Welcome to Contest of Champions (CoC) Podcast, Episode #5! CoC is an interactive player vs. player game where your favorite Marvel characters go head to head to answer the eternal question of “who can beat whom in a fight?”
Join Jeff Jackson and Ian Johnson every week as they welcome two team managers who have a stable of five characters each ready to blast, zap, snikt, thwip, and smash their way to be the last one standing! It’s a little bit fan fiction, a little bit debate, a little bit role playing, and a whole bunch of fun! It’s an interactive adventure for the managers, and for the ComicAttack.net community.
This week, we’re joined by Tom McNeely and Eli Anthony! And we also get a special visit from Infinite Speech, who wandered into the show like a drunk guy at a concert.
First, we want to remind you, if you are a comic artist, and you would like to provide a sketch or drawing of the characters battling this week, please send a link to your sketch to jeff@comicattack.net. We would love to spotlight your stuff!
Next, on this episode we shared our weekly Fights of the Week! Tom gives props to Stuff of Legend (Vol. 3) #1 by Mike Raicht, Brian Smith, and Charles Paul Wilson III, where Jester fights some pirates Last of the Mohicans-style. In pure Eli fashion, he was into Spider-Island: Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu #1 by Anthony Johnston and Sebastian Fiumara with Master of Kung-fu, Shang-Chi and Iron Fist taking on random joes with spider-powers and the disgusting Bride of Nine Spiders. Jeff and Ian both loved Uncanny X-Force #14 by Rick Remender and Jerome Opena, but for different fights. Jeff liked Genocide blasting Wolverine into a smoking husk, while Ian loved Psylocke taking out War and Dark Beast. Finally, we were joined by Infinite Speech who also liked Spider-Island, and talked about Peter Parker rallying his fellow New Yorkers in Amazing Spider-Man #668 by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos.
Most importantly, here’s the show:
Episode #5
(You can click the link to listen to the podcast or right click “save link as” to download it.)
This week, we have a noggin’-scratcher with the wielder of the Quantum bands vs. the Big Red Machine! You can click on the images to find out the characters’ power sets and history.
Quasar
Managed by Tom McNeely
vs.
Red Hulk
Managed by Eli Anthony
at the Limmat River, Switzerland
Here are the rules for the managers, check ’em out.
Here’s how CoC works for you folks at home:
1. Listen to the podcast.
2. Come back here to Comicattack.net to this very post. Share your opinion, comment below, and help sway the public opinion. Even comments provided by the Comicattack.net fans will be considered by Jeff & Ian in their decisions.
3. VOTE on the poll below! You have until Sunday night, September 11 at 9:00pm EST to vote. That’s when we record the show. Votes at the time of recording will be the only ones that will count.
4. E-mail us at jeff@comicattack.net or leave us a voicemail at 706 761-0115 with your questions, comments, or rationales. You may make it on the show!
5. Listen to the next episode to see who wins! The winner will be announced at the beginning of the show.
6. One small disclaimer: This is all subjective. Have fun with it and if your favorite character doesn’t win, laugh it off and keep on listening!
Don’t forget to leave us an iTunes Review by clicking here. Follow us on Twitter @CoCComicattack, or Like us on Facebook. To listen to previous episodes and battles, visit this link.
Next week: Tom McNeely vs. Dan Briand.
CoC Standings
Eli Anthony 1-0
Beta Ray Bill
Dr. Doom
Red Hulk
Invisible Woman
Prince of Orphans
Environment Switch Card: 1, Double Team Card: 1
Dan Briand 1-1
Thor
Black Bolt
Skaar
Annihilus
Protector (Noh-Varr)
Environment Switch Card: 1, Double Team Card: 1
Andy Liegl 1-1
Ms. Marvel
Magneto
Volstagg
Exodus
Hercules
Environment Switch Card: 1, Double Team Card: 1
Tom McNeely 0-1
Gladiator
Dr. Strange
Thor Girl
Quasar
Wonder Man
Environment Switch Card: 1, Double Team Card: 1
Current Environments in Play:
Golden Gate Bridge
Oil Rig Hibernia
The Limmat River, Switzerland
This week’s music is brought to you by Pearl Jam, Red Mosquito.
Jeff Jackson
jeff@comicattack.net
Wow, 3 votes for Red Hulk, and no conversation! Why should I vote for Red Hulk, folks?
So many reasons Jeff, one of which you gave us in your intro to the character.
He lacks a killer instinct. He has SERIOUS self doubt issues. Here are his thoughts taken from Annihilators #1, one of his most recent appearances.
When confronted by a spaceknight, Ikon, here’s what he was thinking after she got the drop on him.
“Oh, man. Rookie mistake!… Dumb, dumb, DUMB… and so, SO typical of me.”
And, a few moments later, after Ikon had stopped kicking his butt, he’s thinking about his place on this team, which consists of Silver Surfer, Beta Ray Bill, Gladiator, Ronan the Accuser, and himself.
“I wasn’t convinced I should be here at all… I guess I don’t know what it takes anymore. All this power I’ve got, all this strength, and I STILL failed… someone else had to save the universe. I don’t know if I’ve got the right to be here… How can I even begin to keep up with these guys?”
Then, as they prepare to face off against someone who has broken into their base…
“This is bad. I can already feel my confidence slipping. I’m a fraud. I’ve got no business being here. I’m no hero. … I’m NOT up to this. I’m NOT the right guy for this kind of job. There’s only one thing I’m good at… I can FAIL AND DIE. I can let everybody down.”
Ugh.. I equally hate both of these characters. It’s going to be hard to chose. I’ll have to listen to the podcast again.
Red Hulk’s energy draining isn’t instentaneous so even if Quasar gets too close he’ll start to feel weakened and move out of range. It’s not like Red Hulk has the speed to catch and hold him either. He’ll have to get in close to do any damage being that he has no ranged attacks. Quasar does have the advantage of ranged attacks but as we’ve been told, Red Hulk can absorb certain energy attacks.The big question is: Can Quasar overload Red Hulk by just hitting him with constant attacks and trapping him in constructs?
Could Quasar hold Rulk long enough under water to drown him, or at least till he passes out from lack of oxigen?
@ Speech – I would say that Quasar cannot overload Red Hulk. I went back and reread the Annihilation story where Quasar gets killed by Annihilus. Annihilus kills Quasar by completely draining his energy, not the Quantum Bands, but he drains Quasar until he disintegrates. Annihilus then picks up the Quantum Bands and wears them himself. Red Hulk could do the same, drain some enough of Quasar’s energy to subdue him.
Also, when Red Hulk drained the Silver Surfer, he did it in a matter of a second or two based on the panel. So, any energy construct that Quasar used would be fuel for Red Hulk. Red Hulk only needs for Quasar to get close to him one time to drain him and win this match.
And Quasar would be going into this fight completely unaware of what Red Hulk could do to him. He didn’t consult his Bands before he faced Annihilus, he just got disintegrated by rushing headlong into the fight. He didn’t consult his Bands before he faced Dredd in Annihilators #1 either. Nor did he consult them to learn anything about Immortus when he fought him in Annihilators #4.
Fact is, Quasar rushes headlong into fights, and gets his butt handed to him. Thats what he’ll do here as well.
Quasar definitely has an advantage of having ranges attacks, especially on a 20 mile river. Since Red Hulk has become an Avenger, he may try to avoid collateral damage to the many towns along the river. These towns and the river itself would limit his area of maneuverability. Quasar doesn’t have this limitation (being able to fly) and I could see him overload or draining the Gamma radiation from the Red Hulk all from a safe distance. I’m not quite clear on the limits of the Quantum Bands, but I am led to believe that they have some control over the visible light spectrum, which would allow Quasar to conceal himself (Predator style!) and get the drop on Red Hulk.
Yet Red Hulk was able to drain the Silver Surfer’s cosmic energy without overloading. If Ross was able to get close enough, his energy absorption would be devastating as Quasar is now made out of pure energy. Ross also has an advantage in intellect and stratagem.
I’m still on the fence on this one. I question how far Red Hulk’s energy absorption extends, and how he would cut the distance between himself and Quasar. But I also question Quasar’s ability to overload/drain Red Hulk or damage him otherwise.
I understand what you’re saying Eli but was Quasar not consulting the bands just “bad writing” or are we to assume that he’s just that ignorant. I’m still not sure how either would win this because he’d feel the effects of being drained once in range of Red Hulk and back away. I also feel as if he’d attack from a distance just to be safe since he knows he doesn’t have the physical strength to do any damage to Red Hulk.
It looks like the only way he’ll defeat Quasar is to get in close and drain him but like I said earlier Quasar is way too fast and agile in the air for that to happen. On the other hand it seems as if the only way for Quasar to win would be to either overload him or just drain Red Hulk but that puts Quasar in a dangerous spot as well.
People are mentioning Quasar overloading or draining Red Hulk. Tom mentioned it as standard operating procedure. However, when was the last time Quasar used that tactic?? Anyone?
When he faced (and was killed by) Annihilus, he didn’t try to drain his power. Annihilus drained Quasar’s power. During Quasar’s most recent appearances, in Annihilators, he didn’t once use this ability of draining energy from someone.
Whats more, to date, nobody has drained the energy from Red Hulk.
So, my idea of Red Hulk draining energy from Quasar has been done before, successfully, and recently. Red Hulk makes a habit of using this method of attack on his opponents. Quasar, however, doesn’t use his supposed energy draining ability.
Its clear that in this fight Quasar will rush in head first, and use energy constructs to fight Red Hulk. Thats what he does. Thats all he’s done in the last 3 big events he’s appeared in, Annihilation Wave, Thanos Imperative, and Annihilators. Why are we to assume that he’ll all of a sudden change his standard tactics?
Another tough fight. Both fighters almost negate one another…..
Hey Eli, is there any evidence of Red Hulk absorbing someone from a distance?
@ Jeff – I’m not sure about that off hand, I’ll check into it.
However, Quasar has to use his energy to attack Red Hulk. In so doing, he will expose said energy to Red Hulk’s absorption.
Another avenue open to Red Hulk is trickery, which he has used more than once in the recent past. He could take the initial hit from Quasar, and pretend to be knocked a little for a loop, acting groggy perhaps. A couple more shots, and Red Hulk gets even more “out of it.” When Quasar gets in close, Red Hulk nails him. Tom said that Quasar now has a solid body, which would make him vulnerable to physical attack. Either way, once he gets in close, whether its energy stealing or physical blows, Quasar’s going down.
Greetings, True Believers!
Long time Quasar fan here. I actually was one of the guys to send the Marvel offices a Quasar cake, if you are familiar with that story. Short time later, the Qster returned in the legendary Nova #17!
🙂
Anyway, thought I would clear some stuff up.
Quasar doesn’t drain energy like a leech. What he does is, say someone blasts him with energy, he can then absorb the energy, patch into it and drain them – ala Jack of Hearts or Silver Surfer. And then he can reuse the energy; such as blasting it back at them as he did with Surfer in “Quasar #50.”
Quasar can’t grab someone, like Rulk, and start draining.
The last time he did something similar was during The Thanos Imperative, when he used the combined energy of Nova, Silver Surfer, Ronan and Beta Ray Bill to make a huge shield to protect them. Note: Annihilators was terrible, and shouldn’t even be sourced. 🙂
In regards to Rulk draining Quasar – Quasar’s quantum energy is from the Quantum Zone – an infinite source of quantum energy. If Rulk did tap into the q-bands, I would assume he would explode, similar to how Absorbing Man did when he absorbed the quantum-bands in “Quasar #5.” The reason being, you have to be worthy of the bands, otherwise the energy builds and builds and adios you go.
So what happened in Annihilation? Good question, and Quasar fans are still wondering what the answer is. Some theories among us is that since Annihilus is from the Negative Zone, the negative zone energy reacted with the bands causing the Qster to disintegrate. Basically we think it’s a crock, but what are you gonna do.
Another problem we had with that battle, and as someone stated above, was Quasar rushing head first into the fight. He NEVER does that, and has always been depicted as a great thinker. Also, Quasar was given the bands by the 8 billion year old cosmic abstract/being Eon. Eon died and his offspring took over, Epoch, who Quasar would communicate with through the quantum-bands. Basically, Qster didn’t have Cosmic Awareness (though DnA mistakenly portray him with it), and used Epoch to answer his questions. Certainly, Quasar would ask Epoch what the heck was going on with the Negative Zone – and if the N. Zone was a danger to the quantum energy would certainly inform Quasar of this. However, Epoch has not bee seen nor heard from with Quasar in a long time.
Quasar has made constructs that basically withstood an assault by all the top Marvel guys – including the Hulk (Prof. Hulk), and his constructs have even been able to hold up to even Adamantium.
When Qster was trying out for The Avengers, Quasar was able to lift up/move the ENTIRE Avengers island.
Another of Quasar’s MO’s is too simply drop someone in the Quantum Zone, which he can access at any time. He’s done this in the past. He could just grab the Rulk, slip into the Q-Zone, and leave the Rulk their for eternity.
Quasar is a smart guy, and would know better to try a physical confrontation with the Rulk. He would most likely try to contain him with a quantum-bubble and go from there. He would probably also try to take the battle somewhere where no one could get hurt via quantum-jumping.
Hey Matt! Glad you could join us!!!!
Your comments are super helpful! Quasar was the big question for me, so I appreciate you shedding some light on what he can and can’t do. Quasar is stupid-powerful and I’ve seen him construct force fields that kept the (green) Hulk, among others, out.
One “unofficial” rule we have in the game is that the characters can’t leave the environment, i.e. they can’t teleport someone to another dimension or something. But I do think your bubble containment idea is worth considering.
I’m still waiting to hear how Red Hulk’s energy absorption works. It looks to me like it’s by touch.
Still on the fence, though. This is another tough one!
A year ago, I would have said Rulk in a cake walk, but since Q’s power upgrade, I’m not sure. I’ll give a listen to the podcast, then make a more informed vote. I don’t really know a lot about Rulk, but I’ll do some digging.
Hey Jeff, here’s what you’ve been wanting…
Here is the Green Hulk getting the gamma energy sucked out of him, and him changing back into a human. Then Red Hulk comes right behind him, but he doesn’t get drained. Instead, he drains power from the thing that stole Green Hulk’s power.
Green Hulk gets drained of energy by giant brains.
Bruce Banner warns Red Hulk that they’ll drain him too, but Red Hulk instead steals their power.
Here we see that the “brains” they’re fighting have been weakened by Red Hulk stealing their energy.
Its obvious that Red Hulk can steal energy from another being/energy source by being in proximity to it. He does not need to be touching someone to steal their power.
Here is Red Hulk stealing power from something when it fired an energy blast at him, he absorbed the blast. This is what will happen when Quasar uses any energy construct. Any of Quasar’s energy that gets anywhere near Red Hulk will get stolen and used against him.
Red Hulk absorbing an energy blast from an AIM/MODOK-created giant bird creature.
Not only can Red Hulk steal someone else’s power, but he can prevent someone from stealing his. Green Hulk got his gamma energy drained, but Red Hulk faced that same thing a second later, and Red Hulk not only prevented himself from being drained, but stole power from it instead. In light of this, what can Quasar do? Anything he does is energy based, which Red Hulk can steal.
And Red Hulk doesn’t need to make contact or be very close to steal Quasar’s energy, he can do it from a distance. Quasar won’t know this, and he’ll either get too close, or he’ll use an energy construct on Red Hulk, and he’ll get drained.
When the Red Hulk drained the Silver Surfer, it took only a second or two. When Annihilus drained Quasar, it took the same amount of time.
So, to recap…
1. Red Hulk can stop people from draining his power.
2. Red Hulk can steal and/or drain power from others.
3. Red Hulk just needs to be in the vicinity of the power source to do this. He does NOT need to be in physical contact to steal the power.
4. Attempts to steal Red Hulk’s energy have failed.
5. Attempts to steal Quasar’s energy have succeeded. Its been said that Quasar has too much energy to drain, well, Annihilus just did it in a couple of seconds, and disintegrated Quasar in the process.
6. Red Hulk’s specialty is draining energy from his opponent. Quasar has fallen prey to this in the recent past. The answer is clear, vote Red Hulk.
Another rationale:
Fights starts with fighters facing each other on opposite banks of the river (per Ian’s instructions for this environment). As Quasar approaches in the air, Red Hulk begins to throw things at him, which he dodges easily.
As Quasar is dodging things, Red Hulk grabs a huge chunk of earth, and pulverizes it between his hands, creating a huge dust cloud in the air. This obscures Quasar’s vision. Red Hulk immediately leaps at Quasar. Quasar sees him coming, and at the last moment, encases him in an energy construct bubble.
This is all Red Hulk needs, as he is then near, and in contact with Quasar’s energy, which he then steals. As Quasar weakens, they both fall to the ground or water below. Red Hulk doesn’t kill Quasar like Annihilus did, but he drains him enough to walk or swim over, and knock him unconscious, thus ending the fight.
Red Hulk then calls up Steve Rogers to come pick up Quasar, and he goes to have a drink in a local bar. The end.
For evidence of Red Hulk’s abilities that I’ve noted here, see my post above this one.
Great points Matt!
Keep in mind that Matt’s speculation about why Quasar was disintegrated by Annihilus is just that… a Quasar fan’s speculation (hope). Oh, and that energy drain and disintegration took place in our regular universe, just like this fight.
Quasar is toast!
If you have to be worthy of the wielding the energy then the Hulk wouldn’t be able to absorb Quasar’s costructs or his power. However I’m not willing to think that he’d continue to try to siphon the energy with the risk of killing himself either. Ross/Red Hulk isn’t an idiot but that does put a kink into that energy absorbing strategy.
I’m not up on the history and charater history of Quasar and Red Hulk. I’m basing the following comment on what was shared in the podcast.
Regarding Red Hulk’s enery absorbston:
From what I understand of Physics (which I know is shaky in the comic book world) and from what was shared about how Quasar’s Quantum bands work, I’d say that it would be either useless or ineffective for Rulk to absorb his energy. If the Quantum band get their power from the Energy in the Universe, and since energy cannot be destroyed, then even if Rulk absorbed Quasar’s energy, it wouldn’t matter. Rulk is a part of the universe. Thus his energy, and any he absorbs, would be accessible to the Quantum bands. It would be a feedback loop. It seems like the only outcome is that Rulk would overload on energy.
That’s my input, from a Physics point of view.
@ Speech & Moses – Really guys… Look at this this pic and tell me again that it isn’t possible to completely drain Quasar.
And this has nothing to do with wielding the bands, which don’t care who you are, as evidenced by them being wielded by Annihilus — who is evil.
Moses, you said a lot of stuff about why Red Hulk wouldn’t be able to absorb Quasar’s energy. Well, then how did Annihilus do it? Its been done before, recently, so how is it that Red Hulk won’t be able to do it??
Why would Red Hulk conciously drain enough energy that would harm him? That doesn’t make sense to me since he can control how much he drains so if he sensed an issue while draining Quasar I’m positive he would immediately stop.
Either way this is one tough fight because Red Hulk would have to trap and contain Quasar in order to completely drain him like Annihilus did in the pic. And Q would have to muster enough power to put Red Hulk down which has proven very difficult to do. Decisions, decisions….
Well, as you can see from that pic, Annihilus drained Qausar completely, but along the way, Quasar was VERY low on power before he was dead. Red Hulk could just drain him enough to put him down. And since he has a corporeal body now, he can just drain him enough to make him fall, and then knock him out with a gentle slap. Quasar subdued, but not dead.
I wasn’t saying that Red Hulk would kill him, only that it is possible to completely drain Quasar. And so it won’t be difficult for Red Hulk to partially drain Quasar to the point of weakening him enough to easily subdue him without killing him.
And why do we think that Quasar will do anything other than try to contain Red Hulk with an energy construct, or attack him with an energy construct… which won’t hurt Red Hulk, and which he can ultimately absorb and use against Quasar.
oops! I meant to say “himself” in that first line.