This is something I've never quite understood. I get that Superman doesn't have to rely on quick think or strategy as much as some other heroes do given that his powers usually are the quickest and most effective solutions to a lot of problems. But the way that some people talk you'd think that Superman does nothing but punch and throw things into the sun and that he's nothing but a super powered brute.

Ignoring for a moment the fact that in most of his incarnations his father has passed on tons of scientific knowledge to him and the fact that Superman's brain processes information at a way faster rate than any human's can, where do people get the idea that he never uses his head in a battle? Not counting him just wearing a lead suit because he knows he's going to be facing Kryptonite I can think of three instances right off the top of my head of him beating his opponents by thinking strategically or just by using his head.

1. In Superman Earth One when Zod ambushes him with Kryptonite, something Superman is now encountering for the very first time. Zod's armor protects him from the radiation. So what does Superman do?

Superman uses a combination of his powers, the terrain, and logical thinking to destroy Zod's armor, meaning Zod has to seal away the Kryptonite or else die along with Kal-El, giving him the chance to escape.

2. In All-Star Superman, when he's dying and Lex Luthor has gained powers similar to his for 24-hours, what does Superman do?

He uses the gravity gun (something introduced earlier in the story) to warp the time around Luthor, causing his 24-hours of super powers to go by in a matter of seconds, out-thinking Luthor.

3. Apologies for not being able to find more scans of this but in the New 52 Superman faces the Sunturians, an alien race composed of red sun particles, which Superman loses his powers under. What does he do?

He knew he was going to be fighting them, so he planned ahead, throwing containers of water above where they'd be to come down later. The water hits them and he flash-freezes them before his powers run out, ending their threat before they ever even really become one.

I would really appreciate it if anyone who can think of more "Superman using his head" moments would post it in the comments, because I'm sure their are more. These are just the three I remember from stuff I've read recently.

While I can certainly understand people finding Superman boring, because that is just a matter of opinion and I'm not going to demand that everyone like every superhero, I don't like the misconception that Superman is an idiot who only solves his problems with his fists. Are their smarter heroes out there? Of course. But Superman is nowhere near the bottom of the barrel.

The cliché about Dragon Ball (mainly Dragon Ball Z) is that whoever has more power always wins and that power levels, even after being declared B.S, are the only things that matter. But after re-watching Dragon Ball Z Resurrection F, I think that the movie shows that it goes beyond just raw power and Kamehameha blasts and that perhaps Dragon Ball is a bit better than people give it credit for.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for those who haven’t seen the movie. You’ve been warned.

1. The Z-fighters (and Jaco) vs. Frieza’s army

So Frieza’s army invades (sort of) and Piccolo, Tien, Krillin, Roshi, Gohan, and newcomer Jaco fight them all off. Roshi says that they have a quota of about 170 men each to fight, which means around 1020 soldiers, though given that this was the English dub this could just be a tacked on line to let us know that Frieza brought a lot of guys with him. Regardless, the Z fighters fight them all off and there are a couple of things to note from the battle.

1.1: It is stated that the Frieza forces are weaker than they were when Frieza died, meaning weaker than they were back on Namek. So they should have no trouble beating them all right? Right, but… at the end of the battle, all the fighters are shown as exhausted (except maybe Jaco) from fighting such a large number of foes. Now, you could make an argument at Krillin, Tien, and Roshi can only go so far because they’re human and that due to not keeping up with his training, Gohan’s not as great a fighter as he once was, but Piccolo? After he fused with Kami he was on par with Android 17, who (if his sister is any indication) is strong enough to kick the tar out of Super Saiyan Vegeta, who (if Super Saiyan Goku is any indication) should be strong enough to kick the tar out of Frieza, who is WAY more powerful than anyone who serves under him. Piccolo should have had no problem logically, but like the others, he’s also worn out by the fight and needs a Senzu as well.

Now why is this? Easy. Because it is a fight. You kick or punch anything, you’re using energy on it. The reason the Androids were such a big deal is that they were designed to never run out of stamina, while everyone else in DBZ, no matter how powerful, has a limit to their stamina. They can only fight for so long until they run out. So even Earth’s mightiest warriors (save for 18 and Majin Buu (seriously, why were they not there?) can still be worn out when facing an army of hundreds of soldiers leagues below them in power and skill.

1.2: “But the Z fighters didn’t go all-out.”- Counter argument.

Now that’s true. Frieza even said that Gohan alone was enough to lay waste to hundreds by himself if he wasn’t holding back. And that last part is key. Gohan holds his power back because he doesn’t want to kill anyone. He makes all his attacks deliberately non-lethal during the entire battle and still gets tried from doing this, likely because having to control yourself that much puts extra strain on you. So Gohan, who doesn’t want to kill anyone, holds his great power back and leaves himself open to hits and fatigue. Something that his father also goes through in a way later in the movie.

2. Golden Frieza’s weakness

Frieza’s new form of Golden Frieza was powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with Goku’s Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan form. However, this form came with a weakness Goku and Vegeta quickly pointed out to him as soon as they discovered it: that his new form was burning through more power than his body could supply and sooner or later he was going to run out of gas (this weakness bares an interesting similarity to the weakness of Super Saiyan 3). This was later proven as Frieza slowly got weaker during the fight and wasn’t able to keep up with Goku anymore. Goku and Vegeta said that if Frieza had waited a while longer before returning to Earth, he could have trained himself to regulate his power and use it more efficiently, thus he wouldn’t be having this problem.

So Golden Frieza, one of the most powerful DBZ villains to date (with the exceptions of Beerus and Whis) was defeated, not because he was overpowered, but because he couldn’t use his own power properly. It’s not just about having power, but being able to control that power and use it effectively.

3. Death of Vegeta

When Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegeta was about to end Frieza once and for all, Frieza chose option B and blew up the planet (because he gets off on that sh*t). Whis saves everyone close to him from obliteration and that does not include Vegeta.

Now, I don’t know why, but there are people who for some reason keep arguing that Goku and Vegeta can breathe (or at least survive) in the vacuum of space, despite it being stated several times that they can’t. Well, here’s the counter argument for that, because Whis and Beerus make it clear that Vegeta died from what Frieza did, which gives us two options of how:

a. Vegeta died in the blast, which is very unlikely as they say Frieza is likely still alive. If a weakened Frieza coul survive the blast, then a full power Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegeta should have no trouble.

b. Vegeta died due to the lack of air, which is far more likely as they state that Frieza’s race can survive in a vacuum and that destroying the planet was a brilliant move tactically.

Vegeta cannot survive without air and neither can the other Saiyans, no matter how far out into the atmosphere they go. The species in DBZ have abilities that are unique to them and have little to do with their power levels. This is why it’s hard to compare survivability of any DBZ character to Piccolo, as his species can regenerate and survive only on water.

4. Goku getting shot

Yeah, everyone who saw the movie knew this was going to be on here. Goku, in his Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan form, was shot in the chest at his heart area and brought to his knees by, in Frieza’s words “a common ray gun”. How did this happen? Because Goku let his guard down.

Now, some might call this a stupid plot point, but it actually makes perfect sense. There’s something a lot of people, including us Dragon Ball fans, tend to forget: Dragon Ball is a fighting manga. I.e. martial arts. It might not seem like it sometimes, given all the lasers, transformations, and planetary destruction, but at its core it is and always has been (well, technically it’s a comedy series that became a bit more serious as time went on). That’s why Goku and Vegeta are always training, to get stronger and keep their skills sharp. That’s why Gohan, who was once the strongest character in DBZ, is not as strong as he used to be, because he stopped training and his skills and strength dulled over time. That’s why fighters with enough raw power to obliterate moons can still get tried after a long battle, because they’re not at a constant 100% (that’s a big reason for why DBZ has Senzu beans, to get them back to full strength). And in martial arts, or even just fighting in general, if a person leaves themselves too open or is caught off guard, they can be hurt badly by things that they otherwise could just shake off. Think of it a little like Houdini. He had a trick where he could be hit as hard as you wanted in stomach and he’d be fine. But when he wasn’t prepared for it, he died.

Goku can take laser blasts easily, but it can still hurt him if he’s not ready enough for it (like when Krillin threw that rock at him while he was Super Saiyan). He was ready for Frieza, but he wasn’t ready for his subordinate’s sneak attack, which is something that could apply to many fights, both real and fictional.

So there you have it. A couple of reasons why Dragon Ball is not just really shiny guys glowing, yelling, and shooting laser beams at each other. Don’t get me wrong, this series has a ton of that stuff and occasionally a little too much of it. But I like the series and wanted to show that it’s better than some people give it credit for, at least in regards to its fighting.

As I’m sure many people on Comic vine are aware of, there is a popular internet show called Death Battle. Why is it popular? Well it has two fictional characters of some similarity beat the tar out of each other until one of them dies. Who doesn’t want to see that?

But over the years Death Battle has received a lot of criticism and hate towards it. Some deserved, some not so much.

Now on Comic Vine you can nearly always find someone bashing on the show. After reading some of the complaints I feel that Death Battle is hated on WAY too much for unfair reasons. So I just wanted to say some things on Death Battle’s behalf because I actually really like the show and recommend it to others. (Also I watched their livestream of Wolverine vs. Raiden and before the episode even began it had over 4000 downvotes. What the hell?).

I do ask that you at least read all the way through my arguments before dismissing me as just a Death Battle fanboy who believes they can do no wrong. Please read through my arguments before posting in the comments why Death Battle sucks.

Warning: there may be some potential spoilers ahead on the outcomes of certain episodes.

1. Death Battle acts like it is the end-all authority and the word of God!

I’ve never really gotten this impression. I’ll admit that there are fans of the show that take it too seriously and act like they are the word of God on fictional fight, but the people behind the show itself don’t seem to act like that.

There’s one episode that I think captures Death Battle more than any other and that’s their Pokemon Battle Royal episode, the battle of Charizard VS Blastoise VS Venusaur.

In the episode Blastoise is declared the winner because he’d win 48% of the time, whereas Charizard wins 35% and Venusaur wins 17%. They ADMIT that the other two can win over Blastosie. So why’d they choose Blastosie as the winner? Because it is more LIKELY that he wins over the other two. And that is always what Death Battle has been: who is more LIKELY to win in a fight? In a one-on-one gladiator fight with no prep time, who is more likely to win, Spider-Man or Batman? Spider-man. Could Batman still beat Spider-Man? Of course he could! It’s just more likely that Spider-Man takes it. In the battle of the Ninja Turtles, which turtle is more likely to be able to use what he knows about his brothers to turn the fight in his favor? Leonardo. Could the others still beat him? Of course! It’s just more likely that Leonardo wins.

There is no way to 100% prove who would win in a fight between two fictional characters from two different universes that will never meet. Heck, even characters who exist in the same universe can have fans calling bullcrap when they fight.

In a fight there has to be a winner (unless they kill each other, of course). Death Battle decides who wins in their fights based on who is more likely to win. Is it possible for the other person to win? YES! That’s why we have these debates in the first place! It’s fun! All the show does is go with the person who is more likely to win.

And if people say Death Battle acts like the ultimate authority because of what Wiz and Boomstick say in the episodes: Wiz and Boomstick are characters. Their personalities are meant to be a tad exaggerated.

2. Death Battle is biased!

I get the feeling that some people think that it is only the guys who play Wiz and Boomstick who decide who wins in the fights. From what I understand not only do they have people researching the characters, but they also have debates with the other members of Screwattack (their channel) who have little to do with Death Battle. We get passionate about fictional fights all the time, both in real life and online. You really think that no one at Screwattack was arguing in favor of Goku or Batman or Gaara or freakin Wolverine?

Everyone has some bias and everyone tends to want the character that they like to win. But bias can be controlled or minimalized, especially in a group of varying opinions. It’s not fair to declare them biased against Dragon Ball just because only one DBZ character won out of the three fights Death Battle had (which can now be changed to 2 out of 4 with Hercule’s victory). It’s not fair to declare them biased against anime just because a little more than half of the anime character that have appeared on the show have lost. You could say they're biased against the X-Men because Wolverine and Beast lost and only Rogue won of the three X-men fights they've had or you could say they're biased against DC because Batman and Wonder Woman lost and only Superman won (until Batman fought Captain America), but that doesn't make it true. It is a fighting show. Someone has to lose (sometimes both of them) and just because a loss adds on to a ratio doesn’t actually mean there’s hidden bias or an anti-this character/franchise in the background. Statistics do not always reflect reality.

3. Superman vs. Goku was bullsh*t!

I imagine this is where most of the hate towards Death Battle comes from. The most controversial episode and its sequel rematch. You can see things everywhere on the internet about: how they got the math wrong, how they used bad feats for Goku, how Superman wouldn’t have won if he hadn’t sundipped, etc. There are a lot of criticisms over this fight, mainly because Goku and Superman are both characters that are very important to many people. So let’s address a few of these (I'd like to first say that I am a fan of both Dragon Ball Z (more the manga than the anime) and Superman (though mainly the comic version and not all the movies).

3.1. They said Superman has unlimited power!

"So what happens when you pit a man with the power to break any limits against another who has no limits in the first place? Well, only one has limits to give at all."

This is something I feel people have a right to complain about, but mainly because I feel Death Battle could have phased it better. Goku does have limits and the point of his character is to break through those limits and climb higher. Superman is limitless, not in that he has unlimited power, because clearly his powers are limited by the star he’s under and how much solar energy he can take in, not to mention that there are people in the DC universe who have more power than he does (cough* Mxyzptlk*cough), but that he is limitless in that he can do almost anything when the time calls for it.

This is because of inconsistency, which Dragon Ball suffers from as well, but to a lesser degree.

Superman has had a lot of writers over the years, each with their own ideas on what Superman should be able to do, thus things that can hurt him sometimes do barely anything to him other times (cough*Kryptonite*cough). What he’s capable of fluctuates based on the plot and writer of his stories and yet the majority of what happens is considered canon. Yeah Superman’s limits don’t make sense because of this but is it really fair to blame Death Battle for DC’s continuity? They’re just using what they’re given.

Death Battle brought up Superman lifting a book of infinite pages (admittedly not for very long) and they brought up him traveling from Vega to Earth after hearing a sound signal in space. Both feats are literally impossible, but Superman still did them.

And now look at this:

This is Superman from New Earth (the one Death Battle used) fighting alongside his Earth 2 counterpart against Superboy Prime, who is arguably just as powerful if not even more powerful than both of them.

They flew through a field of Kryptonite (which is lethal to him), through a red star (which he loses his powers under), and then crash lands from space on the Green Lantern Mogo, who is a planet!

This should have in all logic killed him, but didn’t. He was depowered for a while after, but he still survived. You could make the argument that he had Earth 2 Superman helping him, but if a small ring of Krytonite is able to weaken him under a yellow sun, a field of it around a red star should have ended him. But it didn't. Why? Because the writer said so. Just like things happen in Dragon Ball because Akira Toriyama says so.

When Superman pushes himself he is capable of doing things that should be impossible, even by the standards set by his own history. It doesn’t make much sense, but they’re still canon and thus Death Battle still has to use them. Heck, during the rematch they themselves said that they know it doesn’t make any sense.

And if you are asking why does Superman still get beat up when he’s so strong, it’s the same reason why Gohan as the Great Saiyaman doesn’t fight crime with the same amount of power as he used against Cell or why Goku didn’t just go straight to Kaio-ken X10 when fight Captain Ginyu. You don’t need to use full force against every problem and holding back can leave you open. Also there are people more powerful than Superman in the DC universe or at least know ways to beat him that don’t involve just raw power.

3.2. They combined the New Earth Superman with the New 52 Superman in the rematch!

Not really. In the after fight analysis of each episode they explain the reasons for why they had a character win (and the people who completely skip this part have little right to complain about the outcome if they’re not even going to bother listening to the reason for why the outcome happened as it did). During this part for the rematch they did show some panels from the New 52, but all the feats they listed (traveling from Vega, lifting infinity, holding a black hole, flying through a black hole, and getting thrown from orbit into the Earth) were all from the New Earth Superman, the same Superman they used in the first fight. Not New 52.

The only thing they touched on from the New 52 was the Solar Bomb power, which he never used. They did have him wearing the New 52 costume during the animated fight, but given that nothing was said about what it can do, I’m guessing the suit wasn’t exactly a factor.

I can see Goku being more likely to win against the New 52 Superman, but Death Battle used the New Earth Superman because that is Superman at his best. That is the Superman people have argued for years could beat Goku. Superman Prime and Goku when he takes in Uub, there’s no way to know exactly how powerful they are. And they’re not going to use the Superman from way back when he first appeared because that is not the Superman people have been debating with. Death Battle had Goku and Superman fighting at their best because that is a fair fight. That is who people have wanted to see fight.

If anything you can be mad at them for making it look like it was going to be New 52 Superman in the trailer, so they did initially mislead us. But all the feats they used were from the same Superman. New Earth Superman.

3.3. They should have waited until Dragon Ball Super was finished!

Probably.

…Yeah, I don’t have much to say on this one. I agree that the rematch would have been better if they’d waited until DB Super was done. Best I can figure is that some people kept demanding a rematch because of Battle of Gods and Resurrection F because they figured that was enough to prove Goku was more powerful than Superman and Death Battle just didn’t want to deal with it anymore. I think the argument that Goku is not meant to be as unbelievably powerful as Superman does still hold some weight to it, but I agree that it would have been best if they’d waited just in case, even if for no other reason than they'd have less complaints.

3.4. They calculated the feats wrong/they calculated the wrong feats!

I'll start by saying that I think finding Goku's speed using Snake Way is a little iffy, so I can understand why people have a problem with that. I thought the way they found Goku's strength was fine considering that weight training took place during the Majin Buu arc (the final arc in the manga), and the way they calculated Goku's durability and Ki output was kind of clever, though the bomb seems is an anime-only plotpoint, as I don't remember it from the manga, so that still has some problems attached to it.

But all this can be related back to the inconsistency argument for both characters. What they can survive and what hurts them varies based on what the writer wants to happen. Both Superman and Goku have conflicting feats (Superman more so because he's had more than one writer over the years) where they've been hit by things they should have no trouble dodging or been hurt by things that don't even compare to other things they've survived. Superman and Goku both have feats that high-ball and low-ball what they can do and it's the fault of the inconsistencies in their histories more than Death Battle's calculations.

There's also something I think a lot of us forget: comic writers are not scientists or mathematicians. They are story writers. Akira Toriyama is not keeping track of how much energy each of his characters use to bust open a planet. The writers of Superman are keeping an exact tally on how fast light speed is. Things happen in the story because it works for the plot. There's a famous Marvel story called Ultimatum that shows this well, in which the mutant Magneto uses his magnetic powers to reverse the magnetic poles of the Earth and thus cause global catastrophe. In reality reversing the poles would be almost completely harmless, save for maybe messing with the directions of compasses. But because the writer said so, it caused major chaos.

The feats of Goku and Superman are never going to be exact and Death Battle can only use what they're given. They say they want to use the characters at their maximum potential, so they use their greatest feats of power as their basis. Goku is very powerful, no doubt, but the extremes the writers put Superman through are a bit more than what Toriyama has Goku do, even if the extremes don't make sense.

3.5. They made Goku look a.) weak, b.) like a joke, c.) like a jerk!

a.) Again, Superman is put through more extremes than Goku so he is viewed as more powerful, but that doesn't mean they portrayed Goku as weak. I'd hardly say strong enough to lift a continent and being able to survive over 30 sextillion megtons of force and then some is weak.

If people are saying he's made to look weak in the animated fights: in the first fight he and Superman were pretty even most of the time and both got some pretty good hits in. In the rematch it was about the same until they had Superman walk through the Super Sayian God Super Saiyan Kamehameha, which...yeah, I can understand why people are pissed about that. The animated fights have no effect on who wins, but even when watching that the first time I went "Oh, that's going to piss some people off." Superman walking through it was overkill, but Goku is by no means weak and I doubt Death Battle ever intended to make him look so (I think that scene was just meant to give a giant middle finger to everyone who complains about them).

b.) I have seen some people complain about the high, squeaky voice that Goku was given in these fights and how dumb he's portrayed as in the beginning of the first fight and at the end of the second when talking to the Lord of Worlds. I imagine that some of these people don't know that Death Battle had help in making these videos (at least in the voice overs) from Team Four Star, Dragon Ball fans who have a show that basically makes fun of all of Dragon Ball. The Goku voice in Death Battle is the same that they use in their show.

Itsjustsomerandomguy did the voice of Superman and he also has his own show where he mocks Marvel and DC characters, though his portals of the characters tend to be straighter than Dragon Ball Z Abridged's (except for Green Goblin).

I imagine they used these voices because they are the most famous people online who are associated with these characters. I imagine if DCAbridgedUniverse had been as big back then as it is now they might have used their Superman's voice, who is made to look like a bigger joke than abridged Goku.

c.) I'd like to point out that the majority of Death Battles tend to start out with the two characters just randomly finding each other and deciding to beat the crap out of each other with little to no reason. I think people focus too much on that it's Goku starting the fight when it happens in other Death Battles too (like a Power Ranger accidentally killing a certain Gundam pilot's girlfriend). Goku may not be as active in heroics as Superman is but we know that doesn't make him a bad guy, and besides, we did get that one great scene of Goku destroying the Kryptonite because it was hurting Superman, showing how honorable Goku is and wanting a fair fight is anything but jerky (he then immediately kicked Superman in the face, which was hilarious).

4. This character would have won if this hadn’t happened in the fight!

Another misconception some people have with Death Battle. The animated fights shown in the episodes have no effect on who they declare winner. How would that even work anyway? There’s no simulator to run this stuff through. The pay people to animate the fights for them and they tell them what to animate, i.e. what will happen in the fight.

They explain in the after fight analysis why they believe one person was more likely to win over the other and explain what affected this reasoning. The animated fights are actually just one of Death Battle’s best qualities. They are one of the few videos that will actually show the two fictional characters fighting, which is what we want to see, instead of it just being some guy just talking in front of a computer for an hour.

Tv tropes says it best:

• The fight at the end of the episode is not what determines the victor in battle. It is nothing more than a fun little dramatization showcasing most if not all of the research displayed beforehand of the combatants in action. The winners are determined before the battle through quasi-scientific analysis of their abilities, and the character with the objectively better abilities will win.

5. Desk of Death Battle said that not even Batman, Hulk and Thor together could beat Superman!

THAT VIDEO WAS JOKING!!! Exaggeration is a form of comedy. Desk of Death Battle is meant to share interesting trivia about a character that was found while researching a character and HAS NO EFFECT ON WHAT HAPPENED IN THE EPISODE, in this case that trivia being that Superman was beaten by Muhammad Ali. And the Intern is a character just like Wiz and Boomstick. She’s played by a voice actress. Here’s her twitter: https://twitter.com/LisaFoiles

Final thoughts:

Does Death Battle have its problems? Yeah, any show does. Do you have to like the show? No, of course not. You are entitled to like and dislike what you want. I mainly made this blog because I like the show and feel it gets way more hatred than it deserves (acting like it's the worst show to exist on the internet, that the people who make it have brains filled with cancer, and that they're all biased fanboys (even though they've stated they like Dragon Ball more than Superman)), so I wanted to say something in its defense.

Death Battle is a show. It is meant for entertainment. It is meant to show the histories of two different characters, show them fight, and then declare a winner based on who is more likely of the two to win. It is not the end all authority, but they do clearly put a lot of effort into their videos and work harder than most seem to give them credit for.

There are people who take it too seriously or take what they say too far, and I'd say some of the hatred for Death Battle is probably because of some of these fans. It's the same with The Dark Knight, Avengers, or Frozen: they're good, but when you have people constantly shoving it in your face, there's going to be a backlash against it.

Do you have to like it? No. Do you have to watch it? No. And if it’s not your thing, you probably shouldn’t watch it. But watching a show you know you don't like just so you can complain about it is a tad stupid.

Do I recommend this show to people? Oh yeah. It’s funny, it’s entertaining, I like learning more about different characters and franchises, I like actually being able to see the characters fight, and I can at least understand their reasons for why one character wins over the other.

If there are things about Death Battle that people do have a problem with, please point them out in the comments and I’ll try to address them. Thank you.

This is going to be a list of things or events in comics that were so insane and stupid that they couldn't help but make a reader go "Holy sh*t, this is awesome." It won't be a numbered list and I likely will try to add more as time goes on

1. Bat-cow

Here's something you'd think you'd only find in the silver age of comics and not the modern "Doom and Gloom" of today's DC comics. Rescued from the slaughterhouse and raised as a pet by Damian (yes, THAT Robin), it is a cow...that has taken on the bat-family name...and brings justice to the farmland...what more do you need?

It's stupid, but so stupid that it actually captures fairly well the fun insanity of comics.

2. Floronic Man's reefer madness

So there was a time where Jason Woodrue once came back to life and was made out of marijuana. He was thusly stoned out of his mind. But it gets better! Because he wanted Poison Ivy's help with his plan of growing more marijuana. Why?

Because that's how he's going to save the world! By getting everybody really, really high. Which may be the greatest super-villain plan ever! After all, if everybody is stoned out of their minds, who is going to stop you from doing whatever you want (assuming you are not also stoned beyond belief)? As far as villain plans go, this seems fairly insane, yet successful. (check out the AT4W reviews of Batman: Shadow of the Bat #56 and 57 for more (#56)(#57))

3. Snowflame

So what's better than a super-villain using drugs to try and take over/save the world? How about a super-villain powered by drugs?

Introduced as a villain of the New Guardians way back Snowflame is the villain who gets his superpowers from doing cocaine. He gets super-strength, resistance to pain, pyrokinesis, and worships cocaine like it is a God.

He was killed shortly after introduction but he lives on in our hearts as the most glorious premise for a super-villain ever (again, see the AT4W review of New Guardians #2 to behold the glory that is Snowflame! (SSSNNNOOOOOWFLAME!!!))

4. Marcus

In the insane series of Deadpool you need just as insane premises to keep up and that's what happened in Deadpool: Dracula's Gauntlet as Dracula introduced his greatest warrior: Marcus, the Centaur warrior that was bitten by a werewolf and bonded with an alien symbiote! He is the perfect warrior with no weaknesses! Except for being diabetic. Something even Deadpool can understand.

He's a diabetic Centaur Werewolf Symbiote Warrior who worked for Dracula. What more do you need?

5. The Chrysler Building

In the series World War Hulk: Damage Control, the city is helped to rebuilt thanks to shadow stone from the planet Sakaar. It worked, but it also had the unforeseen side-effect of bring the Chrysler Building to life. Complete with a face and arms.

But the fact that it came to life isn't why it's on this list. It's the fact that it is STILL ALIVE (at least until the Marvel universe goes boom). Basically the Chrysler Building wanted to leave and see the world because he was sick of staying in that one spot his enter life. The people and heroes of Marvel didn't want him to do that because...well...he's a building! And there's been enough damage already.

In the end a compromise was reached and Damage Control mounted the building on an anti-gravity platform, allowing him to travel wherever he wanted for one month every year (because, "no one's in Manhattan in August"). His first vacation was to Japan.

How can this do anything other than capture the stupidly awesome insanity of comics? Marvel, the company whose characters were founded on being relatable, has a living Chrysler Building with a face and arms who goes on vacation.

I. Freaking. Love. Comics.

6. Punching a dinosaur

Tis rare that there is ever a greater sign of a character's manliness than decking some of the biggest creatures the world has ever had roam it in a single punch. And interestingly enough, it happens more often then you'd think. So here's just a few examples of heroes proving how awesome they are by beating senseless creatures that are long extinct.

From the Hulk:

To Spider-Man:

To the Martian Manhunter:

To perhaps my personal favorite of Captain Marvel just because of the detail in the punch:

7. Lex Luthor's Bibliobot Mark 2

When you're the smartest man on the planet, you don't do things the normal way. In All-Star Superman, while in prison, Lex Luthor built the Bibliobot Mark 2, a robot that can recite of 1000 works of literature. And something interesting happens when he has it read Moby Dick a certain way.

Lex Luthor used his story telling robot to carve out an entire underground cavern right underneath the prison without anyone ever finding out. With PERFECTLY SCULPTED STAIRS!

There's smart, there's genius, and then there's Lex flippin Luthor.

8. All-American crazy

This one comes from a Batman/Captain America crossover where the Red Skull teams up with the Joker and, of course, a good time is had by all. That is until the clown prince of crime has a sudden realization about his new partner.

The Joker, a mass murdering psychopath who causes chaos for sh*ts and giggles, hates the idea that he's been working with a Nazi and proudly proclaims his patriotism by trying to kill the Red Skull (it didn't work, mind you) and while it's strange that he makes the distinction in the first place, there is just something very awesome about someone as bad as the Joker basically saying "I may be a monster, but at least I'm not a damn Nazi!"

If there's anything comics have proved to us over the years, it's that you can't go wrong by making Nazis the bad guys of your story.

9. Hawkeye's Pym Particle Trick Arrow

Clint Barton found the perfect way to both save on storage space in his quiver and ensure that he doesn't miss, with the help of his old Avenger's pal Hank Pym.

I feel like that arrow storm should have been a lot more lethal than it was but whatever.

10. Ms. Marvel's The Inventor

So here's a rather interesting idea for a super villain.

For a yet unrevealed reason, a scientist named Knox cloned the famed inventor Thomas Edison. Unfortunately, Edison's DNA sample was contaminated by Knox's pet cockatiel during the synthesis. And thus we get, The Inventor!

So...if his origin story wasn't enough for you, he's also a mad genius and one of Ms. Marvel's first big villains.

He also doesn't like being called a bird.

And his big plan that brought him into conflict with the new hero?

That's right! He finds kids and teenagers to be useless wastes of space and decides the best way to make use of them is to use them as non-polluting batteries, with the added benefit of lowering overpopulation.

11. Darkseid dares to sit on your couch!

It's very rare to find a villain more dark, powerful, and as universally recognized as a threat by the DC universe than the mighty god Darkseid. The ruler of Apokolips and the breaker of wills. Never had there been a more terrifying force than he!

Which is why it is so damn funny that he has repeatedly been written and drawn just casually sitting on people's couches and armchairs.

How does one properly react to the lord of ultimate evil just chilling out in their living room? I'd like to think Darkseid knows how funny it is and is doing it deliberately.

If anyone has more suggestions for stupidly awesome things in comics, share it in the comments so I know what to add to the list, as I'm going to add more to this as time goes on. Thank you!

It's just a theory I have. Shows like Spongebob, Simpsons, Regular Show, and some others seem like they can keep going on forever while shows like Young Justice, Avengers EMH, Legend of Korra, Green Lantern, and other seem like they were in constant danger of getting canceled (with most actually being cancelled), despite fan support being great for them.

My theory for why there's this difference is because of the differences in shows. You turn on the T.V. and watch any episode of Regular Show or Johnny Test, I'll be them just having another misadventure. You turn on the T.V. and watch any episode of Green Lantern or Young Justice, you might be lost or unsure of what's happening because things and events from previous episodes are affecting the events of that episode.

The difference between the shows is in one, anything can happen in any episode and it tends to be contained to just that episode, while in the other there is an ongoing story and unless you started with episode 1, you won't follow it quite as well.

So the theory is that shows with an overall story are more likely to be cancelled than shows without an overall story because the shows without an overall story don't need build-up. You can watch any episode and judge whether or not you like it because most of the episodes in the series will be about the same quality, as they'd all be self-contained stories that are good or bad based on that episode. The episodes of the shows with an overall story build on top of each other, one after the other, so not all the episodes are the same quality. Some exist just to move the story along or to reveal some new detail that was not before known, changing perceptions of past episodes and making you wonder how it will effect future episodes.

Now of course the quality of a show depends on the show itself, so you can't say shows with overall plot are better than shows without it or vice-versa. But looking at this from a network viewpoint, the opinions of the shows without overall story would tend to be pretty consistent. "Did they like the episode, yes/no?" "What do they think of the show overall, yes/no?". While the opinions of the shows with overall story would tend to fluctuate, given that not every episode is as important as the other.

So which show are the networks more likely to cancel: the show where the general opinion episode to episode is "Yes, I like it." or the show where the network is unsure how people feel about it because episode to episode opinions differ?

It's quantity of the quality vs. quality of the quantity.

Please comment to share your opinion about this theory.

(Please note this is not a butt-hurt rant about the Star Wars EU being non-canon. It had good stories and bad and I don't feel that strongly about it either way. I'm just using it as a reference point. Please, no one call the wambulance.)

The whole business with the Star Wars EU had me thinking. People have been saying that it was nothing but professional fanfiction all along anyway because the only canon universe is the movies/original stories. But in some ways, the comics we're reading now can be considered fanfiction as well.

Sure you could argue that modern comics are canon because they are still produced by the original publishers of Marvel and DC, but the EU books were allowed to be made under the name Lucasbooks, which is tied directly to Lucasfilm and George Lucas.

If the EU is considered fanfiction because it is an alternate universe that is not in canon with the cinematic Star Wars universe, can't the same also be said the many alternate universes of Marvel and DC are fanfictions then? Things like Superman Red Son or Marvel What if? could certainly seem like fanfiction given that they are not directly tied to the mainstream universes.

And the biggest example of how modern comics could also be fanfiction? Why do some people consider the EU stories fanfiction? Because the only real stories were the movies that were made by the original creator of Star Wars George Lucas. If someone wrote a continuation of Harry Potter, many would not see it as canon because J.K did not write it, even if she gave permission for the person to write it. Same can be said with Lord of the Rings. And the same can technically be said for modern comics, because while they are still produced by the companies that own the characters, they are not being made by the original creators.All modern Marvel and DC comics are re-imaginings and continuations of characters created by someone else and quite often going outside the ideas and development said creator original had for them.

Do you think the creators of Cyclops would have ever have imagined him kill Professor X? Or the creators of the Joker ever having him removing his own face? Or the creators of Red Skull ever imagining that he'd steal a telepath's brain and start a next Axis? Or that Alan Moore had thought up half of what's in Before Watchmen? Probably not.

Modern comics, at least for Marvel and DC, can be technically considered fanfictions because they are stories that are written by people other than the original creators and writing the characters and stories in the way that they think they should go, not how the creators would have wanted them to go. Also, one would hope the writers would actually be fans of some of the comics they write.

So, if modern comics are technically fanfics, does that mean that all modern comics are bad and should not be read? Oh, heck no. This is just something that I thought of the other day and wanted to hear other people's opinions on. So, what do you think?

This is my completely biased personal opinion. Feel free to disagree or have different ideas.

I HATE One More Day and One Moment in Time. I HATE that they set back the characters I'd grown to enjoy so much over the years back to their status-quos that they had long grown out of.

I do not believe Marvel will do something about it where One More Day never happened in order to fix the problem (which can be a good or bad thing, given how much reboots are pissing fans off). I do believe that they can fix it however. It just takes the proper set-up and a good writer.

Marvel needs to set it up that Mephisto is after something that Spider-Man must stop him from getting at all costs. It could be something that'd make Mephisto incredibly powerful or even just Spider-Man protecting a single person from Mephisto. Just something that puts Spider-Man on Mephisto's sh*t list and causes him to go after Peter and ruin his life.

Spider-Man allies with people such as Ghost Rider and Loki to help him fight against Mephisto, who is targeting his Aunt, her Husband, Carle, Jonah, Black Cat, Mary Jane, anyone Peter cares for. Mephisto will even hint at the deal they made, telling him only just enough to keep Peter angry and begging for answers.

There are a lot of people who grew up with the pre-new 52 universe and are naturally pissed that it's gone and been replaced. DC comics seems unlikely to bring it back, so I had a thought:

What if DC made an elseworld's story that showed the future of that universe if Flashpoint had not happen? A big thing about comics is that they're meant to be ongoing, so new stuff has to keep happening. But this story will show us the official ending/closing off point of the Pre-New 52 universe, giving the fans much needed closure by tying up all loose ends so we can move on from it. Especially since there were so many titles and stories that got cancelled before their stories were finished.

It will be that universe's epilogue. What was the fallout from the events caused by Maxwell Lord? What characters did eventually end up together? What legacies will carry on? What future did these great heroes create in the end?

Of course a story like that will likely have conflict to center around, so I imagine it would focus on some great threat that the Justice League must reassemble together again in order to stop. Or something like that.

So what say you? One final big story to help lay to rest one of our favorite comic universes? Would you read it? Would you like it? Would you hate it? Post and tell me what you think.

And if there are any people from DC comics reading this (though I kind of doubt it), try this story out. Give us some closure (or give us back our tighty-whitey wearing idols!!!).

These are not in any particular order, though the final 3 are the ones I'm hoping for the most and/or believe have the highest chance of actually being used. Feel free to agree or disagree with me and post your own ideas of better skins. Or post skins that actually will be in the game.

10. Brave and the Bold Batman

In could happen, given that they did do the animated series and Adam West costumes. And his gliding cape could turn into a jet-pack for this skin.

9. Mass Effect Batman

I think this was made by a group of people for fun, but it does still look cool and it could be used for the x-box versions of the game.

8. Nightmare Batman

or

Worst Nightmare Batman

Nightmare was used for the Infinite Crisis MMO, I think, and Worst Nightmare I heard was to be in Arkham Origins, but something prevented it. Either could work.

7. The Laughing Bat (The Batman)

I know that this is Joker in a Batman suit, but I still hope it happens. Why? 1. I think it'd just be an interesting skin given its uniqueness among the others and 2. You can't tell me you wouldn't piss yourself if this thing came at you on a dark night.

6. Flashpoint Paradox Batman

Because I'm honestly surprised they haven't done it yet.

5. The Dark Knight (Batman The Brave and The Bold)

I just like the idea of them going for the literal knight look.

4. The Batman

I don't care what anyone says about this show, I liked it and I think the costume is well done (and I hope they animate the long cape well in the game).

3. Owlman

The idea of playing as evil Batman from another universe who has repetiedly banged Superwoman is very tempting (and I'm going to be really pissed off if it turns out that he's the Arkham Knight).

2. Green Lantern Batman

We've had the Sinestro corps version, I think the Blackest night and Brightest Day were in Arkham Origins. So let's bring on the main course!

1. The Dark Knight Returns armor

I have a soft spot for the graphic novel, the animated 2-parter based on it, and especially this armor. It would only be an alternate skin, so it wouldn't have the strength enhancements that it did in the actual story, but it still looks cool and if it's good enough for Batman to use to fight Superman, that it's probably good enough for you.

Warning: There are going to be many spoilers of various books, movies, and T.V. shows ahead, mainly due to this topic being about the endings of said stories. I will not be blocking them as there would end up being too many to block. I will try to let you know beforehand what is about to be spoiled so that you may skip over that part if you want to discover the ending on your own.

You have been warned.

I recently finished reading the manga series Rosario+Vampire (seasons 1 and 2).

The story ended with them all returning to their school and hinting that the two halves of Moka's soul are becoming one. It wasn't a bad ending and it fits with what the rest of the series was about. But it felt kind of unsatisfying.

Another book series I finished reading was the Artemis Fowl series.

The series ends with Artemis losing his memories as part of a heroic sacrifice and his friend Holly about to explain to him his own tale, i.e. The stories from his own series of how he got to this point. Again, it wasn't a bad ending and if you read the series and the ending, you can see how well it fits with Artemis's journey. But again, the ending didn't really feel very satisfying.

Now, this isn't just one of those things where I'm one of those people who gets so invested in the story that no ending will be satisfying. Because I've read other book stories to the end and found their endings quite satisfying. I enjoyed the ending to book series such as Harry Potter, Negima!, and Dragon Ball, to name a few, and anyone who has read any of those knows that you get very invested in their stories.

So what's the difference? Why am I feeling less satisfied with the endings of some stories than others. I am of course aware that they are all different book series with different authors and are not the same as each other. But two works of fiction don't need to be the same in order to tell a good story and certainly not to tell a good ending.

So, what I think the main difference between the works was is the epilogue at the end of some of them.

One of the more well known epilogues is the ending of Harry Potter (though I'm referring to the book here more than the movie).

The series ends by showing Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny 19 years later seeing their kids off to Hogwarts. I really liked this ending, though I've heard that there are many who don't, though that could just be the movie crowd.

The Dragon Ball manga had an epilogue ending that I enjoyed as well.

That series also ended by skipping ahead a few years into the future. It showed Goten and Trunks as teenagers, Gohan and Videl had a daughter, I think either Krillin or Vegeta had a mustache, and Goku goes off to train the reincarnation of Boo. It was a fairly pointless ending, but it was an enjoyable one.

The Negima! manga ended by just showing the profiles of the characters in their future and what they are doing. It was just explanation, but it still felt satisfying.

So why are these simple epilogues that are just showing a day or days in the characters lives more satisfying than the stories that end when the conflict ends?

The best reason I can think of is just what you would want out of the endings of most stories: Payoff.

Stories tend to be leading up to something. If the story was the same from beginning to end and nothing really changed or developed, we'd be pretty board or pissed. In Rosario+Vampire, you can see the relationship between Tsukune and Moka develop. You see that he loves her and doesn't want to hurt his other friends who love him. You want to see Tsukune and Moka get together and how Tsunune deals with the situation he's in with the other girls.

...And none of that really happened. At the end it is implied that Tsukune and Moka might later be together, but that was what was hinted at during the entire series. The end shows all the girls still after him and him not really being able to do anything about it. There were some things at the end that separate it from the rest of the series of course, like Tsukune being trained by Moka's father, but it the end, nothing was really changed that much and there was little payoff because, while the story felt like it was leading up to something, it didn't.

Similar with Artemis Fowl, the story ending with Holly telling Artemis about his life has little payoff because it's just circling back around itself. Instead of showing where the characters have gone because of all they went through and how it has effected their lives, it's just going into repeat.

In the epilogue of Harry Potter, you see how the characters lives are after everything that they went through, that their lives continued on after the events of the books and how it effected them. This is the same for Negima! and Dragon Ball.

The possible reason for why this works is because you are seeing the end of the character's stories instead of just the end of the story.

With Rosario+Vampire and Artemis Fowl, the story for the readers just ends. The characters and such are still there and you know that more stuff is going to happen to them in the future because of the events in their story. But the story just ends at the end of everything they went through, showing you nothing more. With the time-skip epilogue stories, you see what has become of the characters because of the events in their stories and what ultimately happens to them. This allows you to close the book on the characters rather than just the story that had them all in it. Fans who get really invested in a story saga tend to become invested in some of the characters as well and want to know what happens to them.

So, in my case at least and possibly some of your's, the time-skip epilogue endings tend to be more satisfying because you get more/better closure. You get the endings to the actual characters, rather than just the story and it leaves you with less of a need to know more, mainly because you saw how it does end for the characters. You are satisfied because there are less unknowns and less unanswered questions.

Now, does this mean that all stories should be ending with time-skip epilogues? Of course not, because it wouldn't always work or you're not supposed to know what really happens next.

The series of Yu-Gi-Oh! ended with the Pharaoh finally moving on and Yugi and friends going on to a life without him.

The series ends with them moving on towards something new. You don't see what happens to them after and you are not really meant to. It is the start of Yugi's story now without the Pharaoh and whatever happens he will face.

An epilogue might ruin the feel of the unknown new adventure that awaits the character, because it's supposed to remain unknown.

Similarly with the graphic novel Watchmen, the time-skip epilogue would not work because you are supposed to wonder what could happen next. What will happen if Rorschach's journal is published? Has Ozymandias really saved the world? You are supposed to consider what might happen and that would be ruined if it had an epilogue that just showed you.

And there are also some things that don't need the time-skip epilogue because their ending was satisfying enough. The show Danny Phantom (although it was ending because it was being cancelled) had an ending where there was plenty of payoff.

Unlike with Rosario+Vampire, Danny Phantom changes everything at its ending. Danny's secret is known to people now, he's dating Sam, Tucker is mayor somehow, and Vlad is exiled to space. It ended like the end of a story and the beginning of what may come next, instead of just ending like it was just another episode that maintained the status quo. It was an ending where an epilogue could have been used, but it wasn't needed because the ending did a good job of wrapping things up.

On the other side of that coin though is a show like Code Geass, where it maybe could have just ended, but the epilogue made it a very good ending.

(This is the only time I'm going to warn you about spoilers in the actual blog because this show is really great and I don't want to ruin anything for someone who would watch it. Go find that show and watch it right now and then come back so you can agree with me about how great it was because this show is awesome as SH*T!!!!!)

The show ends with a small time-skip after Suzaku (disguised as Zero) kills the dictator Lelouch. The epilogue shows how well the world seems to be doing and briefly shows what has become of the remaining living characters. This time-skip epilogue has great payoff because it shows you exactly what the series was working towards to entire time: the world where the weak could still be happy and not under the oppression of the strong. The show accomplished what it set out to do.

So, as with most works, the need and usefulness of a time-skip epilogue does depend on how well it's written and what kind of story it is to begin and end with. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's needed, sometimes it isn't.

So what do you think? Would more stories with unsatisfying endings be better with a time-skip epilogue? Can you think of any? Or are the stories I mentioned the exception and most stories should not have the time-skip epilogues? Leave a comment below on what you think.