Comic Vine News

37 Comments

Comic Vine Battle of the Week Results: Superior Spider-Man/Hobgoblin vs. Wolverine/Omega Red

Team Spider or Team X-Men?! Come see who the Comic Vine community sides with and why!

The lunatic laugh. Death spores. Healing factors. Webbing. This week, we had a clash between uneasy alliances that was filled with plenty of game changing variables. After a week of voting, did the Comic Vine community side with team Spider or team X-Men? Well, team Spider took an early lead in the poll, but as the week progressed, Wolverine and Omega Red earned more and more votes, eventually taking the victory and with a decent lead, too. All in all, 58% supported the healing factor duo and 36% thought Spidey and Phil have what it takes to win. Meanwhile, 5% believe this one is just too close to call.

Celebrate the victory? Nah, they'll probably just keep fighting!
Celebrate the victory? Nah, they'll probably just keep fighting!

My vote goes to Logan and Arkady, too. If team Spider utilized teamwork and avoided close combat, they could absolutely take the victory after some period of time, but that strategy simply doesn't seem probably given the fact this is a random encounter and they're in character. While Spider-Man does indeed have what it takes to keep either enemy occupied, Phil Urich will sooner or later become the weak link. Right as the match begins, however, Phil's a big wildcard. Otto is protected from his powerful lunatic laugh, but the others are not. Such an assault could be temporarily devastating to Wolverine and indeed faze Omega Red. From there, a key factor is whether Otto takes proper advantage of this. This grants him a window of opportunity to really unleash against Wolverine (which he knows is required to keep him down) or incapacitate Omega Red with a plethora of webbing. However, to my knowledge, he is unaware of Arkady's physicals (they've never met) and may instead opt for a superhuman punch to the villain's pale face. This wouldn't suffice in keeping Akrady down for the count -- not by any means. We're talking about an individual who could withstand punches from Colossus, after all.

If Phil opens with the laugh and keeps at it long enough for SpOck delivers a relentless assault on Wolverine, that's a possible scenario which could lead to their victory. That said, Phil isn't exactly the most tactical foe around, so this doesn't come off as too probable. He's arrogant and that could very well result in his downfall. His best approach would be keeping his distance and spamming his weaponry as SpOck's agility, reflexes and strength allow him to kick booty in close range, but that's not really his M.O. The villain will bring it in close range with his sword and that's sure to spell doom for him against either of these enemies because they can take plenty of his hits, but Phil most certainly can't endure theirs for too long. Once he's out of the picture, the webhead taking a victory against these two is unlikely. He'll put up a good fight and there is indeed a chance he could take it, but the combination of their durability, claws and death spores will absolutely take a toll.

No Caption Provided

And yes, Spider-Man humiliated Wolverine in AVENGING SPIDER-MAN, but let's not forget Wolverine didn't even have his claws popped and wasn't going all out. Such isn't the case here and, while SpOck does indeed have what it takes to potentially earn the victory, having one as swift and easy as that is unlikely in this setting. Meanwhile, Omega Red is a character no one here should underestimate. Even if he only releases a low level of death spores into the air, he can still severely hinder his target with life drain. That can be applied via touch from his coils, and as we saw against Colossus, it acts at a very fast rate. Additionally, his durability and endurance is topnotch, so while "Pete" could indeed smack him around, the hero will need to get more creative to defeat him. He could web him up or incapacitate him in some rubble, but it won't be effortless. And, this means if Peter is occupied with Arkady, his teammate will eventually fall to Wolverine.

Overall, Wolverine and Omega Red's endurance is what'll allow them to keep in the fight and outlast their opponents. It won't be an easy or even short fight, but in the end, the definitely have what it takes to warrant a majority.

Viner Argument for Wolverine/Omega Red is by GraniteSoldier

"This becomes an issue of range vs melee. If Hobby and SpOck can maintain distance and be patient, they can win this. If Wolverine and Red get them and keep them up close, then they win. Given SpOck's personality his less than stellar record of fighting higher skilled/powered individuals like Wolverine, I would wager him going after Red first. SpOck has no knowledge of Red, though, so he'll do his typical reliance on spider-prowess to win the day for him. Problem is, Red can soak huge damage and has plenty of tricks. I think the spores and strength of his tentacles would catch SpOck off guard, as well as his ability to take ridiculous amounts of damage.

This leaves Phil to go at Wolverine, and his sonic laugh, glider, and goblin toys give him plenty to work with to give Wolverine a hard time. But, without any sort of strength or speed enhancements, or any real tactical intelligence (pretty much all the things that makes Green Goblin dangerous) I doubt he can put Wolverine down for the count. He'd open with his scream, likely, which would probably stun Wolverine (more so due to the surprise of it) and he'd saturate the area with pumpkin bombs. This is nothing that Wolverine can't heal through, though, and do so quickly. Wolverine has shown the ability to fight through incredible pain, such as blows and thunderclaps from the Hulk. When Phil runs out of toys, then what? His flame sword? He can certainly do fly-by attacks with that but again, it will not keep Wolverine down. His glider is also not outside the realm of speed that Wolverine can tag, and timing an incoming swipe is absolutely something that can happen.

While that goes on, we go back to SpOck growing ever more frustrated he can't put Red down. If there is one thing SpOck lacks it is Peter's resolve. The man has fought through more dire situations and bad spots than almost anyone except for maybe Batman. He also has yet to show Peter's improvisational abilities against tough opponents. I think his desire for the easy win will shine through, and he'd abandon the fight. That would leave Phil all by his lonesome.

Now, I understand that Red and Logan have no love for each other, but being realistic neither of them backs down an inch. They don't run, they don't get frustrated and turn when a fight is hard. Both love the fight, and love to show they are better than their opponent. They are warriors, through and through, SpOck is not. He would do the same here he did against Boomerang and his new "Sinister Six". And they were, sadly to say, a bunch of chumps. Wolverine and Omega Red are not.

I give this fight majority to Wolverine and Omega Red. Poor Phil..."

No Caption Provided

Viner Argument for Spider-Man/Hobgoblin is by laflux

"SpOck has webbing designed to hold people with Superhuman Strength (Impact webbing IIRC). Omega Red is KO'able (is that even a word?) as he was once brought down by a Terminal Velocity at Max Teledrop from Nightcrawler. Omega Red also doesn't always release his spores instantaneously. So if SpOck and Urich go in hard and fast, they have the ability to take him down (and seeing a Wolverine has dodged his coils, and how Spider-Man regularly dodged Doc Ock's, which have impressive speed feats to boot as well as the speed of Urich's glider), I think its a possibility. However, any thing beyond hit and run attacks is a very bad idea.

I don't think the Death Spores work at anything beyond relatively close range either. IIRC correctly, SpOck's lenses let him gauge people's powers, so I thing he would know not to get to close. And once that Knowledge is relayed to Hobgoblin, he would be effortlessly able to do so. I don't think the lunatic laugh will take down Logan, but it would probably slow him down temporarily, allowing both Urich and SpOck to monopolize.

As for SpOck against Wolverine, I think that they hold a distinct advantage. Yes Wolverine holds an advantage up close, and Spider-Man takes a majority over Wolverine due to Incap, either via Trapping or BFR, and SpOck has shown a tendency to fight up close, rather than web enemies, but 1 , he's had experience fighting Logan before, so is more likely to go via incap. Second of all, I think SpOck has a better chance fighting in up close than say Peter. His Iron-Spider style legs give him more range, and he has claws himself. He won't win in a brawl, but I think those factors give enough about him to last until he changes tactics.

Overall, I give it to the Spider Team. I think that the Healing team has a more distinct advantage up close than the Spider Team has at range, the Spider-Team has the means to get themselves out of the healing teams comfort zone, while the same can't be said for the other team. Logan can compete with Spider-Man in combat Speed, but in terms of Movement Speed, three dimensional movement and avoidance, he is a long way behind. Likewise goes for Omega Red, and as has been pointed out before many times Urich can fly via the Glider.

Also, Omega Red and Wolverine have been put in situations where they had common enemies (they were both kidnapped by sentinel wielding mooks, along with Ptior and Kurt). They still ended up trying to kill one another. So I think that they going to be working together with less synergy, even when compared to SpOck and Urich."

Viners, next week's battle will be a SCENARIO! If you really want a hint, here you go: Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. Check the homepage on Monday to see what it'll be. Until then, have a good weekend, everyone!

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!