Spider-Man? Ha! Superman? Lame. Batman? Please. They’d be vanquished in one day if they were part of The Superest, a fun online competition between Philadelphia cartoonists Kevin Cornell and Matthew Sutter to see “who is the superest hero of them all.”

The rules are simple, as the new site explains succinctly:

“Player 1 draws a character with a power. Player 2 then draws a character whose power cancels the power of that previous character. Repeat.”

(c) 2007 Matthew Sutter

The battle of one-upmanship began Oct. 16 and has escalated continually since then, sometimes with multiple postings in one day. You won’t find licensed characters such as Spidey and the Man of Steel; the Superest is solely a battle between the original creations of Cornell and Sutter — and occasional invited guest artists. It began with the Un-Oppose-Inator, who “will win every battle provided there’s no opposition.” He was easily vanquished by Someone, whose brief description — like all of them, just long enough to justify why he’s superer — says, “He’s not no one.”

Creativity abounds. It’s a treat to see what Sutter and Cornell will come up with next. My favorite was when the broccoli-like Brocco-Lee (”taste bitter defeat”) was defeated (or eaten?) by the cooking monk Deep Friar, whose breading and vat of hot oil “makes everything taste good!”

Super! Or superest. Whatever. Check it out.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 9:46 am and is filed under Web pick. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.