For the latest Battle of the Week, we wanted to offer you something a little different. Usually, you imagine two sides running at each other and think about the several factors that'll come into play as it quickly turns into a close and intense brawl. It's good fun -- assuming we do a decent job and offer different variables for you to think about -- but we wanted to take a risk and offer a battle that has the potential to play out a gazillion different ways. We wanted something that would really push your imagination. Instead of putting Joker and Harley Quinn in a setting where they're forced to someone attack head-on, we put them in a place where they'd feel right at home: a theme park! Their opponent: Marvel's deadly but arrogant assassin, Bullseye!
Obviously, if Joker and Harley Quinn ran at this dude in a setting that doesn't have a lot of cover, it wouldn't be a very long match. Yeah, Quinn's agile, but Daredevil still has difficulty dodging Lester and he has radar sense. Joker and Quinn don't have that luxury. However, a luxury they do have is home field advantage. We purposely made the sides start far apart and surrounded them with plenty of cover. This way, you're forced to think about how all three characters will act once the match begins. Will Joker and Quinn split up? Will they lure Bullseye into a fun house? What happens once Lester wanders a fun house or a haunted house? What about the gazillion rides and game booths? Will Bullseye's tendency to play with his food give Quinn and Joker the opening they'd need if it ever did boil down to close quarters combat? One touch of Joker's hand buzzer or Harley's mallet slamming against Lester's head is all they need, after all. But is that enough to compensate for Lester's superior hand-to-hand abilities and his stunning accuracy with throwing weapons? Viners have been voting since Monday and now that the poll has closed, one side has taken a comfortable lead in the poll. Ladies and gentlemen, Bullseye wins!
Daredevil's foe earned 54% of the votes and 3% of voters thought this one is too close to call. Joker and Harley Quinn received 43% of the votes, but it just wasn't enough to save them from Lester's sharp throwing weapons. The villainous couple (well, they're still a couple in this match just to make it more interesting) from DC may be unpredictable, crafty, and all kinds of dangerous, but their advantages -- even in this setting -- just weren't enough to make most voters believe they'd take down Lester. Of course, a huge factor was Bullseye's aim and his willingness to kill. He may have an ego and he may enjoy messing around with some of the standout characters he encounters (and these two most certainly make an impression), but most voters think he'll be able to drop both of his enemies. We know he has a jaw-dropping level of precision with his throwing weapons. If he gets his sights on the enemies and they aren't too far away or surrounded by a ton of cover, they're going to experience some pain. To make matters even more interesting, we also know he can ricochet his attacks. And if things get close up and personal, he can use his projectiles as melee weapons and he has the skill to give characters like Moon Knight and Matt Murdock difficulty. This may be two on one and it may be in a location that gives Joker and Quinn tons of options to mess with their enemy, but in the end, a majority believes Lester will be the last one standing.
Honestly, it seems like a noticeable amount of voters had the idea that Bullseye will probably kill at least one of them in the opening seconds of the match. Obviously, we attempted to make this battle so that's incredibly unlikely (far apart, surrounded by cover -- visible, but not out in the open or a clear line of sight) and you're forced to think about how they'd all act in the first minute of the match. But hey, maybe that's on me for not being clear enough in the rules. Anyway, let's see what the community had to say about the latest match.
Keenko
I honestly don't see Bullseye losing a majority, I already see that a huge number of the Pro-Joker and Harley arguments are gonna bring up Lester's arrogance and how he'll toy with them, but frankly, Lester's arrogance gets in the way of him killing high tier skilled fighters like Daredevil, who I think we can all agree would destroy Joker or Harley in h2h. Even with his general smugness, Lester has respectable victories against Moon Knight, Black Widow and even Deadpool.
This isn't even going into his accuracy and absurd amount of deadliness Bullseye possess with any throwable object and I don't think Joker or Harley have the agility to avoid Bullseye's projectiles, and while he may toy around with one of them, I don't see Lester leaving them both alive for that process.
And don't get me wrong; Joker and Harley are both complete and utter beasts. They have an element of complete unpredictability to their advantage that will definitely keep Lester on his toes. Harley's enhanced stats combined with Joker's absurd pain tolerance is a guarantee that this is gonna be a long, drawn out fight, especially in this type of environment.
I just think that Bullseye is overall more built for a direct fight than these two.
TheAmazingImmortalMan
Lester is obviously the most skilled of the two..three. He has a high pain tolerance, and his accuracy is impeccable, with his assortment of throwing weapons he would seem to have the advantage. What will be his downfall is his arrogance coupled with the unpredictability of Joker and Harley. While they have no prior knowledge Joker is a genius in his own right, the man is insane but he is able to keep up with and play mind games on the Batman. The environment also favor the insane duo. Harley's enhanced stats should help although she still couldn't be able to keep up solo against Lester, and even though Joker and Harley have a rocky relationship at best she isn't gonna let anyone lay a hand on her puddin'. The way I see it going down is Lester tags both of them, without going for a kill shot and proceeds to play with his food, Joker lays a trap while leaving Harley to go against Bullseye while he gets more arrogant thinking Joker left his Gal for dead, Harley either dies or or runs off leading him into a said trap or if he kills her goes off to search for Joker and steps into the trap himself and it is over for him there. So Joker and Harley win with a possible casualty IMO.
MuyJingo
Bullseye is the far more capable and skilled fighter here, and won't have hesitation in putting down either of these two. I don't really see Harley as significantly factoring into the equation, even at her strongest (Pre52 Harley was amped by Ivy, but not N52 version?). She can't fight, and her hammer is easy for Lester to dodge.
Joker's strengths as a fighter are not strengths when fighting Bullseye, they become irrelevant. You can't use lives as a thing to control and manipulate with, so all Joker has is his gun...which Bullseye won't have trouble with.
The only way Joker and Harley have a chance here is by tricking Bullseye into coming close and falling for the acid flower or hand buzzer. Even then, I would think Bullseye has the reflex feats to dodge the acid stream and I don't see him accepting Joker's handshake. The revolver is huge, and Bullseye could jam it before it fires, given how Joker tends to hesitate and taunt instead of firing.
For Joker and Harley to win, everything has to go just right, and they have to trick Bullseye into getting close. I don't think they are going to be that smart and cautious, bur rather loud (esp with Harley) and obnoxious, and they will definitely be underestimating Bullseye.
Bullseye takes this, 9/10.
Golden Cod
I think Harley would be defeated easily. All she's got is an unwieldy hammer and the element of surprise. Bullseye could tank a surprise hammer whack but Harley doesn't have the proficiency to fend off Bullseye's blades. Joker would probably use her as a sacrificial distraction anyways.
As for Joker vs Bullseye, it'd be a lengthy game of cat and mouse. They're fighting in Joker's playground after all and Joker likes to hide behind his traps. Bullseye would probably survive the gauntlet and once he corners Joker he'll have the option of ending it at range or melee. A knife throw would be quick and efficient but after going through all this trouble, Lester will probably want to play with his food. Joker would feign incompetence, leaving Bullseye open to a blast of acid / joker-venom. That would be a win for Joker.
D9000
After giving it a lot of thought I've finally settled on Joker and Harley FTW. Originally all I could picture is Bullseye killing them both immediately in a single stroke from 100 feet away but upon closer inspection I feel like that's pretty short sighted. Here are some of the bullet points that stood out for me.
- From what I can see Harley does have the superhuman agility to dodge Bullseye's attacks, for the most part. I didn't think she had any Meta-human powers but it looks like her strength and agility enhanced. This will keep her alive at least at the beginning.
- If Harley and Joker are "in a relationship" that likely means that Joker can boss her around and that she'll willingly take a bullet for him (or a blade, or a toothpick). This keeps Joker alive from the beginning, even if it would kill her.
- Given the environment and the clear danger I think it would only take Joker moments to come up with a pretty good plan. The fact that he doesn't have any prep is a non-issue for me. He's the type of crazy where the plan he'd come up with in 2 days is probably the same plan he'd come up with in 2 seconds. He's impulsive and super intelligent. As soon as he know's where he is he'd have a plan.
- I'm pretty sure that Joker would use Harley to attack Bullseye and learn about his skill with throwing weapons from that. Harley should have enough skill to dodge around for a bit, not sure she could close the gap between them though. But this would be enough for Joker to know that he can't face him in the open. And as soon as Joker's inside one of the buildings he's essentially invisible.
- On the other hand, Bullseye wouldn't be able to learn about Joker at all. He'd spend the first bit dealing with Harley (even if it's a short fight) and then Joker would be out of sight. If he could get his hands on Joker, yeah he'd kill him right away, but I don't see that happening. When you compare Joker's insanity to Bullseye's it's a completely different scale. Bullseye is sadistic and psychotic but I don't think he has the intelligence that Joker has.
That's about it I guess. I think Joker could make it into a building and from there I think he would win. Bullseye doesn't have any powers that would help him locate Joker and he'd end up another victim of Joker's Circus of Death.
Wardog2alpha
Here is how I image it going:
Joker and Harley both pull their pistols and Bullseye responds by jamming their barrels with two well-placed throwing spikes. Joker exclaims “You ruined the dual bang gun gag!!” with Harley squeaking “Party Pooper!!” Both Harley and Joker quickly duck into the house of mirrors. Bullseye pursues them both only to be accosted by 20 + distorted images. Some mirrors contain the image of Harley and some of Joker and the echoing of mad laughter bouncing is off the walls. Bullseye quickly begins to shatter every image with various projectiles when he hears a “hissss” behind him. Ducking under Jokers acid stream Bullseye tosses a throwing knife through the acid flower lodging it deep into joker’s shoulder covering joker’s chest in his own acid. Joker mutters “get em Harve” and crawls out of the battle leaving Harley behind. Harley takes advantage of the moment and launches herself at Bullseye shrieking "I got this Puddin'!" driving her hammer into his back between the shoulder blades the force of the impact knocking Bullseye into a prone. Bullseye adamantium laced skeleton saves from a hammer blow that would kill any normal man. Harley chirps “whoopsey!” and darts down the nearest hallway. Bullseye rights himself and through a mirrors reflection catches a glimpse of Harley bouncing away. Bullseye looses another knife at a metal support which then ricochets down the hallway and strikes Harley in the back piercing her heart and killing her instantly. Bullseye searches the park for Joker only to find that he is long gone.
I love Joker and Harley with a passion but Bullseye gets my vote.
Kgphil01
This one all comes down to the setting and due to this Joker and Quinn should win this easily. With the amusement park setting there are plenty of hiding spots and tools at the duos disposal, with how cunning joker can be at setting traps it should be no problem for him to quickly dispose of Bullseye. Plus with him having Harley there just adds to his arsenal. He can have Harley distract BE while he has free reign to mess with BE's mind. Bullseye'a major skill is his accuracy and with amusement parks being a bit of a labyrth of paths and buildings I doubt he could get much of a clear shot. Plus all the lights, movement from the rides and games I think BE would struggle to get a good shot. Any other setting I think BE would lay joker and Quinn to waste in seconds but not this one
GreenLanternDeadpool
Bullseye has the uncanny ability to turn anything into a weapon and has shown to be somewhat of a damage soaker. Add that with him having incredible pinpoint accuracy and he becomes an formidable foe.
On the other hand, it's two against one with the two being some of the most loony, unpredictable beings in comics. (It's kinda messed up that I can actually picture Joker using Harley as a human shield)
This might be the first match where I'm forced to throw in the towel and say "Too close to call!"
You're welcome to continue the debate below, but we also want to hear who YOU want to see in the next Battle of the Week. There's room for two more fights with this theme. So, which Batman enemy will appear next and who do you want to see 'em battle, Viners? Keep in mind, we're trying to avoid the obvious matches you've seen a gazillion times before or ones that force you to weigh the exact same advantages (e.g. Lady Shiva vs. Elektra). Anyway, tell us what you want to see below or reach out via Twitter.
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