Friday Night Fights: Wildcat - Round 12: Mongul-Mashing!

For the final round of Friday Night Fights: Wildcat, I'm going with one of my all-time favorite super-skirmishes courtesy of Superman#32 by Roger Stern, Kerry Gammill, and Dennis Janke. Synopsis: After exiling himself into space, the Man Of Steel has found himself captured by Warworld, where he is forced to engage in a fight to the death with the reigning champion Draaga. Supes defeats Draaga but refuses to kill him, incurring the wrath of Warworld's ruler Mongul, who attacks and defeats our hero and brings him back to the royal palace. Superman breaks free from his bonds, and the rematch is on.

WHOOM!


Now here's tonight's ferocious fight music from Thin Lizzy.

For more Mongul-ian melees, click here. And don't forget to vote!

Friday Night Fights: Wildcat - Round 11: If You See Them Getting Smaller....

With the recent news of the leaked Suicide Squad movie preview, I thought I'd feature an issue from the John Ostrander/Kim Yale incarnation, namely Suicide Squad#62, written by Ostrander & Yale and drawn by Geoff Isherwood & Robert Campanella for tonight's round of Friday Night Fights: Wildcat.


Synopsis: The Micro/Force is a group of government spies who went rogue and tried to recruit Ray (the Atom) Palmer---by killing the alien tribe he was living with in the jungle, including his love, Princess Laethwen. In retaliation, Palmer tracked down all the agents and....shrunk them to six inches tall (except for their leader Bailey, whom he shrunk to three inches tall), leaving them stuck at that height indefinitely. They went on to work for a mystery group called the Cabal who sought Palmer for his size-changing secrets. With the help of Captain Boomerang, they kidnapped Ray's replacement, Adam Cray (who had succeeded Ray as the Atom after Ray had apparently died), thinking he was Palmer. Cray broke free of them, only to be stabbed to death with a nail by the Micro/Force's mercenary assassin, Blacksnake.


Let's see what happens next.

Yes, he can, apparently.

The gentleman in yellow above is the costumed insect-themed villain Sting, a would-be heir to the Bug-Eyed Bandit.


Or....is he?

Oh, it is ON!

He actually does come back to get Blacksnake from the microverse, although how he finds him at that size is anyone's guess. It's comics, just roll with it.


Tonight's fight music is this shrinking sonnet by Jimmy Webb -- even though, in the case of this fight, Blacksnake saw Ray Palmer getting bigger as he was leaving.

Spacebooger wishes Adam Cray was in the new Suicide Squad film.

Friday Night Fights: Wildcat - Round 9: Dueling Patriots!

For last year's 4th of July I posted a special patriotic round of Friday Night Fights featuring Captain America as the winning fighter. This year, I'm going with a different patriotic-themed hero for this year's red, white, and blue ruckus, namely Uncle Sam himself. But Cap is still involved in this year's flag-wavin' fight....or rather, a villainous analog of him is. Freedom Fighters#8 by Bob Rozakis, Dick Ayers, and Jack Abel.


There's an interesting story behind the genesis of this particular all-star altercation: Back around late 1976, Rozakis had an interesting idea: He had arranged for the Freedom Fighters to fight an analog of the Invaders, who starred in a team book that Roy Thomas was writing at Marvel during that same time. Knowing this, Rozakis speculated on the idea of Roy having the Invaders face off against a Freedom Fighters analog team, also called the Crusaders. Bob's editor, Tony Isabella, suggested it to Roy and the rest was history. (See more details here.)


Anyway, here's Sam fighting a Cap analog called the Americommando (who is, unbeknownst to the Freedom Fighters, their arch-enemy, the Silver Ghost).

Tonight's firework-filled fight music comes from Madness.

For more star-spangled smackdowns, click here. And don't forget to exercise your patriotic right to vote!