The first live action Comic Vine Battle of the Week is finally over! You all had a few extra days to vote and research (due to us being at SDCC) and over 500 votes later, one of these characters is still standing and the other one is knocked out. It was a decent race, but one of them had a fair lead pretty much the entire time. Earning 54% of the votes, TV Oliver Queen has bested Movie Black Widow.
Natasha took 42% of the votes and 5% thought it was too close to call. As for me, I voted too close to call. They both have solid showings against basic fodder (be it goons of aliens -- both have zero feats) and are sporting impressive hand to hand capabilities and agility. Ollie regularly navigates the city with ease and Natasha has good displays of mobility as well. It's definitely reasonable to believe Widow can close the gap in this environment and has the skill to hold her own to some degree in close combat, but then a huge factor is her wealthy variety of gear. Remember of all of the tech she displayed in Iron Man 2? Each of those could serve as a game changer if used properly and could allow her to overcome. That said, Ollie has the advantage of way more feats and has faced a wider variety of enemies. He certainly has the physicals and pain tolerance to hang in there and eventually turn the tide.
All in all, I can see either of these taking the victory. Widow has what it takes to bring it to close combat and from there she has the equipment to take it, but Ollie has the greater amount of physical and hand to hand showings. No matter who you think is left standing, I just hope this one was fun to think about for you.
Viner Argument of the Week for Arrow is by The Stegman
"The truth is, Oliver has her outclassed in almost every category.
Let’s go over Black Widow’s feats shall we? She:
1. Took down some nameless, fodder guards in Iron Man 2
2. Took down more fodder mobsters in Avengers while tied up (Something Ollie also does in the early episodes)
3. Beat Clint Barton, though since they were fighting in an enclosed location, he was at the disadvantage as he couldn’t fully extend his bow to fire arrows accurately. I’m bringing this up because I know others will compare this fight to say that since Natasha beat Clint, she could beat Ollie.
4. Took on the Chitari who had no real feats to show that they were physical superior to humans besides jumping from their ships to the sides of buildings (maybe a twelve foot leap I’d say)
And really that’s it. Now Ollie:
1. Like Natasha, he beats nameless fodder thugs, only he does it on a weekly basis. He has even beaten people while being at a disadvantage, as in “Vertigo” he was heavily drugged yet managed to take down a stairwell full of guards with little difficulty.
2. Unlike Natasha, who fights mostly fodder characters with the exception of Clint, Ollie routinely fights people who are well trained in martial arts, whether it was his training with Slade on the island, or him fighting and eventually beating China White, Helena Bertinelli and Malcolm Merlyn upon later encounters.
3. He is arguably more acrobatic than her as he regularly uses parkour and free jumping to get from location to location. He also dodges bullets with ease, even from someone who is a master marksman like Deadshot.
4. His physical stats are far superior to Natasha’s. As a man he is physically stronger than her and spends most of his days training his body to increase his strength. For Stamina, he once chased down Helena Bertinelli on foot while she was riding a motorcycle and almost caught her if not for a truck blocking his path at the last minute.
5. His long distance weapons, aka, his archery skills are more impressive than Natasha’s. He has been shown to be a great archer, hardly ever missing his target, even when drugged, injured or moving. His accuracy doesn’t end with arrows either, as he was shown to be able to kill someone by simply throwing a kitchen knife. He also regularly uses Flechettes as darts to otherwise disarm or incapacitate people he doesn’t want dead with great accuracy.
Ollie wins."
Unfortunately, no one else was able to chime in this week.
Due to time restraints (rushing out to see The Wolverine relatively soon and I'll post a review tonight!), I won't be able to provide an image for the teaser (seriously, creating those images is quite time consuming but hopefully you all dig them). However, I will say next week's battle will include TV and/or movie characters again. WHO COULD THEY BE? Check the homepage on Friday to find out!
Previous 'Comic Vine Battle of the Week' results
- Daredevil vs. Nightwing (Winner: Daredevil)
- Ultimate Captain America vs. Deathstroke (Winner: Deathstroke)
- Arkillo vs. Hulk (Winner: Hulk)
- Snake Eyes vs. X-23 (Winner: X-23)
- Moon Knight vs. Red Hood (Winner: Moon Knight)
- Catman/Deadshot vs. Bullseye/Punisher (Winner: Bullseye/Punisher)
- Aquaman vs. Thing (Winner: Aquaman)
- Deadpool vs. TMNT (Winner: Too close to call)
Want to suggest a battle? Feel free to comment below or send it to Gregg via Twitter.