JulianPerez
Council of Wisdom
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« on: January 05, 2006, 09:14:43 AM » |
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This was inspired by a thread on the CBR forums.
Who would you say are the greatest Martial Artists in DC Comics? How would Superman rank among them? Here are my pics, in order:
10. Mr. Terrific (Terry Sloan)
If you have a thousand talents, Martial Arts are one of them. Though I doubt this guy is as great as other Martial Artists because he lacks specialty; if you have a thousand talents, how much time could one possibly spend with one?
9. Wildcat
Wildcat was a top-ranked boxer and heavyweight champ, but while his aging is decreased, he nonetheless may be slowed down by age. Additionally, Boxing as a style just uses punches and footwork; like Judomaster, Wildcat may be working at a disadvantage next to characters with more acrobatic styles.
Superman was able to hold his own against Mohammed Ali; Ted Grant in his prime is not suggested to have been as great as The Greatest Who Ever Lived.
8. Superman
Superman has been stated as knowing all the Martial Arts on Earth thanks to his Super-Memory. I can recall some other occasions where Superman has used pressure point tricks to disable enemies without harm or without using his superstrength.
Though the reason Superman isn't ranked higher is because as he is used to pulling his punches and holding back, he may be at a disadvantage. Because he has few sparring partners, Superman has almost no real fighting experience in application of such Martial Arts; it is for this reason that evil Hyperion, who had a chance to duke it out with Thor and other Marvel foes, had the advantage over Squadron Hyperion, who because of his strength dared not hit any living being on Squadron-Earth.
It also ought to be noted, additionally, that Superman has no boxing or training facility in the Fortress of Solitude for Martial Arts, implying that Superman may KNOW Kung Fu, he's out of practice. Additionally, without his superpowers, Superman was defeated by Mohammed Ali.
It ought to also be noted that Superman has a seldom-used power, Super-Aim, which he used when adopting his fictional dart-throwing identity. Superman has been shown to use his Super-Aim over universal distances, as when he hurled messages to other planets to warn them about the coming of the Sun-Eater. This power alone would place Superman in the tier of the DC Universe's super-marksmen, along with Deadshot and Green Arrow.
7. Ra's al-Ghul
The guy has had a thousand years to practice his technique. He leads a secret society of Assassins. It's obvious that Ra's has moves.
I would not rank Ra's higher because he is not a fistfighting character primarily. He is more of a mastermind in nature.
6. Batman
I can't agree that Batman is the supreme DC Martial Artist. For one thing, he has been portrayed as being an olympic level gymnast, an agile acrobat instead of a true nunchuck-wielding Karate guy. He probably knows all sorts of styles, but lacks the fanatical devotion and spiritual character of training that define a character like Judomaster or Thunderbolt. The bizarre, esoteric skills that make Karate Kid so formidable, like the ability to split super-future metals with his hands, is thematically absent from somebody as plausibility centered as Batman.
5. Black Canary I and Black Canary II
Lest we forget, Black Canary I was able to use Judo to beat - of all the people in the world - a being as powerful as WONDER WOMAN in the second JLA/JSA annual team up.
At least on one occasion in a JLA comic of the 1980s, Black Canary II was able to fight Deathstroke the Terminator to a standstill - a character that was always shown to be perpetually getting the better, physically speaking, of Nightwing. This implies that Black Canary II is as good a fighter as Batman as well.
4. Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt
Comic Book Rule #346B: If you're trained in THE MYSTIC ORIENT (GOOOOOOONG!), that makes you a better martial artist than somebody just trained at the dojo down the corner. Peter Cannon has been stated to know various oriental tricks and traps kept in secret, which means when fighting he has the element of surprise. Also, combining raw Martial Arts with his MYSTIC POWERS OF THE MIND, including Superspeed, make for an awesome combination.
3. Judomaster
At least the greatest Martial Artist of the Golden Age. The only reason he isn't number one is because his style, like that of Ted Grant, is limited; Judo is only throws and locks and successful counters, which makes him not as diverse as other stylists.
2. Faora
Faora killed twelve men on Krypton with her mastery of Horu-Kanu, which is a pragmatic, results-oriented Kryptonian Martial Art. According to the rule that Everything on Krypton is Better than On Earth (I mean, the most common element on the planet is GOLD, for Rao's sake) this must mean that Horu-Kanu is a much more effective martial art than earthly ones.
Combined with nearly unlimited Kryptonian powers on Earth and you've got a monster.
1. Karate Kid
#1 By an order of magnitude.
There have been occasions where Karate Kid has used his Super-Karate to split ultra-manganese in half, which implies a level of mastery that is downright superhuman. He is considered the most skilled combatant in the Universe by many other beings.
He's the "Flash" of Martial Artists. If you have ONE power, you might as well be better at it than other people that have Martial Arts, PLUS detective ability, and so forth.
By the way, don't you just love Karate Kid's name? "Val Armorr." Muy macho! What, was "Harrd Beefbody" taken?
Incidentally, it ought to be pointed out that there is a disproportionate number of Martial Artists that emerge from Charleston-Earth including Blue Beetle II, the Question, Judomaster and Tiger, and Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt. Perhaps there is some sort of property that belonged to that Earth, some sort of alternate law of physics or differing Martial Arts tradition. Magic was much more powerful, for instance, on Earth-2, and all the great magicians such as Dr. Fate and the Spectre, emerged from Earth-2. Could it also be that Martial Arts contain different training and traditions in Charleston-Earth?
It also ought to be noted that with the visible exception of Black Canary I and Black Canary II, most of the martial artists on Earth-2 are not as skilled as martial artists on Earth-1. And further, Black Canary II only did her really amazing stunts after the move to Earth-1. It also ought to be noted that the dangerous martial arts organizations like Ra's and his Assassins Guild are located on Earth-1.
It is suggested by Englehart that the reason Martial Arts are so powerful on Marvel Earth, home to Iron Fist, Shang-Chi, Mantis, Midnight, Shockwave, Daredevil, and others is because Martial Arts on Marvel-Earth orginated among the teachings of the exiled Pacifist Kree and diffused to other civilizations. Could it be that a similar event explains the Martial Arts proficiency on Charleston-Earth?
(Granted, the REAL LIFE reason Kung Fu is less obvious on Earth-2 is because all that sort of thing only blew up when Bruce Lee got big and everybody got Kung Fu Fever, which took place in the 1970s. But that doesn't mean there can't be an "in-story" reason for it.)
Could Neptune Perkins from the YOUNG ALL-STARS do Martial Arts? He's Asian, so probably. Roger Ebert once said that in movies, every Asian knows Martial Arts and every Latino knows how to salsa dance.
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