Ivan

I really like Simon Williams, you guys. I think he's the most underrated Avenger. He's basically Captain Atom meets Johnny Cage.

AIM dudes have access to weapons and equipment that will blow everyone's mind. A lightsaber is a cute toy next to a portable isometric black hole generator or a quantum transwarp hand-cannon or a phase disruption psychic death lance or whatever stuff they're packing at the moment. AIM holds off The Avengers with twenty or so dudes, armed with whatever is lying around. 100 AIM guys in a giant superweapons warehouse? We'll be lucky if they don't accidentally blow up the planet with all that firepower.

Please don't pretend to have any clue as to what the match I've always wanted is. Unless you wrote Batman and Spider Man on a slow boat to china having a taco-eating contest while reciting British Romantic poetry and listening to Dio, you've not even come CLOSE.

Two-Gun Kid. Pow!

Spider Man wins. Super Agility + Spider Sense = nothing Batman & Robin do can touch him. I mean, I could write the outcome either way, but the match poster was such a weenie about it that I HAD to vote for Spidey just to even the odds. Don't get me wrong, I would love to lecture you kids on the finer points of all things Batman- I'd take you all to SCHOOL- but that's not what this is for. Rassum Frassum kids and your pokey mans...

Hmmm... I wonder who that could possibly be directed toward? I'm not interested in rating any matches- under the Ivan system everyone fails, always. Cool match, though.

If it were me I'd start with Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics which is the most awesome kind of primer for enjoying any sequential artwork. I'm a fan of the Fables-> Sandman-> Promethea path. It's a little cerebral, but afterward I think a person could sit down and read Swallow Me Whole and not have any questions. After that, though, most comics will be a bit of a letdown. Bone is a great way to go- and if she wants a follow up, Groo is consistently awesome, and Usagi Yojimbo has never ever had a bad issue. This will help provide a buffer so she doesn't start thinking "Comics = Superheroes" (It's a trap a lot of people fall into, and then they can't understand why some crap like Iron Man Extremis isn't considered the best comic of all time.) There's never a bad time to share Maus with someone, comic fan or not. If you specifically want to introduce her to Superhero comics, the Marvel Essentials are a decent place to start, you get plenty of Jack Kirby and all the classic stuff like "This Man This Monster" and "The Kid Who Collected Spider Man." After that I'd go for a good team book that plays up the interpersonal aspect- Astro City books are always great, but if you're looking for a Big Two comic I like Geoff Johns' runs on both Teen Titans or JSA, Grant Morrison's JLA run, or some of the more well-known Claremont/Byrne X Men arcs. I'm a huge fan of Days of Future Past, myself, although I think the Dark Phoenix saga is likely the most popular. My personal favorite superhero book was Top Ten, if that counts for anything.

I think the X Men could give it a go- you've got enough psychic defense to keep him from totally wiping the team out in one go, some melee brawn, some energy projection, and a team skilled at working together... enough variation and difference to keep him from becoming utterly dominant on any one front, plus powers like Rogue's and Psylocke's that he wouldn't intuitively know how to deal with off-hand. If they fail, the Avengers take the data from that battle and formulate their own attack strategy. A decent version of the Hulk alone could keep him distracted just long enough for someone to develop a containment strategy. Really, though, how about Despero vs Apocalypse?

Don't know what happened to it, but there was a fan theory floating around at one point, based on the then-new revelations about Iceman, that suggested that Omegas had the potential to exhibit complete control over a specific type of energy down to the subatomic level- so Iceman could theoretically manipulate molecular motion at its most basic level, which in theory should let him do everything The White Queen could do in his body PLUS have Human Torch powers and then some. To my knowledge, he's never been used that way. Virtually all of the known Omega Level mutants can potentially control matter at a subatomic level through some psionic ability- with Bobby and Elixir being the two most notable exceptions. The theory attempted to classify Iceman's abilities along those lines. The Methos theory would seem to be supported by Joseph- although he used Magneto's power at a level beyond Magneto- he failed to achieve an "energy form" as it were, because he's not Omega level. Those powers burned out his body instead.

Your average MotU toy dwarfs a standard Warhammer figurine. He-Man and company for the win! #sizedoesmatter

Dudes nobody rated this? That's sad... I just noticed it. It's cool to see people using the old style Sportscast setups, I hope that makes a comeback in a big way.

There were also some Willow comics co-written by George Lucas and Chris Claremont at some point which I would love to get my hands on some day, but I am unfamiliar with the content. Also I was mostly joking, a person would either have to build Bavmorda in First Edition or try and convert Raistlin to Pathfinder, and I'm not sure which is a more insane prospect

Later versions of Raistlin get really stupidly powerful- at some point it's stated he could kill a god if he felt like it. Also the staff of Magius kinda balances out Shalindria's wand. My real question is, who's the rules expert who is going to figure out the bare minimum power level Bavmorda would need to pull off those kinds of stunts in D&D?

Marc Silvestri and Rob Liefeld are interchangeable. To be clear, you're allowed to vote however you want. You're also allowed to express your opinions. However, don't be surprised if you ever express an uninformed or unpopular opinion, that people will disagree with you. In this case, hating garbage created by Image founders and their buddies is a pretty safe bet.

Mouse Guard is so good, you guys.

It's never about powers. Powers don't matter. Ever. I would vote for Tom Strong in a match against The Sentry, because Sentry is a joke of a character, and Tom Strong is flipping awesome. I don't care who is stronger. Don't. Care. Hehe.

Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen is a douchebag of the highest order. He described Dragon- typical mindless Image fare complete with bait-and-switch storytelling and "kewl" artwork- as "more Mature than Marvel, less pretensious than Vertigo." Go away, Erik Larsen. You haven't ever written a noteworthy comic, and your major hateboner for Neil Gaiman is predicated entirely on the fact that your buddy Todd spent two decades trying to screw him over. Larsen's unpublished screed that was supposed to accompany his Nova comic throws everyone from Marv Wolfman to Tom DeFalco under the bus. The guy, like every Image creator, is a huge tool without the talent to back it up. (John Byrne and Peter David are tools too, but the difference is those guys created some epic comics.) Tangled Web's "Flowers for Rhino" arc was a far better story than anything that has ever appeared on the pages of Savage Dragon in the two decades it's been published. Argue powers all you like, but voting for Savage Dragon is morally reprehensible.

First of all, let me say that THIS is the kind of thread we should be seeing on CBUB more often- it's a valid question and everyone so far has made a good case for their respective answers. Good show all around. In my opinion, even though MJ technically came first, Gwen belongs with High School/College age Spider Man. Gwen only really works when Peter is younger, she mirrors his nerdy side and is a better foil for the balancing home/work/school/superhero dynamic. Mary Jane is the better choice for a Spider Man who has been allowed to grow up and become an adult. She is both his soul mate and the mother of his children. MJ works best with a Spidey who has grown-up problems, one who has come into his own as a capable, popular hero. (Marvel Comics writers seem to hate this version of Spiderman and have consistently engineered excuses to return him to a less mature version of himself.)

(In My Humble Opinion...) The one thing Grudge Match did absolutely right was its system of fight responses. Allowing users one comment apiece, not letting anyone see what anyone else was writing, and having an administrator post only the best comments at the end of the week, these all boosted the average quality of the dialogue. It was a system that rewarded creativity, a sense of humor, and genuine nerd knowledge. CBUB's democratic approach of allowing users to endlessly comment on fights levels the playing field for the less articulate users (and trolls,) but that comes at the cost of average fight quality. Back when the CBUB ran a Grudge Match style system, we got some stunningly funny, insightful, and entertaining responses. Nowadays it's all scans and feats, which is not fun for anyone. Grudge Match was about entertaining people who share your interests. CBUB has become about winning pointless arguments with strangers on the internet.

I agree with the crux of this, but I was wondering when the rules changed. I haven't personally read any of them, but I do think "History vs Classic Monsters" might make some interesting setups. I do think there's some truth to the idea, though, that generally historical figures and forces are not well equipped to take on most of the characters in modern fiction. A single Dalek, Decepticon, or Dreadnought could dominate any pre-WWII human civilzation with relative ease. However, equivalent fictional worlds with their heroes, monsters, and artifacts could provide interesting matches.

I meant the whole concept of putting these two up against each other doesn't seem fair. They have virtually identical powers, but the Hulk is a complex and interesting character, whereas Loose Cannon is best known for being a poor ripoff of The Hulk. I'm saying that BECAUSE their powers are so similar, nobody except a rabid DC fanboy looking to hate on Marvel would vote for Loose Cannon. The match you're proposing requires erasing the Hulk's personality, history, and characterization, which are the only parts of the character anyone cares about! Proof for this statement can be found in Loose Cannon, actually- the two characters have the same powers, but one is a centerpiece of a major franchise, and the other is an "also-ran" from 1993.

I would hope that, through the process of inference, it would at least be clear that The Sentry sucks major balls and that Kid Miracleman is one of the greatest contributions to the medium of comics in the last thirty years, and that they have similar powers.

Loose Cannon is a Hulk ripoff who changes into all the colors of the rainbow. Jeph Loeb wrote "World War Hulks" which was about a rainbow of Hulks punching each other. Hmmm... I'm sensing a recurring theme. Are there any rainbows in Jeph's Batman work?

"Give me some reasons in their abilities not their character." Absolutely not. You've reduced The Hulk, (who has occasionally been a spectacular character to read about,) to a list of powers. This tells me you think the Hulk is ABOUT having superpowers- that the major themes and motifs of The Hulk are "Super Strength" and "Invulnerability." I'm sorry, but I am incapable of seeing storytelling in those terms. Invariable, a "who could beat up who" speculation is only worthwhile to me if both characters are interesting to begin with. I do think people should use more obscure characters, as you've done here, I just wish they'd use good (or at least interesting) ones. How many Sentry fights has the CBUB hosted? Compare that to the number of Kid Miracleman fights. Do you understand the difference?