Line #21 ShipToShipCombat/ComicBooks


1	* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'':
2	** During the time when Sonic was trying to decide between Mina and Sally, there were flame wars over which was better for him. The fact that Sally was going through her {{Chickification}} didn't help, and resulted in numerous ''hate pages'' dedicated to what a horrible bitch she was while Mina was clearly the only girl for Sonic. Things died down a bit when Mina got her own boyfriend and Sonic and Sally got engaged. Of course, then Sonic and Sally went and broke the engagement off, but their relationship was on the mend and all but official again shortly before [[spoiler:Sally got roboticizied in a HeroicSacrifice and ReforgedIntoAMinion]]. It was around this time the CosmicRetcon and ContinuityReboot happened, which {{Retgone}} Mina out of existence and Sega [[ExecutiveMeddling put the hammer down]] on Sonic's relationship status as a CelibateHero with only minor teases with Sally until the comic's cancellation.
3	** To a lesser extent, Knuckles and Julie-Su were going well in their relationship, and then Rouge came along to make it a love triangle. The fandom are pretty spilt on who makes a better girlfriend for the red echidna. Unfortunately, poor Julie-Su was banished to another world by the Tasmanian Devil Thrash and then both of them were {{Retgone}} less than 20 stories later...
4	** A cross-media example is Sonic/Sally vs Sonic/Amy. While Sonic/Amy fans are mainly confined to the videogame universe, where Sally doesn't exist (Amy in the Archie continuity pre-reboot is a child in a teenager's body, making shippers [[{{Squick}} almost nonexistent]]), the debate is more over whether Sally or Amy works better as Sonic's LoveInterest, as they are very different characters. (Sally is a level-headed LadyOfWar with an OppositesAttract and SlapSlapKiss relationship with Sonic, but Sonic obviously reciprocates her feelings and cares deeply for her. Amy is an [[GenkiGirl upbeat]] GirlyBruiser and FriendToAllLivingThings with an [[ClingyJealousGirl over-attachment so Sonic]] that is one-sided apart from occasional ShipTease) Then the ship war began to infiltrate the Archie comic after the CosmicRetcon: due to [[ScrewedByTheLawyers legal issues]], the comic was rebooted into a [[TruerToTheText more videogame-compliant setting]]... which had the side effect of restoring Amy to her game-canon age and making her relationship and ShipTease with Sonic more apparent, and while Sally still existed, her relationship with Sonic became platonic due to Sega's new NoHuggingNoKissing rules. But this ultimately became moot when the series was cancelled and replaced with [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW a new book by IDW Publishing]] that's even ''more'' TruerToTheText, with no Sally at all. Post-reboot Sonic/Amy shippers quickly jumped ship to IDW, but there's still occasional infighting, especially since Sega seems reluctant to acknowledge Sally again.
5	* The British counterpart to ''Archie's Sonic'', ''Comicbook/SonicTheComic'', has some mild ship-to-ship combat. It mostly centers around Amy's and Tekno's PseudoRomanticFriendship versus Shortfuse's and Tekno's relationship. WordOfGod is Tekno and Shortfuse have a "thing" for each other, though it wasn't shown much in the comics (the [[Webcomic/SonicTheComicOnline fan-continuation]] tries to make up for it with mixed results). Shortfuse is TheScrappy due to his annoying insistence of saying his [[AsYouKnow backstory everytime he appeared]], and there was already a train of thought in the fandom that Amy and Tekno were "too" friendly. For the most part, ship-to-ship combat is subverted in the fandom. Even though WordOfGod is that Johnny Lightfoot likes Amy, Sonic/Amy fans don't care. This could because Amy's crush on Sonic was dialed down ''extremely'' to almost nonexistent extents (bar CharacterizationMarchesOn) and [[spoiler:the fact that Johnny was KilledOffForReal.]]
6	* Who should [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]] end up with, Barbara Gordon (Comicbook/{{Batgirl}}/Oracle) or Koriand'r (Comicbook/{{Starfire}})? The divide seems to mainly come from comic fans who consider Nightwing as primarily a Franchise/{{Batman}} character favouring the former and fans who consider him primarily a ComicBook/TeenTitans character favouring the latter – adaptations of each tend to pair him up accordingly. The comics, of course, have writers with their own biases RunningTheAsylum and promoting their own pet pairing while derailing the other. Amazingly, ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}'' managed to satisfy both sides by having Pre-Crisis Dick marry Kori and Pre-Flashpoint Dick marry Babs.
7	** During the late 90s, the writers of the Bat office were having their own ship war regarding Nightwing/Oracle vs. Nightwing[=/=]ComicBook/{{Huntress}}. Chuck Dixon had been setting up a Dick and Barbara relationship, only for that ship to get derailed when Devin Grayson wrote her Nightwing/Huntress mini-series in which Barbara reacted jealously to Dick and Helena having a one-night stand. Later on, Dixon seemingly retaliated by having Dick say that he wished he stayed away from Helena in the first place. This eventually culminated in the No Man's Land storyline, in which Dick and Barbara had seemed to start their relationship, only for Dick to kiss Helena on New Year's.
8	** There's still a Terra/Beast Boy vs Raven/Beast Boy war, that was first fueled mainly by Terra 2 and the fans of the cartoon who came to enjoy the comics. Terra 2 was later killed off as cannon fodder in an event, but the wars continued when DC brought out a ''third'' version of the character (albeit one not very connected to Beast Boy or the Titans). The second and third Terras have since been erased by the ComicBook/New52 reboot, in which only the first one now exists as an active character. As she's partnered off with Beast Boy, ship wars have started anew. Even more so after Beast Boy winds up separated from that Terra and winds up brought to the Titans by the New 52 version of Raven.
9	** Post-Comicbook/{{Flashpoint}}, there's a fan following who prefer Dick's UnresolvedSexualTension with the new version of [[Comicbook/{{Huntress}} Helena Bertinelli]] over the WillTheyOrWontThey relationship he has with Babs, in addition to the fans who want him to leave Gotham entirely and get back together with Starfire and lead the Titans again (overlapping with the FandomRivalry between the Titans fandom and the Batman fandom).
10	* There's also Franchise/{{Batman}}[=/=]Comicbook/{{Catwoman}} vs. Franchise/{{Batman}}[=/=]Franchise/WonderWoman. While they don't have the above ArmedWithCanon combat among those RunningTheAsylum, this is more than made up for by the fact that Batman/Wonder Woman has far more support from the DCAU than the main DC comicsverse, and so the combat is fraught with a degree of AlternateCharacterInterpretation.
11	** Actually thanks to Tom King’s Batman #39 Bruce and Diana’s {{UST}} from the cartoon became canon in the main continuity as Batman (who’s engaged to Selina) has an AlmostKiss with Wonder Woman to the ire of Batman/Catwoman shippers. [[spoiler: After [[TheRunawayBride Selina left Bruce at the altar]] in Batman #50, Batman/Wonder Woman fans were quick to tear Catwoman a new one]].
12	* Franchise/{{Superman}} and Lois Lane are a watershed fictional couple in popular culture, so in-and-of-itself the ComicBook/New52 reboot turning back the clock so they were just friends drew some ire, but then pairing him with Franchise/WonderWoman it hit a certain BerserkButton for many fans.
13	** Before that, there was a component of fandom who seemed to prefer Lana Lang as Superman's love interest, though it seems to have been localized into FanFic. Except that ''Man of Steel'' (the comic, not the movie) mastermind Creator/JohnByrne actually said he wished he could have had Superman and Lana end up together.
14	* There is a great deal of tension between those who ship ComicBook/HarleyQuinn and ComicBook/TheJoker and those who, well, don't. At all. Because their relationship is psychotic and abusive. Those who do ship the pair argue that shipping a pairing is not the same thing as condoning it. On actual ships, there is a thick tension between Joker/Harley and Ivy/Harley fans.
15	* Carlie Cooper is ''not'' popular with supporters of the [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Spider-Man]]/Mary Jane pairing (of course Carlie is not really popular with any of the fans in general). It seems to go only one way, though, since Carlie doesn't have as established a fanbase yet.
16	** [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} The ever impressive, the long contained, often imitated, but never duplicated]]: Spidey/MJ vs Spidey/Gwen. Usually, Spidey/Gwen is spared by the others due to her death, but the Spidey/Gwen fans seem to just plain hate Spidey/MJ for happening, since it's been cited openly by Creator/GerryConway as the reason for Gwen's death. Gwen was boring to the writers and was generally unpopular with most of the regular readers (except for the vocal fanboys who read the comics near the end of the run and decided that Gwen was Peter's true love). MJ/Spidey fans tend to be respectful to Gwen though they also roll their eyes at Spidey/Gwen shippers by pointing out that Gwen was ''the'' DesignatedLoveInterest whose personality kept shifting multiple times before her death (starting out as an AlphaBitch under Ditko and then being softened into a whiny DaddysGirl twenty issues later) and that Lee and Romita Sr. largely shilled her by downplaying and denigrating the scene-stealing MJ, and giving Gwen aspects based on her and more recent fans point out that if not for her death, Gwen would probably be remembered as the Carlie Cooper of her day, as Conway has repeatedly pointed out though not in so many words. However, after OMD, many MJ fans have bonded with Gwen fans, feeling that killing Gwen in a classic story was nonetheless the FranchiseOriginalSin of the series and many have called for Gwen to return if only to bring back the classic love triangle and to allow somewhere down the line a chance for Peter and MJ to have a relationship without Gwen's death between them.
17	** Don't forget Spidey/MJ Vs. Spidey/Black Cat either which was the love triangle that played in pages and between writers until Peter and MJ finally married much to the anger and vengeance of Peter/Felicia shippers. Unlike the Gwen-MJ triangle that was entirely about Peter, the second one was about both Peter and Spider-Man. Both girls knew Peter's double life and secret identity, but Felicia preferred Spider-Man over Peter Parker while MJ liked both, still preferred Peter and was afraid that eventually as Spider-Man he would get killed. Black Cat fans point out that she and Spidey would form a great BattleCouple and that she won't give grief to him about staying out later unlike MJ. MJ fans point out that Felicia is LovingAShadow and that MJ was Peter's confidant and that she was the one Peter confessed his guilt about Uncle Ben's death, and who so loved Peter that she overcame her reluctance and made him get back as Spider-Man during one of his "Spider-Man no more" phases, and that ultimately she has more in common with him than Felicia does. The fact that after OMD, Peter and Black Cat have had FriendsWithBenefits encounters while writers until Nick Spencer have kept the classic couple apart, merely feeds into this.
18	** Now, neither side is helped by the fact Creator/StanLee has stated he envisioned Gwen Stacy as Spidey's true love, then he goes and has Spidey and MJ get married in his personal comic strip, or how he showed support for Creator/JoeQuesada breaking up the couple, only to then put the two back together in his aforementioned comic strip. The guy likes trolling the fans, don't he? There's also plenty of people who wish his relationship with Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) had continued past a first date, and from Ultimate Marvel, many like Ultimate Spiderman and Ultimate Kitty Pryde.
19	* The ship-to-ship combat between ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}, ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and Jean Grey is the stuff of legend. Even to ''this day'' the combat between Scott/Jean, Logan/Jean, and [[HoYay Scott/Logan]] can be vicious and brutal, no doubt fueled by X-Films series in the early 2000s. What makes this shipping war particularly unique is that it's actually spilled over ''in universe'', with Logan and Scott frequently trolling one another over their mutual affections for Jean.
20	** And it turns into a four-way battle royale once you include Emma Frost's own relationship with Scott.
21	** [[OppositeSexClone Just like her daddy]], ComicBook/{{X 23}} gets a fair bit of this, mainly between Helix (Hellion/Laura) fans, [[LesYay Laura/Jubilee]] fans, and fans who don't see her as having interest in relationships whatsoever. Also toss in [[FoeYayShipping Kimura]], Gambit, Finesse, Mercury, Dust, Elixir, Fantomex, and more crack pairings such as Wither, Spidey, Hulk, and even Deadpool. There's even more than a few fans who [[IncestYayShipping ship her with Daken]]. And now {{Rule 63}} and time travel is enabling the Scott/Logan CrackPairing to live vicariously through [[ComicBook/AllNewXMen Laura and Teen Cyke]] (not that it stops anyone from shipping her with the ''adult'' Scott, too). To a lesser extent, [[spoiler: the cover preview for ''ANXM'' #30 showing Laura and Teen!Warren locked in a passionate in-flight kiss]] has sparked shipping for ''that'' pairing, as well (and more than a few jokes over the idea of Laura moving through the ''entire'' O5. Yes, even [[LesYay Jean]]). In fact it's amazing Quentin Quire's Stepford Cuckoo-induced ImagineSpot of himself flirting with her in ''ComicBook/WolverineAndTheXMenMarvelComics'' #4 hasn't created ''that'' pairing ([[{{Rule34}} yet]]).
22	* While it never got as heated as the Cyclops and Jean vs Wolverine and Jean, the debates between ComicBook/{{Rogue}} choosing ComicBook/{{Gambit}} or ComicBook/{{Magneto}} got quite fierce. To be fair to latter ship Magneto did meet and have MentorShip with Rogue before she met Gambit and they even got married in the ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' universe but due to ''immense'' popularity of Rogue and Gambit, her relationship with Magneto is often seen as a CrackPairing due to Magneto's AntiVillain nature. Marvel eventually settled matters as Gambit and Rogue got married in the main continuity and Magneto who was previously portrayed as jealous of Gambit and Rogue now supports their union [[note]]Technically it was [[{{Retcon}} actually]] Magneto's young clone Joseph who had a CockFight with Gambit over Rogue not the real Magneto himself [[/note]].
23	* ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' lives on this trope, featuring quite possibly the [[BettyAndVeronica most well-known love triangle]] in American pop-culture. Archie/Betty versus Archie/Veronica are the main debate and it frequently gets milked by the comic itself. Most fans (and [[RunningTheAsylum writers]]) lean towards Betty but Veronica has her fans too. Occasionally Archie's ([[ChickMagnet many]]) {{Third Option Love Interest}}s, such as Cheryl and Valerie, get dragged into the arguments. On the non-canon route, Jughead/Betty and Reggie/Betty are two common couples ([[ShipMates especially with Archie/Veronica fans]]) and is tossed into the issue. Even Archie/Jughead and Betty/Veronica sometimes get debated. ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'' brought the ship-to-ship combat to a new level, and it has subsequently leaked into the comic fandom.
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Context ShipToShipCombat / ComicBooks