Bring on the Bad Guys: Xotar the Weapons Master

 Real name: Xotar

First appearance: Brave and the Bold I#29 (April/May 1960)

Abilities: Access to time travel, old history books

Worst act: Attempted conquering of Earth

Quote: "Attention--Justice League of America! Armed with the four most destructive weapons ever devise, I have time-traveled 10,000 years from the future to do battle with you! Ready--let the action begin!

Created by: Gardner F. Fox (script), Mike Sekowsky (pencils), Bernard Sachs/Joe Giella (inks)

After the last guy, bit of a comedown. We open to the year 11960 AD, in which master criminal Xotar has his ultimate plan! He has four, count 'em four weapons of unstoppable power! The only weakness, the police has the perfect counter measures to three of them but he doesn't know which ones. 

One of the weapons is a page from the Justice League of America casebook. Sure it isn't complete but it does say the words beaten, so it must detail how the JLA were beaten, right? Hopping back in time, Xotar uses his weapons on the assembled team. He does a pretty good job, but if he paid attention, he'd notice that Superman wasn't present at the meeting he crashed...

Decent and with the time travel hook I'm surprised he didn't pop up again. 

Bring on the Bad Guys: Starro the Conqueror

Real name: Starro the Conqueror 

First appearance: Brave and the Bold I#28 (Feb./Mar. 1960)

Abilities: Mind control

Worst act: Brainwashing, attempted conquering of Earth

Quote: "I am Starro! I have selected you three starfish--who must be distant relatives of mine--to help me conquer this planet!"

Created by: Gardner F. Fox (script), Mike Sekowsky (pencils), Bernard Sachs/Joe Giella/Murphy Anderson (inks)

Moving back into the Silver Age and we're kicking off with something that really set the standard. Instead of each member of the team having a individual chapter and foe, here we get one bad guy and wow. Giant alien starfish; didn't see that one coming. 

I love this guy. He's so simple yet horrifying. He's a starfish and he's going to conqueror your planet! Why? What does he need a planet for? And HOW is pretty darn creepy. He sends out waves of little versions of himself and they affix themselves to your face, letting him see everywhere. 

I also love his introduction. He lands on Earth and explains his plan to some starfish in the ocean, justifying they must be relatives of him. He hasn't been used that much and I think that works in his favor, so when he pops up it's a THING. He's got enough appearances to be recognizable but not enough to be overexposed. 

WWE X Street Fighter II

 Because why not?

Now, for the official line, we have M. Bison (the Rock), Blanka (Ultimate Warrior), E. Honda (Yokozuna), Guile (John Cena), and Cammy (Bianca Belair). These are of course just guesses on my part. I am rather shocked that Cena is Guile as opposed to Cody (movie synergy and all that). 

Chun-Li: Becky Lynch. She's the Strongest Woman in the World, so why not?

Zangrief: Rusev. A bit obvious, I know. 

Dhalsim: A bit harder on this one. I'm going with Kane, since they both deal with fire. 

Balrog: R-Truth. He's not much of a boxer but I think he could elevated to final boss level. 

Vega: Penta. Maybe too obvious, but the mask bit works with both. 

Akuma: Finn Baylor. Fighting demon and all

Dee Jay: Kofi Kingston? Might be too close to his former gimmick.

Evil Ryu: Rey Mysterio (might as well keep it as close to the real thing as possible)

Violent Ken: Dominik Mysterio (same)

Fei Long: Shinsuke Nakamura (grasping at straws with this one)

T. Hawk: Bron Breakker

WWE X Street Fighter

 So, just heard about the latest toy mashup. Street Fighter mixed with the Superstars of the WWE. Three series announced so far, so why not toss my .02 in?

They've already got Ryu (Rey Mysterio), Ken (Dominik Mysterio), and Sagat (Batista) and a few others, so why not suggest the rest?

I'll stick to Street Fighter (1987)

Retsu: The first guy, a bit basic I know but I'll go with Chad Gable.

Geki: Since he's the first fighter masked, I'll say Dragon Lee

Moving into the Americas, we have Joe. I'll go with a deep cut and say Tom Magee

Mike: Angelo Dawkins 

Lee: Ilja Dragunov

Gen: CM Punk

Birdie: Big John Studd

Eagle: The Sandman

Adon: Ludwig Kaiser

Yes, a pinch silly, I know, but eh I'll take anything positive at this point. Might do more games later. 

WWE VS the World XVII

 Another year and another tradition. Rules the same as before, pick who you want to win, most votes win.

RAW VS TNA (Day 1)

With Joe Tessitore and Tom Hanifan at Madison Square Garden 

Tag Team match

The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) VS the Hardys (Matt and Jeff Hardy)

Winner: The Hardys 0-1

Maxxine Dupri VS Rosemary

Winner: Rosemary 0-2

Iron Man Match

Gunther VS Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo

Winner: Lorenzo 0-3

Tag Team match

The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) VS the Ilnspiration (Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay)

Winner: Lee and McKay 0-4

X Match

Dominik Mystero VS Leon Slater

Winner: Slater 0-5

Ladder match

Stephanie Vaquer VS Lei Ying Lee

Winner: Lee 0-6

CM Punk VS Frankie Kazarian 

Winner: Kaz 0-7 with a total shutout for RAW. 

_______________________________________________________

SMACKDOWN VS AEW (Day 2)

With Michael Cole and Excalibur at the Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, TX

Jade Cargil VS Kris Stratlander

Winner: Cargil 1-0

First Blood match

Damien Priest VS Jon Moxley

Winner: Priest 2-0

Carmelo Hayes VS Kazuchika Okada 

Winner: Okada 2-1

Chelsea Green VS Willow Nightingale 

Winner: Nightingale 2-2

The Wyatt Sicks (Joe Gacy and Dexter Lumis) VS FTR (Dax Hardwood and Cash Wheeler)

Winner: Gacy and Lumis 3-2

Alexa Bliss and Charolette Flair VS the Babes of Wraith (Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron)

Winner: Nightingale and Cameron 3-3

Trios match

Trick Williams, Solo Sika, and Roman Reigns VS The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsuyori Shibata)

Winner: Williams, Sika, and Reigns 4-3

Matt Cardona VS Ricochet 

Winner: Cardona 5-3

R-Truth VS Mark Briscoe

Winner: Briscoe 5-4

Cage match

Cody Rhodes VS MJF

Winner: Cody 6-4

And WWE takes the win. 1-1

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NXT VS NJPW (Day 3)

With Vic Joseph at the Osaka Prefectural Gym

Tag Match

Hank and Tank VS House of Torture (Sho and Douki)

Winner: Hank and Tank 1-0

Ethan Page VS Yota Tsuji

Winner: Tsuji 1-1

Jackson Drake and Cappuccio Jones VS The Pretty Boys (Magic Mark and Pretty Richie)

Winner: Mark and Richie 1-2

Jasper Troy VS  Evil

Winner: Troy 2-2

Fallon Hendry VS AZM

Winner: Hendry 3-2

Trios match

 Los Psycho Circus (Psycho Clown, Murder Clown, and Dave the Clown) VS House of Torture (Sho, Ren Narita, Yujiro Takaashi)

Winner: House of Torture 3-3

Jacey Jayne VS Syrui

Winner: Jayne 4-3

Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo VS Douki

Winner: Stacks 5-3

Thea Hail VS Saya Kamitani3

Winner: Saya 5-4

Tag match

DarkState (Osiris Griffin and Saquon Shugars) VS Knock-Out Brothers (Yuto-Ice and Oskar)

Winner: Griffin and Shugars 6-4

Ricky Saints VS Tomohiro Ishii

Winner: Saints 7-4

Pagano and Psycho Clown VS Los Hermanos Chavez (Angel del Oro and Niebla Roja)

Winner: del Oro and Roja 7-5

Trick Williams VS Konosuke Takeshita

Winner: Takeshita 7-6

WWE takes the overall win, 2 to 1. Had fun doing this, hope to see you all next year

Bat Taco

 Can't recall the artist

And so we end 2025 and good riddance to the creep. 

Bit of a story behind this. I was at a Christmas party a while ago, and one of the children in attendance stood and in a disturbingly good Christian Bale voice said "I'm Batman"

He then decided, after a few minutes, to repeat the stance and voice, only now declared himself a taco. The image stuck and thus here we are.

TFtember: Skywarp/the Wasp

 Art by the Manic