Okay, I was taking the week off, but I couldn’t say no to a little Friday Night Fights, could I?

Well, it’s November 30th, and in mere hours, City of Heroes, the best dang superhero MMO ever, will be shut down. The game’s owner, NCSoft, has shown more dedication and grit and focus in getting the game cancelled than anything else it did over the last eight years, and the loyal players and developers have been amazing and impressive in the ways they’ve worked to save the game. Unfortunately, it’s looking very clear that nothing is going to save the game, despite nearly the entire playerbase working together and supporting each other. So again, mere hours ’til the game’s servers are shut down. I expect to spend my last day in City of Heroes running missions and taskforces, and probably sitting around in Atlas Park outside of City Hall, reminiscing about how much fun we’ve all had.

I’m gonna miss this game a lot, not just because I loved playing superheroes and supervillains, not just because the costume creator was the best ever made for a game, not just because of all the friendships I made with other players. But also because it was fun to drop some whupass on the bad guys.

So, from the minds of Cryptic Studios and Paragon Studios, here are the heroes and villains of City of Heroes. Please give it up for…

The Orange Avenger!

Necrovora!

Miss Mega!

Jonni Rotten!

Beelzebambi!

The Brain from Planet 7!

Blue Heaven!

Murderin’ Jack!

Talon-12!

Waterspout!

Plutonium Lass!

Justice Gal!

The game may end tonight, but in my imagination, they’ll be fighting the good fight forever.

Busy, busy, busy, no time for cutesy intros, so here’s FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight’s battle comes to us from February 2011’s Power Girl #19 by Judd Winick and Sami Basri, as PeeGee faces off against Ace, the robot powerhouse from the Royal Flush Gang.

And that’s my second groin-injury FNF in as many weeks. Do I get a prize for that?

Okay, kiddios, the days are getting shorter, the nights are getting longer, the holidays are already threatening to overwhelm us, and we all need a break from workweek stress. Button up your Dungarees, kids, it’s time for… FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight’s battle comes to us from 2007’s Batman: Jekyll and Hyde by Paul Jenkins, Jae Lee, and Sean Phillips. Batman’s facing off against some mooks, and he demonstrates why it’s never smart to wear your gun tucked into your waistband.

Yep, the night just got a lot more uncomfortable, didn’t it?

Let’s get this crazy thing goin’! It’s the weekend, and that means it’s time for… FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight’s battle comes to us from April 2004’s Teen Titans #8 by Geoff Johns, Tom Grummett, Kevin Conrad, and Jeromy Cox, as we watch Wonder Girl, Starfire, and Cyborg take Mammoth apart.

I ain’t doin’ anything fancier than that. I gotta get my weekend started right now! (runs away, leaves you all on your own)

Well, last week’s edition of Friday Night Fights may have been a leeeettle more violent than normal, so let’s slow things down this week.

From Bizarro World, a 2005 collection of superhero comics created by alt-comics stars, here’s “Marvel Family Circus” by Evan Dorkin and R. Sikoryak.

(click to embiggen)

Isn’t it nice to see comics that know how to be fun, instead of getting foolishly obsessed with being gritty and faux-adult? Don’t worry, we’ll take over DC and Marvel again eventually.

Well, we got ourselves a situation here. It’s the last Friday before Halloween — the best holiday of the year! — and I always prefer to feature something appropriately spooky for Friday Night Fights at this time of year. But holy circus peanuts, Halloween is still five days away! Is it going to be possible to pull up a battle so epic and terrifying that its effects will still be felt that far away? I don’t know, but I owe it to everyone to try — not just for my sake, not just for yours, but for… FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

So today’s battle comes to us from the horror manga series Uzumaki, Volume 1, released in October 1998, by creator Junji Ito. As I mentioned when I reviewed it a couple of years ago, this series focuses on a small town cursed by ominous, ever-present spirals that inevitably bring doom, death, mutations, terror, and madness. So we come to “The Scar,” the third chapter of the first volume, where we meet a girl named Azami Kurotani, who has a small crescent-shaped scar on her forehead.

But soon, the scar grows, curves around, and becomes… a spiral.

And things get worse from there.

Yeah, Azami, that’s one heck of a scar there. You’ll have to get plastic surgery to correct that so —

Ooh. That’s… not at all good, is it?

And as you might expect at this point… Things get worse.

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

**twitch**  **twitch**

**faints dead away**

Well, that’s all thoroughly horrifying, but where’s the bit where people are doing violence to each other? That comes a bit later that night…

There you go — that’s at least a week’s worth of horror and screaming and holy-flippin’-flapjacks-did-I-really-see-that to tide you over from now ’til Halloween.

Now head over to Spacebooger’s place and vote for your favorite battle. I’m sure you can spiral in on the right choice…

Holy cow, it’s Friday again! The weekend is upon us! We have no time for clever intros! We only have time for… FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight’s battle comes to us from August 2006’s She-Hulk #9 by Dan Slott, Paul Smith, and Joe Rubinstein. Jennifer Walters has just married astronaut John Jameson, and his father, J. Jonah Jameson, is having second thoughts about having a green-skinned superhero as a daughter-in-law. This resolves itself as such things often do: with robots and fisticuffs.

Ahhh, once again, comic books show us that there’s no problem that can’t be solved with gamma radiation, mad science, and beating each other up.

Awright, kids, time to get the weekend started, and we all know the best way to start the weekend is with a little comic-book violence. So buckle on your reserve chutes, ’cause it’s time for… FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight’s battle comes to us all the way from the spring of 1941 and Batman #5 by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson. The Joker’s got Batman cornered atop a lighthouse — good thing the Dark Knight has his Boy Hostage ready to help out.

That’s gonna do it for me tonight — all y’all have a great weekend.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, if you’re in the mood to get the last weekend in September started off right, then it’s definitely time for… FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

SpaceBooger gave us an assignment this time — he wants our fights to have a bit more back-and-forth than usual, with no character completely dominant. So I’m pulling this one from July 1990’s Avengers West Coast #60 by Roy and Dann Thomas, Paul Ryan (No, probably not that Paul Ryan), and Danny Bulanadi. Magneto has shown to cause some trouble for the West Coast Avengers, and the winsome Wasp scores the first blow by flying under his helmet and zapping his ear.

And that leads to this:

Stop hitting yourself, Magneto! Stop hitting yourself!

Ah, but it’s all part of his strategy, it seems.

Because that’s what a master villain does. He hits himself in the head to knock out his enemies.

Don’t forget to visit SpaceBooger’s site to vote for your favorite battles, okay?

Citizens, gather ye ’round. It’s Friday night, we’re ready for the weekend, and we always like to kick things off with a little dose of… FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight’s battle comes to us from August 1999’s Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #1 by Geoff Johns, Lee Moder, Dan Davis, and Tom McCraw, in which the Star-Spangled Kid punts a whole dadgummed water fountain at a mind-controlled classmate.

And that should do it for me. See youse mugs on Monday.