In "The Wrong Side," I examine comic book fights that were particularly notable in the wrong side winning (or at least that the fight wasn't won the "right" way). This really isn't a big deal, of course, as it doesn't really matter if the "wrong" person won a fight. But it's fun to talk about! Here are our past editions of the feature.

If you want to suggest a fight for future inclusion in this feature, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com. Don't suggest a fight in the comments!

Today, my pal Chris N. wanted me to spotlight a battle from Steve Gerber's Defenders run when the Defenders took on the Sons of the Serpent.

First off, as always, on the first page, we determine the power level of the people involved in this discussion to set up the fight and on the second page, we look at the fight. The way we check their power levels is usually to see how well they do when they fight Spider-Man, as he is so strong that he beat up Firelord and the X-Men, all by himself!

First off, let's take a look at one of the fights that I just love to feature, because it is such an amusing display of how powerful the Hulk is. Spider-Man was able to beat the heck out of the X-Men in a matter of seconds, but watch the Hulk just completely shrug off Spider-Man's hardest punch here in Amazing Spider-Man #14...

So, clearly, the Hulk is at the top of the market when it comes to being powerful.

Doctor Strange, however, is at a whole different level where Spider-Man has never really even seemed to TRY to fight the good doctor, as the main thing that happens when Spider-Man meets Doctor Strange is when the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is sucked into a cosmic adventure that is beyond Spider-Man's ken...

Bizarrely enough, despite Spider-Man having seventeen ongoing titles at any given moment, he has somehow never really fought against the Sons of the Serpent. Isn't that super weird? The Sons of the Serpent's home base IS New York City, and yet Spidey has somehow manage to never run afoul of them. The Avengers have fought them a bunch of time, Daredevil has fought them a bunch of times but somehow, not Spider-Man. Clearly, the only answer is that Spider-Man is secretly racist. Okay, actually the only answer is that is simply a weird coincidence, but still.

So to get another idea about the Sons of the Serpent's power level, let's see their weapons in action against a relatively weak (power-wise) Avengers lineup of Goliath, Wasp, Hawkeye, Captain America and Black Widow (she was just helping out) in Avengers #33 (by Stan Lee and Don Heck). They had captured Cap in the previous issue by overwhelming him with men, but watch as they can't take out a fairly run of the mill Avengers lineup...

Okay, on to the fight at hand!

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='A%20Serpent%20Bite!']

The Defenders were a weird team, not just in the fact that that they were known as the superhero team that wasn't really a superhero team (as they were just sort of a loose affiliation of heroes who would otherwise be loners) but they were also made up of some POWERHOUSES. Valykrie is someone who can hang with Thor and she was one of the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD members of the Defenders, power-wise.

Their two heavyweights were the aforementioned Hulk and Doctor Strange (plus Silver Surfer and Namor, but those two were rarely with the team). In Defenders #23 (by Steve Gerber, Sal Buscema and Vince Colletta), Yellowjacket sort of joins the team (again, stress loose affiliation of heroes) and Nighthawk is on the team. He's not too shabby himself, but come on, he's much weaker than the others. Probably even weaker than Yellowjacket.

Anyhow, the issue is all about the Sons of the Serpent and their racist BS and Gerber does some great work with it. He was a great writer when it came to social causes and the like.

First they take out Yellowjacket...

Then they attack the Defenders and simply knock out Nighthawk, Valkryie and Doctor Strange with simple ray guns!!

Baron Mordo? Nightmare? OORMAMMU? No problem. Racists with ray guns? Too much!

Then they turn their weapons on the Hulk, as well, and somehow they are able to take him down, as well...

Suffice it to say that I think it is out of whack for the Sons of the Serpent to be able to take down all of these powerhouses so easily. The Juggernaut can't take down the Hulk, but the Sons of the Serpent can?

Okay, that's it for this installment of The Wrong Side! Thanks to Chris for the suggestion! If anyone else has an idea for a comic book fight that you think was resolved the "wrong" way, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!