Best Fight Scene!
Arrows flew, telepaths duelled, and Titans brawled. Who’s kicking the most amount of ass this season? Check the YouTube links while they last!
Honourable mentions: The big final duel between Nightwing and Deathstroke on Titans was a satisfying payoff to a season-long rivalry, but man there was cut on every blow, and that’s not ideal, especially when compared to these three. And you know these three are impressive, because the Preacher series finale had a fight between Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler, and Jesus used the crucifixion pose like a WWE signature move, and that shit is an honourable mention.
Bronze: Saving Quentin, Arrow, “Reset”
Oliver Queen has found himself in a Groundhog Day situation, in a world where everything seems to be going well, to the point where his deceased ally and surrogate father figure Quentin Lance is back from the dead… but every day someone kills Quentin, and the day is reset. Whatever Oliver does, a new threat shows up… a bomb, a sniper, or an army of mercenaries. Unwilling to accept the inevitable (which is what got him in this same-day-over-and-over situation to begin with), Oliver pulls every move he has to try to keep Quentin alive, and it’s pretty spectacular.
Silver: The Hood Vs. John Byrne, Arrow, “Fadeout”
So this is my way of saying that on their way out, Arrow reminded us that whatever else, they knew how to shoot the hell out of an action scene. And since Oliver’s last stand in Crisis involved a lot of CG and blue filters and skybeams, the series finale gave us one last epic throwdown… via a flashback to Oliver’s earliest vigilante days, when he was still “The Hood.” And man, it was impressive. Plus one last “You have failed this city” for old time’s sake.
There was, however, another show in its final season that had a flair for amazing fights, and also wanted to give us a few more jaw-droppers on its way out. To wit…
Gold: The Orgy Fight, Preacher, “Deviant”
It’s as if the Preacher producers looked at what was once the Defenders franchise and said: “Let us show you how to do a hallway fight.” It’s not a true oner, no, the big zoom-out where the hallway is suspended in a black void kind of gives that away… but I personally only counted seven cuts, and that’s not too shabby in a three-minute fight this big and chaotic.
Also respect for switching to slo-mo just long enough for us to truly appreciate someone taking a floppy, honking dildo to the head. No, you read that right.
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