The 5 Best Battle Boards Online
Where you can debate which fictional character is the strongest!
In the realm of internet forums, especially in sites concerning about popular media like movies, comics, anime and video games, the most common threads you’ll see are posts about pitting a fictional character against another. From Superman versus Son Goku, Master Chief versus Samus Aran, to Spider-Man versus Batman, these debates have become popular to the point of giving birth to various websites and webshows related to these topics.
This is the phenomenon known as battleboarding, a unique internet activity where nerds, geeks, otakus, and gamers, debate about which fictional character is the strongest. Over the years, a subculture inspired by battleboarding had emerged online complete with its own slangs, rules, and communities. Battleboarding is currently one of the most popular internet activities out there, and there are several websites — known as battle boards and versus sites — that were created specifically for people to debate around fights between fictional characters.
In this article, we will explore five of the largest and most well-known battle boards and “who would win” debate sites in the internet, and see what makes each of them fun and appealing to users.
Comic Vine
Created in 2006, Comic Vine is a website that released news articles, reviews, and other content about Western comic books. Although created primarily to deliver the latest news about the comics industry, it also became known in the internet for its “battle forum”, where users can ask questions about what would happen if one comic book character fights another comic book character. It is considered by many to be the very first online battle board, and is also the oldest as it continues to be active even today.
It is in Comic Vine’s battle forum where common battleboarding terms such as “speed equalized”, “morals are off”, “bloodlusted” and many more, originated from. It was in Comic Vine where the first case of battle board “flaming” happened (which is a large intense, often disrespectful, debate), and match-ups in this forum evolved to the point that other characters besides those from comic books are used, as well as pitting more than three fictional characters against each other (known as “running the gauntlet” or “battle royales”).
Indeed, most of the subculture surrounding battleboarding came into existence because of Comic Vine, and even today, its legacy lives on in other battle boards that it inspired.
Death Battle
Death Battle is a webshow about pitting fictional characters against each other, hosted by Ben Singer and Chad James. First released in Youtube during 2010 under the channel ScrewAttack, before being purchased later on by Rooster Teeth, Death Battle is currently one of the most popular series on that site, and arguably the most well-known show about battleboarding.
Inspired by similar “versus shows” before it like Animal Face-Off and Deadliest Warrior, Death Battle is about pitting individuals against each other and using mathematics and science (usually with experts knowledgeable with the characters) to try and explain who would theoretically win. Unlike the latter two shows that pitted animals and historical warriors respectively, Death Battle is about fights between characters from comics, anime, video games, and even literature and online memes.
Although sometimes being controversial due to its verdicts on a few of its match-ups, Death Battle has gained a large cult-following, with various online communities springing up dedicated to either discussing about the show or writing fan-made episodes inspired by it. These include the long-running G1 Death Battle Fan Blog, r/deathbattlematchups, and the popular Death Battle Fanon Wiki and DBX Fanon Wiki. It even went on to release its own battleboarding-inspired dice and card game. Death Battle’s lasting impressions are probably its beautifully-rendered animated fights, and the use of mathematical calculations (known as “calcs”) to determine how strong a character is — a common element now widespread in many battle boards.
r/whowouldwin
As one of the oldest and largest forums in the internet, Reddit has also housed its own battle boards. The most famous of these is a subreddit known as r/whowouldwin. Currently, r/whowouldwin is one of the largest battle boards to date, just next to Comic Vine and VS Battles Wiki.
In r/whowouldwin, redditors (users who use Reddit) post matches pitting various fictional characters, and even non-fictional characters like real people or animals, against each other. Basically, there’s no rule on who can fight who. But what made r/whowouldwin special is its rules about determining a winner. When debating and choosing a winner, redditors need to submit evidences to prove their point, which consist of scans from comics, manga or literature, and clips from films, anime, shows and video games. This rule is imposed to create a high-level of accuracy in determining a winner, especially when it comes to the more serious posts in the site.
To top it all off, r/whowouldwin has a sister subreddit called r/respectthreads which indexes and catalogues every scan and clip from certain fictional characters or series, which redditors can easily access. This method of debating makes r/whowouldwin one of the most accurate battle boards out there.
VS Battles Wiki
To call VS Battles Wiki the largest online battle board is an understatement. In fact, some consider it to be one of the largest communities about geek culture in the internet. For example, r/whowouldwin has over 500,000 users, but VS Battles Wiki has over 600,000 active users, and 1 million visitors per month.
And the reason for this is simple. VS Battles Wiki uses everything that makes other battle boards special, like having Comic Vine’s battle forum, Death Battle’s use of calcs, and r/whowouldwin’s use of scans, integrating them all neatly together to make a fun but intense site for debating. Another thing that makes it amazing is its character profiles, where users can create articles about their fictional characters, and decide how strong they are in comparison to others through tiers, feats, scans and clips. In its effort to become the premier versus site out there, VS Battles Wiki has groups of researchers, calculators, and editors, working together to update every profile, police the forums, and document every terms and rules about battleboarding for new users.
It has had its fare share of controversies over the years, ranging from inaccuracies to discrimination, but VS Battles Wiki remains strong to this day. And as long as new fictional media is being published, the internet can bet that this wiki will be working hard to see how strong its characters are.
Deadliest Fiction
In 2010, a ragtag group of internet geeks consisting of history buffs and pop culture enthusiasts, created a fanfiction wiki inspired by their favorite show, Deadliest Warrior. In this wiki, users can pit various historical warriors or fictional characters against each other in a battle to the death. And they ended up creating probably the most unique battleboarding site out there.
What made Deadliest Fiction great from all the other battle boards is its content. While other versus sites focus on debating about imaginary fights between fictional characters, Deadliest Fiction tops them all off by also allowing its users to write a fanfiction simulation of the fight. And for over 10 years, this site has produced well-written literature concerning historical and fictional characters meeting up and fighting one another. Of course, as a battle board, winners are still debated and voted upon by its users before a fanfiction can be published. But while other battle boards have forums and character profiles, Deadliest Fiction has a forum, its own profiles, and written fanfictions to boot.
This makes Deadliest Fiction the most fun of all the other battle boards. And the users there continue to make the site even more fun by pitting their own original fictional characters against each other (also known as “user tourneys”) or making grand battle royales that can reach up to more than 10 combatants. Only in Deadliest Fiction can one really imagine what would happen if every fictional character out there ended up fighting one another.
Did any of these battle boards pique your interest? If you’re someone who wants to meet other nerds, geeks, and gamers, learn more about fictional characters and their series, and practice your debating skills online, visit one of these sites and enjoy!