Fiction Fight Club
The tale of the tape of tomes
The stakes are high. Your blood runs hot. The air is thick with tension that’s been building for what seems like ages. Sometimes a literary smackdown can feel so intense, it’s as if you’re in the ring, duking it out with your own private nemesis. When reading these climactic collisions between two or more combatting characters, do you prefer an evenly matched contest or a David and Goliath-style showdown?
Many novels have depicted legendary squabbles, but graphic novels are no strangers to visually volatile battles. All of fiction showcases beatdowns of all sorts, and several pit at least a pair of equally powered pugilists.
In my previous Jonfiction Blog post, I discussed how certain storytelling tropes are welcome (sort of like how there are good germs and bad germs, but too much of anything can make you sick). Yes, overdoing formulaic twists can cause eyes to do the spin-cycle in skulls, but a fun story can make you overlook any technical errors for lack of a better term.
I have no issue with characters with either similar abilities or the same exact skill set squaring off against one another. I have and will most likely again set characters possessing near-identical powers in a duel in my own stories. Still, I can understand the inherent fatigue when we once more see what are essentially the same person trading punches with themselves.
Let’s get ready to rumble with a quick and dirty list of some famous fictional fighters. Starting with comic book brawlers, from the panel to the screen, it’s been a twin tussles from some of the greats:
Black Panther v Killmonger
Superman v Zod
Ant-Man/Wasp vs Ghost/Yellowjacket
Black Widow v Taskmaster
Doctor Strange v Scarlet Witch
The Flash v Reverse Flash/Savitar/Rival/Cobalt Blue/Zoom/Dark Flash/Godspeed, the list goes on
Aquaman v Ocean Master
Batman v just about everybody if Batman has prep time.
Okay, I’m not going to get into the whole Batman with prep time thing, funny as it is. You may read the above list and have observations or corrections, and if so, I invite you to submit all of your “Well, actually” remarks to the comments section or X/Tweet/whatever it’s called now to me @jonmcbrine (the same on TikTok, if you are more of a video responder), or @jon_mcbrine_author on Instagram. No, seriously, bring on the nerd debates! That’s a big part of what this blog is about.
Luckily for us, our prize-fighting protagonists typically have an entire rogues gallery (the aforementioned list is a mere taste of the vast array of arch foes). The variety of violence spices up these super sagas. Spider-Man could go from facing Venom, who is usually, at least from his appearance, a larger version of the Webhead. In the next issue, Spidey could take on The Lizard, a decidedly even more different villain. On the silver screen, we normally are treated to similar competitors clashing. If more live action champions of justice rumbled with drastically different dastardly baddies, would comic book movie fatigue be lessened? Probably not, and it’s not like this kind of thing isn’t happening at all. Spider-Man Far From Home saw the Wall Crawler in a melee against Mysterio and they aren’t exactly clones of one another. The hero is typically the underdog, so that triumph over adversity thing is pretty much guaranteed any way you slice it, which is one of those trope things that we generally like.
In the case of purely written wars, a series of books may see the main characters go up against only a handful of true big bads. Goons and henchmen aside, the top bad guy confrontation is more often than not reserved for the end of the novel. Alternate versions, adaptations, continuations, sequels, novelizations - no matter what the format is, if there are only a few entries in a series, then the supply of huge battles grows thin.
Harry Potter vs Voldemort is a pretty famous rivalry. In the first book, The Sorcerer’s Stone, young wizarding student engages a bizarre version of You-Know-Who in that story’s final showdown. Of course, subsequent offerings from the Potter saga see Harry have magic-offs with the Noseless Nemesis. I’m being purposely vague here because the point of this blog isn’t to be a blow-for-blow recap, and it’s possible there are people who actually have read the books or seen the movies (they exist! I was one of them not too long ago myself). Harry Potter has a long line of books in that particular series, but very broadly speaking, at least in the instance of the first couple of books, which is my primary focus here, it is wizard vs wizard. Wand-wielding warlocks are cool, and Harry is at a disadvantage, of course, but if the series continued to simply be big sorcerer scrums, how complex and different would these battles need to be for you to retain interest?
In the recent Blue Beetle film, the leading man, Jaime Reyes, fights a similar entity to his enhanced Scarab-powered armor. Shazam fights similarly-powered godlike beings. Percy Jackson defeats Luke (okay, so maybe these people aren’t exactly the same, but still similar enough? Comment away!). Iron Man fought Iron Monger, another guy in a suit. The Mirror Match is a constant in character combat.
Which side are you on? Is twinning winning or do you need dissimilar disputes? My blanket outlook is if it’s good, it won’t matter, but that’s true of anything. Sure, it all depends on the specifics of the tale being told, but ultimately, I prefer a diverse skirmish.
If you’re a fan of fictional fights that involve flights, check out my debut young adult superhero novel Unsecret Identity: Eric Icarus - Book One available now in the Amazon Kindle store:
https://rb.gy/4lbad
For more fictional fracases and sci-fi-leaning superhero thoughts, follow this blog - new posts every Monday.
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