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Comic Vine Battle of the Week Results: Zombie Apocalypse Scenario

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Which character has what it takes to survive the zombie apocalypse? The Comic Vine community has voted and now it's time to see who they've supported!

To celebrate The Walking Dead's return to TV and the start of a new story in its comic, we thought it would be a super fun idea to place a variety of comic book characters against a swarm of the undead in Manhattan. Out of 12 options on the poll, only 3 characters earned double digits while the others were presumably ripped apart by the seemingly endless mass of flesh-eating walkers. It was a pretty tight race between Punisher and Wolverine, but one man raced ahead of them and is the one who will thrive in this apocalyptic scenario: Slade Wilson.

Deathstroke Rising
Deathstroke Rising

While Slade didn't have his armor in this setting, it's still easy to see why so many backed him in this match. First and foremost, the mercenary is incredibly gifted in combat. At a safe distance, he has the firearms and accuracy required to take down threats and greatly reduce the number of hostiles heading his way. And, in the event he chooses to engage them in close proximity, he's a very formidable close range combatant, too. Not only does he have what it takes to give the likes of Batman all kinds of grief in unarmed combat, but he also has a sword which is naturally an ideal weapon for dismembering the undead.

In addition to his deadly talents, Slade also has a gifted mind and body. He's a brilliant tactician, meaning he's relatively unlikely to end up in a scenario with no means of escape and his physicals are beyond peak human. He'll be able to navigate the city with ease and maneuver out of sticky situations thanks to his speed, agility, reflexes and strength. Furthermore, he has what it takes to earn a majority of victories against many of the other survivors if he does indeed bump into them. Given the scenario, there's of course countless variables which could come into play and spell doom for him, but ultimately, Slade's very well-versed and does indeed have what it takes to thrive in this zombie apocalypse.

How'd the other characters fare? Here's the complete poll results.

Viner Argument of the Week for Deathstroke is by Wyldsong

"So, there are a few things to think about here. When dealing with hordes of zombies that can kill you with a bite, range is key, movement is life, and you need to do your darnedest to stay out of melee range as that is a big risk of getting swarmed and becoming zombie chow. You also need to consider that if a primary melee character is engaged with a group of zombies that the slightest misstep could be fatal in terms of getting overrun and taking a zombie bite...this is something that a ranged character can take advantage of, as a well placed bullet or arrow can definitely throw a wrench in the works and create that fatal misstep. Bear in mind that we have plenty of characters that should be capable of tagging superhuman opponents at range.

The next thing you need to consider is: what happens when groups happen upon one another? It's a battle scenario, so a fight is going to break out, but we need to consider who can take who and who has a better chance in most scenarios, especially in a city with 18 million zombies and considering most fights between parties will probably have a zombie or two nearby which increases the chances for getting swarmed and bit. Remember, when the fights happen, it will generally be a three way affair: Combatant A vs Combatant B vs multitudes of Combatant Z.

A character can't be picked based on just one thing or the other in this scenario. You have to consider who is going to have the best shot at survival overall.

Now, this pains me to say it, I mean it physically hurts since I spend so much time debating against him in other threads, and add in the fact that there are characters I prefer over him in this grouping, but I have to back Deathstroke overall.

He is a crack shot and won't miss under pressure. He has a better than average chance at beating or outlasting most of the others in encounters with the zombies hordes all around (he has the stats/skills/equipment to keep up with some of the best in the DCU). His military/merc training should allow him to stealth past many encounters if needed. Most importantly, his tactical mindset and enhanced brain functions should allow him to maneuver, plan, and fight his way through a city of walkers while dealing with the other parties.

Now, this is not to say that he can't be beat in one on one encounters versus some of the others, but based on an overall survivability profile, I think he takes the majority."

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And what does Comic Vine writer, Corey Schroeder, think of this scenario?

"He rounded a corner, slamming his back against the wall and popped out to fire from both hands, his pistols screaming as bullets lodged themselves in the heads of the dead creatures. His orange and blue cloths trailed behind him, now tattered and stained with blood. First his son had burst into his headquarters, his eyes empty and his teeth clacking and clamoring. After he'd put a bullet in his head, his daughter had revealed herself in a similar condition, and was put down similarly. His katana was becoming dull, thunking against the hard bone of so many brainpans as he darted through the streets, not daring to enter any of the buildings that were no doubt overrun. At least until he heard explosions and gun fire from a department store. Deathstroke...the name now seemed almost ironic as he checked himself for the slightest injury that could communicate the plague that had overrun the world seemingly overnight. Slade no longer had any contracts, contact had been entirely cut off with the island of Manhattan. Either they were containing the plague, or there was no one left to communicate with. Gunshots meant at least SOMEone was still there.

He made a break for the door, crashing through it and immediately feeling a familiar sensation of cold steel against his neck. A woman clad head-to-toe in red held a sai to his throat."You hurt?" she whispered."See for yourself, sister. I'm clean." She gave him a once over and nodded, sticking two staggering corpses that followed him in straight through their foreheads. Slade crept upstairs until he heard movement behind one of the doors. He carefully opened it and proceeded slowly through before feeling cold metal once again pressed against his head. He looked up at a man in a strange, bucketheaded helmet with an eagle-themed shoulder pad and a smudged, faded golden badge that read simply "DREDD" pinned to his chest. Either this guy couldn't spell, or there was a whole helluva lot more to him than it first appeared. Next to him was a woman with two katanas raised, ready to take off Slade's head. She wore a poncho, stained dark brown with what almost certainly wasn't dirt."I take it you're clean?" the man said, his voice like ground glass and asphalt, motioning for the woman with katanas to lower them.

Slade took immediate sense of his surroundings and saw another man with a skull plastered across his chest standing vigil at the window with a high-powered rifle taking opportunistic shots at the staggering mass below, another rifle beside him with a stack of ammunition waiting."What the hell is this?" Slade demanded, panting and removing his hood to reveal a haggered face, stained with sweat, blood and even tears."Survival. It's all we have at the moment. You part of the problem? Or the solution?" the katana-wielding woman demanded. Deathstroke sneered, cracked his neck and stood slowly. The two others nodded as he strode toward the other window, taking up the spare sniper rifle alongside the man with the skull on his chest. He glanced over briefly, barely registering another before resuming his task. Wilson took up the gun and leaned out the window, centering one of the dead things in his sights. Bounties, punishment, judgement, survival, it was, surely, a living."

Ladies and gentlemen, there's no teaser image because we're still coming up with next week's battle! Seriously, we don't want to keep throwing cliche matches your way, so we take our time to make sure the matches we present are at least fun to think about and are worth discussing. Will it be another scenario? A 1 vs. 1? A team vs. a team? A battle between animated characters? Check back on Monday to see what the next battle will be!

Previous 'Comic Vine Battle of the Week' results

Want to suggest a Battle of the Week? Feel free to comment below or send it to Gregg via Twitter. It doesn't have to be Marvel or DC!

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