This battle is for the title of Marvel's most versatile character in terms of combat effectiveness. The criteria is as such. What character(s) has demonstrated the most dynamic power set in the pace of all out combat. I'm not asking for who's the biggest swiss army knife, but rather who are the character(s) that have most effectively displayed/used different abilities in the flow of dynamic combat situations.
Keep in mind that we're discussing dynamic applications of power sets, not heady solutions in the midst of battle ala spiderman or Reed Richards. However, tactical applications of power sets do count; i.e.;
What I'm hoping to do is perhaps build a consensus top 5. Then i'll do a DC/Wildstorm version. Then a cross company version. However I fully expect this to unravel into shyte, but a guy can dream can't he?
Anyhow, my nominees in no particular order are;
Blackbolt
Quasar
Norrin
Nova Prime
Thor
As usual if I've missed anyone of note feel free to chime in. Who's the best of the bunch? What's your order? Oh and NO ONE ABOVE HIGH HERALD PLEASE!
Last edited by dmills on Apr 10th, 2011 at 09:59 PM
Contra Omega Vision, I'd still put Surfer above Thor -- he has busted out so many crazy moves over the years it isn't even funny, and he has won with many of them: going back in time to prevent someone from becoming omnipotent, stranding somebody else in the future, going astral, becoming microscopic in size, altering dna, healing himself after getting chopped into pieces, imprisoning genis in his board, the list goes on.
I'd say:
1) Surfer
2) Thor/BRB
After that, I feel more uncertain because of the effectiveness stipulation. Blackbolt has a lot of versatility, but how effectively does he use most of those powers? Also, DMills, when you say effective, do you mean in an absolute sense or relative to a given combat situation? For instance, Apocalypse has an insane range of feats, many of which he has deployed effectively, but most of these feats do not display really high levels of power.
Disagreed. I'd say he and Norrin are on the same level in terms of versatility but Norrin is more prone to pulling out the more exotic powers. This is primarily because Thor's a more physical character.
Thor's divinity -as well as Mjolnir- and Surfer's ill defined Power Cosmic means writers can have them pull powers out of their ass without raised eyebrows.
For this thread, I'd pick Thor. His an extremely powerful character physically, has the most powerful energy output out of heralds, and has easily one of the best defensive capabilities with Mjolnir's fields as well as energy absorption.
Thor may have never evolved life like Surfer but I'd pick him over Norrin in a heartbeat to fight a powerful entity like Odin, Thanos, Tyrant etc. Noticeably better odds imo.
In a dynamic sense. For the purposes of the thread power level doesn't matter. For example, both Thor and Nova have energy absorption feats/showings. Thor wins hands down in sheer volume of energy absorbed, however I think Rich uses his more effectively in the flow of live combat and in the number of ways he can apply it. Which do you consider more useful/valuable for the purposes of this thread is up to you. Does that make any sense?
Last edited by dmills on Apr 10th, 2011 at 10:54 PM
I wouldn't say that; I think it depends a great deal on the nature of the opponent. Between surfer, supes, and thor for instance, I would generally give thor the win over surfer, supes the win over thor, and surfer the win over supes (and not just because of weakness exploitation, either).
If thor has versatility advantage over Norrin in dealing with magical entities, but Surfer has so many odd feats that I think it offsets this, and that it is safe to say that, in general, he has greater effective versatility than Thor.
You raise a good point about threat types. Perhaps Thor has a power set better suited to deal with magic. So wouldn't you say that his effective versatility surpasses Norrin since Thor can respond effectively to any situation, including magic?
Last edited by dmills on Apr 10th, 2011 at 11:01 PM
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