Every story, no matter how incredible, has an ending. And to cap off the saga of two of my favorite childhood heroes, I'm pitting Samurai Jack, wandering ronin destined to defeat the wicked Aku who has fallen into despair, against Logan, the old, broken and cynical Wolverine, in a brutal final battle to the death! Blades will be drawn and blood will be shed, but only one can walk away as...THE DEADLIEST WARRIOR!
Intro[]
Samurai Jack[]
| “ | Life is full of strange choices. Your choices have led you here. I will give you a new choice. Leave here now, and live. Or stay, and face your destiny.
— Jack
|
” |
The prince of a proud warrior king, Jack was born into an era of peace and prosperity, only for it all to fall apart when the demonic wizard Aku was freed from the prison Jack's father placed him in. Aku swiftly defeated his father in combat, but Jack's mother took her son away and sent him to train around the world under the greatest warriors. When he was a grown man, Jack returned to his homeland and reclaimed his father's sword. Jack did battle with Aku, but right before he could land the finishing blow, Aku used his powers to banish Jack into the future. With no one to oppose him, Aku was able to swiftly conquer the world and turn it into a dystopian hell. Horrified at what things had become, Jack set out to find a way to return to the past, all while doing battle with a variety of enemies and making several friends, including the boisterous Scotsman and mysterious Guardian.
After several years, Jack finally found the only portal to the past Aku hadn't destroyed. Diving through it, Jack was mere inches from his home when he was pulled back by Aku, who caught him just in time and destroyed the portal, seemingly trapping Jack forever in the future. As a final kick, Aku transformed the portal's guardians into monsters, then left as an enraged Jack brutally killed them. Horrified with what he done, Jack dropped his sword, only for it to fall into the chasm where the portal once stood. Utterly broken by these defeats, Jack wandered through the world, defending those he could, but became convinced that there was no longer any true hope of defeating Aku, all while being tormented by visions of his family and a mysterious rider. After 50 years, a seemingly immortal Jack was drawn into adventure once more when he was attacked by the Daughters of Aku, a group of assassins claiming to be the children of Jack's mortal enemy. After a days long fight, Jack managed to kill all but one of the daughters. The survivor, Ashi, eventually realized she had been brainwashed by her mother into seeing Jack as a foe, and agreed to accompany him on his journey to reclaim his sword, find the Guardian's portal, and defeat Aku once and for all.
Over the course of the journey, Jack overcame his guilt and Ashi was able to help Jack by revealing how all the people he has helped turned out, preventing him from committing seppuku to appease the mysterious rider. Ashi and Jack fell in love shortly after Jack was able to soothe his inner rage, enabling him to reclaim his sword.
Logan[]
| “ | Nature made me a freak. Man made me a weapon. And God made it last too long.
— Logan
|
” |
James "Jimmy" Howlett was 13 years old when Thomas Logan, his family's housekeeper, killed his father John Howlett in a drunken fury. Discovering his father's body, an enraged James killed Logan with bone claws that spouted from his wrists. Discovering he was a mutant, James fled into the woods with his half-brother Victor Creed, who had gained similar mutant abilities. Brothers until the end, Victor and James, both equipped with a healing factor, fought through several wars until Vietnam, where Victor killed an officer who attempted to stop him from raping a civilian. After a firing squad failed, James and Victor escaped from prison and went their separate ways, with James working as a mob enforcer until he was possessed by his future self, who used his body to prevent the murder of Bolivar Trask at the hands of Mystique. Recruiting younger versions of Charles Xavier, Hank McCoy, and Magneto, James successfully prevented the assassination, but was captured by the Weapon X program and experimented on for several years, with samples of his blood being taken by the mysterious Essex Corporation.
James, reduced to a feral shadow of his former self, was freed by the young X-Men, who used his killing spree to escape from the Weapon X facility. Before they left, Jean Grey was able to soothe James's fury by freeing some of his memories. Calling himself Logan, James traveled through Canada and worked as a pit fighter until he met Rogue, a teenage runaway, and was recruited into the X-Men after a fight with a feral Victor. Helping the X-Men defeat the Brotherhood in a plot to turn the world's leaders into mutants, Logan chose to stay on the team and became a world-renowned hero. The team went on many adventures until tragedy struck when an Alzheimers-stricken Professor X, the leader of the team, had a seizure that killed all of the team save Logan, who fled to Mexico with the assistance of the mutant tracker Caliban. Broken by the death of his friends and dying from the adamantium on his bones, Logan became a limo driver to pay for the medication Xavier needs, keeping a single adamantium bullet with him in case he ever wanted to end it all.
Logan was given a chance for one final adventure when he was contacted by Gabriela, a nurse who escaped from Transigen, who begged Logan to transport her and her daughter Laura to Canada. Logan refused, and Donald Pierce, Transigen's Head of Security, killed Gabriella, though Laura escaped by stashing herself in the trunk of Logan's limo. Cornered by Pierce and the Reavers, Logan discovered Laura was his daughter, complete with her own bone claws and healing factor. Taking Xavier with him, Logan was forced to flee with Laura, agreeing to take her to the Canadian border. After a few days of travel, the trio stayed with a family known as the Munsons, where Xavier convinced Logan to stay the night. While Logan and Will Munson were dealing with an invasive landowner, the Reavers, using Caliban to track the group, arrived at the Munson's home and sicced X-24, a feral clone of Logan, on them. X-24 fatally wounded Xavier, captured Laura, then killed the Munsons. Logan did battle with the clone, but X-24 was too strong, and he was saved through the intervention of Will Munson, who impaled X-24 on farm equipment and shot him repeatedly before falling dead.
After escaping the Reavers, a tearful Logan buried Xavier, then passed out, forcing Laura to drive them the rest of the way to meet with the other Transigen escapees. Logan, angered at the death of his friends, shooed Laura away, telling her that he's not the hero she and the kids admired, and refused to assist the kids in their final escape to Canada. Taking a serum designed to kickstart his healing factor, Logan discovered that the Reavers had found the kids and chose to save them rather than return to Mexico. Using the rest of the serum, Logan teamed up with Laura to tear through the Reavers and kill Zander Rice, the man who designed the virus that's been suppressing the mutant gene. Pierce sicced X-24 on Logan and was promptly killed by the Transigen kids. Despite his efforts, Logan was fatally injured by X-24, who Laura killed with the adamantium bullet. Dying in his daughter's arms, Logan was buried on the border, with his grave being marked with an X.
Weapons, Abilities, and Weaknesses[]
Samurai Jack[]
Weapons and Equipment:
- Spear: Jack's primary weapon following the loss of his sword, the spear contains two edges: one a sharp blade that can pierce the armor of Aku's beetle robots and the other an electrified prod that can stun enemies.
- Shortsword: Jack carries a shortsword on the back area of his belt, which enables him to quickdraw it if he can't get to his spear.
- Laser Pistol: During his battle with the Daughters, Jack fires on them using a laser pistol he keeps in his side holster.
- Dual Knives: Jack wields a pair of Bowie knives, which came attached to brass knuckles, enabling Jack to keep his hold on them and do more effective melee damage.
- Kunai: Jack keeps a small amount of kunai with him, primarily for usage as a throwing weapon.
- Samurai Armor: To protect himself, Jack wore a suit of samurai armor, complete with a demonic mask. The suit was very durable, with Jack capable of being sent flying into the air and crashing down with no real injury.
Abilities:
- Master Swordsman: Jack is one of the most skiled swordsman in existence, capable of defeating numerous foes in a single blow and was even able to fight the Daughters of Aku with nothing but a combat knife.
- Skilled Strategist: Jack didn't just train his body, but his mind. He's frequently shown himself as a surprisingly intelligent thinker and planner, regularly seeing through Aku's deceptions and making use of his environment to bring down more powerful enemies.
- Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Jack is well-versed in the deadliest martial arts on the planet, and he's frequently adapting his style when pitted against new opponents, often using their strength against them.
- Stealth Mastery: Well-versed in the arts of ninjitsu, Jack is capable of vanishing effortlessly into a crowd, and was even able to become untrackable in a completely white, snowy landscape.
Weakness:
- Hallucinations: Haunted by his failures, Jack is tormented by a variety of hallucinations, including the ghost of his father, the rider, the screaming faces of those he has lost, and a blue ghostlike Jack that continues to urge him to kill himself or embrace his role in life as a killer.
Logan[]
Weapons:
- Adamantium Claws: Logan's hands have two sets of 12-inch, retractable claws coated with adamantium, an unbreakable metal that can cut through anything save other sources of adamantium. These claws enable Logan to cut through any object with no resistance, going as far as to sever a man's arm with no effort.
Abilities:
- Healing Factor: Though it's no longer as strong as it once was, Logan was able to stay immortal through a healing factor that has enabled him to heal from point-blank shotgun wounds and a savage beating at the hands of a group of thugs.
- Enhanced Senses: Logan has an almost animalistic sense of smell and hearing, enabling him to detect ambushes and track wild animals for miles. He even uses this ability to hunt Mystique, a shapeshifter who can perfectly mask herself as anyone.
- Enhanced Durability: Logan's adamantium skeleton makes it so that the majority of hits he does take simply bounce off of his skeleton and don't come close to his organs, though his stomach is a massive exposed point. During his cagefighting, opponents were frequently caught off-guard by the hardness of his bones, enabling him to overpower them.
- Skilled Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Logan's decades of fighting have enabled him to pick up numerous tricks, and while he's not quite as skilled as he once was, he's still able to pull off some impressive fighting moves. In his final battle with X-24, Logan was able to briefly take down the clone by outmoving and outthinking it.
Weakness:
- Failing Healing Factor: Like it was said before, Logan's healing is nowhere near as strong as it once was, and wounds that once healed in seconds now take hours. The aforementioned shotgun blast didn't fully heal until after Logan had fought off the carjackers, and he becomes winded by the end of his final fight with the Reavers.
Logan "Laura Fight Car Chase Escape Scene Full" 1080p HD
Logan teams up with X-23 to take on the Reavers.
X-Factors[]
| Samurai Jack | X-Factors | Logan |
| 100 | Experience | 100 |
| 95 | Training | 80 |
| 65 | Brutality | 90 |
| 80 | Intelligence | 70 |
| 70 | Durability | 85 |
Explanations[]
- Both Jack and Logan have gone on incredible adventures, with Jack's larger variety of opponents being balanced out by Logan's almost 200 years of experience and his experiences in both of the X-Men timelines.
- While Logan is hardly untrained, having fought in several wars for the US military, he can't match Jack, who has been trained in numerous styles and techniques by the greatest warriors in the world, including Robin Hood, African tribes, the Greeks, and several ninja clans, since he was a child.
- Jack will kill other sentient beings if he's forced to, but he's largely opposed and makes a point of giving his foes a chance to back out rather than risk being killed and has even spared numerous enemies in the past. Logan, at this point in his life, has no such misgivings and will often resort directly to lethal force when confronted by his enemies rather than waste time or energy on trying to force a retreat.
- Jack's training emphasized intelligence as much as it did strength, and he relies largely on his tactics to overcome stronger and faster foes. Logan's not an idiot, but he's not particularly tactically minded, often leaving the actual struggles of leadership up to Cyclops or Storm back when the X-Men were an actual functioning unit.
- For all his skill, Jack's a normal man, and he's been brought down by things as simple as a knife to the gut in the past. Even without his healing factor, Logan can still resist and overcome wounds that would kill a normal man, such as being stabbed viciously by X-23 or being shot point-blank with a shotgun.
Notes[]
- Voting ends June 5th.
- It will be set in a largely rural area with large clearings, woods, and maybe a house or two.
- Scenario: Several days before the events of Logan and before Samurai Jack Season 5, Aku, growing tired of his world's killers being unable to bring down Jack, travels to another Earth and kidnaps Logan. In order for Logan to return home, he must hunt down and kill a target: the elusive and dangerous Samurai Jack.
The Battle[]
“You think they love you, Logan?!?” Victor, holding the gaping stump where his arm used to be, limped to the top of the hill, a bloodied Wolverine following him. Wolverine wiped blood and sweat from his eyes as he pursued his oldest foe. Victor had thought he could sneak into the school for one last showdown, but Logan had smelled him coming a mile away. But something was…off. His wounds weren’t healing as fast, and he was getting tired. He never got tired. He started thinking dumb, and now he’s practically gutted Victor.
Panting and bleeding, Victor stopped at the top of the hill and fell to his knees. “You’re just a murderer to ‘em! A freak they brought in out of pity!” Wolverine stopped at the top of the hill and looked down at Victor, who had turned his back to watch the sunrise. After all these years, they were finally done. “You’re just a monster like me, Logan. Honestly, look at me and tell me what you’ve done.” Wolverine paused to stare at the sun, then raised his claws and looked at Victor, who stared up at him, eyes full of hate. “I’ve done enough, Creed.” He brought his claws down and-
Logan’s eyes snapped open and he was overwhelmed by the smell of death. He retched and staggered to his feet, groaning when he saw the wound in his gut. He took in a moment to breath in his surroundings, and saw that he was standing in a small cabin with at least a dozen shredded corpses sprawled all over the floor. It all came back to him at once. The bastard that zapped him outside of the bar, told him to hunt some samurai to get home, and dumped him in the woods in the middle of goddamn winter. But where the hell did these guys come from? He crouched down and looked at the nearest corpse. Logan had cut him clean in half, at least he thought he did, and he looked…green?
Now he remembered. He’d found a whole platoon of these frog-looking guys camped out by this cabin. “Oi! Target practice ‘fore we keel da samurai!” One growled, and then they all came at him. Somehow he managed to carve his way into the cabin, and he must’ve passed out after killing the last of them. He limped to the front door and opened it to see countless corpses, disemboweled, impaled on tree branches, and hacked to death with their own swords. Logan hadn’t fought that hard since…Victor and his cronies attacked the mansion. The day everything went bad.
Logan shook the memory out of his head. He was an idiot for thinking about that now. He needed to get out of here. But where was here? He looked down at the wounds on his stomach and legs to see them…slowly…patching themselves up. Those were gonna be a pain in the ass, especially in this weather. Suddenly, a scent popped up. It wasn’t strong, but something about it drove him to start walking. Something told him he needed to follow it if he wanted to get home.