Marvel vs. DC Redux Matchup #2: Superman vs. Gladiator

The tricky thing I find about these matchups is figuring out how each of the characters would end up duking it out. The main reason for this I find, is that when it comes to DC characters a lot of things end up as a fist fight, and thus most of the DC characters have superhuman strength, whereas a large portion of the Marvel characters do not. Superman was a particularly difficult subject to find a matchup for, since he is so strong. I'm certain that there beings equally "powerful" as Superman in the Marvel universe, say perhaps some of the more powerful beings like Magneto or Graviton, I had even considered Silver Surfer to be an adequate matchup against the Man of Steel, however, when considering that this matchup would ultimately degenerate into a fist fight, I needed to find a balance in strength as well as compensating for his other powers. The original matchup had Superman pitted against the Incredible Hulk, which is understandable, as Hulk feasibly has no upper limit to his strength. However, I believe that I've found a more appropriate adversary in Gladiator from the Shi'ar Empire, whose abilities do match that of Superman's.

Marvel vs. DC Redux Matchup #1: Batman vs. Punisher

So now we get started. Logic would dictate that perhaps Bruce Wayne (Batman) is perhaps more comparable a matchup to Tony Stark (Iron Man), both being extraordinarily rich entrepreneur types (Wayne Enterprises and Stark Industry), no powers so to speak, and nifty gadgets (though with Iron Man most of his gadgets are built into his suit), but in all honesty, Batman as a detective type character was never one to rely on technology whereas Iron Man as a character is almost solely based on technology. Thus I decided that instead a better matchup for the renown detective of Gotham would perhaps be the vigilante cop Frank Castle, a.k.a. the Punisher. I figure two vigilante justice type folks would provide an interesting matchup.

Marvel vs. DC Redux

So I know I've been posting a lot of random more "profound" things lately, and decided I wanted to lighten things up a bit. In 1996 there was a crossover between two major comic book companies, DC and Marvel. Now at this point in time, I might have totally geeked out on a majority of my reading audience, which I suppose is small enough to either be really hard (to reach a majority), or really easy, in that I'm really geeking out. Anyways, I figure, I've been rethinking it, and there are some matchups I'd like to explore. The original crossover featured the following matchups:

Hulk vs. Superman
Captain America vs. Batman
Storm vs. Wonder Woman
Wolverine vs. Lobo
Namor vs. Aquaman
Quicksilver vs. Flash
Thor vs. Captain Marvel
Jubilee vs. Robin
Spider-Man vs. Superboy

Among various other ones. While some of these are interesting, I'd like to revisit this concept with some modified matchups. Some will be the same and some will be different. These are ones I think interesting or appropriate. Of course, this is entirely my opinion so it may differ. I'm not immensely familiar with DC characters, and there's a certain degree of difficulty making appropriate matchups (in my opinion) given that DC characters have such generic abilities (flight, superhuman strength/speed, etc...). That notwithstanding, we'll give this a go. I'll post matchups one by one and give my takes on them. Feel free to completely ignore them or follow along. Cheers!

Perceived Importance

Everybody's different. That's what we're always told when we're growing up. It's the reason why not everyone prefers chocolate ice cream over vanilla, why some people prefer blue to the color red, or why some people enjoy the opera and others don't. It's pretty apparent when we look at one another and talk with one another that, everyone is different. I suppose the logical question now to ask, as is the case with all of my writing (i.e. every post on this blog), is: where am I going with this? Well, I'm sure you've oft heard of how we have "luxurious problems" or have heard something regarding starving children in Africa. I'm not here to tell you that malnourished and impoverished African children aren't important. They're very important, but at the end of the day I'm not an impoverished, malnourished African child. I know that probably sounds somewhat cold and selfish, but that is reality.