Here's the next five!

Here is the master list!

Enjoy!

55. Nova vs. Annihilus

Annihilus has always been a rather unpleasant individual, but for the most part of his history, his bad attitude has been restrained to the Negative Zone, and really, who cares about the Negative Zone?

However, in the major Marvel cosmic event called Annihilation, Annihilus gathers that the universe is expanding into the Negative Zone, so therefore, the universe is fair game as far as he is concerned, so he launches the so-called "Annihilation Wave" a large armada of Negative Zone battleships that can reduce a planet full of people to carrion within an hour (maybe faster - I forget).

Annihilus teams up with Thanos (who might have his own motives - we shall see) and along with some other powerful bad guys, he captures Galactus himself!

Annihilus is planning on using Galactus to fuel basically a "Power Cosmic Bomb" which will destroy both the universe AND the Negative Zone, leaving only Annihilus alive.

He is such a little creep, that Annihilus!

Luckily, Galactus is freed by Drax and the Silver Surfer (who had also been a prisoner of Annihilus), and Galactus flips out and, well, annihilates the Annihilation Wave. Only a few beings are left alive in the whole area of the destruction, and that includes Nova and Annihilus. Now, earlier on, Nova was saved from an attack by Annihilus by the heroic intervention of Quasar, who was killed by Annihilus with the cosmic bands being taken in by Annihilus.

Now, dazed by the battle, Phyla-Vell was able to procure the quantum bands from Annihilus, leaving him vulnerable enough for Nova to finish him.

Nova did so, delivering the killing blow - basically just sticking his hand down Annihilus' throat and tearing out his internal organs, killing him (for now).

Cool ending to a cool series.

54. Colossus vs. Juggernaut

You can just imagine the mood Colossus was in after Secret Wars. If you need to remember one thing about Colossus, it is this - if you leave him in any sort of different location than he normally is in, he WILL hook up with one of the natives. That is why the X-Men never take him to the Caribbean, as there would be little Caribbean Rasputins up and down the islands. Well, Kitty Pryde did not know this, so she and Colossus ended their (fairly age inappropriate) relationship when she found out that Colossus had made time with an alien girl during Secret Wars. And this was not long after Kitty was willing to marry Caliban of the Morlocks so that Colossus would get some help from the Morlocks (CALIBAN, PEOPLE!).

So Wolverine wanted to take Colossus out to talk some sense into him in Uncanny X-Men #183 (Chris Claremont handled the words and John Romita Jr. did the pencils), and Nightcrawler came along to make sure it did not become a fist fight. While at a bar, Colossus accidentally bumps into Juggernaut, who happens to be at the same bar just trying to pick up a lady at the bar. Juggernaut may have been willing to let it go, but Colossus was in a foul mood, and so they brawl (Wolverine, of course, was aware that Juggernaut was there the whole time).

Colossus actually holds his own pretty well in the fight, but Juggernaut probably was not trying TOO hard. Ultimately, Juggernaut just quits, compliments Colossus on his skills, pays the bar for the damage and takes off, pissed that he can't get away for one night.

Colossus, meanwhile, is pissed off that Wolverine and Nightcrawler didn't get his back - then Wolverine gets right back in his face and tells him off about how lame he's being - about how he did not even THANK Kitty for being willing to marry Caliban (CALIBAN, PEOPLE!) and the Colossus was being a big ol' egotistical baby.

Good times.

53. Fantastic Four plus Friends vs. Galactus

So Galactus' herald at the time, Terrax, shows up on Earth and actually transports the island of Manhattan into orbit. The Avengers help out those who are left behind in tunnels and such when the island is lifted while the Fantastic Four deal with Terrax. Apparently, Terrax no longer wants to work for Galactus, and Galactus is not having any of that, so he pursues Terrax to Earth to destroy him, well, Terrax figures that if he holds the island of Manhattan hostage, he can get the Fantastic Four to destroy Galactus FOR him.

The next issue, Fantastic Four #243 (this storyline was part of John Byrne's classic run on Fantastic Four as writer/artist), has the Fantastic Four and some of their New York friends (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and Doctor Strange) taking on Galactus, who is in a weakened state, and actually defeating him!!!

However, Reed Richards realizes that they can't let Galactus die - he is too important to the universe, so the next issue, they actually SAVE Galactus' life! In the process, Terrax is stripped of his powers and the Human Torch's girlfriend becomes the new herald of Galactus, Nova!

But for one shining moment, the heroes of the Marvel Universe took on Galactus - and kicked his big purple butt!

52. Superman vs. Muhammad Ali

Remember the Champion from earlier on the countdown? Well, that is basically the plot of Superman vs. Muhammad Ali.

Some aliens want to have Earth's best fighter fight THEIR best fighter or else they will invade and destroy Earth.

Both Superman and Muhammad Ali volunteer to do the fighting, and the alien leader determines that the two will fight on a planet with a Red Sun to determine who will fight the alien champion.

Well, naturally, Ali beats Superman badly (I mean, duh!), and he takes on the champion. Meanwhile, Superman (now recovered due to his healing powers) heads out and wipes out the alien invasion fleet while Ali takes care of the alien boxing champion.

However, the alien bad guy (Scrubb something) decides to back out of his word and still order an invasion, but his own champion turns on the leader for being dishonorable, and the bad guy is overthrown!

51. X-Men vs. Magneto (Fatal Attractions)

So Colossus, ever a bowl of laughs before, gets even more morose when his sister dies of the Legacy virus (his parents were also recently killed, as was his brother - damn, harsh luck). So when Magneto shows up at the funeral and asks for X-Men to join him, Colossus actually gets up and leaves with Magneto.

Later on, Magneto decides to make a big show of force to let the world know not to mess with him (as the world's powers were developing an "anti-Magneto force field around the Earth"), so he smacks around Earth's electro-magnetic fields, killing a bunch of people (but really, while his actions murdered a bunch of innocent people, Magneto is just misunderstood - really).

So the X-Men and particularly Professor X, feel that this has gone on long enough, so Xavier and a small group of X-Men sneak on to Magneto's Asteroid headquarters with the intention of taking him out. You know how you're not supposed to bring a knife to a gun fight? Probably not supposed to bring a dude made out of metal to a fight with a guy who controls metal.

Magneto shows why this is such a bad idea when he yanks the metal off of Wolverine's skeleton, almost killing him in the process.

Xavier has had enough, and uses his vast telepathic power to wipe Magneto's mind clean - a lobotomy, of sorts.

The X-Men leave with their wounded teammate, and Colossus stays behind, dreading the sponge baths that await him in the future.