Best Fighters: Batgirl vs. Black Widow!
Jondee here at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier,
It is the battle of Legends, the best female fighters in the ring, DC vs. Marvel #3 (1996) by Ron Marz and Claudio Castellini had Elektra fighting Catwoman. I would have given this to Lady Shiva, reputed to be the one of the best hand to hand fighters in the DC universe, but while she was part of Birds of Prey, she doesn’t have a lead title and prominence in the current DC universe.
DC – Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, was created by Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff in Batman #139 (1961). In the Rebirth universe, Barbara Gordon, has left behind to travel the world and learned skills beyond her fighting techniques and brought in her photographic memory to learn moves. Dina Meyer portrayed Barbara Gordon in the Birds of Prey series which ran from 2002 to 2003.
Marvel – Black Widow, Natasha Romanov, she was created by Stan Lee, Don Rico, and Don Heck appearing in Tales of Suspense #52 (1964). She was a trained assassin, fought alongside Captain America, Daredevil, and Wolverine. Natasha joined the Avengers and was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Scarlett Johansson of course played Natasha in last year’s Captain America: Civil War.
The battle between Captain America and Batgirl? In Avengers #196 (1980) by David Michelinie and George Perez, Captain America has fought with the Taskmaster, a villain with “photographic reflexes” who has memorized and can duplicate every fighting move of Captain America, yet Cap defeated him. So Batgirl’s advantage would be negated, Cap knows how to shift his fighting style similar to Bruce Lee, so Captain America defeats Batgirl!
Total battles (Ten battles):
DC – 5 (Wonder Woman, Zatanna, Flash, Impulse, Batgirl), 5 – Marvel (Hulk, Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer, Hope Summers, Captain America). TIE!
Female – 5 (Wonder Woman, Zatanna, Impulse, Hope Summers, Batgirl), Male – 5 – (Flash, Hulk, Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer, Captain America). TIE!
It’s tied up, so let’s look at the final match ups!
Final match-ups (Five matches):
Male -3 (Hulk, Silver Surfer, Captain America), Female-2 (Zatanna, Impulse). WIN! – Men
DC – 2 (Zatanna, Impulse), Marvel – 3 (Hulk, Silver Surfer, Captain America). WIN! – Marvel!
DC vs. Marvel had some strange contests; Robin vs. Jubilee, Thor vs. Captain Marvel, Spider-Man vs. Superboy and Wolverine vs. Lobo. Of course there are other match ups, best aquatic hero (Aquaman faced Namor in DC vs. Marvel, he summons a whale that crushes Namor), best archer (Hawkeye and Green Arrow drew their bows in Avengers/JLA #2 [2003] by Kurt Busiek and George Perez, their arrows both pierce Elongated Man’s noisemaker), but we will leave it at ten bouts. Final note it looks like there are some of the finest comics creators in these battles with five entries by Stan Lee, four by Jack Kirby, and two by Gardner Fox! There so many great comics characters and maybe one day we will see the battle between the two universes on screen!
