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!

Reader Fraser wrote in to point out this one that he came across in a comic book that he recently read. It involves the Spider-Man villain, Electro, and the Hulk!

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!

Electro, interestingly enough, had an impressive showing against Spider-Man in his first appearance. Spider-Man was not prepared for the fact that Electro did not just shoot out electrical bolts of energy, but rather that his entire body was surrounded by an electrical field. So when Spider-Man went to go grab him when they first faced off against each other in Amazing Spider-Man #9, it did not go well for Spidey...

Of course, Spider-Man is not a moron, so he quickly adapted his way of going about things and then decided to wear rubber gloves to fight Electro the second time and he dealt with him very easily, while also letting Stan Lee and Steve Ditko have a little fun with the metafictional aspect of Electro being unmasked and having it turn out to be someone Spider-Man did not know at all, as, well, why would it be someone that Spider-Man knew?

Ditko would use this same bit a year or so later, when the Crimemaster was unmasked and he was...just some crook. This has led people to believe that Ditko also wanted the Green Goblin's identity to be "just some guy," as well, but that was not the case. It was just a bit that Ditko used twice, it was not some deep-seated belief he had that villains should only be unmasked to be strangers. It was pretty clear that Norman Osborn was always intended to be the Green Goblin. Anyhow, that's neither here nor there.

Let me add one more Spider-Man/Electro fight, just because it includes one of Ditko's best splash pages ever, from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, where the Sinister Six first fight Spider-Man...

Still, it is important to note that a direct blast from Electro DID knock Spider-Man out.

However, that's Spider-Man and then there's the Hulk, who Spider-Man has faced off against a few times and it doesn't seem like the Hulk would ever have the same reaction as Spider-Man to an energy blast. Look at him shrug off a punch from the guy who once punched the lights out of a former herald of Galactus!!

Okay, on to the fight!

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Omega the Unknown was a strange comic book series by Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes and Jim Mooney that saw a boy lose his parents in a car accident, only to learn that his parents were actually robots who were built to keep track of him. The car accident that revealed their robotic identities also left him in a coma. He had a dream of a powerful being from a far off planet fighting off a robotic invasion and that same being then showed up on Earth to rescue the boy, James-Michael Starling, from an attack from the same robotic beings from his dream! But then James-Michael stopped the robots with an energy blast from his own hands! Clearly, there was some connection between James-Michael and Omega, but the series not last long enough for Gerber and Skrenes to explain it (Steven Grant later had to come up with something, but it was clearly not what Gerber and Skrenes had in mind, although it certainly did the job Grant was asked to do, which was wrap up Omega the Unknown after it was abruptly canceled. I'll probably feature it in a future Wrap it Up edition).

Anyways, he was then fostered by two women. In the second issue, the super-powered alien being, Omega, meets the Hulk and then their fight is interrupted by Electro, who is working with a living robot to kidnap Omega. So Electro has to take both Omega and Hulk out right away, which he somehow does with a single blast to each character's respective head!

No offense to Electro, but it makes no sense that he'd be able to knock the Hulk out of the action like that. Yes, it is true that we see that the Hulk wasn't literally rendered unconscious, but that's effectively what happened.

See what happened when he was hit by an energy blast powerful enough to affect the orbit of a planet in Tales to Astonish #89...

One blast to the head by Electro is unlikely going to knock him to his feet like that.

Amusingly, the Hulk and Electro fought again years later -- the rematch did not go well for Electro...

What's funny is that I think that that rematch is a case of Electro not doing well ENOUGH against the Hulk. Electro is not exactly a powerhouse (at least not at the time), but he likely should get a LITTLE bit of a reaction from the Hulk after pouring that much energy into him. It's a far cry from a single zap and the Hulk dropping to the ground.

It really just looks like Gerber and Skrenes just saw the ending of their story creep up on them and catch them by surprise, leading to them to quickly coming up with a way to get the Hulk out of the story. "Oh, let's say that Electro zaps him and that's that."

Okay, that's it for this installment of The Wrong Side! Thanks to Fraser 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!