User blog comment:The ASL Pirates/4th Gear & Marine Ranks/@comment-24850639-20150318165513/@comment-10543621-20150320005837

I agree with you on the variance of Vice admiral strength, but to be fair, Maynard wasn't done in by some random side character. Barty is hardly a side character by this point. He's plenty strong enough.

And using Garp as an example of a Vice admiral is obviously not a good comparison. The only reason he's still a vice admiral is because he refused promotion.

But it is true that the vice admiral rank has some of the greatest variation mainly because that's the rank most marines get stuck at up the chain of command. Since there can only be 3 admirals each time, marines that do stand out above the rest tends to end up getting stuck at vice admiral, so you get people of different ages and experience throughout the ranks.

Franky can definitely give an average vice admiral a run for his money. I'd put him up there with the monster trio already based on what he's shown so far in the arc. Franky has done the most fighting out of everyone to be honest. Brook? i'm not so sure.

Also in terms of trying to 'rank' power, actually I think a lot of established pirates can be almost 'admiral' level. It's just hard to put a gauge. The problem is most fights are not fight to the deaths. We just keep seeing to the death fights from the strawhats because they're the protagonists. For example, Shichibukais like Doffy and Mihawk are probably admiral level, or would be able to fight toe to toe with an admiral. People like Marco as well.