With exotic CM powers it doesn't seem like a fair match. But in pure H2H, say with classic Mantis, I'm not so sure.
Mantis was an incredibly skilled fighter and had a super high mastery of pressure point attacks, no question. But many of her high end feats such as knocking out Thor, Cap etc sort of involved surprise attacks. On the other hand when someone had the skill to not go down in 2 seconds and actually fight back, she sometimes got a bit stymied: Dr. Strange avoided her attacks and stalemated her using just his own MA skills, Libra immobilized her, Champion quickly immobilized her, Wonder Man immobilized her (OK Chanmps & WM have super strength but still), Moondragon flat out owned her. In fact against Moondragon she showed a tendency to almost panic or become uncertain when someone was giving her a decent fight. It was like she had absolute mastery of a set of killer moves and techniques, but on the rare occasions where they failed to beat someone quickly she wasn't able to improvise all that well.
Gorgon on the other hand is an absolute killer and highly skilled. He's superhumanly fast and has superhuman reflexes, while classic Mantis doesn't. He's easily taken down people that would give Mantis at least some trouble (if Dr. Strange, Libra, and Moondragon can give her trouble then I'm sure Wolverine or Elektra can). And while I'm sure Mantis can cope with avoiding the stone stare it certainly makes her job harder.
On top of all that he's telepathic (probably won't help much here though), highly intelligent, and has a ridiculous healing factor.
I don't think any peak human MA no matter how skilled - Cap, Moondragon etc gets a majority over Gorgon here when you look at how he did against Wolverine and Elektra.
Originally posted by srankmissingnin
Gorgon's damage soak is crazy, I'm not sure it is even possible to ko or kill him with conventional methods. Literally the only thing to date that has even slowed him down is his own stone gaze reflexed back at him.
Well, Thor has stood in the sun and Mantis koed him so...
Originally posted by Bentley
Mantis has defeated Karnak quite fast as well, tripped the Runner, schooled Shang Chi enemies. It's not like she's made out of "I knocked down Thor".Pick low showings and Wolvie has been casually swatted away by Spider-man.
She beat one of Shang Chi's enemies while he was mind controlled by Kang. Anyway, that was someone whom Shang Chi had beaten even in his early days.
Frankly, tripping the Runner is just PIS really.
I still think Gorgon takes this for a majority. As I've laid out, Mantis is highly skilled but has been stalemated/defeated by several regular human level MAs.
Originally posted by basilisk
She beat one of Shang Chi's enemies while he was mind controlled by Kang. Anyway, that was someone whom Shang Chi had beaten even in his early days.Frankly, tripping the Runner is just PIS really.
I still think Gorgon takes this for a majority. As I've laid out, Mantis is highly skilled but has been stalemated/defeated by several regular human level MAs.
The examples you brought were about powered people and uber-martial artists such as Moondragon. I already mentioned beating Cap, Karnak and other skilled opponents.