thanos v phantom stranger

PS has always been a bit of a mystery to me. at times, he comes across as being very powerful. at other times, not so much. if this is a mismatch somehow (if PS is that much stronger than regular thanos, someone please let me know quickly.)

everyone knows what thanos (even regualr thanos) is capable of: stood toe to toe for a prolonged period against odin and though while losing, he never was beaten, has frightened mephisto and staggered galactus not to mention battled tyrant (though i think he was enhanced somehow in that fight).

anyway, have at it, gents!

phantom stranger should own him. he's a religious power, he is the god/lucifer of earth (though not as powerful as either).

he can manipulate reality, man.

The Phantom Stranger is one mysterious and devious character. Nobody really knows his true orgins. I would not be surprized is he schooled Thanos.

The Brotherless One. The Grey Walker. The Spirit of Humanity. Many are the epithets associated with the enigmatic Phantom Stranger, but none of them fathoms his entire being. Was he once an angel who neither sided with Lucifer nor fought against him? Or an angel who fell in love with a mortal? Is he the Wandering Jew of legend? A former scientist who observed the origin of the universe? The theories are many, but unconfirmed. What is known is that the Stranger is an immortal being of great supernatural power but no extraordinary physical abilities. In the past, he has mainly appeared before people with moral dilemmas, guiding them but never making their decisions for them. More recently, he has confronted several supernatural threats to humanity. "The Stranger comes when the Stranger is required", he claims, but by whom, nobody knows. Although he is a friend of few and a stranger to most, he has sometimes allied himself with other servants of justice such as the JLA, the Trenchcoat Brigade, the Sentinels of Magic, or the Quintessence. For a while he served the Lords of Order, but this was apparently a temporary arrangement. True friendship with the Stranger is a rarity, but among those closest to him are the occult detective Dr. Occult, the ghost-breaker Dr. Thirteen and the psychic Cassandra Craft (with whom he had a love affair). His main enemies have been Tannarak, Eclipso, and Tala. The full secret of the Stranger will seemingly never be revealed, and perhaps he has walked his path for so long that he cannot remember it himself.

thought some might find this interesting:

The true extent of the Stranger's abilities has never been determined, as we are often reminded. But a good many things are clear. He can travel at will among the magical dimensions, including the Realm of the Just Dead, the Antechamber of Souls (which may be another name for or a particular area of the Realm of the Just Dead), Heaven, Hell, and Apokolips. He has at least some telepathic abilities, and can ordinarily perceive truth and deception, good and evil. He can see spiritual entities and travelers invisible to normal sight; he can perceive magical events at a great distance. He can hurl magical bolts (sometimes taking the form of lightning) which are extremely potent. He can mysteriously vanish and appear at will, suggesting magical teleportation (when the JLA had a satellite in orbit 22,300 miles above Earth, the Stranger routinely entered and left it without use of the JLA teleportation tubes). He can send dreams of omen, warning, or information, though possibly only with the permission of Dream of the Endless. He can dispel magic and sorcery, especially magic of mental control or illusion and deception; he can also cast illusions and mind controls of his own. He can perform some feats of transmutation, such as turning fired bullets into flowers and sticks into snakes and back. He can survive and even communicate in outer space, though he may not be able to travel of his own volition while there.
The Stranger almost never uses spoken spells, magical artifacts, or magical rituals more complex than a seance or a circle of entrapment. He does not fly in the material world. He cannot travel to the future.
The Stranger has some unique abilities, like the ability to understand and decipher the events of DC Challenge; and some almost unique ones, like the ability to break the fourth wall and address the reader directly. :-) He is a moderately skilled hand-to-hand combatant, often surprising with a punch someone who smugly thought their protection against magic rendered them untouchable.

When the Stranger is acting in his bailiwick, he is almost supremely powerful. If he is not taken by surprise and can plan and act, he can be baffled only by universal forces such as the Spectre, the Anti-Monitor, the Lords of Order, and presumably the Endless. However, there are mysterious limitations on when the Stranger is permitted to act directly; it is not even known whether these are self-imposed or the commands of a higher power. Very often, he is limited to providing warnings and cryptic information, or perhaps gathering together those who must win the day.

The Stranger's most important weakness, if that is what it is, is the sharp limitation on his acting directly and overtly. Threats which he would presumably have the raw power to directly defeat he must instead warn others about, especially if those others have some particular responsibility at stake. Even his information he apparently cannot provide clearly and explicitly; in many cases his warnings or clues are cryptic. It might be, for example, that he is forbidden from removing the responsibility from humanity's shoulders; he definitely believes in free will, and the availability of a balance of choices to humans. (The very entertaining free will debate in the Books of Magic was in fact perfectly in character for the Stranger.)

The Stranger is not physically invulnerable. Especially when he is heavily outnumbered when his magical abilities are already in use, or when he is taken by surprise, he can be injured or knocked out. He can be imprisoned by magical means; and his innate magical energies can be siphoned away. His physical form can be destroyed (as in Dr. Fate #3); and he can die in at least some circumstances (as in JLA #145). He has often thought that a particular combination of threats might destroy him, particularly those which combined magical imprisonment with physical attacks or magical drains. It may be that the Stranger is mistaken and that there is nothing which could permanently destroy him (nothing has yet, obviously); but he definitely believes that there are things which can.

A weakness of a different sort is his oft-noticed tendency to speak too much; but this may be related to his need to make those around him understand the consequences of their choices and the fact that they face choices. He must not act in their place, so he must make them understand what their actions mean.

damn, this guy IS hard to figure!! until i read his weaknesses, i thought he might dismantle thanos, but he is apparently not invulnerable and has been defeated by foes other than the 'cosmic elite'. so i guess i'm still not sure (thanos is a tricky bastard and i never sell him short!), but i am now leaning to the stranger . . .

He was one of the beings who gave power to Gog.

The Spectre recently turned Phantom Stranger into a mouse.

He should still school Thanos though.......unless.......Thanos gets his.......
swiss cheese and mousetrap......

Basically, Phantom Stranger is an enigma. No one knows anything about him, even the people who have worked with him numerous times. What juggernaut74 typed(about not siding with Lucifer and such) was basically only a theory of Dr.Occult, who also speculated that maybe he has walked so long that he himself no longer remembers who he really is.

But the one thing that he always does and never forgets is to give information and warnings to the heroes of impending danger(as leonidas said) AND not to intervene or help the heroes in their fight with this danger/s despite the fact that he couldve destroyed many threats before only by himself. It was said that he couldve stopped Imperiex all on his own instead of just observing at the background.

One of his biggest feats(in the rare event that he fights) was beating the former Wrath of God Eclipso, who mind you was not only his major enemy but also a major enemy of The Spectre himself. And one of his fights with him was a Lord of Chaos powered Eclipso. A power added to the already insanely powerful Eclipso. But he was still beaten by PS.

As for the thread, Im definitely goin for The Phantom Stranger.

I'm going with the guy who LT said "is destined to be the missing fourth face".

Originally posted by long pig
I'm going with the guy who LT said "is destined to be the missing fourth face".

You like being the underdog piggy.

Keep the faith 😄

Just seems to me, Stranger is destined for so much more.
If it counts for this fight or not, i dunno.....it does to me.

(see whirley, it isn't that hard to not be a dick, now is it?)

Originally posted by long pig
I'm going with the guy who LT said "is destined to be the missing fourth face".

how can a TRIbunal have a fourth face?

😕

EXACTLY!

Stranger will be the fourth face, sooner or later.
LT said it himself.
TRI=three....but thats because he has only three....later on he'll be called Quabunal! bitches!!

Originally posted by long pig
EXACTLY!

Stranger will be the fourth face, sooner or later.
LT said it himself.
TRI=three....but thats because he has only three....later on he'll be called Quabunal! bitches!!

isn't the point of a tribunal to always have a majority vote? (best out of three) surely the next step should be a Quinbunal.... 😕 (wonder who's destined to be the fifth face?..... Rick Jones???)

Well, because 5 faces would just be dumb....duh

respect the living tribunal. mock him not.

Originally posted by long pig
EXACTLY!

Stranger will be the fourth face, sooner or later.
LT said it himself.
TRI=three....but thats because he has only three....later on he'll be called Quabunal! bitches!!

an oldy but a goody. anyone else feel like chiming in?