Click HERE to see this thread with all of the graphics, features, and links.

Luke Cage from season 2, takes on Black Manta with his Atlantis upgrades. Fight takes place in the same place as Aquaman took on upgraded Manta.

I don't know if the heat will do much (Cage has shown a pretty high degree of resistance to heat), but if Manta can keep blasting Cage with his beam, the force should wear him down after enough hits. I think his chances go down in melee though. It's debatable whether Atlantean metal can pierce Luke, seeing as Chitauri metal bullets fired out of high powered rifles can't even scratch him anymore.

well the beams gave arthur burns. sufficient and well placed hits should make luke buckle. but luke will get more hits in than david.

Cage.
As covered above, Manta has good weaponry, but Cage isnt just going to stand there and let them be used on him until such time as they prove effective.

If we follow end of season 2 Luke Cage's progression, Carl
- closed his hands on a grenade
- threw a 400-lb. tire like half a football field
- ran a 3 second 40-yard dash
- did his Heroes for Hire IF punch block with Danny
- got the upper hand on and then defeated via chokehold a nightshade amped Bushmaster, who punched down vault doors and dodged a bullet. Normal/somewhat-amped by nightshade Bushmaster knocked out Luke or always fought him pretty evenly, survived a grenade going off in the paddy wagon in which he was apprehended, and had multiple bullets barely pierce his chest and torso.

Yes, if Manta can get some blasts to hit Luke, Luke will be in a world of hurt. I'm still convinced Luke could take getting blasted a few times, however, and once he closes the gap, it's night-night time for David in a bad way.

The pain from the heat might be too much for Luke

It would have to be crazy hot to even start hurting him. The guy can smother burning gas with his bare hands without flinching.

manta's beams ARE crazy hot.

So he can start hurting him then?

Seriously though, I still think the actual force behind the beams pose more danger. Luke is insanely tough, but enough repeated hard blunt force impacts can start affecting his insides, which, while also super tough, is not as tough as his actual skin layer is.

Which begs the question what's the starting distance? Luke can cover 40m (or around 130 feet) in just over three and a half seconds. So, Manta will need to make his shots count before Cage can get to him.

Originally posted by TheVaultDweller
So he can start hurting him then?

Seriously though, I still think the actual force behind the beams pose more danger. Luke is insanely tough, but enough repeated hard blunt force impacts can start affecting his insides, which, while also super tough, is not as tough as his actual skin layer is.

Which begs the question what's the starting distance? Luke can cover 40m (or around 130 feet) in just over three and a half seconds. So, Manta will need to make his shots count before Cage can get to him.

Yes that's a good point, and a huge durability showing for Arthur on the Italian island: Manta's eye beams destroyed a rock formation that was a few hundred yards away (maybe longer, mind's eye is a bit hazy as I saw Aquaman around three weeks ago). Arthur got hit from around 10 yards away by it right point blank in the chest, and it blew him halfway across town and burned him.

Don't know how Luke would fare against that, and he does have a history of sitting there and tanking/trying to tank fired projectiles. If the super-shotgun that one dude had in S2, E1 dislocated his shoulder, a Manta beam to the chest won't do any wonders for Luke.

To be fair to Luke, that gun was made by the same company who made the Judas bullets and rifles. And the thing flung him like 15 feet, where he fell like 2 storeys and landed further on that shoulder onto the back of a car, pancaking it. And this is a guy who can stop a speeding SUV with that same shoulder without issues. So, that gun had some insane power behind it.

But yeah, the amount of force his beams would need to pack to destroy stone in that manner is massive. As in basically being smacked by a bigass wrecking ball. And Cage might be able to take one of those hits. But 5 in a row? 10? Not so sure.