DC's Martial Arts World appreciation thread 2022

[marhawkman]

You are right, they do lack feats and the consistent portrayal as the great hand to hand fighters they should logically be.

heh, but every now and then......

Like in JL where John Stewart had his Green Lantern Ring broken by a carefully timed swing of a Nth-Metal sword... oh wait, that was neither Hawkgirl or Hawkman, but one of the random Thanagarian military guys...

[Shockingjustice]

Dick's already in my rankings, Garth and Wally both fall into the category of characters who's powers more or less make any martial arts training they may or may not have irrelevant. the Wonder Girl are in a similar boat but since they aren't as powerful as Diana I guess I can rank them; Donna being a strong A tier and Cassie probably being a strong B to low A. both likely unranked but Donna may be worthy of a rank just shy of a top 10 placement.

Does Black Lightning
count? He does have powers, but his TV show had multiple scenes of him training with Anissa with martial arts.

[lemonpeace]

Does Black Lightning
count? He does have powers, but his TV show had multiple scenes of him training with Anissa with martial arts.

hmmmm Black Lightning is a hard one, now that I'm thinking about it. Jefferson was a considerably trained martial artist pre-Flashpoint, at one point being a prolific kickboxer that was trained by Ted Grant in boxing then training under Batman for 7 years refining his fighting further. I think he still has training post-Flashpoint, because we've seen him spar with Katana and he fought a magical ninja lieutenant that was under orders from Katana's Mother-in-law. I feel his powers do eclipse his martial arts discipline a bit too much right now to rank him fairlytho, I think they need to re-establish his fighting skills, and/or incorporate more feats where he's applying both equally. without his powers i can see Jefferson at a middle to lower B Tier level.

[lemonpeace]

some characters for tier consideration:

Black Manta
Lex Luthor
Catman
Jo Mullien
Laira (Green Lantern)
Rick Flagg
Peacemaker

[Jabare]

Lex Luthor would fight like an average guy at best and I wouldn't bother putting him on the list

Manta is hard to judge. He uses weapons and cunnings to fight Metas. Although he's kind of been this bloodthirster ripper the last decade slicing everyone's throats, he's very effective in what he does. The very nature of who he fights and how he's able to hold his own against them probably necesistates a higher than normal ranking.

Despite Gail Simone going out of her way to try and make Catman a top tier fighter on par with Batman in Secret Six I think that is a drop in the bucket and generally don't rate him that highly. He has some weird Battle Board logic wins against high level opponents that are random.

You're looking at a small sample size to rank Green Lanterns in h2h. The most consistent basic showings I can think of are Hal and Guy

Rick Flagg and Peacemaker would be mid-level at best

[golgi]

some characters for tier consideration:

Black Manta
Lex Luthor
Catman
Jo Mullien
Laira (Green Lantern)
Rick Flagg
Peacemaker

Vixen too. Trained by Bronze Tiger.

Sensor Girl trained by Karate Kid.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Lex Luthor would fight like an average guy at best and I wouldn't bother putting him on the list

Manta is hard to judge. He uses weapons and cunnings to fight Metas. Although he's kind of been this bloodthirster ripper the last decade slicing everyone's throats, he's very effective in what he does. The very nature of who he fights and how he's able to hold his own against them probably necesistates a higher than normal ranking.

Despite Gail Simone going out of her way to try and make Catman a top tier fighter on par with Batman in Secret Six I think that is a drop in the bucket and generally don't rate him that highly. He has some weird Battle Board logic wins against high level opponents that are random.

You're looking at a small sample size to rank Green Lanterns in h2h. The most consistent basic showings I can think of are Hal and Guy

Rick Flagg and Peacemaker would be mid-level at best

Flagg would be a little higher than most. He's held his own against Tiger and Batman

[lemonpeace]

Lex Luthor would fight like an average guy at best and I wouldn't bother putting him on the list

Manta is hard to judge. He uses weapons and cunnings to fight Metas. Although he's kind of been this bloodthirster ripper the last decade slicing everyone's throats, he's very effective in what he does. The very nature of who he fights and how he's able to hold his own against them probably necesistates a higher than normal ranking.

Despite Gail Simone going out of her way to try and make Catman a top tier fighter on par with Batman in Secret Six I think that is a drop in the bucket and generally don't rate him that highly. He has some weird Battle Board logic wins against high level opponents that are random.

You're looking at a small sample size to rank Green Lanterns in h2h. The most consistent basic showings I can think of are Hal and Guy

Rick Flagg and Peacemaker would be mid-level at best

hmm I figured Lex would have had some degree of training. I guess if so they're nothing significant considering we don't see Lex scraping too often.

Manta actually is an easy and solid A/Master tier imo. sure he relies on tech but he was trained from a young age and a lot of his weapons are conventional weapons that require skill to wield as effectively and efficiently as he does. He fights Aquaman in a wetsuit with some swords, spears, and laser beams most of the time. plus, the bodies we was catching and fights he was putting work in on from Johns' run, Suicide Squad, and Forever Evil just cemented that David is one of the most dangerous men on the planet. I don't see anyone in the Elite tier giving him too much trouble.

I just heard Catman was up there but tbh I only really know about him being able to be competitive against Bronze Tiger. honestly I think that alone should put him at least at a low A tier if he has consistently demonstrated that relative level of skill. what's his deal? how good is he vs how good should he be?

Yeah, I mainly only have training prior to the ring to fall back on for Green Lanterns. Hal and Guy seem to have the most fist fights on panel but from what I can tell they appear to just be impressive Brawlers at best. I'm guessing high D to low C tier. I give John at least a C only because i hear Marine training is no joke and it does include pretty thorough CQC training.

would you classify Flagg and Peacemaker as B/Elite or just C/Very Good?

Vixen too. Trained by Bronze Tiger.

Sensor Girl trained by Karate Kid.

I'm gonna say Vixen falls into the Black Lightning and Wonder Woman category of having powers that more of less make their martial arts irrelevant; she i can't really rank her. but I am curious, how good was she tho? like where would you place her minus her totem/demigod powers?

Flagg would be a little higher than most. He's held his own against Tiger and Batman

how well did he do and how long ago was it? I feel the significance of older feats tend to fluctuate due to continuity shifts altering portrayals in competence over time.

[lemonpeace]

so I posted my tiers on Twitter and Tumblr and this was one of the rankings I got back from tumblr. thoughts?

[atomicskull]

so I posted my tiers on Twitter and Tumblr and this was one of the rankings I got back from tumblr. thoughts?

I really like this ranking for Green Arrow. I don't think i need him to be an elite top tier fighter. Being an underdog really suits him.

[marvelprince]

I really like this ranking for Green Arrow. I don't think i need him to be an elite top tier fighter. Being an underdog really suits him.

While I don’t need GA to be top tier either he did get training from Sensei and was able to fight Deathstroke toe to toe in his OYL arc. Don’t think he’s been as impressive H2H since then but it’s worth mentioning.

[marvelprince]

so I posted my tiers on Twitter and Tumblr and this was one of the rankings I got back from tumblr. thoughts?

Pretty good list. I agree with most. Only ones that jump out at me are Bloodsport (seems to high for the limited appearances I remember of him), Tiger and Raptor are definitely too low (Tiger in particularly is nearly on par with Dick in terms of fighting ability), Rick Flagg is more known as a soldier but has held his own against some of top spot holders so he could move up some, and I think GA should go up a bit as well.

He’s newer but Ghostmaker should belong in the A tier as well.

[Marik Swift]

so I posted my tiers on Twitter and Tumblr and this was one of the rankings I got back from tumblr. thoughts?

Like this list, especially with Black Canary being in SS.

Albeit, this list seems more like a "who's stronger", not "who's better" list? Cause otherwise Shiva and Cass should definitely be in SS.

[saiyan_earthling]

Forgive my disrespect for going off-topic, but I hope in the future we see a DC martial arts movie, starring Cassandra Cain, with the antagonist Lady Shiva.

[Jabare]

Is Black Manta a meta? I thought he just had tech?

Also people need to educate me on Bloodsport. I'm only familiar with the movie version and that one Superman arc