Now how'd I know you'd gush about Sir Justin ?Ares wrote: ↑Fri Jul 05, 2019 2:39 pm The JLU writers seemed to have a lot of fun with the pair, their odd friendship being very entertaining in both Task Force X and Patriot Act. Having just watched Task Force X, I don't really consider that a low showing for the pair. Vigilante was holding his own against Deadshot when it came to shooting and seemed looked to be Lawson's superior in a fist fight. Vigilante actually had most of the bad guys captured at one point until Capt. Boomerang stepped in, and the only reason Flagg was able to beat him up was due to sucker punching him while he and Deadshot had each other covered and dead to rights.
Shining Knight might deserve full on PL 10 status. He was actually deflecting bullets with this sword from Deadshot and there were at least two points where Sir Justin had an opponent dead to rights before someone else interfered. The Annihilator caught him as he was about to finish one opponent off and slammed him into the ground so hard that he was embedded in the metal flood, but he was still awake and up and fighting. Heck, they never really managed to beat Sir Justin, all of Flagg's spin kicks and jump kicks just ticked him off and knocked him backwards. The best they managed was locking him in a room, which he then punched so hard that he was deforming the metal with his fists. And his sword was basically the only thing in Patriot Act that managed to hurt General Eiling's mutated form, so much that Eiling made a point to avoid it afterwards.
But like I said, the Seven Soldiers in general and Sir Justin in particular have always been favorites of mine, and I'm glad JLU had so much fun with them. It's also why I ignore anything Morrison did with his Seven Soldiers concept, given what he did to Vigilante and tried to do to Sir Justin.
I was going to mention this sooner or later, but the show was positively INSANE with superhuman showings of durability from regular people, but only with regards to bludgeoning damage. Shining Knight would deflect bullets with his SWORD, implying he couldn't just take them with his armor... but guys who can shatter buildings will punch him and he's just like "UGH! THAT SMARTS, VARTLET!". Steven Mandragora fears a crossbow bolt the side of a 2B pencil, but hundreds of pounds of metal can hit him and merely knock him out. That ENTIRE Eiling fight is a study in people explicitly said to have no super-powers being thrown for hundreds of feet, smashed into pavement, cars, and walls, etc., from a Superman-class being, and barely being KO'd.
I pretty much stopped considering anything a "good showing of durability" after a point in that series, lol. It's just too weird about that.
Also, nobody gets upgraded to a PL 10 unless they win at least one fight against a super-powered opponent. Shining Knight is the "Virgil" of that show, jobbing to Yokozuna and warning Bret Hart about the threat to his World Title. I don't care how much you love knights as super-heroes .
From my notes about Patriot Act:
Act":
* Shining Knight, Stargirl & S.T.R.I.P.E. all exhibit high durability- Knight skips like a stone across pavement and lands on top of an awning more than thirty feet away, leaving cracks in stone. He's out for a few rounds because of it, though. But STARGIRL (who flat-out says she has no Powers- "it's just the Staff") ends up being thrown from SKYSCRAPER HEIGHT, slamming into the street at full-force. Uhh... shouldn't she be a stain?
* Also, it's funny how Eiling (a borderline combatant- he can punch out a Soldier with a sneak attack, but Batman one-punched him without breaking stride while walking in another direction) magically becomes a good fighter the second he gets super-powers. Seriously, he's hyper-athletic, doing flips and leaps, grabbing guys, hitting them, then spinning around and tossing them somewhere else. Good ol' comics and their "Sudden Fighting Skills"- sorta like how the X-Men train and train continuously for years, only to be stalemated by some teens who just learned their powers yesterday.