The Anti-Monitor Vs. Thanos

 

Who do you think wins this battle?  I don't see the Infinity Gauntlet here, so Thanos may be in for some trouble.

Stargirl and Dazzler

 

I've been meaning to include The Shade on a cover for a while.  Once a somewhat generic villain, James Robinson fleshed him out in the 90's Starman series into one of dc's most interesting adversaries.  The Stargirl TV show did a decent job bringing that version to live action.

Mera and Triton

 

Triton has a great look, and one more appropriate for an underwater hero than Aquaman or Namor.  It's too bad that his appearance was so underwhelmingly replicated on the Inhumans TV series - not that he appeared all that much anyway.  I'm sure Marvel will take another crack at the property one of these days, but it's bound to be several years before that happens given everything else they are planning to accomplish first.

The Legion of Super-Heroes Vs. The Avengers

I thought I would present one giant story for this Anniversary Issue.  I previously featured these two teams meeting in STF #1300, but I wanted to revisit the concept in a bigger way.  So, you see the match-ups presented here - who do you think comes out on top when these super-groups clash?

The Imperial Guard Vs. Darkseid

Marvel likes to beat DC to the punch at the movies when they can, so I am surprised that I have never heard anything about them bringing The Imperial Guard to the MCU.  Maybe if DC were to announce a Legion of Super-Heroes film or streaming series, Marvel will respond by putting The Guard on the fast track.  I'd love to see them in live action.

Zatanna, Dr. Fate & Phantom Stranger and The Hulk

It's too bad that rights issues are preventing The Hulk from another solo film outing, but I don't mind too much because I like seeing how he interacts with other heroes anyway.  It will be fun to see him alongside Thor, and I hope for more movie appearances as well.  I'd love to see Spider-Man and the Hulk on the big screen together... and of course I one day hope to see a live action Hulk/Thing throwdown.

Sunfire Vs. Aquaman

I am very interested to see how the underwater scenes will appear in Justice League.  I have seen a glimpse of the creation of some of the effects where Zack Snyder films his actors on wire rigs, with the water and flowing hair to be added in digitally later.  From the quick completed shots that I saw, it looks to be an effective process.

Data Vs. The Anti-Monitor

Continued from yesterday's cover, we se that our heroes did indeed retrieve Data.  The Data and Picard-centric episodes were always my favorites from Star Trek: The Next Generation.  It's too bad that the natural aging of Brent Spiner probably prevents him from playing Data any further - there's only so many times they can drop in lines like, "Captain, I have initiated the double chin and love handle subroutine to more closely approximate the human experience."

Justice League of America Vs. Apocalypse

X-Men Apocalypse was kind of a mish mash of a film, with lots of different elements thrown in.  While I don't know if it worked together as a whole, I did enjoy a lot of the fan service moments that were included like Weapon X, The Phoenix Force and finally proper X-Men uniforms in the final scene.  Quicksilver's big scene was once again fun but simply makes him way too powerful in my opinion.  I'm looking forward to future films in the new costumes that deal a lot less with Magneto and Mystique, which is getting a bit repetitive.  I must confess Mr. Sinister hit right after I pretty much bailed on the X-Men comics, so I don't know what to think of him as the next antagonist.

Aquaman and The Punisher

Well, I binge-watched the entire 2nd season of Netflix' Daredevil, and loved every minute.  As it was just released, I'll keep this spoiler-free.  DD's new cowl is a big improvement and it was great to see the returning characters again.  What really made it special though, was the addition of Punisher and Elektra to the mix.  It was great to see the characters presented so well after multiple cinematic misfires.  Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle stands out as the MVP of season two.  His performance was a mix of rage, pain and determination and I would not be surprised to see an Emmy nomination down the line.  I would definitely be up for a solo Punisher series now.

Spider-Man and Green Lantern (Part 1)

The teaser trailer for Captain America: Civil War has been released, and it looks great between the glimpses of Black Panther, the inclusion of so many Avengers and the conflict between Cap and Iron Man.  Still, there was no sign of the part of the movie that has me most curious -Spider-Man.  I wonder how big of a role he will have - I can't be too large with everything else going on, but I can't believe they will only give such an important character a brief cameo either.

Make sure you check back in tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion to this tale...