The Daily Debater(Back in Business!!)

@majinblackheart@bramvanelteren@mcu_jedi_bob@ghostravage@anthp2000@higherpower@wyldsong@kevd4wg@heirtothekingdom@jashro44@warlockmage@morpheus_@cull_obsidian@owie@lubub55@darth_nimrod @acrokat@full123@major_hellstrom@mickey-mouse@giliad_@jucaslucasa@thedailybagel@deathhero61@ordinaryalan@andromeda101@shade545@underfire47@noobmaster2001@the_magister@KolKent@The_Kidd@Kangconquers@_Logos_@PyroFN@mysticmedivh@thevoidofdeath@straight-fire@baph@soratoumiga@kevd4wg@the_hajduk@noone1996@ouroborik@brucerogers@apex_pretador@battle123axe@vertigo-@supremegeneration@del_torro_@koays@blackspidey2099@pipxeroth@fetts@god_spawn@reaverlation@geekryan@xZone@Ecoblitz@takenstew22@DCandMarvelComicFan@PSI-BITE234@Kryptonianking@BladeOfFury@Mo_Ail@Zetsu-San@lazarus4tempest@Mooty_Pass@Thorthunder98@MorbusGrav@NWName@animehunter@thor-parker@highmantra_x0sp

This thread by newcomer (I assume) @elissas is a well-run tournament of non-bending Avatar/Korra characters. Having just finally finished watching the two shows, I was curious to match up my own perceptions against those of people more lengthily-steeped in the fandom. I was pleased to see that they were fairly consonant, both in my sense of which characters I'd select to be in the tourney, and which ones might win. ElissaS was able to get a good amount of input from other users, keeping the tourney going fairly efficiently. There were some questions about who should first match up with whom, but it all worked out fine. The combatants are Ty Lee, Mai, Suki, Asami, Sokka, and Piandao. Who do you think has the hand to hand skills and athleticism to take the win?

Also-presumably-newcomer @dathvada put together this two-on-two battle between the heroes of the Dyad and the Prequel-era Sith master and apprentice (or, apprentice and sub-apprentice?). Battles with Ben and Rey are always controversial, and there's always a decent amount of discussion about where exactly Dooku and Ventress fit in the hierarchy as well. What especially impressed me here was that we have multiple debaters arguing at civilly-written paragraph length instead of just one-liner retorts. You see some people taking the opinion that the more-proven Dooku solos, but as one debater says, the Dyad is like a "literal cheat code." There is a lot of detailed scaling going on with Luke and the Inquisitors as the debaters try to find an objective bridge between the two trilogies' time scales.

This battle between two pairs of powerful Marvel women, created by @marvelfan1992, gets a little more contentious, but that's partly because these ladies have been around for a long time, and they've all got several different versions, plus decades of feats to be broken down and considered in terms of consistency. Of course, one big question is psychic defenses, and another are the various high-level haxes belonging to Wanda and Sersi (and if they even need their best ones). We also get into an entertaining discussion of PIS and everyday-human-level reaction time feats.

All of these characters have been getting consistent usage these days, and its time for them to come together in this battle created by @bigmoistjunior. The implications of Superboy Prime's feats continue to not be fully agreed-upon, and Final Forum Ultron's are not completely black and white either, but what is clear is that they're not pushovers. There's a lot of in-depth discussion of various DC major events and how they affect Superboy and his scaling, and some extensive consideration of Thanos's telepathy and Ultron's encephalo-ray. Does the Marvel team take out the DC team-buster? Jump in and throw in your two cents.

Bit of self-advertisement here, but I figured it would be very relevant to mention the current HTT (High Tier-Tournament) that I'm operating at the moment. This CaV went really fast, and in terms of debating, doesn't try to go into complicated or confusing argumentations, mostly focusing on if KoL could get past the opposing team's defences with his speedsters. Short and to the point, something I think many people prefer over the bible-spamming that CaV's can be known for.

Next CaV is a LA display between two fairly well respected debaters, this time not debating one or two characters, but two whole teams of them! The dynamic between how both could interact in a actual fight is showcased here, with a lot of focus on what constitutes as "in-character" and what doesn't, as well as team tactics and whatnot. This isn't the biggest debate but it's a very solid read, and worth checking out!

This is still in the early days, but based on BlackSpidey's first very in-depth post for the underrated Spider-Man of the future in the form of Miguel o'Hara, this is fashioning itself up to be a great CaV, and definitely one worth keeping your eye on. This is a triple threat between three different characters from different formats of fictional media: Elric is from anime/manga, Weiss is from a web series, and Miguel comes from comics. Might not be intentional but it's a great clash of genres in any case.

This is not a new Respect Thread; it already covered Mera's atlantean physiology, combat ability and the highlights of her mighty hydrokinesis. Even so, it was recently updated by @geekryan to include the new showcase of her abilities in Snyder's Cut of Justice League; this mostly consists of a separate stand against Steppenwolf, during which she used what's perhaps her deadliest skill to date, almost literally draining the life out of the creature.

There already was a Respect Thread for John Wick, but @subline took it upon himself to write up an updated version, covering his showings in the departments of stealth, gun use and hand-to-hand combat, from the first movie all the way to Chapter 3. The thread is structured in a classic bullet-point fashion, making it easy to consult and navigate, a welcome addition to the Vine given the growing popularity of the franchise, and the common use of the character in the battle forums.

Rarely will you find you a character this powerful on the basis of a trailer alone, but the King Shark could not go unnoticed after the new promo for James Gunn's Suicide Squad. Our very own @mrsyg impressed with the mighty task of this Respect Thread; strong enough to rip grown men apart and chew on them, resilient enough to survive star level shots and fast enough to race next to olympic level athletes, King Shark's greatest strength appears to be his mind. In any case, we are all looking forward to seeing him on-screen.

1. Hello Raj, welcome to the Humans of the Battle Forum segment. The name HUMANS of the Battle Forum isn't chosen for nothing. We want to know something about the real you. So tell us, who is RajjarsAlt?

RajjarsAlt = Rajjar = Raj, that is who I am. I'm 20 years old, Indian, and I have most of the baggage what comes with that. Currently looking for grad school options both domestic and abroad, and I feel like its going well for me all things considered. I'm a sustainability freak that loves nature, and because of that I am pursuing green energy, resource management, conservation, and the like. Anyone who has seen me beyond these posts can testify that the real me =/= the vine me, but that is true for a lot of people. But the defying singularity and unifying similarity is that I love to bait. I think bait is the "modern" form of trickery, and being a trickster refines the particular strain of chaos inside and around me.

Of course, chaos exists in other ways, ie being scatterbrained and going on a rampage, and I think these are useful to an extent in certain situations. For example, I was bullied alot as a kid, so I learned martial arts and did justifiably brutal things in kind. I believe in karma and dharma, and I think I've fulfilled my duty so far, but that's from how I was raised. From my analysis of history and my own experiences, I think violence is a necessity because humans just don't work any other way, no matter how much they like to pretend otherwise. Of course, I think there has to be a good amount of accountability and responsibility to handle such destructive activities. But humans are even worse at that. I think there's a good factor of "bloodlust" or "seeing red" that makes such actions enjoyable in the moment, but in the end, man is just another munkee. Ook ook.

2. Now back to the keyboard-warrior stuff. Why and when did you decide to join Comicvine?

Well, in this iteration of myself, I joined in early 2020 to dunk on the notorious porn spammer Spike/Ta-Er once more. At that point in time, the reason he kept crying about getting pack trolled is because of me, and me alone. What Ta-Er mistook as getting hunted down by a pack of LA debaters was simply my unrelenting force. Why did I do it? Because it was funny. Plus, considering how dumb LA debates generally get, picking on one of the antagonists of the old vine for even older reasons was a way to establish who I was and what I knew; I meant business.

3. In those years you've been on the site you have encountered and talked to a great variety of users. Which of them are the most memorable?

In no particular order

amcu - hands down best MCU debater

xzone - singlehandedly leveled LAvine b/c Thor

nwname - hands down best calcer I've ever seen

kevd4wg - romance with empress is still a better love story than twilight

supremegeneration - my little brony my little brony

michaeljulius - monitored my rise in the powers of bait

detective_somerset - basically a walking, talking hubris-nemesis complex

kingoflatveria - the one above all

4. You are known as the MCU guy. I'd like to know what you like about it, what your favourite movies and characters are, what got you into debating it, and more importantly, why are you going as far as to use feats from Burger King tie-ins in threads?

The reason I am known as the MCU guy is because I bothered applying my unique set of skills to live-action verses. I do it for every verse I debate. My favorite MCU movies are Infinity War, Thor: Ragnarok, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. My favorite characters are Loki, Thor, and Iron Man.

What got me into debating it? I just thought it would be a cool thing to try out. My expertise is in the reproduction and delivery of evidence. That includes creating media and exploring its visual effects (images/videos) which is honestly my favorite part of LA debating. I'd say the stuff I make for LA is the creme of the crop in terms of quality. LA is also good to apply the calcer's mindset, and I have had fun with that as well. LAvine is its own thing and I feel it forms the lifeblood of current CV, for better or for worse.

Burger King is unsubstantiated. Never did anything of the sort. It is a bit of a reactionary response via Detective's rumor-spreading. I just looked at what was before me, and thought, "hmm, if LA debaters like using headcanon so much, then why don't they use it from people whose opinions are actually worth something?" People like to say "boohoo wah wah on-screen/on-panel" as if the screen is without ambiguity; they actually think it is an objective source of information that should be set as a standard above all other forms of evidence. Worse still, there is no place, no alternate world, no chance of even a remote possibility that debaters themselves are objective, either. That's why intent is important, because it kills headcanon, shortens room for interpretation, and establishes the truth. This isn't anything new. Look at the Star Wars fandom.

5. A new thing about the MCU are the Disney + shows. We've already seen WandaVision and parts of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but beyond that, which shows (and movies) are you looking forward too? And what do you think about this TV expansion of the MCU? Is it a good thing?

I'm looking forward to Loki, Dr Strange: Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love and Thunder. I think the TV expansion is a good thing as it really allows us to explore the world of the MCU after Thanos's decimation and its reversal at the hands of the Avengers. I think it is worthy, especially with the MCU itself being expanded with institutions like the Time Variance Authority being introduced.

6. As I mentioned, you are mainly known as an MCU guy on ComicVine, but I know that you also read comics quite often. What was your first comic, and when and how did you get it? Also, what is your favourite series and your favourite character?

First comic was given to me by my grandfather. It was an Amar Chitra Katha edition of the Hindu epic known to the world as the Ramayan. I think I was like 6 when I first read it. Amazing stuff. Favorite series is vol 1 of Thor: God of Thunder. Favorite character would be Thor because of that. Thor is the crux of where my interests in mythology and comics intersect. What he said of how gods should act and what he did to save the gods in that arc strongly resonated with me.

7. As people who have recently browsed the battle forum might know, you are going to prove your talents on comic book debating in the "Pure High Tier Tourney" against @kevd4wg. Would you mind giving us a sneak peak of the strat you will be using?

Kev is one of those really good comic debaters. But he's split like his dad in several ways. In identity, there's Kevd0ng, KevSchl0ng, Kevc4t Warlockmage, etc.Therefore, I will be using the trident formation. My three prongs will be feats mindset, raw intent, and scientific predictions. I feel this trident's power is that wherever it lands, it incurs self-destruction. Given Kev's tendency to argue himself into a concession, I have confidence that this will work on him. I will say that Kev's comic debating is tried and tested on a formal level. Though it's not enough to overcome me if I was in the LA element, where I feel I bear more power due to the rigor I've set in that arena.

8. Do you have anything to tell new ComicViners? Debating tips, something they should desperately know?

Make your opponents angry. They'll inflate and grandstand, they'll be full of hot air. And when the time is right, dive in like a needle and pop that balloon.

9. Lastly, do you have anything else to say?

Who am I?

Comic Vine's past teems with quality reading. Though we always focus on the here and now, it's crucial that we put aside a time to inculcate, entertain and overall ameliorate ourselves with the relics of this nerd haven's history. This segment is proudly stalwart in the firm edification of all who read, with a strong desire to wont self-education. By making this short, we hope to not waste the time you should be using to read the threads we discuss in this segment.

The debut of this segment will highlight possibly the most popular thread on Comic Vine: @mysticmedivh's iconic A Closer Look at Superman Prime (One Million). The relative obscurity of Comic Vine accounted for, it should be scoff-worthy to state that a thread from this site is "well known", but Mystic's thread has become ubiquitous in discussions on the 853rd century's Superman on more familiar, prominent and august websites, including YouTube, Quora, and Reddit. Listen to no aspersions framing this as a fluke; the hard work Mystic put into his magnum opus is evident by even a cursory glance, setting the standard for debunks with a strong structure to support his thorough, veridical denunciation of a widespread misconception about Kal-El's power in this future, and it was this determination that rocketed Mystic's remarkable project to fame. If you want to learn how to debunk-- no, how to construct anything more formal than a casual post, this thread will prove a valuable inspiration, and if you simply like good reading, get comfortable and read on.

Alrighty, here we go with the segment that is only marginally less painful than sticking your hand into a running blender...another Indie Side for you=)

With the release of Invincible on Amazon, I've noticed Supreme's name getting thrown around the boards a bit thanks to his fight with Omni-Man. Supreme is one of these characters that a lot of people have heard something about, and there are a ton of respect threads out there, mixing and matching feats from a bunch of different versions of Supreme, oftentimes with little to no context behind them...which has lead to a metric c4@p ton of misinformation about the character. So for this Indie Side, we are going to talk a little bit about Liefeld's angry Superman homage and the various versions that sprung from his creation...let's take a look at Supreme.

So there is quite a bit of convoluted history with this guy. So much so to the point that no one really knows where to place him power wise. There are claims of him being anywhere from Gladiator to Silver Age Superman levels, yet as mentioned before, there are scenes with him fighting evenly with Omni-Man...who is decidedly not Silver Age Superman level. So...I will attempt to paint a better picture of Supreme, and clear some of this up. Hopefully by the time I am done, you will all have an understanding of just what we are dealing with here when we are discussing the mantle of Supreme.

The Many Faces of Supreme

This will be a brief rundown on the various versions without getting too heavily bogged down in the discussions of feats. I will also attempt to clear up on just how we go from roughly Gladiator to Silver Age Superman-esque to Invincible power levels. For starters, Supreme has mainly gone through the hands of four major writers: Rob Liefeld, Alan Moore, Erik Larsen, and Warren Ellis.

I will of course start with the OG created by Rob Liefeld, the original Supreme...

In the original run, we are introduced to Ethan Crane, who was imprisoned for killing two men and was offered the chance to become part of a government program that gave Crane powers, and he eventually became a Superman-like being, with a bit of a god complex and a penchant for quoting scripture. This is possibly the most brutal version of Supreme. He has no issues with killing his foes whatsoever. After a series of adventures, he loses his powers, gains the hammer of his universe's Thor and is powered by that (what I call the "Hammer of Supreme"), is later thought to be killed, then later found to be alive but hidden away thanks to Loki, where in a jerk move he switched bodies with an alternate reality version of himself to regain his powers, and is last seen flying back to Earth after defeating Loki with the aid of his daughter (Lady Supreme) and the alternate reality version of himself. Sometime during his trip back to Earth, is the crossover where he faces Gladiator in a little one on one brawl.

In Liefeld's run, there was Lady Supreme, two different alternate reality versions of Supreme (one of them being the Deathmate Supreme), a Supreme clone, Kid Supreme, Val-En (a descendant of Supreme), and the main Supreme himself. Liefeld's main Supreme caps out somewhere around the level of Gladiator overall on the power scale.

Phew...that is a very abridged version of events, and as you can see, there are already several versions of Supreme in the Liefeld run. Now let's take a look at Moore's run on Supreme...

With Moore's run, we are introduced to the idea of "reality revisions", and we see Supreme returning to Earth, somewhat confused by things changing around him. He is approached by four other Supremes, who state that his powers appear to be unlimited, and they caution that he needs to go with them before the revision happens...intoning that it would be unwise to be "revised" along with the rest of reality. Supreme seems to have been affected by the revision regardless, as his costume is different, his personality changes, he appears to be younger in looks, and he experiences changes to his powers. He basically becomes more of a Silver Age themed character, and discovers that he has a new life with this reality revision, with a whole new backstory. We are introduced to the idea of a place called the Supremacy, which is a reality that houses various other Supremes from different reality revisions and some of the supporting cast of these various Supremes exist there as well.

Needless to say, there are a ton of Supremes to be found in this run, but the most notable ones to bring up beyond the main man himself are Radar, who is his "Hound Supreme", and his sister, Sally Crane aka "Suprema", whom I will talk about in a bit. These are meant to be nearly Silver Age Superman characters in power level...so Supreme definitely takes a pretty big leap in overall power levels. Prior to the end of Moore's run, we also get introduced to the idea of a separate reality for the various versions of Darius Dax, who was basically Moore's equivalent to Lex Luthor in the Supreme-verse and was Supreme's main nemesis.

This version of Supreme housed the lifting the weight of the universe (which Suprema performed), massive black hole level durability, MTFL feats, and so on.

Onto Larsen's run...

Here, Larsen takes over and continues the story of Supreme. He picks up where Moore leaves off, gives us a story of the "Daxes" (multiple versions of Darius Dax from the "Daxia" dimension) attacking and bringing down Supreme's flying citadel, drawing out the Supremes from the Supremacy, and utilizing supremium -- a reality warping substance used in the backstory of every "Supreme" other than the Liefeld version, weakening the Supremes and killing them off using high tech weapons from Moore Supreme's flying citadel, and they seemingly destroy the Supremacy to boot. Moore's Supreme is lead by the Original Supreme (in Moore's stories, Original Supreme is not a reference to the Liefeld Supreme, but was basically the first Supreme to come into existence) to a prison of sorts, and they free the Liefeld Supreme. Basically, due to whatever reality revision shenanigans that happened, Moore's Supreme was not just a changed version of the Liefeld Supreme, they actually became separate entities, and the Supremes in the Supremacy locked him away for over a decade for being too violent and unpredictable. Liefeld Supreme aka "Mean Supreme", kills all of the invading Daxes, and then using supremium, permanently de-powers all of the surviving Supreme's that were stranded from the Supremacy, becoming the only Supreme besides Suprema.

This is the story that has Mean Supreme as having had become the most powerful Supreme, and where he beats down Suprema, who was still roughly Silver Age levels. Right after he does this, a reality revision hits, and Omni-Man appears to challenge Mean Supreme. Now bear in mind, Omni-Man did not exist in the Supreme stories until this reality revision. There was a character called Omniman in Moore's stories, which was a character that Moore's Supreme created and wrote a best selling comic about.

This reality revision basically took Mean Supreme from Silver Age levels to being equals to Omni-Man, basically the Invincible comic levels of power. By the end of this run, Mean Supreme absorbs a ton of energy, and pretty much becomes a solo planet buster:

Again, this happens after the Omni-Man fight. This whole series ends with the de-powered Supremes making plans to try and take down Mean Supreme, and possibly trying to get back to the Supremacy to see if there were powered versions of themselves to be found there after the last reality revision happened.

Now, we get to the run of Warren Ellis...

This series mainly focuses on a version of Diana Dane (Supreme's main love interest in many reality revisions), who is basically hired by Darius Dax to unravel the mystery of Supreme. As the story progresses, we learn that the story of the reality revisions is continuing and something was corrupted with this particular revision. Basically, Ellis gives us a very trippy and surreal story, with very little of the actual Supreme, and it ends with Dax needing to kill that revision's version of Supreme to revise reality again and fix whatever was corrupted. In the new reality after Dax completes his mission, Diana is shown as the editor of some publication, and is being told that something is going on in the town of Littlehaven...which basically lets us know that Supreme's story did not end with the last revision, and thus ends that run.

Which leads us to the last iteration of Supreme to be seen on the printed page...

We find out that in a short lived 2017 run of Liefeld's Youngblood, that Moore's Suprema has survived a few reality revisions, and has now taken the title of Supreme:

Unfortunately, Liefeld lost the rights over Youngblood, and now the future of Supreme is really up in the air...so without a finished tale, there is very little to say about Sally's run as Supreme. Somehow the world was made to forget about her existence, and everything about how she survived the reality revisions and ended up in the newest Youngblood continuity ends up being a mystery that will never be explained. Woot.

Clear as mud yet? Yes, there is a lot going on with Supreme, and the only way to get the complete picture is to find the issues and read up. I promise, it does make some sort of sense when you read it all, but I don't have the time in this bit to lay it all out. There is just too much to delve into...that said, a great resource for some Supreme intel comes from this blogspot, which has a ton of information on it. Worth checking out if you want to learn a little more about all things Supreme.

In Closing

And yes, that was a bit of a departure from the usual Indie Side stuff, but I wanted to try a little something different this time around. Next time, we'll do a little review of a comic by the cosplay diva, Cara Nicole aka AZ Powergirl called Firebitch...basically a story about what happens when a self styled "instahoe" and social media influencer gains powers and has to defend an alien planet from deadly invaders...

Till next time, peace out=)

@majinblackheart@bramvanelteren@mcu_jedi_bob@ghostravage@anthp2000@higherpower@wyldsong@kevd4wg@heirtothekingdom@jashro44@warlockmage@morpheus_@cull_obsidian@owie@lubub55@darth_nimrod @acrokat@full123@major_hellstrom@mickey-mouse@giliad_@jucaslucasa@thedailybagel@deathhero61@ordinaryalan@andromeda101@shade545@underfire47@noobmaster2001@the_magister@KolKent@The_Kidd@Kangconquers@_Logos_@PyroFN@mysticmedivh@thevoidofdeath@straight-fire@baph@soratoumiga@kevd4wg@the_hajduk@noone1996@ouroborik@brucerogers@apex_pretador@battle123axe@vertigo-@supremegeneration@del_torro_@koays@blackspidey2099@pipxeroth@fetts@god_spawn@reaverlation@geekryan@xZone@Ecoblitz@takenstew22@DCandMarvelComicFan@PSI-BITE234@Kryptonianking@BladeOfFury@Mo_Ail@Zetsu-San@lazarus4tempest@Mooty_Pass@Thorthunder98@MorbusGrav@NWName@animehunter@thor-parker@highmantra_x0sp

This thread, courtesy of @amendment50 pits Danny Rand, the Iron Fist, against Shang Chi of the Five Weapons Society -- with a twist: Rand's most powerful asset is restricted, so it comes down to a strict martial arts contest between the two. With the new trailer for Marvel's Shang Chi dropping, interest on the character may have sparked, and if you're looking to catch up on the lore of this side of the Marvel Universe, this match-up is a likely one to have crossed your mind at some point. Make sure to check it out!

This thread, created by @viking1205, features some of Avatar: The Last Airbender's most prominent warriors in an ultimate showdown between Team Avatar and the Fire Nation's Royal Family; well formatted and articulate, with a lot of factors in play, the topic has gathered the interest of a lot of people, prompting quality discussion and interesting points raised for both sides. If you're an old fan of the series, this will prove a classic for certain!

In this expectedly old thread put together by @angryvigilante, one of the Batman's best students, the Red Hood, takes on one of Marvel's finest assassins, Elektra Natchios. The thread was revived recently, and people have showed interest, so it would be great to see more arguments supporting either side of the game. I often see these 10-year old comic-book match-ups brought back up with one-word comments, which is a bit saddening, so let's contribute to the discussion on this people!

@geekryan takes on newcomer @purplehairedni1 in a CaV between X Men psychics Polaris and Rachel Grey. Geek is known to many as an expert on telepaths from Marvel, taking part in many of their respect threads, but the newbie has taken on this challenge with pride. It's looking to be a CaV to watch, and it's only in the opening phase, so what are you waiting for? Ask for a tag!

The notorious KoL, in his account @banditarla is taking on @blackspidey2099 a street level MCU debate, facing Georges Batroc against Quake, Daisy Johnson from the Agents of Shield series. Well, the term MCU might be misleading, since the show isn't canon to Kevin Feige's movie, as noted in the CaV's title, but they're both Marvel characters anyway, and the debating caliber of both Viners considered, it's guaranteed to be a fun debate to read.

A Star Wars debate, the Clone Wars' Cad Bane is defended by @epicstoic against @subline representing the post-Empire Mandalorian Din Djarin. The Mandalorian was a great watch for those who took the time to watch it, and The Clone Wars was always a classic cartoon, so it's a logical match up, and a good one at that. Only one post has been made, so hurry up and mark this for reading!

@deep_silver has gone on an Invincible RT tear, putting up threads for Omni-man, Titan, and the Mauler Twins in just a few days. This show just started a little while ago, but its first season should conclude soon and it will be nice to have a comprehensive set of feats for the animated versions of these characters. This RT lists its feats episode by episode, so you can double-check any questions of context easily.

Obviously there was a lot of interest in the conclusion to the Falcon and the Winter Soldier series this week, and that interest became concrete in the form of multiple respect threads. The villains (if that’s the right word here) of the show, the Flag Smashers, were given an RT by @death4bunnies. It provides a thorough set of GIFs for Karli et al, which is helpful to see all at once, since there were some tiering issues with the show. Honorary mentions go to d4b’s Redwing RT, which is spartan in its simplicity but shows you everything you need to know about Falcon’s technological helpers. And @joker567892’s US Agent RT also does a nice job for John Walker.

This RT by @ultraphoenix needs some love in its comments, but that might be because it focuses on somewhat lesser-known forces of the universe. Instead of just considering the Flash’s famous Speed Force, it also examines DC’s Strength (connected to gravity and mass), Still (inertia and entropy), and Sage (mental powers) forces. Since most of these forces (outside of the Speed force) don’t have a huge number of appearances, this respect thread gives a short, straightforward introduction to each one, first in paragraph form and then with issue-by-issue examples.

This respect thread by @namelessmonster focuses specifically on Orion’s pre-Crisis appearances in New Gods. It provides a thorough accounting of his feats in that series, with helpful contextual descriptions and issue numbers. Since it only treats a particular era of Kirby’s Dog of War, it’s fairly short and sweet, and easy to read in one sitting.

While there's a lot of debating material that we cover here on TDD, there's a lot of different aspects of the site that are usually not seen as much as they should be, namely due to the massive popularity of the "Battles" format and the fact that a vast majority of users namely just hang around for those. While there's a lot of discussion about characters fighting each other, there's some genuine attempts at creating new and exciting material, which is namely why this section is here: to highlight those and to present them to a audience that otherwise would need to stumble onto them to even notice in the first place.

For this edition, I'd like to highlight a Brazilian YT audio webradio series called Terra B, which goes over the many mishaps of "the guy in the chair" AKA PC, who is basically a support worker for superheroes in this verse, helping rookies crime fight properly in a regulated world where heroes are basically just another run of the mill job, which is quite different from what we usually see from them in DC or Marvel. The premise is incredibly tight to begin with only two central characters at the start, but expands from there: while it only has three episodes (one in English) it's quite well written and down to earth: as I said in the thread where I came across this in the first place, it feels like a old B-series from the experimental early 2000's, and that's a good thing this time (sorry Dark Knight Strikes Again!) and is quite aware of the tropes that make comic books well, comic books in the first place and knows when to introduce new unexpected elements.

If you want to listen to it for yourself, just check out this thread here where the creator shared it. Hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

I doubt most of you reading this segment know who Mosaic is. Sure, there's probably people who picked up his solo or have read my RT on him, but otherwise he's extremely obscure. He had his own mini-series which lasted 8 issues, and he made cameos in a couple Inhuman books but that's about it. But truth to be told, I think Mosaic is a very cool character. His mini-series was really good. So I'll try and shine a light on him by making him this week's Character of the Week.

Origin and History

Morris first appeared in Uncanny Inhumans #11, a tie-in to the Civil War II event. Chronologically, he first appeared in Mosaic #1.

Onto his origin. Morris Sackett was one of the greatest basketball players of our time. Think Kobe, Lebron etc. He was that popular. After he won an important game by scoring last minute, he and his girlfriend went to an after-game party where Morris was exposed to the Terrigen Mist, the stuff that gives Inhumans their powers. It was discover that Morris had an Inhuman gene, and he was transformed into a cocoon. When he got out, he learned that he was now a living ghost: invisible, intangible and possession-powers.

While he was not aware of his powers yet, he managed to possess a kid named Five. He managed to learn a little bit about his powers. From then on, he hopped from person to person until he hopped into the bodyguard of his girlfriend. With his ability to see the memories of the people he is possessing, Morris learned that the bodyguard and his girlfriend were not only having an affair, but Morris's dad was paying the "girlfriend" to be Morris's side-chick. Then it was also revealed that Morris' father sold Morris out at a young age due to the discovered Inhuman gene he had. Morris went to pay a visit to the Brand company, the people his dad sold him too, to get the body he left back. Morris then found out about his dad selling him out and blew up the Brand building.

After his little stint, he met Lockjaw and possessed him. Lockjaw then brought him to the Inhuman city of Attilan where he met the Royal Family. He just met them in time to participate in the Inhumans vs X-Men war. He was used to gain information by possessing Magneto, after he was enlisted into an Inhuman task force after the Royals were captured. Morris managed to complete his task and played a big part in the victory for the Inhumans. He also found a new romance in Iso.

Furthermore, Morris saved New York from a potential attack from Diablo and his Moloids. He had a deep conversation with Fife, the first person he possessed, after getting into a fight with each other. The solo ends there, and he haven't heard much from Mosaic after that.

Powers and Abilities

Morris has the usual ghost-like abilities: he is intangible, invisible, can possess people and fly. His intangibility is something he sadly can't turn off, but he has full control regarding his invisibility. Characters based around plasma powers like the Human Torch can see him even when he is invisible, so it has certain properties.

As for the possession thing, it 's a little weird. He can possess people only once and not more. When he does possess a body, the person he possesses will not know what happened, but they will be able to see and hear him even if he becomes invisible. Morris will be able to see their memories and thoughts in some kind of "brain control-room". He has taken control over guys like Spider-Man and Magneto before, so the ability itself is pretty powerful.

Morris also has some mad basketball skillz, he's one of the best players in the world. Maybe even the best.

Reading Recommendations

Mosaic #1-8: Honestly, I will only recommend one comic for Mosaic and that's his mini-series. His only other notable appearance is in IvX but that sucks so I'll just leave it here. Anyway, the first 5 issues revolve around the storyline of Morris discovering his life was just one big sell-out, along with him trying to learn to control his powers and look into the world of the every day man. The last 3 issues don't really have a deep storyline, just some small self-contained stories like Morris meeting the Inhumans and saving the day by beating Diablo.

Why Read About Mosaic?

Mosaic is a good character. Even though his series was fairly short, he still got decent character development. He was a rich man, but during his possessions he learned a lot about every day life. He saw other sides of the world which made him realize he had to become a hero. Also, the well-paced storyline in which Morris realises his entire life is faked is a well-done tale.

Another thing are his powers. They aren't exactly new, but they are certainly interesting to read about. The art in the solo is also really good especially around the possession parts, and it has a really cool charm to it.

@majinblackheart@bramvanelteren@mcu_jedi_bob@ghostravage@anthp2000@higherpower@wyldsong@kevd4wg@heirtothekingdom@jashro44@warlockmage@morpheus_@cull_obsidian@owie@lubub55@darth_nimrod @acrokat@full123@major_hellstrom@mickey-mouse@giliad_@jucaslucasa@thedailybagel@deathhero61@ordinaryalan@andromeda101@shade545@underfire47@noobmaster2001@the_magister@KolKent@The_Kidd@Kangconquers@_Logos_@PyroFN@mysticmedivh@thevoidofdeath@straight-fire@baph@soratoumiga@kevd4wg@the_hajduk@noone1996@ouroborik@brucerogers@apex_pretador@battle123axe@vertigo-@supremegeneration@del_torro_@koays@blackspidey2099@pipxeroth@fetts@god_spawn@reaverlation@geekryan@xZone@Ecoblitz@takenstew22@DCandMarvelComicFan@PSI-BITE234@Kryptonianking@BladeOfFury@Mo_Ail@Zetsu-San@lazarus4tempest@Mooty_Pass@Thorthunder98@MorbusGrav@NWName@animehunter@thor-parker@highmantra_x0sp

Honestly, the latest Mortal Kombat movie was... disappointing to say the least. I think I'm not the only one who thought it was really bad, but I can't deny that there have been a few interesting battles on the board related to the movie. This one, created by @limitless82, features the entire movie roster. The thread discusses which MCU Avenger can solo the roster, and the answers are varied to say the least; Iron Man, Spider-Man, Black Panther, Vision and Captain America are all brought up into the debate. Personally I don't debate live-action, but for those who do like to do so this thread should provide a lot of fun.

Another thread featuring a lot of characters; 21 comic heroes battle it out in this battle made by @koays. Most of the characters are high tiers, so as expected, it's a huge cluster of hax abilities like telepathy, superspeed, intangibility, cryokinesis, energy manipulation and more. While most people have agreed to the Avengers losing here, the argument between the X-Men and the Justice League is still going strong. Overall, it's a nice debate and a pretty balanced fight in my opinion. It's definetly worth a read, and maybe even a comment.

And lastly, we have my favourite battle of this week. Not only because I adore both characters featured here, but because I consider this an incredibly fair match. I don't see either taking the other out under the match circumstances. Plastic Man is too durable for Creel to put him down, but Absorbing Man's physiology negates most of Plastic Man's offense. But really, no one has made a good case for either here, and the thread has gone quite unnoticed. So, please go to the thread and make a good case. For me. @bowlt_swagg_320

In this new tourney, @faradaysloth represents HP Lovecraft from Bungou Stray Dogs, Roy Mustang from Fullmetal Alchemist, and Ri Shin from Kingdom against @ashrym's sole character, Jason Todd. I haven't paid a lot of attention to Todd in a while, and it seems like he's been up to quite a lot! Ashrym paints a great picture of how multi-talented Batman's old apprentice is, and not just in fighting, speed, and durability, but in some fairly abstract precog/planning abilities. faradaysloth, meanwhile, goes into great detail with his team's fighting skills and how they have grown over time, not to mention some fire powers and monstrosities. Jason's certainly got his hands full fighting three serious opponents, but he's a lot more than a Robin these days. This tourney is half-way done, so time to start reading it now before votes come up.

Another entry in the same tourney, @maestromage has Earth's Mightiest Heroes Black Panther, comics' Deathstroke, and Edward Elric (our second character from Fullmetal Alchemist just in entries we're featuring from this tourney), while @defiant_will uses Kung Fu Panda's Po and Todoroki from My Hero Academia. For a street tourney, we've got some pretty powerful guys here, with both teams featuring elemental and chi-type powers, and of course lots of martial arts mastery. It's nice to see a cartoon like EMH here, and maestro certainly has a lot of strategic skills on his team's side, between Panther and Slade. And I am always a sucker for seeing Po take on characters from other, more "serious" shows. Both debaters are top-notch as you know, and they are bringing all their technical and rhetorical skills to painting portraits of their teams' respective abilities. This one feels like it's going to get in deep, so check it out while there's only one post each.

In this debate, @thespartanb345t uses a team of marksmen including MCU Punisher, John Wick, and Grant Ward, while @stormshadow_x has a Mortal Kombat team of composite Raiden, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero. Two nicely-themed teams, and of course plenty of controversy. The MK team has lots of martial arts skills and stats, and course course also an array of powers, while the marksmen team is more focused, with their own martial skills, but mostly lots of guns that they can shoot quite accurately. What will win, fancy energy powers or plain ol' bullets? That's up for you to decide once this tourney goes into full swing, but let me in particular recommend you check out the argument for why this battle may in fact be decided by a roving pack of vacuum cleaners.

@mass represents a team composed of Han Jihan from The Gamer, Gerard Valkyrie from Bleach, and Choco Bibi From Hardcore Leveling Warrior/Lucid Adventure, while @tomtheawesome123 has DMS Kakashi and Madara, both from Naruto. We have some classic Bleach/Naruto competition obviously, but also some more obscure characters. Jihan's got some pretty entertaining gaming-mimicking powers, not to mention a lot of spells and a golem army, and Choco Bibi brings tactical advantage due to his teleportation abilities. In prep, they do a ton of power-sharing to make their team even tougher. The Naruto team has all the speed and hax you would expect as well, and TTA123 is already leaning into some character arguments that may drill some holes into mass's prep plans. That said, Tom has his own teamwork challenges. How will this all work out? Dig into the details on the thread!

@karkus now has one of the greatest "feats" that a respect thread creator can have: creating a full respect thread for a long time Marvel hero. Steve Rogers has become a big name with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but his 616 iteration is the original, with a vast range of feats across every stat you can imagine. Karkus gathered enough feats from the super soldier to make a dozen respect threads for B-List characters and it certainly makes for excellent reading.

Continuing his string of Marvel and DC respect threads, @karkus made a respect thread detailing the power of Mother Nature herself. Nature is often underrated from a high tier perspective, but Karkus proves that even the likes of Thor and Mephisto are susceptible to the dangers of nature in Marvel, and anything from Kryptonians to fifth dimensional imps can succumb to Mother Nature. It's an eye opening thread worth diligent reading.

The idea of CaV's in and of themselves is mostly considered on the site to be the most sacred format of debating, where the usual messy style of regular forums is replaced with a organised, focused discussion on feats and evidence, with (most) toxicity or nonsense being left at the door. However, there's always been some who want to have some.....interesting fun with the concept, and this is where the idea for one of the most well known joke CaV's comes into play.

The year is 2016. Daredevil Season 2 is a hot property on CV and like any new LA material that gets to the forums, it tends to get hyped and exaggerated a good amount. As @amendment50 put it, "I think the big feat everyone was exaggerating was the prison fight that the Punisher had. I specifically remember, I think it was @allstarsuperman pulling the leg with people that were going on about how impressive it was that he seemed okay after a brutal fight scene. The joke I was playing on was basically just following that NLF thread of, Punisher has infinite stamina, etc" so in a moment of inspiration, he decides to answer a CaV request by @jucaslucas, who at the time was repping STTGL: if you don't know who that is, here's a quick measurement of how this might be a bit of a mismatch for Punisher.

As also stated by amendment, he didn't even think Jucas would take him seriously: "I'm pretty sure jucaslucas was actually looking to rep STTGL in a debate and I just jokingly challenged him in the CaV thread but then he actually made a thread for it and it got some attention so I just decided to have fun with it lol" said thread would also include the devious @pr0metheus, who at the time was a well known troll and wanted to get in on the action, as he himself stated that "I used to be a huge troll on the site so that type of stuff was super funny to me at the time. I used to love seeing just how much I could get away with" but who could match the power of MCU Punisher and something like STTGL? Naturally, the only answer is Clifford, the Big Red Dog. Yes, THAT Clifford.

......trying to describe the mess that happened, even on a play by play basis would be a cosmic task beyond my best attempts. It's like describing the concept of land to a fish, you just can't do it. My only suggestion would be to read it with your own eyes, and make your own judgements. What started as a simple joke thread turned into a massive 5 page epic, in which every part of CV would be dragged into the debate somehow. As Amendment would once again put it, "I didn't really anticipate having a whole CaV, but it just built up momentum when a thread was made and we started upping the ante making dumb posts" and as such, a GOAT thread was created.

The legacy of this singular CaV, started as a simple joke, would spread into a whole host of copycat attempts and many attempting to grasp the same glory as this, but wouldn't be remembered. There's been countless attempts since, even in present day, but THIS CaV will always share that limelight as being one of the messiest but also one of the more wholesome debates on the site: no drama, no toxicity, just some guys goofing off. If only it would've been that simple all the time.

(thanks to Amend and Pr0 for getting in touch and giving their side of the story)

A freshly open debate between two experienced debaters, @thewatcherking representing the Spider-Man, Miles Morales, and @deathhero61 representing the 10th Yozakura Groom, Taiyo Asano; strength, gear, skill are all part of a classic graphic-novel match-up. The posts are not particularly great in size, and both respected users have proven themselves in the past, so it is definitely a thread worth reading through.

@majinblackheart@bramvanelteren@mcu_jedi_bob@ghostravage@anthp2000@higherpower@wyldsong@kevd4wg@heirtothekingdom@jashro44@warlockmage@morpheus_@cull_obsidian@owie@lubub55@darth_nimrod @acrokat@full123@major_hellstrom@mickey-mouse@giliad_@jucaslucasa@thedailybagel@deathhero61@ordinaryalan@andromeda101@shade545@underfire47@noobmaster2001@the_magister@KolKent@The_Kidd@Kangconquers@_Logos_@PyroFN@mysticmedivh@thevoidofdeath@straight-fire@baph@soratoumiga@kevd4wg@the_hajduk@noone1996@ouroborik@brucerogers@apex_pretador@battle123axe@vertigo-@supremegeneration@del_torro_@koays@blackspidey2099@pipxeroth@fetts@god_spawn@reaverlation@geekryan@xZone@Ecoblitz@takenstew22@DCandMarvelComicFan@PSI-BITE234@Kryptonianking@BladeOfFury@Mo_Ail@Zetsu-San@lazarus4tempest@Mooty_Pass@Thorthunder98@MorbusGrav@NWName@animehunter@thor-parker@highmantra_x0sp

In this very old thread, courtesy of @lantern_prime, that was recently bumped, everyone's favorite boy scout superhero, Steve Rogers, will take on Metal Gear's renowned Spec Ops operative, Solid Snake. The two soldiers are fully geared up and put to test against one another in a battle worth of ten years and pages of arguments and comparisons. Wether or not you consider it a good match-up hardly matters, since the thread is a classic, good read itself regardless.

Made by @shadowpro, this thread pits three separate versions of the Shredder, Head of the Foot Clan and the primary antagonist of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, against each other. Different eras of animation, crossovers, and similar character interactions present potential for interesting discussions -- that aren't exactly happening right now -- so give it your take, Turtle fans!

In this scenario-type thread, courtesy of @supremegeneration, the main cast of the Kung Fu Panda titles, renowned masters, the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior himself, will take the place of the Avengers in the climax of Infinity War. Their skill, strength, experience and teamwork will be put to test against Thanos' forces as his faceless army, the Black Order, and the Mad Titan attempt to snap those fingers. Feel free to comment.

Two relative newcomers engage in this Star Wars battle. @dathvada represents the final trilogy's Kylo Ren and @epicstoic has the first trilogy's Savage Opress. There are a few stylistic things I'd question here (it's not necessary to copy the other person's entire post to reply) but it gets into some detailed back and forth pretty quickly. Honestly I find it fascinating that there is such continued ambiguity of how to scale the sequel trilogy's force users against the earlier characters. Disney needs to get some more feats for Kylo and Ray, or have them do a little time traveling so we can see how they match up directly or something! But in the absence of that, we have a lot of feats to compare anyway, and this is an interesting matchup between two angry darksiders.

@banditarla has a team of Palpatine and Elsa against @kaijuking's Spawn, Angela, and Frank Miller Batman. This is a wacky match-up for sure, and entertaining because of it. We've got skill and speed on both sides, plus some teleportation, telepathy, and of course ice powers. This one is just starting off but they're posting quickly so start reading now!

@tomtheawesome123 is using Ultimate Kars from JoJo, Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist, and Sing from Kung Fu Hustle. @chronicplane has Luther Strode, MCU Iron Man, and Edward Elric, also from Fullmetal Alchemist. It started off a little slow with the first post but rapidly got long and complicated after that. There's a lot of speed questions here, plus weapons and various hax/skills. There's only one more post to go here.

I think that most of us who frequent General Discussion and read The Daily Debater have seen a lot of these Respect Threads lately. The threads usually feature objects, animals, physics or forces of nature; This time, @karkus made two threads for fall damage and regular humans. Honestly, I wasn't aware that guys like Red Hulk, Thing, Thor, Green Lantern and Orion were so weak that they would die by falling out of a plane, and that guys like Hulk and Martian Manhunter are absolute fodders to random soldiers.

Consistently however, they really aren't. These threads make fun of the usual low ends characters get, and they never cease to entertain. The quality of the RT is pretty high, which usually isn't the case with joke threads. It's definetly worth your time to take a look at.

This RT, made by our very own editor @owie, goes over not one, not two, but three characters from the Star Wars comics. Dr. Aphra, Triple-Zero and BeeTee are all pretty gear- and prep-heavy characters, which is always nice to see in RT's. I'm not exactly a huge fan of the formatting used here, but it's nice to see some fresh ideas being put in place.

This RT features essentially everything that a good RT should have; Citations, character introductions, a nice picture of the character in the OP etc. If you are a fan of the Star Wars comics, I can definetly recommend this as a good and quick read.

Resurrection Man is a fairly obscure character due to not appearing much in other character's books, and thus didn't have a respect thread to his name yet. So yours truly decided to make one.

I don't really want to flatter myself with this RT, so this will be short, but the formatting is pretty well done if I say so. It has the usual citations, but also each death listed separately. It's one worth a read, and as a side-note, you should realy read the 1997 series.

As a person who has made a CBTV RT before, I can solidly say that it is pretty hard to format properly and make GIF's, along with the fact that it takes a lot of time to do so, and I have to say that @viking1205 has done a great job with it. I'm not a fan of the CW, but the thread itself looks really good.

And while it is rare for LA RT's to have episodes cited, this RT does that as well. I can't imagine there being fans of the CW at this point, but if you are, it's a thread worth a look.

I’ve read several strong indie comics in recent months, although of course they can come with some ups and downs just like anything else. Rain Like Hammers, from Image, started off strong, mixing an art style that is simultaneously sparse and full of detail with a writing that communicated loneliness and weirdness, but slowly morphed into level of surreal bizarreness that was hard to follow and lost its humanistic nature. It’s written and drawn by Brandon Graham (Prophet).

Image/Skybound’s Fire Power, by Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead) and Chris Samnee (Black Widow), mixes martial arts action, detailed characterization, and superpowers, but never quite grabbed me (but it’s one of my brother’s favorites, so don’t listen to me). (PIC)

In That Texas Blood, Chris Condon (first-time comic writer) and Jacob Phillip (colorist on Criminal) create a Coen-Brothers-style tale of a man drawn back to both his homeland and his darker self, featuring fantastic sketchy art and some perfectly-nailed character moments, but it also felt a little less tightly coiled by the end. I'm definitely checking out the second arc coming out in June though. It’s from Image too; I don’t want to focus on just one publisher, but I have to say I’ve found a lot of good creator-owned stuff from them. (PIC)

But here are three series that I am currently excited about: one just finished, one in the middle of its arc, and one just starting.

1) Origins: This 6-issue series from Boom! tells the tale of a man stuck in a futuristic world of machines and a deadly techno-virus. The story is by turns quiet and frenetic and makes you strongly empathize with the protagonist, although you’re not always sure that’s a good thing. But it’s the the art that is truly amazing. The mark-making is evocative and bold, each line sure of itself, with lots of solid blacks. The coloring is painterly; it brings the images alive in a way that creates one of the best line art/coloring relationships I’ve seen in comics for a while. This comic is just beautiful. Writing by Clay McLeod Chapman, drawing by Jakub Rebelka, and colors by Patricio Delpeche, each of whom has made a handful of comics before this and who I hope are kept busy.

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2) Dead Dog’s Bite: This Dark Horse series by Tyler Boss (4 Kids Walk into a Bank) is now 3 issues into what is going to be 4 issues total. The story is strange and funny and painful. A young woman is trying to find out what happened to her friend who disappeared, and everyone in town seems to be conspiring against her. The characters are hilariously annoying, with great dialog. The linework is loose, similar to Samnee’s and to a degree, Chip Zdarsky’s on Sex Criminals, but with a panel structure that reminds me of David Aja’s work on Hawkeye. The mystery is mysterious, which I know is more than a little tautological, but what I mean is that the mystery at the core of the story is effectively leading me on to wonder what the hell is going on.

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3) The Good Asian: The first issue, by Pornsak Pichetshote (longtime editor at Vertigo) and Alexandre Tefenkgi (Outpost Zero), came out only a couple weeks ago from Image. The first time I read it, I thought it was pretty solid but a bit confusing. The second time I read it, the pieces all fell in place, just like they do when you see a complicated noir movie the second time around. That’s what this is, a noir comic set in the 1930s, with one of the only Asian cops in all of America trying to solve a missing persons case and a (seemingly) Tong murder while also musing on the ambiguities of his parentage and the allure of the women in his past. This one gets into the history of immigration and race in the US, centering the ban on Chinese immigration nearly a hundred years ago which still has ramifications today, while painting a clear picture of the main character’s personality and the world he lives in.

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Indies are attracting more and more top-shelf talent from the majors while continuing to cultivate newcomer and fiercely independent artists. Check out some of these indie comics, or others, from Image’s The Old Guard: Tales Through Time (yes, Image; featuring a lot of new creative teams; PIC) to Garth Ennis and Goran Sudzuka's Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal (AWA/Upshot; PIC)! There’s also some nice reverse movement, for instance with Daniel Warren Johnson’s Beta Ray Bill!

@mrsyg reps Cyborg Syperman, Firestorm, Mysterio, Sabretooth, MCU Karnak, and DCEU King Shark (kind of) (his dream team) against @gilgameshthepimptoendallpimps' Ryougi Shiki, Mewtwo, and MCU Dr. Strange (with the time stone). This debate gets kind of personal right off the bat, but there's also plenty of interesting stuff going on in the actual fight, with Syg having, for instance, illusions and matter manipulation against Gilgamesh's magic and time powers from Strange and Magic Eyes from Shiki. Vote!

@akz:@ouroborik@battle123axe@geekryan:@rac95@frozen@mike_strike10:@sirkaboom15:@blackspidey2099

@godlyshinigami@pyrofn@kangconquers@terry2012@supremegeneration@higherpower

@kevd4wg@punyaamrit@kaijuking@sar_annihilator@killerboi@ultraphoenix@maestromage

@chronicplane@thevoidofdeath@themadtitan6000:@teefurtree:@majinblackheart@princesscadenza@noone1996

@del_torro@jashro44@beatboks1@maalik@lettsplay10@god_spawn@sweatboy@koays

@byondeon@cheatcode@themidnightking@xthemanofmightx@blackpantherisb@novaprime2@vinervvvvv@eredin12

@achillesspawn@death4bunnies@deadmanwalkin@darthjhawk@kurt_saulenne@manofmanynames2@killianduclark

@slash03@life_without_progress@destinyman75@mooty_pass@thealtone003@americanspeeddemon

New call-out list, let us know if you don't want to be included.

A smartly paced matchup that has two of the biggest groups in Marvel face off with each other, but with a twist in having them be the modern contemporary versions instead of the versions we usually see. A lot of good, solid points being made for both teams here, a lot of focus on the heavyweights in particular and how they interact with the far more versatile abilities that the X-Men share among them. Not many threads can be this balanced in terms of not being easy to call either way reliably. Created by @marvelfan1992.

I'm a fan of space-battle battles, especially at the empire level, where we consider entire fleets. They're a staple of sci-fi movies and novels, and of comics, but we don't see them as much in the Battles section, probably because they're often more about ships than characters. In this case, it's not quite that simple, but it's still something to consider. This thread has some thoughtful and detailed opinions on both sides. Battle created by @professorrespect.

This is a good battle imho considering the hype behind MHA and the fact the thread was created a month ago but just got the deserved attention now. Battle created by @jashro44.

A little early battle involving Loki-related characters but people don't seem to held themselves when it comes to debating the several possibilities involving time manipulation and all of its variables. Battle created by @rajjarsalt.

If you want Hax, citations, crazy calcs, Hax, with a freaking year worth of prep and lots of HAX, this is your place to be! Battle created by @jonathancarlton.

Some experienced debaters are debating manga famous and obscure in this CaV. With @defiant_will and @deathhero61 backing the famous Hunter x Hunter and My Hero Academiavillains Meruem and Shigaraki against Seraph of the End's Yuu and Tokyo Ghoul's Ken Kaneki, represented by @maestromage and @killerqueen, it's a 2v2 of magnificent proportions and likely to evolve into an amazing read considering the expert knowledge each of these debaters have on their characters. Two posts are already up, get tagged for the rest!

Representing Castlevania, @buildhare is debating against a duo of Berserk characters repped by @epicstoic. The recent passing of Berserk mangaka, Kentaro Miura, was a great loss for many of the series' fans, and Stoic has done a splendid job putting respect on the name of his characters so far, with Hare offering a similar level of effort and quality in the wake of Season 4 of Castlevania. This one's almost over, don't miss out on the action!

In a one man vs team tourney match, @maestromage is testing out Anthrasax against @faradaysloth's quartet of manga characters. As usual, both debaters have put out top notch arguments for their respective sides, and it doesn't appear they'll drop that quality before they end. It's almost over though, one post away, so get in and ask for a tag while you still have time!

This respect thread, courtesy of @eredin12, breaks down Darth Vader's powers as seen in the Disney canon of Star Wars, including films, novels and comic books. Now, don't ask me to talk about the many different canons of the franchise, all I know is that every version of the Darth Vader promises a formidable combatant; from his speed, saber, mind and telekinetic abilities to the most iconic element of his power set, his mastery over "the Force", the Dark Lord of Sci-fi is a force to reckoned with himself!

In this respect thread, made by our very own @owie, the Opener Timothy Hunter of the DC universe is introduced in great detail. I shall ignore the jab at Harry Potter -- yes, it is Potter, Owie -- and move on to the thread itself: an Opener is an immensely potent magic user, capable of tapping into the source of pure magic within the universe to form entire dimensions and reshape reality as a whole, effectively creating alternate versions of his world without even realizing. That is, because every Opener needs to first understand and then train into the use of their magic if they are to safely control them. Tim is still a young lad however, which makes for quite the interesting character. Feel free to check it out.

This creator, @kaijuking, lately worked on a list of respect threads for characters appearing in the Mass Effect video games. They are listed on the top of the page of Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya's own thread. Suited up, these alien characters are full of all sorts of tech pieces and weaponry you can imagine, and they know how to use them. Zorah in particular seems to be both an expert fighter, and incredibly adept with and against fictional levels of technology. All of these threads are evidence of good effort put into them, they are easy to read and might lead to a lesser known franchise entering the battle forums, so keep an eye on them.

The infamous @professorrespect is back at work, and in the past three days, he's released a number of noteworthy threads for everyone to enjoy. This particular thread covers a powerful villain of Doctor Strange, Sise-Neg, whose goal is to travel back in the beginning of time and drain all magic of the cosmos, making himself powerful enough to recreate the universe... Why? How come? What's the guy's deal? I don't know, but that is a very powerful being capable of challenging the likes of Loki and the Sorcerer Supreme, so he got a spot on Professor's list. Check this thread and the other two out if you wish to be educated on some more obscure villains of the week.

Some of you who are newer to Comic Vine may not realize how different the site was when there were actual staff doing actual features on a regular basis. G-man was one of the co-founders of the site (you can read all about him in our interview with him in our centennial TDD issue from last year) and one of the main contributors to the features and news, which were posted to the home page.

One of my personal favorite features was the cosplay coverage from many of the major cons from at least 2010 to 2016. These comic con reportage articles really show off the difference between the site now and then, because (shockingly from today's perspective) a couple of the staff would travel to the big cons, do several interviews with creators, and do various other on-the-scene reports. Yes, that's right--the site had actual infrastructure and A/V equipment and paid the staff to do this stuff! You can see how many features the site did on just one con here at this page (its links are all dead, but you get the picture).

Anyway, what I particularly enjoyed was the post-con cosplay report. Tony was obviously a big cosplay fan, and enthusiastically documented hundreds of cosplayers at each con. At the time, I was only just getting into this part of the geek scene, and as someone who didn't live super-close to the site of a major con, these features were a great way to see what was happening, and to check out the diversity and skill in all the cosplays. They're certainly one influence on why I eventually did a deep dive into cosplaying myself.

I'm going to link to just one year each for several cons, to give you some examples, but as you can see on CV's cosplay forum page, there are a ton to choose from.

600 images! from the 2012 San Diego Comic Con

100 cosplays from the 2016 Emerald City Comic Con

The 2012 New York Comic Con. A slightly different format, with a link to the images at the bottom.

The 2015 Long Beach Comic Con.

The 2013 WonderCon and 300 cosplays.

C2E2 in 2015.

And finally some pics from the 2013 Rose City Comic Con in Oregon, just to give you a sense of the range of places they visited.

Enjoy some cosplay and dream wistfully of an era when Comic Vine had the capacity to do this kind of thing. TBH, writing this up has kind of inspired me to think about how we could replicate this today. When I eventually get back to one of the major cons, once the world has opened up to in-person trips again, I may try to do a little "reporter on the beat" action for The Daily Debater, and put together some TDD post-con cosplay coverage.

@akz:@ouroborik@battle123axe@geekryan:@rac95@frozen@mike_strike10:@sirkaboom15:@blackspidey2099

@godlyshinigami@pyrofn@kangconquers@terry2012@supremegeneration@higherpower

@kevd4wg@punyaamrit@kaijuking@sar_annihilator@killerboi@ultraphoenix@maestromage

@chronicplane@thevoidofdeath@themadtitan6000:@teefurtree:@majinblackheart@princesscadenza@noone1996

@del_torro@jashro44@beatboks1@maalik@lettsplay10@god_spawn@sweatboy@koays

@byondeon@cheatcode@themidnightking@xthemanofmightx@blackpantherisb@novaprime2@vinervvvvv@eredin12

@achillesspawn@death4bunnies@deadmanwalkin@darthjhawk@kurt_saulenne@manofmanynames2@killianduclark

@slash03@life_without_progress@destinyman75@mooty_pass@thealtone003@americanspeeddemon@sirkaboom15

New call-out list, let us know if you don't want to be included.

A interesting team v team matchup with some focus on teamwork over "who's got the biggest stats" as per most threads seem to devolve into for the most part, with users bring up the issue of telepathy, leadership skills, how the X-Man can deal with individuals like Hercules, as well as how individual fights would go between members.

There's a good combination of street and high tier characters here, and nothing seems mismatched or out of place. As seen by the responses, there's no real consensus on who wins, which is usually a good thing.

Vader gets shoved into Sidious' Clone Wars position for this Battle, which makes for a interesting change as he's not quite as strong or as fast as his master is, making for more leeway for a potential upset by the pair. There's some interesting discussions here and the perspective on how far Vader REALLY is in terms of power in terms of his Canon self is a interesting abet repetitive exercise. Regardless, this is a interesting match-up and definitely not one that can be divisively determined on the fly.

A long standing debate in the Star Wars community, this follows the recent trend of Maul being evaluated in-between the established top guys in the Canon, with a lot of individuals coming out with far different opinions of where he actually is. This thread is more or less the embodiment of that struggle in how viewpoints drastically change between users. Some say this is the unique quality about SW debating: there's a ton of sources out there and it's very rare to have a proper universal (or even majority) consensus on something. Of course, this being 13 pages is also indicative of how much of a pain that is, but regardless, it's a debate worth sticking on here because of that vast ocean of different viewpoints.

The final round in @geekryan's 2021 Live Action Tournament, @owie and @blackspidey2099 went all in with live action CB characters from various movies and TV shows, including the canon MCU, Netflix's Marvel and the DCU. The match, fought between two excellent debaters who stormed their way through others in this tournament, delivered on all fronts with the strategies they concocted and is definitely worth a read.

In the One Piece world, the Admirals and Yonko are some of the biggest forces of power in the world. In this match, @naronu is taking the current Fleet Admiral, Sakazuki "Akainu" against the Emperor of the Sea Charlotte "Big Mom" Linlin, represented by @eazy_pezy. Akainu vs Big Mom is a big question in the One Piece debating community, given a lot of uncertainties about both characters' power level relative to other Admirals and Yonko, but regardless this will definitely be a debate worth reading.

Harley Quinn has made a bit of an impact on the Battles forums with the recent release of the new Suicide Squad film, and @death4bunnies is using her in this debate against @kryptonianking88 using the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Black Panther, portrayed by the late Chadwick Boseman, whose death's anniversary is today. May he rest in peace. This match has been moving at a steady pace and is nearly finished, so make sure you don't miss it!

@professorrespect and I share a love of weird, often powerful characters with only a few appearances. In the past few weeks, he has created RTs for many of these, including (this is not a complete list) the Thanosi (Starlin's retcon of why Thanos sometimes sucks), Mrrungo-Mu the Enslaver, Dromedan the Deviant Devastator, Machine-Man's nano-Sentinel era, Universo Master of the Mind, Vulture (actually I'm not sure if he's a rando or a headliner), and the Annihilation Wave (not really a minor character per se, but an unusual choice that is still quite useful for comparison's sake in this era of constant alien invasions that all claim to be the worst ever). And then there's his RT for Juggernaut up through the year 2000. Poor Marko sometimes don't get no respect, so the Prof is here to help out on that count.

@americanspeeddemon has been delving deep into the live action DCU/CW Stargirl world, making RTs for Stargirl herself as well as a bunch of other side characters, including S.T.R.I.P.E., Sportsmaster and Tigress, Shiv, Brainwave, Icicle, Wildcat, and Hourman. That's a lot of damn work, and I always tip my hat to folks who have to deal with video/GIFs, because that can take a long time to prep.

We featured a set of Invincible TV show RTs a while back, and now here comes @kaijuking with a giant passle of Invincible comic RTs. We've got invincible himself, plus Thragg, Angstrom Levy, the Mauler Twins, Monster Girl, Dinosaurus, Space Racer, Robot, Allen the Alien, the Brit, and Doc Seismic among others. They all feature links to the other RTs in the series. It's always great to take a finite series like Invincible and then just break it entirely apart and make RTs for every character. It's a great way to learn about the characters.

You've done a lot of debating and made a lot of respect threads. What do you like to see when you read a debate? What do you like to see when you read a respect thread?

I like to see a few things during debating: a friendly atmosphere and a willingness to provide evidence for your claims.

The best CaV's/general debates I've seen are ones where the people are just having a chat about what they think happens and how their character could win. Examples would be something like you vs @majinblackheart in that Wizard vs Power Pack CaV. It's a easy debate to get into without any drama or fuss, and the points are reasonable but not pushed to the audience, nor are they pandered. Having a heated argument is fine: it's resulted in some great melodrama in the past: but I feel like almost every debate is like that these days and it just sours the whole thing for myself. Too much focus on "gotcha!" questioning and aggressiveness, not enough on detailed argumentation and logical analysis.

I think I've put out responses to this exact question to curious minds about how a RT should be, so forgive me if I quote from myself. The first and foremost thing I desire is citations: even with the smallest of RT's citations are really necessary, otherwise you just have people using random scans with no extra information, which has been a bane of debating circles for years. Citations help to make a RT more legitimate and allows people to research the feats you bring up for themselves, I've had this a lot where people will use the characters I cover and will use the citations to make their own research/add more information in for whatever they do. This also shows that you actually did the work yourself, and didn't just use a Reddit RT and copy and pasted from there. This might sound weird, but guys like CitizenSentry used to do this all the time and he eventually got caught.

I also like to see good structure (as in, scans placed neatly with accurate descriptions) as it makes things readable for the user. Never underestimate what a good looking format can give to you if you put the time in.

What made you get into specializing in respect threads?

I started as many do in a hobby they want to pursuit: look at the people doing it well. @thetruebarryallen was probably the guy that I looked up to in those early stages and planning and developing my style: I even remember PM'ing him after my very first RT (Which was Digger) and asking him for tips and improvements. I really liked how he made his RT's accessible for anyone, not just guys who read comics, and how he focused on the vague characters with cool abilities. Of course, me and Barry would have a rather complicated history that didn't go very well for him (I guess the term "never meet your heroes" was accurate in this instance) but outside of that, it was my desire to simply learn more about comics along the way and figure the whole thing out while having fun at the same time.

I know you're not a fan of Reddit RTs. Can you explain why?

This is a simple answer: Reddit RT's have a bad quality standard and have been the underlining issue with comic debating for the last decade or so. They aren't cited for the most part, they miss context, have lazy or unremarkable descriptions, or all of the variables I just mentioned. Stuff like the infamous Thing or Mysterio or hell, even their High Evolutionary one. All are really badly made showcases with some truly horrific work (the Mysterio one even uses scans that other Mysterio guys did without a care). Thankfully it's a lot better but you can still find ugly RT's crowded all other the place, which I feel there's no excuse for at all now.

What's your favorite era of comics?

Sliver Age. There's something special about how it was done and how so many great characters and runs were developed: Fox and Sekowsky's Justice League with the camp but well done stories, Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four which redefined the team comic, Dikio and Lee with Spider-Man, which showcased how the concept of the local hero would be presented for the rest of comic history, Captain Marvel which was outselling even Superman at the time! There's just so much brainstorming and idea generation in what is just a speak of human history that it's almost crazy to think about. People write it all off as "cheesy writing" but there's legitimately some great material to go through.

Your favorite story arc?

Kraven's Last Hunt. Extremely emotional tourney of a villain that up to this point was considered a bad joke: Kraven was never respected as a "great villain" and always treated as a idiot by the fanbase. This explored Kraven's mentality, the reasons for why he does what he does, and some dark parallels between him and Spidey: both motivated by death, just moving in different lines and then matching in that "fearful symmetry" that DeMatteis refers to there, both methodically and also literal in how Kraven steals his identity. There's a twisted beauty in how he enacts his plot here and how he accepts things when it eventually falls apart. Kraven retreats to his past and falls into oblivion, Peter rises above and finds not happiness, but hope. Fantastic.

Your favorite creators?

Jack Kirby, Grant Morrison, Brent Anderson, Kurt Busiek, Andy Lanning, AI Ewing and Chris Claremont. Fantastic writers for obvious reasons. I skip Stan Lee because I don't feel comfortable putting him on here when I know and it has been widely documented that he stole a ton of credit from other writers (and didn't correct anyone until it was far too late) and his solo material isn't very good either. Let's just say there's a reason why nearly all of Stan's co-writers didn't like him afterwards.

Are there any comics you're into that don't fit into your battle/RT interests?

Astro City, mostly.

What do you read outside of comics?

I'm wildly focused on reading up on Psychoanalytical material, mostly leaning on a Lacanian methodology than Jungian. I've been a avid reader of philosophical Etymology going all the way back to when Plato started with his Forms theories. You can tell that I'm VERY dry when it comes to my reading, lol, but I like reading the odd biographical piece as well. I recently read up on SDS/Weatherman history according to Mark Rudd, great stuff.

Why did you join Comic Vine as opposed to other forums?

Reddit was too barren, Space Battles is (still) too outdated, AnimeVice is obviously not my crowd, VsBattles is just full of outlier wank, and KMC is......well, KMC. CV isn't perfect but it's the most balanced in my opinion.

I know you don't believe in a "golden age" of Comic Vine, but have you observed any big differences or phases as you've observed and participated?

In the 4 or 5 years I've been around, I've seen some noticeable changes in the audience. CV attracted a lot of a older audience with their content, a lot of guys wanting to discuss comics and whatnot but not really "debate" or anything to that sort. You still get people like them showing up as the old guard, which is nice to see. Now it's a lot of kids and perhaps even younger focused around aggressive and heated discussions, usually over anime and manga, also using new formats like Discord and voice chat to yell and shout other each other. I don't fit in with this crowd obviously so it's been a alienating force for a long while. The people who are interested in discussing comics is getting less and less every day, which is annoying.

There's never been a "prime" CV: that's obvious as you stated: but I miss the days where comic CaV's were frequent and not a rarity now. Is that bias? Of course, I'd never deny that, but it's true for me and I'll never say otherwise.

If you were going to make a respect thread for the Viner you respected the most, who would it be and what would it look like?

That's a really hard one lol. I'd have to pick the late great Major_Hellstorm. I'd list his creativity: how he did amazingly well against anyone with super detailed strats using vague and underutilised characters like he did in multipleHTT tourneys, how he was a RT maker when that kind of stuff wasn't commonplace (and making them on characters people didn't know a lot about!!) how he genuinely tried to improve the site with his "Bootcamp" series and such, how he inspired me with suggestions and some great advice for debating and life in general. He's a awesome dude and I'm thankful to have known him before he left to do bigger and better things in the irl world, where he's making a living and actually doing shit. He wasn't the best debater or whatnot but he always was calm and respectful in debates and was as creative as can be, especially when we'd both hang around and just have fun making up silly strats in tourneys for fun, not even taking it seriously.

What are you most proud of in your time here?

RT's, mostly. I've helped so many people with getting teams ready and wanting to know about their favourite character. There was a thread I stumbled on SpaceBattles where some user was like "wow never knew Mysterio was so cool!!" and then linked all of my RT's for him underneath to show to people. It's small things like that which make me proud to do what I do, when users who didn't know about a particular person gets shocked by how good they actually are. I'm proud to have been and to continue being the resident RT guy who'll turn every stone to find feats because of how much it entertains and helps people all over the site and beyond, as cheesy as that sounds.

@akz:@ouroborik@battle123axe@geekryan:@rac95@frozen@mike_strike10:@sirkaboom15:@blackspidey2099

@godlyshinigami@pyrofn@kangconquers@terry2012@supremegeneration@higherpower

@kevd4wg@punyaamrit@kaijuking@sar_annihilator@killerboi@ultraphoenix@maestromage

@chronicplane@thevoidofdeath@themadtitan6000:@teefurtree:@majinblackheart@princesscadenza@noone1996

@del_torro@jashro44@beatboks1@maalik@lettsplay10@god_spawn@sweatboy@koays

@byondeon@cheatcode@themidnightking@xthemanofmightx@blackpantherisb@novaprime2@vinervvvvv@eredin12

@achillesspawn@death4bunnies@deadmanwalkin@darthjhawk@kurt_saulenne@manofmanynames2@killianduclark

@slash03@life_without_progress@destinyman75@mooty_pass@thealtone003@americanspeeddemon@sirkaboom15

New call-out list, let us know if you don't want to be included.

I appreciate this battle by @shroudofsorrow because of how they incorporate numerous less-used non-force users, from TK-622 to Agent Kallus to Iden Versio. Some of these characters are just random folks who are just entertaining to see here, others really should get a little more love in the forums so we can work out exactly where they fall (like Kallus). It's also worthwhile to work out Sabine's exact level, since she is not only a highly athletic character, but she's got a plethora of gear and even formal training with lightsabers. The participants in the debate throw in some nice details, but this is one that could get some love and go further.

Shang-Chi obviously took the battle forum by storm when his movie came out. Not only did he break the ceiling when it came to pure martial arts combat in the MCU, he also had multiple tiers of amps, so battle-creators could put him in all kinds of situations, including against some fairly high tiers. But here I want to feature a few of the streetlevel battles he was put into, where the debating community put some of their most detailed thought about his abilities: @limitless82's MCU Shang-Chi vs Spider-man and MCU Shang-Chi vs Po, @banditarla's MCU Shang-Chi vs Green Arrow, @ardayzr's MCU Shang-Chi vs MCU Daredevil, and while it didn't get much commentary, I want to give credit to @rebake's MCU SHang-Chi vs MCU Black Panther (Multiple Rounds) for a good concept.

Why am I featuring these two threads together? Because both of them, one created by @takenstew22 and one by @kaijuking, are both designed to create an actual conversation based on a close battle that isn't immediately resolvable to "X stomps Y," which frankly a pretty huge chunk of anime threads are seemingly designed to result in. Folks, lemme get on my lecturin' box here a second and say that there's no damn point in making a thread that ends in a stomp. The battle forum doesn't exist to make you feel better about your favorite character, it exists to sharpen your mind as you try to compare characters and strategies--or at least that's how I see it. We're not here to attack each other, that's not what a community is. We're here to have conversations and come to the truth by listening to each other, a truth which is likely somewhere in the middle between what any two debaters start off thinking it is. Anyway, these two threads both started off as what the debaters thought were uneven battles--but notably, not because the creators wanted to make it uneven. So the creators both edited their battles to make it more even, resulting in a deeper conversation about the characters. Props to them.

This is the brought back Revived Record of Ragnarok tourney that was abandoned after the obvious drama with the site in which nobody could actually post unless you jumped a ton of hoops. Considering it's at full swing at the moment, it would be obviously good to check out some of their best matches thus far, this being one of them. Naturally with this being a more weeb-focused tourney, there's a tendency for some crazy strats as we get here. Darth and gilga both have some pretty big plans going into this: one is focused around a ruthless shutdown of offence using all sorts of defensive and offensive options to make matches quick, the other is a endless engine of fire and destruction. Both have their first posts out, so it's a pretty big deal already and sure to get more interesting as time goes on.

Here's another pretty interesting match. Anubis is a powerhouse with lots of shadow constructs and control over them, while Lupin is more of a sneaky strat with a lot of ways to control the battle beyond just raw physical stats, using a lot of versatility and some fun material. He also uses Mysterio tech albeit he keeps missing out on some of those juicer feats smh. Man should've checked out those old RT's for some real material, but hey, not everyone can be a pro at Beck like yours truly. This is a another really heated first series of posts, with some solid debating within them.

BoF is apparently retired off multiple projects but he's still focusing on this one as of what I've heard, so this is another chance to check out his erm, "unique" strats first hand, which are needless to say, extremely impressive if not for their innovation. Here, he seeks to redefine the status that LA characters have in place to comic ones. Usually we'd consider matches like this to not be objectively not competitive at all, but this isn't a factor within a CaV, so it means anything can happen. Godly thinks otherwise, but I think this is a lot closer than he thinks it is, as you can see by the detailed posts that BoF has threw out. If you want to see a unique feature with some thought provoking argumentation, check this out.

Newcomer @demarg's RT on Daishinkan from Dragon Ball is fairly short but seems to collect all the most relevant information and keeps to the point. It was helpfully given a little crowd-source assistance from fellow fans who suggested additional feats, which always helps to round an RT out. I'm looking forward to more RTs from them; adding citations would be a next good step.

Respect Prodigy, Forgotten Hero! (Complete Respect Thread)

We haven't had an RT from prolific creator @noobmaster2001 in a while, but now he's back with one for Prodigy, a Spider-man-related character. This very thorough thread details Prodigy in detail, even including his basketball feats against the New Warriors :) Noob also provides some context explaining the difficulty pigeonholing the character into standard battle tiers, showing higher and lower end feats.

@professorrespect is currently more than halfway through a five-part series of RTs on Mordru, the DC sorcerer. This powerful being, having been around for a long time in both publishing and in-universe as a time-traveler, has distinct sets of abilities for each era, and the Prof has set out to clarify those differences for us, which I'm sure will help settle some mis-use of the character in the forums. Here are the RTs for 31st-Century Mordru, Post-Crisis Mordru, Post-Zero Hour Mordru, and Rebirth Mordru. Check back later for part five (Post-Rebirth)!

@kaijuking has, perhaps not surprisingly, made an RT on the kaiju I personally knew as Gorgo but I guess is actually called Ogra. This excellent RT goes into movies and comics about the titanic British beast, with great detail on both. I gotta say I love the aesthetics of both the classic movie and the old-school comic.

The Americans of Comic Vine, and many who aren't, are aware of the events of September 11th, 2001. Last Saturday was the 20th anniversary of that horrible day. While we are a comic site and focus primarily on uplifting, comic-related things, I would like to devote a very short part of this TDD to examining a bit of 9/11's representation in comics, as well as the effect it had on related media, out of respect for those who died.

Possibly the most famous example of 9/11 in Comics is "The Black Issue," a Spider-Man comic that directly portrayed the effects of the attacks. With even famous villains like Dr. Doom shedding a tear over the attack, it's Marvel's way of showing that even enemies were united on that day, and by putting the common workers together with iconic heroes like Captain America, they truly showed that "not all heroes wear capes."

Another comic that uses 9/11 in a far different way is The Boys #21. Many who watched the TV show will remember the plane crash scene, where Homelander and Queen Maeve allow the people on board to die. In the comics, that plane crash happened on 9/11, with the crash happening into the Brooklyn Bridge rather than the World Trade Center. It shows a different reality, one where superheroes are around to stop such attacks, and we get to see the effects on the page.

Of the attacks, the attack on New York is remembered best, as it had the most extensive news coverage and live video of the second plane crash, as well as the Twin Towers collapsing. These particular shots have had a notable effect on the action scenes in comic book based movies. One of the best examples is in Avengers: Age of Ultron, when the Hulkbuster destroys a skyscraper during the fight with the Hulk. The imagery of the skyscraper falling down and people running are practically copies of 9/11 pictures, which served to make the scene more emotional and realistic.

DC has also seen movies similar to the event, such as in Man of Steel. Zod and his crew of extremists attacked Metropolis while sending the World Engine elsewhere to cause more damage, similarly to the extremists of Al Qaeda attacking New York and Washington, D.C. To stop the attack on Metropolis, we see a plane crash into a massive structure and break it, flown as a sacrifice, just like the heroes aboard Flight 93 crashed the plane and killed themselves to save others. After this, Superman and Zod fought, showing imagery of collapsing skyscrapers and falling debris and paper, among other things--all very reminiscent of 9/11.

9/11 was a terrible event, and if anything in this came across as making light of the event or thinking it's "cool," I hope you understand I didn't mean it in any way like that. With this writing, I merely hope to shed light on how 9/11 effected American life and culture even more than some may have originally known.