the Arm bar couldn't have held anyone in Surfer's class... even if the Hulk had just previously dislocated said arm.
martial arts and grappling are impressive technical sports but not that impressive.
it's sheer bloody stupidity. maybe the second worst act to have befallen Surfer (the brick must be the worst, no?).
there is no answer for how BP managed to get one on Surfer ... 😐
It's not really that far fetched. Batman has held his own with people like Kalibak momentarily. How is Black Panther holding Surfer in an armbar momentarily so out of the question? It's not like he pulled a Steven Segal on him and snapped his bones. It doesn't take a lot of strength to apply a joint lock. It's more about positioning than strength. The person in the hold does the damage to themselves due to the position their joint is in and the leverage applied.
The more I think about it the more it just becomes another of those KMC Overblown Spite Campaigns. A 3 panel armbar doesn't somehow make Black Panther a class 100 or something, he just locked up Surfer's arm. Surfer could have been smart and phased. Just wasn't written that way.
The same way Batman, Gamora, or any other martial artist moves a class 50+ characters arm to hip toss them. It's not like Surfer's an inanimate object until he wishes to move. Hell, I could probably show at least a dozen scans of either Shalla Bal or Alicia Masters moving his arm like any other normal person. Just because he has super strength doesn't mean he exerts it at all times. He's not perpetually flexing.
Why am I even defending this occurence to you?
Nevermind.