John Stewart, a.k.a. Green Lantern, a.k.a. our current Character of the Month, has stepped into the Battle of the Week for the very first time. For his opening challenge, we went with a character that was heavily suggested by the community: Magneto, the master of magnetism! To help even the odds, the fight took place in an unpopulated section of New York (the surrounding area, however, was populated). Did that give the X-Men's iconic villain the advantage he needed to bring down this cosmic hero or was the Green Lantern able to claim his first victory? According to the voters, John Stewart wins!
There's just no denying these are two formidable characters, but a majority of voters think John Stewart has two key advantages: a greater power level and more versatility. While the location does benefit Magneto and he's more prone to applying a "do what must be done to win" mentality sooner, many voters believe John's durability and the variety of attacks his Power Ring offers will allow him to eventually overcome. It may not be quick and it may not be easy (Magneto's certainly held his own against many powerful characters over the years), but John simply has more options at his disposal and, when the fight is nearing an end, many people think that combined with his defensive abilities will help the ring-slinger take the win. In the end 49% of voters supported John Stewart and 45% sided with Magneto. 6% -- which is more than usual -- thought this match was too close to call. Now, let's see what some Comic Viners had to say about John Stewart's first battle in the segment.
TG_54
Oh man, this one is exciting to think about. Constructs vs constructs, constructs everywhere!!
The only difference maker for me is I truly believe that the green light of willpower is stronger than metal. I think Magneto would surprise John at first with his unique power, but Stewart's ring would shield him from the initial attack. John is an experienced lantern and has faced some powerful otherworldly threats. John takes this fight but Magneto would probably bring a majority of the city down in the process.
GL wins 7/10
thenewbluebeetle007
Going with Magneto. While Stewart possesses the edge in versatility by a rather large margin, Magneto has 2 main advantages in this fight, and a trump card that he can use if necessary.
His first advantage is shields. Constructs aren't breaking through them, as they casually took his from Thor and she hulk. As far as energy blasting goes, they tanked attacks from galactus, and the Phoenix (Jean). In addition, I doubt it's in character for John to blitz, so he will most certainly have time to get his shields up.
Magneto's second advantage is the environment. New York city contains so much metal that Magneto will likely never run out. Multiple skyscrapers will be flying at John before he gets a chance to make a construct. I believe that because of this, John will be forced on the defensive, as skyscrapers will come at him from all sides. I'm not so sure John's shields could take that many hits.
And finally, Erik has a trump card that kills all possibility of John emerging victorious, that being the fact that Stewart has iron in his blood. This means that Magneto can quite literally control his every move and, if John makes him angry, rip the iron out if his blood, killing him.
For all the above reasons, I urge everyone to vote for Magneto.
TheAmazingImmortalMan
Regardless of who you think wins, one thing remains unchanged. This is gonna be an extremely tough battle to win for either combatant. On paper it seems John has the edge, a GL that can build light constructs out of his powerful ring through will, but you cannot sleep on Magneto. Yes GL is more versatile and John's will power is amazing and as an architect his constructs are always "solid" as stated by Hal. However Magneto's shields are nigh impenetrable, his offense extremely dangerous. Eric is a man who has went toe to toe with phoenix Jean, who takes on hordes of X-Men, who has taken on teams of avengers and came out clean. Yes John has a powerful shield as well so it is pretty much a game of who gets past who's defenses first. However location benefits Mags, how much metal do we have in Time Square? a crap ton, underground, above ground, in buildings, etc. Magneto 's morals are protect him and his own, John is more likely to aim for minimal damage and keep civilians safe, a few minutes into the fight Magneto would take notice of this and use it to his advantage. Magneto would throw cars, piping, building chunks, jumbo-trons etc and would definitely take the fight to a populated area where John would have to divide his attention and save people and Magneto would grab the upper hand. Through out all this John would obviously be throwing his own offensive attacks at Mags but IMO Magneto can very well take the shots via his shields and get a W. So my vote goes to Magneto 6/10. All that said imagine how beautiful and destructive this fight would be.
RobbyT15
I gotta say GL takes this. He's much more versatile and inventive with his constructs. The guy is one of the only known lanterns to create constructs that are solid throughout and his will is nearly on par with that of Hal Jordan's. Not to mention the fact that Stewart is a former Marine, he's able to take a quick glance at the battle field and determine where the best cover would be, where choke points would be, distinguish vantage points should he need them, etc. Plus, if it were to ever get to a hand to hand combat situation, Magneto would crumble in a heartbeat. The only thing Stewart would have a disadvantage in is not knowing Magneto's powerset and his amazing ability to manipulate metal. The guy can control metal at a molecular level, making basically the entire battlefield his weapon. As long as his will holds up, though, Stewart will be untouchable and virtually unbeatable in this fight.
hiddeninhell
I'd say this is a battle that could go either way depending on the circumstances, though given the nature of the battle field and their relatively small (for a fight between such powerhouses) distance separating them from innocent bystanders Magneto would probably win unless he is into one of his occasional periods of pacifism/redemption seeking.
And to those that simply say compared to Dr. Polaris this should be easy, I must say that despite the similar powers he is actually a very poor analogue.It has been proven many times over that Max/Erik is not as dangerous as he is simply because of his magnetic powers, but instead largely because of a combination of his intelligence, ruthlessness and survivor mentality. On top of that Magneto has spent a lifetime not just mastering his powers but familiarizing himself with their capabilities and coming up with alternative ways of using them, such as his attempt to overheat the Stark Sentinels via induced currents during the beginning of AXIS or the often mentioned in this thread manipulation of blood iron.
CapeLibra
Oh my, what an interesting match up. I admittedly know slightly more about Mags than John, but still had to do a little (actually a lot) of research on both characters. Afterwards, I came away acknowledging this is a much closer match up than it appears on its face. Since the CV editors usually break down their match ups in categories i thought I’d try the same here:
Physical Strength: I don’t think this will be a street brawl, but if it comes to blows I gotta give this to John. Yes, Mags can use his powers to enhance his strength, but he simply can’t match the near “Superman-level” boost John gets from the power ring.
Defense/Shields: There are a lot of posts about who’s shields are the strongest. While both characters have impressive defensive capabilities I’m giving a slight edge to Magneto. In all of the bios, histories and wikis I’ve read there seem to be way more instances of objects and energy making it pass the Green Lanterns’ shield, and hardly any for Mags.
Versatility: C’mon…no contest. John everyday and twice on Sunday. Though it’s not as big a blowout as some may think. John’s ring produces shields, so can Magneto…The ring can refract light, so can Magneto…the ring can create wormholes, so can Magneto. As a lifelong X-Men reader I was actually quite surprised all the things Mags’ powers let him do. However the sheer volume of abilities the power ring has is just insane: thought manipulating, cellular regeneration, duplication, galactic encyclopedia, and on and on…
Tactics/Strategy: Mags no doubt has the experience and is a master strategist. However, I think his ego and arrogance my even things out a bit. With both being military men and two pretty smart cookies I’m calling this one a Draw.
What If’s: The “what if”s don’t seem to offer any help in deciding a winner. What if John gets pissed enough to kill? What if Mags makes it through John’s shield and is able to affect the ring (or sever John’s ring finger/hand/arm…which seems to happen a lot in the GL books that I have read)? What if John takes the fight to space (Mags’ shield provide some life support, but is it enough for a prolonged fight)? What if John’s ring runs out of juice?
The “What If’s” are leaning me to vote “Too Close To Call” (so I think I’ll be pleased no matter who ultimately wins), but my head is telling me to give John a slight edge. However things shake out I really enjoyed learning so much about two characters I really didn’t know as well as I thought I did.
Who do YOU want to see John Stewart battle next? Tell us below or share it via twitter. Remember, the match needs to be able to generate traffic. So, if the character makes many people say "who?" odds are we're not going to consider it.