Comic Vine Battle of the Week: Moon Knight vs. Ra's al Ghul

Khonshu be praised! Moon Knight is our latest Character of the Month, so that means we're giving him a whole lot of love on the homepage. We'll have several features about the anti-hero, but every week we'll test his abilities as a combatant, too. Last week, Marc Spector bested Green Arrow, and this week, he's facing off against Ra's al Ghul. Will he be victorious yet again or will Batman's villain take him down? You have until Friday to think this one through, Viners. Before picking a winner, please be sure to read all of the rules below!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Match Rules

• Combatants are in character.
• This is a random encounter (aka no prep for either team).
• They're fighting in a generic downtown city setting. It's unpopulated, at night and all standard city lights remain on. Assume they start roughly 20 feet apart and visible. There's a fair amount of cover in the location (parked vehicles, bus stops and such). The entire area is on limits. This means alleys, rooftops, building interiors, the sewer, etc.
• Moon Knight has his current gear. No vehicles, obviously.
• Ra's al Ghul is pre-52, in his prime, and has a sword of his choice.
• Incapacitation, knockout or death all count as elimination. Making a tactical retreat counts as a loss, too.
• Hey, you know what would be really cool? Treating everyone else in the debate with respect. If you think someone's saying something that just isn't true, go ahead and stick to the facts to point out why. There's no need at all to drop insults just because you disagree with someone. Seriously, this is just talking about a fictional fight, there's no need for immaturity and mudslinging.
• If you think the poll isn't going how it should, making an informative post about why a character is being underestimated and spreading the word is far more useful than complaining. Just saying.
• One more thing: you don't need to write an essay to be selected as the Viner Argument of the Week. Sometimes concise posts can be way more effective than a flood of paragraphs.

Viners, you have the week to research, debate and vote! This means there's no reason to vote right away if you don't have all of the info you need to make an educated decision. Check the homepage Friday for an updated article with the following:

• Thoughts from the staff.
• A Viner Argument for both characters (can't include scans and must be in the poll thread).
• If we're lucky, blurbs from industry talent.

Feel free to make future battle suggestions in the comments below or via Twitter! Want to continue celebrating Moon Knight? We've posted his Best Covers, he'll be the topic of tomorrow's Question of the Week, and his Best Battles will be posted on Friday.

Without prep, I doubt Ra's can get a majority over Spector....

No prep means Ra's Al Ghul is gonna experience another death.

Ra's will definitely be a brilliant Moon Knight rouge.

Ra's has been able to fight and stalemate Batman on multiple occasions and he has centuries of experience under his belt. Moon Knight definitely is no slouch in hand-to-hand combat and has been able to fight on par with Shang Chi. He also has a huge threshold for pain tolerance. While Ra's might possess some advantage over Moon Knight in terms of skill, I believe that Moon Knight can definitely take a solid majority if he uses those equipments at his disposal. Moon Knight 7/10.

Yeah, cause you know, Ra's doesn't have decades of combat experience over the guy or anything

: /

Moon Knight's probably got a few more toys, but Ra's is the guy over the League of Assassins and has bested Batman on many occasions. It's like saying without weapons or claws MK could go toe to toe with somebody like Wolverine, who also has decades of experience. That just ain't happening. Ra's beats MK and just assumes because of his ridiculous costume and gimmicky weaponry he's another of Batman's allies.

~KL~

Man! Has anyone else noticed how Ras loves to get Superhero's costumes? Boys got a fetish.

Does Moon Knight get any enhanced physicals due to the night, or is that 100% retconned at this point?

No, Moon Knight's physicals are not enhanced by the moon.

@kounurasaka: He no longer has that anymore

Gotta collect trophies from you fallen enemies. Everyone does it :P

Trophies are things like Wonder Woman's lasso, or Aquaman's trident. Ra's is just stripping them naked, like a college hazing ritual.

Great, thanks. I'm not that familiar with Moon Knight. I've been reading the new Ellis issues, and I didn't think he did, but I wanted to make sure.

I think Marc might have a better chance than I first thought. Ra's is probably one of the best hand to hand combatants in DCU, but Marc is no slouch. I predict a bloody fight between these two. I think I give the edge to Moon Knight: 6/10.

Knowing what he did to Bushman, I expect Ra's may loose quite a bit of blood before this fight is over.

LOL, is this a fckin joke? Wow! the Moon Knight wanking has reached an all time high here.

I don't see any moon knight wank. Why don't you provide reasons as to why Ras would win?

@beserkerfury: Quit your baiting. You pulled the same thing with Spider-Man last month.

LOL

Ras is a better fighter than Moon knight for one, i've seen MK get his ass kicked by generic street punks. Mk is just a low budget Batman without any of the skill.

so is this site soon going to be called moon knight vine?

Thanks for sharing your constructive criticism and being a valued member of this community. If you think the match is unfair, say why.

Y U NO READ EVEN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH?

lol.

With no prep Ras is taking a dip in the Lazarus Pit ASAP. I think it could be a vicious bloody fight with MK ultimately prevailing.

I'm going to go with Moon Knight for a couple reasons here.

While Ras is ancient and has years of experience, he struggles a lot with Batman, Nightwing, and even Tim Drake. I would put Moon Knight around Nightwing's level, and Nightwing made Ra's look like a fool after Batman "died" as well as Moon Knight's win over Taskmaster, who would beat Ra's most days of the week. While Ra's has the experience, I don't think he has the endurance to go against Moon Knight.

Another reason that Marc should take the win, is of his ranged weaponry, Ras has no real defense for those crescents and they would take him down pretty quick.

@soa: the same question i was about to ask

"Y U NO READ EVEN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH?"

Character of the month dude, look it up.

Man this is one of my dream matchups! Why comicvine why? Lol. Alright I am taking MK due to endurance+pain tolerance+equipment. So close though because Ras does have the skill to behead him or stab him in the heart. MK 6/10 close battle I would love to see.

Man why did Marvel take that away? It seems like such a cool ability.

He only had it for like a mini and then it was gone.

I flipped a coin; it came up Moon Knight

Definitely R'as. He's a master of the martial arts, the leader of the League of the Assassians, son to one of the best martial artists in the DC Universe the Sensei, and is (arguably) among the best swordsmen in all of comics. However Marc is also a great physical combatant but will ultimately be beaten after a long and difficult fight with al Ghul, despite his ruthlessness and mastery of several fighting styles. This match will got to al Ghul mostly due to his hundreds of years of experience and master strategy during combat. Look at any of his multiple fights with Batman , in almost everyone he stalemates Batman using his mind to predict the "detective's" next move, knowing exactly where his blade will strike before Wayne is able to attack. So in conclusion, although it will take a while, R'as will get past Spector's various arsenal of weaponry and it will come down to pure hand to hand which while result in R'as being the winner, but he will definitely need to visit a Lazuras pit afterwards.

I guess I'd go with the one who has centuries of experience.

I'll flip a coin on this one

@k4tzm4n: I find that to be lazy on comicvine 's part . :p

I don't think you're in a position to call anyone lazy when you asked a question that's answered in the article's intro ;)

Ras is a master of several forms of martial arts as well as a master swordsman. However, Moon Knight has a lot of battle experience before his costume days as a mercenary. Moon Knight is also incredibly resourceful with a variety of weaponry to pull from. He has proved his metal as a swordsman against Deadpool and his ability to fight opponents who are seemingly more skilled such as Task Master. I think after a long brutal fight, Moon Knight will come out the victor.

Regardless of who wins, this is a great idea for a match-up.

Thinking about it myself, if I were a writer I would probably give a faint edge to MK, due to the fantastic storytelling capacity of having Ra's act like he's facing a budget version of Batman. I'd imagine him to be his usual superior, condescending self, effortlessly confident that the "hero" will always pull his punches and never take the ultimate step.

But the thing is... Moon Knight ISN'T Batman... he may not be as good... but as MK gets cut and savaged and beaten, but still keeps coming, backing Ra's into a corner I can see that look on his face when he suddenly realises... "oh no... he IS going to kill me". No matter how much damage Spector takes in this fight, ultimately I can see his willingness to simply put Ra's down being a real deciding factor. That killer instinct might just be something that The Demon's Head won't expect from a costumed do-gooder.

Ra's goes down, a look of horrible realisation on his face as he discovers the simple mistake he's made.

Ra's.

neither one has ever done anything to impress me with their skills so anyone's game

@soa: im just glad they switched it up instead of batman all the time. now if only they would a. use female characters and b. characters with powers i would have actual interest in these battles

Wow.. would be a great Fight.. BUT.. I think folks need to know something about Moon Knight.

He is a Master of several forms of Martial Combat as well as MANY hand to hand weapons, including swordsmanship. Yes.. Ra's has hundreds of years of experience (so did Dracula.. didn't work out to well for him against MK). Moon Knight has beaten Taskmaster, but also Captain America,Spider-Man, Daredevil and Wolverine.

I see a lot of comparisons to Batman.. remember.. Ra's KNOWS bats.. probably as well as he knows himself... its like fighting your brother... so yeah it would be easy to predict moves.. Moon knight is KNOWN for his unpredictability and the fact that he isn't afraid to take a punch.

I think that Moon Knight bleeds.. ALOT... but wins pretty decisively. 8/10.

Just saying, I love the idea of having the character of the month thing

Great battle - Very tough for both Ra & MK, but I will side with MoonKnight, and who knows, maybe Khonshu will be watching over him during this battle?

Say, I really like the ring to that..

i'm gonna say Moon knight takes it. Ra's is good, i'll give him that but i think with no prep and just meeting out in the street somewhere, Moon Knight is going to have the upper hand. at some point, Ra's is going to need that Dip in the Lazarus pit, which i'm going to assume there's not one of those at your local corner store so Moon Knight should outlast him. 7/10

I'd like to see Moon Knight go up against Spawn....now, that's a fight for the ages....

Moon Knight, he would go for the kill, unlike Batman.