Every Monday for the next few weeks, Valiant Entertainment is running a poll on their Twitter feed to provide fans with some escapism while new comics are in short supply. The poll allows Valiant fans the opportunity to select the Hero Of The Week from four choices – this past week, the poll featured Ninjak, Punk Mambo, Doctor Mirage and the Eternal Warrior. That week’s hero will then be the focus of free pdfs featuring the character, videos from Valiant staff, giveaways and more.

The Eternal Warrior won the poll this week, which was an excellent excuse to take a look at how Valiant’s resident immortal would fare against characters from Marvel who fall roughly within his power level and skill set based on a random first encounter (much like Batman, if you give Gilad a chance to prepare he can punch far above his weight when it comes to his adversaries).

Who is the Eternal Warrior?

An immortal warrior who is bound to defend the Geomancers – those who speak for the earth. Gilad Anni-Padda is thousands of years old, and has the combat experience that time and practice bring. An expert tactician and weapons master, Gilad also has enchanced strength, durability, stamina and a restorative healing ability that can repair critical injuries in a matter of days.

Although if Gilad takes enough damage he can die, he will always return to a fully healed body – but he can take a lot of damage; he is used to being impaled, cut, stabbed shot and burned. He can take and ignore a lot of damage and pain.

In terms of weaponry, Gilad has most recently carried with him an axe, a sword, two revolvers a grenade or two and several explosive charges. Due to the random encounter style of these imaginary fights, I’ll ignore the vast amounts of equipment he could bring to the field.

But the real question (or questions) that we’re all looking forward to answering are whether the Eternal Warrior could defeat…

Batman

I was thinking that Batman would be at a disadvantage right from the offset, but it’s not like Batman hasn’t come across somebody stronger and physically tougher than him before and come out on top without any time to plan ahead. Only this time, he’d be coming up against a man every bit as skilled as he.

Does the Dark Knight have enough equipment on him to defeat Gilad? Maybe, but it’d be a very close thing. Batman can’t out fight or outlast the Eternal Warrior, and he’d have a much harder time hurting him then Gilad would hurting Batman. The question really comes down to whether Batman can figure out how to take his opponent down with what he has on him and how he employs it. Will the Dark Knight underestimate the Eternal Warrior?

Will the Eternal Warrior leave Batman alive when the dust has settled? One thing’s for sure – if Batman loses the first encounter, and survives, then he’d be more likely to win the second once he knows who and what he’s up against.

I think that it’s more likely Batman will win the rematch than he will the first encounter given how they match up.

Deathstroke

Probably the most interesting match-up in terms of ability and equipment in a random encounter, the Eternal Warrior verses Deathstroke would be a fantastic fight to read in a comic book. Breaking it down, their strength, speed, endurance and stamina are very at very comparable levels. Deathstroke does seem to heal at a faster rate than Gilad, but the Eternal Warrior is a bit more durable than DC’s antihero.

Deathstroke is a highly skilled and deadly combatant, but the Eternal Warrior has him beat in terms of experience and ability. If it was two men facing off with swords and a couple of pistols, then I wouldn’t hesitate to give the nod to the Eternal Warrior. He’s beaten faster and stronger opponents than Deathstroke before by relying on his ability to read their style (thousands of years of combat does tend to give one an edge).

But with all things being as equal as they are, I think that Deathstroke’s Ikon suit would give him an edge. Could Eternal Warrior break through it? Maybe, but I think that the suit adds just enough of an advantage to for Deathstroke so that the scales would tip in his favour.

Vandal Savage

Valiant’s immortal hero verses DC’s immortal villain. It’d be a fight that could last for a long time, and if it was a comic book it could span thousands of years as the two face off across the years. But in a random encounter? I think that the Eternal Warrior is more likely capable of doing more serious damage to Vandal Savage in a random encounter based on what you see Savage typically carry, and the Eternal Warrior’s tendency to take any advantage he can.

When it comes to two skilled fighters going at each other, one unarmed and one not, then I think the outcome is heavily weighted in the favour of the man with the axe and sword. Despite the two being immortal, and despite neither one being able to stay dead, I think that the Eternal Warrior would stumble away victorious from the fight, leaving the pieces of Vandal Savage to regroup.

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If you want to read more about the Eternal Warrior, check out this link for some recommendations.