By now it should come as no surprise that I have a passion for comic book battles. To some degree, it's like Fantasy Football for comics, or at least that's what I enjoy telling my friends that don't share our love for the medium. Just as they'd want to see their favorite athletes go head-to-head, there's a whole plethora of battles that I would be thrilled to see in 2013.
To avoid letting my inner fanboy takeover, I've opted to only pick one fight from Marvel, one from DC, and one from any other publisher. Because there's so much I'd really want to see, I decided to include an honorable mention for each publisher as well. As always, please chime in with your own top 3 once you're done with the read.
Gambit vs Hawkeye
Now that AvX has come to an end, the likelihood of this happening feels incredibly slim. We saw their egos clash in A+X #3, and if we're lucky, some lovely writer out there will build off the brief and fun event that took place between them.
Gambit's more agile, has better reflexes and his kinetic cards are a pain to avoid, but Clint has an uncanny degree of accuracy and has an absurd amount of variety at his disposal with all of his trick arrows. They've only briefly encountered once before (CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS II) and Gambit seemed to have the upper hand. However, who do you think would win between Clint and Remy? Is Gambit's agility and explosive power too much for the Avenger... or will Gambit be taken down by a trick arrow or two?
Red Hood vs Nightwing
BATMAN & ROBIN teased us with the tension that still remains between these two, but it's about time we got another classic Jason Todd vs Dick Grayson encounter. Yes, Grayson is more skilled and because of that he'll likely win, but Jason isn't too far behind in that department and usually has plenty of dirty tricks up his sleeve.
A solid fight between members of the Bat-family is always a good dose of popcorn fun, and I would love nothing more than to see something ignite a battle between Robin #1 and Robin #2 once again. I can't be the only one very interested to hear what Scott Lobdell and Kyle Higgins would have to say about this one. Someone shine the DC writers signal!
Bloodshot vs Ninjak
As you can tell from the above image, this is an encounter that took place pre-Valiant reboot. Now, with Ninjak back in the picture and being a major badass over in the pages of X-O MANOWAR, it seems only fitting that he should once again bump into Valiant's other stellar badass: Bloodshot.
This would be a classic case of skill against power. Ninjak's an absurdly talented assassin and would have no problem slicing into Bloodshot, but the solider's healing factor and brutal nature would be a very tough obstacle to overcome. I'd ultimately favor Ninjak thanks to his insane dodging capabilities and skill with a blade, but this is a fight that would surely be worth the cover price and then some.
Honorable Mentions
- (Marvel) Scarlet Spider vs Superior Spider-Man
- (DC) Aquaman vs Deathstroke
- (Other) TMNT vs General Krang
Gregg Katzman is a freelance writer for Comic Vine & IGN Entertainment. It took all of his willpower to resist his fanboy urge to include Kraven or Bane in this feature.