Originally posted by carver9
What happened with Tarene? I thought that was more of a sneak attack on her end. Also, let's not forget about the power description that was said after this attack and how long it took Gladiator to recover from said attack.
The attack that you're thinking of came well after the actual hand-to-hand/physical engagement Tarene had with Gladiator. Yes, THAT attack was an energy attack and arguably more than a little unfair, and of a power level that impressed even Thor.
However, Tarene didn't display anything of that sort for the first engagement, which by definition of this being a hand to hand battle would disqualify such sparking maneuvers.
No, Tarene fought instead like the admiring rookie cosplaying fan of Thor she was throughout much of this arc, "Designate" or not:
Originally posted by carver9Please be fair here. The winner, I don't mind, but let's at least be honest about Gladiator showings.
There's no attempt at dishonesty on my part here. I'm going by what I've seen, remember, have in my collection for Gladiator, and/or have found online.
Very little of it, save seeing Gladiator BFR Juggernaut on the 1990s X-Men cartoon, has impressed me till now. In the comics now I've seen Gladiator BARELY eke out a win over Colossus, apparently nearly knocked out by the collapse of a building on the pointedly mentioned light gravity of the moon, punked by Hulk, humbled by Odinson, and knocked out by Eric Masterson.
I can really only think of 3 good showings from him.
One is his handling of Jane Thor so far, suspect because Jane's been depicted far superior to, say, Tarene the Designate, who seems to have been operating at fractional power as Thor Girl and had, what? 2 fights under her belt before she fought Gladiator?
The 2nd one is his recent one-shotting of Thanos.
Not going to go into that; I like you and am not interested in giving you any of the flak others have regarding that.
The last showing, however, predates the first 2 and I DO find it rather impressive, though not, perhaps, as much as I might or would if I knew exactly when and where it was from. It's the following showing against Hyperion:
Nearly all consideration for a Gladiator win comes from seeing the above in some long ago fight I've forgotten. Hyperion is a tough s.ob., and has been from the earliest days I can remember seeing him. ALMOST overrides the impression I've gained of Gladiator from the OTHER half dozen or so fights ...
Indeed. And I must say that Jane Thor is a virtual vampire in terms of how willing she is to shed blood or even use lethal force on her opponents.
Jane Thor I could see creating all those clones you're talking about in the Lobo versus WWH thread. World War Hulk himself, though? I just don't see it.
It's worth mentioning that Marvel generally treats Gladiator's heat vision as something absolutely devastating to endure. Tarene is left flat on her back and aflame, Jane reacts as if Kuurth's hammer hit her, and poor Hulk is hurt so bad his internal organs become visible. I might give different odds if Gladiator's "lasercam" was an option here ...
Lastly, inasmuch as I don't think she invested much in her physicality due to a watertower taking her out, in the interest of complete fairness, I WILL note that I've seen ONE apparent hint of Tarene having significant strength:
Originally posted by bluewaterrider
The attack that you're thinking of came well after the actual hand-to-hand/physical engagement Tarene had with Gladiator. Yes, THAT attack was an energy attack and arguably more than a little unfair, and of a power level that impressed even Thor.However, Tarene didn't display anything of that sort for the first engagement, which by definition of this being a hand to hand battle would disqualify such sparking maneuvers.
No, Tarene fought instead like the admiring rookie cosplaying fan of Thor she was throughout much of this arc, "Designate" or not:
From now on, I expect no protest from you whatsoever when I use Superman breaking Wonder Woman's bracelet.
Originally posted by bluewaterrider
😕All right I'm too curious NOT to ask --
What in the world do you think Tarene fighting Gladiator has to do with the durability of Wonder Woman's bracelets?
You showed a fight of an alternate universe Gladiator. So you arguing ABSOLUTE POWER is not canon would be contradicting yourself.
Originally posted by Delta1938
You showed a fight of an alternate universe Gladiator. So you arguing ABSOLUTE POWER is not canon would be contradicting yourself.
This doesn't follow. You're talking specifically about the equipment of a particular costume. Given the kind of force we've seen the bracelets of her STANDARD costume take, often from Superman himself, in enraged states (the Superman/Doomsday transformation of Circe first comes to mind), coupled with extremely high end showings (like withstanding the combined force of her Pantheon of gods blasting away at her), it makes VERY little sense to assume Wonder Woman, in an entirely visually DIFFERENT costume, with an obviously different history, has the same equipment, or even equipment of remotely similar durability.
And I'm not nearly so concerned with story narrative as I am with the abilities and properties and behavior of a character being relatively consistent and reliable. Loeb's "Absolute Power" version of Diana fails on almost every level.
Originally posted by bluewaterrider
This doesn't follow. You're talking specifically about the equipment of a particular costume. Given the kind of force we've seen the bracelets of her STANDARD costume take, often from Superman himself, in enraged states (the Superman/Doomsday transformation of Circe first comes to mind), coupled with extremely high end showings (like withstanding the combined force of her Pantheon of gods blasting away at her), it makes VERY little sense to assume Wonder Woman, in an entirely visually DIFFERENT costume, with an obviously different history, has the same equipment, or even equipment of remotely similar durability.And I'm not nearly so concerned with story narrative as I am with the abilities and properties and behavior of a character being relatively consistent and reliable. Loeb's "Absolute Power" version of Diana fails on almost every level.
So the same sort of mental gymnastics you do to argue that Supergirl was somehow made "less powerful" at one point to disregard Superman>Supergirl(which the comics don't actually back up).
Also worth noting, Superman's high-end puts the bracelets taking the combined pantheon blast to shame.
