Bangs Blogs Retrospective: 2025

 

Well that was fun! This has been quite an interesting year for Bang’s Blogs overall. Initially I didn’t know if I wanted to make one of these due to many hiccups along the way, but I decided to go ahead and make one anyway because it's good to reflect in a healthy constructive way, while also appreciating the things that did go right. Make no mistake, it’s definitely been a tough year and a lot happened, but I don’t think it's the end of the world. I’ll be as honest as possible and talk about it from my point-of-view, nothing more nothing less. I was gonna talk about my experience working on some G1 blogs this year as well but besides Blade vs Buffy and technically Hulk vs Godzilla, I didn’t really like being on Ghost Rider vs Spawn or Kyle vs Simon by the end of it so I don’t really care to talk about those. Let's get into the Bangs Blogs year of 2025.

James Sunderland vs Alan Wake (Bonus Blog)

First release of the year was a bonus blog directed by ThiccGrimes, one of my most exceptional blog workers and mods. Unfortunately I was not as closely following along the process as other bonus blogs, so this retrospective will be said from the perspective of Grimes himself and his own thoughts:

“I had a lot of fun with it. Became a huge fan of Silent Hill and gained a lot of appreciation for Alan Wake's writing and the love the developers and cast have for that series. 

Going into it we all expected James to not stand a chance in hell, but the further I got into Silent Hill research the more i realized how under looked it was in vs. It was pretty clear Alan had a lot of misinformation going around as well for similar reasons. 

And the more we got into it, the more the matchup just clicked. Both could warp reality through writing, both have time loop shenanigans and their main adversaries are dark representations of themselves, they go through it all to see their wives again. I thought Harry Mason made more sense for Alan at first, but just ended up being dead wrong.

It's turned into a top 5 matchup for me personally!”

Natsu vs Asta

Similarly speaking I also didn’t really follow along with this one too well, Fairy Tail and Black Clover were blindspots for me. If nothing else, I think it's pretty underrated presentation-wise, I think it has a good flow of an anime vs anime blog and in the early Bangs Blogs entries you can see we try hard to add in new graphics and keep up with the booming art progression that lots of blogs, particularly G1, set a precedent for. All I really remember were Black Clover fans on the official server very arrogantly asserting there was no way Asta would win the blog, and that was funny. 

Invincible vs Hot Rod

This blog was released at a very interesting time, or should I say a very opportunistic time. You can tell pretty hard that there were last minute adjustments to some images or added feats to fit the hype of the ongoing and finished season 3 of Invincible. Even more interesting was the time this was released after the events of Omni-Man vs Bardock. For Eve vs Gwen we pretty easily skipped over the Sun Disk feat due to it not mattering at all to the debate since Gwen just kinda shits on Eve, but for here, we definitely needed to do something. I won’t name who for privacy sake, but we actually got a pretty nifty recalculation of the feat, which was definitely the main talking point in the blog’s reception. Which makes sense given the ripples from Omnidocks outcome still seemed to have shot into early 2025, so it dominated the discussion. 

Overall though, I really like this match. It's the first Invincible match that feels true to the character and struggle he goes through, and learning a lot about IDW Transformers as its own thing was pretty fun, and following along definitely sold me on the match overall, and while its not as likely as Gohan per say, I think this match definitely shot into the limelight of public interest to some degree, and I hope that interest continues to grow, I think as an episode it would be really fun and really drive home what makes Invincible stand out amongst the non-DC/Marvel comic heroes.

Howard the Duck vs Detective Chimp

It isn’t Bang’s Blogs without DC vs Marvel is it? Howard vs Bobo was pretty funny start to finish. There’s a very strong pivot to them being very cartoony side characters that are more comedic and in Bobo’s case animalistic, to going full blown Blade/Batman and charging head first into conflicts with the most abstract of beings, and it ended up feeling like a precursor to Blade vs Buffy in hindsight, since the main thing it came down to was speed, which god-killing weapon was better, and who was more skilled with it. It was also pretty fun to look at it from a composite standpoint of “give them every power-up they had” because it provided a pretty unique verdict. My one regret though is not at least giving Howard a winner image for winning comp vs comp, even if he technically lost the blog, because the allegations of me having an agenda against Marvel very much piled up after that. I still think Chimp wins but I’ve gone back and forth on this verdict a fair bit. Sometimes I admittedly wonder if Chimp got so many votes because “haha funny monkey” as opposed to actually…objectively thinking he wins. But I have no way to prove this. 

Rick Grimes vs Joel Miller vs Bill Overbeck (Bonus Blog)

Another bonus blog once again hosted by ThiccGrimes! If you couldn’t tell, he’s a master of the craft of horror blogs. Once again I wasn’t as monitoring over this one so I’ll let you guys hear from Grimes on how it went:

“Rick vs Bill was the original idea. But I prefer Rick vs Joel as a matchup, so I kinda just threw em all together and pitched it as a virus fight. 

Spent like, a year trying to get Rick vs Bill off the ground but lose of motivation kept hitting pretty hard. Then the Ones Who Live aired and just rekindled it. Throw in Joel cause the Last of Us season 2 was coming out and I thought it'd do pretty great views wise.

I already had WD and L4D fully researched before work started so it was pretty easy to slap together in a short time and we only had a couple bumps in the road, mostly regarding if Bill should be bullet proof or not and if he'd scale to tanks or not. 

Last of Us was a real treat to actually get my mitts on, and am now a pretty big fan (Last of Us 2 gets way too much hate) and getting the chance to actually buff them was really cool. Me and Punpun spent like 3 weeks straight just going over bullet timing lol. It was just fun all around.

It ended up getting 2k views in just a few days, so I'm pretty happy with it and so were a lot of people who read it. Which was pretty cool to see since it was a pretty big passion project for me.”

King Ghidorah vs Deathsaurus

This blog was also a pretty tall task I’d say. We knew Hulk vs Godzilla was imminent (in my case especially hehe), so we had to both release a Godzilla blog before then, and release one that was good! Since Godzilla as a series has not had a lot of big blogs that really dived into everything. Similarly speaking, we were back on Transformers but in a completely different continuity, one that I had no experience with. We were graciously blessed with so much Google Drive's worth of information from various people for Deathsaurus, and I’d say like Rodimus, we cooked pretty hard in giving coverage to JG1 media for the most part. As I’m writing this I realized I was meant to commission an artpiece for this match to Dek (sorry I keep forgetting man) but I never did. Which stinks! Because I think I definitely have come around to this match more so than before. 

My big hang up was also the size issue but Nemesis Bloodryche gave me a good sense of scale for how it can both be altered pretty freely, but also they’re closer in size then most people give it credit for. Honestly I’d say this was probably this year’s biggest upset besides another one I’ll get to in a second, I honestly didn’t expect Deathsaurus to win the votes. In hindsight, Nemesis pointed out two more obvious wincons for Deathsaurus that could’ve been explained in the verdict that I wish I could’ve thought of, but to cut myself slack, this blog was made while I was working a summer job. Like I uploaded this blog on a google chrome laptop on bus WiFi during a nine hour drive, so I wasn’t really there for the final stages sadly. I wish I was because Ghidorah is my favorite Godzilla bad guy, so getting to cover him was awesome.

Cryptids Battle Royale (Bonus Blog)

We went unbelievably hard with this blog. Holy shit. I honestly love blogs like these where you dive in knowing nothing and come out a fan, because all of us did. When this was initially pitched to me it immediately triggered the white male in me that loves talking about nutty topics that you’d only see on a white guy podcast, and this was literally right up that alleyway; cryptids! The research method was intriguing so I decided to do it, especially considering at this time we had never done a battle royale blog yet. It was a blast from start to finish. I decided to take up the Jersey Devil because he seemed the most unknown to me on the roster, and because I remember learning a lot about him from that old computer game called Poptropica where you have to find various cryptids. 

We had a lot of fun with the research process. Sometimes when I’d be done with my JD research I’d turn on a Wendigoon video on the cryptid icebergs and proceed to go down a rabbit hole of fun conspiracy related topics or weird murder mysteries, and it helped that I went camping a lot this summer so it felt like such an appropriate time to release it. I came to really appreciate the Jersey Devil in particular and felt very strongly that he was my favorite and most interesting cryptid, being an unknown entity that uses fear to grip the population to stay away from the unknown by aligning its shape and size with early 17th century beliefs on monsters that roamed the new world is metal as fuck. Its honestly really sad he ended up coming in last place, all because he didn’t have any non-physical interaction. 

The promotion for this blog I am pretty proud of. The trailer for this blog was very much Stranger Things coded, and the narrative flavor of “me going missing before the blogs release” was very cheesy but god was it fun, the art was just so good. And holy shit the debate man. Everyone from last to first had shit that none of us saw coming, these guys are insanely powerful for a bunch of man-made tales. The final debate of Bigfoot vs Mothman had me on the edge of my seat especially, and this is also a debate I go back and forth on, though ultimately I kinda side with Mothman even if I prefer Bigfoot to win. Overall this blog was one hell of an experience. Core memory I had was us discovering a cryptid mid-debate VC while we were taking a break; his name was Old Hitler, and he was a hammerhead shark that was allegedly spotted controlling sharks during WWII. We found it so hilarious that we just decided to put him in Nessie’s scaling (he could pull jeeps into the water) even if he had no relation to her or anyone else in the blog.

Marvel Zombies vs DCeased (Bonus Blog)

Like last year, ThiccGrimes and I had to do a duo horror blog. But a horror/comic blog? With me AND Grimes? Dude…say less. I was all in. 

I got to research and read all of DCeased for this blog, and it was pretty fun. I only read the main comics and never really saw how the story continued and honestly, I liked it. The concepts were neat enough but some of the stuff towards the end was kinda lame, but shit man there were so many crazy things happening, like Alfred Pennyworth just becoming the Spectre. I was pretty convinced Marvel Zombies were going to win until I saw Darkseid infect fucking Mxyzpltlk and then I kinda shat myself cause damn bruh they got MXY? The more I read the more I realized “fuck they’re actually gonna win” and then Mxy ended up just carrying his whole team by just being there. Damn. Marvel lost again. The allegations were getting stronger. 

Junko Enoshima vs Springtrap (Bonus Blog) (Derogatory)

Ugh.

Quick backstory, this blog was not supposed to be the Halloween blog but I lost a bet over Wile E. vs Tom that was so obviously a set up in hindsight blah blah blah I had to do this blog so I thought hey if I have to do this blog, may as well have fun with this and hey a bunch of my friends wanted to join so thats cool too.

(Post-putting this into blogger Bang here, I had to rewrite this section a lot)

I try to pull my punches usually but this time I may just have to be blunt; from start to finish, it feels like everything I have thought about this match was just proven right. I do not like this matchup, and I would go as far to say that it is still a bottom five match. The only positive thing I got from this match walking away from it was I can at the very least understand the charm in watching an army fight between animatronics and Monokumas, and that's about it. 

To give the blog credit obviously, everyone locked in and did their due diligence and research very well, and I think as far as coverage for both DR and FNaF as series, I think it did pretty well and was the best deepdive I’ve seen of both in a while. But the debate and some of the reception I think just proved me right in the end that this match is just not worth it and sucks. The sheer entitlement from people in saying that Junko was handed a free win by using V3 was hilariously common, and it hit me almost like an epiphany that Springtrap is given more leeway then almost every VS character I’ve seen in my entire life. Compositing Afton to be viable is one thing, but prioritizing the novels over the main canon is honestly more insane then people realize.

You would never see this argued most anywhere else. Like imagine if somebody used resistances or ability scaling with alt universes for mainline DC/Marvel counterparts, or if Archie/Game continuities for Sonic were just intersecting on abilities or resistances. The precedence the novels get over the actual main canon is extremely goddamn hilarious, and even then the novels outline so many fatal flaws in the insane soul hax everybody argued for Afton that yeah, I genuinely believe Junko quite literally kicks him down a flight of stairs and wins. The end. I am extremely glad Junko ended up sweeping the votes. 

I’ve become more convinced that people are just blind to any criticism towards Afton and his arguments of being this unstoppable soul hax juggernaut and I don't know what brings people to be this much of a stonewall for a character such as William Afton. The interactions I have had post-blog with VS FNaF fans have honestly made me want this franchise on the show far less then before with each interaction, and even just binge watching Markiplier play FNaF recently has made me realize that people are almost blind to the ludicrous amount of issues of a FNaF analysis on the show alone, all because they need their r/dbm mascot to topple over the silly pink hair lady. I can honestly say that I do not want FNaF on the show anymore, like I don't even want Afton to fight Chucky, bevause VS FNaF fans do a shit job at selling just about anything about this match, and suck to talk to in general. Afton being on Champions Island and getting eliminated honestly felt like victory because holy shit people are incredibly good at making you want to talk about something less because Afton glazers think he is immune to criticism.

Overall I’m never betting again, otherwise expect Goku vs Sonic in 2027 when I lose the bet over Luz vs Anne which is totally happening next year. 

Gohan vs Ultraman Zero

Once again, we had a tall order with this blog. Ultraman has never gotten a main blog and we were covering one of the biggest of the Ultras so we had to do it justice and pave the way for more Ultra series blogs to come (one of which I am very excited for). And once again, I think we delivered. Gohan getting a verdict was kinda surprising is all I can really say, I do think I wanna pick up an Ultra series to watch one of these days, maybe Ultraman Cosmos. I hope in terms of selling people on the match we succeeded, one because I want Gohan far away from Invincible and two because I think it's a genuinely solid match and a good way to bring Ultraman onto the show.

Tusk vs Human Centipede

This blog was certainly…a vs blog. Made by people. Long story short, I’ve been very busy with Vecna vs Doom by this point and Grimes comes up to me and asks me to do a bonus blog idea and I fully expected like Carrie vs Eleven but he shows me this fucking matchup and I did one of those head tilts because what the fuck was I looking at? Grimes said he wanted to get it done in less than 10 hours with Garf, Yerm, and Toxin, and they did! It took them about six hours I think. I read the blog and honestly my facial expression got more worried, like that one scene from Family Guy where Stewie’s Russian nanny is reading him a book and his face gets more worried with every page turn. I was kinda scared releasing it to the public but this blog got a dedicated thread in ODBD that the mods said “yeah it's fine” to, and got the most comments on the blogger page itself then any of my blogs. What the fuck. If this isn’t blog of the year I don’t know what is. 

Vecna vs Doctor Doom

The most anticipated Bangs Blog of the big ‘25, a year and a half in the making…how did it go you may ask? 

Overall, I think it lived up to everything I had hoped for. Because of the sheer magnitude of expectations I felt like I had, it was a pretty overwhelming experience trying to manage this blog on top of everything else happening this year. It's not really my fault necessarily but I felt very bad when I was constantly taken away from Vecna vs Doom because of some other obligation. Being a secret guest researcher for Hulk vs Godzilla was the big one, but I was also summoned to things like Ghost Rider vs Spawn and Kyle vs Simon, which also ate into my time where I could be helping here. I honestly wish in the end I was just more present, but every time I tried it felt like something new came up. Overall though despite me wishing this was released sooner, it was for the better that it was released after Doom’s story in the comics concluded, I think it was almost perfect timing. 

I was supposed to write the script for this one, tapping back into my DBFW roots but I also never got the chance sadly. In the end I think I redeemed myself by helping assess the monster that is the DnD cosmology, so I hope for my fellow team members that I did enough in their eyes despite me feeling very absent to what was supposed to feel like the passion project for me, since this is my second most wanted fight, and I had done a DB pitch video for it earlier this year. 

But man, I have to give props to the team behind this one. They gave it their everything. The DnD side was much smaller then Doom’s side of things but they dove headfirst into a behemoth of a franchise, and ended up doing it pretty damn good justice, fleshing out a very hollow-feeling character like Vecna into somebody I could genuinely see getting a full episode and analysis on. Doom’s side of things definitely felt a bit dragged by the feet in terms of getting comics done but I was also part of this problem sadly, and I just never locked in as much as I should’ve. However, we prevailed. We got a lot of good coverage and I am especially proud of how we covered their cosmologies and scaling respectively. I think we excelled on finding new and exciting content to share for both series, especially since Marvel blogs can tend to repeat similar info pretty often. 

Was there stuff we could’ve done better? Absolutely, no blog is perfect per say. But I do think Vecna vs Doom set the bar for a lot of things going forward. It broke an insane record of views in 24 hours (Zerohan got up to 2k but Vecna vs Doom got to 4k!), and I’d say the reception was some of the most booming since Cryptids BR, everybody was super happy with the final result regardless and the result was pretty surprising, but honestly this is a match that can easily flip on a dime depending on what's given to Doom or how Vecna is handled and whatnot, and the blog very much reflects that a match with this much magic can be any man, or gods, game to lose. Everybody came together and made something truly special.

We ended the year with what I hope to be the magnum opus of Bangs Blogs.

Closing Remarks

I want to close out by giving the tributes where they’re due to so many people that made Bangs Blogs 2025 a year to remember. Though this has been one of my harder years, we pulled it together and still delivered to the people with some exceptional blogs. A special thanks to ThiccGrimes, Tru, and Yerm for being my mods but more importantly, some of my closest and bestest friends, and people I can truly call brothers. They have gone above and beyond to help this operation run!

Special thanks to all the people who have helped with the blogs this year, including Grimes, Yerm, Tru, Yuix, Door-kun, Tario, CloverDragon, Bladeworksmaster, Art, StrangeFate, Minato, Frisk, Garf (ough), Spirit, Riley, Blessedaura, Pasbros, Pickle, Coach Boomer, Landon1195, KaijuConvoy, Iceking, Kuma, Sirus, Resident Joe, Round 1 Fight, Frenchhoaxwide, Lunge, 08, Sr-Fish, SpaceJellO, JobberGodot, Aggravating_Floorgor, NormallyNormal, Hoppingclams343, PunPun, Gio, ChrisFormerly007, Adam, Caden, Echo Awakens, 27thUltra, Spycrab. SpeedyHedgehog91, Toxin, Cabbage, Hyperstarman, TheCardinalKing, Banabot24, Somashadow, Scar, Tonygameman, WWAL, Sifu, TripleCX3, Noah Green, Random Guy #7, Red Archus, Seb, and Garf’s barber. 

Thank you to Frenchhoaxwide for making so many amazing soundtracks for many of the blogs. 

Thank you to Flip, Yuix, Cabbage, Ninjamonkey, Garf, Seb, Aggra, Pas, French, and so many more artists who helped give so much color and life to Bangs Blogs. 

Thank you to Niko, NormallyNormal, Kaiser, and more who helped crunch the numbers and give us calculations. 

And of course, thank you all for supporting Bangs Blogs. I’ve only ever wanted to make these blogs to see how far I can go with them and what all I can learn, and I can definitely say that I am having the time of my life making these blogs, and I hope to stick around for a while, somebody's gotta do Batman vs Spider-Ma- I mean Drakkon vs Ohma-Zio…I mean…Sora vs LeBron?

We’ll see you next year for Bangs Blogs 2026. Happy New Year everyone.

One Quick Announcement!

If you didn’t know already, Bangs Blogs will be tackling Kasane Teto vs Weird Al Yankovic next year, and we want to do something pretty special for it. We want to commission a soundtrack for this match to release alongside the blog, and we wanna call the song Polkaloid! It's going to take some effort though, and we want to do a crowdfund commission to get it off the ground. It is entirely your choice if you would like to help or not obviously, and any funds are appreciated. If you are interested in sending some or helping, please DM me or GumballViking on Discord, that way we can detail how much you wanna contribute and do so safely and confidentially.