Stupidest fights in comics

[Alan2099]

Venom beating up Juggernaut (if there’s an explanation for this one, I’d love to hear/read it).

Venom had a weird power-up in that story that seemed at least partially supernatural.

You can just look and tell that this is not normal Venom.

[The Chou Lives]

To be fair prior to that power up Cain was beating Eddie a rock to near death as Venom Eddie was trying to save his girlfriend from him and she saw the smack down too. Heart breaking to a degree.

[Harbinger19]

Unfortunately, Fairy Tail as a series went on to do this sort of thing a lot which is one of the reasons why I never finished it.

Yeah, that was chump change compared to what she pulled later. At least there was some character justification in the TOH arc with her mentioning that she wore armor to not feel vulnerable, that it was essentially a psychological crutch for her, but her defeat of Ikaruga was definitely abrupt.

Now I feel like logging Erza’s later stuff; at least the worst offenders.

Tartaros: Erza fights Kyouka, a demon who gets the upper hand by shutting off all of Erza’s senses except her sense of pain, which is heightened to the point that a light flick feels like tearing a 3-foot hole in her torso. Kyouka proceeds to pound and slash Erza in this state. Erza while blind, deaf, and without any sense of touch except pain somehow manages to get up and punch out Kyouka, stunning the onlookers, who try in vain to come up with any explanation beyond “she won because she’s Erza.”

War Arc: I’ll give credit to Hiro because her fight with Ajeel was her best in the series tactically, but the real egregious one is Irene. Erza gets all her bones broken by Irene, who then summons a meteor. Erza explicitly notes that the meteor is more powerful than Jellal’s magic, Jellal being a guy who fought on Erza’s Ikaruga one-shotting level while at half power, soloed 4 people who trashed Erza, the rest of her team and 3 other wizards in their first appearance, and was generally portrayed as being on or above the level of Laxus, who apparently defeated Erza outright in 100 Year Quest.

Erza shoves herself up with her one unbroken arm and destroys the meteor that’s apparently more powerful than Jellal’s best shot.

[Beadle]

Remember when Captain Britain punched the Phoenix Force? Good times.

Also, I realise they later made it non-canon because of its incredible dumbitude, but the West Coast Avengers filler issue when they were kidnapped to some battle world (but not actual Battleworld), and forced to individually fight this robot that evolved each time it faced one of them so that they couldn’t beat it again. And then, after it had already faced (and evolved to beat) Tigra, bloody Iron Man and even frickin’ Wonder Man, it fought Moon Knight. Who just effortlessly tore it to shreds because the planet had thousands upon thousands of moons, which made him vastly stronger than someone who was Class 100, albeit Diet Coke Class 100. Despite his powers never working like that before or since. And despite Khonshu not actually being the god of ‘some moons’ but explicitly our one moon. Ah, what it is to remember.

[Nik Hasta]

Yeah, that was chump change compared to what she pulled later. At least there was some character justification in the TOH arc with her mentioning that she wore armor to not feel vulnerable, that it was essentially a psychological crutch for her, but her defeat of Ikaruga was definitely abrupt.

I'm aware it's far from the most egregious thing in the series but it always felt impactful to me for a couple of reasons.

1) At that point in the story, Erza had been presented as arguably the strongest member of the Fairy Tail crew. She'd constantly been on hand to save the other characters when they were in trouble and this fight Ikaruga was not only the first time we saw her struggle but, more notably, be completely outclassed. I was really interested to see how she was going to win because she was so out of her depth in terms of raw power. I hoped for some clever strategy, a surprise team up or even a specific power-up. Instead we got, "Oh she just won now because,"

2) Ikaruga was really cool and, in relation to the above point, was the first character to fully outclass Erza in combat so pointedly. I figured she would maybe a new semi-recurring villain, something for Erza to aim at as she actually had to improve herself. But no, she got flattened and exited the story there and then. (I'm aware she had a brief cameo like... seven story arcs and a time skip later)

3) I really liked Mashima's previous major series Groove Adventure Rave and had high hopes for Fairy Tail. While I kept reading for a while after, I think this specific fight was the moment I realised that Fairy Tail was not going to be like GAR and I lost faith in it.

So yeah, it's not the peak stupidest stuff in the series but it's probably the fight that sticks in my mind as one of the worst offenders. A thoroughly disappointing conclusion to what had been a really cool encounter.

[The Arbiter]

I am absolutely shocked that nobody has mentioned that time Thor beat Storm with a kiss.

[Dark Soul # 7]

Tartaros: Erza fights Kyouka, a demon who gets the upper hand by shutting off all of Erza’s senses except her sense of pain, which is heightened to the point that a light flick feels like tearing a 3-foot hole in her torso. Kyouka proceeds to pound and slash Erza in this state. Erza while blind, deaf, and without any sense of touch except pain somehow manages to get up and punch out Kyouka, stunning the onlookers, who try in vain to come up with any explanation beyond “she won because she’s Erza.”

This one is particularly egregious if you ask me. We know that Mashima is aware of comments about Erza's fights (among other things about the series) so him throwing in a serviceable explanation and then dismissing it with Happy declaring "She won because she's Erza." is a very deliberate troll move on his part. A very annoying troll move, though some people probably found it funny.

The fight also annoys me because it does nothing with Minerva. Minerva being a Fairy Tail adversary who's gained demon powers so that she can beat Erza but is regretting it and is there with Erza and the cats as the Kyouka fight is happening. You'd think that the obvious thing to do would be to have Minerva help Erza against Kyouka and start her redemption that way. Which would also give plausible way for them to beat a superior foe with numbers and some cool stuff like that. But nope, she's reduced to an on the floor commenter role (she does get to stab Kyouka IIRC after Erza's won) and that's it. The next time we see Minerva interacting with Fairy Tail (after a one year timeskip) she's instantly forgiven for all the honestly horrible things she did to them and then she's no longer relevant at all.

Fairy Tail is a fun series with engaging characters, but its flaws are so big and consistent that the engagement easily tips over to frustration.

[Dark Soul # 7]

Remember when Captain Britain punched the Phoenix Force? Good times.

Also, I realise they later made it non-canon because of its incredible dumbitude, but the West Coast Avengers filler issue when they were kidnapped to some battle world (but not actual Battleworld), and forced to individually fight this robot that evolved each time it faced one of them so that they couldn’t beat it again. And then, after it had already faced (and evolved to beat) Tigra, bloody Iron Man and even frickin’ Wonder Man, it fought Moon Knight. Who just effortlessly tore it to shreds because the planet had thousands upon thousands of moons, which made him vastly stronger than someone who was Class 100, albeit Diet Coke Class 100. Despite his powers never working like that before or since. And despite Khonshu not actually being the god of ‘some moons’ but explicitly our one moon. Ah, what it is to remember.

Speaking of Moon Knight.

Recently he fought Thor and humiliated him by controling Mjolnier to beat the crap out of Thor (because uru is actually moon rocks, didn't you know that) and slammed him into a bunch of other moons he teleported in from other galaxies.

It's one of the most blatant examples of "I'm going to convince the audience that this one character is super awesome and cool by making him beat up all these others characters" that I've seen in recent memory and it is just so bad.

[Harbinger19]

I'm aware it's far from the most egregious thing in the series but it always felt impactful to me for a couple of reasons.

1) At that point in the story, Erza had been presented as arguably the strongest member of the Fairy Tail crew. She'd constantly been on hand to save the other characters when they were in trouble and this fight Ikaruga was not only the first time we saw her struggle but, more notably, be completely outclassed. I was really interested to see how she was going to win because she was so out of her depth in terms of raw power. I hoped for some clever strategy, a surprise team up or even a specific power-up. Instead we got, "Oh she just won now because,"

2) Ikaruga was really cool and, in relation to the above point, was the first character to fully outclass Erza in combat so pointedly. I figured she would maybe a new semi-recurring villain, something for Erza to aim at as she actually had to improve herself. But no, she got flattened and exited the story there and then. (I'm aware she had a brief cameo like... seven story arcs and a time skip later)

3) I really liked Mashima's previous major series Groove Adventure Rave and had high hopes for Fairy Tail. While I kept reading for a while after, I think this specific fight was the moment I realised that Fairy Tail was not going to be like GAR and I lost faith in it.

So yeah, it's not the peak stupidest stuff in the series but it's probably the fight that sticks in my mind as one of the worst offenders. A thoroughly disappointing conclusion to what had been a really cool encounter.

Spot on Nik, I’m completely with you on that. And GAR is truly an underrated gem.

This one is particularly egregious if you ask me. We know that Mashima is aware of comments about Erza's fights (among other things about the series) so him throwing in a serviceable explanation and then dismissing it with Happy declaring "She won because she's Erza." is a very deliberate troll move on his part. A very annoying troll move, though some people probably found it funny.

The fight also annoys me because it does nothing with Minerva. Minerva being a Fairy Tail adversary who's gained demon powers so that she can beat Erza but is regretting it and is there with Erza and the cats as the Kyouka fight is happening. You'd think that the obvious thing to do would be to have Minerva help Erza against Kyouka and start her redemption that way. Which would also give plausible way for them to beat a superior foe with numbers and some cool stuff like that. But nope, she's reduced to an on the floor commenter role (she does get to stab Kyouka IIRC after Erza's won) and that's it. The next time we see Minerva interacting with Fairy Tail (after a one year timeskip) she's instantly forgiven for all the honestly horrible things she did to them and then she's no longer relevant at all.

Fairy Tail is a fun series with engaging characters, but its flaws are so big and consistent that the engagement easily tips over to frustration.

Yeah, I agree that Kyouka is the worst moment for Erza, and marred an otherwise mostly great story arc.

It’s a shame because FT has so many good, even great elements, but it violates the most fundamental of all by ignoring consequence all the time.

[Beadle]

Speaking of Moon Knight.

Recently he fought Thor and humiliated him by controling Mjolnier to beat the crap out of Thor (because uru is actually moon rocks, didn't you know that) and slammed him into a bunch of other moons he teleported in from other galaxies.

It's one of the most blatant examples of "I'm going to convince the audience that this one character is super awesome and cool by making him beat up all these others characters" that I've seen in recent memory and it is just so bad.

Well, at least since Rulk.

But yes, that is utterly terrible.

[Cody]

I'm surprised no one mentioned the entirety of the Avengers vs X-men storyline. An entire war that could have been avoided, if they had just talked...

[Dark Soul # 7]

I'm surprised no one mentioned the entirety of the Avengers vs X-men storyline. An entire war that could have been avoided, if they had just talked...

That's less stupid fights (though a lot of the fights ARE stupid) and more stupid interactions.

[The Dog]

Well, at least since Rulk.

But yes, that is utterly terrible.

At least the Rulk nonsense had the joyous scene where Rulk tries to step up on Galactus and gets smacked down like a bitch. I don't think Moon Knight's going to get that treatment.

[Jcogginsa]

Catwoman being able to outmaneuver and fight the Flash. No, it doesn't matter that he was being controlled by someone else, because even if she were Cassandra-fucking-Cain, she would still get blitzed.

Yes, it does actually make a world of difference. Because the fact that he is a meat puppet and not his normal self means that he's not going at default speed, he's going at speed's that the person mind controlling him can comprehend.

Oh yeah. In that same scene Batman knocks out Superman by whistling.

And the scene specifies that this only works because the person mind controlling Superman does not know how to control Superman's super senses.

Speaking of Moon Knight.

Recently he fought Thor and humiliated him by controling Mjolnier to beat the crap out of Thor (because uru is actually moon rocks, didn't you know that) and slammed him into a bunch of other moons he teleported in from other galaxies.

It's one of the most blatant examples of "I'm going to convince the audience that this one character is super awesome and cool by making him beat up all these others characters" that I've seen in recent memory and it is just so bad.

And again, ignoring huge amounts of context here. Namely the fact that Moon Knight had half a dozen power ups going into that fight.

[K7P5V]

Catwoman VS. Prometheus would be a personal favorite: