Comic Vine Battle of the Week: Aquaman vs. Thing

Aquaman takes this.

Oh, and for the next one maybe Cyclops vs Arsenal?

@chaos_burn:

namor admitted that thing was his equal and the a v x comics were canon the whole basis of the marvel now comics started there that would be like saying final crisis or flashpoint weren't canon.

@matchesmalone21:

so I can only use stuff from marvel now?

Why aren't they?

Exactly what @comicfan11 said. This is another poorly matched fight IMO.

@matchesmalone21:

are you a mod or admin

ben carries a space ship

@comic_book_fan: I'm neither mod or admin,but people know so many things changed since that decades.

Aquaman

Honestly, I think this is a very even match on a lot of levels. I think each fighter's pro's and con's balance each other out pretty well, so rather than analyze the crap out of this fight I'm gonna go with my gut.

And in a fight that is almost 'too close to call' I have to give it to Ben Grimm. It may be hokey and silly, but this is a comic book world we're talking about here, and Ben's got the heart and the will to never give up and find a way to win.

I think Thing's durability will factor here, not in terms of a victor, but in the duration of the fight. I'd say given longer Aquaman will happen upon/call forth some water and the tide (pun intended) will be easily tipped in his favour, if it wasn't already. Judging by Arthur's strength recently it doesn't look like he'd have much trouble going toe-to-toe with Grimm.

@matchesmalone21:

and the thing according to the comics just keeps getting stronger his whole life so he may not do this kind of stuff much anymore but there is no reason he can't.

The thing can be outsmarted yes, but his skin is almost unbreakable and his strength is matched to the Hulk. I think he could take this.

Lol. No.

Namor = LOL

the thing can lift up to 400,000 tons the best feat I have ever seen of his would suggest this or at least shake down a coliseum that weighs around 400,000 tons and according to the thing from the future and the times that the thing traveled back to earlier times he only gets stronger so even though he lacks the feats he should be greatly stronger than this he did over power namor who admitted ben was his equal when ben tore down that coliseum so that would make him even stronger now.

And Aquaman? Being able to withstand the water pressure from the bottom of the sea means that his skin must be pretty inpenetrable

Aquaman wins very easily. Even with the Thing being a giant-rock dude, Aquaman has near invulnerable skin; superior strength, agility, and speed (because of being under THOUSANDS of tons of pressure under water); and Aquaman has a freaking epic trident. 'Nuff said.

@alex_reos:

ben overpowered namor and pined him to the bottom of the sea so not only did ben withstand the pressure he overpowerd namor who is atleast aquaman's equal in strength.

face it people it's clobberin time

Says the man who wants Iron Man vs. Batman :P

While DC has made a concerted effort to boost Aquaman in the New 52 I'm still giving it to The Thing. You get scans of Aquaman punching Superman and launching him back, while very cool this feat has been accomplished by everyone and his brother it seems. The Thing on the other hand defeated Namor even when they were both in the water, this is a testament to The Thing's strength/durability and his ability to fight in adverse conditions. The Thing also has heart, he was raised on Yancy street, a tough environment where he had to grow up quickly and learn to be tough. The Thing also is rarely/never afraid to go up against a foe much stronger than he is; Galactus, The Hulk, The Super Skrull, Hyperion and most memorably for me The Juggernaut in Secret Wars II.

I know it's generally taboo to focus on character traits in these types of discussions but The Thing and Aquaman are about even feat for feat (with The Thing having a slight edge.) Aquaman always struck me as being petulant and arrogant.

@godtriggerhulk

:

No they are not even feat for feat and the Thing most certainly does not have an edge. Even if they are close strength and durability wise Aquaman is much faster, more agile and can leap huge distances like the Hulk.

As for mental toughness Aquaman 1) leads an ancient militaristic country that hates him, 2) sentenced his brother and the only Atlantean person who likes him to prison, on LAND 3) is not hesitant to actually kill his enemies 4) made plans on how to destroy the whole surface world. 5) Aquaman regularly fights and excels against more powerful opponents. He wouldn't underestimate Ben, he would try to take him out immediately.

Plus many people believe the Thing Namor fight from AvX to be poorly written, but I don't question if it's brought up since it's canon.

Why are there two separate threads for this fight?

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/gen-discussion-1/comic-vine-battle-of-the-week-voting-aquaman-vs-th-1473469/?page=2

Removing the possibility of Aquaman getting old blue eyes into the water, I actually think this fight would be too close to call... without the trident. The trident is what gives Aquaman the win in my mind. Sure, Thing may on average have better strength and durability showings overall and Aquaman speed and agility showings, but they are very close in both regards so those are minor advantages at best. The trident, however, has so far been shown to be indestructible and capable of piercing and slashing anything. With it Aquaman could pull a Wolverine and seriously mess up Ben's face or possibly even kill him if he hits the heart or brain. The trident also means Aquaman has better reach than the Thing, while Ben's size would actually make him vulnerable to getting stabbed.

Ben has to play a defensive game at the beginning to get the trident out of Aquaman's hands, otherwise Arthur can run up to old Benny boy and rapid stab him. Bull rushing Arthur or going at him like a boxer seriously puts the fight into Arthur's hands, so Ben would have to thunder clap, tremor tap or toss some random crap in the hopes of knocking Aquaman down. If Ben can remove the trident from Aquaman he takes away Arthur's biggest advantage, although doing so will be very tough and require all his fighting skill.

As such, I believe this fight, based on these incarnations, and this scenario, Aquaman will win a decent majority.

Aquaman takes my vote

Many things changed since that era,do you remember Onslaught/Heroes Reborn reboot? Besides that if users can use classic and new scans,would be 200 millions of scans to Ben against 60 from Aquaman,seems fair to you?

@matchesmalone21: Onslaught and Heroes Reborn was a FAILED reboot. Everything back then is still canon to Marvel continuity.

A debate shouldn't be about the number of scans you use -- it should be about the quality of the scans and explaining why they're critical and worthy of being presented in the first place.

Because I cannot include polls in articles. That may change in the future, though!

@matchesmalone21: But he did win that fight!

Yeah, but doesn't Marvel have a sliding timeline? So technically everything is canon, but isn't as various references to actual figures and events are non-canon (for example, the Thing and Mr. Fantastic fighting in WWII). Plus, Marvel was all over the place during the 60s and 70s in terms of power levels and whatnot. They hadn't built the foundation to their characters yet so a lot of feats back then should be taken with a grain of salt.

Aquaman for the win. Fins down the easiest question I've ever answered.

Thing all the way, trident shmident, Thing beat Namor in AvX, Aquaman talks to fish. Now Thing vs. Mera would be a more interesting battle.

ZING!!!

Thing unless Aquaman's trident can pierce his torso.

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I'm leaning even more towards Aquaman now.

@comicfan11: you can see the ship already on its side the ocean on the left the shore on the right. Aquaman is underneath it while its already on its side examining it not lifting and definitely not with one hand BE FOR REAL. It's a non feat the Aquaman fanboys took and ran with. The sub feat is AMAZING and 100% legit.

Aquaman's going to win by a landslide and the announcement thread will be filled with people whining about the DC conspiracy that runs right to the roots of this site. Yessiree, you can take that to the bank.

Well I guess the scans go here?

Aquaman FTW!

Let's start off with his strength prowess. In the current issue of the New 52 Aquaman, he has been able to catch and throw a submarine out of the water which weighed greatly over 100+ tons. He's also been able to punch through a thick mountain of huge boulders in the earlier issues of the New 52 Series, as shown in the scans below. Although the Thing might be a little bit dense and stronger than the still mountain, I believe Aquaman has the ability to conflict some damage towards him by just using his bare knuckles.

As for the use of his trident, Aquaman has been able to break through Dr. Grave's mystical barrier which was deemed unbreakable by using the prowess of the first king's trident, as shown in the scan below. He also wields the trident with great skill and agility, being able to defeat multiple talons, parademons, trenches and other attacking enemies:

Aquaman was also the only Leaguer to have made Darkseid bleed out by using the force of his trident, as shown below:

@wavemotioncannon:

He is using both hands and the motion of the water makes it clear along with the crack that would be adjacent to rocks if Aquaman wasn't lifting the ship.

Stop lowballing legit feats that are widely accepted.

Or do you suggest that Johns told Jim Lee to draw a full page of Aquaman standing under a ship for no reason?

Aquaman.He is faster and far more versatile.This can make the difference.

What does that mean? Fish that live that far down in the depth of the ocean, when brought to shallower depths explode, because they are accustomed to (and evolved to) withstand those particular pressures. Aquaman's body must be more adaptive though, else he'd suffer the same fate as those deep sea fishies. Doesn't this therefore mean at 'sea level' his body would be less dense?

cause that's blood right? and that was like a -what? what do you call those things that come shooting out of guns? no- not mosquitoes... bullets? BULLETS! Yea, that's what I thought you call them things... bullets... thanks.

You sly dog you >:DD

See what I did there?

@laflux: did you see what I did? I edited my post... put a pretty picture and a snarky comment... am I doing it right?

Thing can beat up Namor, Aquaman is a poor man's Namor, Therefore Thing beats Aquaman.

aqua man because their are sewers that he can use as a source of water and the thing needs to breath, if aquaman can get to a body of water he could easily cut off the things oxygen

@trevel8182: Which fight? Against Hulk....I remember this fight slightest different.

aquaman cuz aquaman aint namor and besides superman has beat the hulk

@neon_jackal: ABC logic,despite living in similar environments and have similar powers, they are not the same people, don't have the same personality, character or abilities.

Moreover you should read more comics,so you wouldn't need use ABC logic