Favorite Superhero Fight?

[Anarchic Fox]

It seems many people here are fans of the superhero genre. I am too; I've seen nearly every Marvel movie. Thus, I was surprised when I found my new favorite superhero fight on the channel of an obscure Indonesian animator:



So, to everyone else. What's yours, from any medium?

[Psyren]

"Green Lantern's got this!" always brings a smile.

[Anarchic Fox]

"Green Lantern's got this!" always brings a smile.

Okay, that's funny, but is it your favorite? I wasn't fishing for irony in this thread.

If anyone's curious, my previous favorite was the Cap elevator fight:

[Rater202]

Spider-Man vs The Red Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man 800.

To set the stage, in the climax of Superior Spider-Man, Norman Osborn was injected with nanomachines that suppress his powers and neutralize the goblin formula if he tried to inject more.

After trying numerous means of either getting his powers back, replacing them with some other powers, or trying to be a threat without power, he eventually decided to go for broke and stole the Carnage symbiote from Captativty and bonded with it. He made it purge the nanomachines from his body and then took another dose of the Goblin formula for good measure, which, since the Canarg symbiote was in his system when he took it, enhanced it as well, powering up all of its abilities, making it immune to fire, sonics, and electricity, and giving it the ability to breathe fire

During this storyline, called Go Down Swinging, soborn, now going by, well, Red Goblin, has run roughshod over Spider-Man and his allies, after having previously kidnapped J. Jonha. Jameson to learn what he knows about Spider-Man, with Jonah, who has since learned Peter's identity, accidentally spilling the beans when he quipped that not even "killing his girl" broke Spider-Man for long, causing Osborn to regain his memories of who PeterWas after he put to and two together with his memories of kidnapping and killing Gwen Stacy.

In the climax of the story, after Red Goblin has absolutely thrashed Miles, Silk, The Human Torch, Clash, Doc Ock(in his "Superior Octopus" clone body,) and a remote operated Spider-Slayer controlled by Jameson, as well as seriously wounding Anti-Venom and exhausting Venom and Mary Jane, who at this point in time was acting CEO of Stark Industries and had access to anti-symbiote security measures and a repulsor gauntlet, it's down to just Peter.

Before he taps out, Eddie Brock offers Peter the symbiote and, to show how desperate Peter is at this point, he accepts.

Eddie: "You behave yourself now."
Peter: "You heard him, suit."
Eddie: "I was talking to you."

so Peter, now empowered by the Venom Symbiote, goes off to confront the Red Goblin and... It's still not enough. Peter is losing, before the badly wounded Anti-Venom turns up. The Anti-Venom symbiote is literally melting off of Flash Thompson's body because he's stressed it to the limit healing The Red Goblin's victims... And reveals that he'd purged the traces of Carnage that Osborn had left behind in them in order to torture them to death later as a last screw you to Peter.

Osborn i so enraged by this that he mortally wounds Flash and...

Flash Thomspon is a very interesting character. He was introduced as a two-dimensional jock-bully in the high school years, but in college he and PEter reconciled, Flash became a better person, and he became ne of Peter's Best friends

He was also, as Agent Venom, the Venom Symbiote's favorite host. The only reason it went back to Eddie is because they were separated by force and Eddie was available when it couldn't find Flash, and it would have gone back to Flash if it could have but, you know, Anti-Venom.

so as Flash is lying on the ground, dying at Osborn's hands... For the first time, Peter and the Symbiote are in perfect synch. For one brief moment, there is no Spider-Man, and there is no symbiote... There is only Venom.

Peter-as-Venom then punches Th Red Goblin all the way across Manhattan, threw a building. They prepare to go off and finish Osborn off... But Flash uses the last of his strength to beg them not to become/regress back into a monster. Peter and the Symbiote calm down, and confront Osborn again, can't beat him even with the power-up from being in synch...

So Peter points out that if Ossborn kills him while wearing Carnage, credit for the kill is going to go to Cletus Kassady(who is dead at this point, IIRC, but we see a representation of him watching the fight from behind his symbiote's eyes.)

Playing Osborn like a fiddle, Peter proposes that they both renounce their symbiotes and finish this one-on-one. As Venom peals off of him, he wishes the symbiote luck in finding its way back to Eddie—and note that from this point forward, neither Peter nor the symbiote have any resentment for the other—and then manages to get the upper hand against Norman when he's merely the Green Goblin, as he always does.

Osborn suddenly realizes that the's been played and tries to call back Carnage to finish the fight, but Peter manages to destroy its main body just as it starts bonding, which ends the fight as Osborn goes catatonic from the feedback...

Then Jameson comes walking up with a pistol, trying to work up the nerve to kill Osborn citing how dangerous he is and how he knows Sider-Man's identity know, but Peter insists that Osborn is harmless right now and that killing him would be wrong. Jameson, however, is wracked with guilt for inadvertently exposing Peter's identity to Osborn and putting his friends and family at risk and takes his shot...

But Peter takes the bullet(in the arm) and when Jameson askes why, Peter simply replies "with great power comes great responsibility—to everyone."

Dan Slott's run on Spider-Man is controversial and for good reason, but his final storyline as the writer of Amazing Spider-Man, he got Peter exactly right.

[Anarchic Fox]

Then Jameson comes walking up with a pistol, trying to work up the nerve to kill Osborn citing how dangerous he is and how he knows Sider-Man's identity know, but Peter insists that Osborn is harmless right now and that killing him would be wrong. Jameson, however, is wracked with guilt for inadvertently exposing Peter's identity to Osborn and putting his friends and family at risk and takes his shot...

But Peter takes the bullet(in the arm) and when Jameson askes why, Peter simply replies "with great power comes great responsibility—to everyone."

Dan Slott's run on Spider-Man is controversial and for good reason, but his final storyline as the writer of Amazing Spider-Man, he got Peter exactly right.

Oh, yeah, that is a strong climax.

I was always an X-Men fan myself, but I did dip briefly into Spiderman during the whole Scarlet Spider chaos. I quickly realized I didn't have the allowance to buy enough comics to make sense of it.

[J-H]

The movie didn't do so well, but I recall enjoying some of the fights in Black Adam because we actually got to see a pretty high-powered super cut loose instead of being nice and just blocking bullets with his chest while gently setting enemies down or tying them up.

[Trixie_One]

Flash tapping into the speedforce in the Justice League cartoon to take down the Lex Brainiac fusion has yet to be topped by the entire MCU and DCU that have come out since then. I'm not saying that they're bad, I'm saying it's because that moment is just that dang good.

While it technically doesn't count as it's a supers fight that doesn't involve a superhero, Megamind has one of the most pure, most iconic showcase of why super villains are so dang fun.

Why you ask?

Presentation!

[Psyren]

Okay, that's funny, but is it your favorite? I wasn't fishing for irony in this thread.

Fair enough!

Favorite movie fights were in Civil War - the Airport fight, the tunnel chase, Iron Man vs Cap and Bucky etc.
The second was the Endgame climax, and third was probably Eternals (everyone vs Ikaris.)

Favorite comic fight was probably Thanos vs Black Bolt and Dazzler. (It did not end well for Thanos.)

[Eldan]

As someone who's entire superhero experience is a) Marvel and DC movies and b) webnovels, I suspect that every superhero fight I actually like is in Worm. Movie superheroes seem to very rarely use their abilities creatively or find alternate solutions.

[Batcathat]

I'm generally bad at picking favorites and this is no exception, though at least if I interpret it as "favorite at the time" I think my pick might be the final battle of the original Onslaught saga. I know it's not exactly a popular story (and for some good reasons) but it was the first really big time epic superhero battle I read and I remember thinking it was so friggin' awesome. (Similarly, I'm quite fond of Ben Reilly's stint as Spider-Man as I started reading Spider-Man towards the end of the Clone Saga).

Not sure what I'd pick from movies or tv. Probably something from the MCU, though there are plenty of good ones outside it too.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I don’t know if it qualifies as a fight, as such, but it was superpower vs. superpower so I’m counting it: the sequence in the Netflix Daredevil series, season three, where Matt has teamed up with Ray Nadeem(? the cop) to search Bullseye’s apartment. Then Bullseye comes home early and Matt has to get himself and Nadeem out and away, leading to Matt having to make use of a mirror and the short window of time it took for Bullseye to reload to get the unpowered cop out of danger.

Second favorite would probably be in the animated Batman/Superman crossover, where the two are competing for Lois Lane’s affection. It’s one of the few arenas where neither of them has a real advantage, which made it a lot more fun than if the two just got into fisticuffs.

Flash Thomspon is a very interesting character. He was introduced as a two-dimensional jock-bully in the high school years, but in college he and PEter reconciled, Flash became a better person, and he became ne of Peter's Best friends

Hard agree, this arc was a good one.

I adored one of the exchanges between Flash and Peter during this arc; Flash had just found out Peter was Spider-man after a slip by someone else in his web of allies, and it went something like:

Flash: Puny Parker, the kid I shoved into lockers back in high school?…I’m really sorry by the way, can you ever forgive me?
Peter: Flash, I’ve forgiven people who actively tried to kill me, I forgave you long ago!

JJJ blackmailing Venom to help Spider-man also amuses me given their usual relationship. “Bring your better half!” And then the poor duo have to talk Mary Jane out of attacking them. “Miss Watson, we’re here to protect you!”

[Psyren]

Oh - broadening to anime, I nominate just about every fight in MHA. They're that good, and it's really hard for me to pick a favorite.

[Rynjin]

Basically every fight in the Immortal Iron Fist run is pretty top tier.

I won't broaden to anime because that is just...not fair. Though funnily enough I can't think of very many super exciting fights in MHA besides All For One vs All Might. They all have 1-2 really flashy MOMENTS but the fights themselves are very simple.

[Psyren]

Basically every fight in the Immortal Iron Fist run is pretty top tier.

I won't broaden to anime because that is just...not fair. Though funnily enough I can't think of very many super exciting fights in MHA besides All For One vs All Might. They all have 1-2 really flashy MOMENTS but the fights themselves are very simple.

I'm sticking to superhero anime specifically, of which only MHA and OPM immediately come to mind.

As far as the fights - MHA has some of the most clever power use I've seen on both the hero and villain side of any shonen battle anime, even within the standard trainng arc->tournament arc->rescue arc formula.

[Rynjin]

I think my gripe with MHA is mostly that the creativity comes out when it doesn't really matter, and goes out the window in important fights. I checked out at around the point where the author decided that figuring out interesting applications for a single power wasn't interesting enough and either started breaking established rules for drama (eg. Overhaul VERY CLEARLY using his powers eithout his hands partway through that fight) or giving characters new powers out of nowhere.

Or just having characters hold the Idiot Ball when convenient. Like a character who has the power to wish to do pretty much anything getting somehow omega-owned without accomplishing anything.

[Thane of Fife]

I really liked the fight between the X-Men and Juggernaut on the dam in X-Men Evolution.

And the fight between Batman (McGinnis) and the Joker in Return of the Joker is a classic.

[Psyren]

I think my gripe with MHA is mostly that the creativity comes out when it doesn't really matter, and goes out the window in important fights. I checked out at around the point where the author decided that figuring out interesting applications for a single power wasn't interesting enough and either started breaking established rules for drama (eg. Overhaul VERY CLEARLY using his powers eithout his hands partway through that fight) or giving characters new powers out of nowhere.

Or just having characters hold the Idiot Ball when convenient. Like a character who has the power to wish to do pretty much anything getting somehow omega-owned without accomplishing anything.

It's not "out of nowhere" though - the show very clearly explains why new powers are flourishing in this generation in a way they never have before. And that's on top of Deku's special situation.

But I don't want to derail this into a MHA thread so I'll leave it there. If the OP is looking for awesome spandex fights though, I'll repeat my recommendation.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Speaking of MHA, All Might vs. Nobu is probably my favorite as a fight that works even without the story context.

[Anarchic Fox]

Thanks for sharing all these great fight scenes, everybody!

Regarding Worm: I tried reading it, but it was just too bleak. And I'm told it gets even bleaker than its opening chapters.

Regarding MHA: I thought it had solid action, humor and characters, but I was repelled by its "the masses are sheep who are easily manipulated" theme that showed up in Season 2. Is that an important theme going forward? If not, I may return to the show.

[Rater202]

Regarding Worm: I tried reading it, but it was just too bleak. And I'm told it gets even bleaker than its opening chapters.

The best way I can describe Worm is that it's a nobledark cosmic horror story pretending to be a grimdark superhero story.

It has a hopeful ending but **** goes to hell and stays there for a long time befor hty get there.

The sequel is similar, though a lot of people dislike it for supposedly "retconning" a bunch of stuff when really all it did was debunk a bunch of headcanons that had no actual basis in the source material.

Spoiler

Show

God forbid that the character who acts like a narcisist in almost every scene she's in, refuses to accept help with her problems, runs away from them when it's too much, in her introductory scene psychologically turtures someone into consenting to something while making Freudian threats and bragging that her conenctions will keep her from suffering consequneces, once expressed a sadistic desire to violat someone's body, later got offended when that person doesn't trust her and then gaslites that person into think she's going to be railroaded by the authorities and that one of her friends is dead out of spite, rwrot someone's brain to change their sexuality and acted like she didn't have a choice to do it when she had the presence of mind to know sh was tempted to do it and warn someone not to touch her and thus had the presence of mind to resist temptation, then later kidnaped that person and altered their body despite their explicit refusal to conscent and made mutible modifcations to it for her own pleasure turns out to be a narcisistic rapist who refuses to admit that she's a bad person and not a poor, widdle misunderstood woobie.

[Rynjin]

Ward is one of the worst stories I've ever read and it's not due to any supposed retcons, it's just that the story always seemed like an act of deliberate spite. Wildbow is on record as not want to write a Worm sequel but people kept pestering him about it so he wrote a story deliberately designed to be as unpleasant and nihilistic as possible, with an ending that definitively locks off any potential future sequels. The poor writing shines even brighter in completely garbage characters like March who break standard conventions to have some of the most blatant plot armor seen in the series.

[paddyfool]

Ward is one of the worst stories I've ever read and it's not due to any supposed retcons, it's just that the story always seemed like an act of deliberate spite. Wildbow is on record as not want to write a Worm sequel but people kept pestering him about it so he wrote a story deliberately designed to be as unpleasant and nihilistic as possible, with an ending that definitively locks off any potential future sequels. The poor writing shines even brighter in completely garbage characters like March who break standard conventions to have some of the most blatant plot armor seen in the series.

I never did get all the way through Ward. The grim dark eventually just wore me down.

For a fic that involves creative use of superpowers, I’d recommend Super Supportive, which has a heavy element of the process of finding creative applications for powers; however, it’s fairly low on fights so far, or at least, low on serious ones.

[Vizzerdrix]

Hmm... I have to go with the last fight in Howard the Duck.

[Trafalgar]

Mighty Mouse vs Superman

[Trixie_One]

Oh - broadening to anime, I nominate just about every fight in MHA. They're that good, and it's really hard for me to pick a favorite.

I've slowly been catching up on MHA and I'm currently in the third season I think. My main issue is the amount of darkening of scenes they do. I get why they've started doing that but it seems excessive where it'll happen when nothing all that flashy is on screen.

[paddyfool]

Regarding MHA: I’ve only watched it up to the end of the first little plot arc in the dome. Does it very better later?

[Ramza00]

Naruto vs Neji in the Chunin Finals, I am a simple guy.

I am a sucker for a person who hears the world is messed up and will take responsibility for a problem that is not there's, for that is what heroes do. (Another example is Midoriya vs the Sludge Monster w/ Bakugou the hostage you say run plays in the background)

Regarding MHA: IÂ’ve only watched it up to the end of the first little plot arc in the dome. Does it very better later?

It gets better and then it gets worse. It has been doing its final arc (which it has mini arcs inside it, much like Naruto) for like two years now. It's height was the my villain academia period where we explored the evil characters backstories and think is it the society which is messed up or the villains who act out after society failed them (the answer is both)

[Psyren]

My biggest spoiler-free problem with MHA is that many of the villains have a good point - a society where the power everyone gets is immutable and almost wholly lottery-based is inherently unequal and inequitable, especially when many of those powers are inherently harmful to the user or those around them by their very nature, and the folks running said society seem to have made no effort at all to rework said society to account for these inequities.

But whatever point the villains have is practically squandered by them throwing in their lot behind the most cartoonishly evil guy on the planet and his chosen disciple/vessel, a guy who quite openly has no problem with devouring / slaughtering any of his followers who've shown themselves to no longer be useful. But that's a problem pretty much every superhero medium ends up being faced with, because writers in this medium can't help but want to have their cake and eat it too - they want nuanced and deeper villains but nevertheless want the heroes to be seen as heroes for stopping them, so they end up pushing them past the moral event horizon eventually.

[Batcathat]

But that's a problem pretty much every superhero medium ends up being faced with, because writers in this medium can't help but want to have their cake and eat it too - they want nuanced and deeper villains but nevertheless want the heroes to be seen as heroes for stopping them, so they end up pushing them past the moral event horizon eventually.

Yeah, that is an annoying tendency and I don't think it's limited to superhero stories. It seems like some writers just don't see the difference between "character has sympathetic motivations but becomes a villain by going too far" and "character has sympathetic motivations but becomes a villain because of unrelated random acts of puppy-murder".

[Rynjin]

Naruto vs Neji in the Chunin Finals, I am a simple guy.

I could fill a top 10 anime fights list just with fights from Naruto. Just the fact that hand to hand never fully goes away even with the massive powerscaling helps to keep the fights feeling exciting.

Just remembered a good one: Slade vs Robin in Teen Titans, any of the time really. It's not often a hero gets their ass beat so consistently and thoroughly that they have literal nightmares about getting their ass beat...and so intense they leave actual injuries afterward.

My biggest spoiler-free problem with MHA is that many of the villains have a good point - a society where the power everyone gets is immutable and almost wholly lottery-based is inherently unequal and inequitable, especially when many of those powers are inherently harmful to the user or those around them by their very nature, and the folks running said society seem to have made no effort at all to rework said society to account for these inequities.

But whatever point the villains have is practically squandered by them throwing in their lot behind the most cartoonishly evil guy on the planet and his chosen disciple/vessel, a guy who quite openly has no problem with devouring / slaughtering any of his followers who've shown themselves to no longer be useful. But that's a problem pretty much every superhero medium ends up being faced with, because writers in this medium can't help but want to have their cake and eat it too - they want nuanced and deeper villains but nevertheless want the heroes to be seen as heroes for stopping them, so they end up pushing them past the moral event horizon eventually.

This is definitely my biggest issue with the plot in a nutshell, yeah. Stain was a really good starting point for a sympathetic villain; a Punisher-esque vigilante who went after heroes he saw as flaunting their position or shirking their responsibilities. He came of as clearly evil, but still actually redeemable. There's a lot of this in Gentle Criminal as well, who acts as a really good argument for WHY hero regulations should exist while still being in pretty much every aspect the person in the moral right in a lotof ways. "He's kinda confused but he got the spirit" villainy is interesting to me.

Shigaraki being the main villain was a mistake. His primary motivation for mass murder is "daddy issues" with not much else tagged onto it than that.