in the role!

Dolph Lundgren (The Punisher, Rocky IV) responded to the jokes with a promise he'd kick butt in the role. Stephen Lang (Avatar) has been lobbying for the part. Ron Perlman (Alien: Resurrection, Blade II, Hellboy) has thrown his credentials into the ring. Some are even pointing to wrestler/actor Kevin Nash as another option with a connection to movie versions of Punisher (he was The Russian).

Casting Cable will rest heavily on how the character's to be portrayed - not just in Deadpool 2 - but in any possible subsequent projects. Someone with gravitas to go with their muscle will help, but an understanding of the rat-a-tat-tat of the Deadpool motor-mouth they'll be scowling at, could help.

For a different approach, I'm gonna throw out a suggestion of someone already a friend to the X-Men movies: Eric Dane. As TV's Captain Tom Chandler in The Last Ship [pictured below], Dane bucked his Dr. McSteamy rep to play a military man making touch decisions as the world crumbles around him. It may not have had the weight of the apocalyptic future in Cable's past, but it got me seriously thinking about the potential for Dane to physically embody the role.

Just as Ryan Reynolds and a romantic sub-plot was pitched to bring a female demographic to the first Deadpool; Dane's past as a Grey's Anatomy heartthrob -- (shout out to the Charmed fans, as well) -- could help pitch the sequel to the mass audience who aren't ordinarily be the target, but showed up in droves to make Deadpool a $500 million dollar hit.

What ever happens - Deadpool himself was undoubtedly the thing that made the first movie work. That could be incredibly liberating as they attempt to catch lightning in a bottle once again and move the character, and their time with the X-Men license, forward.

<< Hero of the Week 07/04: Ibis       [Home]       Hero of the Week 06/20: Flash >>

BATMAN versus JOKER

Time and Time Again! (DC)
Where: Crisis on Infinite Earths #2 When: May 1985 Why: Marv Wolfman How: George Perez

The Story So Far...
As the barriers of time and space blur into insignificance and cosmic forces conspire to shape reality; a night in crime ridden Gotham City appears like any other...

A spate of murders have Batman on the hunt for a brazen killer. The last victim's appointment book: containing a vital clue that points to Plymouth Films and their next big production - Captain's Hill.

The movie title points to the resting place of one Miles Standish, whose last descendent holds the multi-million dollar rights to silent comedy films. As death lingers in the air, Batman races to stop The Joker from claiming his murderous prize -- unware he's a step closer to solving an even bigger mystery!

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


It's a story called "Time and Time Again" and it perfectly encapsulates the battle we have before us! There are over 820 ranked characters from ten years of Secret Wars on Infinite Earths -- and no two of them have met more frequently in featured fights than The Batman and The Joker!

The two most famous encounters come from The Dark Knight Returns #3 and Batman #614. Both stories show Batman overwhelmingly triumphant in the physical domain, but compromised by the Joker's unrelenting assault on the psychology and morals of The Dark Knight Detective. The hypothetical future of Dark Knight Returns frees the story to end in Joker's self-inflicted death, while the canon plot of Hush sees a Batman contemplating the finishing blow - but ultimately saved from his own anger by Commissioner Gordon.

More frivolous examples come from Detective Comics #781 and Justice League of America #15. The stakes of these stories are less dire, the themes less bold. These are the passing encounters of the superhero and super-villain: arch-nemeses destined to meet episodically ad infinitum. The Detective Comics fight is a personal favourite - a snow covered prison brawl between inmate Joker and his looming interrogator.

The JLA issue is more about The League fighting their Unjust counterparts. Batman appears as a monolithic shadow over an unconscious Joker. An off-panel reprisal of the same old story, flippantly punctuating the action with the benefit of a common understanding -- Joker is no match for Batman.

Of the seven fights featured in the past, Batman has won all seven.

In the animated series episode Christmas With The Joker, and in the Academy Award winning performance by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, multimedia canonizes the mismatch on film.

In the cartoon, Batman's adventures have alluded to his life's training in the martial arts under the great masters of Japan. His past haunts him in battle with deadly ninja. In 2005's Batman Begins, the determination of a young Bruce Wayne again leads him far East, where he is indoctrinated into The League of Assassins, and again demonstrates intense learning of deadly martial arts.

The competitive match-up of the modern super-ninja and his clownish lightweight nemesis isn't especially compelling, but the dynamic of their seventy year arch-rivalry is evergreen! It's steeped in psychology and circumstance, and has been interpreted a great many ways over the decades.

Joker has relied on weapons, traps, musclebound henchmen, chemistry, anarchy, misdirection, and Batman's capacity for selflessness to elude capture, or eke out occasional victories. Batman is always triumphant in the end. Who would win? The real question is - what went down? Let's find out!

History: Batman (7-0-0)
The Math: Batman Ranking: Batman (#1)

What Went Down...
As cosmic dominoes topple beyond, a dark night falls over a solitary mansion on a secluded hill. The night air is cut by the sound of murder! The grinning victim's provocation: Estate inheritance of comedy rights possessed by millionaire silent film owner, Harold J. Standish III. The Joker is getting into the movie business!

The plot comes with a killer twist in the Third Act: A heroic entrance for a Dark Knight Detective whose dogged analysis of clues has led him to Joker's final victim! The Batman smashes through a nearby mansion window - launching himself at the unsuspecting Clown Prince of Crime!

A gloved fist collides with Joker's ghastly grin, sending him to the ground with a single right hand! Surprised, but not unprepared, Joker compliments The Batman for his unwavering abductive reasoning -- dousing him in adhesive sprayed from a novelty flower gag!

Covered cape to cowl in copious amounts of the restrictive goop; Batman drops to his knees and struggles to reach for solvent stored in his trusty utility belt!

As he does, the cackling clown twirls the .45 caliber pistol he already used to kill Mr. Standish, promising a remedy for Batman's stiffening joints. Things look dire for The Dark Knight -- but then something very unexpected happens!..

Without warning - The Flash appears!

Arm out stretched, the Scarlet Speedster cries out for help! His apocalyptic plea falls on deaf ears as The Joker, panicked, points his gun and begs for clemency.

The crime clown sees conspiracy between the Central City Speedster and his usual Gotham City sparring partner. Looking for a way out, he fires wildly with his pistol - and then goes for the super-adhesive. A batarang cuts him off!

Batman looms over The Joker as the chemical reaction between solvent and glue surrounds him in smoke. It seems the day is won, but again, the ghostly vision of The Flash speaks desperately of the world dying around him!

Distracted by the bizarre re-appearance of The Flash after he'd been missing for some time, The Batman allows Joker to make a mad dash for the exit! There are forces far greater than crime and law at play. A crisis on infinite earths!

The Hammer...
What started as just another battle between hero and villain ends as something very different! Batman had the upper hand, but The Joker got away. They both got a few good licks in. For the purposes of The Comic Book Fight Club we're calling this one a draw -- but the fight is only part of the story.

Playground lore always had it that Batman was remarkably uninvolved in the cosmic reorganizing of the Crisis on Infinite Earths. It's certainly a far cry from the stories that came in the years and decades that followed!

By the time of Final Crisis (2009), major plot points were revolving around a Batman whose tactical and fighting brilliance made him equal with gods! Ironically, it's through the similar vision of controversial Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, that many fans are waking to Batman's brush with the Crisis.

The foreshadowing of Flash's ultimate fate is a classic comic book moment!

Even read with foreknowledge of the series; the way the initial Flash vision intrudes upon a familiar status quo is sudden, unexpected, and drenched in apocalyptic foreboding! With any luck, you may have even been stunned by The Flash's sudden appearance while making your way through this very article.

The Flash's story is certainly one of the strongest in a maxi-series defined by its chaos. The future echo of unclear significance, but it sets a suitably ominous tone for the epic that unfolds. The true horror of Flash's ghostly appearance won't become certain for another six issues. Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 closes the loop, confirming every earlier dread with spectacular results!

In Dawn of Justice, Ben Affleck's Batman experiences "knightmare" visions of a dream world in ruin. Flash appears in the dream to warn of what seems to be an apocalyptic future influenced by Darkseid and an evil Superman. Its function of foreboding is effectively the same, but its position is the opposite -- a threat to a cinematic universe yet to be assembled. A much simpler preposition than the end of multiple universes created over several decades.

It was thanks to Crisis on Infinite Earths that we, the modern readers, had the luxury of a densely populated singular DC Universe. Acting as a deconstruction and construction of superhero existence, the series is undoubtedly significant, but it's also unruly and unfocused throughout. Sifting through dense pages of the end of the world can be a lot of fun, but may not make the best first impression for a movie-going audience conditioned to expect streamlined tales.

It helps that the "pre-Crisis" multiverse was essentially defined by the dispersal of characters across different worlds. This isn't a series inundated with repeating counterpart versions of one or two characters. The worlds may not be in sharp focus, but their peril is clear, told through the scrambling of dozens upon dozens of individually familiar heroes.

The scattershot nature of the action isn't especially favourable for a blogsite built on quantifying superhero exhibition bouts, but I'm excited about going beyond the concise for future installments. Superhero comics have always been at their best, I think, when they can be read and dissected in different ways.

Those future feature fights can be found by following the Crisis on Infinite Earths tag, or by scrolling alphabetically through the Issue Index Archive! There you'll find hundreds of other featured fights from Infinite Earths! This past Monday's Hero of the Week also concerned the legacy of Crisis on Infinite Earths and may be of interest!

If you've had enough of reading about the seminal maxi-series and finally want to take the plunge, you can do so by using the Amazon purchase link provided for your convenience [right]. Doing so helps keep the secret wars infinite. You can also help by sharing relevant links around the web!

All willing, The Comic Book Fight Club will continue in July with a special focus on what happened some of the other times DC Comics decided it was time for a rebirth. Some of the results may surprise!

Winner: Draw
#1 (--) Batman
#359 (--) Joker [+1 kill]
#14 (--) Flash (Barry Allen) [+1 Assist]

HERO OF THE WEEK: FLASH (DC)
Real Name: Wally West
First Appearance: Flash #110 (January, 1959)
Fight Club Ranking: #22

Featured Fights:
- vs DEADSHOT: Legends #1 (Nov 1986)
- vs QUICKSILVER: Marvel versus DC #2 (Mar 1996)
- vs VENOM: DC versus Marvel #4 (Apr 1996)
- vs SUPERMAN: Flash #209 (Jun 2004)
- vs PENGUIN, GIRDER & DOUBLE DOWN: Flash #210 (Jul 2004)
- vs DEATHSTROKE: Identity Crisis #3 (Oct 2004)
- vs ULTRAMARINE CORPS: JLA: Classified #3 (Mar 2005)
- vs LADY FLASH: Flash: Rebirth #2 (Jul 2009)

After more than half a decade in reboot oblivion: Wally West is making a comeback!

Modern readers may remember Wally West best as The Flash -- heir apparent to the speedster's mantle after the iconic sacrifice made by Barry Allen in Crisis on Infinite Earths #8!

For the twenty-three (or so) years that followed, Wally West served successfully as a pioneering force for the DC Universe's third generation heroes. He fulfilled a great majority of Barry Allen's roles, all the while establishing wrinkles unique to a hero who matured alongside the legends of the superhero Silver Age! He was welcomed into the ranks of the Justice League as Flash, but maintained ties with the young heroes of The Titans, with whom he'd served as Kid Flash.

It was all going remarkably well until 2009, when Barry Allen made a surprise return from death in Final Crisis and Flash: Rebirth (the first one)! From there, things became a red and gold blur - the result of two Scarlet Speedsters running at full speed. Something had to give, and with full support behind resurrecting the senior icon - Wally West began his unfortunate descent into obscurity. A short-lived, unconvincing costume change later, and it was bye-bye Wally for 2010's New 52 reboot.

Barry Allen isn't going anywhere, but one of Rebirth's most admirable qualities will be the restoration of the first and third generation heroes! This return, perhaps inevitably, means another shot at trying to resolve Wally West's costume woes -- made all the more complicated by the New 52 introduction of a new, racially divergent Wally West. Never the less, Newsarama have showed off the original's new red and silver digs drawn dramatically by artist Brett Booth [above].

Like much of Rebirth itself, the new costume is serviceable, but not entirely convincing. It borrows the open cowl of his Kid Flash days, with the abbreviated bolt logo, and silver lightning we've seen many times before, notably in the new design he received after Barry Allen's return. It certainly solves the problem of easy identification. Will it solve all the other problems? We shall see...

I'm pleased to have a classic character restored and decades of fiction back in play. The "big two", DC in particular, are in dire need of stability to go with their variety. Here's hoping the cycle of arbitrary upheaval and starting over ends here.

<< Hero of the Week 27/06: Cable        [Home]       Hero of the Week 06/13: Dr. Manhattan >>

CAPTAIN BRITAIN versus JUGGERNAUT

Moving Day (Marvel)
Where: Excalibur #3 When: December 1988
Why: Chris Claremont How: Alan Davis

The Story So Far...
Juggernaut's time in Great Britain hasn't gone according to plan. Defeated by the X-Men and incarcerated in Her Majesty's Ultra Maximum Security Prison, Crossmoor, he has finally been stopped -- held by a stasis cage!

When the villainous Vixen leads an attack on the prison in order to stage a break-out: Juggernaut finally has the chance to stretch his powerful limbs free from bondage!

During the escape, Juggernaut engages in a little light tank destruction, delighting in demonstrating his unstoppable nature to the local military. An act that can only bring forth the United Kingdom's greatest defenders - Captain Britain & Excalibur!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Juggernaut 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Captain Britain 5 (Professor)
Speed: Captain Britain 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Juggernaut 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: Captain Britain 4 (Training)
Energy: Captain Britain 2 (Projectiles)


Last month we finally inducted Betsy Braddock into the fighting ranks of the Secret Wars on Infinite Earths. This time around we're welcoming her big brother Brian into the fold -- better known to the world as Captain Britain!

Brian Braddock was once a meek physicist who found himself out of his depth when the nuclear research facility he was interning with was attacked! A desperate search for aid brought him into a chance encounter with the magician Merlyn, and his daughter Roma. They bestowed upon him the gift of The Amulet of Right - an artefact that fulfilled his destiny to become Captain Britain!

Over the years Captain Britain's powers have been adapted, altered and increased. The definitive modern Captain Britain is endowed with super-human strength, speed, endurance, stamina and the power of flight. His abilities may be at their strongest whilst in special costume, or at close proximity to Britain itself. Note: These provisos have been lifted in many modern incarnations.

Given the mythic, magical nature of Captain Britain's uncanny strength -- he's a perfect challenger for the unstoppable Juggernaut!

Cain Marko's powers come from the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak and render him nigh invulnerable to physical assault! That could make things tricky for Captain Britain, whose greatest asset is his phenomenal super-strength! That said, the Juggernaut can be physically bested in some rare instances.

Time travelling super-robot Nimrod was able to take Juggernaut down, prompting a team-up with the X-Men [Uncanny X-Men #194]. DC icon Superman knocked him off his feet in a surprise encounter [DC versus Marvel #1]. Even Wonder Woman managed to stop the unstoppable with a little help from Spider-man, and the villainous New God: Mantis [Unlimited Access #1]! Encouraging examples -- especially given the home ground advantage Captain Britain takes into today's feature fight!

Of course, for every tough guy (or gal) who succeeds in going toe-to-toe with the Juggernaut, there are those who live to regret it! Colossus [Uncanny X-Men #183], Captain Marvel Jr [Unlimited Access #3], and Magneto [What If...? #94] are but a sampling of previous opponents who've felt his irresistible force!

For Britannia to rule this day, Braddock would do well to draw upon his book smarts as a physicist. Juggernaut's been known to be contained or slowed by turning environmental circumstance against him. Captain Britain has the muscle to enact any plans that might use Juggernaut's momentum to advantage.

The Math: Captain Britain Ranking: Juggernaut (#111)

What Went Down...
Freed from bondage, Juggernaut goes on the warpath! Military tanks and soldiers are no match for the unstoppable villain! He tears through war machine metal like it were paper - until a Great British fist pierces the carnage!

Unfazed, the Juggernaut gets a standing face-to-face introduction with the hero adorned in Union Jack red, white and blue -- Captain Britain! Relatively unimpressed by the obligatory local superhero, he shrugs off the order to cease and desist. In his own words, he's got places to go and things to do.

Captain Britain finds himself dismissed with extreme prejudice! The Juggernaut sends him hurtling across the surrounding British countryside, to a grinding halt in the dirt some miles away!

The impact draws the attention of an airborne Phoenix, who comes to check if her Excalibur teammate is in need of assistance. He rejects her telepathic offer - springing out of the crater at mach speeds to fly back into the thick of it!

While the rest of Excalibur pursues other inmates freed from the Crossmoor Ultra Maximum Security Prison -- Captain Britain meets Juggernaut head-on! His valor is met with unforgiving, unstoppable strikes! His superhuman strength only good for keeping him alive beneath the brutal blows!

A devastating uppercut to the stomach lifts Captain Britain off his feet and draws the attention of his sweetheart & teammate - Meggan. She watches in horror as a stiff right cross sends the Captain to the ground. A finishing blow!

The Hammer...
It started with a one-on-one marquee fight and it ended with a one-on-one result: Juggernaut victorious over Captain Britain!

As you may have surmised, Excalibur still have several other heroes left in the fight. Captain Britain will recover, but won't re-engage in the subsequent battle unfolding under Meggan's lead. It's a follow-up I'm sure we'll be interested to revisit sometime in The Comic Book Fight Club's future!

Meanwhile; the mind boggles that Excalibur #3 is an issue nearly thirty years old at the time of this writing! There are things that date it, obviously, but the dynamic artistry of Alan Davis isn't one of them. At times his page layouts give it all the language of modern comic books coming years later.

Admittedly, some of my favourite panels are the simplest, like Captain Britain rising from the dirt [above]. Heavy blacks, including the background of the night sky, give it a hard edge I love. The simple symmetrical design of his costume lends strength to the anatomy of the character. It's a nice moment that visually highlights Captain Britain, but also sells the conceptual awe of Juggernaut.

This is the first time we've featured Captain Britain. Fans in-the-know will remember his earlier design, later used by Lionheart. I prefer this incarnation. The sweeping, multi-dimensional mythos of the Captain Britain Corps tends to get a bit much, but the big chested superhero costume really clicks for me. It's such a shame a British super-team never seems to last long. There's a lot of hand wringing about diversity in comics, but it usually begins and ends with Americans shouting about Americans. Much of the world still waits.

Ironically, the basic structural element of the issue that may seem the most out of date is the prize fight feel.

As much as we have Batman v Superman in theatres, or Injustice in video games; the popular superhero fight of today always seems to be predicated on some grander, invalidating convolution or complication. The simple appeal of two independently established powerhouses meeting for a showdown seems to be approaching the domain of a lost art. It's rarely as simple as wondering what would happen if X fought X. A proposition that, admittedly, gets harder as time goes on.

I have to give Chris Claremont a lot of credit for his respect for the power of a good superhero fight. It's a quality that isn't just about plotting a break in a usually wordy on-going series. It speaks to his long term perspective and respect for maintaining characters. As an unstoppable powerhouse - Juggernaut always runs the risk of being a fall guy. Someone by which the strength and heroism of others can be proven. Claremont himself uses this, but he always seems to be keeping an eye on balancing those books.

Juggernaut had been around for about twenty-three years in 1988. He'd already suffered some of his most famous defeats. He even starts this issue incarcerated in the UK -- antithetical consequence of his Muir Island defeat in 1987's Uncanny X-Men #218. Claremont isn't just continuing the Juggernaut's story -- nice in itself, but also topping up the tank. Captain Britain will have many opportunities to prove himself as the star of Excalibur, but first he gives a little credibility back through today's feature defeat.

We saw Claremont doing similar rehab in Uncanny X-Men #183, where Colossus took the fall in a massive 1984 showdown that was concerned with Juggernaut's famous loss to Spider-man two years earlier [see; Amazing Spider-man #230 for more].

Was a professional wrestling mentality always what steered Chris Claremont's writing? I'm sure many readers will have examples where a character was let down. I'm happy to give credit where it's due, though. The primary concern of The Comic Book Fight Club is what's put in print, and I really enjoy these examples of fighting cred maintenance.

It's another win in the books for Juggernaut and a welcome induction for another classic hero - Captain Britain! An unfortunate defeat that in no way comments on the state of the United Kingdom's current Brexit politics.

Looking to get ahead of the fight and away from European turmoil? Use the Amazon purchase link provided [right] to find this issue and others in collected edition. Doing so helps the fight remain infinite!

You can also help out by finding more classic and obscure battles in the Secret Archive and by sharing links with friends!

Winner: Juggernaut
#66 (+45) Juggernaut
#789 (new) Captain Britain

HERO OF THE WEEK: DOCTOR MANHATTAN (DC)
Real Name: Dr. Johnathan Osterman
First Appearance: Watchmen #1 (September, 1986)
Fight Club Ranking: #DNR

Featured Fights:
- Has Not Yet Been Featured on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths.

If the 2009 feature film release of Watchmen proved nothing else, it's that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' story can find a mainstream audience on the strength of visuals alone. DC Comics knows this and apparently they're ready to reach a bold new agreement with the seminal work...

Watchmen is one of the most celebrated and best selling "graphic novels" of all time. It's been as absorbed into educational syllabus and literary notoriety as it has been celebrated for its more visceral charms and base super-heroics. Somewhere between the two - a healthy assessment lies.

For roughly twenty-five years, DC Comics was content to profit on the prestige of the twelve issue mini-series. Collected editions have long flirted with best selling lists, reaching new heights thanks to the pop cultural loudhailer of a feature film release. A cinematic adaptation seemed to be a reasonable compromise. An opportunity to celebrate the work and inform the masses, all the while increasing profit, with notable exception of Alan Moore himself, who's famously refused compensation for what he typically deems lesser approximations of his work.

The real shots were fired in 2012, when DC and Warner Brothers were no longer content to merely direct interested readers to what they can read "After Watchmen...". The time had come to bring these characters back to print -- the controversial, expansive line of Before Watchmen prequel comics.

I've never been one to kneel at the altar of Alan Moore. I often times wonder if his greatest creation wasn't the persona that precedes him, and perpetuates interest in his work. Watchmen certainly doesn't strike me as the be all, end all of superhero comics. In fact, I read it as a very loving tribute and participation in sub-culture phenomenon, of which superhero comics occupy a sizeable portion. Containing a cracking yarn about murder and political manipulation, but ultimately a superhero comic by any other name.

Yet -- even as a heretic in the church of Moore, Before Watchmen raised questions I never expected to try to answer. On a basic level, I actually think more Watchmen comics makes a lot of sense. The characters are wholly conceived as part of the serial world of the superhero. There's nothing overly precious about them or their world. They've had adventures in the past, stretching back to the Golden Age of 1940s comics. The implication of Watchmen's memorable ending -- more stories to come.

Before Watchmen makes a lot of sense, yet under threat of new comics without the input of Alan Moore, I find myself questioning the wisdom of it all. On a basic level, I know the value of Watchmen must have diminished with such frequent sales. The basic economics of getting more out of this popular property make sense - but the creative risks don't strike me as worth it. Maybe the power of Watchmen really is that it's a contained extract from a world that should never go on. The power of its ending is certainly stronger without answering questions about the future. At least they got that much right. For a little while, any way.

We now know the Watchmen universe is going to continue. Like so many other DC Comics properties, it seems it will officially be folded into the sprawling multiverse as the catalytic influence on Rebirth -- pseudo-reboot that rejiggers the dour New 52, even if it doesn't completely correct it.

The premise seems to be that Doctor Manhattan's machinations have had a cosmic influence. It was his influence that robbed the DC Universe is several years of its history. Batman examines the iconic blood spattered smiley face button worn by The Comedian in The Flash: Rebirth #1 [via Comic Book Resources]. Like Before Watchmen - I can begrudgingly see some merit.

There's a post-modern idea at work that's really appealing to think about, even as it creates friction. If Watchmen truly has been so influential to modern comic books, perhaps even more so than the event that defined the modern DC Universe [Crisis on Infinite Earths], then it's intriguing to consider it as an in-fiction cosmic force. Why not shape the New DCU on the back of its most influential tomes? Why not fulfill the requests of the unwashed masses who want to see more?

There are, of course, reasons not to.

Hard reboots to the DC pantheon have arguably been the source of some of their biggest problems over the past few years. Overwrought world building, waterlogged inter-connected stories, and a sense that everything is so much less have made DC a bitter taste throughout the decade.

The New 52 and subsequent reboots have been the ultimate realization of short term thinking that's plagued Big 2 comic books throughout the internet age. A quick fix, short term mentality that indulged always misguided impressions that DC's history was uniquely problematic -- selling reasons not to read, instead of the unique wonder of their sprawling universe.

DC found some of their biggest successes in the mid to late 2000s with the explosion of the Green Lantern universe and stories like Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night. Stories that dug deep into the canon and made the most of it. The antithesis of The New 52 and even Rebirth, which seems content to only paper over some of the cracks and return what was lost. Brand building that should've encouraged similar tact with more characters, including the ones who inspired the Watchmen heroes. Who really needs Rorschach when you've got The Question? What does Nite Owl do in a superhero universe that Blue Beetle can't do better?

The short answer is that the Watchmen characters provide notoriety and familiarity. Which is sad, because if Watchmen encouraged anything, it was arguably to strive for better in this world. The psychotic in the squidgy mask was never meant to be the one to aspire to. None of them were meant to be part of the DCU. We'll have to wait and see what happens once they are. Maybe it actually makes perfect sense.

<< Hero of the Week 06/20: Flash      [Home]      Hero of the Week 06/06: Sub-Mariner >>