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.

Life by faith and by sight

"For we live by faith, not by sight."

- 2 Corinthians 5:7

It's a familiar phrase, one that a lot of us have heard much before, especially those of us more involved with church and Christianity. It's a familiar verse, but what does it mean? What is faith? What does it mean to live by it? What does it mean to live by sight? My short answer to that is this: read a commentary. I'm really not here to  go through and exegete this short verse. What I am here to consider is what it means now in the context of today. The apostle Paul wrote this in the context of a letter to the Corinthian church, in the context of awaiting the receipt of the new and redeemed body. I want to discuss what it is life by faith, because I would posit that we all do it, everybody. It's not a matter of whether or not we have faith but rather what we put our faith in.

Time Well Spent

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."

- John 13:34 (KJV)

That probably looks pretty familiar to a number of you out there, and I suppose the question is where am I going with this whole thing?  Which is a legitimate question.  For those of you that are familiar with it, I'm sure you have heard a number of lessons and sermons on how we ought to love one another, how we are to love as Christ loved us, how Christ has loved us, etc...  So I don't know that I'm going to say anything mind-shatteringly new.  I'm probably not actually.  But it doesn't have to be something new to be something important.  I suppose in some sense what I am discussing is "how" one loves another, but I don't want to approach it in the sense of something like The Five Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman.  I kind of just grant that everyone needs/desires to be loved differently, which naturally leads us to the conclusion that we are to love each person differently.  I suppose this gets kind of confusing at times because we so often attempt to quantify love, but just because the treatment is different is not indicative of a different "amount" of love.  That's not really what I want to talk about either though.  I suppose at this point I'm just kind of rambling.  The aspect of love that I wish to discuss here, is the aspect of time.

Changing perspectives

I'm somewhat melancholy when it comes to this time of year.  Maybe it's because I'm single.  Maybe it's because all the single people are melancholy and it's become some sort of airborne contagion that single people catch.  Maybe it's because the not-single people are so blatantly not melancholy.  If ever there was some contrived, commercialized holiday for the sake of a holiday it's Valentine's Day.  I suppose I'm just sounding bitter right now, but honestly we don't really need a special day to remember our special someone do we?  I hope not.  Frankly, it just seems to be there to kind of rub it in the faces of those people who don't yet have special someones, but that's not really what this post is about.