ShenKuei

Well I don't think it's a bad showing regardless. Shang-chi exceeded his limits at first, represented by him drawing on strength from his ancestors (something he's never done before in his history!) but he acknowledged he had little chance of winning outright. As soon as Shang-chi slowed down Gorgon beat him down bad.

And yeah, you have a point about the bracers. We have no idea how much they were amping Shang-chi or what exactly they can do.

@jashro44: It seems metaphorical to me, alongside Shang-chi metaphorically referring to him as "the dragon".

Gorgon also said Shang-chi was desecrating his temple, and he "condemned' Shang-chi for laying a hand on him. He had a serious, angry face for most of the fight. Furthermore, Shang-chi blinded him with a fireball. Painfully enough to make Gorgon scream. That probably pissed him off even more.

Given all that it's extremely unlikely he wasn't fighting seriously. If he wasn't that would mean he was letting Shang-chi beat him and humiliate him. That would be way out of character for Gorgon.

Also, him insulting Shang-chi doesn't really mean much. Just because he didn't respect Shang-chi's abilities at first doesn't mean he wasn't trying his best to kill him. Given Gorgon's personality I would actually say that makes it more likely he wasn't toying. And ultimately he ended up praising Shang-chi anyway which is saying a hell of a lot coming from someone as arrogant as Gorgon.

I must point out that Gorgon only smiled once. And that was at the very end, when he realized Shang-chi had no gas left in the tank. Prior to that the narration goes as far as to state Gorgon was trembling in fear. He wouldn't fear someone that he could easily beat any time he wanted. That being said, I do think he initially wasn't taking Shang-chi seriously. But that ended as soon as Shang-chi landed the first hit on him. Gorgon stated such an insult to be "blasphemy".

@jashro44: Yeah, good debate.

Those are some of his high-end feats. He's been rocked by far less, as sad as it makes me to say. Normally, an explosion like that would at least KO him or leave him badly inured.

@jashro44: Well I posted the scans above and something I just noticed was some hand ninjas also survived the blast as well:

That doesn't mean much, with all the hand ninjas there a few of them were bound to get lucky. The ones that survived were probably further away. Hand ninjas are practically zombies anyway. They can survive normally lethal injuries with no issue.

So not sure if the blast hit Gorgon directly. Its a good feat but I don't think its enough to say he can maintain a hit from Lizard. As for Peter dying from and RPG yea he would but realistically there is more to an RPG than blunt force such as shrapnel which isn't really something Peter can tank.

He clearly withstood most of the blast, he was in a semi-enclosed space. Also if you look closely you'll see it enters from very close to where he was sitting. He didn't even have a scratch on him afterwards. We could debate all day about the differences and similarities between tanking a punch and an explosion. I'm just going to say I think this feat shows Gorgon's durability at least somewhat close to Spider-man levels and leave it at that.

Yea taking off the blindfold would probably give Gorgon the win. But I feel like Gorgon would get tagged by Lizard before that happens.

I don't have much left to say at this point except just repeating my earlier points. Lizard's very predictable. Gorgon is very durable. I just don't see Lizard one-shotting him so effortlessly.

@jashro44: Well I would argue that spider-man is even to gorgon for the most part when it comes to combat speed and reflexes.

Fair enough.

His healing factor is good but I don't see it helping if Lizard knocks his upper body off.

Lets's be honest here if Spidey took a direct hit from an RPG, he would be done. Gorgon shrugged it off like nothing. Therefore, Gorgon probably has better blunt force durability than Spiderman and Spiderman took multiple hits from Lizard, while injured. It sure didn't "knock his upper body off" or anything even close to that so there's no way he could do it to Gorgon either.

True but one second is all Lizard may need....

More like a tenth of a second considering Gorgon's speed.

So even if he can't one shot him (I still say he can) Lizard still has options.

Sure, he's got options. That's all situational though. If Gorgon pulls off the blindfold, it's absolutely over. Not saying this would be easy for him or anything, but Gorgon has options too and one of them is basically an instant win.

@jashro44: I do think current Lizard is faster than Pete. I don't think there is sufficient evidence to say he is much faster though.

I don't think gorgon can tank a hit from Lizard.

You think Lizard can one-shot him? I think we just have very different pictures of Gorgon's durability. Shrugging off an RPG round is very impressive to me. That's anti-tank weaponry. I think that proves he can at least survive a hit or two from Lizard. Gorgon's healing factor is very important as well. Remember that he repeatedly tried to kill himself and found it impossible to do so. That tells me his healing factor must be extremely effective.

I agree the stone stare is a problem but I don't know if he will have a chance to remove the bandana while fending lizard off.

It should only take him a split second.

And if he does stab Lizard there is a possibility his blade can get stuck in his skin

That's the worst case scenario. If his blade breaks or gets stuck in Lizard but he'd be forced to use the stare immediately. The Lizard would have to kill Gorgon on the spot or he'd become petrified. Basically, it would be a toss-up.

"Vulking" allowed? Or Kaine's "Other"?

There was no indication Gorgon was holding back against Shang-chi really. But by the same token he was clearly shown to be superior by a good margin by destroying him in one page once Shang-chi had run out of steam.

He was definitely not going all-out against Iron Fist. He stated himself he was saving his energy for Wolverine. Iron Fist is actually a beast who would give the Spider's a hell of a time anyway.

This is all irrelevant anyway. ABC logic. Iron Fist and Shang-chi have completely different skillsets than Kaine and Peter.