HUNTER DC/Marvel/Indy TOC FINAL MATCH: Superman Vs John Constantine!

[Ignatz_Mouse]

Welcome to the Marvel/DC/Indy Hunter Tournament of Champions!

The backstory:

A bored Mr Myxyzptlk, out wandering the multiverse looking for mischief to cause, runs into the Grandmaster and is fascinated. Inspired, he and Grandmaster decide to hold a very special tournament, to see whether the craftiest of the humans can face the most powerful. To that end, he finds amid the vast multiverse a world which just happens to contain all the beings in question, a hybrid universe when all these characters have co-exited all along.

The rules as follows:

Two opponents are chosen from the following list, and given 24 hours to prepare to hunt down each other. No contact can be made prior to that time, and certain handicaps may be placed on some characters at the whims of the two Game Masters in question. Each character is given the proper motivation-- fight or suffer unspecified terrible consequences-- but they are not expected to break from their own codes of ethics.

Characters may make use of whatever resources they have, including allies, up until the hunt begins-- but then must go it alone. Our gamemasters are patient, and they do not expect every hunt to resolve instantly into a battle. Traps may be laid, plots hatched, elaborate schemes set forth. The joy is in watching the two participants at work, be that battle or cunning.

If only one of the characters has an asterisk, that character is handicapped in the following way-- they get no advance notice of the tournament or who their opponent is. This effectively gives their opponent a 24-hour head start.

Voters are strongly encouraged to provide a synopsis

Other than corrections of fact, other people's synopses are off-limits for criticism!


Our contestants!

1. Batman
2. Lex Luthor
3. Superman*
4. Martian Manhunter*
5. Iron Man
6. Forge
7. Nick Fury
8. Reed Richards
9. Magneto*
10. Dr Doom*
11. Black Panther
12. Atom
13. Black Adam*
14. John Constantine
15. Dracula*
16. Captain Marvel (“Shazam!”)*
17. Ultimate Hulk
18. Ultimate Captain America
19. Flash
20. Dr Mid-Nite (Pieter Cross)
21. Deadpool
22. Spider-Man
23. Blue Beetle
24. Time-displaced Brainiac 5
25. The Fixer
26. Henry Pym
27. Abe Sapien
28. Venom
29. The Midnighter
30. Green Arrow
31. Deathstroke the Terminator
32. Mr Terrific (Michael Holt)
33. Prometheus
34. The Human Target

Round 1

1. Forge Vs Dracula: Forge
2. Henry Pym Vs Midnighter: Midnighter
3. Venom Vs time-displaced Brainiac 5: B5
4. The Fixer Vs Nick Fury: Fixer
5. Captain Marvel (SHAZAM) Vs Prometheus: Cpatain Marvel
6. Deadpool Vs John Constantine: Constantine
7. Martain Manhunter Vs Blue Beetle: Martian Manhunter
8. Reed Richards Vs Flash: Reed Richards
9. Abe Sapien Vs Spider-Man: Spider-Man
10. Human Target Vs Dr Doom: Dr Doom
11. Ultimate Hulk Vs Superman: Superman
12. Deathstroke Vs Black Adam: Black Adam
13. Green Arrow Vs Atom: Atom
14. Iron Man Vs Mr Terrific: Mr Terrific
15. Batman Vs Dr Mid-Nite: Batman
16. Black Panther Vs Ultimate Captain America: Black Panther
17. Lex Luthor Vs Magneto: Magneto


Round 2:

Black Panther Vs Magneto: Black Panther
Mr Terrific Vs The Atom: Mr Terrific
Superman Vs the Midnighter: Superman
Batman Vs Black Adam: Black Adam
Spider-Man Vs Dr. Doom: Dr. Doom
John Constantine Vs Forge: John Constantine
Brainiac 5 Vs The Fixer: Brainiac 5
Martian Manhunter Vs Reed Richards: Reed Richards
Bye: Captain Marvel


Round 3:

Mr. Terrific Vs Dr. Doom: Dr. Doom
John Constantine Vs Reed Richards: John Constantine
Black Panther Vs Superman: Superman
Captain Marvel Vs Black Adam: Captain Marvel
Bye: Brainiac 5

Round 4:

Dr. Doom Vs Captain Marvel: Captain Marvel
John Constantine Vs Brainiac 5: Brainiac 5
Bye: Superman

Round 5:
Superman Vs Captain Marvel: Superman


And now…

Superman Vs John Constantine

Based on a suggestion, the GMs have induced temporary amnesia of previous battles, until this match starts. Both participants with have 24 hours to prepare.

Starting Time: 2 AM (GMT)

[Ignatz_Mouse]

Oops. Superman gets no prep time!

[thugit]

Constantine.


He has magic, he can get Kryptonite, and Superman will have no earthly idea what is going on.


However, Constantine would NEVER beat him again.

[Rokk_Krinn]

I appreciate you posting my story in the other thread. Basically it was my "pre-campaigning" of why John is capable of taking on the Big Guns and winning when he has prep and the others don't. Clark's going to get blindsided here and, frankly, it's going to be ugly. I can easily see manipulation of guilt for killing Zod and Co., making Clark forget who he is, etc. Heck, Dr. Occult has popped up and really messed up Clark's life in the past and he's a sometime-ally/associate of Constantine.

I had asked you to proxy vote for me, but no need as I'll post it publically. :)

Vote: John Constantine (and you can go look at the story on the Cpt. Marvel/Superman thread to see why :) )

[GoldenAge]

Superman got punked by Circe in WW #175... Constantine wins.

[HitBattousai]

lol this one isn't fair at all, funny how the matchups came out in John's favor all-around :)

With no prep time, Supes loses without even seeing John's face.

Constantine.

[Rokk_Krinn]

Originally posted by HitBattousai
lol this one isn't fair at all, funny how the matchups came out in John's favor all-around :)



Yeah, funny that. Not unlike the way things normally get manipulated by John, eh? ;)

(Okay, the match isn't even close to over yet but I'm just happy John made it this far - I figured he'd be a big enough "unknown" he'd lose in the first round but, hey, it was still fun nominating him. :) )

[thugit]

Well, there were lots of good matches for him.


I don't think he would have beaten Batman or Doom, or Black Adam.


He had good pulls.

[GAMURAI]

Constantine does a deal, gets the edge and then ends it as quickly as possible

[kontrol]

Man, Constantine stomps all over Superman in this one. With Doom not beating CM in the Semis, the writing was on the wall.

Constantine wins...easily.

If ever there was a clik that needed a full dial of stealth and outwit, it's him.

You'd swear Constantine manipulated events from jump to get opponents he could beat.

[Magnito]

Superman can be hurt by magic, and that is all John has. In this type of tournament, he has too many friends in high (and low) places. He was my fave to win from the get go. My vote...
JOHN CONSTATINE

[DTM]

What exactly does/can John Constantine do?

[HitBattousai]

Constantine's skills vary quite a bit from comic to comic like all characters, but at his best, he's a fairly stealthy, mysterious guy who's an expert with spells, has a ton of connections with demons, elementals, and the like(for better and worse). At his best, he is also Batman-esque in terms of strategy and he seems all-knowing. At his worse, he tends to get into trouble, and kinda half-asses his way out of it through mostly luck and/or hasty planning and bluffing. Either way, he's an expert manipulator of events in that he can get elementals, demons, etc, to do his bidding through bluffs, bargaining, and magical coercion. He is a fairly self-serving, cynical bastard most of the time, and is a total pansy in a straight-up fight. His crowning acheivement is arguable, but at a point early in Hellblazer's history, he forces the Devil(who hates John for much more concrete reasons in the comic than in the movie) with a smooth bluff to remove his terminal lung cancer, and then flips the Devil(and two other devils who I forgot the names) off and says "up yours." Anyway, he's known about in the magical community in New York and also in England(his primary home), but John tends to wander and stay under the radar most of the time, finding you instead of the other way around.

In terms of facing Supes, if Supes had prep time as well, Batman could probably track down Constantine for Supes and Supes would have a chance though doing that in a day would be hard. Constantine in all likelihood would have a bunch of demons all over Supes before Supes could touch him either way, or use some magic to make Supes go nuts, etc, etc. However, as Supes has no prep time, the matchup is a joke.

[Rokk_Krinn]

Another great Constantine moment (besides things like organizing the entire DCU magical community - both the forces of Hell and Heaven, along with everything in-between - to fight off Oblivion) would have been in "Books of Magic". Zatanna - you know, John's sometime-girlfriend (sorry, I just love taunting people with that tarnished image. :) ) - has taken Tim Hunter to a Halloween party at a "neutral ground" bar. She quickly realizes only the forces of dark magic - including "profile names" like Felix Faust, the Wizard and Tannarak - are there and they've decided to "break the rules" to get Hunter. Zee is literally surrounded by well over a hundred of the nastiest creatures and dark magi of the DCU. At that moment there's a cut to a match being lit and the room goes silent, turning around to see Constantine standing in the doorway. He points out that Hunter and Zee are under his protection and does anyone really want to start with him? The room backs off. :)

[DTM]

Wow, sounds tough. So he can have magical devils and demons fight Superman here? I thought having minions or helpers battle your opponents in this TOC was outlawed. So if JC needs to battle Superman on his own, what things can he do?

[Ignatz_Mouse]

He can't have the demons fight for him. I ruled that having ghosts harrass (but not harm) was fair game.

I vote John, by the way. But I don't think it'd be easy.

[Rokk_Krinn]

Oh, I doubt he would have demons fight for him anyway - it's not his style. He could manipulate the demons to make Superman's life miserable but he's not exactly chummy with Hell.

John's powers are very ritualistic. He doesn't do the standard Marvel "eldritch bolts" (which are just super-powers using the magic moniker). He's more likely to use ritualistic and "bad luck magic" to totally screw-up the Man of Steel (e.g.: haunting Superman with constant nightmares of the Phantom Zone Villain deaths) or befouling Superman's powers so they cause some unfortunate incident and then when Superman is at an ebb, "poisoning" him with a Hellfire brew or such. John doesn't come in close and attack - he makes your life fall to pieces and screws you over from a distance.

Hmm...to put it into "Superman mythos terms" - think of what Lex would do if he was a powerful ritualist.

It should also be noted that John is a master of ferreting out information. One of his "powers" is to basically see people's souls - he's more than once met someone for the first time and instantly listed off their sins and secrets.

[Breyker]

Vote: Constantine

JC will probably cause Superman to have a few accidents, that possibly cost the lives a few ner-do-wells...then John will lay on the guilt with a series of unfortunate accidents, until Superman becomes suicidal. At which point Supes will take care of himself.

As pointed out repeatedly in prior threads, John doesn't fight things head on. JC so how accidently manages incidents on those that need to be put down.

[I_Blame_You]

Ouch...is this a Constantine shut out so far?? If so, it continues. VOTE: Constantine. Sucky draw for Clark this time.

[Ignatz_Mouse]

Yes indeed-- so far, John is walking away with this.

Too bad it wasn't a Captain Marvel/John fight-- I think that would have been a lot more even.

[BigSoph]

As much as I would like to say Kal-El, John has 24 hours to prep here

A little sympathetic magic (John gets Supes to autograph something for a little kid as part of his prep time and John can use this to do "things" to Supes.)

In Azzarello's John in prison story arc, John was approached by the leader of the black muslim prisoners who called John evil. John casually replied that he didn't like Allah talking about him behind his back. The muslim left, stating that "this was not over" and went to prayer.
One of the other prisoners approached the praying muslims and asked what they were doing. They replied "do not bother us we are praying", whereupon the other prisoner asked, while pointing the opposite way they were praying "don't you usually do it that way?"
The leader of the muslims looked up in horror, tears rimming his eyes and replied "yes..."
Somehow just a casual comment, and John made a group of muslims turn their back on God. And they even knew it. He left several other men who had attacked him in the shower catatonic. He made an attempt to kill him with ground glass somehow end up in the attempted assassin's food, slicing his innards

That is what John does. John could find a phrase to bring up Supes' worst memories, leaving him a blubbering wreck. And what's worse, he wouldn't feel bad about it at all.

[Ignatz_Mouse]

Well, it looks like John C has walked away with the win, and amid a sea of apathy-- the Marvel characters losing in the semi-finals really seems to have cut a lot of the controversey (and traffic) from the thread.

As suggested, I'm going to put up a "battle royale" scenario, also in Hunter format.