Luke Cage (MCU) vs Black Noir (The Boys)
1. H2H
2. Anything goes.
Made this thread cause JJ versus Noir seemed too one-sided, so now we're having Luke Cage vs Black Noir.
The fight takes place in an abandoned factory, victory by death or incapacitation.
vs
Who wins?
Luke is waaaay stronger and tougher than Kimiko and Starlight. And while Noir is fast, so was Bushmaster, especially once he was on super Nightshade. It would be a good fight, but Harlem's Son takes it imo. Especially considering that Noir seems very tough, but also just good at not letting damage stop him as opposed to not being hurt. Luke got exploded twice and walked it off. Noir was burned so badly we were seeing through skin in places iirc. And Luke is bulletproof, while Noir just ignores that he's been shot.
See, here's my problem with Cage. Every single time he's faced off against an opponent with super strength, he's struggled a bit. Even when he fought Jessica Jones (who's extremely low on the superhuman totem pole).
On the other hand, you have Noir completely stomping both Starlight and Kimiko, both of whom have some decent superhuman physical stats. Cage never looked that impressive against a superpowered opponent.
So I'm going with Noir for the win.
I'm going with Cage. His fights have context that we have to consider, like he held back against Diamondback because he was family (he even tells him he doesn't want to hurt him during their fight), Bushmaster had to fight dirty (sneak attacked a distracted Cage who'd just broken up with Claire after studying footage of him in preparation and used paralysis powder in their 2nd fight when he was losing) or double dose to beat him, Sowande was a centuries-old, super martial artist pressure point master who could stop a regular human's heart with a few pokes and had him rammed with a garbage truck, he was drugged by Stick before Black Sky managed to knock him out, and when he fought Jessica not only was he trying to resist Kilgrave's control but he was canonically weaker than his most recent level of power. And Jessica herself has better strength feats than either of the super people Noir has beaten, considering she's done things like catch a falling elevator, tossed a corpse like a 100 feet into the ocean and punched massive dents in a metal tank while drugged.
Originally posted by TheVaultDweller
I'm going with Cage. His fights have context that we have to consider, like he held back against Diamondback because he was family (he even tells him he doesn't want to hurt him during their fight), Bushmaster had to fight dirty (sneak attacked a distracted Cage who'd just broken up with Claire after studying footage of him in preparation and used paralysis powder in their 2nd fight when he was losing) or double dose to beat him, Sowande was a centuries-old, super martial artist pressure point master who could stop a regular human's heart with a few pokes and had him rammed with a garbage truck, he was drugged by Stick before Black Sky managed to knock him out, and when he fought Jessica not only was he trying to resist Kilgrave's control but he was canonically weaker than his most recent level of power. And Jessica herself has better strength feats than either of the super people Noir has beaten, considering she's done things like catch a falling elevator, tossed a corpse like a 100 feet into the ocean and punched massive dents in a metal tank while drugged.
Originally posted by TheVaultDweller
I'm going with Cage. His fights have context that we have to consider, like he held back against Diamondback because he was family (he even tells him he doesn't want to hurt him during their fight), Bushmaster had to fight dirty (sneak attacked a distracted Cage who'd just broken up with Claire after studying footage of him in preparation and used paralysis powder in their 2nd fight when he was losing) or double dose to beat him, Sowande was a centuries-old, super martial artist pressure point master who could stop a regular human's heart with a few pokes and had him rammed with a garbage truck, he was drugged by Stick before Black Sky managed to knock him out, and when he fought Jessica not only was he trying to resist Kilgrave's control but he was canonically weaker than his most recent level of power. And Jessica herself has better strength feats than either of the super people Noir has beaten, considering she's done things like catch a falling elevator, tossed a corpse like a 100 feet into the ocean and punched massive dents in a metal tank while drugged.
She also held up an SUV one handed. And threw/pushed one through a storefront.
I can already tell I'm going to get slammed by arguments for my stance... but here it goes:
Starlight is nearly bulletproof. Not quite, she still gets hurt by bullets, but Butcher's high caliber rifle could only knock her down and hurt her, not seriously injure her. That's despite getting direct shots to the chest. I don't believe either Jessica Jones or Bushmaster could have easily survived shots like those.
Kimiko is also fast enough to have still tagged A-Train and was tough enough that she could take multiple shots from A-Train and just jump back up. A-Train who could turn a normal human into a puddle of meat and blood by just running into them.
Yet you see just how easily Noir takes them out. Yes, some of Cage's enemies are arguably more impressive than either Starlight or Kimiko, but he has never beaten opponents with the kind of ease that Noir did. Noir wasn't even close to struggling.
Cage does look more durable but strength is arguable and skill and speed are definitely in Noir's favor. In the end, it's the entire package that counts, and Noir just has more tools at his disposal and more impressive victories.
The X-factor is A-Train, who was strong enough to have pulled a train, yet Starlight could withstand getting hit by him and Kimiko even took getting jackhammered by him for a prolonged period of time. The feat is actually so far beyond what anyone else has done I'm tempted to consider it an outlier, because so many characters with feats that don't even compare scale to it at least partly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP00VmKx_No - Pulling a train is something a normal person has done. Nobody has ever done anything Cage has, like took a hit from a speeding SUV and crushed the front end without moving. Or twisting a dumpster into a pretzel. If that random guy can pull a train, Cage can do it far easier. And since a train has extremely low friction on the wheels since it's metal on metal and they're greased up, once you actually get it moving, it's much easier to keep it moving.
Also as Stated by Froth when you use Kimokos durability feat and scale to the rest it becomes absurd. A-Train was bashing her head against the concrete side of the wall for a solid 20 seconds at speed. He was also strong enough to throw her clean through a brick wall divider with a one armed casual toss as well.
--Sorry for Double Posting
Just to add a bit more to this:
Starlight is strong enough to tip a car over and punch holes through brick walls. Tough enough to withstand bullets. Trained in martial arts since she was a kid. That should put her at least within super soldier range even without her light powers. I mean, she was strong enough to make Stormfront bleed from her punches, and Stormfront is legit bulletproof.
Yet Noir slapped her around like a little kid. I just can't imagine Luke Cage handling Starlight as easily as that.
Kimiko seems even stronger than Starlight and was actually winning against Stormfront in pure h2h. And while Noir did struggle against her a bit more than against Starlight, it wasn't really by much. He had some trouble because of her speed and agility but it still only took him like 30 seconds to take her out.