Battle of the Week: Cyclops vs. Ninjak

Our latest Character of the Month, Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops, has been putting up one heck of a fight in this segment. He barely defeated his first challenger, Wolverine, and he went down swinging -- or shooting -- against the team of Dick Grayson, a.k.a. Nightwing, and Damian Wayne, a.k.a. Robin. Now, Slim faces his latest obstacle: Colin King, a.k.a. Ninjak! Will the X-Man's mutant power and impressive mind grant him another win or will the lethal character from Valiant take him down?

Ninjak's advantages: master of close quarters combat -- both unarmed and armed, praiseworthy agility and reflexes, variety of close range and long range weapons (see image below for additional details), armor offers some additional protection against blunt force trauma.

Cyclops' advantages: accurate, concussive optic blasts which can be fired at a range of different power levels and can even be ricocheted, an incredibly gifted tactical mind, praiseworthy melee capabilities which focus on countering and throws.

Match Rules

• Combatants are in character.
• This is a random encounter (aka no prep for either side).
• Cyclops' powers are pre-AvX.
• New Valiant universe feats only for Ninjak.
• They're fighting in a generic downtown city setting. It's unpopulated, at night and all standard city lights remain on. Assume they start roughly 25 feet apart and visible. However, there is a good amount of cover in the location (parked vehicles, bus stops and such) and the entire area is on limits (alleys, rooftops, building interiors, the sewer, etc).
• Incapacitation, knockout or death all count as elimination. Making a tactical retreat counts as a loss, too. "What's a tactical retreat?" It's leaving the fight with the intention of not returning to the battle in the immediate future. Going to another spot in the environment to catch your breath for a moment or two or for a tactical advantage is not a tactical retreat.
• Hey, you know what would be really cool? Treating everyone else in the debate with respect. If you think someone's saying something that just isn't true, go ahead and stick to the facts to point out why. There's no need at all to drop insults just because you disagree with someone. Seriously, this is just talking about a fictional fight, there's no need for immaturity and mudslinging.
• If you think the poll isn't going how it should, making an informative post about why a character is being underestimated and spreading the word is far more useful than complaining. Just saying.
• One more thing: you don't need to write an essay to have your post highlighted in Friday's article. Sometimes concise posts can be way more effective than a flood of paragraphs.

Check the homepage this Friday for an updated article with the following:

• Thoughts from the staff.
• Viner Arguments for both characters.
• If we're lucky, blurbs from industry talent.

Want to suggest a match for an upcoming Battle of the Week for Cyclops? Tell us below or share it via twitter.

FELLOW VALIANT FANBOYS! TO WAR!

I like that the vote has been combined with the original article, thanks!

I don't know much about Ninjak so look forward to see the arguments in his favor.

Gotta go with Ninjak here :)

@fallschirmjager: aye, captain!

@i_like_swords Your boy is up :)

Now the poll is here? Nice.

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/gen-discussion-1/ninjak-respect-thread-1549779/

Heres his respect thread.

Cyclops 7/10 times.

Thanks, man. I've never even heard of him.

@surfingthehighway: No problem.

didnt see that one coming. I don't even know who Ninja Samurai Jack is lol. But i must say he looks like a BAMF. Time to do some research.

Im gonna also assume that there is gonna be a crap ton of Ninjak battle threads after this.

Lol

Only vaguely aware of Ninjak... Gonna have to do some research on this one. Eeeenteresting.

@hushofthewind: prepare to feel the might of the Valiant army ! We started it!

I appreciate the use of a Valiant character k4tz, my favorite no less. I'd of liked to have seen his classic feats included just because of how few his new feats are, but there's still a case to be made for him as it is. I'll make a case for Ninjak tonight or tomorrow, hopefully people hear Ninjaks supporters before voting Cyclops.

@k4tzm4n: Just curious, where did ya find the Ninjak bio? He had one in the first Valiant handbook but it wasn't quite as detailed as this one.

do your research people! Click on cyclops and ninjak links!

@fallschirmjager:

HOOORAAAAY !!!

Call me crazy but I think I'm going with Ninjak here.

@immortalteknique:

crazy.

Ninjak doesn't have the feat to beat Cyclops IMO. With only what? 10 issues max with Ninjak in the new Valiant universe. Using his old solo too would be closer.

*bro fist*

Saddens me to see how lopsided the poll is already without any debate having taken place...

@i_like_swords said:

Yea I figure a lot of people are just more familiar with Cyclops and voting that way.

Cyclops.

Cyclops definitely has the power in his optic blasts to end this in range but the deciding factor for Ninjak to win is speed. Speed gets him inside, speed gives him the advantage in hand to hand combat with fast, lethal blows. Scott may have excellent countering skills but Ninjak's quick inside shots will make it extremely difficult for Scott to protect himself. The biggest mistake Ninjak can make is letting Cyclops control the fight by keeping him at a distance. His master hacking skills can also give him a good opening if he is able hack into the grid to knock out the street lights. He can make good use of the dark and that, coupled with his agility and stealth tech can put a quick end to the fight.

Ninjak Respect Thread

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/gen-discussion-1/ninjak-respect-thread-1549779/

This should help, please read my fellow Viners.

I'm torn on how good a tactic this against someone like Ninjak especially given that the two ways I think Ninjak takes this fight is via straight up H2H and stealth tactics and forcing him into a situation where has to take cover and you lose sight of him is dangerous given all the tricks he has up his sleeve.

You should do Galactus versus popular character (ie Wolverine, Spider-Man, Iron Man, etc) one week just for laughs.

Quick Example of Ninjak's computer like mind. Keep in mind he calls upon his previous experiences in the past to pick the right method of approaching a problem in seconds, should come in handy when picking a weapon/gadget to help deal with Cyclops.

Ninjak's shuriken would be a good method of closing the distance on Scott. Flashbanging someone who needs to look at you to hurt you seems like a favourable tactic. That, and if he chooses to take a stealth route in order to close the distance he could succeed there.

It was in the last Unity issue.

Managed to kill a giant alien Hellhound sporting a powerful sonic scream, with his skills and unbelievable gear.

I've known about Ninjak for a while, but I don't know much about him. I'll have to look up some info before voting.

Probably already saw, but http://www.comicvine.com/forums/gen-discussion-1/ninjak-respect-thread-1549779/

KATZMAN!

YOU FINALLY LISTENED TO ME!

Remember a few months back when I harassed you on Twitter to give Ninjak an awesome fight?! YAY!

However Cyclops will win due to Popularity.

So I vote for Ninjak just to spite everyone. Plus Ninjak is more likely to go lethal then Cyke... plus Ninjak is Ninjak.

That was my Submission for why Ninjak wins BTW.

Look, Ninjak took on XO, who has stronger powers and is a better warrior than scott, and hounds from the armor hunters solo. Scott had always had to have a team to defeat enemies. Cyclops by himself has no chance.

It would be hard for scott to take down someone as skilled as ninjak since ninja's know stealth and scott's worst fear is not knowing what he can shoot i'll give this to ninjak a very hard 6/10 but scott wont go down without a fight....am i the only who sang go ninja go when i saw ninjak?

Dodges blast from another Hound all while carrying a kid to safety, then dodges more blasts, closes the distance and proceeds to kill it.

Throws a flash-bang and blinds X-O Manowar, then proceeds to dodge all of his shots at near point-blank range.

I'm gong to check out the respect thread on Ninjak later. However in the mean time, would Ninjak fans agree that this is basically Cyclops vs Nightwing, except his fighting and tactical skill is even higher, and he has slightly different tech? What I mean is, any other game-changers besides those variations?

Ninjak is his own character. But if I were to compare him to anyone I would say this fight is Batman vs Cyclops. Ninjaks skill, tactical ability, and fighting ability are higher than Nightwings. His tech/gadgets are also in Batman's league.

not familiar with ninja boy. but he looks quite interesting.

the respect thread for nb is good.

are there ever any reports of cyke tagging an invisible enemy? that could factor in quite heavily in either direction.

from what I read in his respect thread, nb has a computer like mind, drawing on past experiences in order to find the best course of action to take (which I good), but how is he at adapting on the fly, or is he more of a dog with bone kinda guy? by that I mean, does he make and follow through with in the belief that the first plan o attack is the best? I know cyke is the kinda guy who isn't content with only 26 back up plans.

In response to your question. Whether his first plan is the best method or not, has usually never been an issue truthfully. All of his plans and combat tactics have usually succeeded on the first attempt just about all the time, he's very skilled at adapting to different situations even when the odds are against him. His mind, gadgets and reflexes are part of the reason why he's been able to battle on par with the vastly physically superior X-O Manowar and hold his own.

can anyone give a solid reason behind choosing cyclops?

I give this fight to Ninjak.

Both fighters are excellent tacticians and have a wealth of experience against both regular and super-powered opponents. In this area I don't think either one has an advantage over the other.

Ninjak definitely has an agility advantage over Cyclops. As has been shown already, he's able to dodge laser blasts at point blank. Especially since this is an urban environment, (presumable with alleys, fire-escapes, etc) Ninjak is going to have a huge mobility advantage and should have no problem dodging Cyclops' projectiles. On the other hand, Ninjak is not a super-human, which means if he does get hit by one of those blasts it's going to hurt quite a bit, so he's definitely going to have to stay on his toes and spend more of his efforts avoiding Scott's attacks than counter-attacking.

I think Ninjak also has an advantage in his weaponry. Cyclops can come up with all sorts of interesting ways to blast lasers from his face, but Ninjak is going to figure out how best to avoid them very quickly. Even with no prep time, Ninjak has a variety of tools at his disposal including katanas, shuriken, poison, flashbang grenades, EMP devices, limited cloaking, etc.

Basically I think this fight ends with a decapitated Cyclops who managed to do far more damage to the city than he did to Ninjak.

I'm willing to bet cyclops is more accurate than XO is. And if ninjak fought the same enemies as cyclops he to would need a team.

it says VOTING SESSION EXPIRED.

Gallery

@muyjingo@meatwadf

I was just about to comment with what @micah brought up from Unity 11 last week--Ninjak is preemptively prepared for just about everything! He has spent most of his life collecting knowledge and tech that he may have no use for in the moment, but knows he could potentially have a use for down the road. Sure, Cyclop has spent the better part of his life, since he was teenager, training and learning from the plethora of character he's come across, but Ninjak would be far more cunning and skilled.

I just picked up the Valiant humble bundle this weekend (I think it's still running for a few more days) if you guys are interested in Ninjak--or even just the Valiant Universe in general--I'd suggest grabbing it! For around 10 bucks you can get every volume 1 and 2 of their ongoing series. X-O Vol. 2 and Unity Vol. 1 and 2 are very Ninjak-centric storylines. (And unrelated to the fight, but related to Ninjak, they also have a classic Joe Quesada drawn trade from the 90s of Ninjak!)