Scans_Daily

Now I don't think anyone would argue that good fight sequences aren't hard to write, it requires a lot of work from both the writer and the artist in order to flow smoothly and dynamically, yet at the same time they are a staple of superhero comics, because action does at times play a great part in them, for the good and for the bad. It is also hard to argue that the nature of the action sequences have also changed during the past two decades, for several reasons in my opinion. At the same time action movies and gamees themselves have drifted to faster and more intense sequences instead of long face-offs, which have also translated to a more quickened pace also in comics. The other reason, I suspect, is that there has been a large shift in the narrative used in comics. The stories in comics used to be largely action driven, but with the current writers other areas of storytelling have grown as significant. To give a comparison of sorts, Joss Whedon often said that the reason why they had so many long fights during the first season of Angel was to pad the episodes as they didn't yet have a clear sense of direction and the stories they wanted to tell, but while the actions sequences remained central to the show, they decreased significantly as it moved on to a much dialogue and event focused storylines. Hope that comparison made sense, as I kind of feel the same has happened in comics in general, with a lot more longer drawn plotlines and character developments taking place. To some writers this however has proven somewhat problematic, as while they do realize the fights are important, they go in knowing who wins and wishing to use the space rather to continue telling the story or then they don't feel large actions sequences to really fit their style. For instance Greg Rucka has admitted that writing action sequences does require a lot more effort and focus from him to make it work.

Yes, still continuing with this with no scans visible still. Just hang on for a little bit more. In a lot of ways the shift of focus isn't that big of an issue, because there are several ways to work around, but it does become a problem when you throw two well-established characters at each other or have a character meet a superior foe. While there might a be a victor in such a bout, usually to me it is more important to have the two characters both coming out looking good, especially if the title in which the match takes place is one of those character's. However this is difficult to accomplish in a short space. So the thought I had for these two posts I'm planning is to illustrate examples of when a writer fails at making the characters seem strong, in my opinion as always, and when they manage to have a character look good even in defeat or matched against a stronger opponent while showing some awesome fights, and with the bad fights I've tried to select ones which are amusing in a way. And I again repeat, these examples reflect just my opinions, for instance in this posts where I try to focus on the ways to fail on that, some people might actually think they're good fights and I have really no basis to claim they're wrong in their tastes.

So, let us finally get started with the post itself, with this first post focusing on how to fail with an epic fight. And for that purpose I have selected certain fights from Jeph Loeb's run of Superman/Batman. I'm actually intending on doing a positive post on the first arc of the series as we get closer to the release of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, as I am really looking forward to it and I am fond of that first arc, even though it kind of falls apart at the end. The thing with Loeb, however, is that I think he is a textbook example of a writer who doesn't have the patiance for fight sequences as he already knows how it's going to end and just wants to move forward. Even if you think about, the stories through which he rose prominance were much more focused on character interaction and storylines with action sequences being an extremely small part of them. Secondly, S/B has a lot of matches between established characters, with at times one side, again just my opinion, being made to look extremely weak in those matches. But to scans themselves.

The first match takes place in front of the White House, as Superman decides that the best way to show the American public how Lex Luthor is lying about the threat posed by Superman is by assaulting the White House during a live interview. Batman is providing backup, but enrout they are ambushed by a large number of mind-controlled supervillains. The sequence is actually kind of cool and it has an excellent scene which illustrated the bond between Bruce and Clark, but it also had the following fight after the controlled Grundy tries to strip the cowl of a dazed Batman only to have the protection mechanism basically mase him.





So in one corner we have Lady Shiva, the deadliest assasin on Earth, the queen of martial arts, who is simply lethal in any form of hand-to-hand combat. In the other corner we have Bruce Wayne, who has been established as one of the best hand-to-hand combatants around, who regularly faces metahuman threats alone. This fight has actually been quietly building for a long time and should be one of the most dynamic and interesting fights DC can provide, as their methods of fighting are completely different, with Shiva relying on stylistically pure martial arts and Bruce relying on being the guy left standing after the fight ends no matter what it takes, yet both are extremely dangerous and evenly matched in these circumstances. This should be one hell of a rumble, shouldn't it? And that Grundy takedown was kind of cool, wasn't it.





Yeah, Bruce just one-punched Shiva. Yeah, it's canon. To the scenes defense, the artist almost makes it work for me, managing to just have Batman come off as badass enough to do something like that and if the opponent was almost anyone else than Shiva, it might perhaps be even okay with me. The problem however is that they constantly promote how deadly and skilled Shiva is supposed to be and then have something like this happen, even if I kind of get the scene Loeb is aiming for with the surprise of how short the fight is. Secondly, as Loeb always has Batman fight with fancy martial arts move, Batman isn't facing Shiva as a streetfighter there, taking advantage of the water, the cape, the armor and everything around them, but as a martial artists. And in the established roles of the two, as a fight between martial artists, Batman shouldn't be winning that fight. So I would argue that this scene is making Shiva look extremely weak, but so did the time Loeb used her prior to this, so I guess there's no surprise there.

The next selection is the fight between Batman and Artemis, which is kind of hilarous. First, let's see the fight before I start filling you on what makes it so funny to me.



In the old community the theory of why he had to thank Ollie for that move was Batman had been training to take him down as easily as possible. Works for me.



Okay, here's why that scene is so amusing to me. First of all, Artemis is really laying the hate there. Secondly, the circumstances for this scene was that Kara, Supergirl, had just arrived to Earth and Superman decided to show him around Metropolis, his home. While at the park, they were ambushed the Amazons and Wonder Woman, who wanted to take the superpowered Kara to Themyscura to teach the use of her powers in a safe enviroment while keeping an eye on her, as Kara was considered suspicious at this point. So why does that make that fight scene so hilarious? Guess who contacted Diana over the matter and arranged the ambush? Yep, it was Batman, who was actually working with the Amazons.

Now I kind of understand what happened. Loeb wanted to have a fight between Artemis and Bruce and that is alright, you don't always need the best of reasons to have two extraordinary badasses to have a go at it, although some reasonable logic would aid the situation. Yet Loeb kind of just skips on the fight after establishing, almost as an afterthought. Also the art kind of fails there, with the way Artemis is holding Bruce on the ground basically inviting a counterattack, his left hand is completely free and unhindered, and with the dart coming from a weird angle. Yet, Batman easily defeats Artemis and that's also canon.

So far we've seen Bruce easily taking care of anyone challenging his alpha status and making others look weak. Let's see if there are scenes abound which treat the Bat harshly. After the Supergirl saga, Loeb shifted to a storyline where villains of the Legion travelled back in time and took in Bruce and Clark as children, using them to take over the world and acting as superpowered enforcers, with the two loving the three time travelling villains as parents. The storyline had several difficulties which I'm not going to touch on here, but in the story Diana is still free and with Uncle Sam, who were never explained in anyway, against a stronghold of the Legion villains. Bruce and Clark intervene and we get the following fight between Diana and Bruce.







I hesitated greatly about including this scene in this post after the several discussions I had over at the old comm over my opinion of the scene, where I obviously failed miserably at explaining my problem with the scene above and where I was even told that it seemed I just have a problem with strong female characters. I can't explain how much I'm looking forward to that here. Anyway, to again reiterate my position on the scene. I don't have a problem with Diana killing Bruce there. The story requires it in order to move forward and she is a superpowered individual Bruce for some reason decides to engage in fistcuffs. My problem is that Bruce pretty much jobs for Diana here. In the story Bruce had been established as one half of the enforcering team taking care of any threat towards their 'parents', showing no problems in using weapons, magic or death as a mean. So it would be expected that he has some ways to deal with superpowered individuals other than 'I will hit you now'. Of course the whole Batman of that world was problematic, but again, not a matter of this discussion. Secondly, Diana isn't even apparantely using any of those powers there, instead pretty much facing Bruce as a warrior with a shild and a sword, utterly pawning him. As I've often said, I do think that if you throw two characters of such caliber at each other in a fight, then you figure out a way to have them both come out looking good and Bruce certainly doesn't come off as strong in anyway here. Also, this isn't a Wonder Woman book, this is Superman/Batman, so having one of the main character appear as weak as that against an outside character is pretty weird. To those wondering, yeah, I do inted to include a scene in my next post where Bruce is pounded to the ground by a superpowered individual and stil comes off strong in my opinion.

Still, there are some positive things here. As I posted this scene, I couldn't stop giggling at that oppressor line being done with a straight face. Also, alternative timeline with a variant Batman, so it isn't current canon. I love being able to be so selective with my canonical approval. And finally, it isn't as if Diana came off strong for that many pages.





Yep, Superman then utterly squashes Wondy. Isn't the balance of Trinity just a wonderful thing.

Okay then, to the final scene, which is from the last storyarc of Loeb's run. It's a tad complicated, but the basic thing is that involves a dimensional travel and Joker with reality altering powers. The point of this scene is that basically an alternative version of the Avengers, yes the Marvel team, thinks the two killed one of their members, just because Batman and Superman popped up in front of them and killed the member in front of their eyes after accusing him of killing Lois, so they travel to the dimension of DCU and after a fight manage to subdue the two and bring them home. There Bats and Supes of course escape, with Superman taking out the Thor-analogue that initially defeated him. Batman meanwhile skulks about, bringing this fight.







So Wolfen, our Wolverine analogue, utterly rips Batman apart, but it isn't that big of a deal. It's common in confrontations to present someone who is at first able to easily beat the hero, until their second fight where the hero is able to rise and take the opponent out to showcase how badass he is. Sure, the hero being someone as established as Batman while the opponent isn't really given any other showing is somewhat of bad form, but Loeb does give us that second confrontation when Batman and allies face the Maximums at an multidimensional arena. Don't ask.



So Batman was able to deduce Wolfen's weakness, an elbow to the face. My problem with that fight is that we were shown Wolfen to be so ferocious that he took down Batman, who was facing him and ready for battle, but here Batman takes Wolfen out with pretty much no effort. This isn't kind of how the rematch is supposed to go as while it doesn't have Batman coming off as weak, it isn't exactly making him look strong either. The whole fight is actually somewhat bizarre, which though does fit the story description I guess.

So here were my examples. I'd like to stress that this wasn't an attack on Loeb, these were rather meant as illustrations to the points I was trying to make. A lot of writers make scenes like this, because as I said in the beginning, succesful fight sequences are hard, especially when they involve two well-established characters with both of them coming off as strong. Also I was trying to keep the tone of the post as light as possible and I hope that I didn't descent in to ranting while trying to make my points. In the end I hope that the post was entertaining on some level, thank those who have had the patiance to read this far and hope that you rejoin me when I show examples of cases where I think such fights were done succesfully.