Parallax creature vs. Phoenix force
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After explaining to Timmy the recent reworkings of the origin and concept behind Parallax as being a yellow entity embodiment of the emotion “fear,” he said “A nigh-omnipotent cosmic force that possesses other beings to achieve its ends? Kind of like the Phoenix Force?” And thus, Contest of Champions’ first battle was born! So, who would win in a fight? Let’s take a look at the competitors.
The Parallax creatureA demonic parasite born at the dawn of time, Parallax is the living embodiment of fear, imprisoned in the central Green Lantern power battery on Oa for billions of years. Parallax famously possessed Earth’s Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, following the destruction of Jordan’s hometown of Coast City. Succumbing to fear and falling prey to the influence of Parallax, Jordan went on to destroy the entire timestream in an effort to remake the universe according to his own designs, eventually falling at the combined hands of most every hero in the DC Universe. Parallax has gone on to possess other heroes, including Jordan’s successor Kyle Raynor, and has been a scourge of the Green Lantern Corps. Parallax has the power to induce fear and possess beings without the willpower to resist it, including heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Spectre. Parallax also has flight and mind control powers, and can create convincing solid light constructs.
The Phoenix ForceIt is said that the Phoenix Force is “the embodiment of the very passion of Creation—the spark that gave life to the Universe, the flame that will ultimately consume it.” The Phoenix is an immortal psionic being of almost limitless power which was born as pure sentient energy, wandering the universe until it came into contact with a firebird-worshiping earthling named Feron and adopted its familiar shape. The Phoenix Force has possessed numerous characters in the Marvel Universe, most famously the X-Men’s Jean Grey. After being influenced by the Hellfire Club’s Mastermind, Grey, as the Dark Phoenix, was responsible for devouring the D’Bari star system, killing five billion people. The Phoenix can travel through space and time, and can harness cosmic energy, as well as the life forces of present and future beings. It also possesses immense powers of telepathy and telekinesis, and can enhance the superhuman abilities of its host. Voting ended on: Friday April 15th, 2011, 5:00pm Miles/The Phoenix force beat Timmy/The Parallax creature!
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Timmy
Remember that time Parallax possessed Hal Jordan and went on to destroy the entire timestream? That was a pretty impressive display, eh?
Miles
Yeah no, it was very impressive. I especially like the part where Green Arrow managed to stop Parallax…
…with an arrow.
Timmy
Sure, after he was softened up by both Superman and the Spectre, who just happens to be The Hammer of God’s Vengeance. I’m not about to hold that against the guy/bug/thing.
Miles
You pretty much just told me you forfeit this fight.
You just told me that if a godlike character, such as the Phoenix, softens you up, all Phoenix would have to do is embody Green Arrow and nail you with a wooden stick.
Thanks for playing bud, but, like Thanos, you really just sow the seeds of your own destruction.
Timmy
You’re very funny, Miles. That’s what I always tell people. Miles Benson’s a funny guy!
It’s a clever trick you’re trying to pull here, but it’s something less than effective. So yeah, maybe if the Parallax creature possesses a mortal human like Hal Jordan, he’d be susceptible to an arrow to the chest, or maybe a boxing glove arrow to the face. The counter, of course, is for Parallax to just go ahead and possess a more powerful, mayhap even godlike, being. Like Hal Jordan as the Spectre. (See what I did there?) Point being, whosoever knows fear can succumb to Parallax.
Timmy
(Sidebar: Who would win in a fight: Parallax or the Man-Thing?)
Miles
If you’re trying to say Phoenix has fear then bring it on hot shot. You’ll just get burned. The Phoenix force doesn’t NEED a human host. It opts for one. As long as The Phoenix force doesn’t take on a human host to be swayed by human emotions we’re golden pony boy.
See dude, The Phoenix force is the nexus of all psionic energy that exists in all realities.
You wouldn’t be able to possess, say the study of linguistics or computer science, right?
Psionics is a concept. Concepts do not know fear.
Brush up on your comic history before you pick a fight.
Miles
Man-thing. No doubt.
Should I call you the gate keep for the Nexus of all Realities, Ted Sallis?
NO! Man-thing!
Timmy
The idea of the Phoenix Force sounds mighty powerful, but in the comics, it doesn’t actually pan out that way. It seems that the Phoenix Force is always being chased around, weakened, or outright fractured. In short, beatable.
And sure, the Phoenix’s purpose is to eventually destroy the universe, but has it ever done it? In fact, recall the Phoenix’s battle with Galactus. He’s defeated, but he also persuades the Phoenix to promise to limit its displays of power, since they deplete life from future generations. I don’t see Parallax making that same sort of promise!
Miles
Oh. By the way fellow readers, Timmy here stopped reading comics in 2003, during the JLA’s Obsidian Age storyline. So his knowledge on comics is limited.
For instance if he DID still read comics he would know that there is such a thing as the Blue Lanterns whose powers are fueled by hope. And the Blue Lanterns have the ability to drain yellow power from the the Yellow Lanterns/Parallax. He would also know that Phoenix has taken another human host as of late, in Hope Summers. The first mutant to be born after Decimation, the event where Scarlet Witch depowered every mutant except 198 of them.
Phoenix may never have ever destroyed the universe like Parallax succeeded in doing. But once The Blue Lantern corps chooses Hope to be a ring bearer because she is the very definition of hope. (Much like the baby from Children of Men.)
A mutant combined with the Phoenix force combined with the yellow draining abilities of the Blue Lanterns possibly even being able to be the host for their entity Adara?
C’mon…does Timmy really think Parallax stands a chance?
Miles
Timmy
Dear Miles,
If I had known yesterday that when you asked me offline what the name of that movie with the baby born in the world without babies was, you were planning to use that information against me, I would have made something up that would make you look foolish. It’s a dirty trick!
Fiction can be fun, but I find the reference section much more enlightening. I know about Hope Summers, and to be quite honest, meh! Good to know that being named something makes you the living definition of it. Shall I call you 5,281+ Feet, Mr. Benson? No, Miles!
I also hope (eh? eh?) that your new blue ringbearer has had enough Corps training and is being backed up by a Green Lantern, or else the blue ring is useless. I may not have a stack of GL books on my nightstand, but I can read the Internet!
Miles
Miles
Yeah no, they’d only pick her because of her name.
Not because she’s the shining beacon of hope for the entire mutant race or anything.
Timmy
All I’m saying is, just because she’s named Hope and happens to be the first mutant born after all the mutants died doesn’t mean that like, hope is her power. She’s not shooting hope beams out of her eyes or sprouting adamantium hope claws. Hope is something projected onto her by other people.
Personally, if I were choosing a host to go head to head with the embodiment of fear itself, I wouldn’t choose someone with such dark potential in her heart. Don’t think Parallax wouldn’t box the Phoenix right out of Hope if the Dark Side she embraces.
Miles
“Hope is something projected onto her by other people.”
That includes fear, yes? So why then, does Batman get selected by the Yellow corp to be a member (Green Lantern (vol. 4) #17). Hmm?
Miles
Also, when you Google image search “hope beams” you get a picture of Obama hope beaming Hitler:
Timmy
That’s all you get when you GIS “fear beams.” Still pretty fearsome!
Timmy
Here’s my one last salvo, because we can go down a “Hope Summers-Blue Lantern-Batman-Barry Allen-tuna fish sandwich-My, what a lovely tea party” rabbit hole if we keep this up.
Let’s say Parallax possesses some powerful time traveling entity. It could be anyone: Hal Jordan, Waverider, Cable, Doctor Doom, the Scarlet Centurion, whoever. Parallax goes forward to the end of time, and systematically moves backward, destroying all possible futures until there’s only one moment in time left.
Since Phoenix, when manifested on the physical plane, draws its powers from the life forces of future beings, wouldn’t it be fatally vulnerable at a moment when no future even exists? All it would take is a well-aimed blast from an abandoned Kree laser gun to do away with Phoenix once and for all.
Thoughts?
Miles
Vulnerable? Sure.
Defeated? Far from it.
What Timmy doesn’t seem to understand is the Phoenix force has many powers at it’s disposal without it even tapping into the life force of future generations. It could transmute itself into a green ring / blue ring hybrid, a green arrow, a giant half blue / half green fly swatter? Doesn’t matter. You’re focusing on all the wrong set of details.
Parallax cannot travel through time by itself. The only reason it was able to do that was because Hal Jordan basically absorbed all the green energy in the universe and teamed up with Extant, in Zero Hour.
I don’t need Hope Summers or recruitment from the Blue Lanterns. In fact, lets take them out of the equation. We’re talking about the Phoenix force. Parallax is a formidable foe, this is true. What with it being
thea entity imbued with the power of fear. But thats it. This is a fight betwixt Parallax and the Phoenix force. Sans hosts. Who stands to win now? Certainly not Parallax.Listen man. The most Parallax could do to the Phoenix force is turn it’s hair on it’s temples white.
Timmy
“What Timmy doesn’t seem to understand . . .” Who are you talking to, the frog in your pocket?
Well sure, if you want to put it that way. It’s akin to saying “This is a fight between Superman and Batman. Sans tapping into Crime Alley as a power source / Batmobile rockets / kryptonite arrows.” Yeah, maybe the elemental creative force of the universe could eke out a win.
I still think people should vote for me, though.
Miles
Oh stop.
The Batmobile and his utility belt are all part of who Batman is.
I suppose the same argument can be made about Parallax and the Phoenix force, but c’mon man…this is precisely why I said when we were creating this site, we need to be specific about what era and what powers these characters have when they go up against each other.
Like Golden age Superman is far more powerful than say post-Infinite Crisis Superman. Y’know?
Miles
Side note: Cracked has a little interesting article up about Jean Grey getting raped by Mastermind. Yikes! Talk about reading too much into comics!
Timmy
That happened!
Another thing that happened? I had the privilege of being the Mastermind one time when me and my brother and his pals were playing superheroes, because someone had gotten this in a pack of cards. I’m fairly certain I got beat up pretty good.
Miles
Tim, you WOULD be Mastermind. With all the head games you play.
Timmy
Here’s a fun little fact: in golf, the lower score is actually better. Think about that for a bit.
Miles
This is kind of how you’re acting right now