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What’s A “Vs. Battle”?
“Vs. Battles” are a form of content from the comic book community on TikTok or other social platforms like Instagram and YouTube. Most often these videos happen as live streams, where one creator will pit characters against each other and debate on the outcome. This can vary in format from the creator debating with their followers in the chat or the creator having guest hosts debate with them during the live stream.
One example of this that is often mentioned is Black Panther vs. Batman. Both are super wealthy heroes with unlimited resources and gadgets. Both are extremely well-versed in hand to hand combat.
If the two were to meet and fight one on one, who would be the victor?
READ: Live Streamers Vs. Content Creators – Who Has it Harder?
The Problem
Now this whole concept in and of itself is not really the issue at hand. It can be fun to imagine what would happen if two characters from different companies were to clash head to head.
The problem arises in how these live streams tend to play out by the end. Comic book fans are very passionate about their favorite characters, and just like any other fan base they have strong opinions. Unfortunately, what this often leads to is argument rather than a fun debate. Disagreements and discussion devolves into insults and yelling.
This is not limited to the creators that are in the debate. It extends into the chat feed and the followers begin to also get upset, either at the creator with the differing opinion or at each other. Once the insults begin to fly, there is little chance of regaining control of the stream.
The arguments are not the end of it however. There are numerous case of creators being mass reported during these streams, and even having their accounts banned entirely. This is sometimes caused by the rival creators followers going to their account to mass report their content on their own. In some rare instances, a creator will actually weaponize their follower base and instruct them to do this directly.
The Results
For some creators, having their account banned effects them very little. They mostly make content for fun and they can always just make another account. For those that are actually making a living and building brands on these platforms the results can be instant loss of their primary income, brand deals, sponsorships and reputation.
What it also does is deter new fans from even entering the community in the first place. If their first exposure to the comic book community is nothing but toxicity, then they will likely just avoid the community altogether. This gives the fan base a bad reputation as being toxic and un welcoming to outsiders, which couldn’t be further from the truth for the majority of the comic book and comictok community.
Should We Stop Doing Vs. Battles?
This is a question I asked myself early on in my content creation journey. I was new to the Comictok crowd, and some of the first videos I found we these types of battle live streams. I decided to avoid that side of the content community, simply because i did not want to risk my account based on an opinion I may have about a character.
There is also the opinion that they ultimately do more harm than good for the community as a whole. Ultimately its up for debate amongst creators either way for or against the concept. But there is no denying what happens to many people in that sub community on TikTok. Threats are made, insults and derogatory terms are used like normal vocabulary. People’s livelihoods are put at risk.
All of this is over fictional characters that do not actually exist. So what do you think? Should the comictok community avoid doing this type of content? Or should the creators do a better job of controlling their followers actions?
