Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts

[David Blue]

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts

 

So knowing a hard' date=' agressive style as a super makes you a villian?[/quote']

No, and that's a silly straw man argument.

 

What about the kid who learned Karate because he idolizes Chuck Norris' date=' then hits adolescence and his mutant powers emerge? Is he doomed to be a villian because he knows Karate, or can he turn it to good by simply [i']not using his full power on strikes?[/i]

... "doomed to be a villain because he knows Karate" is the same silly straw man.

 

Your arguments would also serve equally well to say that super-strong characters must be villians. "He can break your neck with an uppercut; he must be bad!"

No they wouldn't. You've just run a straw man argument into the ground.

[Vulcan]

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts

 

Sorry, that just looks to be the conclusion you're headed for.

 

The long and short is that any martial art - including pro wrestling - teaches you how to inflcit lots of damage upon another person. That's the point of it. That's why it's called a martial art.

 

Even pro wrestling can be lethal. What do you think would happen if you held someone over your head, and then slammed them down onto your knee? Broken back; crippled for life. Then there's the move where the guy is held upside-down in the air, and slammed down head first into the mat. Do that for real and the guy is dead - basal skull fracture, broken neck and spinal cord, or broken skull.

[Vulcan]

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts

 

A question to the readers: did I push too hard during that exchange? No, seriously, I'm really asking if I pushed my point of view too hard there. Sometimes when I'm having fun in a debate I get a little over-enthusiastic...

[Maelstrom]

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts

 

Maelstrom might be an Escrima GOD.

 

Wouldn't that be lovely. Thank you sir. But it was a long time ago, on the other side of children.

[Maelstrom]

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts

 

I spent around 14 years learning how to swing a sword in the SCA' date=' does that count for anything?[/quote']

 

Hell yeah! "They pushed me around, gave me all that crap, 'till I taught them all about the rising snap: I was born in the SCA . . ."

[Vulcan]

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts

 

Ahh, yes. 'Revenge of the Rising Snap.' There's been a number of times I've wanted to use it in Boffer combt, but head hits don't count there...

[Bloodstone]

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts

 

Sorry' date=' that just looks to be the conclusion you're headed for.[/quote']

 

Doesn't look that way to me. To me, it looked like he's saying that in situation that calls for a non-lethal solution, he'd rather have a Choke Hold than a Neck Break.

 

The long and short is that any martial art - including pro wrestling - teaches you how to inflcit lots of damage upon another person. That's the point of it. That's why it's called a martial art.

 

Modern pro wrestling does NOT teach you how to inflict lots of damage upon another person. It teaches you what not to do so as to avoid inflicting lots of damage upon another person. There's a difference.

 

Pro Wrestling says "Don't drop your opponent on his head. Bad things may happen".

 

Another art, like Shuai-Chiao perhaps, says "When you drop a man on his head, you do it like this. That way, death is almost assured. Should you merely want to cripple him, you do this. And if you only want to knock him out, I suppose you could drop him like so..."

 

The same is true of most Amateur Wrestling, be it Folk Style, Free Style or Greco-Roman. The most dangerous stuff isn't taught because they don;t want people to ever use it. It's a sport where you do not wnat to maim your opponent.

 

Thus the huge difference between my high school wresting coach screaming at me "NO!!! You do NOT do the Full Nelson! It's an illegal and you could get DQed... and you can break a guys neck with it...". Then there was my Catch Wrestling coach, who taught me how to break a mans neck with a full nelson from half a dozen different entries, as well as how to use it for more gentile means, such as getting a submission or simply causing the guy to pass out as if it were a choke...

 

See the difference here?

 

Relatively few pro wrestlers in this day and age know how to actually wrestle and of those that do, very few are legit Shooters. That said, most guys do know how to do a few submission hold somewhat correctly, they just lack all the proper tools to set up those holds. They'll work pretty well on Fish, but then, what wont?

 

Now obviously, in a comic book world, all pro wrestlers can be said to really know how to fight. Even the most BS maneuver, including ones that REQUIRE the actual assistance of the opponent, can work 100% of the time on resisting opponents in such a world...

 

Even pro wrestling can be lethal.

 

Of course it CAN be. I personally know two guys that have had their necks broken in the ring. Both of them got lucky and are still able to walk. One of them still wrestles, though not as a Pro.

 

Then again, Gymnastics can also be lethal, but by and by large it's not an actual martial art... Gymkata not with standing Again, a comic book world changes that becuase in such a world, if you are a "hero", you can dodge bullets and kick ass just because you took tumbling or ballet lessons.

 

What do you think would happen if you held someone over your head, and then slammed them down onto your knee? Broken back; crippled for life. Then there's the move where the guy is held upside-down in the air, and slammed down head first into the mat. Do that for real and the guy is dead - basal skull fracture, broken neck and spinal cord, or broken skull.

 

So long as you have the means to get a resisting opponent up in the air over your head, sure, the Backbreaker may work. In comic book physics, Bane cripples Batman with such a move.

 

As for the Piledriver, again, a resisting opponent changes things. Signifigantly. Bob Sapp tried it on Big Nog in Pride and, while he lifted and slammed him, Nogeria wasn't in any real danger (and in fact mostly landed on his knees, as I recall). The Piledriver works because the opponent is going along with it, doubly so for the Tombstone/Martinete, a move so dangerous that it's banned in Mexico....and that I have let people do it to me on concrete

 

Comic book physics and suddenly you are dead unless you have an epic breakfall or some degree of enhanced resistance to injury...