Contest Of Marvels (Season 3) - Thread 3

[Phaedrus45]

Final Results:

*Fandral defeats Sauron 7-3

*Deathbird defeats Mach IV 10-0

*Shola Inkose defeats Werewolf By Night 10-0

*Daredevil defeats Pyro 8-2

 

[JewishHobbit]

Yippie Skippy

 

[Phaedrus45]

Bracket 5

Match 1:

Selene (POWDER-MAN) link

vs.

Colossus (VANGUARD07) link

Match 2:

Silverclaw (HARLEKIN) link

vs.

Gamesmaster (JEWISHHOBBIT) link

 

[Phaedrus45]

Bracket 6

Match 1:

Midnight Sun (VANGUARD07) link

vs.

Wraith-Brian DeWolf (HELLSTORMER) link

Match 2:

Machinesmith (HELLSTORMER) link

vs.

Piledriver (WITCHKING) link

 

[Phaedrus45]

Location: Empire State University

This location is occupied by faculty, students, workers, and any other type of person who'd normally be on campus. This is nighttime; but, remember that most Universities are well-lit; so, I expect this would be the case with ESU.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Debating May Begin!!!

 

[random_havoc]

I have literally never heard of 5 of these characters, and Colossus is the only one that I know in detail. Yikes.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Gamesmaster is the best of them all

 

[POWdER-man]

Selene vs Colossus

Man, not that Selene needed help but it being nightime AND populated is to her advantage completely. If this were daytime and unpopulated would at least have a minimal amount of a chance but now I don't see how Colossus could hope to win this.

Well we are all familiar with Colossus so I won't explain about his powers.

Selene has the following powers at her disposal:

Life-Force Absorption: by psionically draining the life forces of other human beings into herself, by physical touch. If she drained a person’s entire life force from him or her, the victim dies and the victim’s body crumbles into dust. It is unknown how often Selene must drain life force from another human in order to survive. It is known, that great expenditure of power causes Selene to age, but she can rejuvenate herself by absorbing more life force. Selene will not age as long as she maintains her supply of absorbed life force.

Psychic Vampire: If Selene drains only part of a victims life force, Selene achieves a measure of psychic control over her victim’s mind. Through unknown means, Selene can cause a human being to become a psychic vampire like herself, but be subordinate to Selene’s own will.

Physical Enhancement: Selene has physical strength, stamina, speed, and reaction time that are all several times greater than those of a normal woman.

Superhuman Strength
Superhuman Endurance
Superhuman Reflexes
Superhuman Speed: ability to momentarily move at speeds rivaling those of Quicksilver.

Shadow-Morphing: allowing her to dematerialize or use solid tendrills of darkness to manipulate objects

Telekinesis: her telekinetic abilities gives her complete psionic control over inanimate objects.

Telekinetic Animation: can cause inanimate objects to move according to her will by projecting part of her absorbed life force into them.

Inanimate Disintegration: She can cause inanimate objects in her presence to disintegrate. She cannot, however, rearrange the atomic or molecular structure of matter.

Pyrokinesis: could psionically generate and project intense heat and flame from and around her body or direct it at certain distances. The exact radius remains unknown. She was also able to manipulate flame created from other sources and could magnify their intensity or snuff them. The flames Selene generated could also be illusory in effect; for example, she could focus the power on an object making it appear to be on fire while it was not being damaged by the flames at all. Selene instinctively created a psionic force field about her entire body that protected her from the effects of the heat and flame she created and from other sources as well

Telepathy: capable of displaying various psionic feats with the minds of others including reading and communicating with thoughts over vast distances.

Psi-Screen: possesses a psychic mental shield to protect her from psychic attacks.

Mental Bolts: can project psionic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness.

Hypnotic Trance: can induce a momentary hypnotic trance state in people around her. Often used along with her speed to create the illusion of teleportation.

Immortal: her aging process is greatly ******ed and she can apparently regenerate injured or missing cells from even near-fatal injuries.

Rapid Healing: ability to endure injuries (within unknown limits) without lasting harm or even feeling pain such as knife wounds.

Sorcery: possesses considerable magical abilities, having gained a great deal of mystical knowledge over the millennia. The number of magical effects that she can create has yet to be catalogued, but it is known that she can cast and counteract spells, summon extra-dimensional demons, enhanced mystical knowledge, manipulation of various artifacts (including mystic jewelry and runestaffs), teleportation across the world, fire energy blasts, disguise her appearance (as she has as Magma and as an old woman), disguise the appearance of others (as she made Magma look like her), and restrain others in
mystic bands.

Recently Selene developed the ability to meld with shadow. She can become intangible at will, manipulate and elongate in order to ensnare others, and meld herself in shadow.

Prep-time

There is no surprise here. They have both faced each other in the past. The only difference is that Colossus has fought Selene with the WHOLE X-men team. While this time he is by himself.

I am sure Colossus will study what he can about Selene but really how much is that going to help?

The Match

As the match starts Selene would have so many advantages with the location.

With the location being populated she could use her sorcery to change the appearance of students on campus making them look like her. This will confuse Colossus and make him attack an innocent student without him knowing. Then Selene could transform the student back and Colossus would realize he just killed an innocent life or she could transform another student to her appearance. She could keep doing this until Colossus gives up.

She could also at the same time start draining partial lifes of other students making them into psychic vampires which would attack Colossus and drain his life.

She can morph into the shadows and hide there until Colossus is weak enough in despair from killing innocents and being drained by the psychic vampires. Then she can restrain him with mystic bands and then drain his life force completely killing him. She also has superhuman speed that is the same as Quicksilver and she can quickly come up to Colossus and drain his life. She has her mental blasts that can disorientate Colossus and possibly knock him out. She can use her telekinesis to knock down a building on top of Colossus. Selene can hypnotize Colossus so she can go up closer to drain his life force.

Selene has so many options and with this location being populated she has a never ending supply of power source to feed from, plus she can use her powers to change their appearance to hers so Colossus would attack them, take control of them by turning them into vampires so they attack Colossus. There is just no chance for Colossus to win this. If it were daytime and unpopulated he would at least have a fighting chance but Selene has fought the whole x-men team before. To beat only one member would be nothing for her considering all her powers at her disposal.

WINNER SELENE

 

[Vanguard07]

Colossus vs Selene: Opening debate:

Okay... Colossus does have a few things going for him here, one of which being he's extremely resistant to magic in his armored form and he's a highly skilled hand to hand fighter who's capable of taking pretty much anything that Selene dishes out.

He's formidable enough that if he catches her he can take her down and her spells and blasts and such shouldnt be able to harm him.

Finally, one of Selene's most formidable abilities, her life force stealing, I believe, is also countered. Colossus has been shown to be immune to Rogue's life force stealing and power stealing abilities. From this one can assume that he'd be immune to Selene's as well. Especially since they're related to sorcery and he possesses his inherent magic immunity.

He doesnt require food water or oxygen in his armored form and he doesnt produce fatigue poisons, so Selene's advantages in speed and agility are somewhat balanced out. He could wear her out and catch her eventually, especially within the semi-limited area of the ESU.

All in all this seems to me to be a tortoise vs hare type match. Eventually Colossus can catch Selene, even if it may take a great deal of time, and when he does, he has the power to take her down.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Gamesmaster vs Silver Claw

This is really a one sided match because there's absolutely nothing Silver Claw can do here. Gamesmaster is an omega level mutant that can hear the thoughts of every being on the planet... thus, an Omnipath. He's a telepath of the highest order and can control large quantities of people at one time. He does have a physical body but he remains hidden at all times and does all his work through an astral body. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, his physical body has only been seen once in the comics and it's while he's talking to himself at the end of the X-Force/New Warriors crossover called "Child's Play".

Thus, he would keep himself hidden well. Even if he doesn't, Silver Claw won't know what he looks like and he can blend in with the rest of the crowd while dealing with her through his astral form.

The Battle... aka The Game

He can hear everyone's thoughts so he can hear Silver Claw's. He'll know where she is and could probably put a stop to here right then and there... shutting down her mind. He won't do that yet, but know that he can if for whatever eason something happens to make him doubt his ability to defeat her. No, Gamesmaster likes games. Games are what helps him drown out all the other voices, so he plays them.

I see Gamesmaster taking over the minds of all the bystanders and have them watching Silver Claw. He'd use this to play with her by making her save them, fight them, etc. Mostly he'd just be playing with her to see how she reacts.

Either Silver Claw will go down to the masses, or Gamesmaster will eventually get bored and will just render her unconscious.

There's really nothing she can do here without finding Gamesmaster's physical body, which he's kept hidden for years. No one else has found it, and she won't even know who he is to find him. As far as she knows, his physical form is the energy form that appears before her.

Winner - Gamesmaster

 

[POWdER-man]

Colossus vs Selene: Rebuttal:

Okay... Colossus does have a few things going for him here, one of which being he's extremely resistant to magic in his armored form and he's a highly skilled hand to hand fighter who's capable of taking pretty much anything that Selene dishes out.

1. I have reviewed his bio on Marvel, Comicvine, Wikia, and Mutant High and none of them refer to him being resistant to magic. I would trust Marvel's website before anything else as that would be the official website. As for Wikipedia's reference, even then it only says "certain" magical attacks so there be no guarantee despite this.
2. Selene is a mutant and a powerful sorceress. Her powers like Telepathy, Telekinesis, energy absorption, etc would not be magic.
3. Colossus is weak against mind control (Shadow King controlled him), mental bolts, energy absorption (I will talk about this more further down), Telekinesis, etc so even if he could defend against her magical spells she has many powers at her disposal.

He's formidable enough that if he catches her he can take her down and her spells and blasts and such shouldnt be able to harm him.

With it being at nightime and dark she can meld into shadows. Colossus wouldn't even know where to find her especially with how big the campus is. PLus if she transforms herself he wouldn't even know she was there right next to him. Plus if she transforms students to look like her he would attack the wrong person in either he would breakdown for killing innocents or he would eventually revert to his human form once he (falsely) believed he killed Selene and he would be easier to be killed. Not to mention she can transform other students into psionic vampires making them attack Colossus so she wouldn't have to be directly involved.

Finally, one of Selene's most formidable abilities, her life force stealing, I believe, is also countered. Colossus has been shown to be immune to Rogue's life force stealing and power stealing abilities. From this one can assume that he'd be immune to Selene's as well. Especially since they're related to sorcery and he possesses his inherent magic immunity.

False on both accounts actually.

In Uncanny X-Men #208 Selene (of all people) disintegrated Rogues gloves as she was trying to save Colossus and Rogue ended up absorbing his powers.

Selene is a mutant AND a Sorceress. Her power absorption has nothing to with her magic abilities as it is listed separately from her magical powers. In any case I don't see any evidence that Colossus can defend against magic, especially when the only reference is on Wikipedia and it says "certain" Magical attacks.

He doesnt require food water or oxygen in his armored form and he doesnt produce fatigue poisons, so Selene's advantages in speed and agility are somewhat balanced out. He could wear her out and catch her eventually, especially within the semi-limited area of the ESU.

I am really not sure how that balances out??? Her speed and agility gets balanced out with Colossus because he doesn't need to eat or breathe? Not at all, so I don't know what to say to that.

Selene is immortal and has been around well before even the Hyborian Age (before any recorded civilizations), she essentially can never tire as long as she can drain the life force of anyone around her. Plus she doesn't even have to encounter him directly as she can hide within shadows, disguise herself, send mental balsts from afar, creat psychic vampires with the students to attack him instead, disguise other students as herself so he would attack them instead, use her TK to knock down buildings on top of him or create objects made of steel, rock, cement to come to life. Her options are amazinly diverse and open in this match.

AS far as ESU being "limited", have you ever been to a major university campus? Between dorm residences, all the different department buildings, Gym, pools, cafeterias, student union/student services, and other buildings around the whole campus plus the fields, streets, open and tree areas there is a lot of room.

All in all this seems to me to be a tortoise vs hare type match. Eventually Colossus can catch Selene, even if it may take a great deal of time, and when he does, he has the power to take her down.

This is more of the tortoise vs an army of hares. Selene has so many options in this match that she doesn't even ever have to make herself known to Colossus. Between hiding in shadows and disgiusing herself, colossus would never find her and she can turn students into vampires to do her dirty work.

There is just no way Colossus would win this.

WINNER SELENE

 

[Hellstormer]

Wraith VS. Midnight Sun

These two heroes know nothing about eachother, there's no way around it. Midnight Sun is a master martial artist's mind put into a Skrull body. Wraith is a psionic. Basically you're dealing with someone who can control the human mind against someone who has a human mind. When the battle begins Wraith will just disappear and play havoc with MidNight Sun's mind, despite his strength and abilities he is still just a human in the mind and he will be easily control and manipulated. Wraith won't be afraid to make Sun kill himself.

Winner=Wraith
​

 

[Hellstormer]

Machinesmith VS. Piledriver

*I would just like to say I absolutely hate the Wrecking Crew*

Piledriver, like most of the Wrecking Crew, isn't very smart and wouldn't research his opponent sufficiently, but Machinesmith is well versed in computer and machines and would easily find any available information to know what he's up against. Machinesmith will take along several devices that could incappacitate his opponent, but not rely on physical prowess. Sonics would seem to be the big winner given that it would effect anyone. He'll also put additions on his robotic body to make him much more durable and strong. Basically he'll just stand his ground and send out sonic waves that will disable Piledriver. A couple knock out blows and it's gameover.

Winner=Machinesmith
​

 

[Harlekin]

OPENING ARGUMENT: SILVER CLAW VS. GAMESMASTER

One can be of two minds concerning this match. Either you believe the location will benefit the Gamesmaster or it won't. On the one hand, he has a lot of bodies he can use to his advantage, on the other hand, there's a lot of voices screaming out at him.

Now, Silver Claw doesn't have any psychic defense, but I can't recall Gamesmaster ever directly attacking anyone with his psionic power. He'd try and play games. Silver Claw however, would be intent on finding the physical form of the Gamesmaster. Her enhanced senses would tell her his astral form is merely that, astral.

So what happens? It's likely Silver Claw will have to fend off some people, but after that, it's the power of elimination. She has to find the one person on the ESU campus not doing anything, sitting perfectly still, as every indication we have says the Gamesmaster has a great deal of trouble containing his power. Then it's one punch.

WINNER=SILVER CLAW

 

[JewishHobbit]

OPENING ARGUMENT: SILVER CLAW VS. GAMESMASTER

One can be of two minds concerning this match. Either you believe the location will benefit the Gamesmaster or it won't. On the one hand, he has a lot of bodies he can use to his advantage, on the other hand, there's a lot of voices screaming out at him.

This is nothin'. Remember, he's an Omnipath who hears the thoughts of everyone on Earth constantly. It's not just location based. So he's hearing no differant now than he ever has. Nothing's changed. The idea of a game just helps him focus better and tune them out.

Now, Silver Claw doesn't have any psychic defense, but I can't recall Gamesmaster ever directly attacking anyone with his psionic power. He'd try and play games. Silver Claw however, would be intent on finding the physical form of the Gamesmaster. Her enhanced senses would tell her his astral form is merely that, astral.

Granted, yes her senses would help figure out the astral form is just that. I hadn't considered that tidbit in my opening debate, but it doesn't really help a whole lot. Yes, she's then looking for him, but there's no way of knowing who he is or how to tell him apart from the rest.

As for him using his powers against someone else. He manipulated and took control of a whole townful of people, including many of the X-Men (all save Jean Grey), simoultaneously and pretty much just used them as puppets (that was in.. I want to say X-Men Annual '98). And I could be wrong, as my memory is a bit blury on it, but I'm pretty sure he used his powers to harm people during the X-Force/New Mutants storyline, leaving them all defeated (just in time for Husk to appear and talk him out of killing them)... but again, I could be remembering that one wrong. I'll have to check my comics when my wife isn't sleeping.

So what happens? It's likely Silver Claw will have to fend off some people, but after that, it's the power of elimination. She has to find the one person on the ESU campus not doing anything, sitting perfectly still, as every indication we have says the Gamesmaster has a great deal of trouble containing his power. Then it's one punch.

You ever been to a major university... that's a LOT of people to fight off and sift through. And that's counting on that idea that Gamesmaster doesn't just take her out on his own... which I've shown he can above. She's not a bad character but WAY outmatched here.

Winner - Gamesmaster

 

[wiegeabo]

Debates Are Over!

Voting May Begin!!!

 

[POWdER-man]

Selene
Gamemaster
Wraith
Machinesmith

 

[JewishHobbit]

Selene -

Spoiler

I think location did it for me. Without the population I actually think it was a 50/50 match. Colossus had a better shot than Powder gave him credit for but with the population the match became stacked.

Gamesmaster
Wraith
Machinesmith -

Spoiler

I'm actually glad to vote this way. The character really impressed me in the newest New Warriors series.

 

[Harlekin]

Selene
Silverclaw
Wraith
Machinesmith

 

[Phaedrus45]

My Votes:

*Selene

Spoiler

This location really gives quite a few characters a distinct advantage this week, this really being the case with this match. If it was daylight...and, especially unoccupied...I might have given Colossus more of a thought; but, he got royally screwed!

*Gamesmaster

Spoiler

I think I took on Gamesmaster last year..not sure, though...and, I think there might be a flaw in his character. It somewhat came up...but, the location really helps him here. JH did enough to win me over.

*Wraith-Brian DeWolf

*Machinesmith

Spoiler

I think Piledriver could have won this; but, like voting for Ralph Nader, it would be a wasted vote.

 

[wiegeabo]

Selene

Gamesmaster

Wraith

Machinesmith

 

[Midnight Ice]

Selene
Gamesmaster
Wraith
Machinesmith

 

[random_havoc]

Selene
Gamesmaster
Wraith
Machinesmith

 

[Phaedrus45]

Voting Is Over!!!

Final Results:

Selene defeats Colossus 7-0

Gamesmaster defeats Silverclaw 6-1

Wraith defeats Midnight Sun 7-0

Machinesmith defeats Piledriver 7-0