Some of you guys might have missed it, but for a few months we ran a “who would win” tournament over on the Handbook of Heroes Facebook page. We pit all of our heroes against one another in single-elimination contest, asking fans to answer a simple question: Who would win in a fight? There were some weird matchups, a few upsets, and a boatload of broken hearts (Fighter actually started crying and ran offstage after Wizard took him out). If you’re curious about the full results, you can check out the brackets right here. As you might have guessed, after all the voting and all the fights, the two contenders left standing in the championship round were Succubus and Magus.

The championship round ended in a tie.

In consequence, we arrive at today’s non-confrontational conclusion.

I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I love these hypothetical combats. I’m a frequent poster over on the r/whowouldwin subreddit, picking apart the minutia of such classic fights as “Darth Vader vs. Gandalf” and “the balrog in a tugboat vs. the Titanic.” Back in school when I was an RA, I turned my floor’s bulletin board into similar vote-driven tournament of champions (the ninja turtles came out on top). Laurel and I actually met in a comic shop, but the part of Hot Girl in the Comic Shop I identify with most is nevertheless the Hulk vs. Spider-Man argument. And speaking as the kind of gamer that often wonders whether my monk could take out my buddy’s fighter in single combat, I love that our little Facebook tournament ended like it did.

You see, it’s occasionally fun to pluck your PCs out of context, plop them down on a featureless plane, and let them beat the crap out of each other. But for my money, it’s more fun to consider the hypothetical than to arrive at a definitive answer. Real characters aren’t 100% optimized murder machines, and featureless planes are scarce in most campaign worlds. In other words, there’s more to a well-developed PC than winning duels against your fellow party members. In any case, I’m just glad that Magus and Succubus share that attitude. I don’t want to live in a world without their womance.

What about the rest of your guys? Have you ever answered the siren call of 1 v 1 me bro? Have you ever enjoyed a mock battle against your buddies? Was it fun, or was it a bit of a pissing contest? Let’s hear all about your best “who would win” tales down in the comments!

ARE YOU AN IMPATIENT GAMER? If so, you should check out the “Henchman” reward level over on The Handbook of Heroes Patreon. For just one buck a month, you can get each and every Handbook of Heroes comic a day earlier than the rest of your party members. That’s bragging rights right there!