In Chapter 995 Marco clashes with Big Mom as she demands he stay out of her way. I think Marco was the objective winner of this exchange and I’m going to explain why in detail below.
I’ve always thought Marco was a very underrated character, and I’ve always ranked him either towards the upper end of the First Mates or even as the strongest First Mate, I don’t think anything Marco has ever said or done has given anyone any reason to rank him as weak as most of the fan base ranks him.
I’ll also say that Big Mom’s portrayal here is not bad. Marco is objectively one of the strongest characters in the One Piece world even if you think of him as the weakest First Mate, and even though I don’t believe Big Mom was portrayed as being above him here (we’ll get into it), that’s just not bad portrayal, objectively. It’s just not. So let’s do it.
A couple of things to note here:
1. This is a completely equal clash in terms of physical power exerted by each character, similar to when Gear 4 Luffy and Big Mom clashed. This is to be expected as Marco is a Mythical Zoan and his physical abilities should be very high because of this. Big Mom even seems to be the one at the disadvantage here in the bottom right panel.
2. There is no indication, visually or otherwise, that either of these two characters is actually using Haki. Interesting to note, there are indications that Marco has Advanced Haki, while we have only ever seen “Flame Koka” from Big Mom. I won’t elaborate on either for now.
3. This is the first time we’ve seen Marco actually punch someone, but I’m not really sure what conclusions we can draw from this lol.
However, Marco was the clear winner of this one clash thanks to this moment here:
Marco and Big Mom clash as physical equals, but Marco had the Devil Fruit advantage. Marco points this out while smiling at Big Mom and showing no fear of her. Objectively speaking, advantage Marco.
This next part is where things get really weird for me.
Firstly, obviously note that Marco shows concern for Perospero, not Big Mom.
Second, I’ve seen people say that Big Mom choking Marco in and of itself shows an enormous power gap between the two. But this is wrong:
Luffy one shot Hajrudin but was helpless when Hajrudin grabbed him, showing that Big Mom grabbing Marco proves nothing about her power level. Oda does not write power levels in such a basic way.
Third, I just find it really uncharacteristic of Big Mom to ask Perospero to intervene here, especially when she chided Katakuri at the Wedding for doing something similar.
I’ve always subscribed the belief that Big Mom feels threatened by Katakuri and chided him to “keep him in his place”, so maybe this is a testament to how Big Mom trusts Perospero to know his place as well? He is her firstborn as well, it’s possible they share a deeper level of trust than she and the rest of her children.
The point I’m trying to make is that I think it’s simultaneously impossible to think that Big Mom would’ve defeated Marco here while she simultaneously asks Perospero to intervene in the fight. Marco has up until this point showed no fear of Big Mom whatsoever, and his concern for Perospero is very real:
Now sure, would Perospero stand a chance against Marco if Big Mom wasn’t holding him in place? Probably not, but the overall takeaway is this:
-Big Mom actively asks Perospero to intervene in her fight against Marco
-Marco showed no concern or fear of Big Mom whatsoever, only showing concern when Perospero arrives on the scene.
The people who downplay Mihawk for postponing his fight with Vista, are massive hypocrites if they think Big Mom could’ve defeated Marco here easily when we have her asking Perospero for an intervention.
