Batman VS Skulduggery Pleasant (H2H)

I know the Skulduggery Pleasant fanbase is virtually no existent on the vine but hey, at least you can't say I didn't try to do a battle with him.

Scenario 1

Rules:

• This is strictly H2H.
• Batman doesn't get his suit or equipment
• Skulduggery doesn't get his revolver and can't use magic
• This fight is very serious (Bruce thinks Skul killed Alfred, Skul thinks Bruce killed Valkyrie)
• No prior knowledge
• Both sides have 1 week prep (They know they're prepping for a fight, but don't know who their opponent is)
• No outside help
• Skulduggery has his façade active for the fight (He had to cross a busy street to get to the fight location)
• Fight takes place a midday

• Win by Death

Location:

Scenario 2

Rules:

• Batman gets his suit (still no equipment)
• Skulduggery gets his Dead Men suit (No sword, revolver or magic still)
• This time it's morals on
• No prior knowledge
• But both sides have 1 week prep (They know they're prepping for a fight, but don't know who their opponent is)
• No outside help
• Skulduggery doesn't have his façade active
• Fight takes place a midnight
• Win by Death or KO

Location:

Like I said earlier, I highly doubt anyone is familiar with the Skulduggery Pleasant series, but I just really want to do battles with the series' characters =/

Anyway, who wins and why?

Wow, this is a really well put together battle thread, care to tell me Skul and some of his feats?

@cor_tsar: Why thank you =D

Well first off, Skul is from the Skulduggery Pleasant book series made by Irish author Derek Landy. As for Skul and his powers... well, there's A LOT.

Here's a link to the wiki page that has everything on him: http://skulduggery.wikia.com/wiki/Skulduggery_Pleasant

If you just want a quick run down I could give it a try. Well first off Skul is a 400+ year old magical skeleton detective. He was killed in a magical war that lasted hundreds of years against the evil sorcerer Mevolent. He watched his wife and infant child die in front of him just before he died. After a while (a specific time is unknown) Skul's pure hatred and anger brought him back from the dead as a skeleton. Then he and the rest of the good guys continued to fight the war and eventually won. After the war was over, Skul became a detective for the Irish Sanctuary (a magical community that essentially overlooks everything and keeps magic from being revealed to mortals. There's a Sanctuary in every country). Years later a series of events leads to Stephanie Edgley to become Skul's partner. She later takes the name Valkyrie Cain (Your given name can be used against you in the Skulduggery Pleasant universe by sorcerers, so everyone in the magic community takes a name to prevent this from happening). Over the years Skul becomes quite attached to Val and it's pretty obvious that he loves her (even if the book doesn't say it).

Okay, that sums up who Skul is... now onto his powers! Well, first off, Skul is an Elemental. That means he uses fire, water, air and earth magic. Skul has always been a very powerful Elemental, but in Dark Days (the fourth book in the series) a series of events leads Skul to be able to use his magic in ways no other (normal) sorcerer has ever done before (Is able to manipulate air so he can fly, can shoot pure columns of fire while other elementals can only throw balls of fire, can use earth in an offensive way while other sorcerers can only use it in a defensive manor, and has shown to be able to control water to an extent that is far more impressive than anything we've seen from nay other sorcerer. Now, it is revealed later that Skul is also a Necromancer (usually after a sorcerer has their surge they can only use 1 type of magic) but that starts to get REALLY complicated and I highly doubt my abilities to explain it. Skul also carries a 16. cal revolver on him at most times (he sometimes caries 2) and has shown to be an excellent marksmen with it (Skul hit a man who was described to be "only a dot on the horizon" perfectly in the spine as to make him a paraplegic, although he was later healed by the doctors in the Sanctuary). Now, while Skul does prefer to use magic or his revolver, he is no stranger to hand to hand combat. He has beaten several very powerful and highly trained clevers (Sanctuary guards. They're very fast, being described as blurs, and very strong. They also have magically enchanted armour that negates most forms of magic and severely reduces damage caused by physical means. He also was able to keep up with The White Clever in H2H. TWC is basically a zombie who is a very powerful version of a regular clever) with his bare hands on numerous occasions. However, he doesn't really use any techniques while fighting in H2H combat and tends to go for the "just keep hitting them until they go down" method. He's near superhuman strength probably helps with that. Oh, and it should also be noted that Skul is solely powered by magic. He doesn't need to breath, eat, drink, sleep, ect.

Now for his weaknesses... well, there aren't many. However, considering he is a Skeleton, it's fairly easy to simply pull limbs off of him, causing him excruciating pain. Skul can re-attach his limbs but this also causes him server pain. Although, after Dark Days, Skul becomes fairly accustom to having his limps torn off and having to put himself back together, and says that he's become indifferent to the pain.

@god_of_batman: So i'm guessing when you say 'facade' he looks human. Hm, Bruce is a pretty skilled man. He's faced super human enemies before, morals off it's gonna be hard for Skul to hit batman even probably being faster, on the other hand Bruce is gonna break him down. i'm guessing, but not certain, if batman takes a limb off the facade should be up, right? I think batman should take round 1 well enough, especially prepping for an unknown H2H combatant. Bats 8.5/10

2nd Round's a bit tougher, morals on Batman isn't going to be going all out from the getgo, his body's gonna be able to tank more damage though. The location is small and tight which works better for a stronger, faster opponents who's less skilled. Batman prepping for unknown fighter is still warysome though since he deals with super-humans and ultra skilled opponents on daily basis. If batman doesn't take him out quickly, i feel as though from what you've told me and what i've read Skul may get enough momentum on his side to beat down Batman. 6/10 Skul.

Also, very useful information you told me, should maybe make 3rd battle with gear and/or prep. No Necromancy though... or flight.

@cor_tsar: Yes, his facade makes him look human. I think you're slightly underestimating what Val means to Skul. After the war with Mevolent was over, Skul pretty much dedicated his life to hunting down the man who killed him and his family. In the first book of the series he finally manages to find the man. He tells Val that he isn't sure what would happen to him when he finally kills him. Skul's entire existence as a skeleton up until that point had been to kill Serpine. he even said that once he had his revenge he might even just fall into a pile of bones. But he doesn't. Instead, he ends up becoming Val's mentor. For the first time that Skul can remember his existence isn't fueled by anger or hatred. Val changed him, gave him new hope. Gave him something to strive for. Now remember he thinks Batman killed Val. Skul isn't only going into this fight morals off, he's going to be flat out bloodlusted. What this means exactly, I'm not entirely sure because Skul's never really been like that in the series. He never goes for the kill if he can help it, and since meeting Val he pretty much turned his life around. The only other time I can think that would be close to this is when Val almost died in Death Bringer. The doctors at the Sanctuary said there wasn't anything they could do for her and skul went into a rage. He almost killed an innocent doctor, and most likely would have if a squad of clevers didn't intervene. It took over 30 of the guys to restrain him (even then he knocked 6 of them out before the rest literally all jumped on him) Luckily Val made a miraculous recovery (although there was A LOT more at play than just a random recovery... but there's no need to go into something that complicated) I would give Skul 6/10 on this.

All that aside, Batman is going to be under the impression that Skul IS human due to the facade, so he's most likely going to go for normal tactics to take him down... however, none of them would really work on Skul. Pressure points wouldn't do anything, neither would trying to win him or choke him. Even if Bats snapped his neck Skul could just snap it straight back into place... what I'm wondering is would batman just decide "hey, I'm just going to go and try to rip his arm off... see if that works" because it seems fairly unlikely to me. (it's not like Skul just randomly falls apart you know, you need to put SOME force on his limbs to actually pull them off)

As for the second round... this one I thought bats would be MORE likely to win. Remember, bats will know Skul's... well, a skeleton from the get go and will be able to start working on new tactics right from the start. Not to mention bats can win this one via a KO. Now, it's not easy to KO Skul... but it's a hell of a lot easier to do that kill him, that's for sure. IIRC, Skul's been KOed a few times in the story, the only one I can think of at the moment was when he was thrown threw a few concrete walls by The Grotesquery. But anyway, I reckon bats would probably get 6/10 on this.

@god_of_batman: I don't think you understand what Alfred is to batman. He's the father to Batman, and the grandfather to the entire Batfamily.

Anywho, Batman's still gonna be tough to hit, especially if Skul is bloodlusted. batman's a killer dodger and side-stepper, and a bloodlusted brawler, even if he's physically beyond Bruce, is not gonna be a good match-up. Also, there a many tactics that Bruce's uses that include tossing(via arm, leg, head, or other body part) and slamming, and since he is who he is, he probably knows how to dislodge joints while doing these tosses as well, or at least knows how to dislodge joints in general. kneecaps and other joints are some sensitive area's as well so he's probably gonna skillfully aim for those area's at least once or twice. batman could probably reteach the meaning of pain to Skul, an all out batman is a scary dude. And with where they're fighting, Bruce is gonna be able to take advantage more than a simple brawler ever could, especially considering he has room. this is especially bad considering this is probably first time against anyone of this skill level. And trust me, batman's on his own level of skill(at least compared to Skul universe)

As for scenario 2, well i don't much about skul. if he takes advantage of the the tight situation he can win he's stronger and faster than Batman, there's a lot of damage potential here within close range that a brawler should be able to take advantage of, and being stronger and faster helps a decent amount. batman could be flashy here, but too much movement may cause him to fail and morals on, i don't see him having the need to waste extra energy on one skull guy. I would have to read more into the books, but i'm generally giving Skul benefit of the doubt in hoping he should be able to get around bat armor and damage him enough. Plus you said yourself, hard to ko Skul, and in the location it's gonna be extra hard.

Imagine if you gave him his lord vile suit how unfair would that be and it wasn't his hatered that brought him back it was tenbrae

I'm a massive SP fan, can't wait for the final book coming in September :DD

Even though Skulduggery's had over 400+ years of experience he's still overcome by Cleavers, and they're as skilled as Bruce in my eyes.

Bruce wins 6/10 in both scenarios.

Edit: Several questions.

What are Skulduggery's hand-to-hand feats?

What is the Dead Men suit capable of?

Is this the comic book version of Batman?

@cor_tsar: Yeah, good point.

Yeah, Skul would have trouble landing a hit on Bats. But remember, all it would take is one slip up from Bruce, one punch he thinks is going to incapacitate Skul to simply do nothing... well, one punch from Skul would probably be enough to throw Bruce off, and once that happens Skul would take full advantage from it. But then again, with the week prep for the fight, Bruce would probably be able to take it without a slip up... probably. So yeah,Bruce probably should be able to pull it off in the end 6/10

As for the second battle, yeah, you're right. Skul would be able to gain the upper hand due to the close space and his superior speed/strength. As for Skul getting through the batsuit... it should be fairly easy for him. He can beat cleavers through their magically enhanced armour so the batsuit should cause too much trouble..

I looked into Skul some more, and i think that if Bats can smash all of his bones then he wins, but it'll take a while, and be very difficult considering his lack of gadgets and Skul's own fighting experience.

@silverrings: Yeah, but you have to remember Bats would have to know he has to do that. Even if you rip one of his arms off, he still has control over it (his severed arm once poked someone in the eyes) unless Bats takes it far enough away from Skuls body for him to lose control over it. To actually kill Skul you need to take all his limbs away from his body (It was never stated how far exactly, but probably pretty far) as well as his Skul, then actually break up his rib cage and separate that too. If Bats does all that THEN Skul's consciousness would have nothing left to cling onto and would just disperse.

@god_of_batman: why did you bump then delete your posts?

@van_cere: I didn't, I just edited the OP. For some reason editing the OP also acts as a bump.

Bump, Derek Landy (SP author) recently stated that he believed that Batman would win but it would be close. He didn't seem too certain though and did make other ridiculous claim like Skull would beat Superman (because of magic weakness) and stalemate Spider-man (because fire>webbing). He did try to be objective but wouldn't be as familiar with battle debates as he could be I guess.

As for my opinion I think that Batman could beat Skulduggery every time, seeing as Skulduggery has been overwhelmed by physically superior opponents before, like Tesseract and probably Vengeous (since we can imagine he fought like a brawler, as per his fight with Shudder) and is less skilled, despite his centuries of experience. Also, where did the notion that Skull has superhuman attributes come from? I allow him peak human stats (presumably the ones he died with).

In prep I think Skull is reasonably impressive, Landy even stated that Skull and Batman are equal intellectually, which is debatable as Batman can occasionally sprout crazy comics deductions that can make comparisons difficult. In the prep department I think Batman could probably win, but magic is hard to prep against and Batman doesn't even know who Skulduggery is so...

Overall I think The White/Black Cleaver, Tesseract, maybe Mr. Bliss or Charivari (if Bats is lucky) and maybe Shudder (if Bats is unlucky) would make fair fights for Batman (depending on the amount of comic ridiculousness allowed). Batman wins any random encounter and maybe prepping but I can see Skull prepping himself invisible and catching Batman off guard with some form of magitech bazooka or what not...

I myself wondered if Batman could take some of the high level SP characters like Vile, Mevolent and even Darquesse with prep, interesting idea...

Oh, and good to see a SP fan on the vine!

@leo-343 Do you think anyone could beat Batman in the SP verse, other than the really high-tier guys? Do you think that the Dead Men could take Batman, if they fought in an abandoned warehouse, everyone bloodlusted?

Really I think Skull might have high tier marksmanship skills, even by comic standards, as he has some very impressive feats (shooting faster than Darquesse can react and easily putting a bullet between a moving mans eyes after having been just been resurrected and having most of his fingers missing). I would consider him closer to the consummate marksman than the consummate fighter, which Batman is very close to.

@leo-343 Agreed even Batman's stealth advantage would be null to Vex's knowledge power and Skull's air reading ability and they could just set Shudder's Gist on him from afar and he could never beat them in a straight fight, never mind his superior physicals.

Thanks for the response!

For those who were asking, skuls armour is insane, magically woven and can take physical strikes easily and even once managed to survive machine gun fire for ~6 seconds without sustaining injury

2 things

1 never thought I'd find a skulduggery pleasant thread and

2 After a while (a specific time is unknown) Skul's pure hatred and anger brought him back from the dead as a skeleton.

wrong one of the necromnacers who taught serpine the red hand trick gave him a spell that would bring skulduggery back from the dead and only skulduggery since he was key in the war. The reason he's a skeleton is because serpine burned his body.

@cor_tsar: batman is not necessarily faster than skul, as keeping up with the white cleaver is a feat to be reckoned with. Cleavers are volentarily brainwashed soldiers whose magic is poured into pure physical prowess, also bearing in mind that would had to fight bare fists Vs a huge scythe that can cleave through bone like it's nothing.

Also Batman's suit is a very vital factor, I have to agree... But skul gets his suit too, and not just his three-piece, but also his gauntlet. These are impervious to magic (not too important) and have been known to take sword swipes, vampire bites, and bullets (I believe, not too sure), and his gauntlet is a shield that keeps his hand free for magic.

I say this fight would be a bloody mess, a test of stamina for batman, pain tolerance for skul and h2h skill for both.

@leo-343: In a batman Vs dead men fight the elementals would just trap him and let shudders gist to test him apart, or vex throw a couple of energy blasts